August 2008

This week we settled down to edit the scene we had shot last week. After my slightly shaky introduction to editing I was excited but a bit apprehensive about these sessions, especially since I was convinced I had forgotten everything I had learned on the editing weekend. It did take a bit of time for me to reacquaint myself with Final Cut Pro, but by the second session I was quite comfortable with the software, and was really enjoying trying out new tools and playing around with the sound and visual effects. We were basically left to our own devices while editing our scene, while Darren was on hand to answer questions when we were stuck. I really realised how important a part of the creative process editing is – and how easy it is to change the meaning and effect of a shot or scene just by editing it in different ways.

Once we had finished a rough cut of our scenes, we watched four different versions and discussed them in class. It was interesting to see the choices other people had made in the editing stage, and how much the final results varied. Some people had focussed almost entirely on one character, with far more close-ups and longer shots on him, so the result was that we as an audience felt much closer to him and had less sympathy for the other character. We talked about each others motivations behind our different choices and why they had led to completely different results. It was really good to get my head round the most technical part of the course, which I was a bit worried about, and I am really looking forward to practicing and to working on my own film.

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Emma Savage

(One-Year Practical Filmmaking) short film Pulse has won two awards for Best Foreign Film and Outstanding Screenplay at the Dixie Film Festival in Atlanta. The film has also been selected as the only UK student short to be screened in Official Selection at the European Independent Film Festival in Paris. Pulse was the first film Emma made on her course at the Met. 'Pulse' is a fantasy romance with darkly comic elements which sees a man become addicted to giving himself electric shocks when he discovers they provide a means of contact with his dead wife. Congratulations to Emma!