Anodyne: adj. Capable of Relieving Pain
Well, my apologies in advance, as this post is going to be a little on the short side. Not a whole lot to report as far as editing progress, because Scene 10 is introducing me to a whole new level of frustration and annoyance.
The crux of the problem is this: like Scene 9, this scene would have benefited greatly from a rigid, written blocking plan. This is the pool hall scene, where Clint and Andy are talking over a good old fashioned game of 9-ball. Rather than work out a detailed storyboard ahead of time in order to keep track of things, I just sort of made it up during filming. Bad plan. Very, very bad plan.
The good news is, I was able to keep track of the basic order of the scene and have the actors move logically around the table. The bad news is a couple of minor discontinuities that are proving a tad difficult to reconcile.
Here are the first three cuts of the scene, as it stands now. On the left is the establishing shot we did during pickups, where the camera is focused on the cigarette in the foreground, then switches to the actors when the cigarette is taken away. The focus switch was pulled off well. The only problem is that as soon as the cue ball breaks the rack, Aaron and Leland walk around to the other side of the table. I waited to grab the cigarette until it looked like Aaron was about to shoot, so what happens is Aaron leans down to shoot, the cigarette is picked up, focus shifts, and the actors are already walking to the other side of the table.
Trouble is, when we shot the scene, their first lines of dialogue took place on this side of the table (right). In order to cover this gaffe, I cut to a closeup of the cueball hitting the other balls (middle), then cut to the first section of dialogue (right). This kind of sucks because it means that the establishing shot never focuses on the actors. Just so you know, I'll claim later that this was a purposeful artistic decision (like most of the mistakes). At the premiere,if anyone asks, just say: "Yes, he did that on purpose too. It's a brilliant artistic shot and a powerful statement about postmodern ennui." That usually shuts them up.
The next problem is, when we shot that section of dialogue originally, Aaron starts out alone in the frame, breaks, and then Leland walks in frame and they start talking. I have no idea why I had them do it this way, so I'm going to have to cut from the breaking balls to this first section of dialogue in such a way that it looks like Leland hasn't moved. And this is just the first handful of seconds! Oy.
Man, I had no idea how hard this continuity stuff really is. We set out with the intention of carefully tracking continuity issues, and with regard to issues like costumes etc. we did pretty well. It's the little things, like positions around a pool table or the positions of the balls that are killers. Hopefully nobody will notice too much. . .
The crux of the problem is this: like Scene 9, this scene would have benefited greatly from a rigid, written blocking plan. This is the pool hall scene, where Clint and Andy are talking over a good old fashioned game of 9-ball. Rather than work out a detailed storyboard ahead of time in order to keep track of things, I just sort of made it up during filming. Bad plan. Very, very bad plan.
The good news is, I was able to keep track of the basic order of the scene and have the actors move logically around the table. The bad news is a couple of minor discontinuities that are proving a tad difficult to reconcile.
Here are the first three cuts of the scene, as it stands now. On the left is the establishing shot we did during pickups, where the camera is focused on the cigarette in the foreground, then switches to the actors when the cigarette is taken away. The focus switch was pulled off well. The only problem is that as soon as the cue ball breaks the rack, Aaron and Leland walk around to the other side of the table. I waited to grab the cigarette until it looked like Aaron was about to shoot, so what happens is Aaron leans down to shoot, the cigarette is picked up, focus shifts, and the actors are already walking to the other side of the table.
Trouble is, when we shot the scene, their first lines of dialogue took place on this side of the table (right). In order to cover this gaffe, I cut to a closeup of the cueball hitting the other balls (middle), then cut to the first section of dialogue (right). This kind of sucks because it means that the establishing shot never focuses on the actors. Just so you know, I'll claim later that this was a purposeful artistic decision (like most of the mistakes). At the premiere,if anyone asks, just say: "Yes, he did that on purpose too. It's a brilliant artistic shot and a powerful statement about postmodern ennui." That usually shuts them up.
The next problem is, when we shot that section of dialogue originally, Aaron starts out alone in the frame, breaks, and then Leland walks in frame and they start talking. I have no idea why I had them do it this way, so I'm going to have to cut from the breaking balls to this first section of dialogue in such a way that it looks like Leland hasn't moved. And this is just the first handful of seconds! Oy.
Man, I had no idea how hard this continuity stuff really is. We set out with the intention of carefully tracking continuity issues, and with regard to issues like costumes etc. we did pretty well. It's the little things, like positions around a pool table or the positions of the balls that are killers. Hopefully nobody will notice too much. . .
posted by 505 Films at
1:15 AM
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