During the process of filming, we took a variety of shots - some with dialogue, some without - that would help to portray our narrative effectively to the audience. We filmed them in a variety of different locations, and they all had their individual purpose in which would strengthen an enigma code for the audience, and would keep them intrigued in the plot, and in the characters. We amounted a lot of footage, and it did take us quite a while to decide what we would use in our piece, and which footage we would decide to cut, or not use at all.
Of course, we had drafted a story board for our film, but as they were only drafts, and this was our first attempt at the production of a piece, our storyboard was very lengthy. It included a very large variety of shots because we were concerned that we might not have enough footage to put our opening sequence together, and that the footage we did have might not be enough to portray our narrative to the audience.
The editing process is absolutely vital, as this is where the film gets put together and made to catch the attention of the audience. Editing is able to change the whole mood of the piece, and is an incredibly powerful tool that is able to draw emotion from the audience.
It was at the beginning of this process that we sat down as a group and watched through all the footage that we had filmed. On reflection, we found that some of the footage was not very good, whether it be because of the quality of the shot, or whether it be because the shot itself did not work out particularly successfully. We were able to rule these shots out immediately because we felt that they were not of a standard that we were happy to use in our piece.
With the shots we were happy with, we discussed what ones we thought were the most important because they helped to tell our narrative the best. Once we had picked out the shots that we thought were key, such as the pan of Jazz’s body, we went back through the rest of the footage to pick some more shots that would compliment the ones that we had already chosen. All the while, we kept looking at our draft story board, as this was a basis line for us to follow to remind us what sort of footage we needed to use, including their juxtaposition.
We found it hard to decide what footage we would use, as making sure that we effectively planted enigma codes and we established a clear narrative in 2 minutes of footage was a difficult task. It meant that we had to make sure that the shots we did pick fitted together to tell our narrative in the most clear way possible. It was essential that we established a narrative path in the opening, in order to keep the attention of the audience on the piece, and so that they knew what the film would be about due to the opening sequence. The opening sequence of a film is important as this is the immediate footage that the audience watch, and is responsible for grabbing their interest in the film, and to make them eager to watch the rest.
We experimented with the shots we had chosen on the editing software we were using - Adobe Premier Pro - and swapped the order of them around until we were happy that they were in an appropriate place. After our first draft was created, we brainstormed what more footage we needed to tie in the narrative of our piece. It was here that we thought of the photo montage and went to film that.
During out final edit, we added some of the new footage that we had filmed, and we also removed some of the footage that we had put in it during our first edit. We did this because we not only had to stick to a time of 2 minutes, but we felt that the shots we were adding helped to tie in the narrative more than a few of those that we had added the first time around. It was during this time that we also spotted a continuity error in one of our shots, so we had to remove this from our piece.
On reflection, I feel like we were right to film plenty of footage, as it meant we had plenty of choice of shots when it came to editing, and meant that we were able to evaluate what combination of shots told our narrative best. In my opinion, it was better to have plenty of excess footage, than not enough footage. If I were to complete a similar project again, I think I would look more closely at the story board in order to see what shots I thought would be best, and then I would shoot these shots to see if I was happy with them. As shot ideas are sometimes better than the actual shot, particularly due to a lack of professional equipment, I would go back to the story board if some were unsuccessful, and think of some more shot ideas, and then film them. I would attempt to make sure I had plenty of footage to be able to experiment with, but not as much excess footage as I had this time. This is because filming takes time, and the time we spent filming the footage that did not even feature, could have been spent doing something else, or at least a section of that time could have been.
Here are some shots that we did not feature in our final edit:
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