We studied jump cuts, a film editing technique to generally used to narrate or indicate the change in time or appearance. The frame remains unchanged, , without transitions( dissolves, wipes) a series of cut images are edited in a sequence. We considered a variety of examples from British and Hollywood films. we each successfully made a series of six short films. I made a how to make a marmite sandwich
For the rest of the lesson we prepared, story boarded , filmed, edited, and uploaded to YouTube individual films on the theme pf transition. I made a three minute montage of my preparing and printing a drypoint .
an excellent introduction to the fundamentals of film making, selecting of images, type of framing, close up, extrme close ups , wide shots, and how to use framing and camera movement to create effects, and using edit images together to make film, narrative or abstract.
I worked as current affairs cameraman for forty years. I was a journeyman cameraman, filming everything plainly in a ‘news format’ For most of my career, the intracties of camerwork were ignored, the physical limations of 16mm film and the electronic news gathering cameras that replaced it, made most image with a extreme depth of field. I used camera movements and the occasional zoom to make an editorial point, and my work always took into account the requirements of the editor. When there was time, I would provide a variety of frames, close ups, wide shots, a variety of angles of the action.
It was a good day, everyone learnt the essential basics, and everyone produced imaginative short films.
The incredible filmmaking features now available in contemporary ‘smart phones’ are incredible. Work that would take teams of camera crews, processing laboratories, negative cutters, film editors, projectionists, satellite and broadcast engineers, have all been replaced with sift and hardware to enable even the most inexperienced to produce and share professional looking images and sequences.
We were tasked to film ourselves, using the lighting techniques we learnt in class, an excellent exercise, it was very difficult to avoid filming in portrait mode, holding a phone in landscape is difficult and it is very easy to obscure the lens with a finger.
In class Sheena introduced us to phone diting programmes. As an Android user I downloaded VN edit, a free and easy to use program. We were all able to edit short sequences in fifteen minutes. I was fustrated trying to make a very fine edit, but on laptops the edit programs bundeled, iMovie or Movie Maker are more sophisticated, but the ability to edit on a phone in the field is very useful.
It was an excellent day of learning and I look forward to more adventures in the digital world
Nicholas Turner Morley Art Foundation 