Edit Foundry

The story for this post is We’re Going into Their World on The Edit Foundry Youtube Page

I continue to edit the series ‘Extreme Kellie’ for News on the Deuce.  This time Kellie takes a dive with sharks at The Aquarium in downtown Denver.

The first thing I did before I edited this story was to find music.  Using something from the Soundtrack to Jaws or any other scary aquatic movie wouldn’t be appropriate.  I want to help the viewer understand how scared Kellie is to actually do this all the while not making a mockery of the dive. Music isn’t an easy thing for me.  I’ll often spend hours and hours listening finding the right music for a story.

For the opening portion of the story I choose something the average viewer wouldn’t recognize.  The song is Heed Our Warning from the Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen The Score.  I start the package with music up full for 3 seconds to establish the mood.

The 1st five shots of the package are all from the HD underwater camera.  Notice all 5 shot I take the edit with the shark predominantly in the middle of the screen.  I always have eye trace in mind when I edit.  I want to keep the viewer’s eye right in the center of the screen for all these shots.  Why?  Because the impact of the shark in the 5th shot shown here…

That shot really grabs the viewer’s attention.  I bring the music up full for just a beat during this shot to give it just another second of impact.

At [:11] When Shane Taylor, Kellie’s instructor says,

“We’re going into their world, you know I think if you just respect what there to do, things will go really smooth,” I take a shot from above the tank.  I added a slow push into this shot.

Why do I choose this shot?  During the interview at [:11] Shane looks down.  What’s he looking at?  If you place the camera at his eye level and pan it down, this is what you’d see. This is another example of how I use eye trace.

At [:24] I have a shot of a shark swimming shot from above

followed by a shot of Kellie looking into the tank

Look at this shot closely.  I wait for Kellie to have some expression on her face.  I want to show the viewer how nervous she is.  I then cut back to the sharks swimming from above.  I’m following the logic of eye trace.  Kellie’s looking at something, I show the viewer what she’s looking at (eye trace).

At [:32] I show Kellie and she says “I’m nervous.”

The next shot I choose is that of a sharks opening his mouth.

With this shot I bring up the music full again.  But why did I cut away from Kellie to this shot?  In the sequence of Kellie in the water I didn’t like my choices of shots.  They were either jumps cuts or cutaways adding nothing to the story.  I’m trying to keep the viewer engaged as much as possible.

After this I cut back to Kellie.  Again, I’m waiting for Kellie to make an expression.  The fake smile is a good shot.  I’m continuing to show she’s nervous.

At [:39] I cut away again from Kelly, for the same reason as above.  I don’t like my shot choices and I don’t want to make a jump cut.  I continue this theme of cutting to shots in and underwater spliced with Kellie getting ready.  The shark shots are much more engaging to the viewer so I don’t have a problem editing like this.

At [:58] I bring the music up full again and show a great shot of Kellie.

Notice coming out of this shot at [1:00] I wait until she slightly moves her head.  The next shot wide her head continues to move.  I like using match action to help hide edits.  Little things like this make an average editor better.

At [1:25] Kellie goes underwater and I change the music. I’m now using the song Grand Central from the soundtrack to the movie K-Pax.

This song has a feel of discovery.  I want the viewer to realize Kellie not so nervous anymore.  But intrigued by her dive.

I bring the music up full several more times.  The shot are beautiful.  Kellie’s taking this all in.  I want the viewer to take it all in too.  So, I let a few shot just breathe.

This was a fun piece to edit.  Great underwater shot to choose from.  I kept my editing very simple.  Trying to let shot breathe.  Simple music and notice no dissolves.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 at 8:28 pm Filed under General Assignment and. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.