What do you as you leave the movie theater?

Well if I could say one thing, it’s that this final project really humbled me. When the tasks were being divided up, I’m not going to lie, I thought that being an editor would be a relatively easy job as compared to the other tasks. I could be further from the truth. Not all jobs are created equal. There’s so much nuance entailed in trying to make a video as perfect as possible, especially with only a few camera angles. Not to mention that in terms of movie making, imovie is relatively primitive. I learned quickly that all our mistakes are amplified ten times when the volume goes up. This meant retakes, finding the perfect shot to cut down to the millisecond, and uploading, re- uploading and sifting through six to ten takes of the same shot. Cinematography and editing is a very useful skill but nonetheless not as coveted as being an actor. And unfortunately, in Hollywood or even in low budget avant-garde movies, the editor only receives a glimpse of fame in the credits.

I think editing is just as important as acting though. What good is good acting if it isn’t presented in a cohesive way? Not that we had the best acting. Just kidding, Olivia and Jeff were amazing. It’s a huge process of layering. Layering audio, visual color, transitioning shots, underlaying music. If the timing of any is off, it looks unquestionably amateur. Basically a sub-par youtube video. And I thought that it would be a simple as shooting for a little and calling it a day.

Also, I discovered filming always runs behind schedule. You plan a two hour chunk of time to film one scene, but by that time is over, you’re done with maybe half of it. So I learned that this is why a movie takes a year or two to get shot and edited. A perfect scene is probably a few weeks or even a few months of repeating the same line over and over. And we were impatient with only a few takes. That perfect facial gesture, or the way a line is said, can make or break a shot. So though ours isn’t perfect, I think we did our best to capture the emotions of the actors. Not only was it hard to “on the screen”, but off the screen it was hard controlling emotionally charged students tired of doing the same scene over and over. After all, we aren’t professional actors. So what sucks is that some scenes are perfectly shot and others are ones that are merely settled on.

The most difficult task? Hmmm, it would probably be coordinating schedules and making our ideas work. We had a group of talking heads, basically 6 bosses who don’t take no for an answer. The key this time though was compromise. It’s a pretty good skill to have when you’re older too. Every idea that’s oozing from your head won’t be used a good portion of the time. Oh, and let’s not forget adaptability. Since we wanted to portray seasons, it was difficult considering its been windy and 20 degrees everyday. Originally we had wanted to use trees or something, but instead we decided to use music and opening clips to give the essence of each season. I found out that with movie making, it’s always good to have a backup for EVERYTHING. And don’t delete anything until you’ve presented and it’s done with. Even then, you might want to keep it for a memory.

Would I do it again? Yes, probably, but not for a school project if it were an option instead of a paper. Editing is deceiving, it seems easy but it’s extremely tedious and time consuming. And in the end, you get little credit. Overall though, a good and new experience that broadened my horizons.