The Two Minute Mark

Extending Narrative with Editing in Mind

When a draft of the film was created, the duration was over five minutes. But, as editing the film became tighter and tighter cuts to create continuity, I realized there was still a lot of scenes still needed to reach the two minute film requirement. My film partner and I decided to extend the narrative out more (adding scenes) according to the vision we established the film would take if it was longer; Pam living her life after her friend's death and falling into similar bad habits. 

The added scenes were analyzed through an editing perspective as I wanted to ensure that the duration of shots were compatible with the goal of having a two minute film and gave me a variety of options to implement different editing styles on.

Some included were:

The scene of the flowers that were straight cut to Pam tying her shoes on a couch.

The vase filled with white flowers with black and white paintings in the back have colors associated with funerals and the 'yin and yang' meaning of light and darkness in the world, representing the kinds of personalities/mental state each girl in the friendship had. I requested this shot so that there could be a break in editing to the different characters as a 'filler' with meaning nonetheless, in the case of seconds or editing break transitions needed.

Additionally, the tying shoes scene's has the ability to create multiple possibilities for the film that I could manipulate different outcomes if necessary for. It can be perceived as her ready to attend the funeral, but can also look like she is taking off the shoes because the funeral has ended. The neutrality of the scene expands the use it could have for breaks to flashback temporal relation editing.

Pam and Abby laughing and spending time together.

This scene provided me with scenes to flashback to, as I suggested we take several versions of the same takes under different lighting, diverse conversation, and shot levels.

The girls arguing over Abby's downfall to drug use and Pam being talked to about the funeral.

The scenes develop the narrative and representation issue being told and was another scene that could serve as a flashback Pam is having. Pam being talked to about the funeral could be where the tinnitus sound effect discussed in pre-production of muffled ringing to convey dissociation is applied.

All of these scenes were developed with consideration to how long the shot would be so that the two minute film opening could be created and edited successfully, as well as serve as transition scenes that could utilize temporal relation editing to manipulate time and gently prod the attention of the audience to the intended vision as editor.