Preliminary Task Post Production

After shooting our preliminary task last week I have now learnt how to access my footage from the final cut server. This is done by selecting the server and the footage, then clicking check out to take it out of the server and putting onto the desktop. We also learnt the purpose of continuity editing, which means making the sequence as easy for the audience to understand as possible, the scene needs to be smooth and flowing to ensure that the story line is clear. The montage technique relies on symbolic association of ideas between shots rather than association of simple physical action for its continuity. In terms of our scene, when the male character keeps encouraging the female character to do something, we made sure we included a shot of the keys to show the audience what the scene was really about. We also had to make sure that if one of our actors rolled up their sleeves, they would be the same for the next shot.

We started out the editing process by entering the Rushes bin where the raw footage is kept; we then opened this in Final Cut Pro to begin editing. We then went through each shot and chose the best of each and placed them in the log bin; where all our chosen shots are kept. We made decisions to select or reject the different shot choices to make sure that our scene was smooth and also to check that the any errors had been rejected. We needed to find the shot that fitted best with our other shots for the sequence. We had to choose shots that had suitable eye line matches with others, shots that ran smoothly without any bloopers and shots that had clear sound and good lighting; we also had to choose shots that we all liked.

We then had to organise our shots. We needed to choose which shots were selected to best tell the story of the scene, also to influence the audience to take sides with a certain character. We had to make sure we followed our story board to ensure that the story line was clear for the audience to understand. Another choice we had to make when organising our shots on the time line was to make sure each take had an eye line match between the characters, if it didn’t the audience would find it confusing to understand who the characters were talking to as the continuity would be messed up. By giving the male more screen time and always looking up to him the audience feel intimidated just like the female character. We always see the female character sitting down; we also angled the camera to look down on her to put her into victim status. The extreme close up of the female character allows the audience to fully connect with her emotionally. Even though we privileged the male character with more close ups we wanted the audience to see him as ‘evil’ by how we placed him in hero shot and the female in victim status, the final shot of the sequence was of the female character looking down sadly, making the audience feel sorry for her and take her side. We then had to focus on the shot order to make sure that the sequence had continuity and made sense. We had to make sure that the wide shot was at the beginning to make sure the audience understood the location when we changed to close ups of the characters. We also needed to place our shots into an order on the timeline to check that they fitted together smoothly without pauses in the middle of the sequence as we changed take.

Editing in final cut – We chose to cut from a wide shot of the male character leaving the room to an extreme close up of the female characters eyes to fully understand her emotion and to allow the audience to connect with her, encouraging them to be on her side. Another editing choice we made was to cut to a shot of the keys whilst the male character was talking to show the audience what the entire conflict was about, making the continuity and flow of the scene clearer.