We have moved onto the editing phase of our film!
During the course of this semester, we decided that we wanted to do a three act film and came up with a rough outline for how we could do that. Act I will establish our "characters." In Act II, we will deal with "motivations" for reenacting and the value of authenticity. Act III will allow us to conclude by complicating Act II by delving into how the past relates to the present.
Over spring break, the three of us each reviewed the written transcripts of our footage and came up with our own "editing script." Its weird to think about "scripts" when making documentaries, but I found it to be a helpful way to map out how the different voices that we have captured can relate and build off of one another.
When we came back from break (almost 2 weeks ago now!), we sat down as a team and started clipping our "selects." It took about a week to talk through our individual scripts and place the great clips into a sequence. We then went back and selected footage to include in our 2 visual trains (Kelsey going to a reenactment & Will going urbexing). We hope that these trains, woven throughout the film, will make our movie more captivating. Right now, we have about 3+ hours worth of footage in our initial sequence. Obviously, we can't make our movie that long, so our goal for next week is to edit that sequence to make our first "rough cut." Many long, fun, nights in Gelardin await!
On a more micro level, yesterday I talked with my friend Conor, also making a documentary thesis, about the importance of opening scenes.
We watched a couple that he selected. Here are three of them:
Restrepo The opening scene actually goes longer than this youtube clip. I've seen the whole movie, and it's really worth watching.
Man on Wire Unfortunately, I couldn't find a clip of this online. The opening scene brings you right into the drama on August 7, 1974. Great doc!
Page One The opening scene shows the newspaper being made, then audio and visual newsclips that discuss the decline of newspapers, and then location shots of the NYTimes' beautiful NYC building. Haven't seen the film yet.
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