Editing A Feature

jelewis8 — Wed, 08 Feb 2006 05:36:52 +0000

By the way, IE7 Beta sucks. Just the layout is enough to make me think that I’d be better off using a dead cat as a browser than this newest Microsoft incarnation of internet-based evil. I try to keep the geek factor down on Fringe, since not everyone who comes here is a committed desk jockey with a holster for Mountain Dew and a CSS handbook with quick draw handles. Sometimes I have to let it out though, like a giant airedale who is kept in a cage all day. Who let the dogs out? Consider me responsible today.
Today will be a short post, because I have about a thousand things to do that got the bump on the priority list. Things like capturing about 60 hours of footage for 13 Months of Sunshine, which has been on a lull because I ran out of hard drive space. Let’s hear it for editing from the raw stuff, not just the director’s picks of best shots. Editing the film has been interesting, not the least of which is the language barrier. Probably more frustrating, but only from a convenience standpoint, has been the lack of slates, which is the initial clapper at each take. It makes scene sorting a heck of a lot harder without slates, and organization is more important than ever with this much footage.
Normally a director will shoot hundreds of hours of footage for a feature. He will let a script supervisor know if he likes a particular take during shooting, and those takes are marked for use in editing. Sometimes those takes won’t work quite as well as hoped, but the process of editing the footage is made easier by that initial culling.
13 Months of Sunshine has yet to be filtered. So essentially I’m capturing every frame and then going through it with the director as we edit the day’s session. It’s more laborious than I’m used to, but only because I’ve never directed a feature. But, I also shoot at a smaller ratio, usually a 4:1 ratio, which means for a fifteen minute short, I shoot 60 minutes worth of footage, which accounts for botched or bad takes, director incompetence, or just wanting “something more” from the performance. 13 Months has about a 6 or 7 to 1 ratio, and with a potential for some reshoots and alternative endings, it might even balloon to 8 or 9 to 1.
Long story short, I gotta get to capturing. So long, and I’ll see you tomorrow.
By the way, tomorrow’s my third year anniversary blogging. You’d better drink a martini for me.

Blogging In the Time of Cholera

jelewis8 — Wed, 02 Feb 2005 17:26:29 +0000

Please excuse the lack of original posting of late. In my spare time I’ve been pumping out a feature script which I started Sunday afternoon and which I am hoping to finish by Thursday evening. That’s 90-120 pages in five days, which for me is unprecedented. It’s more important for me to write uninterupted than to break the flow I’ve got going with blogging. Sorry.
I know it’s a cardinal sin to inform readers that they’re being given the shaft, but at least it’s only temporary.
I’ll be gone all day Friday, Saturday, and most of Sunday…basically, I’m pretty strapped for time, and blogging just got moved down the priority list for this week. Don’t worry, I’ve still got some good stuff on the way.
I saw Million Dollar Baby the other night, and will try and post a review before the weekend. In addition, I’m nearly done seeing what Oscar nominated pictures I can get to, though I don’t think I’ll be able to view all of them before the 27th. With that in mind, I’ll be doing my Oscar predictions, with the usual colour commentary you’ve come to expect and hopefully love.
Like I said, sorry for the insubstantial posting of late, but I will get back into the groove after this week. In the meantime, I’ve got a few links for you to check out below.
The Christian Carnival is up at Wittenberg Gate.
Carnival of the Vanities #124 is now up at Ken Sain’s place. Bloggy goodness therein.
I got an odd email from Justin Katz, who I haven’t heard from in a while, not since our last online tete a tete, which was more civil and respectable than the word tete a tete implies. Not that we were ever bosom buddies or anything…anyway, it concerned an article of his that I first read back in December in the National Review, that attempts to explain the rationale of Andrew Sullivan, a man who can’t quite define or pinpoint his own political, cultural, social, and theological beliefs. I’ve stopped reading Sullivan since he started lacking focus with the war issue, and since then have kept up only loosely with his politics since going all blue state over the gay marriage issue.
Justin has now posted his article online at Dust In The Light. It’s long, detailed, but worth a read if you’ve ever, like me, tried to figure Andrew Sullivan out and simply failed after a long bout in the ring.
Greg Piper has a good writeup of the launch of the new DC paper, the Washington Examiner. He notes copious copy errors (no stranger here!), but a launch party filled with champagne and an editorial page note to readers that seems to echo his own alt paper’s (PUNCH) philosophy.
Protein Wisdom (a blog I need to read more) has a McSweeney-like list of 9 names the UN would PREFER we give to the “not genocide” in Darfur. (Via Instapundit)
Lauren is travel blogging. Lots of airport and hotel troubles, so you can probably relate.
Philip Johnson, noted American architect, has died. He founded the US international style of glass towers architecture, and compared corporations to Renaissance figures such as the Medicis and the popes of old.
Languagehat links to an article on the future of the modern Irish language. Speaking of the UK, LH also has a BBC article linked that discusses the ways Londoners speak. Cool stuff.
Okay, I really do have to start my day now, so ta ta for now.

» Fringe Blog – Writing on Film, Culture, and Things on the Fringe

Editing A Feature

Blogging In the Time of Cholera