Cutting Down

Although my first cut is considerably reduced, there is still almost two minutes of excess footage that needs trimming in order for my short film to reach the appropriate length of 5 minutes. In this post I have highlighted the changes and cuts that I made in order to bring the running time down. 

I started back at the beginning and worked my way through narratively. The first reduction I made was to eliminate one of the opening shots entirely. This is because I didn't like the way in which the dutch angle shot (screenshotted above) shows Dylan at a distance, and then the next shot rises up from the can on the floor to act as a slow reveal for the character. It felt like two separate introductions trying to achieve different things, the first showing a sense of detachment and isolation through the long shot, while the second shot implies his unstable mentality through the lingering image of the alcohol can. I opted to delete the first shot because the second was more dynamic and even though it was a little shaky, it carried more meaning. 

Here I clipped the ending shot to scene 1 (where Dylan pursues the Father out of shot) in order to quicken the pace for the transition into the next scene. Doing this enabled me to reduce the length whilst also making the pace more consistent and intensifying as it progresses. 

The screenshot above is another example where I deleted the shot entirely. This is because the scene is supposed to be fast paced with expectation of the murder at the end, but the speed at which the characters are walking felt incongruous with the speed of the other shots, confusing the pace. Additionally I found that there isn't enough character engagement occurring. Although both Dylan and the Father are in the shot, we can't see either of their expressions and so there is no characterisation, meaning that the shot only serves to show the physical distance between them. I didn't feel like this reason justified keeping the shot in the film. 

I had mentioned in my individual editing of this scene that I was debating the value of the establishing shot in the frame above. On reflection I decided that I didn't need to signify a new setting because the locations are supposed to seem continuous and the natural progression from forest to forest edge is already visualised in a believable transition. Therefore drawing the audience's focus to the coast in a separate establishing shot stresses the change, which unnecessarily detracts from the important character moments taking place in this scene.  

Although directly inspired by Justified, and although it worked very effectively in that example, I do not feel as though my film adopts the same tone to accomplish this. To some extent it comes across as theatrical and unbelievable, so I have cut this arc shot before it shows Dylan raise his gun because I don't think that he needs to point it for a second time in the film, much less pretend to pull the trigger. I wanted this shot to show how he is considering the potential outcome if he had pulled the trigger, but I think that I achieve the same effect in the low angle shot of the gun that comes later on. It is a much more nuanced and thoughtful alternative that brings the focus from the gun to Dylan's expression.

Going back to the start again, I kept trying to trim clips without making them seem rushed or brief. For shots which seemed to linger for a little too long, I clipped them (as shown above) to keep the main part of the shot in the narrative but also develop the overall pace.

Looking back at the sequence which intercuts between Dylan's and the Father's strides, I decided that I didn't need to cut between them a second time. It feels repetitive and tedious and in my opinion works more effectively just once since it maintains momentum and doesn't linger on their legs for too long. This enables the camera to get back to the character's expressions and body language a lot sooner. 

In my first cut I had the problem of the same dialogue being used in two separate shots that sequentially follow each other. I decided that the best way to resolve this was by trimming one of the shots so that the speech is only detectable on one occasion. With this continuity issue overcome I had deleted around 1 minute of footage, leaving 43 seconds more to trim. The current cut is available to watch below.