What A Lovely Day: Why Fury Road should win Best Picture.

Look, Spotlight is a great movie. With fantastic performances from a stellar cast and a compelling story, it's almost certain to win Best Picture at the Oscars this year. However, there was another film released in 2015 that has stuck with me more than any other movie in a long time. If you read the title of this blog post you'll know that that movie is Mad Max: Fury Road.

Fury Road summarized in one image.

Mad Max: Fury Road is the fourth film in director George Miller's post apocalyptic saga. It was released 30 years after the previous film in the series Beyond Thunderdome, came into theatres. To briefly summarize the movie for those who haven't seen it, Fury Road follows the titular Max (Tom Hardy replacing Mel Gibson) who joins a woman named Furiosa (played by Charlize Theron), in transporting the slave wives of a warlord to safety all while being pursued by the Warlord. To someone who hasn't seen the movie, the plot can sound like a somewhat generic action movie. However, Mad Max: Fury Road is anything but. The movie excels in countless ways and becomes in this writer's opinion, a perfect action movie that should, even though it will lose to Spotlight, win best picture. Let's examine a few reasons why.

1. Editing.

One of the biggest faults the modern action movie suffers from is the editing. The movies are so concerned with action that the become nearly impossible to watch or even understand what is going on. 

Looking at you Michael Bay.

Just take a look at the gif above, or at this 20 minute video of all the fight scenes in Transformers. The action is all over the place and quickly becomes very hard to follow. The shaky camerawork and near constant explosions make taking in the action an overwhelming and difficult task that quickly becomes an eyesore. I'm just picking on Bay for this post but it happens with a lot of actions movies. However this is where Miller excels. Actually, I should say this is where Margaret Sixel excels, as she is the one who edited this movie. What makes the editing of Fury Road so interesting is that it isn't edited like an action movie. In fact, Sixel, who is Miller's wife, had never edited an action film before Mad Max: Fury Road. Miller, when asked why he selected Sixel to edit the film said that had it been edited by "the usual kind of guys, it would look like every other action movie we see" The result of Margaret Sixel's editing is high octane action scenes that are easy to follow.  

Look at this gif to the left. Important points are kept in the center so the audience doesn't have to search for them. Shot shots, while short, are long enough that we are able to see what is occurring in each one before the next shot comes along. Also notice how while there is slight directional movement with the camera, it is still steady enough for us to be enthralled by the action but not made motion sick by the blair witch level shakiness.

While this edited works great for these action sequences, it also improves the films watching as a whole. Film being a visual medium, and actions films doubly so, it is important that you can tell your film well with minimal use of dialogue to expose what is occurring on screen. Check out this video of several action films 12 times their normal speed. As many of the other films becomes a hard to follow muddled mess, more or less you can still tell what's going on in Mad Max: Fury Road. You could easily take all the sound out of Fury Road and besides missing an awesome score by Junkie XL you would still be able to understand the story and could pretty easily explain the major plot points of the film.  

2. Practical Effects

With CGI, almost anything is possible and for considerably less than it would cost to actually do it. think about it; If you were making a movie like Mad Max: Fury Road, you wouldn't spend all that time to actually build all those cars and then actually go out in the desert and film all those dangerous stunts full speed and end up destroying those cars, when you could do almost all of that with CGI right? Well George Miller did. Almost every single car in the film is a real, fully functioning vehicle. 

That includes this one.

This one

This one, which you may remember having a man playing a flame-throwing guitar which was also real, on top of it.

And countless other ridiculously awesome post-apocalyptic vehicles. All of these were actually built, functioned, and for most of them, destroyed in one of the final car chase climaxes ever. Miller did use CGI, but only to enhance. This is how CGI should be used, to enhance scenes, not to completely replace what could be made practically. 

Check out this great video which shows many of the CGI shots in the film before and after it was added. Notice how for the most part, things are done practically, when important. Scenes where shooting inside a moving vehicle would not have worked are done on green screen, but almost anything else is done with good old practical destruction.  

Here are a few other pre and post CGI/VFX shots from Fury Road.

3. Story/Feminist Action

Perhaps one of the most interesting parts of Mad Max is that Max is not the protagonist of the film, in fact, the story of Fury Road is not Max's. That honor goes to Furiosa.

Hands down biggest badass of 2015.

Furiosa's journey is what drives (see what I did there) the plot. Max is simply along for the ride. (see that I did there) The entire film has a strong feminist message. Furiosa is never a damsel in distress and is never seen as inferior to Max. In fact, she saves Max's ass a few times. Her character is given depth and important backstory which the plot gives proper attention to. She is not oversexualised or just made to be an object of male gaze. She is smart, independent, and very resourceful. What works well with the film is the mutual respect she and Max have for eachother. Max never assumes she is unable to perform a task, he is simply weary of her at first. Furiosa however is not the only female character in the film. Joining her are Immortan Joe's fives wives, also referred to as breeders, used to bring Immortan healthy sons. Each of the wives in the film stands out in their own way and is unique from the others. Again giving character development to them. They too are able to hold their own in a fight. the film easily passes both the Bechdel_test and the Mako Mori test. The film does such a good job with its female characters that a group of Men's Rights Activists, which is sadly a real thing, protested the film calling in feminist propaganda. I'm not going to give the link to the article, but if you can find it pretty easily. The story as a whole improves the film. Despite these many complex characters, the overall plot is simple. This benefits the film and allows the visual aspect and action to do the rest of the storytelling. There is no need for any subplots or things that go nowhere, the film simply tells one story and focuses entirely on that. 

In Conclusion

Mad Max: Fury Road excels in almost every aspect. It's beautiful to look at, has great characters who you wanna root for, and is fun as hell. The film is clearly made by someone who dearly loves film. One can even see multiple subtle references to the older Mad Max films, but we won't go into that now. Filmmaking is a craft, and the craft that went to making Mad Max is truly remarkable. Each aspect is equally important to the film working out. If it failed, the whole film would have too. From the editing to the script, to the practical effects, the utmost care was put into every detail of the movie. This is not to say that the other nominees are not deserving they are, and in Spotlight's case, they will succeed. None of the films however, accomplish what Mad Max: Fury Road did. For that Fury Road shall ride enteral, shiny and chrome.  

Editing Comedy

This week my production hit a small roadblock that led to a great conclusion. After meeting with my editor the unfortunate truth was revealed, she didn't know how to edit comedy. It's something you don't always think about when picking an editor, the genre they're used to working in that is. However it soon became apparent when I saw a rough cut of some of the film. Jokes that the characters were saying were being cut off. Worse than that sometimes when the joke was being said the camera was put on the non-speakers face for a reaction. Jokes weren't landing because they weren't being given space to breath. It was a mess. Luckily my assistant director and I figured out a solution that will allows us to keep back on track but for me it was a learning experience I won't soon forget. Throughout writing, directing and producing the piece my mind was always focused on making sure that above all the comedy always came out on top. I tried to control the entire process but when it came time to edit I assumed it was best left in someone's hands who had more experience than I. It was a careless mistake and one I'm lucky to have been able to remedy but it's been an eye opening experience that has allowed me a more in depth look into making comedy.

On the Way to School

On the way to school is a feature length documentary that chronicles the journey to school for children from four very different countries. I decided to watch this film as a suggestion from a friend who knew I was interested in documentaries. Before I knew it I found myself completely absorbed into the story of these various children. The film was shot and edited in the style of cinema verite, where the camera floats around as if it wasn't even there.
In my opinion this is the truest form of documentary filmmaking. Interviews make people conscious of the fact that they are being filmed and in many cases takes away from the "reality" of the situation. Cinema verite truly captures life at its essence, with no planned lines or designed lighting. Everything happens as is and it is up to the filmmaker to operate on his own two feet to decide what to do. Editing becomes the driving force in telling the story. On the way to school weaves the narratives between the children together and although they are thousands of miles apart, it seems as though they are traveling as one collective.
This is one of the most important films I believe I have watched in a long time. Education is something that many of us in the United States and other first world countries take for granted. The idea of even struggling to get to school is rarely a thought in any of our minds. We grew up with the big yellow school bus picking us up on street corners or some, even more privileged, were taken right from their own driveways. To see the literal struggle that many go through everyday, just to get an education is inspiring and humbling.
This is what I hope to one day do with film. As we wrapped our first weekend of shooting down in Virginia my partner Eric and I are more driven more than ever to help others with film. I don't know where life will take me but all I can hope to do is inspire and hopefully improve the lives of others with film. On the Way to School is currently streaming on Netflix I encourage everyone to watch and try and put themselves in the shoes of these children, if only for the hour the film runs.

Adobe Morph Cut

I don't know how many of you have seen or heard about this new feature in Adobe Premiere called Morph Cut, but it is really cool (and scary). Basically, the premise of Morph Cut goes like this: it fixes jump cut interviews. Awesome, right? Yeah, it is, but it's also intimidating for the editor because it represents a shift in film editing that moves toward the computer controlling everything, rather than the editor. Will this be the start of robots being editors?? Nobody knows! Okay, enough of my dystopian view of this effect and now for the nitty gritty.

Morph Cut works like this. You have an interview with someone that goes as such: "So the...uh...car was driving..uh..um...down...uh..the road and uh, uhm, we saw a deer in the street but it uh...uhm...was too late for us to uhh move so...uh...we hit the uh...deer." Wow, that is like pulling teeth. What would be an 8-second sentence turned into a 25-second sentence. If this was essential to the story, and there was no way to schedule a reshoot, the clip would have to be cut to exclude the uh's and the uhm's and the lapses in talking altogether. What would result is a jump cut edit that would pretty much suck. The character would be jerking around in the frame everytime a cut had to be made and it would essentially be unwatchable. Enter Morph Cut. Morph Cut is an effect that will be implemented in Premiere Pro down the line that analyzes the footage and presents a seamless edit that is free of the jump cuts. Below is a presentation by Adobe about this. Really worth the watch.

The reality behind reality shows

In another communications class of mine, we watched the pilot of MTV's reality series Jersey
Shore. I am not the biggest fan of reality shows in general; the characters are always very outlandish, unreal (despite it being a reality show) and overall seemingly obnoxious people.While I felt that watching the show was a waste of my time because it is so terrible, it sparked me into doing some digging about "behind-the-scenes" of reality shows. I noticed while watching Jersey Shore that there were a lot of fast cuts, repeated shots, and many voiceovers, which indicates that from piecing together various footage make a particular story, even if its not the story that was told originally.

According to the Writer's Guild of America West, reality TV producers create formats, cast people based on character traits, and then edit scenes to create a story arc. Teams will shoot several days of footage and then hand it off to the editor to create a story based on the guidelines that producers gave them. Because no one's life is constantly that dramatic, crews must film for days at a time before piecing together an episode. That's why there's so much voiceover and b-roll; it is up to the editor to create the story that the producer wants, as opposed to how events actually occurred.

David Rupel states that one of the secrets to creating the arc to a reality show is to "find a scene that has many of the same emotional beats as another, and use interview bites to shape it to be about the other topic" because if you remove all references to some other subject, it still makes sense. That way if some major even occurs off-camera, it can still be shown somehow. This method is used a lot in Jersey Shore, especially utilizing the "interviews" as making sense of the dramatic situations that occur by getting each person's reaction.

Snooki: "i'm too pretty for jail"

MTV networks President Van Toffler said that in the Jersey Shore casting process they looked for "candor, honesty, boldness, and a very combustible, chaotic mess. You could honestly say none of these people were traditionally beautiful."...combustible, chaotic mess is a very good way to put it indeed. And while all the characters are just generally unpleasant human beings, the show is wildly entertaining because they are all so outlandish. The casting directors choose them because they know that viewers will want to watch them do ridiculous things (that they are paid to do).

Reality TV is a form of entertainment that is constantly on the rise because the creators know how to draw people in with the fast editing and outlandish characters. Jersey Shore is just one example; other shows such as Dance Moms, The Bachelor/Bachelorette, and Survivor also follow the reality-tv-editing formula. (only difference is that those characters are slightly more tolerable!)

Here's a taste of what Jersey Shore is like. Watch if you dare.

The Arrested Development Pilot: One of the best pilots EVER

Arrested Development aired it's pilot on FOX on November 2nd, 2003. Since then, throughout its four seasons, the show has received 6 Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and recognition for being one of the funniest shows aired on television.

In my personal opinion, the pilot of this show is one of the strongest pilots for a television series I have ever seen. Typically, pilots are ruled out to not be considered the best, but this show breaks that rule. In this episode, you are introduced to every important character in the series. The main character, Michael Bluth, played by Jason Bateman, narrates the episode and gives a detailed description of his highly dysfunctional family members. The fast paced editing and highly saturated coloring make the episode even more intriguing to watch. Lower thirds are used as well as many graphics to point to certain things and create different vectors.

Another aspect that I found interesting is that when they go from one setting to another, they don't just cut it, they create two different boxes on the screen and then bring the next scene into full. I have never seen that done on a TV sitcom before. The dialogue that is used is absolutely hysterical and the conflicts that arrive are so coincidental and unrealistic that they make you laugh out loud. The killer cast of Jason Bateman, Michael Cera, Portia de Rossi, Will Arnett, and many more add hilarious antics with each of their lines. Overall, this pilot was incredible and really set a high standard for situational comedies.

The Pentatonix and Todrick Halls' "Wizard of Ahhhs"

The Pentatonix are an amazing a cappella group that became famous by winning the third season of The Sing-Off. They combined in 2013 with Todrick Hall, a semi-finalist on American Idol and a YouTube star to create a music video based off the classic movie, The Wizard of Oz. In a sensational way they managed to use modern songs to tell a six minute version of this movie. They of course included the films most renowned song, Somewhere Over the Rainbow, at the end of the video. The lighting was a mixture of flat and natural elements that brought out different feelings throughout the length of the video. For example, it was very bright during the Munchkin City sequence since it was supposed to be happier, and used a lot of darker and green lighting when they met the Wizard of Oz since it was supposed to appear more sinister. One thing that definitely stood out was the coloring. In the beginning, the colors were very desaturated and a sepia tone to go along with the theme of being on a farm during that specific time period. It very closely followed the coloring of the original movie. When it transforms from the drab farm to the land of Oz, the colors become very bright and saturated and make it seem more mystical and dreamlike. The editing of this video consisted of a lot of dissolves into the dreamlike state and cuts when the actions were supposed to be portrayed as more chaotic. They used a lot of closeups of the different characters which really enhanced their presence. Obviously, the main part of this video is sound, and a lot of it is diegetic. It is seen on screen because everything that you hear is coming out of the mouths of the singers and beat boxer. The sound that is created is the motivator for all of the actions on screen and the music describes what they are doing in a creative and different way.

Jackie Chan and Editing Action

Tony, the man behind the youtube channel Every Frame a Painting released a new video this week specializing in Jackie Chan. If you haven't seen any one of his other videos I can't recommend them enough, they are very well edited and Tony knows a lot about all kinds of films. But what I found interesting in his new video is how action and comedy are quite similar. In terms of how they should be filmed to get the best reaction and how showing everything is always better. Just like a joke showing the action and in the same frame showing the reaction is the best way to pull everything out of the picture. If someone is hit on screen showing the hand and then the reaction from the hit draws more effect from the audience. The video goes on to explain more about the differences in action between American and Asian films. The editing in Hollywood for action has become more about cutting from one shot right as they get hit to the next. Tony goes on to explain that in many asian action films editing has been used to alter the continuity of each hit. So as someone throws a hit the hit is quickly shown and then cut to close up and quickly see the hit again. With only a couple frames it's barely noticeable but adds an extra force behind each hit. I find it extremely interesting how editing can be used in this way and can not wait for Every Frame a Painting's next video.

Check out the video below:

Editing & Cinematography in BBC's Sherlock

I will begin this post by saying that if you have not yet experienced the awesomeness that is BBC's modern adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes books, then stop what you are doing and go watch it. I will wait. No, I'm serious go check it out, it's on Netflix.

Now, I could sit here all day and talk to you about how amazing this mini-series is. I could tell you how incredible the acting is, or how I could even tell you that the last installment just won seven Emmys. But I think the quality of this series speaks for itself. One of the most impressive things about this series is the way the cinematography and editing is utilized.

If you don't know anything about Sherlock Holmes (which would be weird, because he's the most famous fictional character of all time), then you know that he is a genius detective who solves cases by picking up on things that no one else can. In past portrayals Sherlock would look around a crime scene before suddenly declaring what it was that everyone else was missing. In BBC's adaptation they actually show you Sherlock's thoughts as he is solving the case in his head, and they do it through clever editing and cinematography

As Sherlock thinks or makes deductions, we as viewers can see his thoughts through carefully placed text. This way the audience can feel as though they are solving the case along with him, instead of just watching him do it. This is also more interesting visually then just having the actor do a voice over. Not only that, but it makes Sherlock's genius more believable. The audience is more willing to believe that Sherlock can come to these conclusions if they can physically see him work them out.

It was also even used for comic relief when Sherlock tried to solve a case while drunk. This made for some pretty amusing deductions. 

They also use a similar technique to show Sherlock's "Mind Palace".

This is a memory technique where one visualizes a location (in Sherlock's case a palace), with different rooms and stores different information in those rooms. Then when they need to remember something, they simply have to visualize the place where it was stored. Sherlock uses his Mind Palace to store all sorts of important information he might need to solve crimes.

The creators of the show used the cinematography and editing to show the way Sherlock interacts with his Mind Palace, much they way they did to show how he thinks.

There are even entire sequences that take place inside Sherlock's Mind Palace. In these scenes, lighting is used dramatically to show Sherlock's state of mind. One particular scene, when Sherlock was injured and unconscious, the lighting is bright and blindingly white as his body goes into shock. In the same is sequence clever camera angles were used, the camera pointed downward at the top of a long spiraling staircase as Sherlock struggles to climb up them and back to consciousness. 

Basically, everything about the way this show is constructed is extremely clever, much like it's hero. I would highly recommend it to anyone.

What is Field Production, Really?

Some people may not know what field production actually means, well field production means you're anywhere but a studio. Field production is always dependent upon the characteristics of your location. Your location might be a doctor's office, the bottom of a canyon or a barn.

Each situation calls for unique methods but you can always find similarities. Field production usually requires a lot of setting up and tearing down the equipment.

The Super Bowl, the mother of all field productions, uses at least seventy cameras along with two huge trucks full of tape decks, lights, microphones, cables, switchers, signal controllers, graphics generators, you name it that extravaganza uses it.

(These are just the cameras!)

Hollywood movies evolved using one-camera technique. Most field productions, especially low-budget, are done with one-camera technique.

One-camera technique means the action is repeated over and over with the one camera in a new location every time.

For fancy field production, all the lights are moved and re-set up in between every camera location.

Then, all that footage is editing together to simulate the effect you would have gotten had the action been captured simultaneously by multiple cameras.

Field productions are edited using a computer after they are shot. Good editing can make even a boring subject exciting but quality editing is time consuming. An editor who knows his stuff will plan on taking a minimum of one-hour to finish one-minute of edited story. Quick, down and dirty editing might go faster, but not much. An extremely intricate :30 commercial that gets bickered over a lot might be in editing two weeks. No wonder the budgets for video can quickly soar out of sight! Don't let that happen to you.

The higher the level of the production, the longer editing can take. Quality editing can save an otherwise poor production. Good editing is usually planned, and not just a reaction to fixing stuff that went wrong when shooting. Good editing is one of your most powerful story-telling techniques.

The Sopranos

Over spring break I started watching The Sopranos, and I was instantly addicted.

The show is about a mafia family in New Jersey, led by the Soprano family. The opening sequence that plays at the beginning of every episode introduced the setting, New Jersey, and then the protagonist, Tony Soprano.

I am a huge editing nerd, so interesting editorial choices grab my interest quickly, and montages and opening sequences are my favorite things to watch and edit together myself. I loved that the camera was never completely steady and that it was shot while Tony was on the move, driving on the turnpike and through the town. Tony is always on the move, and there are always a lot of things happening with each one of the several characters on the show. An opening sequence that was very steady and calm would not fit with the movement and the dynamics of the show.

Directly after the opening sequence in the pilot episode, it cuts to a very still and quiet shot of Tony Soprano in a psychiatrist's office. This greatly contrasts with the feel of the opening sequence, but it grabs your attention because it is unexpected. Opening in the psychiatrist's office was an excellent choice, because it introduced you to the character of Tony Soprano, and because his appointments and relationship with the psychiatrist are some of the most important aspects of the first season.

The characters and the relationships between them are critical to any show, but they do it extremely well on this show. On a show with this many characters, character development is important. If a character isn't developed fully in a reasonable amount of time, he or she will get lost and seem irrelevant. In this show, each character - each member of the mafia family, each member of the Soprano family, the psychiatrist, and each short-term character - is there for a reason, and their personality and their relationship to each character they interact with is critical to the story.

Coming from an Italian family, I may be biased toward the show because I understand and enjoy the culture of an Italian family and the language they use in the show. However, even without knowing what certain words mean and without understanding every cultural aspect of the families, the characters and the storyline are so well-developed that the show is still completely enticing and addicting.

What Editing Can Do to Feeling

Many people have seen the popular she show the seriousness, like the emotion of the actors in the scenes, what the actors are doing within the shot, how the show is composed, what music is chosen, and so many more. You can really give a show a certain feeling by the way you edit it. A perfect example of this is Breaking Bad The Sitcom. Many people have seen the popular show Breaking Bad. The show is a very serious crime drama. Youtuber Sacha Proctor created many videos from many different episodes of Breaking Bad. It is funny, but at the same time really hard to watch. Here is an example of Breaking Bad The Sitcom and an original clips from Breaking Bad.

Breaking Bad The Sitcom

Clips from the original Breaking Bad

So as you can see there is a huge difference in the feeling, even though many of the same scenes were used. The way it's edited can really set the mood. I definitely recommend watching some more of Sacha Proctor's videos.

Scandal

     Scandal is in its third season on ABC, but I only started watching this show this week. I have seen friends post on social media about the show, particularly about the main character, Olivia Pope, and their posts and the commercials I've seem have grabbed my interest.
     I can't decide if it's the characters, the quick, witty dialogue, or the editing that draws me into the show most. The characters each have very intriguing personalities, and when they come together it makes for a very interesting character dynamic. Their relationships can be both professional and personal at the same time, and you're drawn into both stories without missing a beat of either one. The dialogue can be incredibly quick and witty, which is a characteristic I appreciate in television and film. I love the fast pace. It keeps my attention the whole way through.
     The types of shots and editing also fascinate be because editing is what interests me most about this field of work. There are a lot of really quick cuts and really mind-blowing shots. The directors, cinematographers, and editors get very creative with how they show you things, rather than just blatantly showing you the obvious. Instead of getting a shot of a security camera to let you know that a character is being watched, they show you a shot through the security camera. When a character is looking at something on a computer screen, the shot appears to be taken from behind or inside the computer, showing you what's on the screen as well as the character's face. This is not only a fascinating method, but it also allows you to see the character's reaction to what they're seeing on the screen.
     In just one episode, the show has grabbed by interest and made me want to watch more. Shonda Rhimes has definitely created a successful show. I cannot wait to see more.

Editing film with a deadline

As of now, I have been awake for almost twenty-four straight hours, about ten of which have been spent editing my group's short film, "Cracked". After having been up editing until about 3 or 4AM for the past four days, I've decided tonight was the night when sleep was simply not an option. Tonight's cutoff time was about 5AM. This wasn't due to being kicked out of the library or to my roommate yelling at me to turn off the light. It was due to the fact that most of us working on the film's picture-locked draft tonight reached the point where no good could come out of continuing our work. The last 4 days have been some of the most taxing and fulfilling days of my life, and since I'm running on little to no sleep due to the deadline I've been given to have this film finished by, I figured now is the best time to give you my honest opinion of editing with a deadline.

It's difficult.
Editing is difficult. There's no question about it. It takes a lot of time, patience, and skill. Sometimes, none of these are available. Having approximately four days to edit a seemingly twenty-minute, picture-locked copy so that our sound designer can have ample time to make our project sound as professional as possible, time is simply not of the essence. It's unfortunate, but it's the hand I've been dealt, nonetheless.

Patience is not one of my virtues. That's a fact. If something isn't working the way I want it to, I've been known to begin cursing out my laptop at a reasonable volume right in the middle of the library. The problem with this is the fact that, in order to edit something just right, an editor needs patience so that he doesn't accidentally scare everyone sitting within a fifty-foot radius of him. Very few things ever fit together perfectly with ease in the editing process. It's important to remember that.

Clearly, one needs to have some level of skill in order to be good at his job. Now, I'm not saying that I'm a bad editor. I like to think that I have some level of talent. The fact is, though, I'm still learning new things everyday. Just tonight, actually, I must have learned at least three new editing techniques from my fellow group members that I had no idea were available to me. These three or so new techniques I learned are certainly going to come in handy sometime soon down the road, but I really wish I knew them a few months ago. It just goes to show that an editor is never done learning.

It's stressful.
Four days. Really? Four days to edit an entire twenty-minute short film. That's all I was given. The deadline I was given was set for a very good reason. We need to have the film's audio mastered by someone who truly knows what they're doing, but seriously? In order for a person to provide you with his best work, you better give him the necessary time to do so. The more rushed an editor is, and the less sleep he has, the more difficulty he's going to have in turning in a quality project.

The most stressful part about the whole thing is that, despite the little time film editors are often given, the entire project still comes down to you. It's basically like the last five seconds of a basketball game. Your team as retrieved the ball. They've gotten it down the court. They've set you up with a perfect shot. It's now up to you. You can either score the game-winning point, or you can miss the shot and your team's effort was all for nothing. An editor can either be the hero or the complete screw-up on a film crew.

It's bullshit.
No matter how well the preproduction and production of a film go, the editors always seem to get screwed over. You'd think the editor would be given as much time as they needed to make the final product their best possible work, but no. Editors always seem to have the shortest deadline out of anyone on the entire production crew.

Sure, being the editor has its perks. The most evident one is the fact that I had to do little to no work up to this point in the project process. What could I do? There was nothing for me to edit. Another major advantage would have been--if we hadn't needed someone to work audio for our first two shoots--that I wouldn't have been required to go to the actual shoots. That could have easily been more time to relax or to edit what we had already shot (which I was luckily given for our group's final shoot on Sunday).

Despite how fair it really is that I have to run off little to no sleep for a mere four days, instead of having work the entire semester, I still attempt to put the idea in my head that the whole thing is bullshit. Don't ask me why. I'm just tired.

It's totally worth it.
At the end of the day, and at the end of the whole process, editing is truly one of the most rewarding positions in the entire crew, especially with such a short deadline. To be able to look back and say, "Wow. I did all that in four days?", is all the reward I need. To have the privilege to be able to see the entire progress from a script, to a shoot, to a cluster of files, to a beautiful film is an absolutely indescribable feeling. The editor is the final puzzle piece to a film, and it's an honor to be that final piece.

Kaboom! Update

Good news, Kaboom is almost done with production. I would estimate that with another hour or so of some last minute editing that we will be done with our project. One thing that will take some time will be adding the vocal track to a phone conversation scene in our piece. I am very excited to show you all on Monday.


Cheers

Projects

Today will be our last shoot of our 2nd project. We'll be filming in the Tops parking lot and hopefully the weather controls itself. Yesterday, the wind was so bad that our actress Ellie almost fell over.

I'm super excited about filming these last two scenes because everything will come together nicely. Haley will be editing the majority of the project which makes her the best person ever.

Ellie is so excited for this project that she wanted to know when the DVD would come out and also her little brother Duncan will be in the credits as audio. He's going to be the next big audio thing to hit the southern tier.

That's a Wrap

Despite all the finals-related stress, it was a great experience to see the final project come together. The project was a lot of fun for me as I was able to develop my editing skills and work with new people; everyone was so passionate and wanted to make sure Dog House both looked and sounded great; Erica and Zack painstakingly color corrected each scene in After Effects while Alex made original music for the project. Their drive inspired me to do my best and I couldn't be happier with the end result.The lack of sleep we have is completely worthwhile, as I feel we've made something we can all be proud of.

Band Greeks also wrapped earlier this week, and while I'm sad to see the show end, it was an excellent learning experience. We'll be entering post-production soon, and the episodes will air this coming Spring on ICTV.

This semester has been a blast, and I'm looking forward to seeing the results of everyone's hard work tomorrow at the Fiction Field Screening. Congratulations everyone, That's a wrap!

Final Project in Review

When we started our final projects over a month ago I really did not know what to expect. I latched onto an idea that I found interesting in class and went from there. I was assigned to write the script with two of my classmates Rob and Kofi. Admittedly, we would consider ourselves amateur script writers. After 2 weeks of writing we came up with a 35 page script called the Face Off. Was 35 pages too long for a fiction field final? In retrospect, yes, but I think the theme of this project was that I was learning on the fly. I am proud of the script that the three of us wrote and I think had we were allotted more time than we could of have followed it more closely. Production was also a huge learning experience for me. Finding locations, talent, costumes, and set pieces, was an exciting new venture me. Also, creating the set with proper lighting, audio, and continuity was a challenge. Some scenes went better than others. Most notably our debate scene which we held in the Park auditorium was looking fantastic. However, we ran out of time for our reservation for the room. Being only a handful of days before editing was to take place, we could not re-shoot the scene. Instead, we had to choose a new location, cut a big chunk of our script, and stay up much later than I think anyone in the group planned to finish the production. This served as another valuable lesson: always have a backup plan, and think quickly on your feet. The next part of this experience that I was able to learn from was editing. The editing process was an interesting one. By interesting I mean exhausting, staying up through all hours of the night and into the morning to get our film edited correctly. I tip my hat to Jarred and Breanne for their dedication throughout the editing process. That basically leaves us where we are now, audio mixing our project so it is ready to go for the screening on saturday. As we started the audio mixing process, I was actually terrified to see what all our clips looked like lined up with each other. As we mixed through our entire session on tuesday night, I grew more and more excited to see the final project. The bottom line is this: Our project is not perfect. The plot line didn't go as planned, our locations didn't go as planned, editing didn't go as planned, but the final product resembles countless hours of hard work from each group member. This is by far the hardest I have worked on a single project in my life. With that being said, I am so happy to present The Face Off at the screening on saturday in front of friends and peers. Over a month of work put into one project is finally over. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the Face Off.

Production

Tomorrow we are going to shoot the last few scenes of our film. We got off to a good start last weekend and shot most of what we needed so we were entirely on schedule. I have enjoyed this project for the most part and the group of people on the cast and crew, but I wish we had more time. More time so that we could further develop an idea and cut down on plot holes and just in general have more time to for production so that we are not rushed and trying to cram in all of the post in a few days. With that being said, I think we still will be able to accomplish something that we are proud of and I think we are all excited to show off some of the footage in class!

The Art of Flight

Yesterday, I watched The Art of Flight (2011) on Netflix. This movie, directed by Curt Morgan, stars snowboarder Travis Rice and friends and highlights riders from the Red Bull team and others  as they take on unknown territory around the world and conquer the biggest mountains known to man. I've never snowboarded and the last time I went skiing was when I was about 13 years old but this is one of my favorite movies. The cinematography is amazing and there were many risks during the filming. For example, the riders ventured to a mountain in Patagonia that was known as a place "where the devil lives" and they only had forty minutes to make a run before the helicopter gas ran out. The crew had to film quickly and on the way back, they had to swim across a freezing river to get back to a safe place where the helicopter could pick the up. The riders invent new tricks and some get severely injured along the way. The film is amazing and although you may not appreciate snowboarding, you will appreciate the cinematography and the riders' stories about why they do what they do. The soundtrack includes many epic, full sounding songs that allow the viewer to feel the adrenaline that the riders experience. The movie took three years to make and it is one of my favorite movies as of yesterday.

I used to be an avid skateboarder, although I wasn't any good, and I religiously watched skateboarding movies. I stopped skateboarding when I realized everyone around me was getting better while I was the same and I switched over to filming my skilled friends. It's extremely difficult to film skateboarding because sometimes, you only get one shot to capture the trick and everything has to be perfect. Like The Art of Flight, some skateboard videos can be appreciated for their cinematography and directing even if you don't like skateboarding. Below are some of my favorite skateboard video scenes...

Lakai's Fully Flared Intro

These are some of my good friend's videos he filmed/edited. I hope to collaborate with him at some point in the near future.
https://vimeo.com/53915756 (skiing)
https://vimeo.com/30449234 (longboarding)