Studio Reflection:

Here are the two most helpful points I learned in this course:

1. Systematic and organized categorization of files before starting to edit. Before taking this course, I would throw all the files (whether footage, audio, music, etc.) into one folder. This approach was manageable for small projects, but as projects became more complex, it caused many problems and reduced efficiency. For instance, when I wanted to show someone an alternative edit, I needed to find replacement footage. If the files were organized and labelled, I could easily locate the necessary files. This pre-editing organization has significantly improved my efficiency.
2. Previously, my editing focused on the continuity of action, space, and time. In this course, I learned that the most important aspect of editing is to serve the emotion. Consequently, in my assignments, I consciously ignored the continuity of action and time-space, focusing instead on the emotional continuity between shots. Sometimes, I found that even if the action was not continuous, the emotional consistency could connect the shots, and the audience would not be disrupted by the discontinuity of action. Therefore, emotion should be the primary consideration in editing.

In addition to these points, after learning about being a freelance editor in week 10, I am also attempting to establish my own editing studio. This has given me some confidence in pursuing editing as a sustainable and remote career.

Projects Reflection:

Regarding the narrative editing, I hope the audience can experience the pleasure of unravelling suspense and enjoy the form of cinema. The suspense hidden in the film is achieved through composition and editing (mostly through editing). For instance, breaking linear time, unclear dream entry point, reversing, and accelerated montage. In this sequence, I mainly tried to use color and editing to control time and space. For example, two completely different emotional tones (cool blue and warm orange) were used to distinguish her inescapable sorrowful past from the present she is trying to move forward from. Although I am not skilled in color grading, I achieved some effects through location choices and lighting. In terms of editing, I disrupted the narrative timeline: the film starts with her past, jumps to her voice-over, then to her dream, and finally to the present (her sleeping). This kind of editing creates a suspense-revelation narrative pattern, providing a satisfying experience for the audience. Additionally, for her dream segment, I was influenced by La Roue (Abel Gance, 1923) and experimented with rapid montage. It looks easy, but in practice, it was the most time-consuming part of the editing process. I spent some time to carefully select the shots and extract them. If the selected shots were insufficient, the effect of the rapid montage would not be strong enough, appearing as if only a few similar contents were repeated. Then, I calculated frame by frame how many frames each shot would hold and at what frequency to reduce. Overall, through this exercise, I gained a lot not only conceptually but also technically.

Regarding the documentary editing, this sequence is composed of selected shots from a short film I shot this semester. The aesthetic approach of this short film is very similar to that of a documentary, featuring handheld cinematography, natural lighting, diegetic sound, and non-professional actors. Therefore, I selected some shots and tried to re-edit them into a documentary format. These shots all possess observational characteristics, and in one scene (the delivery person delivering food to a customer), the audience will notice that the camera has its own personality thus revealing there is a person behind the camera. Those characteristics is very close to the documentary aesthetics. In addition, I aim to authentically present the food delivery process in this sequence. Most people only interact with delivery workers when they receive their food but rarely see the delivery process itself. Therefore, through this documentary sequence, I hope viewers will become more aware of and attentive to delivery workers in the future.

Regarding the commercial editing, the overall structure was first thought to extract shots with quality of Photogénie from the trailers of the films that will be shown at the cinematheque this year. Since these shots do not have narrative coherence when connected together, I could only rely on their visual appeal to attract the audience’s attention and curiosity. This created a challenge in editing, as their connection was weak, and the sound, images, actions, and emotions were not connected. The solution I thought of (and indeed the common solution for such videos) was to use non-diegetic music to link them together. Thus, I smoothly edited them together using the rhythm of the music.

In the middle of the video, the original plan was to interview the president of the cinematheque. Just as he was about to explain “why young people need to go to the cinematheque,” I would cut to the text “let young people discover for themselves.” The reason was that I believed the visual part in the beginning was already attractive enough. Adding language to persuade the audience might be too much, and considering the rebellious nature of young people (they tend to do the opposite of what elders say), I decided on this solution. However, due to COVID, I couldn’t interview the president, so I abandoned this part.

The final part of the video is to inform the audience about the content, time, and location of the cinematheque and to call for action. Due to the short timeframe, I couldn’t get the moving version of the final image from the cinematheque. If I have the chance to modify it in the future, I will change the final still image to a moving one, as it would be more appealing.

Collaboration Reflection:

First of all, the most challenging part of being a director is visualizing the script and ideas. Due to my terrible drawing skills, I can’t create a clear storyboard, causing the inefficient communication with the crew. Later, I learned that many directors do not draw storyboards, such as Hong Sang-soo, Zhang Lu, and Hou Hsiao-hsien. They are still able to effectively execute their ideas on set, which, meanwhile, influences their film aesthetics. This inspires me to find alternative ways to communicate. However, despite this, I will strive to learn drawing as I am in the learning phase and should not limit myself in a single container.

Filming process is never smooth; there are always unexpected interruptions. Through practices, I learned that I am not an emotional person, and I can mostly maintain the smooth operation of the set during filming no matter how sever the interruption is. Therefore, I think that being a director does not only mean being an artist, but also an entrepreneur, as it is critical and necessary to communicate with the team in different ways based on each person’s personality. For example, some people are calm, and you can communicate directly with them, while others are more emotional, and you need to calm them down first. This method is also applicable to directing performance. Sometimes, a director is like a deceiver. You don’t necessarily have to explain the script literally to the actors. If you can elicit the right emotions from them using feasible methods, any appropriate approach is acceptable. Sometimes, you might even tell the actors something completely different from the script. When an actor’s performance is shown on the big screen, the audience only sees and feels the external result, without knowing what the actor is truly thinking internally.

To sum up, the most important thing about collaboration I’ve learned in this semester is communication. Without efficient and effective communication, a genius idea could turn to a disaster.