At first editing was quite simple, I aligned all the clips together to see how much I would need to cut out - which was a lot. I really didn't want to cut out my introduction to the garden party, where Nancy greets her friend at the door and they drink tea, as I felt I had some really nice shots. However I was 2 and a half minutes in and the poem hadn't even started yet! I also still hadn't added all the clips in as I had some more filming dates which meant I knew I would need much more time.
The next step I had was finding an old fashioned filter that fit my film. I didn't want a tacky over the top filter and most certainly didn't want it in full black and white as I feel the colours in my film make it have a sweeter tone as I feel black and white would make it too sad and serious and I wanted mine to have a mixture of emotions. I finally found a good effect called 'Dry Heat' it was a nice tinted brown colour which worked really well with my 20's theme and enhanced the look of the costumes and hair.
I then began adding in the narration for the poem. I found this difficult to do as when I saw my story in script form, it felt like everything would fit together - but I underestimated the time it took for actions and movements to actually take place, which meant sometimes the clips where too long and sometimes they didn't fit parts of the poem enough. For the narrator, I decided I wanted to use both my actresses who played Nancy. To do this I figured out on a line at the end of the poem I decided I would blend both their voices together and gradually the older version of Nancy would take over and recite the poem. I asked the two woman to read the poem out slowly, so luckily on the lines they fit perfectly together!
The edit became the most complicated when I needed to cut parts to the music (the dance scene) and when I did some choppy cutty parts when the soldier is on the screen. I found it hard to cut the clips without making it look too weird and distorted. I also wanted to cut the ladies dancing to the music at the start of my story however I could only do this for certain parts or the footage wouldn't edit together well.
There was also problems such as continuity. As I filmed the young Nancy's scenes over two days, I had to make sure her hair looked the same. However I unfortunately did her hair slightly different by mistake which I personally think is noticeable as it looks longer (her her is clipped into a faux bob). The second continuity problem I had was the fact that strands of Nancy's hair kept coming out, I tried to fix this whenever I saw it happen, however I noticed on some clips strands of her hair is hanging out.
Throughout the sound edit (after finally getting all the sounds I needed!) I began editing them into my piece, which really brought my film to life. I really like the sound in my film however i'm still unsure on certain parts such as when the sad music comes on when weird things happen to Nancy and when her locket falls on the ground, I think it sound a bit too sci-fi with the bleeping noise.
Finally, I had to create a graphic match in my piece - where one photo from one era blended into another shot of the same photo but 50 years later. I found this hard to do as I stupidly filmed the shot differently... One shot is filmed from the angle looking up, whilst the other is straight on. I found it difficult to match them together however I used the transition fade tool so it makes it look better. I wouldn't have been too bothered about including the graphic match, however it's crucial in the change between the young Nancy and the old Nancy.
As the time limit for the film was only 5 minutes, I feel I struggled to manage time adequately. I filmed too much and had to cut too much out which was upsetting, however I did learn I need to think more when writing the script as although a page is a minute, it could be more if what you write has a lot more going on than you think, or if the characters move slower.
Overall, editing the film has had it's ups and downs but I have enjoyed editing it as it's something I like doing. I've learnt a lot about time management and making sure continuity is always the same as it's hard to fix. If I could change something it would be probably getting a composer for my sound effects as I'm really happy with the chosen music, however I think the sounds aren't specific enough - especially the outdoor sounds which are really off putting.
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