The best non-linear edit system available

[MovieStuff]

After making our magnum opus horror film back in '87 (talk about groping your way in the dark), I learned some valuable lessons regarding writing and shooting and editing.

1) If you can show it, then there's no need to say it. Go through the script and cut dialog like crazy so that people have something to look at, which is what moving pictures are all about (duh!). It also makes it easier on the actors by giving them something TO DO and not tons of dialog. Less dialog gives each spoken word more impact.

2) Always have two versions of the same scene; one that plays as you would prefer and one that is abridged with only the vital information. Shoot the long one first and then do a simple two shot or hand held version that lasts only a fraction of the same time.

For instance, you may have a shot where the boyfriend comes to pick up his girl after work. Perhaps she's busy finishing up some overtime and he's double parked in an erogenous zone and hot to go for the big date. They get into a bit of a fight while she hurridly tries to get her boss's stuff out for Fed-X before the Fed-X guy arrives. The scene may take a minute or two while they argue about which is most important, him or her job, etc. Now, such conflict may very well be part of the story and need to be seen. But you could also have a version of that same scene where he sticks his head in the door, yells, "Hurry up, I'm double parked!" and she counters that her boss will fire her if she doesn't get it ready for Fed-X, he could simply show some disgust and say,"Bring the stuff with you and we'll drop it off on the way". He leaves and she scambles after him carring all the papers, both cussing away at each other like sailors. Same effect.

Since virtually every movie runs long in the initial cut, you now have two versions of the same scene and can substitute the shorter version without losing content. Granted, using a stop watch and timing the script so that such cuts are not necessary is usually better but, not always. Sometimes, for the sake of pacing, you need to take a scene that WAS a major point of the story and reduce it to a minor scene. This really does not become apparent until the initial cut of the film where you can get a sense of timing and story dynamics. Having an alternate, shorter version can help in that regard a lot. Again, the shorter version doesn't have to take up a lot of time on the set. If it's done last, the cast will be totally familiar with the scene's dynamics. Even a single hand held shot following the actors around will work great as a substitute for the longer version and can be done very quickly with little or no impact on the shooting schedule or the budget.

My two cents...

[Supa-eight]

Wierd. I was just gonna say shoot DV untill you have about twenty hours of footage and lock yourself up in your basement for a month with twinkies and a big gulp. Speaking of FedEx Roger, does UPS ring a bell?

[MovieStuff]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><table border="0" width="90%" bgcolor="#333333" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="0"><tr><td width="100%"><table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" bgcolor="#FF9900"><tr><td width="100%" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by Supa-eight:
Speaking of FedEx Roger, does UPS ring a bell?</font></td></tr></table></td></tr></table></BLOCKQUOTE>

Wimper.

It's sitting right next to me all boxed up. Email me your new address again and I'll give it to my wife to ship out or it won't happen because I'm too pathetic to live.

[dogstarman]

Ouch.

I don't around to looking at the board very much these days, because I'm in the middle of shooting my first 16mm short. This thread is really painful to me right now because I AM SHOOTING WHAT IS GOING TO AMOUNT TO THE WORST SHORT FILM EVER MADE!

I spent forever working the thing out, did five or six rewrites, had a really good, short subject that was EXACTLY 22 pages long (my goal was to make a film that would play like on old episode of the Twilight Zone, thus 22-24 minutes and sort of the same kind of subect matter).

And I am totally f*%#ed at this point. I have half the thing shot, and everything is going to hell.
One of my actors has turned out to be a complete idiot, my lead actress had emergency oral surgery to have her wisdom teeth out, and I just got 15 minutes worth of film back that came out GRAY.

And you know what the worst thing is: it's all my fault. I didn't plan ahead enough. I didn't give myself enough time to shoot it, I tried to do too many set-ups in one day in particular locations, and thus they went too quickly and sloppy...

PLAN PLAN PLAN PLAN PLAN PLAN PLAN PLAN.
And plan some more. I've learned my lesson.

(And buy more lights. You can never have enough...)