Building the Story...

The editing process offers a new way to tell the story.

Once the production is complete and the post production is set in motion, a new process for telling the story begins...

Carefully looking at all the footage, considering all the takes for each shot, the task of putting the story together was laid before me. I started out by assembling the shots according to the screenplay. This would build a foundation for the final edit.

The rough cut that I assembled during the production did not include careful consideration of every take.  I had several takes for each shot, which warranted further review. I completely scrapped my original "rough cut", deleted it, then started from scratch. I then embarked on to the process of reviewing each take as I put the scenes together again, one scene at a time. The movie began to take a crude shape...

Based on feedback from my original "rough cut" and my own reactions to seeing the story played out, I was inspired to take a different approach to the timeline from the original script.  I started out by presenting the story in a non-linear fashion, mixing up the scenes and shortening them, distinguishing them with "title" screens.  I ended up with a somewhat disjointed story in the beginning, which I considered as a puzzle taking shape through the course of the movie. Eventually, during the editing process, I began to unravel this puzzle, rearranging the disjointed scenes back to a more linear presentation.

Eventually, I focussed on refining the edit, going through each scene to make timing decisions about how each shot would lead to the next shot.  I had to ask myself which character I would show at which moment during the dialogue, when to cut, when to use transitions, and how to set the pacing for each scene.  While the pacing for each scene was originally dictated by the script, then by the performances, the editing process provided the opportunity to refine the timing of each moment in the story.

With most of the scenes polished enough to represent a general mood for the movie, I began to reconcile my original vision with the movie that was taking shape.  The overall presentation was slowly coming into focus.

While many wrinkles in the overall flow still exist, they are gradually beginning to smooth out as I refine, massage, and polish each of the edits.

This process is still ongoing at this time, on its way to completion.....