Editing 101

 During production today I looked at the Editing 101 module to see all the tips and tricks I could use. It was helpful to me that the editing process was broken down into ten steps in the document. I know that it only looks easy on paper but breaking down the process into steps will help me pace myself which I have trouble doing. I looked at the cuting and splittig sound(I didn't have any videos so it didn't end up being helpful), and the do's and dont's of titles because I will be doing both for the film.

Axial Cut

During filming we planned a shot that was very complicated and hard to pull off. Mr. Aaronson came over and suggested we do an axial cut instead, whih was much easier and efficient for us to pull off and includes the dolly zoom. 

The Dolly Zoom

 

The dolly shot is perhaps my favorite shot of the film right now. The inspiration came from the the shot from Jaws, which we watched during class last month. Our production assistant taught us how to do it on Cinematic Mode in the Camera app, and it was amazing to see. It definetley is a useful tool for future use.

A still from the shot

No Shot Log

 When I came today to continue filming after missing the first day, it seemed to be going smoothly. However, one thing I noticed is that there wasn't a shot log. I asked our director about this and she said she was using her phone so I just trusted that she was keeping the log, it became aparent that she wasn't. Later on when I was marking the scenes and asked for the scene and shot there was some confusion at first until we figured it out. This made the filming process less efficient and it would've been better to use one. Although it made for funny moments on set, today also highlighted to me the shot logs importance. I also need to figure out what takes i will use in editing with out it which will certainly be something. 

Plan for Editing

Today was pick up day and while the rest of my group was filming I was trying to put together a rough cut of the footage we had. The problem is that the footage was shot on iPhone and I had no means of transfering it to the laptop that was provided to me during class effciently. In the meanwhile, I got to experiment with Priemere Pro and Rush and get a feel of what I would be editing with. The plan me and the director came up with, is that I would create a rough cut from the footage we have over Thanksgiving break and be communicating with each other througout. I would also uploud the footage from the shared album on my phone to my iCloud drive and save it on a flash drive. This way when I get back I can more easily bring the footage into Premiere Pro during class. 

Rough Cut in iMovie

Today I tried to create my own personal rough cut of the film in iMovie. I did this because I have been using iMovie for years for my own personal projects and I thought I'd get a headstart in putting the chess film together. By doing this, I got a sense of what thought the pacing should be like. I roughly edited the scenes including the chess players because I had not yet seen those shots at all and I figured I should wait to work with the rest of the group for the true rough cut. It was a good use of time as I got a feel for some of the film and has made me more eager to work on the real film.

Solving Scheduling Issues

 This Friday, the 15th, I will be in Chicago to visit my mom. However, this is also the first day of production so there is an issue. I chose to be editor because I knew I would miss this day, but I have also been assigned to be an actor. So we planned the scenes I'm in to be on the 19th when I will be in town.

Aesthetic Research

We decided to do a horror/thriller film because we thought it would be interesting to take the game of chess and put the pieces into that setting. The group looked at various thriller and/or horror media to pull inspiration from. There are three pieces of media in particular we focused on.

Inception- Did a great job creating intense scenes and making the audience feel that tension.

Inception 2010

The Queen's Gambit- This film showed us how intense chess itself can be. There will be shots of people playing chess so it's good to see how it can be done in other media.

The Queen's Gambit 2020

Jumanji- We liked how Jumanji made its game come to life to make the stakes ones of a real life thriller. It is very similar to what we want to do so this was a big one for inspiration.

Jumanji 1995

Brainstorming, Camera Lab, and Scouting

 The first few days of pre-production were interesting. I became the editor of the film which I think is best as I have some scheduling conflicts that will prevent me from being present on set when need be. We came up with an idea for the film that I think has a lot of potential to great. It combines thriller/horror with a bit of comedy and I love genre hybridity.

Yesterday we had our first camera lab where we learned how to work the tripod, or sticks as Mr. A calls it, and I found it very intriguing. I had tripods and messed around with them in the past but none of that quality.

Last thing is we went out to the patio to scout locations for the film. We found this one table that we like for shooting the two people playing chess in our film and tested the camera with it. Mr. A gave us some pointers with blocking and camera position which helped and this the shot we got.

Overall I things are going smooth so far.