Naomi's+Journal

__Journal 1 (10/16/13):__ Our group brainstormed for a long time before we finally decided on making a film about a superhero couple going through a marriage counseling session. I proposed the idea because it’d be an interesting take on a typical superhero film and tons of creative options were open. One thing that slightly worried me was the script. Our film is extremely dialogue-driven, and since we are only using one location (the marriage counselor’s office), there is an even greater focus on the dialogue. I was in charge of writing the script because I’m still not sure whether I want to be assessed as a scriptwriter or an editor. When imagining the conversation between the couple and the marriage counselor, I immediately knew that I wanted the dialogue to be written so that the conversation would be crisp, witty, and flow well in order to capture the sense that it really could be a superhero couple arguing and venting their problems during a marriage counseling session. A screenwriter that influenced my decision greatly is Aaron Sorkin, who wrote for “The Newsroom” as well as “The Social Network,” which are both full of clever dialogue, especially during argument scenes. We planned for our film to have a comedic spin on problems that normal couples have, so the first thing I did was research. I started off by researching what typically happens during marriage counseling sessions. I read several personal experiences of people who had gone through marriage counseling, which really helped give me an idea of how counselors act when giving advice and how they respond to the problems that the couples have. After that, I researched the most common problems that normal couples have. Even though we don’t have a normal couple in our script, it was fun to take the problems of normal couples and give them a superhero twist. For example, lack of communication is a popular problem for couples, so I made it a problem for the superhero couple as well and wrote things like “You’d rather save the world than spend time with me!” After making a list of common problems that couples have that I felt could be incorporated into the film, I worked with the rest of my group to make them problems for the superhero couple. At that point, we had only had a clear idea of what our beginning, climax, and ending was. The climax would be the superhero woman revealing that she no longer wanted to be a superhero, and the ending would be them thinking that they solved their problems but another problem pops up that causes them to go back to square one. Creating the list of problems for the superheroes was really helpful for me write what happens in between the three main parts of our script. Since I felt that it would be unnatural to have the counselor propose a series of questions and then have the couple respond and argue over those questions, I wrote the script in a way that the problems would lead up to another problem until eventually the couple’s anger erupted. Something that I kept in mind while I wrote the script was the timing of the dialogue, and how the editing would be crucial for that. I imagined what kind of cuts would need to take place during different areas of the script. For example, instead of having one half of the couple retort back to other half, I noted that there should be a reaction cut to show how the he/she felt about what the other just said. Also, there were some parts that I wrote in which I knew that we probably could not film, especially the part where an attack is occurring outside. Therefore, I wrote in descriptions of the marriage counselor looking panicked when she saw the attack over the shoulders of the couple as well as explosion sounds occurring in the background of the couples arguing.

__Journal 2 (10/28/13) :__

In the book ”Cutting Rhythm” by Karen Pearlman, there is an emphasis on the idea of using timing and pacing in order to create rhythm within editing sequences. According to Pearlman, timing refers to when the editor decides to use different shots, and it consists of three aspects: choosing a frame, choosing duration, and choosing the placement of the shot. Pacing refers to the editor’s manipulation to make audiences feel as though the occurring action is fast or slow, and has three different operations: the rate of cutting, the rate or concentration of movement or change in shots and sequences, and the rate of movement or events over the course of the whole film. I read sections on timing and pacing because I wanted to be able to effectively communicate what the characters of the film want as well what they need, their underlying desires, through editing. I would like to edit so that I’m not only showing the actions within the scenes as they happen, but also revealing more and more about the characters as the film progresses. Being able to edit the film with the correct timing and pacing is essential for the film that I am working on. Since the film is mostly a conversation between three people, there most likely will not be a huge variety of shots that I could cut to and use. Overly complex shots could cause the film to seem unrealistic. One section about pacing that I thought was particularly interesting was the idea that “cutting frequently around a conversation may make the performances seem edgier or sharper” in relation to cutting shots and creating pace based on the content within the shots. As the arguments between the couple become more heated, I would use more cuts to different kinds of shots, such as reaction shots of the couple and the marriage counselor, in order to increase the tension between the couple as the events unfold. Another part I read that struck me was the idea that although the characters have different underlying values, the editor needs to determine which is the most important and the “real substance of the scene,” and edit accordingly to shape the performances’ flow. Understanding what value is most important at particular moments within the film guides the editor in choosing shots, which characters to focus shots on, and which parts of the actors’ performances need to be seen to create empathy. Although our film portrays our superhero couple as having many problems that cause rifts in their marriage, there are actually underlying problems within the nature and personalities of the couples that are fueling these problems. For example, when they discuss the Diamond Man’s jealousy towards his Tiffany’s success, I would edit and choose to use shots that focus more on the husband and his small actions in order to create this idea that there is more on Diamond Man’s mind than he is revealing. However, since the whole film isn’t about Diamond Man’s insecurity, I would edit differently throughout the film in order to have different turns, or having the film change directions.

Journal 3: In my opinion, an important job that the editor has is to make the most out of the actors’ performances. In Oliver Peters’ “12 Tips for Better Film Editing,” he brings up the importance of cutting to the actors’ eyes. The eyes of an actor can be very expressive and can sometimes convey more meaning than verbal dialogue can. This would be important in our film because of how the film is dialogue-centered. Instead of having one actor directly reply to the other actor, I could cut to his/her reaction to reveal what the character thinks. Another tip Peters gives is to “cut tight” especially when actors overact. Since we’re only using amateur actors (aka our friends), their acting won’t be perfect. It might be too expressive during some parts or not what the director wants during other parts. However, if these aren’t corrected while filming, it’s the editor’s job to edit so that redundant actions are cut out or mistakes or edited out. If over-acting isn’t edited properly, then the film will feel scripted instead of real. The Final Cut Pro 7 User Manual has an extremely helpful section on “Tips for Cutting Dialogue.” One of the problems that have plagued me in the past is my inability to have perfect sound in the movie if it had dialogue. There would be problems with blending sound from different takes or having empty sound when no one is speaking. The manual has solutions for many problems that I have encountered. For example, it advises to “be careful when combining dialogue from different takes” in order to make the sound as natural as possible. I can use cross fades or other transitions in order to make transitions from one audio clip to another smoother and sound more natural. It also has an interesting solution for covering up actors’ stumbles. For example, if a person pronounces a part of the word incorrectly, such as “those” as “dose”, I could take the “th” sound from another section and paste it over the audio sequence. Since it’s such a small edit, it won’t be noticeable. I think that it will be difficult to edit the sounds and the audio together since we have many different takes and the conversation is extremely long. Because of how much dialogue there is, we’re extremely prone to audio mistakes. Therefore, this manual is extremely helpful for problems that we might have with our dialogue and audio. I downloaded an interview held with the editors of “The Social Network.” As I have mentioned before, “The Social Network” has been one of my guides for writing the script and timing and pacing the script. The editing of the many conversations in “The Social Network” is very natural and makes the conversations between the actors life-like. The editors give insight into what editing choices they made while creating the film. (I haven’t finished listening to it but I will add the insights I thought were particularly interesting later!) They also had an emphasis on working with the director and actors to get multiple opinions on whether a scene was effectively edited.

Journal 4:

Ron Dawson of Dare Dreamer Magazine has an article on Film Editing Tips in which he discusses how to cut down the length of a film. The target length of our film is seven minutes, and I have more worries about whether our film will be too long as opposed to too short (the final script was quite long despite numerous edits). Dawson says that every frame counts, so it’s important to cut out things like “ums” or “uhs” or other stumbles that the actors might make. I already anticipate numerous dialogue mistakes from the actors due to the length of our script! It’s also possible for me to cut off individual frames of a shot because even though it only seems like a few seconds, these few seconds add up, especially during a short film like ours. Another interesting point he brought up was to “save longer versions along the way.” This is something I have never done before as I usually use one sequence the entire time. However, this would be helpful because as a person duplicates the sequences and renames them as he/she cuts down the length of the film, it’s easy to return to a previous sequence in case there is a soundbite or clip that is needed again.

After reading the article “Film Editing” on filmmakers.com, I feel the need to have more discussion with other members in my group because the editor really brings together all the jobs of the film crew. Although I have talked a lot with Cecilia about her vision of the film, I think I should also talk more with Renee, the cinematographer, in order to have a better sense of what kind of shots she will be using. It’d be best if she could use a variety of shots so that I have more footage to edit with, and I wouldn’t have to always cut back to the same few shots. It’s also important for me to understand what kind of shots Renee will be using because many of those shots will have deeper meanings than just showing what is happening to the characters during a particular scene, and I need to include the meaning within the film. Although I had doubts about how many different types of shots we could have in our film (considering it’s a conversation that never leaves the marriage counselor’s office), I think it would be best if I could have more shots to choose from so the film has an overall more interesting look.

I was extremely inspired by the Video School’s lesson on understanding jump cuts because of how they can be used in creative ways. Although we already started filming and the script is finalized, it would have been interesting to use jump cuts in order to explore the superhero’s powers. For example, I could have used a jump cut to make Diamond Man or Tiffany seem as though he/she had disappeared during the counseling session. There are no scenes in which this would happen, but I’d like to talk to my group about it and see if we could somehow incorporate it. Otherwise, I’m still trying to think of another way I would use a jump cut that would fit into the context of the story and not make the film awkward.

Journal 5:

We actually finished filming our film twice, but we ran into numerous problems both times that we weren't aware of during film.

The day before we were scheduled to film, Cecilia, Julie, Andy, and I went to our filming location in order to put light-reducing film on the windows. Our location is in an office building that has ceiling to floor windows, and we originally chose it because I had written in a scene where Diamond Man looks out the window and sees an attack occurring 5 minutes away. We weren't able to put the film up ourselves, so we ended up having people help us tape it on so that it was finished by the next day.

The first day we filmed, we scheduled to start filming at 8 AM so that we could end filming by 2PM. This was the only day our cast was available to film, and one of them had to leave early as well. However, our cinematographer Renee was late due to transportation issues, so we weren't able to start filming until 9PM. While we waited for her, I worked with Cecilia and Julie to move the couches around and set up props and lights. We ended up finding out that we were not going to be able to use the lights because the windows reflected their shapes. Therefore, I will use color correction later in order to fix issues with lighting or images appearing too yellow.

Once we started filming, we ended up running into a huge problem. Diamond Man, our lead character, hadn't memorized his lines! We wanted to shoot the conversation from multiple angles, so I was quite worried. I didn't want to let him heavily improvise his lines because I knew that later in editing, it would be extremely difficult putting together shots in which the actor was saying extremely different things. As a result, we decided to split the script up into multiple short scenes so that he had time to look at the script between them. We also had Andy and Spencer hold up the script and sit in positions outside the camera frame so that Diamond Man could pretend to look at Tiffany/the marriage counselor, but actually look at the script. There were some parts of the script that the actor just wasn't able to memorize, so we had to cut them or change them slightly. We also had extreme difficulty filming the ending scene because the actors didn't know how to act it out. We had to have Spencer give suggestions on how to act and ended up changing what Diamond Man says at the ending slightly.

While Cecilia and Renee were filming, I made notes on the different shots they were filming. For example, there were some shots in which I thought that the acting wasn't strong enough or that it was too obvious that Diamond Man was reading off a script, so I would make note of that or ask Cecilia and Renee to re-film the segment. However, I wasn't able to be witness some of the filming. We hadn't brought enough memory cards, so I was busy importing videos immediately onto my computer as well as making sure we had back-up batteries charging. After I imported some of the shots, I noticed that many of them were very bright and could be considered overexposed. However, we couldn't reshoot due to time constraints.

After we finished filming, I brought the footage home. When I was watching the clips to name them and match them with audio from the mic, I realized that we had more problems than just overexposure. Some of our shots weren't in focus while others had problems with discontinuity (e.g. highlights, scripts, cups, and equipment in the background). After talking to my group about it, we decided to refilm. However, it was really difficult to find a time where our actors were once again all free due to their work schedules.

For Day 2 of filming, we only had 4 hours to film all of our scenes, and we had to film after school. As a result, we once again ran into a problem with discontinuity as the sky behind the actors changed from light blue to pitch black. We were filming it not in order of the scenes, but rather by different framings and shots. As a result, I was concerned about how the film would turn out because there might be a long shot in which the sky is light blue, but if I wanted to cut to a close-up, I would have to risk having the sky be black behind the actor. When I tried editing the first time, I also realized that it would be best if I could work with a larger variety of shots. Renee had written a shot list, but we were only able to film the most simple shots, which resulted in a very boring-looking film.

It was good that we already had practice filming because we were able to quickly move past problems that we had faced on the first day. For example, we had numerous problems with trying to make his pager seem as though it had automatically turned on because it was a fan that had to pop into an upright position. As a result, we just pretended that his signal was coming from his watch.

One problem that we faced on day one that we once again had on day two was how to have the actors convincingly act out the ending. I proposed having Tiffany and the marriage counselor discover for the first time that Diamond Man could also teleport/disappear in an extremely awkward situations (an idea I talked about in Journal 4), but this didn't correspond with his description in the script. I could have used a jump cut in order to make it seem like he had disappeared after Tiffany found out he had cheated on her. This could have made for a stronger ending. However, we didn't get a chance to film this.

I was in charge of the microphones and recording sound because Julie was unable to be at the filming. As a result, I didn't take as many notes on the shots as I would have liked to. It has definitely had a negative effect on my editing because I'm finding that I don't have enough shots to work with again. For example, there are no medium shots of Tiffany or matching eyeline shots for the couple. There are also very few shots that show all three of them in the room together. I'm finding that I'm unable to follow many of the editing rules, and the film looks extremely jumpy in some parts.