Directions Unit: Rough Cut

From the moment I had my clips available to cut on my hard drive, I started editing. Obviously a rough cut doesn't have to be amazing, but I didn't want to just do half the work and then need to make double the improvements for my fine cut. So I've made it close to how I want it to be and how I imagined it.

I'm very pleased with the outcome. It's turned out to feel a lot more emotional than I expected. I planned on the tone of the film to be slightly depressing with a good sentiment, but thanks to my fantastic actress, she's brought so much more to it. I'm also very happy with the coverage I have. I think as well as having a huge variety of shots to keep the story flowing, I have a lot of powerful, strong shots that play a big part in the story and capture Fincher's style.

I didn't make a list of what I was doing during each step of editing but below is a list of the different things I did to create my rough cut from start to finish...

- Named and categorised each clip for better organisation

Then I worked sequence by sequence. Once I finished doing the list below to the first sequence, I started on the second and so on...

- Put the clips into chronological order in Final Cut
- Started to mix up the shots and angles to make the story and movements flow

After this I started to fine tune the entire film...

- Added my soundtrack
- Cut the clips in a way that timed well with the music
- Tested different lengths for the flashbacks
- Added a static sound to the flashbacks
- Raised and lowered certain sounds (especially the soundtrack during the dialogue scene)
- Changed the exposure, saturation and colouring on every single clip, to make them look colder or warmer

I think one of the most noticeable differences in my clips is the colouring...

I put a lot of time and a great amount of detail into making the film appear cold. All of my clips had very natural and sometimes warm lighting. As this doesn't fit with my David Fincher style or the emotional tone of my film, I needed to change all of them to appear like the shot on the right. I also changed the exposure on the clips to create better shadows and highlights, making it look more professional.

I've had a lot of great feedback from my course leader. He found a lot of positives in my film but gave me a lot of extremely helpful advice that I think will dramatically improve my fine cut edit. I've already started to make the following changes that he suggested for the fine cut deadline...

- Made the image quality of the flashbacks more blurred, bright and unusual to make them stand out

- Removed an unnecessary shot from my first sequence

- Re-edited my conversation scene to start with wide and mid shots, then change to close-ups, and then back to wide to fit the story

- Added a wide shot early in the conversation scene

I just need to make the following changes (the last three are my own changes, not suggested ones)...

- Use light filters on certain shots for a more professional look

- Add lots of sound effects

- Attempt to create a more detailed sky in the conversation scene using filters

- Generally tighten the edit

- Generally fine tune my sound

- Add opening title and closing credits

I think my rough cut has gone really well and I think I'll be very proud of my fine cut.

Here is the rough cut...