I would consider Editing and Montage to be one of our most
independent assignments we have worked on. With all of us having to make our
own films, I feel that it works best considering that the brief told us to make
a film based around us. I initially had an idea based around location and
having your home changed however it didn’t really go anywhere as I couldn’t
think of a compelling narrative to go along with it. Instead, I came up with a
film based around my acting background.
The idea stage was the hardest part of this project which is
in contrast to other projects as I often consider the idea stage to me the area
that I excel at the most. After the scrapped location idea, I was inspired to
follow through with the acting idea by the TV series ‘Hannibal’ not just for the editing and situation
but as inspiration for my character Ash who I played in my film alongside
myself. The character of Hannibal heavily inspired Ash based purely how he was
presented and what presence he had. While I was also literally playing myself,
I think I subconsciously threw in some of Will from ‘Hannibal’ into my performance too.
I felt ambitious with this film as I wanted to experiment. I
normally stick to ideas that I’m certain I can pull off however I had never
done anything like this with me playing two characters on screen. I have acted
in films like this however I have never actually had to edit together more than
person through the use of footage in which characters interact when they’re not
on screen. After finishing the planning stage, I finally got around to filming
with the help of only one person as I felt that was all that was required. This
felt like a much more low key project for me as we were only outside briefly
and a combined cast and crew of only two people meant that there was less
hassle and we got done much more quickly than I anticipated.
If I were to compare my film’s timeline to my previous film
assignments, I would say that this film’s timeline is by far the most
complicated and intricate. As I had myself playing two characters, this already
required two video tracks for the film in addition to many audio tracks for
both characters, Foley sound effects and dubbed over dialogue in the opening.
Before I rendered the film, I decided to fill in the gaps by moving the new
audio to where the raw footage’s audio was before I cut it to make it look less
daunting.
I tried to apply different types of cutting into the editing
process through the use of a shot list after I wrote a script for the film.
Notable types of cuts that I incorporated were cutaways, seen during the
monologue performance as the film cuts from the delivery to a close up of the
paper back on the wall like in the opening, reaction cuts with the use of a
conversation between two characters, a cutting rhythm in the bathroom as it
zooms in dramatically on the tap followed by the water running from it. I did
want to use jump cuts however I couldn’t find a fitting place in the film to do
it. I thought to having the opening in the bedroom cut more like the scene in ‘Oldboy’ where Dae-su is in the police
waiting room.
There are some problems with the film though. The video
quality shifts throughout different scenes in the film. At its most clear is
the close ups on Ash however the close ups on the paper which the film cuts to
in the final delivery were incredibly blurry as a result of being a last minute
addition. The footage looked in focus when recording however it was clearly not
in the final product. I also had a few audio issues most notable at the start
of the film where I had to dub over the opening in post-production as the sound
would be too subtle for the zoom microphone I used for the film to pick
up. I also picked up on continuity
issues when taking the film to post such as my coat vanishing between walking
on the street to being in the house however I could make the argument that,
because you don’t see me enter the house, the coat could have been left by the
door and taken off before entering the room. The continuity errors can be
justified but I’m sure people will question me on it.
One issue I actually used to my benefit. In the very last
shot of the film, I willingly decided to keep the raw audio footage from the
camera rather than dub it or use the microphone audio for two reasons. The first
was to capture every sound in the room such as the sound of me sitting down on
the sofa and the ambience of the room. The second was because it brought on the
reality of the situation after Ash had vanished by literally being the reality
with the use of natural audio.
Overall, I feel that this was definitely my most
experimental film. The fact that the editing was a big part of it meant that I
had to step out of my comfort zone and spend a long time in post-production.
The entire process felt experimental as this was my first step into masking and
make it appear that two characters that weren’t on screen together were
actually there. I learnt about new editing techniques in both the editing
software I was using and also practically. While I know there were issues with
the film that could be ironed out, I will take the final film as a stepping
stone in terms of what I’ve done and use it as an example of experimental film
making and stepping out of my comfort zone.
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