1. Reflection of workshop activities that we have done so far
There are two classes that I find to have a more profound impact on me than the rest of the classes. Those are the 4.2 lecture when we have the opportunity to shoot an interview and the recent 6.1 lecture when we see all the final edited cuts of classmate interviews. On the interview shooting day, I did not expect that the discussion would turn out to be one of the most emotional bonding I ever had with my classmates. I did not either attend any shooting with a crew before (normally I worked out my product alone) or had a chance to talk with my classmates about their lives outside of the classroom. What caught my attention initially was the questions in the handout Mr. Sebastian gave us (you can preview the handout in the image attached below).
Our teammates came to the conclusion that we would not use the questions listed in the handout. Otherwise, we started with a simple question: ‘Tell me why/how you chose this Communications (Media) program?’ since we are all Media students at RMIT. I was genuinely impressed with Caelin and Oliver for being amazing interviewers. These friends are extremely careful to remind the interviewees that they should give a full answer to questions. So instead of saying a concise response, we should rather extend the length of the sentence with question subjects implied within. Aaliyah and Oliver were also great interviewees considering how they gave us extra information for our interviewers to lead to more insightful questions. For example, Aaliyah told us stories about her background in Germany and how she responded to society and people. She even went further giving us how she interacted with Australian TV shows and media formats and her motivation to start a new life in Melbourne. That gave us extra comfortable space for future editing. I would like to appreciate the helpful pieces of advice from Micheal Rabiger, ‘Directing the Documentary’. It helps us a lot in providing essential tips to create an interactive interview. We seek tips for thinking like an editor, giving behavioural feedback and evoking emotion. I also find enthusiasm in the pre-production setting of a documentary. Though I have already acknowledged some technological tips on how to function the H2N recorder to take external (backup) audio records and room tones and operate the Sony camera, it was the first time I actually listened to my peer’s advice to improve the sound recording quality and set up a proper interview style scene. I had to consider where I could position the interviewee on the screen, decorate the set, alter the lights in the room to create a look, and set up the audio recorder. It compliments my personal experience of shot preparation.
Helpful tips
My 20 second edit (thank you Emily)
The lecture of Week #6 was the inspirational session where I could have a better look and give feedback on my classmates’ edited version of the interview. There are two versions we have to create from the interview footage we captured before and the pool of B-rolls my classmates added to the shared Google drive: a 2-minute version and a shorter 20-second version. Regardless of the multiple editing approaches, all of the final edits were amazing and blew my mind in several ways. For the 2-minute version, one thing that I could easily notice was that one storyline can be perceived in variable ideas and as a result, every artistic choice is interestingly different. I will post two examples of one interview for you to have a better understanding of the works of these amazing people.
It comes back to the question of why people see the same stuff non-identically. For example, I might feel about this person’s interview was fun and want to create a comic interview by adding hilarious sound effects and compatible B-rolls. If it was my choice of editing (I edited someone else’s interview), I would like to create suspenseful moods with a few zoom-ins to the face and some blank screens in the middle to make punchy cliffhangers. I would not say one approach is worse than another or promote any superior working method. I even saw someone apply a subtle J-cut audio transition and when the teacher showed us that there was one in the edit, I was surprised a bit because I did not notice that before. Everybody intensively used B-roll cuts in their edits to give different angles to the story. It was a bit disappointing that we did not have more cameras set up in the scene. In my opinion, it would probably give us more freedom to play around with the shot angles. However, it is fascinating to use the B-roll shots from other classmates. Even though most of them are not the ones I truly see fitting to the developing storylines, I might say it is helpful considering the fact that we will outsource B-rolls a lot for references in future projects.
2. Deconstruction of a scene from a film
The story that led me to choose this scene from the Dark Knight (2008) is likely a surprising discovery. I bumped into this scene after I read the script written by Christopher Nolan and compared the screenwriting with what was shown in the final outcome. I will choose the Dark Knight opening with the bank robbery scene of Joker (actually it was the fight of Batman with Scarecrow but I found it was not so much to discuss in terms of editing). I think it is fascinating to dive into the analysis of the scene. If you compare the original script with the final screening, you will see one important point the screening does not have to follow the script in order. I will attach the script below.
We will not discuss so much about screenwriting here because it is not a part of our discussion. However, I want you to have a better vision of why editors are important roles in any film crew. If the film scriptwriters focus on the storytelling aspect, which means that they outline it in professional order (scenes, actions, dialogues and so on), the directors and editors play a role in transforming the written words on pages into visually appealing stories. What I conclude after a few times watching and comparing back and forth is that not everything in the script will be on the screenings afterwards, some miniature details were changed. However, the scene describes exactly the chaotic atmosphere of the bank. In the script, we can see a lot happening because the script changes the setting so often, from the interior of the bank to the exterior ceiling and vice versa. Also, a lot of dialogues and actions are described intrusively. Christopher Nolan wants to create a tumultuous scene inside the bank hallway, therefore this scene is more fast-paced, when two robbers break in, wreaking havoc, and everyone freaks out. Contrasting to that, the editor intercuts the scene on the bank rooftop and the bank vault in between to create a side story of betrayal in the group. Most of the scenes are shot in medium size, especially they use medium close-up shots for dialogues that might lead to the consequential result. The benefit of having multiple cameras on the screen is that you have more angles to tell the story in the editing process. For example, when a robber tells everybody to stay on the ground, the scene flicks to the close-up face of the bank manager. Angle changes like that help you enrich more refreshing characters and retrospective angles into the storyline. The switch from third-person view to first-person view when the bank manager shouts at Joker and Joker strides toward him is good. It is the first time Joker reveals his face and we see close what that character looks like from the eyes of the bank manager. I think that sums up lots of editing in this scene. Despite that there are not so many fancy editing implications in this scene, it shows how intricately The Dark Knight’s pre-production process was planned to create a smooth rhythm.
3. My way of working
To be honest, if someone asks me what I have learnt from the class so far, I would say I did and did not learn a lot of new things. I might have said this before in Assignment #1 about my reflection on the working process. I feel blessed to learn the professional process that experts in the media industry, in particular the editors, are utilising to enhance their products in better quality and more time effective. I never considered learning script writing, prepping shot lists and doing the script breakdown before. Since I did not have experience with pre-production prior to this class, the projects I have done and experimented with so far were a reflection of my self-learning journey. As I said, I was entangled in the miserable paradox of choices and YouTube tutorials stiff my motivation a lot since everyone can claim they are film experts and put up a hooker title like to 10 or top 5 to be master of filming and so on. I had to start again from the basics. The prepping list in Week #3 was actually pretty helpful (thank you so much!). I should have to name the files before importing them to Premiere Pro or any software, therefore I do not need to scroll back and forth to locate my files at odds. I also learn to merge the clips, make proxies, name the files by putting descriptions, and mark the clips. At the moment, my working process will start with labelling the files in my folder first, and changing the settings to create proxies (it depends on the laptop you are using, I do not think you seriously need that if you think your computer can play back everything smoothly and your project is not too big). After that, I will put up the script, shot list, and storyboard next to me to have a sense of how I will go down the road. I do not normally use the merging since I used to not have to chop up so many clips and insert many external audio clips in the channel.
(The images below does not show perfect example)
