The Jeslync Screenplay Importer (SImp) for Moviestorm is currently in a closed beta cycle.

More info to come . . .

TIP: Editing Dialogue Scenes Exercise

Antidote turned out to be quite the editing exercise for me, as well as a blocking exercise. In spite of being a musician, it turns out I have next to no intuition for timing when editing dialogue scenes.

As I was wrestling with the editing and reading guides online I thought, "Gee, it sure would be nice to have raw footage available to play with and test out different editing decisions."

Well, I didn't really think that because I did have raw footage to play with. But I did think it would be nice to provide raw footage for you to play with. I've posted all my bad cuts of antidote here so you can join me on that journey, plus the raw takes and dialogue so you can experiment for yourself! Heck, I might even post a link to your remix if you send me one!

Let's all learn to edit dialogue scenes together!

The Situation

I'm a new student of Per Holmes's The Master Course in High End Blocking and Staging. The private user forums contain blocking exercises, generally consisting of a scene from a screenplay. To do the assignment you post your camera plot with explanatory text and Per and others give you feedback. Here's what mine looked like:
If you can decipher it it will help you figure out which camera goes where in editing later.

During the first part of the scene, Dawson keeps his body turned slightly away from Campbell.

Camera A:

1. Camera A begins pointing down at the memo on the desk being fidgeted with by a hand.
2. Slowly push in on an angle while tilting up to reveal Dawson's troubled face. Continue with the angled dolly move, pivoting on Dawson.
3. When the door is in view, Campbell steps into the back of the shot and moves to his first mark as the camera continues to pivot around Dawson into an over the shoulder on Campbell.
4. Once Dawson moves to his second mark per the script, this camera is done.
5. Also get a locked take from the first position as an internal reverse on Dawson. Good until Dawson's move.

Camera B:

1. Matching locked internal reverse on Campbell, good until Dawson's move.

Camera C:

1. Begins as a right angle master for the scene, framed with artefacts in the foreground.
2. Dawson walks into the foreground of the shot and begins to handle the artetefacts.
3. Boom up and reframe into a close-up on him, with Campbell in the background for a deep-staged OTS. It lets us into Dawson's personal space as he turns further away from Campbell, showing that he's hiding something.
4. Campbell moves to his second mark for his line "Sir if this virus came to America" in an attempt to be seen by Dawson and enter his space. The camera pivots on Dawson into an external reverse on Campbell.
5. When Campbell exits the camera pivots back to its original mark ending in a close up on Dawson.
6. Also get a locked take from the first position as an internal reverse on Dawson.

Camera D

1. Matching locked internal reverse on Campbell.

Camera E (Optional - not sure if I need this or not)

1. Begins as a one shot on Dawson.
2. Campbell walks into the foreground making it an external reverse to match camera A.
3. When Dawson moves to his second mark, the camera pivots around Campbell to keep him in frame and become a matching external reverse for camera C.

I'm conflicted about camera E because when it moves I almost certainly want to be in camera C. Also because throughout the scene I mean to keep Dawson alone in his reverses while allowing Campbell's reverses to contain Dawson to contrast their understandings of the present state of the relationship. For Campbell they are united because he doesn't realize that Dawson is hiding something. For Dawson, he is alone and we alone are allowed inside his personal space.

First Feeble Efforts

Yes, that was long, sorry. I got a greenlight on this plan, so I decided to film it in Moviestorm and put a rough edit together.

Version 1: Antidote.mov

After hearing that the timing of the edits left something to be desired I worked through the following iterations on my own, none quite getting it:

Version 2: Antidote_2.0.mov
Version 3: Antidote_3.mov

At this point, Per's advice to me was to watch two people talk and pay attention to when I look back and forth. I want to feel in my gut when to cut to the other person, because my curiosity shifts to that person. Not having any people handy (it was the middle of the night and I wanted to edit this) I watched an episode of BSG. This led to a more frantic edit:

Version 4: Antidote_4.mov

Starting Over Systematically

I was a little cross-eyed at this point. I had lost my ability to feel the dialogue. So, I looked for a system. I found this: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Movie_Making_Manual/Scene_Editing

Per cautioned that this might confuse me more and to stick to my gut. I think he's right in the end, but this helped me find my feet. I worked through these steps as far as they applied to the footage and audio that I had.

I cut the dialogue pieces together, solely based on how the timing sounded. Then I made a boring edit, cutting to each speaker right in the middle point between lines. I only allowed cutaways for spots where the lip movement wouldn't match the sound. There was no regard for the meaning of the shots with this edit.

You'll remember that I wanted to keep Dawson's reverses one-shots to emphasize his view of the relationship and his isolation from Campbell. The next cut was the first pass at this, but still kept to the "boring" timing. Still no thought to shot size and meaning.

Now I also shot reverses for Dawson that were two shots - dirty over the shoulders. I tried these for the next take in the first half of the scene.

For the next edit I tried to make motivated cuts close and far based on meaning. I no longer have this version. The final version replaced it. Lastly, I rolled the edits to emphasize Dawson and make sure that it was his scene. I tried another pass rolling the edits to favor Campbell just to feel the difference.

Finally, after more feedback from Per and my wife, I tweaked the edit again. After moving to close shots I stayed until the scene relaxed a bit. This flowed more smoothly than what I had been doing. Then I added a new Jeslync id intro and music.

The "Process" Versions:

1. Version 1(audio only): Antidote_01_Locked_Audio.mp3
2. Version 2(boring): Antidote_01_boring_w_cutaways_4_sync.mov
3. Version 3(boring w/ one-shots 4 Dawson): Antidote_01a_ boring_w_cutaways_4_ sync__1shots.mov
4. Version 4(boring w/ two-shots 4 Dawson): Antidote_01b_boring_w_cutaways_4_sync_1n2shots.mov
5. Version 5(boring edits, but meaningful close shots): Antidote_02a_-_w_closeups.mov
6. Version 6(cuts rolled to emphasize Dawson): File replaced by final version.
7. Version 7(cuts rolled to emphasize Campbell): Antidote_02b_-_rolled_2_campbell.mov
8. Version 8(final version, emphasizing Dawson): Antidote__02b_-_rolled_2_dawson.mov

Passing the Torch

Okay. That's what I did! If you're still with me, now it's your turn! Here's what you need:

antidote_raw_media.zip

Take a look at the readme.txt in that zip file. It has helpful information for you.

Let me know if you find these useful. If you send me a link to your version I'll post it here.

Your Versions

The works contained in the zip file antidote_raw_media.zip are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

All other Jeslync video and audio media on this page is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Jeslync Pictures is an independent film and software production company in Vancouver, Canada. And by company, I mean me, Stephen Aument.