On Monday we started with a class about editing with Andy, which followed on from the screening of Strike. The class looked at the theories of Sergei Eisenstein and Walter Murch, and I really enjoyed learning about the different theologies behind a cut. Their shared philosophy that the cut between two images creates a new idea is one I quite agree with. Additionally, we discussed how editing links with blinking.
Strangely enough, I had been reading about why people blink the evening before, in a chapter of Derren Brown's book (which I wish I could find time to finish). What I found most interesting about this idea was that I was once mentored by a man who had the catchphrase, "Never cut on a blink," whilst editing. I don't think he is wrong. A cut on a character blinking may seem jarring. The cut should synchronise with where the audience might blink, in response to a piece of information.Tuesday saw us in class with Zam for a full day. First, we read one another's treatments out loud. This was an interesting idea, as a huge part of directing is communicating your vision to a group of people who then have to recreate it. As other people have noted, it was strange hearing the words of one class-member coming from the mouth of another. But this perfectly illustrated Zam's point that you must be clear and understandable in a treatment. The treatments themselves were really good. They varied from being about the style and tone of the scene, to technical aspects of production, to the emotional impact necessary. Following this, Zam went over the structure of storytelling. As I had said after our session with John Yorke, though we have done this many times with Richard, it is great to have it rearticulated and explained in a new way. It is important, after all.
After a day off on Wednesday, we had our first lesson with Cammy on Thursday. I missed the first few hours of the lesson (thanks, NHS24) but Cammy had only been going over everything we should have learnt the previous year. My retention of the knowledge has been okay,
and I took notes from Cammy's class to hopefully help me fill in any gaps in my knowledge. It's fair enough to say that I won't probably be specialising in sound, but I still want to know as much as I can. After this class, a few of us were fortunate enough to go and see the TPA pyrotechnics display. I must remember to pitch a film with explosions...I've already reviewed Friday's screening of The Conversation, so I think that's this week covered!
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