Major Project: Dailies Process & Results

Following my research into dailies and preparations for this task, filming of Double Exposure at its main location began on Monday 20th February and finished on Friday 24th February, with the remaining scenes at other locations shot on the following Monday and Wednesday, wrapping on the Wednesday 1st March. During this time, I underwent and completed my tasks of creating and presenting dailies to the crew.

Set-Up

My previous research on dailies prompted me to make decisions on the types of folder/bin and file naming and organisation that I wanted to follow before and during filming. As I've never created dailies before, this research and pre-production decision making was very useful.

Firstly, using a 2TB hard drive that guaranteed having enough space for large Blackmagic files, I set up the initial folders that I wanted to use for organisation during both production and post-production:

Hard Drive Layout

'Audio', 'Dailies' and 'Video Footage' were created for my dailies process, and 'Cuts' and 'Outtakes' were prepared for later in editing. The remaining folders that will be added during post-production are 'Music' and 'GFX'.

To further prepare for sorting each day and scene's audio and video, I created bins for each day and scene under Audio, Video Footage and Dailies. Along with creating bins for atmos tracks, SFX (sound effects) and potential ADR (automated dialogue replacement) in the Audio bin:

Day by day layout

Scene for scene within each day layout

Audio bin layout

All of these organisational bin set-ups and labelling were extremely useful in organising all audio and video from each scene and day to their assigned bins.

Also within audio, I created bins that would separate audio recorded in-scene to match footage, and audio that was recorded after each scene for the purposes of Foley or atmospheric tracks for sound design (as requested in my sound list, which can be found on my journal). I'm very glad that I did this, as not only was it a useful tool when navigating my audio in the dailies process, but this also benefits the organisation of audio during post-production:

Separate audio layout

Once all of this was complete in preparation of both production and post-production, I was ready to start.

Work Space & Work Hours Changes

The initial plan for the dailies process was for me to edit on location after each scene was filmed and finished, with my work continuing into the night to create dailies for the overall day. However, during the first shoot day, we realised that this wouldn't work for the following reasons:

• The small house location only had two rooms; the living room/kitchen and the bedroom/bathroom. One of which would always be in use for filming, and the bedroom was always used as a dressing room, with a bathroom that didn't have a door (meaning the bedroom would need to be vacated every time someone used the bathroom). So as neither room was possible to use a work space, I didn't have anywhere on location to edit the dailies.

• To digitise each scene's footage and audio after completion throughout the day would have taken up hours of filming time due to the size of the files.

So, we decided as a group that from day 2 onward, the footage and audio from each day would be digitised after filming had finished at the end of each day, handed over to me, I'd edit the dailies at home throughout the day and evening on the following day, and I'd give them to the crew that night. This meant that I had my own work space where I could keep my focus, I wouldn't be in the way of filming on location, and the whole editing and delivery structure could be more organised.

Workflow

After learning how to use and perform tests in Adobe Prelude for downgrading our footage's quality in pre-production, alongside my organised bin set-ups, I was aware of the system that I wanted to use for creating dailies each day. My daily workflow from start to finish consisted of:

• Separating all clips from the current day of filming into their correct Video Footage scene bins by identifying shot types and content within the clips, with knowledge of all scenes in the script.

• Listening to all audio tracks from the current day of filming and identifying which scene they belong to, or if they're foley/atmos tracks, and sorting them into the correct Audio bins for each scene.

• Working in linear order of the script, for example I would work on scene 2 before scene 5, even if they were shot the other way around that day. I feel that this helped me to identity continuity issues and get a feel for the flow of the content in the script.

• Watching each individual clip within each scene to identify their focus (character, prop etc.), shot sizes (CU, WS etc.), any movement (crabbing, tracking etc.), possible locations (car interior etc.) and which take of the shot it is (e.g. a= take 1, b= take 2 etc.).

• After watching each clip, naming them based on what can be seen, using my previously decided labelling structure (as found in my last post) - such as 'CAR-INT-ECU-a' or 'CAR-TRACKING-WS-b'. Making the clip/shot type easily identifiable for editing. As can be seen below:

Clip labelling Scene 1 (original) example

• Once completing a scene's labelling, undergoing the lengthy process of putting the scene's footage into Adobe Prelude for creating downgraded copies from Apple ProRes 422 to H.264 quality. Allowing for smooth editing on my Macbook (as previously discussed on my journal). A process that required transcoding each scene one at a time, and sometimes took up to 2 hours per scene. Using this time wisely, I continued to label the rest of the day's footage, creating a cycle of labelling and then transcoding the footage once the previous scene was finished. Also, by labelling all clips before creating copies in Prelude, the low qaulity footage was already properly labelled and reviewed, instead of needing to complete this tasks again with the copied clips:

Transcoded footage Scene 1 (original) example. Clip copies are now .mp4 instead of .mov

• When finishing clip labelling, listening to the scene and take number details of each and every external audio track within each scene, and pairing them with the correct clip in order to label them with the same details. Making the audio and clip pairing very easy to identify both during dailies and post-production:

Scene 1 (original) label pairing example

• Unable to edit each scene's dailies on Adobe Premiere Pro at the same time as Prelude transcoding footage due to freezing and lagging issues, once Prelude was finished, I began editing each scene. Consisting of...

• Creating a new Premiere document and project for each scene, saved into the the current day and scene's Dailies bin.

• Importing the lowered quality clips into said project, and undergoing the process of selecting appropriate clips to cut together to tell the scene's story. Although the process was completed faster than average in order to meet a short deadline, detail and thought were still put in to selecting which shots to use and the overall timings of cutting them together. This way I could decided whether the shots will cut together smoothly in post-production or not.

• After completing each scene, creating a new project for the entire day's dailies, and putting each timeline's components into one timeline. This was helpful to see if any linear order scenes cut together smoothly, and to have all scenes from the day together in one project.

• Rendering the timeline, followed by exporting the dailies into a video that can be given to and viewed by the Director and Producer that night.

Day 1 and all dailies Adobe Premiere workflow/project examples

Alongside making a large amount of extensive notes, and keeping in contact with the Producer and Director throughout each day to confirm whether reshoots would be needed or not (both of which to be discussed below), this was the step for step workflow and task list that I completed for all seven days of dailies' organising and editing. By using the same system for every day, my workflow was smooth and organised, and prepared me for the type of workflow to use in post-production.

Once finishing all dailies' editing and filming had wrapped, I then added all dailies scenes to one project/timeline, rendered and exported it, for our group to watch and review the following week, and for my own review before post-production.

Notes

During each day of reviewing footage and sound, along with cutting together clips and scenes, I made sure to make a lot of notes for the Producer and Director to read. I feel that by writing down all of the positives from the day along with all of the issues that need to be corrected, it gave the crew a sense of where the strengths and weaknesses were within filming, and alongside contacting them directly, this made them aware of the reshoots needed and why, and any issues that we may face in post-production.

Below are examples of my notes' set-up and an examples of a day's notes:

Day 4 Example of my notes

Issues & Reshoots

During the first 5 days of filming (the house location), the schedule was set for filming 20 scenes, averaging at 4 scenes to be filmed a day, at specific times of the day for lighting. However, within the first day of filming, there were issues with sound equipment that slowed down the process, along with the initial set up time of dressing the set. This caused the first day's scenes to become slightly rushed, and I felt that I could see that within the footage, due to a lack of coverage, limited shot types, and too much use of shaky handheld shots.

I was very aware that the entire crew only had a limited amount of time to film all 20 scenes, however I knew that the Director and DOP hadn't captured what they wanted the scenes to look like, and upon reviewing the dailies of that day, they agreed that they weren't happy with their scenes. I therefore said that in order to produce scenes that capture the look and feel that they originally wanted, and for the scenes to cut together smoothly - which was crucial in my opinion, they needed to reshoot 4 out of 5 of day one's scenes.

As this had a large impact on the rest of the week's shoot by adding 4 more scenes to the week, it sometimes caused other scenes to become rushed. As I was reviewing all footage and cutting it together back to back, I was highly aware of extremely strong and well shot scenes in comparison to those that lacked this, and I felt that to get the best for the film, certain other scenes needed to also be re shot, due to the same issues as above, as well as some scenes not capturing the impact that they needed - such as scene 19's original shoot not making a character's death appear realistic or emotional enough.

In total, five scenes needed reshooting (1, 2, 5, 17 & most of 19), with extra shots filmed within the same week for two scenes (18 & 20) and pick-up shots needed at a later date without actors for three scenes (7, 8 & 21) - to be discussed in another post.

Although my pointing out of all issues and reshoots needed in my editing notes and conversations with the crew put a lot of pressure on them during the first five days of filming, I knew they were much happier with the results of the re shot scenes, and that the end result of the week of filming was to a very high standard.

I feel that with all of the successful original scenes, paired with the re shot scenes, and extra audio and clips from their original scenes, the film is able to be cut together very smoothly.

A less drastic reshoot example of the improvements made between an original scene and a re shot scene are in the H.264 dailies videos of scene 5 below...

Scene 5 Original

Scene 5 Reshoot

Improvements:

• A clean static CU instead of an unbalanced handheld shot.
• A better framed, smooth tracking shot of the couple.
• A more intimate shot of the kiss and hands - CU.
• Much more varied coverage and shot types.

Results

Overall, by having a clear organisational structure for Double Exposure's video and audio files, I was very well prepared for post-production editing as well as dailies editing, with no further labelling and bins required, as it was all well prepared. Also, by undergoing a fast-paced editing workflow in Premiere, I got great practice of cutting together our film within tight deadlines, I feel that this is also very helpful preparation for the post-production editing workflow.

Due to the amount of reshoots required during filming, I'm extremely pleased that I undertook the tasks of creating and reviewing dailies, as without these reviews and flagged-up issues during the production process, we wouldn't have been able to reshoot any scenes with actors, and the film wouldn't be quite as smooth and professional as it's proving to be with those reshoots and considerations made. In summary, I think that the dailies had a very positive impact on the film, and gave me a great start to moving on to post-production.

Major Project: Dailies/Rushes Editing Research & Preparations

During the production/shooting of Double Exposure, my task was to create dailies/rushes for each scene filmed after each day of filming. Before shooting commenced and before I began however, I knew that it was important to conduct research into what exactly dailies/rushes are defined as, why they are created, how they are used, the best set-up and workflow to use, and the effect that they have on a production.

Overall Research

Dailies or Rushes?
The first area that I wanted to look into was the difference between dailies & rushes.

Dailies, known sometimes in the UK as Rushes "are prepared at the end of each day's shooting to be viewed by the director and other staff later that night or during the following day. This allows them to make sure the footage is acceptable and free of technical problems. If any scenes need to be re shot, it obviously makes sense to do it immediately while sets and actors are still available." [1]

- This is a fantastically clear way of describing the use of creating dailies during the production phase, explaining that when creating dailies I would be preparing them at the end of each day of filming and presenting them to the Director & Producer the following day, in order to decide whether shots or scenes need reshooting and whether the footage cuts together. Allowing for time to reshoot during production, instead of needing to set up expensive reshoots after filming has finished.

Rushes, however, are evidently a more old fashioned term, as they can be described as "the raw footage from a day's shooting. The "rush" refers to the speed with with the footage must be prepared — this was more of an issue in earlier days of movie-making when film footage needed to be processed before viewing." [2]

- Although dailies may often be referred to as rushes, the definition above and many similar definitions that I've found describe my task a lot less accurately, so the cuts that I would be creating and presenting during production can be best defined as Dailies instead of Rushes.

For further definitions and descriptions of dailies in film, I found more information on the term and process from other sources.

"All material shot in one day of productions is called dailies  ... Traditionally dailies are dropped off at the lab at the end of day and are available for screening the next morning." [3]

- The above description was useful in further clarifying the overall task of creating dailies.

In 'Cinematic Terms', Dailies are defined as: "the immediately processed, rough cuts, exposed film, or first prints of a film (w/o special effects or edits) for the director (producer, cinematographer, or editor) to review, to see how the film came out after the day's (or previous day's) shooting ... used to determine if continuity is correct, if props are missing or out of place, or if sound is poor, etc., to help decide whether to re-shoot." [4]

- This was another extremely useful extended explanation of the task, describing dailies as being a roughly cut, quick cut version of each day's scenes, without any special effects or special editing. Also described as being used to check for reshoots if continuity is incorrect or if their are technical issues.

Although I had a small amount of knowledge on the purpose of dailies before conducting the above research, the information that I learned was very helpful in giving me an understanding of the overall ways that dailies are cut (roughly, 'rushed' to meet time quotas), when they are created and presented (created after each day of filming, most commonly presented the next day), and their important purpose during production (checking camera shots, continuity, for any technical issues - overall checking for any reshoots needed before filming ends).

Preparations

Testing

Once I knew exactly what I would be undergoing and creating for my Director & Producer after each day of filming, the DOP and I discussed the viability of being able to complete these tasks with our camera footage. As we'd be shooting with a Blackmagic camera that produces extremely high quality footage that digitises into very large video files, it was possible that an issue could come up with attempting to edit such large files on a MacBook laptop (the only equipment that I would be able to edit the dailies on in order to edit either on location or locally and overnight), as this could cause the laptop to either run too slowly or freeze, stopping me from being able to edit.

So, we decided to test our Blackmagic camera footage in pre-production, by the DOP recording a number of clips on a recce day at the location, and giving the clips to me to test editing on my laptop. When testing I found that a small amount of clips took a long time to copy from one hard drive to another due to their size (although the resolution was slightly higher than the real shoot's footage would be), and that the clips made my editing software, Adobe Premiere Pro, run slower and slower. As these clips totalled at 2 minutes, and our film would total at 15 minutes, it seemed likely that editing the dailies in their full high quality and size would not work.

I then decided that the best solution would be to make lower quality - and therefore lower file size - duplicates of the clips in order to edit the dailies on my laptop. With tips and guidance from our course technician, I found that the best way to do this was through Adobe Prelude, a software that allows you to simply make copies of footage and transcode them into lower quality files.

With further help from an Adobe Help page [5] and another useful online guide [6] describing the best ways to transcode high quality footage into low quality footage using Adobe Prelude alongside Adobe Media Encoder, I was able to downgrade the quality of all of the Blackmagic test clips. An example of their change is one 10 second clip went from 1.39GB in Apple ProRes 4444, to just 16.8MB in H.264, while still retaining the same frame sizing and 25 FPS (frames per second).

Screenshot example of transcoding the test clips in Adobe Prelude before them being put through Adobe Media Encoder

Although it was evident that using Prelude for my real dailies would take a very long time as the software took a long time to convert a small amount of clips, I was then able to edit the low quality footage very smoothly and easily in Premiere. Meaning that the problem was solved, and that I would be using Prelude to make low quality copies of all footage from each day in order to create dailies for Double Exposure.

Below is the Dailies Test Result Video exported in H.264:

Vimeo Link

Password: TVP

Set-Up & Workflow Research

Before beginning dailies, I wanted to find out the best ways to set-up and organise my workload such as folder organisation and file naming, as this would help me to make the footage and sound recordings easy to navigate and locate, and help me both now and in post-production to identify each clip by well described names. As editing the dailies of the film are the first step in editing the whole production, it was very helpful to learn the best ways to handle the steps of editing and keep everything organised.

In an extract from Elliot Grove's Raindance Lo-To-No Budget Filmmaking book, he states that the first stage of editing is 'Logging', which is explained as...

"The dailies or rushes are sorted and labelled in ‘bins’. Each take can contain extra notes from the director or the cinematographer. This is the first time the editor sees the film, and since it is shot out of sequence, it is out of context of the story. A good editor views the rushes and looks for fluidity of movement and nuances that will later be incorporated into the film." [7]

- This advice and guidance on the first step of editing allowed me to consider what system I wanted to use for organising bins/folders that contain each day's sound and footage, alongside sparking the idea to create my own daily notes on the scenes and the ways that they cut together.

Another article provided tips the best ways to organise scenes and each day's footage...

• "Organize the dailies according to script order, so that Scene 11 always comes after Scene 10, no matter what the shooting order was.
• Arrange the dailies in the order in which the film was shot, which helps the director remember the day better.
• Organize according to which camera the takes are from (when multiple cameras are used). For example, the director might like to see all the shots from Camera A then Camera B for the same setup. So 10A-1 "A" is followed by 10A-2 "A" and 10A-3 "A," then 10A-1 "B" and so on. Or, the director might like to organize it so 10A-1 "A" is immediately followed by 10A-1 "B." [8]

- The first bullet point helped me to make the decision of creating the dailies and presenting them in script order, as to follow the story properly. The second allowed me to consider separating each day's scenes and footage properly as to clarify exactly what scenes where shot on which day, and the last point started my decision making for the types of names I wanted to use for each video file.

Another source of information came from an article that explains effective ways to organise your edit from the start...

The website's image below shows an Editor's folder/bin labelling and organisation before beginning editing or logging [9]

- This guide and image helped me to decide on using a very similar layout for my dailies' folders and labelling, for example using 'Audio', 'Video Footage', 'Day-01' etc.

The final source of information helped me with extra workflow tips and clip naming ideas:

"Always hyphenate file names to separate words instead of using underscores.  Aside from being easy to look at, file names with hyphens are more web friendly (search engines can parse out the words).  For instance a good looking filename would be “project-name-client-name-v6.mov” [10]

- Although the name example differs, with a combination of my research on file and bin naming before beginning editing dailies, I decided on a naming system of beginning with the subject in shot, any movements, shot size, and ending with a lowercase letter to represent which take of the shot it is. For example a shot in scene 1 could be 'EMILY-CAR-EXTERIOR-TRACKING-MCU-a', or in scene 3 'WINE-BOTTLE-CU-a'. I feel that this is a personalised but professional, and effective way for me and anyone else to identify the clips, and it combines well with my naming systems for folders/bins.

I feel that the research that I conducted on dailies, preparations for my work, and the exact structure and organisational workflow that I want to use, were extremely helpful before beginning the editing process in the production phase of the film. Without this research, the organisation of the sound and footage may not have been well structured, also meaning that it would be unstructured for post-production, and it may have slowed down my work process. But with this research, I was able to fully understand my task at hand, undergo tests and preparations in pre-production, and decide on my own personal approach to dailies.

References

1. Dailies Explained
2. Rushes Explained
3. DAILIES AND RUSHES
4. Film Terms Glossary: Dailies
5. How to ingest media clips with Adobe Prelude
6. The Adobe Prelude Workflow (Part Two): Ingest and Logging
7. THE 6 STAGES OF EDITING AS A FILM DIRECTOR
8. Organizing Materials
9. Nine Steps to Organized Video Editing – Documentary & Fiction Film
10. File Naming for Video Editors, Designers & Photographers

Major Project: Pre-Production Editing Checks - Finalised Shot List & Sound Recordings List

Alongside the importance of and Editor participating in the shot list for the film, another key area of pre-production is the Sound Editor making a list of sound recordings that are needed during production in order to have full effect in post-production.

Sound Recordings List & Research

As the Sound Editor, it is important to know which key sounds are needed for the film before production, in line with the content in the script. For example, for a scene that involves a character hitting their head on a blunt object to be truly powerful, that *WHACK!* on the object needs to be clear and have an impact on the audience. So, when making note of all sounds in each scene, from dialogue, to foley (previously mentioned in a research post), to sound effects, it's crucial to know which sounds are necessary to be captured in-scene and which sounds need to be recorded externally with our audio equipment.

Therefore, I needed to make a sound recording list for my Director and Sound Technician to use on shoot days, ensuring that all sounds that needed to be recorded externally would be. For example, the sound of car keys starting up a car, or the sound of atmospheric birds in the garden - having these sounds recorded individually and clearly will highly improve sound design in post-production. In the more crucial areas, examples such as characters whistling 'Twisted Nerve' in Double Exposure's script needed to be recorded outside of the scenes they featured in, so that in post-production the tune can play through the scenes, as if it were only recorded in scene, the sound would become cut up and out of sync when cutting between shots.

Before creating my sound recordings list, I conducted research to clarify just how important the Sound Editor's tasks are in pre-production...

"Instead of simply taking audio into consideration once you get on-set, you should be preparing to make your audio amazing before production begins." [1]

This is true of all crew members during pre-production, as while sound may be overlooked when focusing on the visuals of filming, it is just as important.

"Always schedule time to record natural sound while you are on-location. Picking up several minutes of nat sound* from every location is important for preventing choppy audio in post. Be sure to record additional nat sound every time the audio environment changes." [1]

*nat sound is also known as ambient. I.e. recording a track of the just the ambient sounds of the location - even if it's just silence.

As mentioned above, a Sound Editor, along with all other crew members need to remember that recording ambient tracks of each location are key for smooth sound in the edit of a film.

"During pre-production don’t forget the audio: discuss story elements, additional recording elements beyond the dialog track and plot strategies to capture the best sound at each location at all times." [2]

Research such as that gathered from the quote above was very helpful in prompting my discussions with the crew in pre-production that I would be creating a sound list, and that it's vital for the list to be used in production.

"Ten minutes on set a day recording Foley, Walla, room tone and backgrounds will give the picture editor an arsenal of sounds while creating the temp edit.  All of those recordings forwarded to audio post will give the supervising sound editor and sound designer the raw materials to help you tell the story in the world that has been defined by all of the other recordings." [3]

"Don’t just get the shot, capture the audio universe of your shoot as well.  You’ll tell a better story, have more creative resources available during the initial picture edit and save yourself a few dollars in post while enhancing the quality of the program." [3]

These quotes are extremely insightful on the ways that sound recordings greatly improve on capturing and telling a story alongside it's visuals.


List
Following my research, I created the list below for my Director & Sound Technician to use by re-reading the script word for word, and making notes of every useful sound to be recorded...

Sound Recordings List Download

Screenshot example

While the sound list may be overly detailed, I wanted to be thorough, and I feel by providing my crew with this list, they were able to keep a clear focus on audio after each scene. In relation, I plan to create a list of sounds that need to be obtained on line to aid the sound design of the film, further into post-production.

Finalised Shot List

After receiving my alterations to the first draft shot list for Double Exposure, the Director and DOP proceeded to incorporate my notes and additions from the coverage list, and created a fine-tuned second draft, then sent it back to me. Evidenced in how much the shot list had improved on coverage and detail, it is clear that when the Editor of a film is involved in pre-production decisions, the overall decisions of the project can become much more detailed, with ideas coming from an entirely different perspective - one that focuses on the way the scenes will cut together.

While the list was much more detailed in not only coverage, but with shot labelling and movements, I had some final and small additions to make to the list, including sound design additions. These sound additions were incorporated following my sound recordings list creation, indicating at the start of particular scenes where in-scene sounds such as an alarm clock beeping need to not be included, as they need to be recorded separately in post-production.

For the most part, the visual changes, notes and additions were based on what I felt could be effective shots added to scenes, parts of the list that seemed to be errors, and further coverage that was required for the shoot. I think in line with my sound additions and sound list, the materials that I helped to improve on for the film became much stronger and ensure a well covered film.

Here are screenshot examples of my final shot list changes...

Screenshot example

And here is the link to the entire altered final shot list...

Final Shot List Editor Alterations Download

Following my alterations and the final script for the film, the above shot list was made the finalised copy.


I think that my input into the pre-production parts of film-making have had a positive impact on the production and post-production of Double Exposure. Focusing on getting as much coverage as possible, and ensuring that sound is made a priority and focused on just as heavily as the visuals during shoots. Also, by making the above lists and alterations, the dailies/rushes process and post-production will be benefited by the shots and sound changes and additions from undergoing these checks - as mentioned in my past research.

References

1. 5 Tips for Planning Your Audio in Pre-Production

2. PRE-PRODUCTION AUDIO FOR POST PRODUCTION SOUND

3. DON’T JUST GET THE SHOT

Major Project: Pre-Production Editing Checks - Coverage List

In order to use my mind set, skills and overall thought process as an Editor to full effect for the creation of Double Exposure, I have been making sure to stay involved wherever's necessary in the pre-production of the film. This will benefit all of us during production days, and definitely benefit the chances of the film being of high quality in the post-production phase.

So, as part of undergoing my role as Editor during pre-production, I have been reviewing drafts of the script to date to give my opinion from a post-production view point, and most importantly, checking, altering and giving feedback on our DOP's coverage shot list so far.

Before I completed this task, I thought it could be very helpful and supportive of my work, to conduct research into why and how an Editor should participate in the pre-production phase of a project...

Research

Gathering information from a particularly helpful source, I found the following quotes to be the strongest...

"Although the cinematographer and editor work in different phases of projects, by collaborating early, their synced efforts will result in a better final film." [1]

- I strongly agree with this, while I will be working with our cinematographer/DOP during post-production when he colourises the material. I need to have a strong professional relationship with him on the project in order to obtain the best possible shots for editing.


"The D.P. shoots and the editor takes the footage and turns it into a movie. However, the one phase where they should collaborate is pre-production, which Alfred Hitchcock considered to be the most important stage of filmmaking." [1]

- Again, this a strong point. If the best possible shots are not planned and then captured during filming, and if there's no chance to re-shoot, the final result will never be as strong as it could have been if the DOP and Editor had collaborated on shots in pre-production.


"If the editor participates with developing the shot list, he or she will have a clear understanding of what to expect upon delivery of the footage. Oftentimes the editor sees the footage for the first time while watching the dailies and then must make sense of all the disparate images they receive. However, if the editor participates in pre-production, then he or she has a clear sense of what the director wants in the final film." [1]

"Editors are storytellers, but from a technical end. They know how the pieces fit together to effectively communicate dramatic and emotional expression to the audience, as well as determining proper pacing of the story. All films will benefit if the editor is involved in the early stages of planning, working with the cinematographer so that both are on the same page about how the director wants the story to unfold visually." [1]

- These are key reasons as to why I am very pleased to be involved in pre-production, as it will benefit my work in both creating dailies/rushes (to be further explored in another post), and in post-production. Having been knowledgeable on why certain shots are used, how, and where in the story they are meant to be, due to collaboration and planning in the early phases of production.


"An editor can identify other potential editing problems ahead of time and suggest supplementary ideas for coverage. For instance, if the director is planning an extended take, an editor can see opportunities for alternate shots to cut to in case the extended take doesn’t work. The editor can also point out places where insert shots and cutaways can be used for the best effect." [1]

- This is my exact mind set during pre-production checks, and will continue to be how I approach my work during rushes editing in the production phase. While the Director and DOP may have a large focus on more drawn out master shots, I will consistently make sure that there a large amount of cutaways, establishing shots, and general coverage. This will ensure that nothing has been left out by the time we get to post-production, and that I have a lot to work with in order to tell the story to full effect.

Coverage List

Before checking and altering the final draft shot list to be created for Double Exposure, I have made a large amount of changes where necessary to the unofficial coverage list, created by our DOP. This will benefit how detailed the final shot list is, and allow me to only need to make small alterations to that list.

Highlighting my additions and changes in yellow, and adding Editor Notes under each scene, I carefully read through the DOP's general coverage shots alongside the Director's matching 7th draft of the script, altering all 23 scenes in detail. An example of this is below...

The Coverage Shot List document with my alterations can be found here.

While this is an overall version of the shot list, I noticed how the mindset of an Editor and a DOP differ when it comes to considering coverage. I think that while a DOP may think of the main shots, an Editor thinks of every area that could provide extra, but important material for editing. Along with alternatives to any risky or ambitious shots such as in Scene 18 above.

I think that by collaborating on this list, it will benefit the quality of the final shot list - which in turn will highly benefit the entirety of the film. Making sure that every single effective shot is captured, and allowing me to have full understanding of each shot when creating rushes and working on post-production.

The DOP, Director and I will be discussing my feedback and changes to the coverage list in a meeting this week, and I will soon be making changes to the official shot list and discussing it further here.

References

1. Effective Pre-Production: Collaboration Between the Cinematographer and Editor

Major Project: Contacting Editors & Update

As part of my research into the role of an Editor, I decided that a great way to get insight on working in the industry first hand, would be to contact production and post-production companies, and have their Editors complete a questionnaire. I also felt that by conducting this research sooner rather than later, it gives me a lot of time to wait for responses, and make further or extra contact if necessary.

I decided that by sending a questionnaire, I'm able to gather the answers and information that I'm looking for in an easy and simplistic manner - as opposed to contacting Editors and bombarding them with a long list of interview-style questions that they may not have time for.

Searching for Companies

When searching for the right companies to contact, I started simple. I made a list of common UK television channels that I could contact to gather information on who edits their popular television shows. This consisted of...

• BBC
• ITV
• Channel 4
• Channel 5

I then moved on to finding production companies to contact, both in the UK and US. Focusing on both smaller companies and larger, more famous companies. This allows me to have a chance at getting a response from very large production companies, while at the same time being more likely to receive a response from smaller corporations. I decided on the larger companies to contact based off of general knowledge of who they are, and found the smaller companies through a helpful website that lists many [1]. The production companies were...

• Studio Lambert
• NBCUniversal
• DNA Films
• Pinewood Studios
• Warp Films
• Warner Bros.
• Universal Studios
• 20th Century Fox
• DJ Films
• Viacom

Lastly, I found a large number of post-production companies that I feel will be very helpful in answering my questionnaire - as they are the most likely to have lots of in-house Editors. I firstly located these companies through another helpful online list [2], then through simple Google searches, and then through following the companies on Twitter, and researching other post-production companies that they follow themselves. These three methods allowed me to gather a large number of companies to contact. But another helpful way to find a few extra companies that I hadn't heard of myself, was when attending the RTS Futures Careers Fair, in which I talked to a lot of production companies, who told me of helpful editing companies that I didn't know about.

Alongside this, I located a former student of my course; Gabrielle Casey on Twitter. As she is now moving up her career path in editing and already has a lot of experience, I thought that she could be very helpful in providing her insight into the job role - along with the likelihood that she would be willing to help me in my research, having previously been in my position.

In total, the post-production companies that I made a list of were...

• Envy
• Halo
• Bang Post Production
• Silverglade
• Suite TV
• Splice
• The Farm Group
• Dynamic Post Production
• Encore
• Evolutions
• Atmotion
• Clear Cut Pictures

So, my list of contacts (including Gabrielle) totals at 26. I feel that this number gives me a good chance of receiving at least five answered questionnaires, which would be very helpful.

Contact

I found that the least time-consuming (yet still affective) way to approach contacting these companies, would be through email/contact forms. This allowed me to contact a lot of people in a short amount of time - instead of spending days attempting to speak to someone over the phone for each company. However, if within the next month or two I haven't received enough responses, I will begin making phone calls.

While the list above is the final list of companies that I got in contact with, there were several companies that I considered. However, I found in my research that many production companies include in their FAQ's that they do not help with student research. Such as Paramount Pictures and Dreamworks Studios below...

While disappointing, information such as this helped me to filter out the companies that would definitely not be able to help me and the ones that potentially could.

Before sending out emails and filling out contact forms on company websites, I created a long and short template of what I wanted to say to each company, carefully deciding on the information that I wanted to get across. Below is an example of the email I sent to Warp Films, this is the general longer template that I sent out when possible...

I think this message provides the most crucial information, an interest in their company, and gets across how eager I am to learn, without the email being too long.

When restricted to a word count, such as when filling out an online contact form when I couldn't find an email link, I sent a shorter version of the template, as can be seen in an example below...

"Dear Pinewood Studios,

Hi, I’m a student that has a very high interest in editing for film and television. So, I decided that it would be very insightful to learn more, directly from an editor’s perspective.

It would be amazing if any of your editors (at any career level) would be interested in filling out a short questionnaire on their thoughts or experiences in the industry? If so, please let me know where to send the e-document, it would be greatly appreciated!

Kind Regards,

Megan Waters"

Although I couldn't include some useful information when sending out this message, I think it still gets straight to the point and provides what's necessary.

So, I contacted all 26 people/companies by email and contact form using the above messages as a guideline.

Creating the Questionnaire

Once my emails and messages were sent and I was waiting for my first responses, I used this time to create my research questionnaire. This process started by conducting research on questionnaire templates, while simultaneously deciding what types of questions I would like to include. Although I couldn't find a questionnaire template that matched my own research topic, I found some helpful layouts online, such as the one below...

This helped me in learning key things to include, such as my name, the purpose of the questionnaire in a title, a short description with thanks, and a thank you message once finishing the questionnaire.

When deciding on my list of questions/topics before creating the questionnaire, I decided on general questions such as name, age etc. and then thought hard about the areas I really want to learn about. Alongside this, I used a book called 'First Cut: Conversations with Film Editors' by Gabriella Oldham [3]. As this book is full of questions asked directly to Editors, it was extremely helpful in creating my own questions that I hadn't considered before. From this research and thought process, my initial list of questions that I wanted to include were as follows...

• Name
• Job title
• Top 3 responsibilities
• Age range
• Education background
• First professional position
• Genres/areas of work
• Years in the industry
• Pressure levels
• Hours of work per week
• 3 key editing tips
• Memorable experience
• Why did you want to be an editor in one sentence?
• 3 favourite things about your job
• 3 words to describe yourself
• Further career goals

Once this list was ready, I moved on to making the questionnaire on Microsoft Word. I thought that this would be the perfect software as almost every company is very likely to have and use Word - therefore able to open and use the document with ease, and this software allows with interactivity when created for specific purposes - such as questionnaires.

Although I'm very experienced in Word, I needed a bit of extra guidance in creating a professional, interactive questionnaire. So I used two separate websites together to help me in a step by step process from beginning the creation, to adding each feature, to testing the questionnaire, to saving it in the correct format [4] [5].

With the help of research and rethinking some of my questions, the completed and functioning questionnaire can be seen in screenshots below...

I'm very happy with the end result of my questionnaire, I think that it's well structured and easy to use, professional, and has questions that will really help with my research. As I reworded and changed some of the questions, the list along with why they are useful is below...

• Name: This will help me to distinguish who each questionnaire is from.

• Job Title: This will give me insight into how high in their career path they are.

• Age (range): Allows me to distinguish the types of age range alongside their job title and years in the industry.

• University Degree: Gives me insight into the types of degrees Editors typically come out before starting their career.

• How long have you worked in this industry? (year range): This shows me how long it may take to get to the job position they're at, and how much experience this person has.

• What was your first professional position in this career path?: This indicates how an Editor may break into the industry.

• Which production types have you worked on? (tick boxes): This provides knowledge on how many areas an Editor may work in.

• Which genres have you worked on? (tick boxes): This also shows how many different genres an editor may experience working on. Also, along with the above question - if they have worked on a short film and/or thriller, their experience and insights are even more helpful for my major project work.

• What would you say are your top 3 responsibilities?: This allows for comparison with my own responsibilities and insight into the job's tasks.

• What are 3 things that you enjoy about your job?: This gives me insight into the positives of working under this job role.

• Which part/s of your job put you under the most pressure?: Insightful in what I may experience both in the major project and as an Editor in the future.

• What was the most memorable project that you worked on and why?: Allows for comparison to my own work and examples of what I could experience.

• What are your 3 key editing tips?: Extremely helpful advice on what to do and what not to do.

• What are 3 important skills that you feel an Editor should possess?: Also extremely helpful advice on the type of attitude, traits and skills that I need to possess.

• In short, what do you think makes a good Editor?: Insightful words on the best way to work successfully in the industry.

I think that the answers that I receive from these questions will be extremely helpful for not only my work in the Major Project, but for future reference when I begin my own career path to become an Editor. I think that the information I receive will be a combination of insightful experiences and career steps, alongside very helpful tips and advice for the best ways to work as and Editor - directly from professionals in the industry.

Results So Far

Within the last week, I have received mixed responses from my sent emails and messages. Firstly, I received email replies from 20th Century Fox, BBC and ITV who sadly told me that they either did not have the time to respond to all of the research-based questions that they often receive, or that they do not typically provide information to outside sources.

Similarly, Channel 5 and Studio Lambert responded saying that they couldn't help me themselves as they do not have in-house Editors, but they kindly pointed me in the direction of companies that may be able to help such as Viacom and Clear Cut Pictures, who I proceeded to research and contact.

Although so far I have mostly received responses from people that can't help with my research, I have also received more positive responses. Firstly, former student and current Editing Assistant Gabrielle Casey was extremely co-operative and sent me her completed and very helpful questionnaire soon after receiving my message.

Alongside this, the post-production companies Envy and Atmotion have recently replied, saying that they are very happy to help and answer my questionnaire. Having eagerly responded and sent them the questionnaires, I am now waiting for them to be sent back.

I'm happy with my results so far, and I hope that more of the companies that I've contacted will respond soon and be happy to help with my research. Once this process is completely finished, I will write about my final results, and present the finished questionnaires that I've received.

Update (April)

Months after my initial contact with many companies, I received no further responses. And unfortunately, the post-production houses Envy and Atmotion didn't proceed to complete a questionnaire for me. Following up with this, I contacted these companies by telephone and they said that they were unable to get to working on it right now. I then contacted the other unresponsive companies that I had previously contacted by telephone, who also told me that they were unable to help me. This was a disappointing result, however I'm very pleased to have received a questionnaire back from Editing Assistant Gabrielle Casey. Here is her questionnaire below...

I found this completed questionnaire to be extremely helpful in learning about working in professional, industry standard editing. Learning about how quickly you can progress if you work hard, and the broad areas that you can work in was very inspiring from this. Gabrielle's answers also provided a lot of helpful advice for me before editing, including making sure to get to grips with the technical side of editing, always making copies of work and backing it up, and the type of calm, but hardworking attitude to maintain in my work and future roles.

Although my results were disappointing in quantity, I'm extremely pleased that I attempted to make contact with so many companies, and managed to learn a lot and feel very inspired from just one questionnaire, I feel that this process was very beneficial.

References

1. The UK's top 40 film production companies

2. The UK's top 50 post production companies
3. First Cut: Conversations with Film Editors
4. Create forms that users complete or print in Word
5. How to Create Fillable Forms with Microsoft Word