Holidays, editing and basic rules

Movies on holiday

Most people take a camera with them on holiday. Putting the resulting prints into an album makes them look more interesting than a random pile of loose photographs. With all long shots and distant views, even though they look better in an album, the result is still rather boring. Even with titles under each picture to say where it was taken, if it doesn’t tell a story and if the shots don’t vary, the result remains boring. But put in a variety of close ups of people with long shots of the setting and make the captions tell a story - then it starts to become interesting Even then, only some of the original shots deserve a place in the album.

The same applies to making a movie. This may all seem rather obvious, but it is surprisingly easy to fall into the trap of shooting only one type of viewpoint. And afterwards, one has to be ruthless to overcome the temptation to use nearly everything.
 
 
 

BASIC RULES

1. Keep it short.
(Attention span.)

2. Look for interesting closeups.
(Variety.)

3. Avoid panning one way and then back again.
(No hose piping.)

4. If a person walks L to R, don’t follow with a R to L shot.
(No confusing cuts.)

5. Vary the angle within reason. Follow long shots
by closeups etc.

 

Why edit?

When I first used a movie camera more years ago than I care to remember the word EDIT never entered my mind. I shot thirty minutes and thought: wow This is a BIG FILM. The length was all important.

The processed film came back in a great big package. I spliced up twenty five rolls of black and white film with great enthusiasm. But the result seemed to last more like five hours. It was a VERY LONG and VERY BORING film. It certainly contained some very good shots and it was then that I discovered the need for editing. I’d discovered the magic word! However, I didn’t have enough cutaways - especially closeups. Now! think “EDIT” as I shoot.

My next holiday film was very much better. I even went to the trouble of writing a script. It is quite possible to do this even if you are with friends who are not involved in making your movie. The ‘script’ need only be a rough treatment - more a reminder than anything - so that the result has pace and flows naturally