We managed to get a cut down to the required 7:30. Huzzah. We’re at the pretty annoying point right now that we’ve watched our cuts over and over again in such a variety of different configurations that it’s getting hard to tell just how well the jokes are working.

Today was mainly reviewing the 8 minute cut and working from that. The opening of the film has been reworked yet again, making it a little longer and adjusting the story slightly, but it works a lot better now. It’s pretty good when you can take a chunk of footage, shift it around, and effectively repurpose it.

We also did some more work on the escape sequence. Since starting that sequence it’s been a process of just cutting it down further and further, making it faster and faster. Part-way through this process we got some music from Dane, which prompted an even faster sequence of cuts. The music changed the tone of the edit, I believe in a good way. Without the music the nature of the sequence is a little ambiguous - the character is running for his life, but how exactly is the audience supposed to respond to this? The music really helps make the response clear. I’m pleased with this segment, it being the first time I’ve really attempted to create a fast-paced edit. In doing so I’ve tried to keep in mind Murch’s comments, as well as quick-cut sequences such as that in Raging Bull (though of course, this scene is not as intense as the fight scenes in that film).

In making these quick cuts, one of my main considerations has been in the treatment of spatial relationships on either side of each cut. In particular I’ve tried to avoid what the director and I have called “student film” cuts. Really what we’re talking about are jump-cuts, where character(s) within the scene move substantially, but the viewpoint does not. For the bulk of the escape sequence we could avoid this pretty simply and effectively, as the different takes were shot from vastly different angles. When assembling the two viewpoints I typically tried to keep the actor’s motions coherent, not overlapping but trying not to make the cuts jump too far. Later in the alternate takes, the shots became too similar to apply this technique to the same effect. Rather than invoking a sense of freneticism, the technique just ends up looking showy in a fashion not consistent with the tone of the film.

By my original timetable, the final cut should be cut by end of work tomorrow. I think we’re pretty close to that point, but I’m not sure I’ll be satisfied with locking off tomorrow. This won’t be a huge problem, as my timetable allowed an extra week, ostensibly for grading, but also for added cutting time.

Today was a shortened day, since there was the class in the morning to discuss the end-of-year screening. That’s going to be a lot of fun.

With the assembly out of the way it was time today to start making each scene perfect. The incremental nature of the cut confounds me sometimes. I try to get every cut right, sure, but I always feel like everything is going to be revised in the near future anyway. Especially at the start of the edit, when so much of the cut is still up in the air, much of it feels vaguely inconsequential.

That aside, I’m pretty happy with where things are at the moment. To work with the project I’ve split it up into the previously mentioned 5 segments and I’m working with those separately. I can see already that the bulk of my work will be in getting part 1 just right. It’s the longest segment of the film, so there’s the worry that poor pacing will just turn off the audience straight away. There’s a lot of dialogue, but nobody wants it to end up all talking-heads. The scene also features all of the characters in a small room. This is also where the characters really get established, and where the film tells the audience exactly what kind of story it’s telling.

Part 1 isn’t much past the assembly point yet. I did some work on the prologue (which is so simple I’m afraid I’ll break it), but most of my work was on part 3, the death scene. It takes place in a very confined space, so I tried to reflect this with the shot selection, avoiding the wider shots, and sticking with extreme-low or -high angle shots. I liken this segment as a little dream on the way to death, and as such it takes on an odd feel. I think the sound design/music will be particularly important here. I cut it to an Angelo Badalamenti track from Twin Peaks.

Part 2, the chase, presents an interesting challenge. It features easily the most frenetic sequence of the otherwise languid film, and so I’ve consciously tried to cut it differently to the rest of the film. I kept in mind what Murch said about the relationship between the cut and the thought. Throughout the film Dougie is dull-witted and slow and the cuts reflect that. Here though his mind is abuzz with activity and energy. The action shot was filmed multiple times in long takes, so I’ve spliced the takes together to up the energy and distinguish the sequence from the rest of the film. It can still do with some adjustment but I’m pretty happy with it so far.

Another day, another shitty headcold determined to stop me from breathing. First thing this morning was to burn off the rushes DVD. That went fine, then we screened it in the DOS lab. It seems the scene/shot numbering is a bit wacky, so it wasn’t entirely in sequence. There’s a fair bit of footage out of focus, which is a bit unfortunate. There don’t seem to be any lighting issues however, which is excellent.

The bulk of my work today was in building the assembly. I’ve never been great at reading marked up scripts, and I’m even worse at reading chicken-scratch handwriting (my own included). I stuck to the notes as much as I could but often I had to rely on just building each scene as best I could to match the script and have it all make sense. In the end the assembly came out at around 11 minutes, giving us a good 5 minutes to trim off. I don’t anticipate running time to be any major concern.

So starts the full-time edit of After Birth. Of course, I had to start this process by getting a cold the weekend before. Fortunately I still have another day to recover, as the thinking work of the edit won’t start until tomorrow. Today was composed entirely of preparation. Namely, capturing and syncing the video and the audio.

The film was telecined over the weekend in Melbourne. In the process, Luke and Sian also had them do most of the grade, taking it from colour to black & white. It looks excellent. I may still have to do some adjustments at the end, but it won’t be major. This gives me a little more time in the third week if I need it for the main edit.

My previously discussed issue with clip management was resolved pretty quickly. I found the third way. Basically I do what I did with the non-nesting method, but instead of copy-pasting from one sequence into my work sequence, I drag the linked clips back into the project bin. I then have a new clip with the synced sound that I can use as if I’d captured it with sound in the first place. Huzzah.

Given more time to experiment with methods, I wouldn’t mind trying out something that assistant editor Nick suggested, which was to capture the tapes as single long clips and then break it apart into each take, and then make new synced clips from that. Essentially what I did last year on Hats, but with individual clips at the end. We weren’t sure though that we’d be able to properly organise the clips that the end of it. Capturing each take individually, I knew exactly what I’d end up with, so I went with that. I’ve now got a pretty damned organised project, so much so that at the end of the day (literally) I was able to just drag the clips straight from the project browser into a timeline to produce my 50 minute preview video. The whole film from start to finish.

Since I’m not working in that abomination of a format known as HDV, it only took me 5 minutes to export the video from FCP into DVD Studio Pro. Unfortunately I had to leave before I could also burn the preview DVD to disc. So at the end of day one I’m only 10 minutes behind schedule. Not bad.

Tomorrow morning I’ll screen the rushes on a projector. Sadly not the lovely HD projector in N409, but the less-impressive one in the DOS lab. After that, lunch. But after that, assembly!

Things I picked up today

A vastly improved workflow for working with audio and video captured separately. In addition to figuring out what seems to be an optimal way to manage the clips, I also learned how to properly use markers to make syncing the a/v to begin with a whole lot easier. It’s still a chore, but thankfully a fairly brainless one at this point. Especially helpful today given that I felt half-dead the whole time.

Things I wish were true

I wish the clapper board were some supernatural object which never went out of focus, never blew out, and never drifted out of the edges of the frame.

I wish all continuity notes could be recorded directly onto a laptop. As it is I haven’t copied the notes into the clip info, though I may get Assistant Editor Nick to do this later in the week. It would be interesting I think to look at the paper edit in terms of shot compositions.

I wish we had graphics tablets in the edit suites. Those things are too awesome.

I wish I were cutting on Avid. It’d mean learning all the little niggling bastard details over again, but I’m beginning to get a sense of why FCP often isn’t taken too seriously.