Escaping to the Edit
During company wrap and after giving my thanks to the crew, I believe Chris had approached me and asked if I was planning to submit the film to Aquila's Full Circle Film Festival. The FCFF was originally a nice motivator for Sam and I to produce our respective films as at the time when our fall project fell through, Aquila had announced that they would be accepting submissions up until April 5th. We thought it would be cool, and our films were both originally scheduled to shoot before the deadline as to allow for time to edit, but with Sam's film getting pushed back and the real motivation for creating the film taking over, submitting the film had become a secondary concern. I said I'd try to get the film done before Friday but that I wouldn't stress about it too much. In retrospect I was right, I wasn't too stressed about the edit or the festival, but that's not to say I wasn't stressed.
On April 5th at 9:00 AM, I was scheduled to have my applicant interview for FSU's College of Motion Picture Arts; 5 hours would go on to be the deciding factor for something I've been working towards specifically for the last 2 years, and I foolishly believed that I wasn't stressed about the interview :D
I began the edit for the most part on Monday. This mostly including backing up everything recorded twice because I'm paranoid. In terms of actual progress, I decided to focus primarily on audio and music. I had a rough version of the Voice Over from Nico that we recorded the previous Saturday which I quickly put together in order to sync it with Eddie's performance. I went in leveling the audio to a consistent and audible point, while also doing my best to remove any unwanted lip smacking and back ground noise. Following this I made my way over to Epidemic Sounds to find a song that would work for the film. As a loose reference I would play the Premiere track and quickly play the song on the website to get a rough idea of how the two would work together. It was kind of scuffed but it got me to 4 songs
by Hanna Lindgren
by Christoffer Moe Ditlevsen
by Anders Schill Paulsen, Hanna Ekstrom, and Anna Dager
by Magnus Ludvigsson
With audio for now at workable point I continued again on Tuesday where I would begin to add in my footage. This was pretty easy for the most part as it was just editing to the beat and creating a nice flow within the edit. I'd refer to my script to make sure I was putting the correct shots where I needed to put them. Perhaps the biggest challenge at this point was cutting together the "Good Times" as there was a pretty nice variety of shots, but I had to keep in mind sequencing and making sure each cut felt deserving. It was during this day that I realized we were missing a shot; we technically had a similar shot, but not the shot. During the part where Asher says "not hidden behind tinted glass" we got shot, 3 them really, BUT they were wides and a medium. It's funny to me that when planning a sequence it seems so challenging to figure out exactly what shots / coverage a scene needs, but when you're editing it becomes so obvious; like of course I needed a close up here, but I didn't have it. This shot was in fact so clear to me that I drew it out. Now I tried to make what we shot work, but it was just such an eye sore when compared to what came before and after, so in a moment of desperation I messaged Marin and Eddie to see if we can reshoot that one shot (and maybe a second). I was very fortunate that the two were both available and we were scheduled for a Thursday afternoon pick up. Both Monday and Tuesday were overall a pretty productive days and where I believe the bulk of the heavy lifting took place in terms of finding a song, putting shots together, and even having a working draft of the film by the end of Tuesday, so I went to bed for a nice and deserved slumber.
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| God this shot would've sucked the life out of this film |
At some point I wake up and see the clock is 8:00 AM thinking it was Friday, but it's neither, its 4:00 AM on a Thursday so I go back to sleep only to wake up again thinking I'm running late, but remembering in its actually Wednesday, but it's not; its Thursday and I'm waking up in a hurry because I'm late, but it's not Friday, so back I go to sleep only to wake up on Wednesday thinking it's Friday, but I know it's not because this can't happen and it's just Wednesday, but then I wake up on Thursday at another god forsaken time in the morning when the light doesn't spill through the blinds, so I go back to sleep and wake up on Thursday and it's 5:00 AM, and I've had enough I'm just getting up because I keep walking up thinking it's a different day and that I'm running late, but it's actually a different night and sometimes its a dream, and sometimes it's just Wednesday, so I get up and decide to go on a walk with the sky still dark, and I make it all the way to the gym right as they open, but I'm wearing my slides, and I can't join my friend for their pilates class, so I have to make my way back, but I just wake up again. Okay... Maybe I'm nervous.
I continue on Wednesday after my classes with the hope that I don't speed through the next part of the edit. I wanted to do something I could spend a lot of time on now that I realized that the reason I did so much on Monday and Tuesday was because subconsciously I didn't want to not edit. Color Grading it is.
I went through each individual shot because I could and it would technically be better than just slapping a filter over everything and calling it a day. I'd describe my taste as a dramatically naturalistic. I like my color and I like my contrast, but I want to keep it at least somewhat grounded within the story it's in. It was during this session that I was beginning to see the cracks of my simplistic audio; I still liked the VO based narrative, but it felt kind of void. I was also growing concerned about if Eddie's mouthing of "I love you" would be picked up upon when Asher refers to the phrase as "those three words" and if audiences would also understand what I mean by those three words. The solution would be to include some sound bites sprinkled throughout, one of which would be camera audio of Eddie saying those three words. It wasn't by any means great audio, but I liked the distance of it and amplified it. With some help from Sam, I put on a lowpass filter as well as some boring and annoying shit that had to do with EQ, to refine those damn three words. While I was at it I added a sound to the door slamming at the end, a thud well Asher walks out on Eddie, and probably some other stuff too. At some point during this session I was making progress and thought it might be nice to include a light leak or something for a couple of the "Good Times" sequences to up the dream factor, so I did my research and added what I thought looked nice, but not too flashy.
When this session ended I had similar dreams to the night before, but with some more Aqua-man 2 sprinkled in for some reason.
Thursday would be kind of weird, I had my late afternoon class at 3:00 PM, then the reshoots, and then a small gap between then and an Aquila club meeting at 6:00, followed by a movie at 8:00. Luckily I had basically come to terms that the film was basically done and if I really wanted I could continue editing after my interview the next day. Regardless Marin, Eddie, and I met up outside of our dorm to which we realized we could just film right there since it had some nice greenery, so we did. We got our shots, and that would be the last time I'd see them before the interview. When Eddie and I were heading up the elevator he told me not to worry about the interview and that I was set for it, which I appreciated. Then I was back at my editing bay (my desk in a Salley dorm common room). I added in the shot and exported another draft and sent it to the crew group chat to gather some more opinions on it before I finalize it. Thank God I did that because typos will fuck me over one dau.
With time to spare I went to the Aquila meeting that got delayed and ended up being longer than Sam and I thought and we ended up missing the movie, but I got to relax the night before the big day. When I got back to the dorm I exported a final cut, and opted to send it in the following day. And with that ends the edit, and this series of blog posts. Maybe more consistent uploads would be helpful, but that really does it for In His Eyes.
On April 5th, I had my interview, submitted my film to Aquila, and got to eat some over priced Vietnamese noodles from a food truck. The following Thursday I would be informed that In His Eyes was selected for FCFF and that I was now an FSU Film student. It was an odd couple of weeks bit everything seemed to work out. Even though In His Eyes was not part of my application, planning the film, working with others, and the edit really helped to get me through the semester. The making of this film and SOLD OUT! also did help me prepare for the interview in ways I didn't think they could, and I credit a large part of my successful interview to those two films and everyone that supported me on those films and on my application. In this industry, you can't do anything alone, so I'm very appreciative of everyone and everything. I look forward to working again with my classmates in the fall.
Until next time (hopefully Fall),
-wade
P.S.
Maybe now is a good excuse to rewatch the film ;)
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