The Movement

I have begun work on Exercise 1 for this module in which we have been given an array of footage from a short documentary about the poetry scene in Sheffield, following one poet in particular and have been tasked to label, arrange, assemble and edit as best we can into a coherent documentary that adhere to this brief.


DOCUMENTARY EDIT: POETRY


To be undertaken in pairs
Length: 4.30 – 5.00


Structure a clear narrative with the material supplied

Establish an empathy with the character

Effective and considered use of voiceover

Creative implementation of sound design

Develop your technical, creative and collaborative skills

In the Blink of an Eye

I am currently reading a set text for this module In the Blink of an Eye by American editor and sound designer Walter Murch. Originally transcribed from a talk that Murch gave in 1988 at Spectrum Films in Sydney, Australia and then revised and updated.

The book is written in a very easy to understand, conversational style and Murch uses anecdotes and examples of his time in the industry to get across points about editing techniques and film in general.

He begins by talking about Cuts and Shadow Cuts and uses the metaphor, "more can be learnt about water from ice and steam" in reference to the extreme ends of the editing spectrum in which Murch and his team had over 230 hours of footage to edit down when working on Apocalypse Now.

He goes on to describe how although there was so much footage, the ratio of time spent in post production to cuts in the film was relatively small and that the real use of an editor's time is less in the actual splicing and more in the consideration and use of shadow cuts (cuts made or considered and subsequently removed or undone) or as he puts it "finding a path".

Murch begins to explain why and how cuts work and how they originally came about. In this he explains how discontinuity of shots when shooting a film is the most practical approach, because the task would be too great to shoot everything continuously and also this adds to the artistic elements of film making in that you can use discontinuous cuts as a means of expression, communication, exposition and elaboration.

Carrying on from this Murch talks about how "past a certain point, the more effort you put into wealth of detail, the more you encourage the audience to become spectators rather than participants. The same principle applies to all the various crafts of film making: acting, art direction, photography, music, costume, ect"

Gravity - Original Soundtrack

Another piece of music raised for discussion in our week 2 lesson was the score for the 2013 film Gravity (dir. Alfonso Cuaron), by British composer Steven Price. The film has just won the Bafta for Best Original Film Music and has been nominated for the Best Original Score Oscar.

I saw the film in 3D a few weeks ago and I think at the time the main thing I took from it was the breathtaking visuals and the fact that I really enjoyed the 3D having previously been a sceptic of 3D cinema in general. The fact that I was so taken-back by the images on screen meant that I hadn't given enough attention to the score. I think this speaks to how well crafted the score is. Although the music was there and helped convey the emotions within the scene there was a subtlety to it that was pitched just right so that it added to the scene but didn't bring me out of the film.
Looking back another great aspect of the music was its ability to convey isolation. I heard that one of the main challenges the filmmakers faced when making Gravity was that there is no sound in space. They approached this in a very interesting way and the sounds in space seemed to have an underwater feel to them. Another big problem that the sound team address brilliantly was the idea of scoring scenes which are about as isolated as you can get which I think they did with they're, again subtle, use of strings.

Within the editing of Gravity itself something I loved about the film was the use of very long takes. The  audience is really allowed to take in the shot for the right amount of time, letting the viewer take in the full shot only adding to the immersive nature of the film.