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Introduction to the Project

Hi, my name is Michael Adamson, and I have created this blog to detail the events that transpired during the making of ‘Quantum,’ the most recent film created by my collaborative film company; ‘Flame of Udun Productions.’ As well as myself, the team consists of fellow members; Conor Rodger, who has written, directed, and filmed the production, and Lewis Gibson, who is the teams sound manager and is in charge of all fight choreography that can be witnessed within the film. I am the editor of the team, and have been solely responsible for the editing of both ‘Quantum,’ as well as our three previous titles which can all be found on our Youtube Channel, which I have added a link to in the bottom of this post.

‘Quantum’ was created for our ‘Professional Directions’ module, which we took as part of our role as 3rd year drama students at Northumbria University. The purpose of this blog is to explain how this project had helped me to progress as an editor, try out some new techniques and roles within the team, learn how to overcome new challenges and evaluate the effectiveness of a few different aspects of the film.

We have also created a blog as a team to provide you with some context about ‘Flame of Udun Productions’ and explain in more depth the step by step process in which we shot each scene of the film. Follow this link to discover more: https://flameofudunproductions.wordpress.com/blog/ 

And as promised, the link to our Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCD2PO-ny6GEBDSt5-RMSwrg

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This is a link to ‘Quantum,’ which I would advise you to watch before reading the blog posts below so that you can fully understand the context of the matters I am discussing. Enjoy!

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Joining the Project

Initially, I didn’t always intend to work with Flame of Udun for Professional Directions, and instead had the idea that I would produce, direct, edit and potentially star in my very own film “A State of Beige.” This was an idea I had been trying to work on for a while before third year began, and intended to team up with a 3rd year music performance student from Newcastle University, who wanted a film to write a score for. It seemed apt that, since Professional Directions is a module intended to further your experience in the fields you’re interested in, that I should use it as a chance to create “a State of Beige.”

However, upon realising how many different modules there are in 3rd year and how much time each one requires to complete it to an accomplished level, it became apparent to me very quickly that I was attempting to bite off more than I could chew. I was relieved when I was approached by Lewis and Conor to ask if I’d like to collaborate with them for the project as I’d worked with them before and knew that we were capable of creating good material together. I explained the concept behind ‘a State of Beige’ to them and they were interested, but explained that they had ideas of their own that they’d also like to explore. Seeing the mutual benefit gained by collaborating, we agreed to each work on our ideas and either select the strongest proposal or attempt to combine elements of each. Over the coming months before we had made a decision, I continued to explore ‘a State of Beige’ but found a great deal of creative difficulty in making a structured timeline out of the concept. So when we met up to decide on which material to use, it was clear that Conor’s idea (which became ‘Quantum’) was by far the strongest that we had to work with.

Looking back, I am incredibly pleased to have agreed to collaborate on the project. The severe bout of writer’s block I was experiencing, combined with an already busy schedule would have made developing a film myself would have been nearly impossible. By collaborating, we each brought our own strengths, and were able to learn from each other’s experience in their preferred field, meaning that I gained a lot more knowledge from this project than I would have pursuing a solo piece.

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Conceiving the Name

The name ‘Quantum’ was created out of my growing interest in quantum physics. To be clear, I am not suggesting that I begin to understand quantum physics, I just have an interest. The idea to name the piece Quantum was taken from the idea of ‘quantum entanglement’ which is “a physical phenomenon that occurs when pairs or groups of particles are generated or interact in ways such that the quantum state of each particle cannot be described independently of the others.” (Quantum Entanglement, 2017) I suggested the name based off this theory as I felt that John and Peter worked in a similar fashion to entangled particles. They are two separate characters in their own right, and yet do not exist independently from one-another.

"Quantum Entanglement”. En.wikipedia.org. Wikipedia, (Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_entanglement) Accessed: 15 March 2017.

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My Progression as an Editor

As I previously mentioned, my main role in the group is the editing. In researching ways to improve upon this role, I discovered a quote that really sums up the editing experience; “The editing stage is never finished; it can be rejigged and reshuffled ad infinitum.” (Orpen, 2003, pg7) Even now when I view the film, I’m constantly noticing moments that could be improved by shaving of a few micro seconds to increase the pacing of the dialogue in keep the tension of a scene up. In this blog post, I will be detailing the new techniques of image manipulation I learned during the editing process to transform a collection of individual shots into a professional production.

As content as I am with my previous projects, there was always an amateurish feel to the image that I couldn’t quite understand. It was only after working as an actor in ‘Blue’ with independent film company ‘Perspective Productions’ that I realised what the problem was. Upon seeing the high quality images created by a more experienced editor that I noticed the effective way they used colour to give the film a more professional appearance. The footage in our previous films has a dull tone to it because the colour isn’t as vibrant as it could be. I had never attempted to change the lighting and colour of the footage in prior projects as I hadn’t been trained to and I was worried that I might ruin the image. But because ‘Quantum’ was intended to be out most professional production to date, I decided it was time to face my fears and learn how to manipulate the footage to create a more high quality image. Working with lighting and colour for the first time was the most significant change to my usual editing style within this project.

To my delight, it was far simpler than I had imagined it to be. For most of the scenes leading up to the fight scene, it was simply a case of raising the saturation of the image to bring the colours out more. From there I would have to lower the highlights to avoid over saturation, which causes the colours to begin to blend in with one-another. After that it is simply a case of altering the black and white levels to avoid the image appearing too bright or too dark, and then slightly raising the contrast and/or shadows if necessary to give the image a grittier appearance. These were only small alterations but made a vast difference to the overall appearance of each scene, which can be observed in the images below. 

I was very happy with how these scenes appeared. The only alteration I would make at this stage is to lower the white levels of each scene. It wasn’t obvious on the small editing screen, but upon viewing the film on a larger screen, I realised that a lot of the white objects within the first few scenes of the film appeared far too bright, as if they were illuminated.

The process was almost reversed from the fight scene onwards. For the fight, I wanted to create a far grittier image to reflect the action being shown on the screen. To create this effect, it was simply a case of lowering the saturation slightly for each and then raising the highlights to retain the some of the colour that was lost. After that, raising the contrast gave the footage a slightly more menacing feel by adding a little more darkness to the image. Finally I dramatically reduced the ‘shadows’ level, as raising the contrast had made the shadows within the scene stand out far too much.  Again, the images below will show the difference.

 It’s very subtle, particularly in still images, but made all the difference when the scene was in motion. When I come to re-edit this scene in the future, I intend to bring the vibrance level down a little. I still felt that there was too much colour within the scene that slightly negated the grittiness that I was hoping to achieve.  However, with the intention to change the location of this scene to the outdoors, I will likely have to alter the images in an entirely new fashion anyway to achieve the same effect.

The greatest visible difference I created is in the ending montage, which reveals the true nature of the films events. For these scenes I wanted to create the most menacing atmosphere of all, as they are intended to make the audience feel uneasy. To create this effect I followed the same structure as I did for the fight scene, but reduced the saturation in each image to half of its original level. This in turn required the highlights and contrast to also be raised even higher to keep the colour from being lost completely and the image becoming dull.

The images I designed in the montage are those that I am most proud of, as I believe they truly create the menacing effect intended. To further this effect, I also reduced the speed of the darker moments in the montage dramatically. I’m not entirely sure why the slow motion element added to the scenes created an ominous vibe, but when envisioning how to put the piece together, I knew that it would. As Valerie Orpen explains in Film Editing: The Art of the Expressive; editing is “primarily instinctive, intuitive and emotional.” (2003, pg10) The feedback my colleagues gave upon viewing the montage was enough to know that my intuition on this matter had been correct.

The greatest challenge I faced whilst editing ‘Quantum,’ besides the continuity issues which I discuss in a different section of this blog, were undoubtedly the scenes in the car beginning at 3:50. This was due to the fact that the scenes shot of ‘the driver’ were recorded in the evening whilst those shot of the protagonists were all shot in daylight. Because of the other commitments that the actors had and the looming deadline of Launch Festival, we had only enough time to re-shoot the scenes featuring John and Peter in the daylight. This meant that it was up to me to try and fix the lighting difference of the driver’s scenes in post-production, in an attempt to maintain the continuity of the scene. To do this, it was necessary for the first time to alter the ‘temperature’ of the film. These means that I allowed more favour to the warmer colours on the red spectrum, reducing that colder, darker colours of the blue spectrum, giving the illusion that there was more daylight than there was in reality. I then had to significantly increase the saturation of the images to allow the new colours to appear more vibrant, as they do in the images of the protagonists. Finally, raising the exposure and the white balance of the shots made them appear to be brighter, as if the sun was shining through the windscreen or reflecting off the car.

 Despite being quite an easy fix, it took me a while to figure out how to create the illusion of light and I was particularly proud of the outcome. However altering the picture to this degree left a somewhat grainy texture to the shots, and this scene will also need a complete re-shoot if it is to be in keeping with the high quality image I wish to achieve with this project.

All in all, I am very pleased that I was forced to leave my comfort zone and try some new editing techniques to achieve the standard of quality this film deserves, as the learning curb I have taken has vastly increased my skill as an editor and has taken my work from amateur level films to a production with a much more professional appearance.

Orpen, V (2003) Film Editing: The Art of the Expressive, London: Wallflower Press

Perspective Productions (2016) Blue, Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9DxzaSOjz4

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My Directing Role

After my first editing session, which occurred after the first day of filming, I found myself beginning to mentally piece together the rest of the film. It was fascinating to discover that just understanding the tone set by the first scene was enough to create an understanding of the tone of the entire film, which in turn enabled me to deliberate how some of the other scenes should be captured in order to capture a similar tone. One scene in particular that I was determined to replicate from my mental depiction of the film was final montage. I approached Conor, the lead director, and asked if he would be willing to allow me to direct that scene, which he as happy to oblige. There were a few moments in the film in which I undertook a directing role, but this was the only scene for which I had entire directorial control. I arrived on day three on filming with a small shot list and explained to the actors what I intend each moment of the montage to entail. I didn’t attempt to tell them what to do specifically in the scene as I feel that you should first allow the actors to perform their characters as they understand them. Only if they are unable to produce a performance that encapsulates the necessary elements of the scene do I see a reason for a director to tell an actor exactly how to perform a scene. Luckily this wasn’t an issue as Luke and Lewis both understood the effect I wanted to achieve, and most of what has appeared in the film were the first takes we captured that day.

For the montage, it was crucial that the audience understood that the individual moments shown were John’s memories of the real events, as opposed to the false story he had just told the audience. I therefore thought it was important that each moment of the montage contained only the information it needed to. John’s story was bulky and gratuitous, and I felt it was best if the reality of the events juxtaposed the story by revealing only quick flashes of what the audience needed to see to understand what had transpired. In this way it contrasts with the false story and makes it more easily believable as the truth when compared to the idealized version of events John had given. This was especially true for the moment of the murder. As impressive as the choreography of the fight scene was, I felt that by only including the initial blow of the murder, it would leave the rest to the imagination of the audience, which I believed to be a much more powerful depiction of the violence than we could have created on camera.

To further the idea that these are memories, I spliced a few shots of John sitting on the sofa in between certain moments of the montage, to make it appear as if he is reminiscing. The instance at 10:38 where John can be seen laughing to himself was a particularly useful shot, as it gives the audience the impression that not only is he reminiscing about his brutal actions, he’s enjoying it, making the scene instantly more menacing. I then added the ‘whiteout’ effect between each shot to create the illusion that these are continuous memories flashing within Johns mind. Finally, as I mentioned in the ‘editing’ section of the blog, I brought the saturation level down by 50% for each shot of the montage to further contrast them to the moments of reality, cementing the notion that these scenes are separate from the current events of the timeline. 

With all these visual clues, I am pleased to confirm that those who witnessed the Launch Premiere have fed-back that they were able to understand the events in the montage to be John’s memories.

It would be an understatement to say that I have very little directing experience, and have a lot more to learn if I am to view it as a potential avenue for a future profession. However, having this small experience within the project has helped me realise the value an editor’s input can be to the directional process of a production. For example, a big issue in continuity within the film was the random appearance and disappearance of blood in the fight scene. This is due in part to a misunderstanding of how shots can and can’t be edited together. During the shoot, if we needed to add more blood after an attack, we would pause the actors, keep the camera in the same position, add the blood, and then continue rolling with the idea that I would be able to smoothly splice each shot together. Of course, when I attempted to edit the scene this way, there was a stagger in the film each time we added more blood to the scene. I have since realised that the correct way to add the blood would be to allow the attack to continue, then stop the actors, add the blood, change the camera angle and then have the actors repeat the attack. This would allow me to switch between the two shots at any moment during the attack in a seamless, lucid manner. When we come to re-shoot this scene, I will use my understanding of how shots can be cut together to assist in the direction of the fight, and I hope to use this same understanding to allow more opportunities to gain directorial experience in any future projects I may embark upon.

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Continuity Issues

The predominant issues we faced during the filming stage of the production are discussed in more depth on our group blog, but I thought it necessary to include a little information on the matters here to allow me to explain how they affected the continuity of the film.

As we explained, the two major issues that required quick changes to our plans came on the day of the shoot for the meeting with the boss and the fight scene. Originally these shots were supposed to be filmed in a field out near Hexham, for which we had planned a storyboard and had intended to capture with a drone for a portion of the shoot. However, the evening before, despite the promise of an overcast day at the worst, the heavens erupted and a day and a half of rain quickly halted any ideas we had of an exterior shoot. Fortunately we had planned a contingency room at the University if such problems occurred, so we were able to progress with the shoot nonetheless. The real problem of the day was created by the fact that the fight scene, being fast paced and using predominantly moving camera shots, was a particularly complex scene for which we no longer had a plan to guide us. Couple this with the last minute change to the choreography of the fight scene to accommodate Ross’s newly sustained shoulder injury from work the previous evening, and we had very little understanding going into filming of how to best capture each shot. This in turn created a few continuity errors within the fight scene that I was unfortunately unable to remedy effectively for the first draft of the film, located at 8:34, 9:03 and 9:08 within the piece.

The error at 8:34 was unfortunately created out of a lack of available camera angle variances in the moment. There was no way in which the first shot was able to smoothly transition into the second, and we hadn’t captured enough footage of the moment to approach it in a different way. I had considered using a potential cutaway shot facing towards the door to put between the two moments, which I would then overlay with the sound of a ruckus from Ross and I, implying that we are fighting between ourselves and creating an excuse to smooth the transition. However, because of the last minute changes, we also forgot to follow Robert Nulph’s advice; “don't forget the cutaways! Plan them in by making a list of possible cutaways found at each location.” (2007, pg60)  With heavy time constraints at the time, we were unable to return and capture the necessary cutaways, and so the best I could do with the scene was to extend the gap of time between each shot and hope the audience would perceive it as a deliberate jump to keep the high pace of the action. I think this was a fairly creative way to tackle the problem, but unfortunately it still appears like a mistake more than a deliberate decision and remains to be the part of the film that irritates me the most.

Likewise, 9:08 developed out of a similar fashion and was dealt with using the same trick. The lack of a storyboard to work off meant that somehow we never actually captured any footage linking the moment John begins to get up and the moment in which he is rolling over the Boss, which at least highlights the necessity of a storyboard. As with before, I shaved a couple of micro seconds off each shot to give the appearance that it’s a deliberate choice to continue the pace of the scene, however this time I consider the effect to be much more believable. I think this may be because of the succession of quick cuts between shots leading up to this transition, which keeps it from standing out too much within the scene. When it comes to re-shooting the scene I think I may try to replicate the effect, as this point in the fight scene is no longer required to be played in ‘real-time’ and the quick succession of shots explains to the audience what is happening without feeling drawn out. I will, however, ensure that we have enough footage to cut the shots together smoothly in ‘real-time’ in case I discover that it’s a better representation. Having more footage to work with is always preferable to having no footage at all.

Finally, the moment at 9:03 was created by an unusable piece of footage. Due to the ‘follow the action’ style in which we filmed the fight scene, almost all the shots involved were caught with Conor holding the camera as opposed to using a tripod. I am always impressed with how well Conor can keep the camera steady whilst filming in this style. However in this rare case, whilst panning down to capture John recovering and trying to get up following the kick that the Boss received from Peter, the camera shook far too much and I was unable to smooth it out. I realised that the best way to fix the problem was to splice in a different shot to create a transition, taking the camera pan out completely. After looking extensively through the footage surrounding this scene, I developed the idea of splicing an image of the driver’s mangled body in between the shots, which could be understood as a creative choice to reveal the carnage created by the fight by the audience.

In the shot I came to use, the driver was actually in the background positioned to the left of the screen. I was forced to zoom far into the image and then position his body into the centre of the screen, and this zoom is the reason why the image appears quite blurry. I would also have preferred the shot to last a second or so longer so as to not seem as out of place as it does, but the length of time you see the moment in the film is the maximum amount of time the driver was in the shot before the camera turned away.

I was quite proud of the creative way I overcame some of these issues in the editing room, particularly the moment at 9:03, but it is obviously far preferable to not have the problems in the first place. It has been a useful learning curb however, and although we intend to follow the original plan of filming the scene outside in the future, we have now learned the importance of having a storyboard planned for any contingency plans, particularly when dealing with complex shots. I have also learned the value of ensuring we have many cutaway shots recorded before finishing a shoot, as they can be a great way to fix any mistakes when it comes to the editing process. The knowledge will be invaluable in assisting the creation of high quality work as we progress with the project and in any future projects I may be involved with.

Nulph, R (2007) ‘Planning Your Shoot: there is an old saying in the business world that goes, "poor prior planning leads to particularly poor programs." This is especially true in the video industry.’ DIRECTOR'S CHAIR: Production Basics, Vol.22, Available at: http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=2a6454c5-5fbc-4f62-82f4-528ba686e586%40sessionmgr4007&vid=1&hid=4101 (Accessed: 14 March 2017)

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Sound Editing

One of the largest hurdles I have found in all the projects I have edited is the sound. I have received only two hours of lessons in editing, and those hours focused solely on how to cut scenes together to create a continuous flow of footage. Everything else I have learned simply through trial and error, or from online tutorials. However tutorials on correct sound editing often evade my understanding as I haven’t learned the very basics of sound engineering. Unfortunately this project proved to be no exception to the rule. There have been a few issues with sound quality throughout the film and I have only been able to tackle them with basic quick fixes that were unable to completely eradicate the problems. The most obvious examples of these issues are found in the car scenes and the narration at the beginning and end of the film.

When developing short films first peeked my interests in the ‘Performance for Film and TV’ module, I discovered a tutorial video by successful Youtuber Thomas ‘Tomska’ Ridgewell in which he gives advice to individuals seeking to follow a similar career. Within the video, he explains that “sound is more important than visuals; people’s ears are quicker to be offended than their eyes.” (Tomska, 2014) He is explaining that poor sound quality has the potential to disengage or even irritate an audience, a sentiment shared by my module tutor; Michael Booth. It is for this reason that I was dismayed upon discovering that the only safe and practical way to shoot the scenes inside the car was to use the on-camera microphone. Prior experience with this microphone has revealed to me that the quality is vastly inferior to that of the boom mic that we used for the rest of the film. It also records in monaural as opposed to stereo, which also differs from the boom mic. I learned I was able to fix this by duplicating the sound of the left channel, which a mono camera generally records into, to the right channel. 

This mimics the effect of a stereo microphone, but doesn’t create the same result. It instead has the unfortunate effect of amplifying the already poor quality of the sound, making it even more noticeable. This is a significant shortcoming regarding the shots taken of the driver through the rear view mirror as the microphone wasn’t able to face towards my mouth, which created a reverberating effect. In the proposed re-shoot of this scene, it is my hope that we will find a creative way to fix the boom mic to the dashboard facing towards my mouth, so that we can retain the high quality sound and avoid using the on-camera mic altogether.

The other prevalent issue was the amount of background noise coming from the recordings of the narration. I was surprised to discover this, as we had used a task cam and a specialised microphone (the details of which I am not too confident about, as I was in the editing room at the time of the recording) so I was under the impression that we had have professional level sound ready to added to the film. This was not the case; we actually experienced more background noise in these recording than anything that had been picked up with the on-camera mic. Fortunately I discovered an effect aptly named “DeNoiser” in Premiere Pro that can be used to significantly reduce unwanted noise. However, for reasons I have been unable to understand (and therefore unable to deal with) the effect, unlike any other I have used in the editing software, takes a few seconds to take effect. This means that the background noise is present for a few seconds at each point that the narration begins. I was pleased to discover that it is barely noticeable when watching the film on a computer as the speakers aren’t powerful enough, but it was incredibly noticeable at the Launch premiere whilst being played through the powerful sound-system.

Due to my understanding that sound quality is the most important element in keeping an audience engaged, the majority of research I will undertake in the near future for the next draft of the film will predominantly focus on learning how to remove the background noise from the sound recordings. However, it is also important to remember that the easiest way to avoid sound issues is to get the best possible recording to begin with. With that in mind, I will also be ensuring that we use the best equipment we have available for each recording undertaken even if that requires some creative thinking to set up. Hopefully with these alterations in mind, the final version of the film will have clear, high quality sound throughout.

Tomska (2014) How to Youtube Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hh-67jrOLeE (Accessed: 14 March 2017)

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The Music

We used just two pieces of music within this film; ‘Dead Man’s Secrets’ by ‘Silencyde’ and ‘Urban Evasion’ by Aaron Spencer. To comply with the requirements of Launch festival and Youtube (where the film would eventually be uploaded) it was essential that all the music we used was copyright free. This made locating tracks to use significantly difficult, as the only way to find songs that fit the tone we required was to search through many different songs we hadn’t heard before. Finding a useable track for the fight scene was a particularly challenging, as I had discovered the use of any instruments besides percussion added an overdramatic quality to the scene that gave it an almost comedic tone. However, there are very few purely percussive, copyright free songs to be found, and none of them seemed to match the fast pace we needed to amplify the action of the scene.  ‘Urban Evasion’ itself only has 28 seconds of percussion before other instruments kick in and the tone we required was lost. It was however the only piece of music we found that matched the parameters we needed, and so to extend the piece to fit the fight scene, I simply looped the same 28 seconds over and over again until I finally let it fade out towards then end of the fight. 

It was a very deliberate choice to end the music before the ‘beat-down’ John delivers to the Boss as I felt the disappearance of the music made the reality of the brutality on display stand out to the audience, transforming it from an enjoyable action sequence to an overtly violent scene that is difficult to watch.

I replicated the same style of looping the same part of the song together with ‘Dead Man’s Secrets’. This time it was because I required the introduction of the piano at 10:55 to sync up to the reveal that John is alone on the couch, alluding to the audience that the change in the music reveals a moment of significance within the scene itself. I also felt it important to sync the question “would I?” that John asks the audience to the long guitar string-bend at 11:09 as the sudden change in the in the music seems to create a sense of irony within the question, further revealing that John has been lying to us the entire film.

I’m very pleased that we took the time to find the correct music for the film, as the songs used exactly match the tone we intended to create in the scenes which they appeared. Music is potentially the best form of media I have discovered for creating a feeling or an atmosphere and it is for this reason that I believe it is always worth the time to get exactly the right piece for any project you require.  

Silencyde (2015) Dead Man’s Secrets, [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dbV7Jv2xq4

Aaron Spencer (2015) Urban Evasion, [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1nbS03NR4E

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My Role as ‘the Driver’

Due to a desire to be more involved with the process of producing the film (as well as being the only member of the crew able to drive) we decided that I should take a smaller role in this film than I have in our previous productions, and so I was cast as ‘the driver.’ It was an interesting part that came with its own issues. I have never before had a more difficult acting role than trying to remain in character whilst concentrating on the road. Fortunately the scene in which I am in character whilst driving only consists of a few lines, but there are a few outtakes in my editing folder that reveal many moments in which I forgot the lines I was supposed to be speaking because I was much more concerned with keeping an eye out for any hazards that we may have been approaching.

Having seen the completed film, I believe that I didn’t do the character the justice he deserved. An excuse I could give for this is that during much of the shoot, my mind was focussed more on the production elements of the film, such as determining whether the camera angle was indeed the best position we could get of the shot, but truthfully I simply hadn’t fleshed out the character enough. I hadn’t considered a back story for him, nor had I considered the circumstances which had led him to be employed as a driver for ‘the boss.’ Having shown our initial draft of the film to our peers, one aspect which confused them the most was why my character had seemed like a friend to the protagonists in the car, and had then double crossed them later in the meeting with the boss. I had justified this at the time by envisioning that the character was simply trying to gain their trust upon discovering their intention to betray the boss. However, the feedback given clearly states that this does not come across upon viewing the film.

Having had time to reflect on this issue, I have decided that when we re-shoot the scene, I will portray the character with a level of disinterest towards John and Peter. I have realised that since he seemingly collects them “a couple of times a week” and likely does a lot more driving errands for the boss on top of that, he is likely disenfranchised with the mundanity of his job by the time we meet him in the film. It is far more fitting that the dialogue involved is merely addressing the questions asked of him, as opposed to a genuine interest in the conversation. This disinterest would negate the idea that he holds any kind of loyalty towards the protagonists whilst simultaneously explaining that their openness to discuss betraying the boss in front of him is a mistake on their part to presume his disengagement is a universal trait that extends towards the boss. I believe this change is adequate enough to remove the confusion around the character and his participation within the scenes. 

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Progression and the Future

I have developed a lot as a creator through professional directions, both in my work as an editor, and in the other aspects of producing a movie. I had my first experience directing a larger portion of a film and have learned the value my knowledge of editing can bring to a directorial role. I have faced new challenges I had never experienced before and believe I addressed most of them successfully. Those that were not fully overcome have given me the experience to better handle similar problems in the future. I have learned the importance of planning each and every detail of a shoot before beginning to ensure that you get everything you require out of the filming process, and I have developed new skills in image manipulation in post-production to create more professional films that will be invaluable in all future editing projects I undertake.

Even attempting to evaluate my work through this blog has developed my understanding, as I have learnt whilst trying to rationalize some of my creative decisions that “editing does not really have rules that are set in stone.” (Reisz and Millar, 2009, Pg9) It is “subject to fads and fashions” of its time, but ultimately the style of editing used is often of the editor’s discretion to portray the emotion or tone of a scene in the manner they believe works best. It is such an intuitive craft that at times I was unable to express how I knew some of the effects I added to the film would create a certain tone, I simply understood that it would.

Above all else though, I have learned the value of working with a team that shares a similar passion to you. This project, by all rights, could have been incredibly stressful due to the time constraints and other issues that stood in the way of our progress. But it became clear early on that Conor and Lewis hold the same drive as I do, and are inspired creatively by the same themes. There was never a moment in which we felt unable to accomplish our goals and I have thoroughly enjoyed the entire experience. Having developed a stronger sense of comradery than ever before, we have agreed to continue working together on both this project, and on future projects, some of which are already written. Thanks to our work on the Professional Directions Module, Flame of Udun Productions will have even more films to adapt in the future, and now more than ever I can see film production to be a potential future profession.

Reisz, K and Millar, G (2009) Technique of Film Editing, United States: Focal Press - Imprint Of Taylor & Francis, 2nd ed. Enhanced reissue