Sorting Takes

Analyzing Film Thus Far

Once transfers were complete, I wanted to immediately organize the scenes and files so that the editing process would begin in a structured manner. Uploading the entirety of the film we shot to Adobe Premiere Rush would cause the system to lag, exasperate my editing difficulties, and overall create confusion when comparing takes. So, I wanted to narrow down the take options by watching them individually to assess, without the influence of the rest of the film. From there, those takes would be uploaded to Adobe, alongside the rest of the film in chronological order to make finalized editing decisions.

Some considerations in narrowing down takes were:

1) Is cinematic skill shown effectively in this take? Could it be improved?

2) What narrative is told here? Is it meaningful to keep in?

3) Are there sound/actor/camera issues present and if yes, are they fixable through editing?

Moreover, in my editing research prior to the film, I learned that directors should always state the scene and take number when the camera begins rolling so that when editors have to rewatch them, they can sort them and note the takes that are better than others. This was something my film partner and I followed on production days, but made mistakes on. Without noticing, the numbers got mixed up along the way, so when I was attempting to order the scenes, there was confusion on how to separate them as some takes had the same exact numbering by my cinematographer.

Not only this, but remembering which files I just had reviewed was a difficult process. So, I numbered them over again, changing the file name itself to the scene number, take number, and with a dash if it was a take that stood out for a specific reason.

The numbering of all takes from every scene shot to date of the film in a folder titled 'Intertwined' with the numbering mentioned.

Highlighted pink in the image above, there were two takes in scene 5 that were numbered the same by my cinematographer, so its title 'S5T7' stands for scene 5, take 7 and the dashes next to them helped me remember why she mistakingly listed them under the same take; one was a blooper signified by the dash followed by 'BLOOPER' and the other a strong possibility of being a final take in our film with the dash saying 'GOOD.'

Grouping the film together in the device I will be editing on has set me on a clear path of editing planning going forward. I am in a better position to review film to make final take decisions and bring the story to life!