Second Edit

This week we had our second chance to edit in the suite. We would once again be working on our preliminary task. At the start of the lesson we were instructed that we would only have this lesson to complete the task and if not then we would have to leave as much or as little that we had completed. This added a certain element of pressure to the lesson as everybody wanted a finished film.

We immediately separated into our groups in which we had been working with for about four weeks now. We then set about loading up our half edited videos and 'checking out' them from the schools hard drive as we had learnt the week before. Similarly to the second time we filmed, the entire process ran far smoother this time as we had done it all before and there wasn't anything more we had to learn at this stage. 

While continually swapping in order to allow everyone a chance to edit, we set about cutting together the rest of our preliminary task. This was more simple straight from the start as our footage was already categorised into our 'rush bin' and 'log bin'. We sped through the remainder of our footage problem free,  only stopping to consult one another on editorial decisions which we could all agree made the most sense. These including being quite specific in what shots to cut from and too to gain the right mix between making them appear seamless yet also not to keep reusing the same shots therefore lowering the interest. 

However, just only 20 minutes before the end of the lesson when we were in the process of inserting our last clip we realised we had a problem. In our film our storyline was based around a completely ambiguous argument in which I storm out. The audience then realises that the argument was based around Phoebe not being able to turn on the projector on the ceiling. However, we realised that we didn't have a transition shot from her watching me leave the room and then trying to turn the projector on. This left us with a jump cut that just looked unsettling for the audience as there was no showing how she got there. Looking through all our footage we realised there wasn't much we could do to compensate for this. We couldn't even revert to the wide as we shot the scene and the end shot on different takes. After discussing this with Matt, the only thing he could suggest is that we zoom in on Phoebe's over the shoulder shot as she watches me leave meaning that she is longer in the mise en scene. Therefore this gives her a theoretical chance to change her position and try to reach the button. This helps the audience piece the action together meaning we can include the projector shot so that our film was not completely lacking in meaning. However, this did also mean that the shot we zoomed in on was left extremely blurry compared to the others. We were not at all happy with this but it was the best thing we could do with the footage we had.

After all, this process is supposed to be a learning curve and everyone in the group learnt first hand the implications you can have if you don't cover all possibilities and get enough footage to help yourself with problems in post production. We completed our preliminary task which is the main thing and we will take this knowledge into future tasks so we don't make the same mistakes.