I went through the edit I had already and began like I said previously I would being very harsh and taking away any visuals which just weren't working either visually or conceptually. I also cut down shots and re-framed if there were certain parts of the shot that didn't look right or made it look bad. The main items I lost were a lot of the sunflower shots I had in it. The sunflower just didn't seem to have the power I wanted it to visually and I felt like this was because I just had way too many shots in the edit of it. This meant it lost its gravitas so I took out a lot of the shots that I had previously not been sure of as they still just didn't fit. I felt a lot happier having removed these and also a few other minor shots that didn't work as it left me much more room to play with now and it allowed me to think into the order now much more deeply.
Addressing the order I noticed now having removed certain shots and sections that my piece was almost chunked into little emotional narrative sections and the main problem was that I now needed to find things to put between some of these to make it flow and even move some of these sections around to make the emotions work and flow the way I wanted. To help me with this I made a written edit plan messing around and re-thinkign the order. Here is the rough plan I came up with to help re-order this:
This allowed me to not only think visually about the order but also think into conceptually as well. This order as you can see got adjusted and changed a few times times during the making of the newest edit but I kept moving things round till I reached a point where I was happy both visually and conceptually with it.
I had been speaking about the potential of having a motif within my piece and I finally decided I would try it as I felt like this could make the piece link a lot closer to memories and the idea that memories do repeat themselves. I went with my favourite visual which is of the dress being picked up and unfolded in slow motion. I had a brief discussion before about maybe using this visuals and repeating it but at the time I didn't thin it would work. Now having re-ordered it I really think it will add to this. I took the dress and added it it into the edit in total around 7 or 8 times. I shuffled these about to try and get them evenly spaced through out the piece but also appropriately matched with visuals either side. I then decided to emphasises this I would speed this visual up at the beginning then have it slow down each time you see it till the final visual is at the slowest possible speed (the speed/frame rate it was filmed). This is to make the memory are significant each time. I then came up with the idea to make add some overlays to this of the same shot just a few frames apart with low opacity almost to give a trail effect to the dress. This made it look almost dream like which I loved because memories do seem almost like dreams after such a long time. I decided to play on this effect because of that and every time the shot came back up I added another trail so it was getting more and more dream like each time. This displays the idea behind memories after such a long time and visually shows how this piece reflects memories distorting over the years. I really like this mite and I am so happy I decided to try it as it does add to the piece a lot.
As well as the dress layering images I used added layers in on other visuals as well to give a similar effect but distorted it differently a lot of the time for example I layered the rings but then mirrored the image so one is upside down. This gives the sense of distance and unbalance. I feel like this layer effect has really helped me make my piece a lot more exciting and also reflective of memories. My piece during the filming and more so now in the edit has evolved from being about one story and situation to now more about the way memory works and can effect us as well revolving around this situation. I also placed crossfades between a fair few shots when I felt like it helped the visuals flow better or if I felt like the images should reflect on one another a lot more. This again helps it flow and adds to that same feeling.
I then added in a few new shots as well that I now felt would work in the piece because of the new order and new concept. These were close up shots of my hair moving around in the water. I really loved these as visuals so I was happy that they now added to the piece conceptually as well. I combined them with the dress in the water shots as this was trying to show the situation getting tangled and reflect the dress as part of me (like my hair). This worked conceptually and looked nice visually.
I then focused on one of my establishing shots that stood out. This was the back rolling up shot. I loved this shot but it got mixed feedback with some people also loving it and others not liking it as much. I wanted it in there because it was a way of introducing the presence of a body. I felt like maybe some people didn't like it as much because it stood out in comparison to the rest of the body shots as it is frame very wide with space around the back whereas all the other body shots have been framed in very tightly. I decided to try and distort this slightly to make it more ominous like the other body shots. I in the end did this by keying in a zoom as the back is appearing into shot. This throws off your perception of what is happening slightly because as the back rolls we get closer and closer. This distorts it well but now makes this shot end in a way which matches up to all the other body shots closely cropped in and it still introduces like I wanted it to.
These major changes along with many other minor ones and lot of experimenting has led me to achieve an edit that I am happy in and confident with. I can't wait to show it to my colleagues and tutors after the holidays and get more feedback on it so that I can make any final tweaks needed to achieve as bets as I can with this. I also need to revisit this and colour correct it and add titles and credits. However I have exported it as it is for now as a very nearly finished edit and I got myself ready to send it off to my brother (the musician) to start making the very important music tack to go with it!
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