Ideas on how to edit a sequence that is happening side by side in time..

[eraserhead_in_time]

Hey guys,
I have a sequence where 3 people are lost in the woods and then slowly a thick envelope of fog covers them...
Then a red door appears (for all 3 that r lost at diff places inside the forest) and then when they enter...they all are inside 3 very strange realities..simultaneously.

My question is how do I edit it? Should I just stick with one guy? follow him from entering the door to his reality and his eventual come back and then cut to other guy and show the same?
Or
I edit like first one enters the room..then second one..then third one..
this makes more sense but then I'm having trouble finding a rhythm for the sequence... Cutting with a soundtrack might help but at this point I don't know what kinda track I want..

Can you guys please suggest for it? Any advice would be killer.
Thanks

 

[Cracker Funk]

Personally, I wouldn't ever cut to music, unless I was making a musical montage (in which case I always cut to music).

Parallel storytelling. Audiences totally accept it. You choose exactly how much info you want to show from each parallel story, and the audience accepts that it's all happening at the same time.

Obviously, I don't know the details of your story, but from your brief description, it sounds to me like it might make sense to have three shots, in fairly rapid succession, showing each person entering the alternate dimension. After that, you can spend a little more time with each person on their own, but by having all three doors open at the same time that might send the audience the cue that this is all happening at the same time.

Just guessing, of course. Couldn't really say for sure without seeing the footage and edit. But yeah, parallel storytelling is quite normal. Watch the climactic finale of any Star Wars movie.

 

[eraserhead_in_time]

Thanks Funky cracker!
It makes perfect sense.. I can start with rapid cutting as they start to get lost in the forest and once they enter their world..i can slow the edit down...thanks
But how do u send it to your composer? Do you just send it without any music and he makes it all up or do u use something to tell the mood?

 

[Cracker Funk]

Thanks Funky cracker!
It makes perfect sense.. I can start with rapid cutting as they start to get lost in the forest and once they enter their world..i can slow the edit down...thanks
But how do u send it to your composer? Do you just send it without any music and he makes it all up or do u use something to tell the mood?

I've only once had a full-on composer (actually, it was a pair of them), so I don't know if there is a standard protocol, but I imagine it's probably worked out on an individual basis. Different artists (filmmaker and musician, alike) work in different ways.

For whatever it's worth, I sat down with my composer(s), and we watched the rough-cut, commenting and taking notes along the way (and what we discussed was mood). And I personally would not want it any other way. If you can't physically meet in person, maybe you could arrange a skype chat? At the very least, I would want to send notes. For what it's worth, my composers wanted very specific time-references, and appreciated comments on mood and feeling, and specifically made begrudging comments about filmmakers who try to get too specific with them, making comments that make absolutely no sense, musically.

 

[AudioPostExpert]

You have to be very careful with sound and music in a sequence like this. Continuous sound or music implies a continuous serial timeline rather than parallel timelines. To make your parallel timelines sequence understandable, let alone believable, will require some clever sound design and would be extremely hard to achieve with a continuous music due.

G