F1 Post Production Week: Never to late to finish
It was odd wrapping Ray's movie Sunday at midnight and then arriving in the editing room Monday at 9 AM, but I'm glad I would have the opportunity to finish my film before Thanksgiving break. It was probably weird going into the editing room knowing that I'd be in here from 9 AM to 6 PM, Monday through Friday all so I can edit a 3 minute film. It seemed excessive. Especially considering my background in developing, filming, and editing 3-5 minute films in high school at most over the course a week. And don't even get me started on all the fucking 8-hour competitions.
While I still think giving us a whole week for 3 minutes was a little excessive for me at least (god knows some of my classmates used every second and more), but I liked the idea that I felt like I didn't need to rush. I can move at my own pace and version-up the movie / make different cuts, something I've never really done in the past. This timeframe would also include time for cut-screenings with faculty in order to receive feedback and advice. In total there were 3 cut screenings, on Tuesday I'd go to a separate room with my filmmaking and editing faculty to watch and talk about the movie, followed by 2 one-on-one cut screenings. The 2nd was with one of the filmmaking faculty and the 3rd was with out editing teacher.
The unique thing about the editing process for this movie was that I was in a room with 14 other people also editing their respective 3 minute movies, so at any point I can just turn to my left and see what Marin was editing or turn around and ask Carlos for some perspective on the current cut I had. It was very nice knowing that I was ever stressed about anything or struggling to find a song to fit with the vibe of my movie that, that odds were, someone else in the room was going through the same thing.
Something lowkey contradicting to what I mentioned earlier about working at my own pace was, that everyone needed a first-cut of their movie ready for Tuesday. I mean that doesn't sound super crazy, but consider that we spent about 3 to 4 hours at the start preparing the projects, renaming files, color coding clips, watching clips, preparing the timeline, and of course transcoding footage. So in practice we got back from lunch with the goal of making a first cut by the end of the day. We also had to sign up for a cut screening time since each person would be allotted about 30 minutes per. Now I didn't really want to sign up without an understand of where I would be with the end by the end of the day, so I just locked in and edited. I think about 2 hours in, our editing teacher, Thomas, reminded us to sign up for times to which I turned to the white board and found only 2 slots left, oddly enough they were the last 2 slots. I didn't realize people were so eager to get feedback as soon as possible and volunteered to go up first, but alas. I think Eddie and I played rock paper scissors for who got the last slot, and he ended up with the last slot. Essentially that meant that I could chill for the rest of the editing day, go home on time, and then come in tomorrow morning to finish up my first cut. And I did just that, but then it was 11 AM and I had my screening at 5 PM. I opted to version up and start cutting down on my own since I was about 30 seconds over on runtime, and I had nothing better to do.
I went into my cut screening about 10 seconds over, and it went pretty well. Most of my notes consisted of establishing tone early one, allowing moments of comedy to breathe, and better managing how the viewer should feel and think. It was also during this meeting I realized I lowkey needed some ADR lines. I scheduled time on Friday morning for my two leads to come in, and luckily everything worked with their schedules. After the meeting I went back into the editing and stayed a little over time so that the feedback was still fresh in my mind.
Starting Wednesday, I began the start of my days watching what I had and writing down my own notes and goals for the day. From there onwards, editing went pretty well; I'd get to time, then add something new, get back to time, had dream, came in the next day gutting the film in half, swap a bunch of footage for different takes, stole a reaction from one line and gave it to another, cut down to get to time again, cut down some more, added some breathing room, I touches sound at some point, and then eventually it was Friday morning. I recorded the ADR lines in about 5 minutes, and spoke with my actors for another 30, and then I just slotted in the new lines and that was basically it picture and sound editing wise. At noon on Friday we as a class would turn over to DaVinci Resolves so we could begin color.
Now I had not really thought about my film at all color wise, so I mostly just experimenting briefly before just doing some color correcting followed by additional saturation and contrast. And like that, I was done. I exported my final format of the film and walk out the building starting my Thanksgiving break. Looking back on the editing experience, editing with others besides you is a nice quirk. I am nostalgic for it since the energy was very motivating and consistent. That isn't to imply Doc editing was bad, but it different from how F1's were edited.
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| Procrastination Drawings |
Before I left for home I was harassed and threatened by my roommate Aldo Alonzo, who was locked out of the apartment without his phone and key and blamed me for his own forgetfulness. Safe to say it was a very eventful 5 AM. It also made it extra nice to go home and enjoy relaxing.
When I returned back to Tallahassee I spent another week working on an animated project called the square project. It was a fun way to stay productive while also not stressing too much. And at the end of the week we had our F1 Wrap Party! Very fun and very much like an anthology series.
Those of course the end of the semester was truly marked by the screening we had. It was fun nice seeing a packed theater full of friends and family coming out to support the 30 films. It was also very much appreciated that my fellow classmates and friends Sofia and Violet captured the excitement and spirit through the pamphlet they made (thank you!).
It was a very fun night, and I was very happy to hear the shock from the crowd when the Urn shattered. It was very nice to know that I made people feel something in a very literal and guttural sense. For a while I really didn't want to make a film about grief or my late dogs, but I'm happy I did in the manner I did. It's fucked and some times so fucked that it doesn't really matter all that much anymore. I'm very thankful to my cast and crew for making this experience worth it. And beyond the joy I felt from people's reactions, I was over the moon about the sheer fucking talent and grit my classmates have because jesus fucking christ dude, that was nuts.
And thank YOU for joining me through this tale of how I made my first film with FSU Film, aka I Lost What's Mine! Soon enough I'll get around to detailing the process of my newest documentary Soy Quien Soy!
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