Day 322

322/365, originally uploaded by Aaron LaRue.

Remember that road trip I went on? Well I started editing all the footage today. It's Monday, and the deadline for the festival I'm submitting to is Friday, so I have a lot of work ahead of me. I took over my kitchen and set up a VERY janky editing bay, and I figured I'd share my ridiculous process.
 


Normally, I would edit the film digitally and then try to cut the film according to the edits on the digital version. Normally. When I projected my film, I tried to record it with my video camera, but I messed up and the digital footage was way too dark. I tried to brighten it up in post and work from that, but my laptop was definitely not prepared for a task like that and things were slow going. Finally, frustrated, I just decided to edit the whole thing by hand.


I knew what footage I had, and I knew what most of it looked like from watching it on the projector. So I decided to go through the reel, separate the different shots, and then edit the film that way. Tonight was spent separating the shots for the most part. I had the main reel with all of the unedited footage right in front of me. As you can see, I stuck a pen through the reel because I didn't have rewinds. I would hold up the pen with one hand, and hold the film to the light with the other, because I didn't have a viewer either. Do you see a theme here? 

I would find the end of the shot, and then cut the film using that gray block thing, called a guillotine. Then I would roll up the shot into a little loop, tape it, number it, log it in the notebook in front of me, and sort it. Takes that were going into the movie went into the can closest to my chair, throw aways in the one behind it. It is a pretty tedious process, but it was actually kind of a zen experience, it was a pretty good way to clear my head. Once I put those headphones one everything kind of melted away, and before I knew it it was 2 AM. I have quite a few long nights ahead of me if I'm going to finish this thing.