Saturday, 19 October 2013

Windsurfing Editing Assignment

For one of our assignments last week (9/10/2013), we had to cut together a bunch of GoPro shots and such of a windsurfer out on the water. We had to use what we had learned from class and apply it to this assignment.

First and foremost, I did not do in anyway a good job on editing this. I was more focused on putting the clips together without taking into account music. In the end, I slapped on some music which doesn't really fit the final product. At times, it does work, however, it generally doesn't.

The one thing I did learn from this though; is that cutting in motion helps create more fluid flow between shots and distracts the eye from any changes. And hopefully, learnt that videos featuring music need to be edited into beats that work well with the music that's being used.

Assignment: https://vimeo.com/77029707

Wednesday, 2 October 2013

A scene I like from an editing point of view.

Today in class, we were asked by our lecturers to think of a scene from any film. However, this scene had to be a scene which we liked from an editors viewpoint. We then searched the scene on Youtube and had to analyse the editing and explain why we liked it.

Despite not standing up in class and expressing my opinion on a certain scene, I chose the trumpet end scene of the Kevin Smith film "Red State". I liked this scene in particular because the way it has been edited creates a sense of tension and foreboding, maybe even creepiness. The pace is radically changed from the previous scene as the gun battle stops when the trumpet blasts occur. It highlights how the editor's able to create a hyper-paced, frenetic gun fight and then slow it down to "slow" tense atmosphere.
In the scene, Pastor Abin Cooper and his group hear the trumpet blast. They believe it's the sign of the apocalypse and come out face-to-face with the ATF force.

This is where the scene gains its momentum, it cuts to a breathtaking shot passing the battle torn church grounds to the group standing outside their church. Cooper starts to preach, and slowly walks towards the ATF team leader. This sense is only accentuated by the distant trumpet blasts. He approaches the Atf cutting back and forth with continued dialogue and reaction shots. These reverse shot reactions of the ATF are tight over the shoulder shots. These possibly describe the serious, tense nature of it. There is also a few coverage shots and a jib shot used at the end, which helps create a sense of location and the carnage that occured in the scene.

In my opinion, I believe the editing of this scene to be particularly good in creating a real atmosphere, as editing is the visual version of writing. It's where a film is really made.

LINK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItD6dQa5ncw

Introduction

Hi.

My name is Sean Sheridan and this is my post production tech module blog. Here I will write about a range of topics relating to post production. From this module, I hope to grasp the principles of editing in how to properly pace a film and compile a set of shots into a cohesive narrative.I also plan on learning how to use the different editing softwares with both confidence and competence.