What to Include in Two Minutes

The most important thing to keep in mind during the editing process was to not go past the two-minute time limit that we had. This was very similar to the previous film I worked on where we had to have the entirety of a plot in just one minute. 

However, this felt trickier as before I needed to fit in a whole story so I was able to section off where the beginning, middle, and end take place. But this time, it would just be a small portion of an entire. There was less stress over fitting everything we had but unfortunately more emphasis on what we wanted to make sure to include. 

In total, I had around 15 minutes worth of footage to get through. This was slightly concerning but I knew most of it came from unused takes and shots that we no longer planned on using. Once it was cut down more, I had to focus on how it would then fit into the two minutes. 

Image displaying the total amount of time that our footage takes

My plan going in was to just have the film cut off during a piece of dialogue in the interrogation scene. However, that would mean I would have to be careful with the specific dialogue that I chose to include. I wanted to make sure core plot details or hysterical moments wouldn't be ruined and could be seen fully by the viewer in order to get a good understanding of what our film is about.

I started by making sure the events went in the correct order so I could pace the film correctly to include the scenes I really wanted to. These were the scenes where interruptions were made in order to evoke humor in the viewer. However, making these scenes the focus left a lot to be desired.

Image that shows how I managed to cut the footage down to three minutes

I remembered that an introduction was mainly there to outline the general ideas that make up your film. I didn't need to prioritize making the audience laugh immediately but could instead space these moments out and put a bigger focus on the setup of our film. Key moments in the story like the announcement of the robbery should be focused on more to get the viewer intrigued rather than getting the viewer to understand that the movie should make you laugh. that should happen more naturally. 

When trying to condense out film, I learned that it was less about the content of the shots and more about what would make the most sense for trying to introduce the audience to the ideas you want to set up, The introduction to the movie doesn't always give away what the tone of the film is or overwhelm you with the same ideas but instead show what the movie is generally about. For a movie like Baby Driver, it's about a getaway driver and we learn that very early and for this film, I need to show that it's about a detective case and its content within the first two minutes.