Separation Edit Week 1 - Rough Cut!

In preparation for a tutorial with my Tutor and a Meeting with my assistant editor/special effects artist I have spent this week putting together a rough cut of my piece to review with them and improve upon next week. I have kept it fairly basic when it comes to effects because I was focusing on getting the emotional intensity right and making the visuals flow from one to another with the order and also using some of the poetic editing techniques I used to make it smooth but exciting.

Here are the main steps that occurred during the editing process this week:

Before I even began putting things together in the timeline I firstly uses the log sheet to decide on the most important and successful components, particularly the symbolism images, and I then broke each object into its own story of emotions with the visuals. This was to help me make the piece flow in emotions as well begging smoothly and building more negatively and finally coming through all of that and moving on. Here are the notes of my plans for this...

Before even editing I had to make sure I set myself up a 1080p project because even though I recorded in UHD I am zooming into/ cropping a lot of the videos so I won't loose any quality doing this with massive UHD footage as long as the sequence is 1080p.
I began by focusing on the beginning using imagery that showed the calm before the storm. I wanted this imagery to build up quite quickly but also not too boldly as this is the biggest explosion that is meant to occur. Here is the timeline once I had got the introduction to a stage I was happy with. My log sheet was very useful for getting the imagery I needed into the sequence quickly and also making sure I was always using my best imagery.

I played with pace a lot keeping it slow with a lot of my slow motion clips and then speeding some up slightly to make the pace build as the intensity is building. I also used basic effects like crossfades and scale etc and small post camera movements but overall I was focusing more on the concept and the order etc so kept it reliably simple at the moment.

I then moved onto focusing on creating the main conflict of the piece which involved making it build and have a lot of sudden moments occur. I also went back and cut down the beginning because I felt on revisiting it I had left too many pauses in-between shots where the main action had finished but it was cutting quick enough to the next action. Here is how the timeline looked after expanding he stay but also refining the pace etc

I also added in some glitch effects and repetition of images in this main conflict section as I felt this gave those images a lot more power but also added the memory feel to them of keep seeing these significant reminders and not quite being able to clearly see them all the time. I also though a lot about the poetic visual techniques I looked into like making images match visually to add a smooth flow so I applied this rearranging to try and add more flow. For example if a hand pushed down I then had a movement images where the camera is panning down or I had an apple followed by a stress ball so the shapes mimicked one another. This helped make the piece seem a lot smoother but still build well.

I then finally focused on how to create an ending. This was very hard to do as I needed the pace to now slow back down and a lot of the images to be reversed to show me moving past that pain and letting it go. I then needed the piece to end a little bit more positively in that sense but also with my face/eyes being revealed to anchor the piece to my identity. Here is the plan I made for the ending because I was struggling to visualise it so instead thought emotionally and rationally about it...

This helped me to complete the ending of the piece by picking up the pace and then slowing it down by using reverse editing mainly. Here is the timeline now the whole story is in place.

I then kept going back to this piece and reviewing it with fresh eyes to keep making improvements to it by cutting things down which aren't needed but also adding visuals which could have better connotations. For example I added a lot more water shots through out as they all suddenly appeared towards the end. I also made sure to add my facial underwater shots through out because it didn't make any sense just having them appear at the end with no explanation therefore no connotations. I needed it to be obvious that the ending is showing the explanation of these being relived memories for me. I feel like I have reached the best point I can by myself but now I need feedback from people who have never seen this before so I will get that feedback from some tutors on Monday but also from my assistant editor/special effects artists who I have deliberately not shown my rough cut to yet as I want to get her initial reactions and feedback to this when I see her in person.