Time f&©king flies...
Here's something that isn't juggling around with the camera or putting a tree branch in front of the lens. This is trickier. This has to do with the way you tell your story. Let's talk about...
CONTRAST:
Cutting between two different scenarios may seem like a stupid idea (as I've been ranting about continuity before). But if you know what you want to achieve, you may get a lot out of this technique.
Picture this:
You have the idea to make an edit of your friends going hitting a kicker.
You are all decent skiers, so it should look good. Everyone's stoked.
And yes, if you just want to shoot some skiing and edit it to a song, the idea doesn't have to be more advanced than that, but...
- Don't just build the kicker and then start filming as soon as your friends are klicking in.
Instead use your camera throughout the entire construction phase.
- Shoot shovels, friends shoveling, snow flying through the air, the group assembling blocks of snow, stomping the snow, building the in-run... It doesn't have to take a lot of time. It just requires someone (you as a director/editor) to figure out what you want to capture before you actually do it.
- And don't forget to go extreme. Sweat on someone's forehead. Gloves being thrown. Fingers gripping a shovel.
- Shoot the hard work going into building the kicker.
- Then shoot your friends sending it. Be smart. Use different focal lengths.
If possible, use a little slo-mo (shoot at 60 fps or more – the new GoPro Hero4 captures 120 fps):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9Xsk7noL-U
- - - -
Shooting is over. Now what?
- Even if you don't have a real 'story'. You are now able to create an edit with
contrast:
Element one:
- Your friends are flying slowly through the air. Grabs are legit.
Add Twixtor or a similar slomo plug-in to create even slower slo-mo – like this:
http://vimeo.com/13557939
They are just hanging there... in the air. Spinning slowly.
Element two:
- All that footage of you building the stuff. Cut it raw, rough and fast.
Now cut between these elements. Skiers flying slowly. Shovels and friends working hard. Skiers again. One skier. Next skier. Back to the hard work. Use your good eye and feeling for skiing.
Don't forget to add some happy shots of you and your crew after the session.
This is not the formula for a great edit (you need a few hundred other things as well), but think along these lines and I'm pretty sure you will creat something that's much more watchable than just a heap of shots stacked on top of each other.
The main thing: You are starting to think about what result you want before you start to shoot, which is the key to better edits.
- - - -
The big guns use this technique a lot. William Reynolds, one of the top names in film editing created this sequence (together with Francis Ford Coppola). It's the baptism scene from the Godfather – where the juxtaposition of the murders and the baptism creates something extra. It's literally the contrast between life and death here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfbYp9oaIT8
Just like that, the skiers in mid-air and the hard work will create contrast. Not as dramatic, but... you get the idea.
End of today's lecture. And remember; as long as you are not paying people, don't forget to have fun. It's skiing with your friends. Not boot camp.
See you soon-ish,
:: hkn ::
PS. If you get off to film theory, the principle of CONTRAST is the first rule by Vsevolod Pudovkin, a Russian guy who was one of the first to really understand this: As a film editor, you're not a technician, but more of a psychologist figuring out the relationship between the shots and – most importantly – how they will affect the viewer.
