For some reason, I really dislike the raw material that I shot for my project.

I’m not sure why. I think that my shots are plain and awkward and weird. I also feel as though I don’t have enough variety of shots, and I also felt that on the day but couldn’t think of any more angles I could shoot from. Nevertheless, I still edited 2 versions of my own and have given it to two other people to edit. Both times, I was with them and helped them to cut and move the footage. At the end, I asked them some questions about what the story was like, what they thought of the characters, what their relationship was like, and what they wanted to achieve with their edit.

Editing choices – Justification

Less Weird

Mid shot – shows Kai’s face, emphasis begins on him, while Polly is more mysterious

Side angle – Kai’s face is still in view, but now we can see more of Polly

Front CU of Polly – we can see her expression and that she is somewhat dejected

Pan following letter – highlights its importance

Pan left to show both characters – chose this shot because I liked Polly’s performance and how she dropped the letter, like she was dropping the matter

Final pan – wanted emphasis to end on Polly

Weird

CU of Kai – liked how his face is obscured by the cup. Also, I expect that others will use establishing shots to begin, so beginning with a close up will be unique

CU of Polly – for continuity purposes, and also to correspond to the CU of Kai

Pan to follow letter – again, this is to emphasise its importance

Front view of Kai approaching camera – chose this shot to show him moping

Pan to two shot – characters of equal importance

One Take

I chose this take of all the ones we shot because I liked the speed of the performance and was satisfied with the panning. The only thing that I would change is probably Polly’s expression in the beginning – she was slightly smiling.

EDITORS

Lena, 28, never studied media

– Story: BOY did something wrong and he knew the letter from his ex-girlfriend was going to address that, GIRL is either his long-time friend or employee at the bar he frequents

– at first, just wanted to use a one-take of the scene, but after I showed her some examples of my edits she realised how she could change things to her liking

– cuts to the letter to show it’s significant, finds the camera movement in this shot ‘movie-ish’, decided to show the actor’s reaction to the letter in ‘front-side-front’ pattern to emphasise his expression (at the expense of continuity)

– opened the scene with GIRL, so the scene should end with GIRL

– used transitions because she thought it looked more natural that way, and the dialogue flowed better

– did not consider continuity of visual or audio as much as I expected

– used 8 shots, 4 transitions

Priscilla, 19, studied media in Year 10-12

– Story: BOY is mentally unstable, letter contains personal content: could be a secret, from a doctor, GF or family member. GIRL is his friend

– preferred distant shots because she wanted to convey isolation, not intimate with audience (she also found CU shots awkward)

– didn’t think about transitions, and thought it didn’t need background music

– paid more attention to script and continuity

– more conventional, predictable – what I expected the footage to be edited like

– overall ‘neat’ edit, used 5 shots