Jason analyzes his own editing and lets you watch!
First off, here are two version of the same scene, one is my temporary sound mix that I created in the Avid, the other is the final sound mix created at Novastar digital sound in Hollywood.
My version:
Novastar Version:
Let's take a look at this scene and discuss what Jason thought about and went through to edit this sequence...
A little back story... The director of this film, who we'll call Oded, speaks English as a second language. Communication was tough. This scene was a glaring example of that. What he should've said was "I would like the various sounds of the room to turn into a rap beat," but he often got into very abstract descriptions and gave me expectations I had a lot of trouble meeting. It was a mess for a while. Ultimately, I figured out what he was looking for, and the first video was born. Let's go through it and I'll tell you all the cool things to look for:
1) 00:00:02...Notice my sound effect for twisting the faucet. Notice how cartoonish it is. That's the closest thing I could find. This scene was shot without sound. I had to build it up from scratch by starting with a roomtone (which I got from the school's sound library), and adding individual sound effects over that, gradually bringing in the music.
2) The background music was slowed down by me to match the pokey pace all the actors were doing their thing at. In retrospect, I probably should've cut it up to be faster, to match the music. Here's how the original sound file sounded that I was given (skip to about 10 seconds in):
3) 00:00:20....As David is walking in, you can hear both the music in his head and the sounds of prayer. This was a moment of disagreement between the director and I...I thought we should be able to hear both, Oded did not want to hear any prayer, only the music in his head. I convinced Oded to get a little prayer in there. You'll notice that our re-recording mixer at Novastar convinced him to put a lot more prayer in there at this moment in the final version.
4) 00:00:27....The first cut showed David taking out the tefillin from the case, putting the entire thing on, etc etc. I cut it down significantly. Oded initially reacted as if I had sinned before God, but eventually realized it was ok. David looks to his left, motivating our cut to pages turning.
5) 00:00:29....My mistake...David looks twice.
6) 00:00:32....This was a major battle. I wanted to cut to the next shot BEFORE David looks up, because the next shot is of the bottom of the chair squeaking. Oded wanted him to be looking "across the room" (his words). I really didn't understand this, as we had kept such strict POV rules on where he looks everywhere else in the film. For a while, the shot ended with him looking down, but it ate away at Oded everytime he saw it. Finally I showed him what it would look like his way, expecting him to realize he was wrong, but he didn't realize this. It lives in the final film.
7) 00:00:35...Once again, David looks across the room at something that's on the floor...grrr
8) 00:00:41...This begins my favorite part in both versions. Finally some energy is being injected into the scene.
9) 00:00:48....Canyon Wind sound effect in my version. I had used this sound effect in the western I cut in '06, and it creates incredible drama when used in a subtle way. Listen to the looping chant in my version. When we were mixing this, I left the mix to run home to my apt to get something. When I came back, they had taken out the loop. I demanded it be put back. Their reaction was "yeah, you're right, what were we thinking?" Go Schwabbie!
10) 00:00:52....This was not pre-recorded, this was recorded right there on the spot. Music accompaniment was mixed against the production audio recorded on set.
11) 00:01:01...."I know he's here but I'm losing concentration." I pulled this line one frame out of sync in order to keep to the beat. Sounds petty, but you'd be surprised how it sounded before doing that.
12) 00:01:09....Repeated images, but this time sped up. The music accompaniment in my version is slowed down, but not as much as the basin scene. These cutaways are also present so that the rapping can be cut to continue to stay on beat.
13) 00:01:17....Mendel elbows David. Mendel used to be a much bigger role, but we cut him down in the editing. I wonder how Stephen Katz (the actor who played him) will feel about that.
And that's a sample sequence w/ analysis. I'm going to bed!
My version:
Novastar Version:
Let's take a look at this scene and discuss what Jason thought about and went through to edit this sequence...
A little back story... The director of this film, who we'll call Oded, speaks English as a second language. Communication was tough. This scene was a glaring example of that. What he should've said was "I would like the various sounds of the room to turn into a rap beat," but he often got into very abstract descriptions and gave me expectations I had a lot of trouble meeting. It was a mess for a while. Ultimately, I figured out what he was looking for, and the first video was born. Let's go through it and I'll tell you all the cool things to look for:
1) 00:00:02...Notice my sound effect for twisting the faucet. Notice how cartoonish it is. That's the closest thing I could find. This scene was shot without sound. I had to build it up from scratch by starting with a roomtone (which I got from the school's sound library), and adding individual sound effects over that, gradually bringing in the music.
2) The background music was slowed down by me to match the pokey pace all the actors were doing their thing at. In retrospect, I probably should've cut it up to be faster, to match the music. Here's how the original sound file sounded that I was given (skip to about 10 seconds in):
3) 00:00:20....As David is walking in, you can hear both the music in his head and the sounds of prayer. This was a moment of disagreement between the director and I...I thought we should be able to hear both, Oded did not want to hear any prayer, only the music in his head. I convinced Oded to get a little prayer in there. You'll notice that our re-recording mixer at Novastar convinced him to put a lot more prayer in there at this moment in the final version.
4) 00:00:27....The first cut showed David taking out the tefillin from the case, putting the entire thing on, etc etc. I cut it down significantly. Oded initially reacted as if I had sinned before God, but eventually realized it was ok. David looks to his left, motivating our cut to pages turning.
5) 00:00:29....My mistake...David looks twice.
6) 00:00:32....This was a major battle. I wanted to cut to the next shot BEFORE David looks up, because the next shot is of the bottom of the chair squeaking. Oded wanted him to be looking "across the room" (his words). I really didn't understand this, as we had kept such strict POV rules on where he looks everywhere else in the film. For a while, the shot ended with him looking down, but it ate away at Oded everytime he saw it. Finally I showed him what it would look like his way, expecting him to realize he was wrong, but he didn't realize this. It lives in the final film.
7) 00:00:35...Once again, David looks across the room at something that's on the floor...grrr
8) 00:00:41...This begins my favorite part in both versions. Finally some energy is being injected into the scene.
9) 00:00:48....Canyon Wind sound effect in my version. I had used this sound effect in the western I cut in '06, and it creates incredible drama when used in a subtle way. Listen to the looping chant in my version. When we were mixing this, I left the mix to run home to my apt to get something. When I came back, they had taken out the loop. I demanded it be put back. Their reaction was "yeah, you're right, what were we thinking?" Go Schwabbie!
10) 00:00:52....This was not pre-recorded, this was recorded right there on the spot. Music accompaniment was mixed against the production audio recorded on set.
11) 00:01:01...."I know he's here but I'm losing concentration." I pulled this line one frame out of sync in order to keep to the beat. Sounds petty, but you'd be surprised how it sounded before doing that.
12) 00:01:09....Repeated images, but this time sped up. The music accompaniment in my version is slowed down, but not as much as the basin scene. These cutaways are also present so that the rapping can be cut to continue to stay on beat.
13) 00:01:17....Mendel elbows David. Mendel used to be a much bigger role, but we cut him down in the editing. I wonder how Stephen Katz (the actor who played him) will feel about that.
And that's a sample sequence w/ analysis. I'm going to bed!