Q6: Consider Sandra’s lecture “Directing Actors” and describe at least a couple of points that you took away from it (even if you’re not the director).

I thought Sandra’s lecture was hugely useful. Being the DOP I still managed to take a lot from the lecture, mostly about being confident and professional when working with seasoned actors. We found that this went a long way on our shoot as the open relationship with the actors allowed us to approach them if we were after something different, but also to take suggestions from the actors as it came to them and to consider that.

Another point raised by Sandra was about being as efficient as possible whilst on such a tight schedule. She made a case for b-roll footage and being prepared to cut certain shots if time was tight. Whilst we managed to get all that we planned and more, Sandra’s advice was considered and we did prioritise certain shots over others when we filmed.

Q7: In this clip screened in the lecture from the Coen brothers’ ‘Blood Simple‘ describe what is happening in terms of the edits specifically in terms of the audio and video. Also name the different kinds of audio you can hear.

This clip from ‘Blood Simple’ is an example of how a simple conversation between two characters can be edited together in a way to build suspense and create drama, by selectively showing visuals other than who is speaking at the time. For example, by showing the reactions of the man when the Hitman delivers certain lines, tension builds and insight into the character’s motivations and understanding are brought to the audiences’ attention. The fact that the Hitman is playing Julian Marty’s character slowly becomes apparent to the audience and ultimately to Marty when he hears the gun being cocked under the table.

The use of sound, or lack thereof in this sequence is interesting as the Coen brothers are still able to create a hugely tense and uncomfortable scene without the addition of non-diegetic music. Through the obvious diegetic sounds of the fish slapping the table, the lighter being put down, the cigarette being put out and the sounds of Marty’s character being sick, the Coen brothers build towards a climactic moment when the Hitman cocks his weapon. The use of ‘background’ noise such as the crickets outside and occasional sirens also cue the audience and create meaning within the scene and its use of diegetic sound.

Q8: Keyboard shortcuts. 
Most applications reserve keyboard shortcuts for the functions that use most often. It is really good to learn all of these as it will speed up your editing and additionally alert you to functions that the software developers and other users find important. (You can learn much about the software by looking at keyboard shortcuts). 
Find the keyboard shortcuts for Adobe Premiere and note two or more functions that you’ve never used before that may be invaluable to editing.

• New Title: CMD+T – right at the end of editing our rough cut, CMD+T became hugely helpful and saved us a lot of time as we edited in our closing credits and a number of timestamps in the film.
• Render Effects in Work Area: Return/Enter – as we begun to insert fades and dissolves in certain parts of the film, this shortcut saved us a bunch of time and allowed us to render then quickly playback the edits as we implemented each one.