Film Editing Tips I’ve Learnt

1. Consider the continuity of actors in their positions on set. In many scenes, actors are blocked to walk to a part of the set, pick up some prop and deliver the dialogue. For example, an actor opens a car door and then has an exchange with another actor in the scene. In all too many productions, the continuity folks and the director don’t keep an eye on this. Sometimes the line is delivered before the door is opened – sometimes afterwards.

As an editor this may limit your options. Maybe the best delivery is on the master shot when the door is closed, but the best version of the medium shot is with the door open. You need to pay attention to these conditions and try to make them work. Either use only takes where items match – or use the best performances where continuity doesn’t match – but then figure out a way to cut around these errors so the audience doesn’t notice.

2. “Stammering” and forgetting dialogue. Actors all have little devices to help remember lines or to cover up when they forget a line of dialogue. Sometimes this takes the form of a hesitation, an “um” or an “ah”, a small stammer of a word or two, or the repeat of a phrase or a line. Your job as an editor is to help make the actor look believable as that character. As such, you need to be aware of these tricks and mistakes and take them out whenever necessary. Of course, sometimes they are an intended part of the acting, so make sure you don’t edit out the wrong thing. Removing these means covering the edit with a reaction or another angle, but this is all part of shaping a performance.

3. Expanding or contracting scene pacing. Editing has to do with pacing, but this is more then just setting a rhythm. Pacing has to do with adding tension or speed. Removing or reducing empty pauses in the dialogue between two characters – even overlapping lines – adds a sense of agitation or excitement. Inserting extra pauses between lines adds a sense of tension between the actors. Each long pause becomes slightly uncomfortable as would be the case in a painful conversation in real life.

4. Remove “shtick”. Often actors will be allowed to ad lib scenes or the director decides to inject some humor into a scene. Sometimes this works, but it typically comes across as overacting – especially when the film isn’t a comedy. Be judicious, but it’s often better to go with the understated performances, because they appear more genuine.

5. Motivation for actions. When an actor listens for something or looks in a certain direction, the audience needs a cause for motivation. This could be an off-camera sound, like a car horn honking, or it could be an insert shot of what the character sees. It’s important to try to find these shots or to ask that the director shoot them. In the case of sound, pull temporary sound effects to place into the edit.

6. Profanity.  Often when actors are allowed to ad lib lines, they’ll toss in a few expletives for emphasis. Some folks see this as normal language and others as offensive. If you have an editorial choice, opt for the take without the profanity, unless that’s what the director specifically wants in the cut. If you can edit it out, do so. Sometimes, it’s possible to use the line, but cut it as a split-edit, so the expletive is delivered over a cutaway.  In other words, you don’t see the actor actually delivering the word. This makes it easier to remove at some point in the future, should a “sanitized” version be required by the producers.

7. Intercutting parallel character action in a scene. A scene is often more interesting when you see what the rest of the actors are doing. As you review the takes, notice the performance each actor is bringing to the scene during the parts where he or she isn’t delivering the main dialogue lines. Try to incorporate some of these as reactions and cutaways to spice up a scene where appropriate.

In other cases a character must move from one part of the scene to another. If they are integral to the scene, it helps to include a few shots that let the audience know what is happening. For example, you don’t want a character to apparently pop into the foreground to suddenly deliver a line, when the last time the audience saw them was still inside a car at the beginning of a scene. You need to include a few shots, as the scene progresses, that clarifies to the audience that the character exited the car and started moving closer to camera. Then it’s natural when they deliver their line.

8. Intercutting transitional action. Sometimes scenes, as written, don’t transition well between each other when cut into a movie. For example, you might have two scenes back-to-back, in which each scene is a driving shot with a different set of characters talking to each other in a car. If Scene 1 ends and abruptly cuts to another similar scene in a car again, this won’t feel smooth. Instead, pay attention to transitional elements – for example, additional footage of driving or a POV from the car. These can be used to open time between the two scenes, just to give the audience a moment to breathe and make the mental switch.

Another technique in this situation could be to intercut the two driving scenes, so that sections of Scene 1 and Scene 2 are interleaved into a single scene going back and forth. Again, POV shots and general driving B-roll, plus some openness between the two situations, helps the audience make a seamless transition between these two disparate elements.

9. Use all the pieces. When you cut together a scene, don’t simply rely on the selected take as your best and only choice. Perhaps the “circle take” was only noted because it’s the only complete take where the actor got all the way through the scene with a moderately good performance. Possibly Take 1 had the best opening lines and another take the best middle and yet a different take had the strongest ending. As an editor, your job is to mold the scene by using all the elements at your disposal – in order to put on screen what the script writer and director intended. This includes reaction shots and cutaways to bridge the edits that are necessitated by such a patchwork of performances. Yes, it’s called editing, but in reality you are constructing, not merely removing.

10. Let your assistants cut. Unfortunately, I’ve rarely had the opportunity of working with assistant editors who were more than media loaders. On this recent project, I had a very sharp assistant who was also capable of editing. I wasn’t under a tight schedule and we were cutting as they were shooting, so the director was away on location. This provided an ideal opportunity to let my assistant cut a few scenes. I’d review and suggest tweaks, but the scenes were his. In the end, this will give your assistant a chance to grow, but better yet, it gives you as the editor an additional perspective as to how someone else sees that scene.

Final Camera Tips (1 Day till Filming!!!!)

Robert Rodriguez: “You should learn to trust your instincts.”

When you imagine a film in your head and you see the shots, you may not be able to write a thesis to back up why you have gone with, say a POV, rather than a tracking mid shot from behind the actor. Even if it means you’ll make mistakes, it can only better you and your innate ability to get the right shot.

This is so true i guess. My only preparation now right before the runrises? Visualise the entire film and put myself in the shoes of the audience. How would I want to see, what will I expect? How am I suppose to feel?

Here are some last minute tips which I thought I should reinforced:))

 

• Low shots shooting up at a character give that character a sense of being important and powerful.

 

• Higher shots, shooting down onto an actor give that character a sense of being unimportant and weak.

 

• If you shoot from a 90 degree angle dead onto a character’s face (i.e. facing the side of the actor) the audience will not make much of an emotional connection with them. It will feel sterile and cold.

 

• Bringing the camera around now, the more you move towards shooting the actor’s face on, the more of an emotional connection the audience will make.

 

• Likewise the closer the camera/audience is to a character, the greater the connection.

 

• Scenes where emotions rise through a scene often work best starting out further away and cutting up until close ups and even extreme close ups. You can also handle the emotional charge on one character by slowly moving the camera towards them.

 

• POV shots help put the audience into a character and the strongest ways of creating audience-character connections

 

• Use a wide establishing shot at the beginning of each scene, so the audience has an idea of the spatial relationships between the actors and their environment. The only time you do not do this is when you want to portray to the audience that the characters themselves do not know where they are (e.g. beginning of 28 days later).

 

• Shots from directly behind a character are another way of doing this, but allow the audience to see more.

 

• Remember, films have rhythm. Imagine a frenzied dog attack scene, or a fight scene. The editing in these films will be incredibly fast paced. Now think of a scene where two people are sitting in a restaurant, getting to know each other. The cuts will tend to match the conversation. If the script dictates that an argument should occur, the speed of the editing will increase also.

 

• If you intend to cut directly from a wide to a medium, or a medium to a CU, etc, without cutting away, a good trick is to shoot them all from slightly different angles. This will help you hide any action continuity discrepancies.

 

• Familiarise yourself with the “Line of action.”

Tip 1: NEVER bump the camera

Even the slightest accidental nudge of the camera will stick out like a sore thumb and scream “amateur!” to your audiences. Tying your camera’s tripod down is a good way to avoid the effects of small bumps. Unless of course, you’re going for that “Kid’s stop motion” look. Personally, I’m not.. and if I were, I’d probably do it in After Effects. Having some sort of ‘video assist’, whereby you can see the frame you shot last over-layed on the current one can help you spot a camera bump earlier rather than later.

 

Tip 2: NEVER accidentally change the exposure of the camera

This is unavoidable with cheaper cameras with their auto-exposure shenanigans, of course, but for higher-end cameras with full manual control, there’s no excuse for this sort of thing happening. Setting the white balance correctly and consistently is also important. Indeed, keeping a log book of the settings you used for a shoot is a great idea.

 

Tip 3: NEVER alter the focus of the camera

Again, modern lower-end cameras don’t offer manual focus, and these are next to useless for stop motion. If you want to pull focus (a la “rack focus”) then having a plan to do so is a great idea. If you’re able to numerically specify the focus setting for a camera, this also can be a great boon! In an ideal world, all of the camera’s settings can be controlled via the computer.

Tip 4: NEVER bump the subject or the set

A good stop motion animator flows around the set like a gentle breeze. A tip here is to choose materials for your puppets and your sets that are forgiving of accidental encounters. For instance, use foam latex instead of modelling clay. Avoid using real hair for puppets, unless you can be absolutely sure that you won’t flick it accidentally. This is why after making two stop motion shorts with ‘real’ hair (“The one that got away” and “The bun that got away”) I switched to felt for “The crumb that got away”. If disaster strikes and you do accidentally move a puppet or a set element, you can attempt to reposition them, using the previously captured frame as a reference.

Tip 5: NEVER change the lighting

The first thing to mention here is that natural light is your enemy, as lovely as it is. The problem with natural light is that it fluctuates over time. Clouds move overhead, and of course the sun is always in motion. The other thing to mention is that your own lighting setup shouldn’t change either. For fixed lights (such as overhead lights in your office) make a note in your log about which are on, and for moveable lights, simply leave them where they are. To give you an idea about how sensitive this is, here’s a quick anectote from the production of my last stop motoin short. I use a VNC client to monitor what my main computer is seeing when it’s capturing frames, and it can be in full screen mode, or else have some user interface elements at the top. These two modes were different enough to register in the frame! To emphasise, if you are forced to recreate the lighting for a scene, it must be EXACT.

Tip 6: ALWAYS attempt to shoot a scene in one session

A number of the issues mentioned above can be avoided by following this tip. Ideally when you embark on shooting a scene, you should be uninterrupted for as long as it takes to complete it. If you do need to stop for any length of time, (remember to eat, drink, and go to the bathroom!) then leave everything running. If you can only do so much in a single session, check that you’ve recreated the same conditions the next time before you start shooting in earnest, by capturing a test frame and comparing it with the last frame you shot.

Tip 7: ALWAYS shoot more frames than you need

You can always delete frames, but creating them out of nothing weeks later is not so easy. An example of this is making your characters blink. I generally will add my eyelids to my character and capture a frame even when it would be too much to include them all. It’s nice to be able to make that decision editorially, later. Another example of this is to take extra frames of the set without your characters, so that there’s a ‘blank field’ to use later should you wish to remove a part of your character for whatever reason.

Tip 8: ALWAYS try and capture things ‘in camera’

Don’t get me wrong-I LOVE computers and the synthesis of imagery, but the reality of stop motoin is that if you have to ‘fix’ something in post, you’ll need to do it fo many frames. It’s almost always worth spending the time beatifying your characters and your set beforehand.

Tip 9: ALWAYS shoot as hi-res as possible

More pixels equals more options- you can choose to ‘zoom in’ on a part of your scene later, and of course when it comes time to producing the hi-res poster of your work you have more options. Also, you might only be making your stop motion film for Internet distribution now, but further down the track you may change your mind and decide that a hi-res digital projection is more your scene.

Tip 10: ALWAYS test your setup before embarking on a shoot

For anything but the simplest of shots, it’s a good idea to do a dry run-through, testing that the mechanics of the set and your characters are as you expect. Shooting stop motion photography can be like driving down a one-way street- there’s no turning back!

 

Stay tuned to my very first stopmotion practice cut!

 

 

I thought I’ll add in my first ever TV production done during summer school. Obviously, the green screen sucked big time. It was really terrible but nonetheless an awesome experience. Another thing I’ve learnt? Never! EVEr! put the lapel mic in sight! iT’s seriously so unsightly and I’m so glad i”ve learnt from my mistakes. SHeesh.

So basically, I did a short lifestyle segment on guys being obsessed with the way they look.  I must say one thing i can relate to film TV is the soundscape. Unfortunately I do not have my first TV draft with me? The initial draft had terrible sounds and the cuts were not exactly in sync either. The next thing to look at would also be the usage of filters? SOme of my filters were a tad tacky? haha. I tried to use sephia tones and mid tones to give an “in the past” feel to some scenes. Likewise in film, in the color grading process and editing process. I guess there’s a whole lot of stuff to consider.

Soundscape: We’re probably aiming for a playful as well as meaningful melody/track which aka our composer Richard will excitedly compose!:)

Sound Effects: We need a lot of folely sounds including door knocks, utensils moving, cup sipping, footsteps, bread crumbs, fireplace, urn sounds, kettle and the whole list goes on.

I guess one ting we could have done was to film more atmos on-set? Cause we had a heck load of trouble trying to find a nice mellow garden atmos.

Camera Angles

Here are the basic 4 camera angles a camerman can work with:)

 

The above diagram was something i came across an article with regards to the various angles i could shoot my film. Personally for me, I think I have a huge disadvantage in terms of eye level shots due to my annoying short height:) haha. My cast are mostly taller than me and thus ensuring that the camera is at eye level can be a feat to tackle.

SO here are the  4 basic angles:

1. High

The camera is placed above and looks down on the subject or object. It is used to make the character look small and also indicate that the character is weak or inferior.

2. Eye

An eye angle places the audience on eye-level with the character. It is used to indicate that the character is on equal footing with the audience. It suggests reality.

3. Low

The camera is placed looking up on the subject or object. It is used to make the character look big and indicates that the character is powerful and dominant.

4. Overhead/ Bird’s eye

The camera is placed overhead or directly above the object or scene. Characters and objects are made to look small and vulnerable. A character or object could be followed at a different speed or pace.