Classwork: Editing Practice

This blog post contains the work I did in my lesson on how to successfully edit. My teacher filmed the footage but Me and Tisha edited it together. My teacher also provided the template for the blog post. 

Why is continuity editing important?

Continuity editing includes making sure that items like props or costumes stay consistent from scene to scene. But the more important work lies in editing shots together in a way that leaves viewers thoroughly grounded in both time and space.

Different types of continuity edit 

• Straight cut (cut)

• Eyeline match 

• Shot /reverse shot

• Cutaway / Insert 

*Match cut

Footage

Here is the footage that my teacher shot which utilises a variety of camera angles and movements. The scene is very simple, it involves a student standing up and leaving the classroom. A single shot here might be quite boring for the audience, by editing and combining the shots together we can make the scene feel more dynamic. 

My editing process

Here is me and Tisha’s first attempt with some errors on Capcut. We edited the clips together, thinking about what shots to use to make the scene more interesting. The hardest part was probably trying to perfectly split the scenes at the right moment to create a smooth cut. 

There was a filming error towards the end where the subject walks to the side, but in the next shot, he's walking forward. We minimized this error by cutting the shot of him walking to the side a little short, and making the next shot longer. Here is my final scene. Editing multiple clips together made the scene better because it was smoother, more entertaining for the watcher and overall made it more dynamic.

This screenshot shows how during the editing process, Me and Cassie tried two different version of the editing. Where at the end we ended up using the scene on the top. 

This screenshots shows the error of trying to match the scene where it changes from the character to open the door to the person from the outside about to close the door. 

This screenshots shows the error that was cause by the camera error and not the editing error, as the character went the other way making the scene to be not continuity. 

This screenshots shows the error in trying to make the leg to match up with the other scene. 

Reflection 

This tutorial will give me some insights on how to edit and preform last minute changes just incase my group’s editor is unavailable. I admit I’m not the best with these kind of things however I think it will be beneficial to improve my editing skills. My biggest challenge was using the software itself as I don’t usually edit. Next time, I’ll familiarize myself with the software and play around with it more to further improve my editing. Unfortunately, I tried adding screenshots of our editing process here, but I had some technical issues and it wouldn’t let me add them. 

Shooting Practice: Thriller Scene Recreation

This blog post contains a mini project that helped us learn how to shoot a cinematic scene. We did this as a group. Blog itself is done by Eileen.

My teacher told us to find a scene from a movie in our genre. Our task was to recreate this scene we have chosen from
 the movie Missing 2023. 

Here is our Final Video! From 00:25 - 01:22

Here is our storyboard

After conducting this mini project, we have discovered that there were problems and solutions with the

 technical elements that we had to go through, and what we have to be more aware of for the future, from 

our previous experience.

Camera

Problems:

The problems we had with camera were just with inaccurate camera angled shots we took as we recreated

 the photos from the actual movie scenes. We didn't have any problems on needing specific advanced 

quality cameras as pictures from the movie were also being snapped on a handphone, and the scenes we 

chose were filmed through a computer/laptop scene, to which we just had to screen record everything. 

However the problems we mentioned that we encountered with the camera angles were when replicating 

the screen recordings where Tisha (who we chose as our actor) had to appear on frame with the exact same 

camera angle as the actor on the movie had. As well as, where we had to replicate the photos from the 

actual scene including a "Live Photo" where Kim (another member of our group which we chose to be one

of the actors/muse as well) had to recreate as it is also an important staple of the scene.

Solutions:

Solutions we had for this problem was to take our time and remain consistent in double checking to be as 

precise and similar to the actual scenes as possible. By doing this, our recreation turned out to be pretty 

similar and accurate from the actual scenes, including the recreated pictures we took.

Next time:

We will learn from our experience and improve by using more professional equipment to recreate specific

 pictures from the scenes. As well as practicing more on how to conduct certain camera angles properly to 

get the most accurate result as possible as we attempted to do a recreation/replication.

Sound

Problems:

There weren't much problems for the sound as the scenes we chose to recreate did not require any diegetic

 sounds, but instead, needed non-diegetic sound which was the tensive music from the actual scenes. 

Additionally it is also difficult for us to find any similar audio that give off a similar vibe toward our 

scenes, making it risky and can potentially be incompatible with our scenes.

Solutions:

We decided to download the actual soundtrack from the YouTube video we used to determine our scenes, to 

make it as similar to the actual scenes and to avoid any copyright from choosing any different soundtrack.

Next time:

We will research more on the soundtracks of scenes we choose to recreate to make our project easier to 

conduct with more accessible soundtracks to input into our scenes. As well as being more prepared for 

future scenes needing diegetic sounds by not filming in a noisy classroom like we did for this project, 

since we did not need any diegetic sounds then.

Edit:

Problems: 

Problems during the editing process included getting the accurate speed and duration of each scene to be 

exactly the same with the movie itself, as there were some scenes that we recorded were too fast and some 

were too slow. Another problem was that in one of the scenes in the original scene, there was a scene of a 

zoom in cut motion that was used to emphasize the photo in the scene where it was difficult to have a 

smooth zoom transition. 

Solution: 

The solution for the editing problem was to cut some parts of the scene and change the speed of the scene 

in order to make it the same duration. Cutting some parts of the scene did not have any major effect on the 

project outcome, rather it made it smoother. For the zoom part of the problem, we cut parts of the clips and

 resize the part where it is needed to be zoom

Next Time: 

For next time, we will need to understand the scene more to know how the story goes and memorize how 

long each scene lasts and is being done, in order to get the exact similar outcome with the original scene. 

Another way is to have the original scene side by side during recording and/or the sound so that during 

recording it would be easier to just follow through the actual original scene. We will also need to learn more

about the features in the editing software in order to have a similar smooth zoom and improve our skills to 

get the outcome that we are expecting. 

Mise-En-Scene:

Problems:

For Mise-en-scene the problem was that we couldn’t find the right props that would match and have a 

similar feeling with the original scene that we were trying to recreate. Another thing, this is for our actor to 

make the accurate reaction / acting that is similar to the original scene. As some reaction was complicated

 for our actor to do.  

Solution:

The solution for the problem was to just use the props that we have, making it look as similar as it is 

shown on the screen. Like for example the ‘drinks’, we didn’t have the same type of glass but we made 

the holding of the glass to be similar to the photo we are recreating. For the acting part, we tried to make 

a reaction to sort of be similar but still having the same feeling with the original scene. 

Next Time: 

Next time, we will need to learn to be more prepared and find the right props in order to match the scene 

more perfectly to be seen by the audience. Another thing was to pick the right actor that can act well in a 

certain situation.

Behind the Scenes IMAGES

- Our group recreating the pictures from the actual scenes

Personal Reflection:

I was personally absent when my team carried out this shooting practice as I was still overseas, so sadly I wasn’t able to contribute to the video. However, my teammates did relay the tips and tricks they learnt from the shooting practice to me which we will apply to our final video. I’ll try to catch up for all the lessons that I’ve missed!