Category: Editor

Posted on in Editor, Production Roles, Sound

Horror Sequence Post Production

The deadline for the final draft of your video is: Friday 25th May

The post production will be organised as follows:

One of your group will now take on the role of editor, the other member(s) will take on the role of sound designer.

The Editors Role

Work towards your group’s collective vision and creative intentions for the sequence.

  • Will be responsible for organising the footage so that the edit is well structured and the edit flows well.
    • This means sorting the footage using folders and renaming files appropriately.
  • Creating a rough cut of the footage which tells the basic story.
    • No effects, colour correction or transitions should be used at this stage.
    • The focus is on making sense of the events in your story in a continuity edit.
      • You will work with your partner to assess the sense in your story and get notes for draft 2
  • Using the rough edit you will work with the sound designer to create a foley sound spotting list.
  • You will also work with the sound designer as this point to lay down a simple track of music and ambient sound.
    • They will be making this whilst you do the rough edit.
  • Following this, you will re-cut and polish the edit in draft 2, cutting to make clearer sense of the footage and also applying colour correction, transitions and visual effects.
Sound Designer’s Role

Work towards your group’s collective vision and creative intentions for the sequence.

  • You will work alongside and in collaboration to plan and evaluate the sounds / music you are going to use.
  • You will create a layer of ambient sound / effects which create a sense of atmosphere.
  • Using sound loops (or musicians), you will create some music for the sequence.
  • You will work with the editor in order to sync these sound in the rough cut.
  • Using the rough edit you will work with the sound designer to create a foley sound spotting list and record 3-5 important foley sounds, which you will edit, applying effects in Adobe Audition.
  • You will polish the sound track and foley sounds alongside the editor ready for the final draft.
Posted on in Cinematographer, Director, Editor, Production Roles, Reflective Journal, Screenwriter, Sound

The Brief

This is the brief for your first full film sequence.

‘The opening sequence (approx 2-3 minutes) of a new horror movie.’

Your creative intentions should be clearly identified at the outset and your reflections throughout and once complete will be based on them. You must also reflect on your developing understanding of your production roles.

You must always keep a record of the production process and upload evidence of your work throughout (at least once a week) to your reflective journal

The creative intentions may be drawn from this list and you should identify 3-5. You may choose others or modify these as you wish.

  • Create a sense of…mystery, suspense, horror, intrigue…around a given place.
  • Introduce a monstrous character or presence.
  • Introduce a…tense, frightened, oblivious… victim.
  • Build the sequence to a shocking/scary crescendo.
  • Use specific cinematography techniques from German Expressionist film making.
  • Use montage editing to develop a sense of place and/or compress time.
  • Use continuity editing to make sense of a characters (inter)actions.
  • Design costume and props and dress the set to create a sense of….abandonment, corruption, decay, threat…

Your creative intentions may depend upon you production roles. You will be working in pairs and will be required to adopt at least one production role from each of the three main stages of production:

Pre-production (planning):
  • Screenwriter &/or storyboard artist
  • Production designer
  • Producer (both)
Production (filming):
  • Cinematographer.
  • Director.
  • Sound recording.
  • Producer (both)
Post production (editing):
  • Visual editing.
  • Foley sound designer
  • Sound editing
  • Music composer
  • Producer (both)
Task:

Define each of these role in terms of the tasks they will be required to undertake during that particular stage of production.

Update the definitions in your reflective journal under the main headings:

  • Editor
  • Director
  • Cinematographer
  • Sound Designer
  • Screenwriter

Here is our brainstorm of the tasks each production role entails.

Posted on in Cinematographer, Director, Editor, Production Roles, Reflective Journal, Screenwriter, Sound

Montage Filming and Editing

 Uses of a montage in film & TV

  1. To create a sense of place and/or events without giving any narrative information away. This is often done in title sequences to capture the mood of the film without giving away spoilers.

Here is short film, which is an extended montage of a place.

2. To compress time to show a rapid development of a character or event, which is important in the narrative development

Here are examples from the Rocky franchise:

Task

Create a montage which compresses time and communicates a sense of atmosphere. For example:

  • The tedious lesson
  • A frantic school day
  • Writing an difficult essay
  • Another long event (+1 hour) that can be filmed in school
The Rules
  • The montage should last 30-40 seconds.
  • It should contain at least 12 different (beautifully composed shots) some of which may be repeated in the edit.
  • The montage should communicate a clear meaning (what’s going on) and clear atmosphere (tone or feel).
  • There should be a clear sense of time passing and have a clear beginning and end, which fades out to black (to make it seem like more time has passed).
Creative Partnership

This week you are going to be working in pairs and will have specific roles in production and post production:

  • cutting-room-editing-film_medStoryboard Artist
  • Director
  • Cinematographer
  • Editor
  • Sound Designer / Mixer

To complete this tasks effectively you’re going to have to think carefully about how the edit is going to look in the end and ensure that you film all the shots you need. This means planning your sequence. Do do this we are going to use a screenwriting tool called…

The Storyboard

Here is a storyboard template that is similar layout to the professional one above.

Here is a document which explains how to design a storyboard.

You storyboard should be scanned / photographed and uploaded to your Reflective Journal under the screenwriting section.

You should also reflect on it’s usefulness as a pre-production planning / visualisation tool.

Production & Responsibilities

You will be acting for another pair of students and so will spend one lesson acting and the other filming and directing.

When you are the cinematographer you should ensure that each shot is well composed. Also you should ensure the following:

  • All shots are well lit
  • All shots are in focus
  • You get a variety of shot types.

If you are the director, you should be:

  • Working with the cinematographer to block the scenes.
  • Be clear with the emotion that you want you actors to be expressing.
  • Make sure that you work through the storyboard efficiently and in time.
  • Be an encouraging and positive presence on the shoot.

Post Production

If you are editor, you will be responsible for:

  • Compiling the basic montage.
  • Applying filters and transitions to the edit which contribute to the overall tone
  • Coordinating with the sound designer to apply their sound to the sequence

If you are the sound designer you are responsible for:

  • Completing a spotting session with the editor and making a list of sound effects that you want.
  • Sourcing effects that adds meaning / impact to the scene
  • Inserting your sounds into the edit

Reflective Journal

  • What have you learnt about filming and editing for montage
  • What went well
  • Even better if
Posted on in Editing, Editor, Film Micro Elements, Production Roles

Your First Two Sequences

Creative Intentions:
  1. To explore how editing can be used to select and structure footage.
  2. To create a continuity editing which makes sense of time, space and actions / reactions.

Some thoughts about editing:

Sequence 1 – Basic Shots Types (Intention 1)

Create a compilation video of the shots you took for framing and movement

Each clip should include a title, which describes the framing and/or movement using the the correct terminology. Remember here are the lists of shots you were supposed to take:

You may not have shot all the footage according to these list. This is fine, you are just starting to explore cinematography after all. However you must try and accurately describe the shot type which you have filmed in the title.

Sequence 2 – The Exchange – A Continuity Edit (Intention 2)

Create a title slate called ‘The Exchange’.

  1. Can you edit the footage for the continuity edit, so that it makes sense?
  2. If you have finished, you should try and do some simple colour correction or add transitions
  3. You could add some music to the opening few seconds as the character walks down the corridor, whilst the other character waits.
Export and Reflect

Export both sequences for YouTube

Create two new topics for your work in your Reflective Journal:

  • Basic Cinematography (Sub-page in Cinematography)
  • Continuity Edit (Sub-page in Editing)

Embed the video into each page and reflect (150 words max) on each task and outcome.

  1. Reflect on the quality of your footage and the meaning(s) that are implied in four of your favourite shots.
  2. Reflection on filming to edit and editing tools, which can create basic narrative meaning.
Posted on in Editing, Editor, Film Micro Elements, Production Roles

Filming for Continuity Editing

Creative Intention for the week

‘To explore and understand how to shoot video for sense in the edit (a continuity edit)

The brief for this task is:

“Film a character walking down a corridor, opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue.

In the edit you must demonstrate understanding of

  • match on action
  • shot/reverse shot
  • the 180-degree rule.”

You should copy and paste the creative intention and brief into your reflective journal, under the cinematography page.

Hell’s Club

A great video that uses the rules of continuity editing to create a scene, made up from clips from lots of different films.

Look at how the editor uses editing to create actions and reactions which seem to make a plausible (continuous):

  • Sense of space (the club)
  • Sense of action and reaction
  • Sense of time (meanwhile..)
  • Sense of rhythm (cutting speed)

Examples

Here are two example preliminary tasks made by the media teachers, spot the mistakes:

Here is the script which we would like you to use.

You will be working in groups of three for this task and must each shoot the sequence, which you will be editing together once we get back after the 1/2 term break.