4 Minute Rough Cut

This week we had to complete at least a four minute rough cut of our film to present to the class in a workshop format. Christina and I began by editing the chronological opening of our film.

From the start we began to encounter issues we were forced to work around. The entire film was shot hand-held in order to capture the images and events in a raw, stark style. However, as a result of this choice, there are some shots that possess a bit more shake than intended. The first shot of our film falls into this category.

It is a long 'tracking' shot moving slowly down a hallway toward our lead character, Jim. The inherent shake of our camera operation translates more to a POV shot than a steady reveal of Jim and his environment. In order to combat this issue we applied the SmoothCam filter in FCP. After about 8 minutes of reading the clip, the effect was applied and it essentailly masked the camera shake and created a smooth, fluent-looking camera move. My one concern is that the image looks a bit off as a result of the effect; almost like looking through rising heat in a desert or something.... we will have to see how the class reacts to this effect in the workshop to get a better pulse on the result.

Some of our more dynamic shots may require use of this effect, but for the most part we will be able to utilize the footage as-is without too much reliance on dramatic filters.

At this point we have our first 5m30s edited. My intention is to establish the films tone, style, and environment by this time, and I think we have done that. I hope to get some useful suggestions in the workshop but I'm really excited to hear which of our many decisions are working exceptionally well.

A big issue I will want to bring up is how to open the film. We could start with the shot mentioned above, revealing Jim in the dank basement, or instead we can open (as the edit exists now) with a title sequence intercut with a sporatic scene of Jim running frantically though the woods, then flash back in time to Jim in the basement in its standard chronology. This will be something to think over repeadly as we progress in the edit but it will surely help to hear what people's innitial reactions are to the choice.