Editing session #2

Last Tuesday, I sat down with Rob again to work on the edit for "Changing Lane." Since we had pretty much cut the whole film last week, we now had to look at more advanced editing ideas. Since pointing out that the edit is our third chance for rewriting the script, we took a closer view on that. We ended up cutting a few lines here and there, including one large piece of the conversation toward the end of the film. The characters had already reached a decision, and the extra lines were not helping tell the story. While they gave a little complexity and depth on the script page, the actors were able to bring those dimensions to the movie with the subtext in their lines. It ultimately made those few lines redundant.

We also had to solve a particularly tricky problem of continuity at the halfway mark of the movie. In her closeup of a line, Lucy took a swig of her beer and looked away from Lois. She reproduced that physical action in no other shot, so we had to insert another moment in Lois' closeup so we could match the action from one shot to the next. It took us (and by "us" I mean Rob) a good hour of hard work to figure that moment out, but it ultimately it works better than it did before. It was a great instance of a practical necessity producing the best of all artistic options. We took a crack at the opening credits, finding a really cool effect for them. It took a while for Rob to get the graphic for the title card correct, and while it still needs a little tweaking, it's heading in a great direction.

We also took a quick pass at laying in some music for the film. We found a piece for the opening, a nice set of riffs on an acoustic guitar. Rob and I went back and forth as to whether the music needed more than just the guitar, but I eventually convinced him to just put the track over the opening of the film and see what we had. After we watched it for the first time, we both looked at each other and agreed that it was perfect just the way it was. It goes to show that sometimes you can over-complicated things, and that the simple solution might just be the best one. We wrapped the work around 3 in the morning, but we have done more since this post. The deadline for the film is fast aproaching, so we're working overtime on this so we can get it submitted in time.