One of the strengths of my project is the use of different editing techniques as I had never attempted most of them before and definitely will in the future. Another strength is the pace of my editing during the rush to the canteen; I think for the most part I was able to slow the pace at the beginning in order to increase the pace as the characters began to run to the canteen and by increasing the frequency of edits for the chase scene. Whilst I think we produced a decent film during the time allocated to us, there are clear weaknesses and steps for improvement.
To improve the filming process:
- Make sure to re-watch takes after filming each one in order to establish if more takes are needed and what we need to do in the re-shoots to improve the mistakes made. For example in every take we did for the end shot of everyone coming around the corner, someone would laugh and fall out of frame before it finished so when editing it was difficult to use any of these shots.
- Organise what shots we need to film before going out as there are scenes we had discussed but were not filmed such as more shots of the characters running without facing obstacles. and a shot clearly showing the canteen to be closed.
- Technicalities also should’ve been established before filming such as making sure the shots of the characters running were filming from left to right as some were filmed with them running right to left so I had to reverse the clips to fix it. We also could’ve filmed more ‘progress’ shots to show the characters getting from one location to another to avoid jupiness and allow the audience to follow their movements better.
- We had a lot of problems with the settings on the cameras we used when filmed. One camera had accidentally been set to a lower quality so the clips are visibly different and less refined. Another camera wasn’t kept still during a shot that was crucial to showing the characters’ journeys which made it difficult to use. In the future before filming settings on cameras should be checked and the equipment should be kept still during filming.
- For future projects, I think better organisation will be needed prior to filming including making sure we know all the shots we will need to fulfill all of the requirements such as the different editing techniques etc.
To improve the editing process:
- Make the parallel edits easier to follow (this is also due to lack of variation of shots avaliable to editing) as some people will find it difficult to distinguish betweeen the two storylines.
- Introduce a wider variety of editing techniques, such as a graphic match, to make the sequence more interesting and effective for the audience.
- Introduce a wider variety of editing effects, such as slow motion, for greater emphasis on comedic moments especially the scene with a character slipping over a banana peel.
- Make the end of the composed score more gradual rather than having it end abruptly; I attempted this by fade it out towards the end and add a concluding two beat sound however, a larger and longer fade was probably needed.
- The order of my shots could also be improved to support greater coherence as well.
- Make the jump cut technique more deliberate and jarring to use it to its full effect rather than creating a subtle jump.
Overall, these are all improvements that are doable for future projects and are definitely things I will take into account.
Bethany Lee's Film Studies Blog 