Editing and Montage Final Film - 'Agincourt' (Final Cut)

Agincourt - Final Cut from Tom Hayes on Vimeo.

Evaluation of Final Cut

With more time added to the project, I found myself piecing together a second cut of my film in an attempt to fix errors I had with my first cut. Most prominently was shooting certain shots that were missing before that I had previously addressed such as actually showing the coat being taken off and showing me enter the house. Without these shots, the jump between exterior to interior would feel too sudden. However I had to shoot these myself so the quality degrades in these shots.

I began to colour edit in this cut. The shots of me indoors were tinted yellow slightly in order to work against the other character's shots as I noticed the lighting had changed slightly during the shoot. It is most notable that I edited the colour when I approach the front door of the house. This is the first assignment that I went deep with colour editing so I had a hard time trying to make the colour consistent which is why the gradient of yellow shifts slightly as it cuts between characters.

I also sorted out a few issues with the sound. Specifically the break in sound as one character stands up as I noticed that the background audio came in and out frantically. I erased the background audio however there is a brief moment where it blends in with the dialogue therefore making it harder to get rid of it. I also kept the background audio in for the last shot in order to signify the snap back into reality as well as the shot of me entering the house from the inside because I needed to capture the sound of the door and the coat being taken off.

While I am overall glad I did a second cut, the problems I got rid of were replaced by new ones. Sound isn't as much an issue however the colour is more noticeable. All I can say is that I will use this assignment as an example of experimentation in film. Even if my film doesn't look great technically, I think the idea stage was the strongest area although I did learn more in post such as the aforementioned colour editing as well as taking certain cut types such as Insert Cuts and Reaction Cuts into account.

Editing and Montage First Cut - 'Agincourt'

Agincourt from Tom Hayes on Vimeo.

Editing and Montage Course and First Cut Evaluation

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.

Final Images

These are my ten images for the final project. They signify nostalgic locations for me, prominently Taunton and Cornwall. 

 'Vivary Park - Taunton'

 'Bath Place - Taunton'

 'Town Centre - Taunton'

 'Dellers Wharf - Taunton'

 'Private Road - Taunton'

'Falmouth Harbour - Cornwall' 

'Falmouth High Street - Cornwall' 

'Pendennis Castle - Cornwall' 

 'Holiday Cottage - Cornwall'

'Pandora Inn - Cornwall'

Session 8 - Studio Work

After spending a lot of time taking photographs of outdoor environments or objects in ambient lighting, we were finally given the opportunity to take photos in the studio with controlled professional lighting. As we could control the lighting, there were plenty of good opportunities for some nice looking photos with unique looks and styles. 

I managed to capture a lot of diverse and varied photos as a result of the lighting. We also had a reflector in the room as evident in the first image as the main light source was coming from in front of the subject and is being reflected into her so that she has a nice half shadow/half lit up look. My personal favourite images were the first two and the 4th and 5th one because of how they use shadows and a shine around the subject (most prominent in the 4th photo). 

Composition

For our out-of-class assignment, we were given a list of shot types or specific textures. 

For this image, I had to find a pattern in the shape of an 'S' which I had actually seen before so I knew exactly what I was looking for when I set out on my shoot. It was more a matter of getting the quality of the image right.

Next was capturing symmetry and this was the main side of the memorial that was structured evenly on each side, therefore capturing a very nice symmetrical look. 

I thought that a good group of three shot would be to make three structures look line they are in a line through the use of perspective which I believe I did well. What also happened inadvertently was having the structures being in ascending order of height from left to right.  

My instant thought of a natural pattern was water. My biggest problem with that is that I had to keep the quality high as the water is constantly shifting so I had to use a high shutter speed to capture the motion clearly. 

On the way back from the water, it was perfectly timed as the sun was setting which meant that the poles around the area were leaving a great shadow that fit perfectly as a repeating pattern as well as diagonal lines thanks to the angle of the sun. A good combination of lighting and object placement.

Overall, these are some of my favourite photos that I have taken. Arguably some of them are context sensitive as I wouldn't have got such good photos if I wasn't in the right place at the right time (as clearly seen with the last photo) but there is a good variety of colour, texture and location within the image. These are images that I would gladly show people if asked what sort of work I had to do for Digital Photography as I feel they get the point across well with a variety of techniques based on composition.