Ronald spent half a day watching all the shots. The sound and picture synchronization was very good. Ronald thanked Eric and his two assistants.
"Let's start editing, Ronald?" The two producers next to them, Lin Sen and Azoff, were already waiting a little impatiently.
When Ronald was watching the synchronized audio and video footage, he would often pause, and then take out his notebook to record the number of a certain frame on the film. He would often flip through the film several times, not knowing what he was doing.
If you just check Eric's work, it doesn't seem to take so long.
"Where do we start? Ronald." Eric has worked with many directors and knows that each director has his own method. Ronald is not particularly out of the ordinary.
Some old-school Hollywood directors have their own quirks. For example, Fred Zinnemann, the veteran director who shot "High Noon", was particularly averse to the main camera.
In addition to taking as few main shots as possible when shooting on location, the first thing in the editing room is to throw away the film for the main shots.
Maybe Ronald has a similar quirk, excluding shots he doesn't like before using the scissors?
"You still have to wait for me. I need to turn these numbered positives into negative copies and take them to the Kodak lab for printing. It will probably take a few hours. When I get the photos, we can start
Already.
After speaking, Ronald said sorry to everyone, and then went about his business with the number in his hand.
Lin Sen and Azoff looked at each other, confused. Lin Sen asked the editor Eric: "What method is this? I have never seen a director do this before?"
"This is also the first time I've seen it." Eric shrugged and replied to the two producers, "Maybe it's Ronald's habit?"
The few people couldn't find anything, so they went out to have lunch first, and then came back after Ronald finished his work.
Ronald was on the equipment on the other side of the editing room, searching for film by shot number.
He spent a whole afternoon selecting the most representative decisive moment for each camera position and each shot. For some longer shots, he also selected two or three.
Then based on these numbers, he reprinted a negative with a sensitivity of only 2 for each decisive moment. Based on the appropriate exposure time figured out by Walter Mersey, Ronald reprinted all the lens photos.
Afterwards, he took the negatives and drove to a Kodak One-Hour Printing Store, where all the photos were developed. Looking at the finished film, Ronald was quite satisfied, using the parameters given by Merz, the color balance and contrast of the photos.
, all close to the effect of film.
By the time the two producers and several editors returned to the editing room, Ronald had already posted all the photos on the whiteboard on the wall.
"Ah ha, this method is much more intuitive." Eric in the editing room couldn't help but admired as he looked at the photos on the whiteboard on the wall.
"This method is really good. I have to learn it and use it when I become a director in the future." Lin Sen was also pleasantly surprised. He had directed a movie before and knew that when editing, he had to find his inner thoughts in many shots.
The one you want is a particularly waste of time.
Many times, by the time you find it, the inspiration in your heart is gone. This makes it easier to capture inspiration and make editing more efficient.
Azoff had no experience in shooting movies, but he also felt that this method was very intuitive. He looked at the photo of Spicoli getting high from smoking, taking his Vans shoes, and hitting his head with all his strength. His mind immediately jumped to the morning.
That footage I saw.
He couldn't help but think to himself, "This young man named Ronald has some ideas."
Ronald is writing a number on each photo, and then transcribing the duration of the shot into a table on his notebook. "Fast-paced Richmond High" is a group drama with six protagonists. How do you balance the roles of many people?
, is the key to film editing.
Therefore, trial and error is essential for the arrangement and combination of various lenses. In this way, using one photo to represent a section of footage can facilitate the arrangement and combination.
"I've already transcribed it. If you don't mind, you can start."
Ronald asked the two producers, Linson and Azoff, to sit down next to the editor Eric, and then stood behind them.
"Hey, Ronald, come and sit down, you are the director."
When Lin Sen and Azoff saw him standing, they both stood up and gave up their seats to him. It is good for a young man to respect his seniors. But according to Hollywood rules, the producer only gives opinions on the editing results and cannot completely replace the director in giving editing instructions.
.
At least not until the director makes a bad first cut, fails to get approval from the producer, and is stripped of editing rights by the studio.
"You're welcome, I'm just used to standing and editing." Ronald took two steps to the side and stood next to the editor Eric.
He tore off a piece of paper from his notebook, cut it in half, and then folded out two small sitting figures. Based on the length and width of the editing machine monitor, he calculated the size ratio between the screen and him, and compared them.
Shrunk down to the height of a villain.
Ronald folded the little figure representing the female audience again to make her shorter, then placed the two little figures in front of the monitor and said to the two producers, "This is our audience.
Looking at a standard screen with an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, the approximate distance from the golden position.
In this way, we can refer to the approximate picture that the audience sees on the screen, and we will not take into account the problem of the audience's attention shifting because the monitor is too small.
"You are very well prepared." Azoff was completely relieved. Ronald seemed to be an expert in editing.
"I wonder what the editing level is like?" Lin Sen looked at Ronald's decent work and became curious about his actual editing level.
The opening shot in the storyboard of the movie happens to be the first shot of Ronald's first day of shooting. It is Robert Romanus who enters the frame from behind the camera, then avoids two cars, runs to the other side of the road, and finally walks towards the other side of the road.
Shot of walking through the door of a department store.
"The first one is better, the actors' performance is more natural." After watching several film clips, editor Eric expressed his opinion.
"I also think it's because the cars are driven by stuntmen and there are certain rules. Romanus' reaction in the first one was more natural. In the subsequent ones, he was prepared and mentally prepared, and his actions were pre-made.
The preparation is not as tight as the first one."
Ronald pointed at Romanus' movements on the monitor. Before he spotted the approaching Toyota Corolla, he had already slowed down and twisted his shoulders to look to the left.
"What do you think?" Ronald turned to ask the two producers for their opinions.
"Yes, I also think the first one is good."
"Do it your way."
Seeing that the two producers agreed, Eric turned around and asked Ronald, "Where is the cut?"
"Wait a minute." Ronald turned the turntable of the horizontal editing machine and rewind the film at double speed to the beginning.
Then he turned the turntable back to normal speed and Romanus crossed the road again on the monitor.
"Pa." Ronald pressed the stop button, then he picked up a pen, found the middle frame of the film in the specially vacated space in front of the editing machine, and lightly drew
A V sign.
"It's good here. It just connects to the black screen below and is close to the scene inside the mall." Eric also agreed.
"I'll try again." Ronald turned the control dial again.
Eric expressed his understanding that the director was often hesitant when editing. Especially at the end, there was an open shot where the actors continued to move. There was no definite end point of the action, so different people felt that it should be cut here.
Just like this shot of scalper Mike entering the mall door, how close should the actor Romanus go to the inner door and use the scissors? In fact, you can cut it and then cut to the next shot. Where do you think the best place to cut is? No
Conclusion.
Ronald moved the film back to the beginning and started playing it at a speed of 24 seconds per second. When Mike, the scalper played by Romanus, bypassed the second Volkswagen Beetle that pulled over and walked towards the main entrance of the mall, Ronald once
The stop button was pressed.
"Snapped!"
Eric leaned forward and looked at the film in the middle, trying to write down the number this time. After seeing the number clearly, he suddenly said "holy shxt!"
"What's wrong?" Producer Lin Sen looked over at Azoff, fearing that something might go wrong with the production.
Eric pointed to the gap in the middle of the editing machine. On the film in the middle was the V mark that Ronald had just drawn with a pen.
"How did you do it?" Eric became very curious. There are twenty-four frames of film per second. One frame of film only appears here for twenty-fourths of a second. The probability of stopping on the same frame twice is
Very small.
"Is it a coincidence?" All three people present had a question in their minds.
"Is it the same frame?" Ronald asked, then rewound the film. "It seems that I have gradually mastered the rhythm of this movie while watching it this morning."
Ronald said as he glanced at the copy of Mondrian's painting placed against the wall on the editing table.
Sometimes things like rhythm are difficult to describe in words, but once you catch it, you catch it. Your body will replace your brain and use your intuition to make decisions for you.
"Snapped!"
Ronald pressed the stop button for the third time, and his intuition did not disappoint him. The film stopped steadily at the same frame.
Neither producer believed Ronald could stay on the same frame. They both stood up and looked at the gap in the editing machine.
Sure enough, under the light, a small yellow V-shaped mark was found on the centermost frame of film.
The two of them looked at each other in disbelief. I had never heard of anyone in Universal Productions having such a skill.
"How did you do it?" the two asked Ronald.
Ronald opened the thermos cup he brought, poured a cup of black tea and tasted it slowly, "Do you believe I said it was intuition?"
The two producers, Lin Sen and Azoff, looked unconvinced and did not continue to ask, maybe this is Ronald's unique secret recipe?
"I think I heard someone say that there was an editor who could do it before." Eric seemed to remember something.
"Yes, this is what Walter Mersey from Peep Show Pictures taught me. You should have heard of him, and I'm not lying to you. It's really based on intuition. Otherwise, people wouldn't be able to react so quickly and stop several times.
On the same grid." Ronald said the master's name.
"It turns out it's him." The two producers and Eric in the editing room suddenly realized that they had all heard the name of Walter Mersey, an expert in film editing and sound processing.
He is an Oscar-recognized expert in editing and sound design for Francis Coppola's two "The Godfather" and "Apocalypse Now"
So they nodded and stopped asking how Ronald could do it. It was as if it was a matter of course that he could do this.
Eric asked the editing assistant to come over and write down the number on the frame of the working film as the editing point for the first shot, and then waited for Ronald to give the order.
"Let's go on." Ronald said softly.
After a while, the two producers were very satisfied with the progress of the editing and left the table, saying they would check on the progress tomorrow.
Ronald smiled and continued cutting the film with Eric.
He knew in his heart that the reason why he was able to stop at the same frame several times was because he spent a lot of time in the morning looking at the shots repeatedly and then selecting the decisive frame in each shot.
This approach has allowed the photography director Matthew's lens grammar to be slowly implanted into his subconscious mind. In fact, it was his subconscious mind that helped him make the decision where to stop. In addition, he can make full use of it by editing while standing.
Human intuition has evolved over millions of years to achieve this effect.
As the editing continues, his subconscious digests and absorbs more of the footage, and his editing can become more accurate and reasonable.