Reflection on Past Work

I previously created a one-minute short film centered around chess that I am fairly proud of. However, I believe there is nothing you can learn more from than your own mistakes. I remember some aspects of the process that I wasn't entirely happy with or proud of but couldn't find workarounds. 

What I Could've Done Better:

After rewatching the film, one thing that stood out to me was the type of cuts I was using in the film. I saw that I used a lot of fades to go from scene to scene that felt unneeded and just cluttered up what was happening on screen. I think that most of these could have just been easily replaced with a straight cut to jump straight into the next portion. There are at times when the fade transition fit but it was used more than it should have been and distracted from the finished product. Not only that but it lessened the effect it had later on in the film when the main character has a transition of skill level and appearance but since I used it a couple of times before then, it looked like just any other part of the film and didn't hold as much significance. 

Opening shot with the fade transition

Opening shot without the fade transition

In order to fit the one-minute time constraint, I sped up some of the scenes so that the actions that occurred took up less time and thought it looked normal at first, upon rewatch however, I saw that it was more obvious than I initially thought. Even slightly increasing the speed by 25% made the actions being done seem not human and obviously edited. It may have worked well if that was the intended effect, but it was not so instead, actions just seemed way shorter than they should have, such as a tussle over chess pieces. Even in some parts where shots were slowed down for comedic effect, it looked awkward. It didn't enhance the impact of the chess piece bust instead just made the shot drag on for too long.

Shots that were sped up to save time but looked unnatural and too fast

Finally, I didn't do any retouching to the color of the film as I didn't think it needed any as it was all shot in the same spot within a short time span. I thought the film visually looked consistent. However, the film had bigger differences than I thought. Some parts of the film were very Vibrant while others were dull and flat and as the editor, I could have messed around with the color to get them to match better. If I made some of the shots more saturated it would have played better into the funny tone of the film and looked visually interesting and appealing throughout. 

Dark, less vibrant image of the chess board and table from the film

Bright and more saturated image of the chess board and table from the film

What I Did Well:

Overall, I think that the style in which I edited things matched the feel of the film pretty well. Being a comedy and being limited to one minute, I needed events to go by very fast so the editing had to be very tight, and shots couldn't run on for too long. I cut down all the clips significantly so that it was the main part of the clip where lots is happening, and time isn't used up by pointless movements or lingering after an idea is already perceived by the audience. All of the shots ran by very quickly with the punchline being obvious so that I could move on to the next scene without it feeling like any time was wasted. 

I also believe that the timeline I established for the was done well. I had lots of footage to work with but couldn't possibly fit it all.  I had to not use some and cobble-together shots so that the film still made sense even with not everything that happened being displayed. The film had a clear beginning, middle, and end, with a clear buildup and climax of events occurring. The beginning makes it obvious who has the advantage and who is losing through the sequence the clips were put in. A specific player would take pieces and the other got angry. Then there is a change in the middle that switches who begins winning through a "power up" shot. Then the reaction shots used make it obvious that the other player who was winning previously is now losing. It told a basic story from its very start to its finish. 

Final Thoughts: 

This exercise helped me figure out what my faults were in the editing process. I now know that it's the little details that I didn't really catch or didn't have an interest in that have a stronger impact on the whole of a film than I thought. Simple things just like the type of transition used alter the way it can be used again later on and change the way a viewer might interpret a scene. Maybe time passed but the viewer couldn't pick up on it or events are happening right away, but the viewer believes there was a break in between. I believe I am able to compile the clips I need in an order that makes sense narratively without much issue, but it's how I alter these clips that I need to focus on. Making sure the film is visually similar so that a difference in tone is accidentally interpreted or a lack of polish is recognized is one way I can fix this issue. Another is being more specific with decision making as I should think more about how viewers might interpret something I did. I can't leave any room for misinterpretation as it can off-put the tone and ideas that the film is trying to express in a given scene. Speeding up clips to fit a time constraint led to those scenes looking out of place and awkward in the grand scheme of the film and might leave people wondering why it was done without the knowledge of a strict time constraint.