Archive for the ‘Editing’ Category

Here are a couple of films I did for a client called Trafalgar Apartments. I did the shoot in about four hours which wasn’t bad going since I took extra lights down to try and bring out some extra details in the apartments. Both films were shot on a Sony HDV Z1 and were edited in Final Cut Pro and graded in Color. I used a lightweight Ianaro Reporter Lighting Kit and a Vinten Pro 6 tripod.

Trafalgar Apartments from the Hatch on Vimeo.

Trafalgar Apartments from the Hatch on Vimeo.

Just doing a project with the BBC that involves some live action Greenscreen sequences. Here is a little bit of research;

2007 Compositing from scw1729 on Vimeo.

Here is the final interactive film called ‘The First Date Complex’ that I worked with Signal Films on. Well done to all the filmmakers who really worked their socks off!

Here are some of the photos from last weekends Signal Films ‘Choose Your Own Ending’ film shoot. The shoot was done all in a day which was a mammoth task in itself. It went very well and that is testimony to all the pre-production that the Filmmakers had done. There were a few hiccups along the way but that is always the case. Everyone had a brilliant time and a lot of fun….hopefully picking up a few techniques along the way. The edit was done on the sunday with each of the Filmmakers editing the scene that they had directed the previous day. I will post the final film in the next couple of days.

Thanks to Signal Films, Cookie Monster Alex, the Filmmakers and actors for a brilliant few days in the Lakes.

Here is an example of a ‘Choice Story’ film that has provided us with a bit of inspiration for our own film.

Here is the final edit of our short film Vacuum. I am still in the process of grading it but the edit has finally been locked down and we are currently entering it on the festival circuit. Here is the synopsis;

A psychological social horror about a young couple expecting their first child who move into a new home only to find themselves tormented by the strange behaviour of their clandestine next door neighbour.

Vacuum from the Hatch on Vimeo.

The 2nd film I cut was the main Creamfields’ piece! In all fairness, I made some pretty elementary mistakes on the whole shoot during the weekend; The biggest mistake was trusting what the weather was going to be like and I now realize that I do not have any Michael Fish qualities. I had decided to get the DJ performance footage first and leave the interview narrative till the sunday but as you can probably guess it absolutely chucked it down on the Sunday! That’s why there is no content from the actual festival clubbers. I therefore decided to change tact in the edit and begin the film with some Rostrum work of Thoughtful‘s photo’s. This was definitely a ‘Happy Accident’ as I would never have dreamed with starting the film like this. The photos really capture the essence of the moment whereas trying to film clubbers is always difficult as people tend to play up to the camera!

Cream decided to go with David Guetta’s ‘I Gotta Feeling’ track which again was really easy to cut to once I had put some minor little sound edits in! The hardest part of the edit was trying to put a narrative down and create a ‘backbone’ for the film. Note to self; Get your narrative sorted out first as this is the real backbone of the structure of the film. The cutaways will slot in really easy once you have your story -  Narrative is King. I am not going to be too harsh on myself though as my favourite  part of the film is the rostrum work.

Creamfields ’09 from the Hatch on Vimeo.

Here is the first film I edited for Creamfields ’09. I wanted to do a moody little edit with  Sander Van Doorn arriving at Creamfields. Sander’s management company sent over his Purple Haze – ‘Bliksem’ track which was ideal to cut the film to. It was quite hard editing the actual helicopter footage into 30 seconds as there was so much good content. Had to be quite brutal in what stayed and what went. I also tried to be quite bold with changing shot sizes to vary the footage in the confined space.

Shot with a Sony Z1 – Edited in Final Cut Pro & graded in Color

Sander Van Doorn – Creamfields ’09 from the Hatch on Vimeo.

Now we can’t all be talented chaps like Mr Ridley Scott -

However it definitely helps to get into the practice of Storyboarding your ideas. It doesn’t matter if you draw like L.S. Lowry, just get your ideas down. Whether its pen & ink, crayon or stick insects or even the written word, it will help you when come to the day of the shoot to tick off your shotlist as you have got them in the can!

But we can all have a go at being better than Martin Scorsese (at storyboarding that is). Take a look at his Storyboard

You don’t need to be Da Vinci to visually note your idea.

Here is a sample A4 Storyboard if anyone needs it; MyStoryboard

And even better, you can get these Moleskin storyboard sketchbooks

Here is a little bit about the ‘Grammar of the Shot’. Some snippets about ‘the Element of the Shot’ and ‘Types of Shot’

You know what to do…. Grammar of the Shot