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Once this was done I started assembling the film using clips and camera sound, but also taking note as I went of both spot SFX and other creative elements of sound design that would be useful to gather in order to enhance the film's impact. Some of these had already been discussed prior to production but most were purely experimental, such as using a high-pitched tinnitus sound when the bag is pulled from the character's head at the start.
With the first scene I opened to the shot of Laurence in extreme close-up, with a very shallow DOF that conveyed his wooziness and confusion.
For the first time we had shot this scene, we had used another lighting change to convey the character's eyes adjusting to the bright light from total darkness, turning down the dimmer on the light after a few seconds. It was our main intention to put the audience in the experience of the character at this point, sharing the same confusion, hearing the same sounds and having the information about his location revealed as he would find out.
On the second basement shoot, we hadn't used this extra lighting change but I still wanted to keep its effects, so I duplicated the clip, added large amounts of gain to the top clip and faded it out over several seconds - which worked well.
After this I used the shot of his hands bound by rope, and then once the interrogator begins to speak, I moved into an OTS from his perspective, revealing his presence only when the character becomes aware of it too. As Laurence looks up I cut to a POV shot of the interrogator, a decision I put a lot of thought into. I considered the effect of not including the interrogator in this pre-titles sequence to create mystery for the audience, but ultimately without it the take of Laurence was too long, and I needed the extra cut to maintain the pace and tension.
The final shot of this sequence, although slightly soft due to the camera movement, worked well as a transition into the next scene, and with this in mind during production we made sure to hold on it for a number of seconds afterwards.
As I was assembling the film, I was previewing each clip and take for the best as during production we didn't have the time to write camera reports and log shots for most of the scenes. This was not a problem at this stage as generally the last take has been the best, but I anticipate this will make things very difficult for the sound cut coming to match audio with the clips.
During the titles I introduced the sound from the TV from the next scene, easing the cut as we completely change location, mood, atmosphere and perspective. I edited with the TV during the rough cut as we wanted to match the lines from the TV Bigfoot documentary with Ed lounging on the sofa - as had been our intention from writing the script.
From here I cut immediately the Bigfoot documentary on TV - using chroma key and blur to position it within the frame.
We hadn't noticed the similar hue from the light on the windowsill during production, which was also being keyed out - but fixing this was simply a case of applying another layer without the chroma key effect.
From here, as we'd discussed, I cut to the pull focus of Ed's foot as he sits on the sofa, It was our intention to draw as much comedy from the comparisons between Ed and the descriptions of Bigfoot on TV in this scene, and so I spent time making sure the timing of each worked well. The visual contrast between this scene and the first also was indicative of the move to a much more light-hearted tone, saturating the set with colour whereas the first scene lacked it.
From here, due to the amount of coverage we attained, the scene cut together quite easily and I had options for creating meaning from the shots used. For example, the wide shot of the room including part of the TV was useful to establish the geography of the space, as well as to show what they are looking at before cutting to the TV.
The side-angle shots of the characters were the most useful for the quick, shot/reverse shot dialogue between the two characters, and the depth provided by having objects in the foreground was much more visually appealing than the singles, which excluded the other character awkwardly.
That said, I used the single shots at several points to emphasise when the character has a view that is specific to them, or that the other character disagrees with - creating a visual divide. For example, when Ed says 'Believe what you wanna believe mate', or when Laurence voices his feelings about the videos they're watching.
The key to editing this part of the scene was to convey Laurence's thoughts as he comes up with the idea for using Ed in a hoax video. I re-edited this part a number of times before I was happy with it, changing the timings around for cutting between the two characters. To emphasise the strangeness of seeing Ed in the suit, I used a slight digital zoom outwards from the shot. With the movement of the character's head backwards, this worked well to create a slight warping effect.
I also used a slight digital zoom inwards after seeing Ed in the suit, a convention used by many films (particularly to precede a montage) to infer that a character has an idea, or that we are moving into their thoughts.
With the transition into the next scene, a sequence where we see a montage of Ed and Laurence designing and making the costume, I was unsure how to include all of the footage we had taken of the different actions. In the script this sequence, including the speaking scenes we had shot in the bedroom, had all been part of the same montage, but starting to cut that with the music we had chosen did not work as it lacked the same pace. Omitting the fast-cut montage scenes we had shot and going straight into the speaking scenes worked but lost all of the energy without the music and the other actions.
Ultimately, I created a short, fast-cut montage sequence using our quick action shots to the music, and used the slider shot in the bedroom to cross-fade into the next speaking scenes (without music). Although this essentially creates two montage sequences, and would ideally have been integrated much more, we had not really considered how the two would work together at the script or the shot list stage, and so this workaround was necessary. I also rendered the sequence separately for the group to preview and approve, explaining the situation.
Creating the montage itself was quite simple, with the upbeat country music track we had chosen guiding my cuts. The sequence essentially presented its own logic for structure, as Ed was in a number of scenes gathering items and performing actions, whereas Laurence was sat at the desk attempting to design the costume. Therefore, I tried to cut between them chronologically, as Laurence's designs became more and more developed.
Cutting the scene in the bedroom following this was again made simple by our coverage of the scene, using the master scene method. Starting with a two-shot to establish the characters in the setting, I moved into OTS shots of them both, which allowed me to use the strongest performance from each character. As I had essentially presented the edit in writing the script, the inter-cutting scenes worked smoothly, and I used J-cuts to transition between them with pace.
For the short scene where Ed takes out the camera from the wardrobe and inserts the tape, I split the shots into short, punchy actions with associated sound effects, using a digital punch-in similar to the style of Edgar Wright to exaggerate the action further. For the scene with the video camera following this, I added a generic 'Rec' overlay to the image as well.
To transition into the next scene we changed the angle of the shots to medium close-ups, again using a slow push-in with a cross-fade to move into the next scene. Having our scene transitions included in the script definitely helped us when it came to production as we made sure to hold on each shot, giving enough time for the fade into the next scene.
Again, the coverage in the Grindleford scene was enough to have options when editing the scene; OTS shots from both character's perspectives, a CU and MCU of Laurence, inserts of the paper and, even though I did not need to use it, a wide shot of the entire scene as a contingency (below).
The more challenging part of the scene to edit was the ending where Ed walks out of frame past the camera. Again, we had identified this as our transition to the next scene by using a J-cut as he shouts 'Action', From here we used the XF305 footage made to look like the video camera, before including the shot where both characters review the clip.
When I shot this scene I had this specific edit sequence in mind as we couldn't show the characters filming or looking at the screen on the props camera. This worked well in the edit, and the particular shot is one of my favourite from the entire film due to its framing and the performance of the actors.
The transition into the following scene, a news report showing the monster in the woods, was difficult to make look convincing. I used a news jingle and flash to white to make the initial transition, then used a customized and animated news lower-third template to provide the aesthetic - combining 6-7 layers of text and animated clips with alpha channels.
I had initially given the task to get the lower-third to the rest of the group whilst I began the edit, but as nobody provided anything I had to find one myself. I also didn't have the time to customize it fully and add tickers and other information to the screen.
The next scene with the reporter was our sequence shot, and so we had a large number of different takes to select from. When choosing the one to use, we looked at a number of elements, including lighting, performance and camera movements. In some clips some of the elements were better, but others worse, so I opened it up to the group to select their favourite - uploading all of the takes to a playlist on YouTube.
In the end the clip we chose was a strong balance of all the elements. From here I transitioned to the next scene where the villain is watching the news report on his laptop screen. This was by far the most difficult and time-consuming part of the film to edit due overestimating our ability during production and not getting a backup to use instead.
Using a green screen on the laptop, we aimed to pause the news screen then track outwards to reveal the laptop and the villain's hand. However, due to my inexperience with motion tracking and masking, and our limited available time, this was not possible to achieve and I had to look for an alternative approach.
After failing to key-frame the screen in a number of different ways, I placed the video within the keyed-out frame and then took a screenshot of the image together. From here I used pan/crop to zoom out from the screen, mimicking the tracking shot we had used. However, I could not get the zoom out to match the smooth, eased-out movement of the tracking shot, and without the move through 3D space it looked very poor.
Instead, as a final work around, I used a shot of the villain clicking the mouse as Laurence is talking to stop his speech, then cut to a subtle zoom in to the laptop (creating tension and conveying Laurence as the villain's focus), then to an ominous reveal of his character. Although the instant switch to the other scene as the character clicks is slightly jarring for the audience, this was the only work-around that worked with the limited footage I had.
With multiple shots of the next part of the scene, where the villain looks through the files, I was able to control the pace much more. The slow pan down the document to the photo, and the reverse shot showing the characters' shady reaction worked well to build suspense, and then rather than use a lens zoom during production I used a digital zoom, pan and rotation to cross-fade into the image and somewhat match it to the shot of Ed on the rock in Grindleford.
As we were avoiding showing the villain at all during the following Grindleford scene, and just inferring his presence through the POV sequence, it was important that we did everything we could in this scene to suggest he is present and targeting them.
Although we were very rushed to shoot the end of the scene, the coverage we had of the second Grindleford scene again gave me options in the edit, and allowed me to try the effects of placing different shots in order - such as starting with a close-up of Laurence pulling down the megaphone, and then revealing the geometry of the scene afterwards in the wide.
The idea with this, as indicated in the script, was for the audience to not know what is happening with the initial shot of Ed in the suit, until the harsh cut and loud noise of Laurence from off-screen.
When the twig snaps and Laurence turns around, I used the shot from behind to again suggest a presence watching him, and then of the hand-held POV shot looking down on him from the hill above, conveying his vulnerability.
I then decided to use this shot again afterwards when Laurence was not looking back to convey that he is still being watched, unawares. One of the weakest parts of the scene was trying to convey that Laurence had been kidnapped whilst focusing on Ed, using the audio cue of a megaphone whine. As we could not get a shot of Ed walking from the rock up to where Laurence was sitting, I instead used his entrance into the video camera shot (below) to help ease that cut.
Similar to the shot of his feet at the start of the film, I felt that putting this shot first rather than the wide was more visually impactful, and by withholding the information about the rest of the surroundings it builds suspense for the audience.
As we didn't have the time to get the coverage we wanted for the end of this scene, where we had planned to shoot from a number of different wide angles to convey Ed's panic, I split up the shots, flipped them and replayed them to create a more frantic, fragmented feel. I withheld the wide shot until the end, revealing the entire scene and transitioning much more easily into the next.
For the final scene, I had deliberated shortening the opening as we have already seen it at the start of the film. However, due to the timings of the actor's performance, looking behind and then up at the interrogator - it was more appropriate for me to keep it the same. For the rest of this scene I moved between an OTS MCU of Laurence, the POV of the interrogator, various insert shots and a closer shot of Laurence as the scene intensifies.
As I previously mentioned, the OTS shot from Laurence's perspective (below) had issues with mis-framing and the light bouncing from the table to illuminate the villain's face, and so I did not use this.
Without the voice-over of the mother calling the interrogator upstairs, I did my best at this point to allow space to include it. As the scene reaches its climax, I used a slight push in on the interrogator, which stops as soon as his name is shouted. From here I cut to Lewis's reaction, then back to interrogator, seeing his head sink and sigh. The key shot in this sequence was the mask being placed down on the table and the lighting change, which I held on his reaction for.
The rest of the scene played out exactly as we had planned, with the master shot of Laurence walking around the room and inspecting the set and the closer shots of each element, such as the conspiracy board, the toy UFO and the cassette left on the table. With Laurence's exit, this then cut very easily into the final scene in which we used a single take to show Laurence leave the house.
Having finished the rough cut, the film is at 11 minutes in length. I will now start adding recorded sounds and other elements of sound design, some of which still need to be sourced/recorded by other members of the group. Once this is done I will show the film to my group and peers for feedback, at which point we will cut the film down and begin final changes and colour grading.
However, with the attention I've paid to the rough cut I don't anticipate that there will be many drastic changes to be made to the cut, although at this stage I can identify several areas lacking pace which can be improved or cut.
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