Editing overall evaluation

When editing my first production my new wave film I used the editing style of a war film, taking inspiration from films such as apocalypse now and the odd angry shot. The new wave film i created takes heavy inspiration from the opening of apocalyspe now using slow shots and the use of The Doors as music playing into the hopelessness feeling of the war genre. I used overlaid clips from the news to add to the impact of the visuals and play into the idea of being trapped. To enhance this feeling of being trapped i had a mix of inside and outside shots, with the inside shots being closer to the character and shorter in length than the outside shots. The difference in length of the shots allowed for more of a contrast and again played into the idea that the character longed to be back outside. The outside shots i took were over exposed however i chose not to edit this as i thought it added to the idea of the outside being an idea that was almost unachievable by the main character. The film could have been improved if i had chosen to use fades or dissolves for specific cuts between scenes as some of the scenes come off as quite harsh cuts and i also feel i could have improved this adding hue changes to the dreamlike scenes as it would have conveyed the idea that they are dreams better than just using the over exposed style. 

My next film Obsession was a short 1 minute film created that made a better use of cuts with early in the film it uses dissolves, fade to blacks and fade to whites whereas in the second half of the film it uses fast harsh cuts as the action intensifies. The use of mixing between shots to build tension and tell the story in such a short amount of time worked out quite good and I believe it adds to the short film. For music i used the 28 days later theme as it adds to the horror aspect i was hoping to achieve when i was filming this. For a general improvement i feel i would darken some shots and lighten some others as the Lighting in the rooms we were shooting in wasn't great and we were working to a time limit.

Then next film Me, Myself and I was a film that i used for the film studies topic. The film makes use of cloning in it through the use of masks. The Idea was to have multiple clones of myself discussing ideas with each other, talking and interacting which meant that I had to get creative with a lot of the camera angles since i was basically doing this with only myself. The video using masking or editing to make it seem like there is multiple of me in the shot in at the same time or within a short space of time. The opening shot didn't use any masking but it did take a lot of editing to make sure that when one of me left the shot the next would appear almost seamlessly and within a very tiny time frame. The biggest issue with this video is that some of the audio is quite messy and out of place and i believe this to be an issue when exporting the video. The video also hasn't got much in the way of massive cuts as there isn't actually much time pass within the film or a need to jump around. I made it as if the camera almost follows around the main character as they move around the building. The film uses an audio effect toward the end to make a voice sound god like or supernatural and i believe this effect works really well for this scene.

The final video is my music video which makes use of a lot of effects and editing. The music video I made was supposed to imply a feeling of being trapped inside of a dream and from an editing perspective i think it does quite well as it's range of effects suit the style. I used reverse shots and hue changes as well as increases in saturation to create a contrast between shots of the real world and the dream world. The video uses mainly harsh cuts however they are in time with the music which adds effect to the music and links with the concepts of the music video about the video enhancing the music. The editing in the music video starts to get worse towards the end as it becomes more cluttered and confusing. I believe if i had been more effective at managing the planning the editing would be more concise towards the end.

Planning vs production

Planning for the new wave film was done through the research I gathered about the films that were inspiring me and i feel with this i grasped it quite well. The film mimics the research i gathered quite well and I feel that I created a comprehensive and understandable video that took inspiration from the Australian war movies it was based off with the music and overlays of Boris Johnson speaking about the corona virus i believe it captured a strong concept of it's identity and told the story i wanted it to tell well. The idea of it being linked to war was created by the added pictures that were from war propaganda of the time that i was studying and the history of the nation i chose. 

My next film Me, myself and I was awkward to create as it took place in a point of quite tight lockdown and I couldn't really take my camera anywhere. This lead to me changing my plans a couple of times. This lead to a lot of confusion for me as i knew what i wanted to do but didn't really know how to get there. The story basically boils down to a character who is trapped in his house with two other versions of him, One that wants to get him to break out and one that wants him to relax try not to cause any problems. The issue was because my plans had changed so much i didn't really know where i was going from here. What I should have done was came up with a storyboard that works nonmatter the surroundings and wasn't as confusing to understand as i feel the idea became confusing or unfocused. The idea did work in the end with me creating a story about a character who decides to work with the ambitious clone leading to him freaking out and throwing them both out but causing himself suffering in the process. This lack of cohesion is why the editing and camera angles seem very standard compared to the effort put into the cloning effects.

My music video was not very well planned and should have had more time invested into that side of it's design as it's message is quite muddled in the mess of effects however it was supposed to be quite experimental in its style. I believe that if I had a clearer idea of what I was filming and when I was filming it wouldn't have been as confusing when it came to piecing it all together in editing. The shots individually were what I was hoping to make based off of my mood boards and concept. I am pleased with how the shots looked but the organisation was the largest problem and to fix this I could have used a detailed gantt chart that told me how long I should be spending on each section. If I had the ability to repeat this I probably would have chosen a shorter song as when it came to editing I found that I was running out of footage and was having to use a lot of filler.