On of the most important editing principals is to ‘cut on action’. For example, while a character reaches for an object you could cut form a medium shot portraying the character and the object to a close up focusing on the object. Cutting on action makes the sequence seem more natural and smoother.
There are some key terms when it comes to editing. Folders are called bins. Rushes are a bins with all the footage shot on the day. This term originates like many other terms from the time where the industry standard was to shoot on actual film. At the end of the day someone would rush to develop the film overnight. That way the director and producer could look at the footage the next day and decided to do reshoots if needed. In America rushes are called ‘Daily’s’. It is important to keep the rushes in their pure form therefore and to sort the files Editors will often create a log bin. The log bin contains the footage used in the actual edit. It is important to name files in a useful manor like ‘close up of bottle’ this makes the edit more clear, especially on a long term. It is also advisable to watch back the footage you have filmed, as what you might think you filmed isn’t always what you actually filmed. When not watching the footage first and instantly deciding on a take you might miss out on a take that didn’t feel right on the day but is better.
There are 4 basic blocks in Premier the box in the bottom let hand corner shows all the bins. The box in the top left-hand corner allows you to watch back footage the footage in the bins. The box in the bottom right-hand corner is called timeline, which is where the actual cutting is controlled. The box in the top right-hand corner plays back the footage on the timeline.
Premiere is a professional software and therefore features a bunch of functions and has intricated mechanisms therefore it is extremely important to actually hit the button and to not miss it even by a little distance. When you start editing footage you can select a initial starting point from where you want to let the shot start by pressing I when selecting a footage saved in a bin, this can later on be adjusted. You then drag the footage onto the time line. Another important mechanism is drag and drop you can for example drag footage from one point to another point on the timeline and then drop it. This why you while have shifted the position of the clip. You start to drag a clip clicking on it, you can then move it by moving your mouse and finally when you want to drop it you just stop clicking the mouse.
You are likely to have multiple clips at the same point on the timeline premier will play the clip that is at the highest position. The position can also easily be changed by dragging and dropping. You can trim the duration of a shot by dragging it to your preferred length. The razor tool which splits a clip is triggered by pressing the letter ‘C´ if you then want to return to the basic setting (the arrow) you simply press ‘V’.
Today we created a Props& Costume list:
Murderer:
-Knife
-Fake blood
-Apron
-suitcase
-Wired headphones
-Dungarees
Priest
-Priest robe
Villager with dog:
-leash
(Normal outfit)
Villager in church:
Pajamas/normal outfit
Murder Victim:
-Skinny jeans
-Blue shirt
-round glasses
I started a storyboard of important moments and Bert helped me with a drawing:
At todays meeting we talked abut casting and we came up with a list of student we think would fit the role:
The Killer:
James Hartman
Tom Wichelow
Stuart Butcher
Murder victim:
Zoe Case
Iside Montaldo
Villager:
Adam Grant
Villager 2:
Clare Crossley
Priest
Lee Johnson
Simon Powwer
I also thought about what bits need dialogue and what kind of dialogue they need:
The ‘Moring’ bit.
Villager: ‘Mornin’
Murder: ‘Morning’
The ‘Quick chat in the church’ bit:
Oh James lovely to see ya
The ‘Epic confession’ bit:
Murder: Forgive Father, me for I have sinned!
Priest: "May the almighty and merciful Lord grant you indulgence, absolution, and remission of your sins. Amen. Thank you for your service James."
For the dialogue I did some research on what the common phrases for confessions are.
At todays meeting I started redoing the character list:
-Killer
-Murder victim
-Villager with dog
-Villager in church
-Priest
We also discussed the locations we need: a church, a house/ a door that leads to a living space, and some form of street. Our teacher is still in contact with churches of previous opening sequences. There is a on campus boarding-house called the lodge which has looks like a small cottage which would be perfect for the house scene. It doesn’t really matter where we film the road scene so we decided to just film at a road near the church location.
In terms of casting started sharing our ideas on who in the school fits the best each role. We decided to only work with people from school as this is the most doable option
Today after having a chat with our teacher and a professional camera operator about our idea we restructured it and then Bert and I started writing an action list for our sequence which I then continued and finished writing afterwards.
ACTION LIST:
-Black void with title card
-Sound of signal Knock
-Cut to medium low angle shot of murder standing Infront of the door
-He knocks a second time
-door slowly opens
-He forcefully kicks the door and enters the apartment the person in the living space backs away
-the camera follows them as they move into the room
-He kills her and she falls on the ground
-He knells down and says some final words to her
-Black void with title card
- wide shot of empty rural road
-The killer walks into frame still holding his bloody knife
-he walks around a corner
-close up of dogs eyes
-sounds of dog growling
-Cut to the eyes of the killer
-wide shit of villager with dog walking towards the killer
-cut to medium shot of villager
-the villager greets the killer
-they walk past each other
-Extreme wide shot of church in a Dutch angle
-murder walking down towards church
-he puts down his weapon
-cut to closeup of cross
-cut to wide shot showing the seating area and the altar the sunlight spotlights a bible
-cut to wide shot of priest and someone who confesses to him
-cut to wide shot of the church entrance
-cut to medium shot of church entrance
-slow motion
-the door opens and beacons of lights shine through the room as the camera moves in to a low angle
-The killer enters
-normal motion
-cut to medium shot of Villager who confesses (she seems frightened)
-the villager looks at the killer
-the villager stands up
-cut to medium shot of the villager and the murder
-they have a nice little chat
-the villager leaves
-cut to over the shoulder shot as the killer walks towards the altar and kneels down
-the camera moves around him and closes in on his face
-he looks up
-eyeline match and cut to Jesus’s face
-The killer starts confessing
-cut to close up of the killers face
-cut to low angle close up of the priest who forgives and thanks him for his sins
-cut to medium shot that slowly moves into a extreme wide shot of them standing/kneeling Infront of the altar
-cut to title card
In general terms our idea, which was developed based on our work from the previous weeks, is now about a small town and their designated Killer who kills everyone that brakes the peace of the town. But everyone living in the town including the Priest is okay with this. In the rest of the movie tow people would move to the local town that brake the peace but survive the assassination attempt and then have to try and stop the tyranny.
During our chat with our teacher and the professional camera operator we amongst things like structure, and themes we talked about do-ability of our idea. A important part of our idea is when the killer walks into the church soaked in blood as he just killed someone. The problem here might be that the people in charge of the church wouldn’t favour us shooting a scene with blood and knifes inside of a church. Therefore, I suggested that he simply takes of his apron and lays down his knife. We then came up with the idea that the reasoning for his actions would be that he respects the church.
