Last night I finished editing Death Grip, much thanks to help from producer/co-star Rebecca Ahn, co-stars Chelsea Steffensen, Nathan Hoskins, the cast and crew, friends, family, and industry pros. I loved the process of editing, but in the future I'd rather not do it again. I'll still edit action scenes. I can churn out a [...]
Editing
Your film’s trailer – How to shoot for it, and editing tips
onFor the past month I've been toying with making a new Death Grip trailer that's more "mainstream" and suited for international markets. It's been far more difficult than I had imagined. Here are the things I continually find in error while I cut this thing: No one-liners One-liners tie the story together in a really [...]
Death Grip Sound Editing
onWith the rough cut of Death Grip done, I decided I'd do my editing fixes while replacing all the audio with the external sound. I'm guessing this will take me about two weeks, which puts it just in time for the holidays, and soon after that we'll (hopefully) have copies in the hands of various [...]
Surgery Time
onI've laid all the bricks for Death Grip, and I did a one-man preview. I'm happy as hell with it, and I've got eight hundred notes, none of which even touch sound. But I wanna sync audio already because a rough cut still needs to be heard. I downloaded Plural Eyes, which allows you to [...]
Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol fight scene emerges, and it kinda blows
onWatch Lea Seydoux's back fist magically turn into a hook punch at 0:31. Maybe they chose to promote this fight because it's two good looking women trading fists. Guys like that, but we also like stuff we can see, and we want time to focus on what the hell they're doing. That's why we liked [...]
The Five Stages of Editing
onEditing often equals grief. So it's fair to use the same five stages. Stage 1 - Footage Review (Denial) After a review of the footage, you realize the edit is not going to be the cakewalk you thought it would be. You blame your actors, DP, wardrobe and prop department, and your previous self for [...]
Long Takes with No Cutting – Why Bother
onCheck out this Cinemetrics site, which has a database for Average Shot Lengths (ASLs). Here are the Die Hard films: Film title: Date: ASL: MSL: Die Hard 1988 4.8 3.3 Die Hard 2 1990 3.1 2.1 Die Hard: With a Vengeance 1995 1.8 1.7 No big surprise. Here's a comprehensive chart of US feature films: [...]
Screenshot of the Day
onRay Carbonel and Chelsea Steffensen in Rise And Fail. Shot by Drew Daniels.