"Editors deserve so much respect"
Avid - The choices I made
Over the course of three weeks we were tasked with editing the rushes from our studio shoot late last year with Avid, the editing software we have been taught through the Professional Toolkit unit. I chose this unit because I this year wanted to improve my technical skills, and become a better artist by being able to better edit and complete my own projects. Avid is probably the most complicated software I have ever been taught, and I would be lying if I didn´t say I found it very difficult.
So starting off I wanted to make an edit that was different from the script and the planned story. Having been DoP for the studio shoot I was a big part of the pre production and production of this film, and thusly I´ve had a very close relationship to how the film developed and ended up. For this reason I wanted to challenge myself and create something other than just the normal narration of the film.
Trailers
The last month I have been obsessed with the trailer for the upcoming movie "Logan". It´s a very simple trailer, but it really intrigues and catches the watcher, and by the end of it you almost can´t wait for the film to come out.
As you can see it resembles the beats of many trailers, in that it has an old song, it crescendoes towards the end, revleases just enough to intrigue, and tells part of the story. I think trailers are their own unique type of media and they don´t get nearly enough credit compared to films. Of course films take way longer to create and edit, but when it comes to the financial success of a film, a trailer can either make it or break it. I want to create a trailer for Exhale, My Love, and try to create that sense of intrigue and interest that the trailer for Logan did.
During the editing process I sadly didn´t take any screenshots, but I can explain everything I did and why I did it. To begin with I created bins for all the rushes (one bin for day 1 of the shoot, one bin for day 2, one for the audio, one for the foley etc) I then proceeded to go through all the clips, marking what the contain and if they were of interest for my edit. I wanted to build my trailer traditionally with it starting out with one or two scenes from the film to establish the conflict and set the story, and the give a glimpse of the rest in short clips meant to intrigue.
I decided to use clips from scene 2 were Elliot first started coughing, and the following scene when they visit the doctors to find out whats wrong. By showing these two scenes in not too much detail but enough to give a rough idea of what´s going on I show the viewer the main plot of the story and what starts the conflict, without giving away the course of how the story evolves during the reminding scenes.
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| Poster by Natalie Hodgins |
The editing process itself was fairly straight forward, for the short clips I used bits of the film that I knew would be interesting, and would make people want to see the film itself. For an example, there is one suspenseful shot of Elliot sitting by the table eating and looking very angry and upset. Now, if you know the film you that he´s not actually angry, but rather confused and ill, and the scene it actually showing the straining relationship between him and Bella, but by using that clip out context I hoped to create some wonder about what the film actually about, and make the viewer question in what direction the film would go after the intial scenes.
I ended the trailer with two longer clips around the title because I wanted to slow it down towards the end to let the viewer relax and process what they just saw. The final clip is of Elliot crying before you see the clock on the wall start to blink. I wanted to make that the final clip to make people wonder what the blinking meant, and why he was so upset about it. Is it an alarm? How is it connected to him? Does it have anything to do with his disease? Those are the types of questions I want people to have after they finish the trailer. At this point I was happy with the length of trailer and the clips I had used. I am aware that it´s shorter than what the brief wanted, but I felt that if added more clips it would feel drawn out, and crowded.
After that I moved on to sound. First I muted all the audio tracks that belonged to the actual footage, and then added 4 more audio tracks. Mono left and right for music, and mono left and right for foley. For the foley I looked for key sounds that would give the clips some dimension and space. In the beginning of the trailer I added sounds of the keyboard, walking, cereal, and Elliot sighing. I mostly only wanted foley in this part of the trailer because I wanted the music to take over after the first scene and towards the crescendo, before dying out after the title and the final clip. In the final I again added the sounds of Elliot crying, to bring the trailer back to reality, and to the seriousness of the film.
"Cello Suite No. 1" by Beethoven
In the final part of the edit I did colour grading. I didn´t do too much here because I didn´t want to change that much, but I did want to make the hospital scenes lighter, and the room scenes a bit darker. I did by adjusting the hue and gamma in the colour correction tool, to fit the scenes, but also depending on which character was in the shot. Our actress for Bella has a fairer complexion than our actor for Jacob, so in scenes with her I would get rid of things like redness.
All in all I´m very happy with my edit. I think that as a trailer it does what it´s supposed to do - it creates intrigue, and it prepares you for the film without giving too much away.
TJ
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