Compromise... Knowing when to stand your ground, when to admit you are wrong, and finding that bit in the middle.
Recently during my editing process, my tutor Sarah Kennedy approached me to look at the state of my film, at the time it clocked around 3 minutes, using all the shots I took and angles not to dissimilar from Ray Harryhausen's cinematography.
After viewing it she told me it was far too long and that it needed to be shortened. I was really puzzled how she could think this but I attempted to trim it down, barely scrapping past 2 minutes and 30 seconds. She looked at it again and still commented it was too long.
So I ask her if she would edit my film for me so that I could learn how to edit properly and also see how she could make it shorter.
After a day in the editing suite watching her work, Sarah got it down to about 1 minute. I looked at her results and thought "This is far to quick, the buildup of tension and suspense from the stalking X-Rex carnivore over the Alloceratops herbivore was no longer present and some of the scenes she had rearranged I personally did not think would make sense to someone who had not seen my work. We even called in the other MA and BA tutors to have a look at our edit and the comments that where made where in agreement the edit was better, but some additional shots/ angles where needed to portray scenario better.
Rather than reject Sarah's edit, I took on board what she had done, what the other tutors had said, it did demonstrate to me that just because I shot a scene did not mean I always had to use it. Sarah even suggested some camera angles that I thought would not work originally, but after some trial and error, I managed to make them work.
After reworking the edit for a third time, I managed to get the edit down to 2 minutes 30 seconds... again, but this time the original footage I shot was much more condensed and it was including the new shots and some creative editing.
I'm extremely grateful to Sarah for showing me how to edit and her own perspective in how my film could be edited by another (something I'm very sure Ray would have experienced when someone edited his work in later feature films), and the other tutors opinions on her edit, I would also like to think that my compromise is a lesson that other students will adopt. While its easy to simply let the tutor take over your work, you don't learn anything and it ultimately does not you as a director and editor, but then arguing and refusing to budge only proves you are not willing to adapt or see things from another's perspective.
Finding that bit in the middle, that compromise, is something I have fallen back on time, and time again, from Ray comments about my Rex puppets design and colour scheme, to my BA tutors comments in 2004, and every time it has always given me a better result.
After viewing it she told me it was far too long and that it needed to be shortened. I was really puzzled how she could think this but I attempted to trim it down, barely scrapping past 2 minutes and 30 seconds. She looked at it again and still commented it was too long.
So I ask her if she would edit my film for me so that I could learn how to edit properly and also see how she could make it shorter.
After a day in the editing suite watching her work, Sarah got it down to about 1 minute. I looked at her results and thought "This is far to quick, the buildup of tension and suspense from the stalking X-Rex carnivore over the Alloceratops herbivore was no longer present and some of the scenes she had rearranged I personally did not think would make sense to someone who had not seen my work. We even called in the other MA and BA tutors to have a look at our edit and the comments that where made where in agreement the edit was better, but some additional shots/ angles where needed to portray scenario better.
Rather than reject Sarah's edit, I took on board what she had done, what the other tutors had said, it did demonstrate to me that just because I shot a scene did not mean I always had to use it. Sarah even suggested some camera angles that I thought would not work originally, but after some trial and error, I managed to make them work.
After reworking the edit for a third time, I managed to get the edit down to 2 minutes 30 seconds... again, but this time the original footage I shot was much more condensed and it was including the new shots and some creative editing.
I'm extremely grateful to Sarah for showing me how to edit and her own perspective in how my film could be edited by another (something I'm very sure Ray would have experienced when someone edited his work in later feature films), and the other tutors opinions on her edit, I would also like to think that my compromise is a lesson that other students will adopt. While its easy to simply let the tutor take over your work, you don't learn anything and it ultimately does not you as a director and editor, but then arguing and refusing to budge only proves you are not willing to adapt or see things from another's perspective.
Finding that bit in the middle, that compromise, is something I have fallen back on time, and time again, from Ray comments about my Rex puppets design and colour scheme, to my BA tutors comments in 2004, and every time it has always given me a better result.
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