Meeting, the Film project (for more on this project, check out last week’s blog post)

Co-directing this project with Pete, we learned a lot about the value of good vibes on the set. The amount of beer and silliness inherent in the production led to a great experience with friends in an interesting situation. The shots we got had a feeling of authenticity. Those moments of calm ritual, those moments of exuberance were only lightly directed. We had a storyboard/list of shots we wanted to get, but also there were shots inspired by the setting (the fireplace shot is such an addition) and other shots that were moments of interaction.

Editing

The first step in the editing process was to eliminate takes that were discontinuous (people weren’t wearing masks mostly) and takes where some people weren’t ready. After that, we took notes on parts in the takes where it is especially potent and must definitely be in the shot. Then, the sequence was arranged chronologically. After snipping this down, we wanted to make sure we weren’t missing any beautiful shots, so we made a track of video reserved for shots that were small and wonderful, moments of power. Whenever a part of the vid “dragged” during editing, we took a snippet from this track and added it as an overlay to that section. There were parts that were clumsy due to overlays and we took them back and breathed a sigh of satisfaction. It’s important to try it and see how it looks. It might seem cool one day and a little hokier in the next day’s editing process.

This film was edited over the course of 4 work days. Plenty of time to rethink approaches, but not too much actually. I think this amount of time encouraged the decision process to flow with more deliberation. I think a lot of teachers and leaders understand that unwritten law of workflow: work will expand to fill the time before the deadline. Pete and I kept seeing other problems as we solved this storytelling puzzle. There would be lulls and jams that would be bugging our sensibilities, replaced by rhythm and framing issues followed by “is this too complicated?” We looked up information on what tools did what (the video module lessons didn’t stick as much as we wanted to) and found some useful knowledge about blend modes. And so, that’s how it went. Having two people in the editing process seemed valuable. That little bit of agreement giving the other the confidence in that particular decision.

We were a quite the couple of hipsters when it came time to choose music to further inspire the cuts after we had a 2:40 rough cut. Our ears were graced with a smorgasbord of music that day. We considered choices literal, abstract, environmental and classical. Bizet was a candidate for quite a while, something balletic. I voted for Penderecki (after Pete played me a YouTube). It was so utterly creepy withe sound of bells and wind-caused creaking of metal. I mentioned how lovely Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” started and we considered Charan’s suggestion of Enigma, but Pete was terribly picky. He wanted something almost ironic, I deduced. After a couple of hours, I dictated the time was near to pick a song. At 5:40, I said, that’s when we settle on something. Twenty minutes after the anointed time, Pete showed me Doris Day’s “Que Sera, Sera.” I agreed with him. There was something so joyous in it that it wouldn’t be expected.

A lot of times when editing alone, you can go on a tangent that leads to a broken place because it’s built on a direction that you hoped would work on the end and it didn’t pan out. It’s best to save versions you can go back to. Especially with video, there are perfect bubbles of finish product that appear and disappear when editing and there’s never a magic elf that will come out of a corner and gently guide your hand away from the project saying “good job. You have met all the criteria of the assignment and produced something new and valuable and complete.” I have to be the magical elf and say “okay, after we trim that clip and change the blend mode on that clip, it’ll be done.” And maybe it will and maybe it won’t.