TK - Edit: House Scenes

After we had put together a basic rough cut, with most of our basic match cuts in place, we began the process of refining. We began with our house and fight scenes, as those were already quite well structured, having carefully storyboarded and filmed for continuity.

We struck a dilemma with the length, as it was far over the two minute guideline we were given to stick to. We had to cut out a few minor parts of the fight and chase sequence that wouldn't jeopardise our continuity in any way. In the end, this worked out in our favour, and the film flowed just as well without the scenes as it would have done with them - perhaps even better, as the pacing this way round is more snappy and concise.

The match cuts were something we had mostly planned and storyboarded for, with cuts such as Alex (Ollie Bignell) on the phone, to Giulia (Lara Pain) on the phone, with the phone in exactly the same place in frame. Through these we wanted to help better construct meaning and narrative in an already complex story structure.

However, some of the match cuts were unplanned, and just came to us in the edit. The best example of this was when we juxtaposed the scene of Alex being chased from the room by the assailant, and both of them sprinting through the door, with the shot of Giulia leaving the party. We were amazed that the character blocking proved identical enough for the two to match cut perfectly, and was a kind of visual foreshadowing, as Giulia took the place of the assailant in the frame - and of course she actually is the assailant, the audience just isn't aware of it yet.

Overall, the cutting rate in the house sequences is fast and intense, something especially emphasised when Alex (Ollie Bignell) runs up the stairs to hide in the room. The shots we selected are short, unsteady and fast-moving, adding to the audience visceral pleasure of the chase scene. We also varied this rate at some points, juxtaposing the intense action and visceral violence with a few more calm breather-type moments, giving the action an appropriate pace.