DOCUMENTRY Editing

Thoughts on DOCUMENTRY Editing

Transcribe your footage before you start your edit

Do a paper edit, is very useful to know what goes where and one is not editing from memory

While editing do an assembly without going into the details, as it will stop you from moving things around later

Make sure you have a good beginning and a good ending

Interview teq’s

Make your subjects include part of the question into there answer

Get them to give examples of how things happened

HOW is the key word?

Never be operating the camera if you are conducting the interview

AFTER THE EDIT IS OVER:

Ask friend / people who you trust

1. Where is the climax, it should be at 2/3 rd. of the movie

2 is tension building up, there should be a arc in the film,

Not going up and down as a wave

3. If the film focused on one story or is it veering off

E.g.: start the film about a cycle ride with jack, but it veers off to jack relation with his church

4. Restructuring: does your content need to be moved around so best material is used?

5. Film should have single ending (not that it seems to end, and then again It takes off and keeps containing)

Greys anatomy Musings

Grey anatomy is still shot on 35 mm film, one of the last shows to be still shot on film.

Typically it takes 8 days to shoot an episode, cost 4 million $, and takes 6 weeks from start to finish.

Each day generates 2 hours of footage, and is 75 % time shot with 2 cameras.

As an editor: one looks for:

GEOGRAPHIC – where who is – wide shot
EMOTIONAL – reaction shots
STORY - information, what is conflict.

MUSIC and SOUND is a character treat it as such

As a director one tries to bring the best out of the entire crew.

The show needs 42 minutes 19 minutes and 10 frames to be exact.

Editor before editing is involved in TABLE READ
AND IN TONE MEETING (to understand what the scene is about)

line production details - about life in Hollywood

GENERAL CONSIDERATION OF SCHEDULING

1. If scene is day/ n1ght

Also always keep days together, and nights together.

2. Location

3. Cast avability

The above 3 are the most important to keep in mind.

The other consideration s is:

4. Covered set – so in case of rain shoot can continue

5. Set VS Location while on set, Transport can be released

6. Continuity - its nice to be able to shoot in continuity

Abbreviations:

W work

H hold

S start

D drop

P pickup

F finish

R reherse

T travel

Every character has an S and an F.

If talent is needed more then 3 days keep them on weekly

Else hire talent on daily.

If talent has 10 days off between 2 shoot dates, do a drop and pick up, it is permissible only once.

Final week of shoot is prorated for talent, else you pay talent even for hold dates

You can drop a daily talent, but a weekly talent cant be dropped.

When shooting out of town an actors time is clocked from the time they are picked up in the hotel lobby to till they are dropped back , but for a local talent , the hours start when they appear on set, till they are asked to pack up.

making of nabc

Movie released in Paris hotel grand ballroom of in Las Vegas. 8000 people watched the opening , Could not get any bigger I guess for a documentry showing

Line Producing -1

Paul hellerman line producer on :

Jungle warrior

Red heat

Back to the beach

Reservoir dogs

Four rooms

Pulp fiction

The Mexican

Bang bang you are dead

and all tarrantino movies -

DGA training program, to become a producer

Line producer is the 1^st person to see the screenplay.

Line producer looks at:

Budget

Schedule

Production plans

Tracking costs

Oversee operation oversight

Finance / bond company

1^st ad and Dp are the 1^st people to go , if a bond company has to step in .

Line Producer interacts with above the line people

They are responsible with casting / story / all atl, they have creative input on aspects of the movie the ATL is the highest paying position in a film

UNIT Production manager does not give creative inputs, they just manage money.

UPM is DGA position

Line Producer : looks at all paper work, they sign all chq’s

Also writer deals / cast deals / director deals - finance and legal( business affairs )

People who report to Line Producer

Assistant director (responsible for time management)

Production coordinator – responsible for every aspect of production, they manage the office, is one of the most difficult jobs.

Good traits as a Line Producer are:

Take on responsibility

Deal with stress well

Can see the bigger picture

Deals well with personalities

Find alternate solutions

Get creative solutions

Production coordinator never goes to set.

DP and Production designers are hired and do report to Line Producer

Miramax and newline and cinetec were bought up by bigger studios and the quality of films dropped,

Now it is about making money the 1^st weekend alone,

Bigger companies can’t allow smaller co’s to make profit

Movies like: bonnie and Clyde/ gas food lodging/ sex lies videotapes/

What lies beneath

Are no longer possible

Producing documentaries -1

Documentaries – 30 to 90 minutes

The different genres are:

1. Propaganda – e.g. – Olympia

2. Essay film e.g. – color of desert by Petra, it is about why something is the way it is? It is reflective in nature.

Why is the desert yellow or white or … no right answer, just something that one wonders about.

Another e.g. – roger and me by Michael Moore.

3. Biography

4. Compilations

5. Theses (activist, NGO) films

6. Reportage

7. Travel (essays)

8. Travelogues (which talk about where to stay, how much are hotels for) what to do there, where to go.

9. Observational – cinema verte

10. Social issues – this draws a huge audience

11. Investigation-

12. Sports and music – event centered film,

13. Process films – following a person as they go to a place, n how they interact, like say Annie lebovitz n how her shoot happens how she goes about things.

14. Recreation – the situation is recreated

15 reenactment - there are actors and it is staged.

Documentary movies to watch

WASTELAND - IT IS well structured story, almost like a feature,

It is an e.g. of social issue, process film, biography / observational/ compilation.

BEUNA VISTS SOCIAL CLUB- DIR BY WIM WENDOR – PRODUCED BY DEEPAK NAIR

THIS IS AN EG OF TRAVEL FILM, EVENT CETERED FILM,

THE BEACHES OF AGNES – E.G OF BIOGRAPHY, RECREATTION, PERFORMANCE

ANNIE LEIBOVITZ – THROUGH THE LENS,

IS AN E.G OF OBSERVATIOBAL BIOGRAPHY.

FARENHEIT 9 / 11 BY MICHEAL MOORE, IS A PROPAGANDA / THESES FILM (director has an idea what he wants to say, n is saying that through his film)

Nanook of the north – is not a true cinema verete

Weeping camel 1995 eg of Nature , observation, cinema verete style .

As a process write a review about every documentary that you see and what affect it had on you?