Your DVX100 Movie Rough Cut
by Margaret Kleinsele

 

Hello, Raw Footage!

Okay, so you’ve finally captured all of your footage onto your hard drive(s) for editing (unless of course you have an HVX200 with P2 cards…wow!) Hold onto your hat, ‘cause for the first time ever – even more so than the production phase of your movie, you’re about to see the movie that you actually have. Not the movie that you set out to make, but the movie that you actually have.

As with most productions like those with the DVX100 or other prosumer cameras, you’ll find that during the rough edit of your movie, you’ll have something amazing. The movie can actually be made in the editing phase. What I mean to say is – you have footage that gives you the flexibility and freedom to mold your film into something other than what you had in mind.

Most do it yourself independent movies allow for a lot of flexibility during the post production phase because usually the productions were made from working around resources, so a lot of the times things won’t go as originally planned during shooting and would have to be somewhat improvised, thus allowing more room for adjustments in editing.

However, that’s not to say that things won’t work out…sometimes things come together in the editing phase and you stumble upon something great that you didn’t even know you had – even if it means shifting the story around.

Abracadabra!

In the early stages of editing your rough cut, you’ll come to know your footage very well. When editing sequences and scenes together, you’ll often find that some things didn’t work out the way you wanted it. But, you’ll also find that some scenes show more appeal than you thought they would. This is where you start to notice the different directions that can be laid out for the storyline of your film.

The further you delve into your rough edit, the more you’ll notice your story begin to take shape. All the bits and pieces are there for you to make your story come together, you just have to decide which makes for a better-paced story for your movie. It may also be a matter of juggling a few scenes around and messing with the sequence of your scenes to help accommodate the story.

A great example I can give you is the time that I was part of the production team of a super-small do it yourself DVX100 project. Anyway, the movie that we all set out to produce was an action movie that had all the elements – realistic looking airsoft blowback guns, After Effects tricks, fake blood and pressure hose squibs, you name it, our little DIY movie was going to try it. We also wrote in a few comedic scenes to provide comic relief in between the action.

Continued on next page: DVX Movie Rough Edit page 2

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