I think overall I have learnt a lot about the concept of editing the different genres during this module. The one I have learnt the most on was the Night Journey one. This is due to the fact there was so much freedom to edit it, as could literally do anything with the footage where as the other 2 there was a basic structure that was needed to it.

The first piece that me a Jonny edited was the Night Journey piece.  I think overall it turned out very well and I'm pleased with it. I think that Chris was right and that the middle sequence is very slow and needs more clip to fill out. The beginning I think is the strongest part as the music really helps set up the scene. One part I really like is the dream sequence as I think I managed to get the transition in and out of it very well so it fits in with the structure of the piece. If I was to do it again I would make sure Jonny did his fair share of the work as I did the majority and think I could have benefited from the second persons input.

Some thing else I would do again is I would be more experimental and play around more. I think I stayed very safe with the carriage scenes where there was a lot of opportunity to play around with the footage. If I was to do it again I think I would definitely be a lot more experimental.

The second piece that we edited was the Documentary piece. I felt that I did the majority of this piece and that it turned out the way it is due to my editing. As I have said in my posts, I decided to take the interview aspects and edit these together to create the structure of the piece. I wasn't comfortable letting Jonny do this as I was unsure on his ability to create a structure but I think I managed to create a good one that flows nicely and gives a good insight into his life as a rock climber. I think the thing that lets it down it the sound design and the cutaways. The cutaways work at times but towards the end I had a lot of difficulty with trying to no reuse shots and using images that relate to what is being said. As I was sitting doing the editing I gave Jonny the task of finding the music but he had to go so in the end I did kind of give up a little. I think is we had some strong music and I had some help then this piece could be really strong. If I was to do it again I wouldn't just assume Jonny's doing work I would actually sit and make him do some so that it wasn't all down to me.

The Last edit we did was the comedy piece. I really enjoyed this piece as it was all my ideas and didn't have to rely on anyone. I picked the scene in the lounge as I think this is a really simple scene but has a lot that I can do in the edit. As I progressed with the edit I learnt a lot about sculpting the actors lines and acting. They mess up a lot and repeat lines that I didn't notice at first but then it was clear that he's stalling to remember his lines. I think with this piece I am pleased with it overall but there is more I could do to it. Like Chris mentioned during the review I think I could have improved the audio a bit more. There was slight clicks in the talking where it has been cut, I did add a cross fade to most of them but on some you can still hear the clicks.

If I was to do this last edit again I think I would try and do it in avid to learn how to use that software. I’m comfortable on using Final Cut Pro as I use it a lot and want to be able to use Avid just as quickly so I think if I hadn’t had another 2 edits to do, with have a lot of effects so are time consuming this last couple of weeks, I would have spent more time learning and using Avid.

Released in 2010, this film follows a character and how he made Facebook. The film was edited by Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall and won an Academy Award for Best Film Editing.

I found this interview with them both and found some of the things they were saying very interesting when they walked about how there would be like 99 takes of a scene and they would sit and go through every take. There isnt a hero take where everything goes right so its all about takes the best piece form each take to put together.

As editor they don't enjoy being on set and as Baxters says about how he doesnt like seeing that its not all real. I think this is important as an editor not to be on set so that its a new insight into the piece without being influenced as to what the set was like as the audiences wont be able to see what the sets like.

Here is the interview:



Talking with Angus Wall & Kirk Baxter [Interview]
"As a filmmaker, David Fincher has the reputation of an extreme perfectionist, so finely attuned to detail that he doesn’t trust anyone else to get even minor secondary shots. That vision earned him an Oscar nomination as the director of “The Social Network” – but what about the guys who have to work with him? While Mr. Fincher is celebrated for doing dozens and dozens of takes , what’s often forgotten is that other people then have to look at each and every one of those takes to put the film together. Apparently they don’t mind; the editors Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall, and the sound designer, editor and mixer Ren Klyce have all worked with Mr. Fincher multiple times, on films like “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” and “Zodiac.” They are all Oscar-nominated for “The Social Network,” and are working with Mr. Fincher on his next film, “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.”We got them together for a phone interview recently. Mr. Klyce called from his studio in San Francisco, Mr. Wall from his office in Los Angeles, and Mr. Baxter was in the building that Mr. Fincher owns in Hollywood, which he uses as a production hub. It’s a pretty distinctive location. “They’ve used it in movies – they used it in ‘L.A. Confidential,’” Mr. Baxter said. “It’s got a huge tower in the middle of it. It looks like someone giving you the bird.” They talked about cutting down Aaron Sorkin’s script without cutting too far, Mr. Fincher’s superior visual sense and his habit of talking to himself.
Is Fincher as exacting in the post-production studio as he is on set?
ANGUS WALL: Ultimately, he’s that exacting. He’s very good at giving you direction. He can advise you on how to think of something conceptually as well as advise you in the pronunciation of the word ‘the.’ I don’t mean to make light of that. There are times when the pronunciation of a word, particularly in this film, is critical. The nuance of how someone says a word is part and parcel of their particular performance. With a movie like this, with such an abundance of words and the fact that there are these elliptical conversations, where particularly in the opening scene of the film, they’re really having three conversations at the same time, it’s important that every possible nuance be milked.

How do you deal with that in the editing room?WALL: It was a little too short at the first assembly. Because it was an 160-odd page script, there was a lot of pressure on ourselves that it not be 160 minutes long. As we were assembling, we cut things as tight as we could – we wanted things to be short. [But] when we first viewed the assembly, there were things that we realized blew past, that we realized we had to add – little things, like very little things, like frames, to have dramatic moments last. I think it was an hour and 57 minutes, and it’s just shy of two hours now.
So you barely added anything.WALL: When a film is as ballistic as this one is, adding frames here and there actually had a pretty profound impact.

Do you have to deal with all 99 takes, or whatever, of every scene?KIRK BAXTER: There are circled takes. He may shoot 99, but we may get, in that case, something like 60. It’s a lot. There are that many for a reason, because there’s a very specific thing that he’s going for. We actually use bits and pieces out of a lot of those takes. It’s not like there’s a hero take that has everything we want. We actually have to scrub every bit of those.
REN KLYCE: With the circle picks that you guys have with 60, we get all 100 takes of the sound. So after David has thoroughly exhausted what he can get, what’s in the bin from Kirk and Angus, then he’ll lean on the sound department to see, is there anything we haven’t found that we have to troll through. Sometimes David will watch, and he’ll start muttering whatever the line is – ‘It’s on your blog, it’s on your blog,’ by Eduardo’s character – and he’ll be saying it in a way that he wants to hear it. So you know that’s something David isn’t satisfied with.
BAXTER: Yeah, you always have one ear on the back of the couch listening to him. He’s usually after clarity and simplicity.
WALL: There are instances where he does just three takes.
Do you ever go on set?BAXTER: Rarely. I tend not to enjoy it. I don’t like seeing the surrounding of the set, I don’t like knowing that it’s [false]. I take everything for granted, that it’s a real place.
KLYCE: The mood on the set can be stressful and oftentimes tense. You don’t want to have the memory of, that’s when David was really frustrated of such and such. There’s a different kind of layer of memory that gets put on a scene, whether it be a location or a sound stage, where your memory of it is ruined in a way. The rug’s been pulled out on you.
BAXTER: And then when David arrives and says, look at the cement between those bricks, it doesn’t look real –
WALL: He’ll really obsess over something your eye won’t really see. We worked on a film, “The Game,” and he was obsessed with the walls, they were slightly buckled. And he wanted it to be straight like marble.
BAXTER: I remember in ‘Benjamin Button,’ when he was concerned about [the young Cate Blanchett’s] wig, we were cutting the scenes with the wig on, he was saying the wig looks terrible, and I was like, is it a wig? It’s her hair! I couldn’t tell. He reshot it, and you look at the new scene and it’s like, that’s so much better. It’s only by going through David’s journey that you realize.
What do you think of your Oscar chances?WALL: I think it’s impossible to predict.
BAXTER: I thought “Inception” was going to get nominated, so it’s hard to know what’s going on.
WALL: Unless it’s a movie that’s cut where the editing is very apparent –
Like “127 Hours,” which was a surprise nominee in that category?WALL: That’s a movie where the editing is in your face. Editing is a tool for expressing something. In “Social Network,’ it’s a different thing. I don’t know what it is specifically – it’s trying to immerse you in an experience so the boundary between the movie and the viewer disappears.
BAXTER: Essentially all you are doing is servicing the story. I find it very difficult to speak about in these kind of moments – it really is just all about those elements coming together. Because you’re cutting fast or cutting slow or letting that moment resolve. It’s hard to pinpoint when it works. It’s easy to pinpoint when it doesn’t.
WALL: It’s hard to call out one part of the film, as a craft, it’s hard to extricate one part of it. It’s wonderful to see the movie get attention. I truly don’t think any one of us thought that was going to happen.
BAXTER: I said it out loud! We’d all just come off ‘Benjamin Button.’ I said, this is an odd movie for us. But ultimately, the best editing Oscar should go to the best-told story. Were we the best-told story? I don’t know."
By Melena Ryzik on February 11, 2011.Source: http://carpetbagger.blogs.nytimes.com/


http://editorunderconstruction.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/talking-with-angus-wall-kirk-baxter.html

In the lesson today Chris was reviewing our Edits here are the comments he made during it:

• come in on tray/ pain in arse - dead air - don't need cups being given out
• for grounded his performance - good decisions
• cut out after b-mail to get to punch line - needs to trust how think gag should go.
• needs to compress to get to punch line - architecture of gag
• Clicks beginning of penny
• add mix in audio to get rid of clicks
• no laughing when he laughs 
• christ on bike need to come in quicker
• end of CU

The sound for the comedy was quite good quality the olny thing was that you could here the difference between the LS and CU shots and the CU shots were a lot more clearer. This meant that i then tried to sync the CU sounds with the LS shots. This worked will the only part that didn't work was the part when Penny says the business if running okay, This then meant i had to then leave the LS sounds so its not quite as clear but can still understand her.

As they are sitting in the lounge you can hear in the background Penny typing so I havn't added in any extra sounds. I think it could do with some extra atmos like cars outside passing by and that. I think that even thought this is missing it still works fine.

Was Watching this music video and thought the editing was so clever. Its one long take but rewinds and fast forwards to the right parts in the song. I think this is such a simple idea but works so well.

Heres the edited version:

Heres the original un edited version:

When you watch the unedited version you really see how its all put together and all preplanned and rehearsed. I really like the way its constantly changing pace although its just the one shot it still manages to be constantly moving and adapting to the tempo of the song. 

Looking through the footage i thought i would edit the scene in which they are sitting in the lounge. I started off with naming my clips and as the crew used a clapper board i named the clips with the shot numbers and takes too.

I looked through the script to help with the rough edit but i just went of what i thought would fit best. Thisndidnt take long to do.

Once i had a rough assembly i got Chris to go through it and he showed me how much they mess their lines up. I tried to cut most of it out but there is still one part where Alf says No twice but i think if i get rid of the second no it will jump too much so left it in.

I tried to make sure i used a lot of CU's to help the audience to get involved in the actions but i used the odd long shot to show the actions and reactions to certain things, such as when Penny shows them the Laptop. Also when Alf makes the comment about the emails being shit i left a little break before Tony starts talking so that the audience can have a moment laughing at the joke.

Chroma key is also known as Blue Screening and is when the actor standing in front of a large blue screen and acts out the actions. The camera operators then switch the Blue Screen for the background that they want. You have to be careful what colour key is used so that you avoid colour bleeding. Traditionally the colour is blue but more frequently the colour is green as skins tones stands out well. also if the colour has bleed then is can be more covered up easier. 

Luma Key is similar to Chroma Key but is do with the brightness levels. A brightness level is set then either higher or lower pixels from this point can be turned off. This works better with black and white as it is good at creating greyscale images.

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