Editing the Film!

Yesterday we tried to begin editing, we had to wait three hours for the footage from the camera to an 'imovie' file there were well over 100 movies files some successful and many failed attempts. Today we started the slow process to filter through and cut out clips we wished to use and make new discoveries from happy mistakes. The successful clips will be used in 'Final cut pro'.

When editing film we had planned on our story board we found amazing bits that were a complete accident at times. Our favorite was one in which Heidi had accidentally left the lens shutter on, resulting in a clip starting in darkness, as she slowly clicked the lens open there was a bright white line followed by a beautiful white flash that faded into a focused image slowly. This is a similar effect used in some of David Lynchs work in 'Lost Highway' where these whitening effects are used to jump from one location/scene to another. This is useful to us as we have outfit changes and many moments to move in and out of in creative ways.

Below is our happy mistake!

Parts of the film were not as perfect as we would have liked, there were problems like bra straps, and straps and strings hanging from the clothing in places we hadn't spotted in the windy conditions, this was frustrating as the footage was then not good enough for our purposes. When i watched the footage back with Heidi we knew we would have to remind each other and always check before filming that this issue would not repeat itself often, it would become second nature, the same as checking that the camera was always in focus and that there was no unwanted rubbish in the composition.

During Day 5 of filming Heidi managed to capture the best footage. We had struggled so much to get some decent footage for our film that it felt we were almost on auto pilot and didnt think about anything other than the film, even whilst at work. We had throughout the week both had work in the evenings so it was non stop filming and working either side our evening jobs. There was a point in day 4 that i had quite had enough of being so freezing cold and driving back to work late till 9pm, coming home to prepare for the next day going to bed late and getting up at half 5-6 to get ready and drive and freeze for another 6-7 hours. Heidi was good at directing me and getting me to try just a few more times and we were prepared with a giant flask of coffee and warm clothes. Coincidently while i was feeling so so cold it came across as annoyed and depressed in the film which worked as attitude and gave a different atmosphere to the filming from the first few days. Day 1 had focus issues and was not of such a high standard of filming.

We were surprised to see the lace change in colour to the net on film, this was unusual as to the naked eye they looked the exact same colour. The lace went a purpely brown on film we would have to find out if this could be edited to our advantage later on.

From this day we learnt to look at footage back on a large screen as you miss a lot on the smaller screens on the hand held camera. If we had looked at the filming on the computer day by day we could have picked up on many issues and re filmed these bits however due to money issues we were unable to go back down to Camber sands and re-shoot so had to work with what we had got. We knew that it was possible to film in our gardens or possibly in studio if necessary. Hopefully we will not have to do this as from experience we now know how long it takes to film something successfully.

Another issue we found when looking at the footage was one of our key scenes in the story board was not working. The close up selection of fast blinking eyes and looking around did not look good at all, the idea was to move in to an eye close up and out again resulting in location and wardrobe changes. This was filmed on day five, and where Heidi and I had been so non stop and on the go we both looked knackered and had burnt our selves out. When my makeup was being done we didn't even notice that i had bags and lines under my eyes. This shows you need bright daylight or very bright lighting to ensure you get the right look. The camera we had got from uni was also a high definition camera so play back on its small screen did not show the lines under my eyes, the eyelashes looked very shiny and to false up close. I had to hold my hair out the way on the beach as it was so windy the clips did not hold it all away in the flattering way we wanted. We agreed the footage was not good enough to use with the successful footage we had already caught. The solution we found was to use the lucky mistake Heidi found inspired by Linch to flash and fade light moving from scene to scene, we learnt how valuable it is to not delete anything at all whilst editing as anything can be a solution to a future problem.

The next step after taking all day today to literally go through all the footage and timeline them on 'Final cut' into a chronological order is to 'cut' 'over-lap' 'fade' etc. and actually start producing our film!!!!