Blog Post 1:  https://www.mediafactory.org.au/trevorchan/2022/08/08/1-write-about-what-you-want-from-this-studio-what-you-think-this-studio-is/

Blog Post 2:

https://www.mediafactory.org.au/trevorchan/2022/08/08/2-reflection-on-two-workshop-activities/

Blog Post 3:  https://www.mediafactory.org.au/trevorchan/2022/08/08/3-the-initiative-post/

Piece of editing chosen: Don’t Let Me Leave Murph – Interstellar  Tesseract Scene

A piece of editing I found to be eye catching and spectacular to me was in the film Interstellar directed by Christopher Nolan where it is at a climax of Cooper the protagonist in the Tesseract trying to communicate with his past self and a kid version of Murph and reflecting and grieving on his regret of leaving Murph to go into space. This particular scene stood out to me as it was powerful in really conveying the emotions of Cooper being lost and helpless in the Tesseract where it is too late for him now to correct his mistake as a father which I also felt for the protagonist. The editing in how the scene was constructed I felt really put emotion as a first priority as mentioned in Walter Murch’s Rule of Six guide to editing. This was repeatedly seen in the use of the Kuleshov Effect where each time Scott looked around the various areas of time periods in the Tesseract, shots would cut back Cooper’s facial expression of being scared and frustrated by his past actions. Even in wider shots where it cut back to Cooper, I thought the composition was very clever in that the frame would have leading lines of the book shelf that guided my attention to Cooper’s eyes where he looks like he is about to cry in frustration and being scared. Having Cooper eye trace and look into the book shelf also acted as a smooth transition cutting to the other side of it and to Murph. 

I also found the way how continuity was displayed in the scene of having shots go back and forth between different sections in the film from when Cooper was back on Earth to when he is in the tesseract to and also adult Murph back in her childhood room to be very engaging and captivating. It made me excited to connect the beginning and ending parts of the film together and also getting to see how Cooper and Murph would communicate with each other. For what could have been confusing to the audience, I saw how using altering and making a variation of the match cut really helped creating this connection of past and present where shots of adult Murph showed her retracing her steps and trying to remember what she did as a kid cutting back to kid Murph carrying out that same action from the perspective of Cooper. I felt this device was employed well and was very suitable to the story of Cooper racing against time to get back home. 

The rhythm of the shots created well captured the time and space Murph and Cooper were in. The majority of shots with Cooper were long and extended in length in comparison to Murph’s which to me was symbolic in showing the extended and expanded time space Cooper was trapped  in. It also heavily emphasised the suffering he has to go through watching his past mistakes of what could have been avoided which led back to conveying the emotional tone as mentioned before of the scene being frustration and regret within Cooper. For Murph, the shots she was in were cut down to a faster in pace rhythm which represented her personality in being a methodical and calculated thinking that she always had in linking clues together. 

1. Chosen Activity: Lenny Script 

Working on the Lenny Script was the first time I have ever planned, shot and edited a fictional piece of work to be conveyed into a finished video. Planning the shots were a bit tricky translating my thoughts of what I imagined in my head to a short sentence to a shot list. Even though I was able to take most of the shots I had in mind on the day, what I would have done differently was to think of additional options to shots covering the scene in particular wide or master shots to use as a safety if i missed out or did not have time to shoot what I originally had planned. Putting more thought into how I end a scene in this case being the Lenny Script is what I would have done differently as I thought I could have done a lot better in creating a more engaging and interesting way to close it off. 

After watching Walter Murch’s Rule of Six in class, what I would have considered more was the type of emotion I wanted to convey in the Lenny Script. With the script being a bit vague there were plenty of opportunities and options to get creative with the type of feeling and atmosphere I could create in the edit. Another aspect in the Rule of Six I would have used as a guide was having a general idea or creating opportunities in the shots for me to experiment with the rhythm and pacing of when I edit the footage together to create a more engaging sequence of shots that was meaningful and fit the story. Since there were scenes in the Lenny Script where I could use close up shots on Lenny and Sharon, if i were to redo the shoot I would have also experimented more with eye trace where useful in using the characters eye movement to guide their viewers eyes to important objects like the suitcase or when they notice and see each other which would also be useful in creating a smooth flow and connection between shots. 

2. Chosen Activity: Class 2.2 Homework Task 

For the homework task, I chose to make one of my videos about me making a tea drink at home. Compared to the Lenny Script, I found this exercise a bit easier in comparison and not as stressful since I was at home where I could take my time. I found there were not as many limitations to the space I was working in as it being a smaller space made me feel like I have more control and additional room of being able to be more experimental with shot compositions and angles I imagined of. And with this video being made entirely at home, it was very doable to reshoot and retake certain shots if I needed to which I missed out before so there was that safety net there despite it being not ideal in practising as if I was in a more realistic setting. 

Challenges I faced during this exercise was making the mundane look interesting or seem and engaging to watch. This is where I thought that an activity such as making tea would convey calmness and being in a relaxed state. With this image and idea in mind, I aimed to edit still shots which have a slow rhythm that was not as fast compared to my Lenny Script edit. Another problem i encountered was whether to construct a shot list according to my scene descriptions that followed the sequential order of how I would make tea (e.g boiling water, pouring sachet etc) or to group the similar like shots together such as wide, medium and close up and recording them one after another in the shot categories. For this purpose I recorded the shots to see how I would see the edit, looking as that felt most comfortable for me recording and taking footage of an activity that I am accustomed to.

After reading this studio’s description, it made me think that the Power of The Cut would have a good balance of theoretical and practical process based work and activities where it would go in depth to the basic editing tool of the cut from teaching its basic and foundational use to more conceptual methods on how to use it to convey a story, message or an emotion in visual media work. The prompt made me think that there was more to the cutting clips than just a gut feel intuition which I have been used to doing throughout my time editing videos and that there is a structure but also philosophical methods in consideration and thinking of what is left out and shown in creating a video. Being able to combine just as much calculated thought and theoretical knowledge along with intuition is how I think this studio would teach how to cut and edit. 

What I would like to get out of this studio is to improve in creating videos from cutting footage and editing efficiently through exploring different methods covered in class. From the iterative activities talked about in the description, I also hope to learn more technical skills in the editing suite which can help me to discover my editing style and what works best for me. Being more observant and developing a critical eye for detail in editing from visual media is also another goal I hope to obtain by the end of this studio and understanding what makes it effective or not effective and how it can be improved. Since I also like to edit videos outside of university for myself and freelance work, I also want to gain the experience and become better in pre production and planning shots which all directly link to the editing phase.