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Does this cut pace well

W

wheatgrinder

Hi all, Im in post and final cutting The Hot Rod

Please watch this scene and give me your opinion on the timing and the flow or any other thoughts you have.

Its my intent that the music in this cut will be somewhat sinister, this is a romcom by the way.

Particularly interested on your opinion of the cuts around the girls getting in the car.. the accelerating pace is very much on purpose, but might feel gimicky.. which from a comedy perspective might be just fine.. thoughts??

Production sound only no sound design( well just a little ) no music yet, raw camera without cc etc.

https://vimeo.com/51616953

password: rt440
 
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I see one thing thats been bugging me subconsciously, I just spotted it.

The opening shot the actress is looking into an empty frame, then next time wee see her, in the partial OTS with the girl, she is almost on the other side of the screen.. I have the shots to correct that.
 
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Some of the close ups on the girls are nicely photographed. Really nice color, texture and classical composition. The first shot though has a little too much negative space (girl is cramed too far screen right). The wide shot from inside the car was too numpy and loose feeling. Maybe the initial composition was a bit off, needing a bit more space between the girl and the mirror. But the idea of outside/inside and close/wide juxtaposition wes good.

I wasn't sure about how the different lighting styles would cut. Maybe you have already done a trial grade down on the wide shot inside the car.

I thought the basic cutting ideas were ok. Maybe once or twice it felt a bit pushed, like (0-23) when the girls CU faces start moving as if to exit screen left and right, it feels a bit pushed to the next shot. Maybe it just needs a couple more frames. Did the faces actually exit screen in the shot? You could just cut from the stationary faces to the next sequence. Try a couple of black frames as a buffer.

Your actors are doing well.

Cheers,
Gregg
 
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Thanks..
I see viz that you picked up on the negative space problem in that first shot..

The shot from inside the car is supposed to feel like a sinister POV.. like a monster in the back seat sorta thing.. comedic effect intended

The shots will grade OK together, same cam, same lighting different lens. That canon FD 17mm just is less contrast then the 50mm.

Yeah, some of those shots are pushed, the shots around 23 were supposed to be a cut on action (the turn) but I see I missed it by a few frames.

The black frames as buffer seems odd to me, but Ill try it see how it feels.

Thanks
 
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wheatgrinder said:
Thanks..
............The shots will grade OK together, same cam, same lighting different lens. That canon FD 17mm just is less contrast then the 50mm.

Yeah, some of those shots are pushed, the shots around 23 were supposed to be a cut on action (the turn) but I see I missed it by a few frames.

The black frames as buffer seems odd to me, but Ill try it see how it feels.

Thanks
Click to expand...

The close ups of the girls faces look like they were shot under light cloud or diffusion/silk. The other shots had hard sun as backlight. That's the lighting difference I was looking at, hard/soft. I guessed you would be trying to reduce that visual contrast with the grade.

If the getting in the car sequence (starting with the MS taken inside the car) is sped up, of it's own style, then little mental blinks that break to that stlyle can be ok. Maybe ideas about how to do that come and go. A few black frames, white frames...something. I was thinking in formal terms without knowing much about the film.

Cheers,
Gregg
 
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To me, the overall piece is largely fine, it just breaks into two parts: before they get into the car and after they each go their own way to get into the car.
And it's only a split-hair timing issue I have with almost a single snippet cut.

@ 0:24 there's a through the windshield, from the backseat, shot. Fine.
Mom(?) breaks screen left, Mena breaks screen right.
@0:25 there's a split-second shot of Mena walking down the car's front right quarter panel - and that's the only cut that I think is just a hair too brief.

All the subsequent cuts are fine.

It's just that transition shot from a normal flow of shots to a progression of quick cuts that's buggin' me, if I were to nitpick.

I would lengthen that one cut by a few more frames, and rework the rest from there pretty much as is.
 
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I like most of it, I feel like the tail-end of it is really awkward, with the rapid cutting back-and-forth between the two of their legs walking and shutting doors. I just don't really see the need for it, and the extreme change of pace felt jarring, and to serve what point?

I think I would likely prefer to hold a little longer on the two-shot, taken from within the car, showing them both walking towards their respective sides, then cut to just one of them opening the door and getting in (preferably mom, cuz she's hot). If you feel like it takes too damn long for them to get in and sit down and shut the door, then maybe you cut from mom opening the door, to daughter shutting the door (then we hear mom shut the door shortly after). Or, something to that effect.
 
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What peeps said about the cutting back & forth getting in the car. Yup.

Also, girl seems to be raising an eyebrow about hopping into dad's car. This is not reflected at all, in the action of doing it.

What did you use for lighting interior of car, btw, if anything?
 
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For this interior shot we flagged the sun outside the car so the dash board wasn't reflecting in the windshield.

In shots you haven't seen yet we used a bounce card covered with orange gel shined through the windshield to give it a bit of morning light..
 
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Just my 2 cents...
At the point where they are getting in the car and shutting the doors seemed too.... redundant? Quick?
Boom, switch, boom, switch....

Otherwise it looked great to the completely untrained eye.
Nice work.:yes:
 
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