Post VIII - Editing Style Statement

Now the filming is done, only post-production is left. Now i'm able to write my editing style statement now, which is really important for my practical learning experience.

The editing of a film is always the key process of the film-making. The editing style in our short documentary film Good V!bez will not be complicated however still help presenting our insights and ideas through the entire film. Hence film editing is not simply putting pieces of a film together; it is a creative work with a combination of images, dialogues, sounds, etc., when my job plays a dynamic role in the film-making.

First of all, there will be a montage of a series of video footages took in several music festivals at the beginning of the film. This montage sequence is a short segment in a film in which narrative information is presented in a condensed fashion. The use of montage sequence will contain various different shots that are edited into a sequence to condense narrative, which instead of trying to create symbolic meanings, the use of montage aims to advance the story as a whole, to introduce the background and setting of our film. Within the fast cut festival footage, there will be several point of view shots of the festival goers, building up the atmosphere of the music festivals and giving the audience a sense of excitement and fun that can be enjoyed there. Also, a song will be played in the background to enhance the mood and reinforce the message being conveyed.

We will also be using gradual fade-out and fade-in between different scenes and the purpose of it is to avoiding the ellipsis, emphasizes smooth transition of time and space. For example, at the end of the beginning montage, when the music slows down, the screen fades to black and a few white text facts and statements about the music festivals will be displayed. Again this fade-in/fade-out technique will be used repeatedly during the interview after. The interview questions flash up on screen when the interviewees' responses are showed among them.

We use point of view shot on the interviewees so their reactions will be showed clearly, however they will not be looking at the camera. The interviews are taken place indoor while we keep the lights down, leaving the interviewees sitting in front of a window. The natural light comes through the window makes a much brighter back light therefore their faces will not be seen clearly. This is due to the consideration of ethical issues. Protecting the interviewees' privacies is one of our crew's primary concerns.

Furthermore, we will be using cross-cutting during the interview part, which is a technique that conveys an undeniable spatial discontinuity. The use of cross-cutting is because we planned to show some festival drug use related images or photos among the interviews. We will manage to achieve it by cutting back and forth between shots of spatially unrelated places. Thus, our audience will understand clearly that the places are supposed to be separate and parallel. Therefore the audiences will not become particularly disoriented, and at the same time, builds up the connection between interviewees' responses and the images/photos showed.

In conclusion, there will be no complex editing in our short film since its genre is a documentary. We use montage of video footages to create the festival atmosphere, engaging the audiences; and the point of view shots helps showing the characters' reactions and feelings. The continuity editing will be simple and straight-forward, the use of fade-in/fade-out and cross-cutting helps to smooth over the inherent discontinuity of the editing process and to establish a logical coherence between shots.