I get overwhelmed when I edit.
There are to many possibilities and I think I have always organised too much coverage during shooting – to give me room to move when editing. But what is the perfect amount? Too often you’re missing a shot, the shot that you need to make things work (especially with the class exercises where time and planning and collaboration result in a haphazard event).

So I overcompensate. I did it with the exercise I shot last week with Karen. There is too much. It allows me to be indecisive which in turn means that  I don’t make ANY decisions and put off being critical. Even to the point where the shot that inspired the location – the layering of the stairs (the featured image) was never even used. Instead I chose to incorporate the more rough, handheld work. I think this really serves to communicate an intense level of foreboding and of heightened senses. It’s a shame that that shot didn’t fit with the feel. However it is that layering that the shot provided – the opportunity for movement through multiple spaces and across different planes that enabled the sequence to hold such a level of movement, and we would not have achieved the same thing in a different space.

I have included the shot for good measure (and also another angle that I did not use, but liked) – as a reference, and also as a comparison to the edited piece. I am really amazed at how different the overall feel is without the inclusion of the mater wide shot. There is something so stable in those shots – it’s almost calming, being able to see the bigger picture (quite literally) and get a sense for what is going on around the character. I think that that coverage is really perfectly adequate – one doesn’t need to cut and chase between things, however the sequence I have edited together does enhance Karen’s persona with this movement. The exit feels rushed and it feels tense which is the vibe that I wanted to create. I am pleased with how it turned out. I am not pleased with how long it takes me to edit a short clip because I have shot too much material. I will now go back to my notes for my shoot with Lauren and condense them if possible to try and eliminate this problem from happening again.
I see editing as being a bit of a web. And that web can forever grow bigger. Millions of possibilities emerge and it is almost impossible to choose the right path. I really like the fact that the meaning, and that the overall vision can be completely altered during the edit phase – so, on one level, I feel like I almost have to do that. To let the vision take a new form once it’s been recorded. I guess that’s something that digital technology allows us to do really easily and it is easy to see how hypertext has come about.

Calling something ‘finished’ or ‘final’ is something that I have a hard time doing. Even the idea of finishing the course is somewhat of an extreme. This would explain why I am working up until the last minute, still developing, still thinking and formulating ideas. This subject has become so much more then simply what is produced. But it has opened me up to a new facet of mindfulness, a new consciousness around filmmaking and coverage. A new consciousness and understanding for the figure in the frame and their movement.