This week was more focused on editing from our exercise from week 2. On the first studio session, we were given a lengthy set of instructions on how to operate the media server and where to save our projects to prevent any loss. I was barely keeping up with the rules (my brain processes things rather slowly in the mornings). Thankfully, I had the step by step sheet to refer to when I was doing it on my own the last hour of class. On Thursday, we were randomly grouped and learned the ropes of using the media server storage and how to save our projects and be able to access it anywhere in the editing suites.
I had finished my rough cut on Monday, it was short, simple and as stated in the storyboard we came up with last week. I was suppose to analyse and try to understand how I can better my scriptwriting by being able to visualise the scene coming together with the shots. A few mistakes I found while editing were:
1. I had to be wary of our background – Our bags were in the shot and it was not suppose to be there.
2. I had to make sure there was no eye contact with the camera- there were no shots that were supposed to be looking into the camera.
3. The script had very little storyline to play with – we could not use more camera angles.
Besides the edit itself, I was teamed up randomly with other peers and they gave me an insight on how they edit. We spent the first hour to refresh our memory on using Premiere Pro since one of my group member, Bianca was unable to attend the Monday class. We sped through everything as she learnt quickly and managed a rough cut within that hour. Since she was on a different group last week, I had a different perspective on their style of shots and how they created a dramatic effect for a suspense genre. The way they used the cast looking straight into the camera was very engaging. Next was a team member, Darren where he had a different style of editing with the six shots we had. I figured, just because we had six shots does not mean it was used for only six times as it can be cut back and forth, especially during dialogues. I had done straight to the point, conversation after conversation whereas Darren had created a tension between the mob boss and the two children. I loved that aspect (as expected from a creative writing student!).
I think creating a brainstorming session and giving out ideas during editing session can help me visualise and copy some styles into my next writing exercise. The most valuable lesson I got from this was that there are plenty of ideas out there so we have to group together to gather ideas from different perspectives.
Here is my video of my rough cut! Exercise 2B