Editing Task

On the next day after we finished shooting we all as a group came to the editing room to start the process. We sorted the shots into three different folders. In one of them we placed all the shots that are going to be probably used, in the second folder we placed all the shoots that we don't really like and consider as rubbish and in the third folder we placed the shots we think were the best for use. We didn't delete any of the shots, in case they would be needed during editing.

We didn't use much of the continuity devices. One of the cases when we used it was the eye-line match between Maks and Mike, however we had to cut Maksym's point of view shot on Mikes pointing the gun on him. We did this to make it clear for audience that the main  character is going to be killed soon and a gun shot will be heard, also we showed Mike being more powerful and in control of Maks by using a high angle looking at Mike. At the beginning we used match on action shots when one of the guards was hitting Maks who afterwards felt down. It helped us to show story line and  create the atmosphere.

It was so easy to find out the pace we should use for our opening sequence. When we just started to edit the beginning ( Maks and two guards talking up the hill) was quit short and I didn't feel that there is something wrong with it. However later on the whole group realised that we should make the beginning last longer, so audience can clearly see what is going on. The part of the opening sequence when the action began we thought that  audience would like to see straight away what is going to be so we decided that it would be better  if we just showed the whole action part  with fast pace. So basically we edited the beginning of the movie to be slow compared to the action part, which is fast

Our main actor got most of the camera time. We showed him as being victim in our opening sequence. In order to achieve this we added sound of our main actor being hit when guards kicked him, this made audience feel sorry for the main actor as they saw him being hit. We also wanted to show that our main actor doesn't have much power as he is being physically controlled by the guards. This was showed as we could see that during the whole opening sequence (except ending) our main actor was visually lower than other characters. Another example which clearly showed him not having power was the low angle shot looking at Mike who was going to kill him. The opening sequence finished with a close up of Mak's face looking at his saver Dayana and making a thanks gesture with his hand. This was a typical James Bond hero shot.


It was quit important to us the use of sound in our opening sequence so we were carefully checking and listening again to the sound which we created and used. Both non-diegetic and diegetic sounds were used, however not much of non-didgetic sound was used in order for the opening sequence to look more natural. So the film starts off with a diegetic sound of wind howling. Than non-didgetic sound kicks in and we can see the two guards with the prisoner.Afterwards as the three of them came nearer we could her the diegetic sound of footsteps. The non diegetic sound  signifies  a mysterious, dangerous and deep forests of Siberia. The use of such music made it clear for audience that the opening sequence starts negative and this is shown afterwards as we see the two guards holding, kicking and beating the prisoner. We can also hear prisoner's groan as the guards were hitting him. We could hear his groaning until he was thoughn on the floor. As the black bag was taken away from the prisoner's head the non-diegetic sound lowered d own in terems of volume and Mike began to talk. As he finished talking the non-diegetic sound stopped and we saw the sniper zoom followed by diegetic sound of  sniper shot. After the first shot we hear the diegetic sound of reloading which was followed by second diegetic sniper shot and the non-diegetic sound started again.  In my opinion it is quit important to use the sound effectively and right and that was what we were aiming for. The hardest bit  i think was matching the sound of prisoner being hit.


When we were just introduced to final cut pro i never thought that i would be able to use it. But once i got involved in using it, day by day it became easier for me. We spent quit a lot time for editing, in order to make it better. We were trying on different shots and if we didn't like it we had to start all over again. We wee carefully going thought the whole process and agreeing together if it works. So as we worked quit hard on it i dint think there is much to change if i had to do it again. I quit liked the process of editing, first we struggled a lot but then it was allright. I think we worked well as a team. I was mainly advising on which shots to use in which order and what music we should use, while other were more focused on working with editing.

If we compare editing the premlin task and editing the opening seuence i can say for sure that the second task was much more fun and was more interesting than the premlin one. First of all in premlin task we didn't have so much shots to edit, so they were limited. The storyboard was boring, whereas making our own storyboard for our opening sequence gave us more stimulus to work on editing and making it look good. We did much more work in editing the opening sequence than the editing the premlin task. Premlin task was easier to edit as we had one dialogue in the whole thing, while in editing the opening sequence it was quit confusing and difficult to edit because there were a lot of ways how we could edit it and order the shots.