After our night of filming, we had around 80 hours of footage. Some of them were when I literally pressed the record button by accident, some were takes we cut halfway through. We still went through everything, though, because even in rehearsals there was great shots that could be used and either synced with audio from somewhere else, or used in the non-linear sequence.
One of the most successful takes we took was just a five minute hand-held shot of Matt in which we just asked him to ‘freak out’ – and some of the moments were amazing – especially the ones where his eyes were wide and open. He’s already covered in blood, so it would mainly be used in the later parts, but there’s so many options created by this take.
Because we went through everything, it did take a long time to label all the files using the descriptions in Premiere (previously, I’ve written it on a separate sheet of paper… who knows why) and especially because we chanced the shot list so much, the slate no longer corresponded with it. There were also instances where the slate hadn’t been changed, so relabeling it was something we had to contend with.
We had already decided that we would edit as a group, so it would be a collaborative effort. While this did restrict the hours we were able to edit in, we thought it was the best option as we knew that bouncing ideas off of each other would result in the most well-rounded project. By this stage, we also know we can work well together, and are comfortable enough to politely question each other’s ideas but also to try everything out.
The beginning was tough. The bathroom lets in too much natural light, so we had to film it last after the sun went down. That meant we were very strapped for time and had merged many shots together. We didn’t like the panning shot that had emerged as a result of that, because it didn’t capture the rhythm of the ticking. Even with the sound effect of a clock underneath, the ticking didn’t have the prominence that we wanted and it didn’t feel right.
It was a happy accident, then, that while we were putting the shots together, a small gap (maybe a couple of frames) was left in between two shots – and that split second of black fell very close to a tick. We then went down the path of transitioning from shot to shot with a few frames of darkness, the tick from the clock falling into the gaps – this also allowed us to select the best parts of the footage. We also tried having Sid’s action on the tick so the blackness was off, but once again, the sound effect was getting lost.
We also realised that this editing was quite intense for so early on in the film, which was a good and bad thing. On one hand, it was captivating, but on the other, it limited where we could build too. Having Doc in the darkness in later shots was a possible solution to this.
And when we moved onto the next shot, we also realised that Sid does everything in time with the tick, so if we’re cutting to black on the tick, logically we should be missing his action… it wasn’t something that stood out while watching the film, but something that we needed to consider.
The next issue we had was then the footage of Matt flicking off the light switch, which is supposed to occur off time so it triggers his OCD and Doc. After playing with lots of alternatives, we decided to let this one rest for a while and see if the solution came to us.
From then, most of the footage was easy to edit and cut together. Even if we had modified shots, we were careful enough that there was enough footage to maintain continuity.
But there was bound to be a gap. We eventually found it after Sid backs himself into a corner, and then Doc walks up to him, and the next shot is Sid standing at the wall. There is a jump, and we knew we’d have to edit around it. We used a shot of Doc approaching while stealing the sound from another clip so it seemed as though Matt was scrambling to stand up while Doc came closer, and then cheated it with a close up of Sid, so his change in position wasn’t jarringly obvious.
Then we were onto the non-linear sequence, which we wanted to make as uncanny as possible. Each time Sid punches, it cuts to black, to make it ambiguous as to whether Sid is fighting a physical or mental demon. For the non-linear sequence, we decided to go with the cut-to-blacks, as it allowed us to pick the best moments of footage and use them. We realized after a while that the pacing was way too slow, but that would be an easy edit later on, for now we were happy with our rough cut.
(Sound also needs to be synced and effects added/improved on etc.)
