2 Minute Character Study - Editing Process - Rough Cut

After last nights shoot, we have almost all the footage we need for the final film and we only have to film one more scene on Wednesday evening where we will obtain all shots involving the teddies and the male characters reaction to losing his mind. After we filmed all of the footage, I began with the same importing and labelling process as before, and started to filter out the best clips that we could use that corresponded to the shot list and storyboard. Due to our location issues, where we filmed in the end wasn't exactly the best possible place as it had lights in the background no matter where we framed certain shots so I had to mask these up in the edit.

Using Spot Colour effect to mask unwanted lighting in shot.

Another way I used the masking effect was when we wanted to show more isolation and a sense of emptiness in a shot where the male character hugs his daughter in a wide shot. The original shot was mediocer in connoting this, but with the mask made it just a little bit more effective as it showed absolute black around the two characters, as well as masking some of the flare from the keno behind them.

Wide shot before masking effect.

Wide shot after masking effect.

To keep continuity and the flow of the film, a jump cut pan sequence we wanted to use didn't pan in the correct direction, or at least the best take of the shot didn't, so I used the motion effect editor effect to reverse one take that panned in the wrong direction which made the sequence much more effective.

Using Motion Effect Editor effect to reverse a shot.

After using these effects and others I finished the film's sequence, keeping as close as I possibly could to the shot list and storyboard under the directors guidance. Unfortunately, this sequence was 3 and a half minutes long which we would lose a lot of marks for due to the brief being only allowing a 2 minute film. This meant the director and myself had a discussion on how we could bring down the time, without making the film lose quality and narrative impact.

Original Rough Cut sequence.

As this was only the rough cut, I knew that the sequence wasn't cut as crisp as it could be as there were many individual clips that could be shortened and brought in at different places. However, even when knowing this I was still worried that even after doing this, we would still be well over the strict 2 minute time limit. After a fairly lengthy discussion, we decided that it might be best if we either cut out a scene completely or cut out some of the weaker shots within all the scenes and risk losing some continuity. I will try both possible resolutions in the fine cut, after tightening up the edit the best I can.