Chess Film Post-Production: Changing from the Plan

 Incorporating New Ideas and Shots to Your Edit

After the first two days of filming, I decided to start editing so that I wouldn't fall behind and also see what scenes we were missing for the next shooting day. I was able to get to get a rough cut created for the film that was just missing a couple of scenes. 

Finally, the last day of shooting came around and we decided to go in a completely different direction. We originally had some core shots planned out like one shot where the sun was very prominent and was the reasoning behind a massive change in character. However, we decided to not do the shot as well as not shoot some of the other planned comedic parts involving extras.

Main scene cut out of the film which would have been the turning point

The problem was that when I first went into editing, I had these scenes in mind and based most of the edit on them and was ready to just have to plug them back in. But now that we didn't have any of those scenes, I felt lost. The humor of the film would have to come from the editing style, sound, and nonsense ending which was partially planned but not fully fleshed out. 

Core scene with all the extras that got cut out

The work I had done previously was essentially just a first draft for a different film. I had to go back into my work and think of a different way to present the events that we shot. It felt frustrating as I believed that every day, I edited it would build to the final product, but this proved untrue as I had essentially to alter most of what I did completely in order to fit the new footage we had.

Altered ending from what was originally planned 

This entire process felt harsh but helpful. I found out that you shouldn't expect to have definitive progress by the end of every editing session. There is always the chance that there is going to be more footage, new ideas, or shifts in direction which could entirely undo the progress you thought you had. It's okay if what you had done previously gets redone, you still gained from the experience even if what you worked on doesn't show that. You can apply the same skills you used during the first process in order to create a new edit that better matched the new aspects you have to include. Undoing data o "progress" does not mean undone learning and having to incorporate new shots proved that to me as it forced me to get creative and rework what I initially had.