‘What Never Was’ To ‘Elsewhere’: Back to Production, reflecting on Test Shoot Editing Feedback

[16th-20th January] Dissertation is over, and we are back to work on production! We are looking to be in every single week Wednesdays and Thursdays 10am-5pm to get some solid work done. For this post, I will be reflecting on the feedback I received for our test shoot edit. Our project name has changed from What Never Was to Elsewhere!

Test-Shoot Feedback

The test shoot is well constructed and offers a very good insight into the overall look and feel of the film. It may have been beneficial to choose a moment that explores the interaction between the characters as this is the main premise of the film, however you give a good account of the transition between worlds, which is very effective. Some strong cinematography and the editing works well. Overall, there is good continuity and the change in worlds is effectively cut together, however there are some instances of crossing the line and these do not look deliberate. Good consideration to the sound picture relations, however the score would benefit from revisiting. Good experimentation with the visual effects – while not completely effective, you have created a good starting point for further conversation.

Reflection

Our group’s approach to the test shoot was to explore what works and what doesn’t. We acknowledged the crossing of the line when filming but felt that it worked as we were changing “worlds”. We will be revisiting this, though, to increase the effectiveness of the transition. We have been discussing different approaches, especially when we are at the beach, to allow more freedom in where we can shoot from for it to still transition from the previous scene smoothly.

In conversation on the visual effects, we had tried green screen and a white muslin sheet. I ran into issues with the green screen as there was a great amount of green spill that required finetuning with rotoscoping in After Effects. Still, we ran into problems with hair, and are looking to use the white muslin sheet again for our actual shoots. Because of this, I will be practicing at every opportunity we get (especially when we have our confirmed location) to finesse the door shot. In terms of the sink, that was a very last-minute decision. We don’t have a production designer on board yet, and so had to work with what we had. We will be brainstorming on efficient ways to move forward with Eleanor’s hallucinations at the sink.

Anyways, on to the next week! I am excited to move forward and on to production!