Workshop Evaluation: 3) Are you pleased with your edit?

Is this how you expected it to look?Identify the successes and failures of your edited version. In hindsight, what would you have done differently at the production stage?



I am very happy with mine and Anisah's edit of In the Sun. We followed the original as close as possible (you can compare it with the original on the corner of the screen), both in choosing the shots and in the timing and editing.

Our edited version was successful mainly because it stayed true to the original video. We were extremly tight with our timing, making sure that almost everything we could match on time to the original was matched, for instance when Ciara shimmys her shoulders in the hallway to when she winks in the gym. However, our edit would not have been as successful were it not for the effort put in during the shoot. The energy shown by the lead, Ciara and the backing dancers contributes to a lot of the mood which the edit gives out.

Of course, there were some shots which we were not able to match to the original perfectly. However, I don't really think this mattered, as it allowed us some lee-way into the types of shot we chose for the final cut. I also liked that the shots we shot in the workshop were slightly different to the shots in the original, as it meant we could afford to be more creative with what we achieved.

As we were editing, we realised that the lighting in some of the shots did not correspond to each other. Though this is not something we could have controlled on set (even with extra lighting) we managed to solve this by changing the brightness and contrast on some shots to make them match (as best as possible) with the others.
After having completed the edit, I realised that our remake of In the Sun turned out better than I thought it'd be. It's great how close we have stayed to the original video, both in terms of camera work, performance and in the editing. However, wuith hindsight, there are several things which we could have rectified during the production stage of the task:

• We had to use the shot of the main male lead closing the locker door from the original video as we were unable to find a suitibale locker. Of course, in this instance we were constrained by our environment, though had we more time, we could have found a way to achieve this.
• The hallway was a bit too narrow for the dancers to spread out behind the female lead. In the end, they ended up looking a bit cramped at certain points in the video. However, once again we were constrained by our environment, and although the hallway was too narrow, that did not stop us from getting great shots!
• There is a basketball hoop in the top corner in the library shots. Had we spotted that on the shoot, we would have been able to correct this.
• In the last shot, as the female lead is walking away a fly flies into shot. Though we could not have possibly stopped this, with hindsight I feel that we could have shot a few more shots during production, as I found the fly rather distracting and because the shot with the fly in it was the only one we could have used.