A few extra post production stills

This is  a lovely shot showing just how close the final edit was to the original footage. a lot of the shots matched this closely at so many points. It was always a good feeling clicking on a random pint in the sequence and have it match the original perfectly.

This is the first image of me in my acting career. I knew from the start that i wanted to be Gorgeous George as i'm three foot taller than everyone else in my group and the sequence would look silly if i were Tommy. Joe McFarlane did a great job as Tommy, I spent a good 30 minutes just punishing that punch bag to work up a sweat (eventually i got some water and chucked it down my back as though it was hot as hell in the studio the sweat wasn't showing up through my hoodie... probably a good thing), Joe was there the whole time holding the bag giving me compliments about my punching. Real nice guy. It was hard to get the colour right in this scene as the original has a slight blue tint which shows up well in the background but as our background was complete black it's quite hard to see.

This was a clip of me adding in the stills the VFX students gave to us, they turned out really well and i'll definitely be adding mine to the family photo album. It was really simple adding these after editing, they literally went straight in and only needed a cross dissolve and a zoom to complete the effect. The problwm was that we didn't all use the same clips but it was easy to identify which one i needed to swap into my footage "HEY PETE!....PETE!..... WHAT CLIP DID YOU USE FOR THIS SCENE?........... THANKS!"

 

Another couple of lovely moments where the scenes matched. God i'm good!

 

Novice VFX

Well... Key framing is very important isn't it. I've spend the majority of my day working out how to match some of the trickier transitions in the sequence, in particular:

- Mickey throwing Vinny the moody gold

- Franky to Turkish wipe

- Boris disappearing into Doug the Head's ledger

- Bricktop's Victim to diamond spiral 

The transitions in the original sequence are so well executed that they are seamless, When Mickey throws Vinny the black bag there was clearly a set point of the frame that Brad Pitt was meant to throw to that matched the same point of frame in  that the bag enters in the 'Vinny' scene. We however didn't think of this precise point while filming, of the many shots we had of Troy (Mickey) throwing the bag, only one had the bag actually leave the frame. Unfortunately this wasn't my first choice of clips as the run up to the trow didn't look quite as good as some others but as the scene was sped up it made little difference in the edit. I tried using the shot I wanted first but as the image is pushed out of the frame by the next it didn't work as you could see the bag fall before changing locations. 

The transition between the 'Franky Four Fingers' scene and the 'Turkish' scene is another that is completely seamless, if you deconstruct the clip and watch it frame by frame you can see how when Franky puts his hand down the frame is wiped from bottom to top revealing Turkish's hand on a new table. This was so hard to recreate as once again the shots we had didn't line up perfectly as we didn't have the next scene in mind when shooting just the one at hand (get it? at hand... ha! puns). I was able to fix this by changing the position and zoom of the 'Franky' clip so it matched Damon's (Turkish's) hand in the next shot. It shows up a little more than the original but should blend more once I have corrected the colouring. 

When we first contacted the visual effects students we were hoping for them to also complete the 'Boris/Doug' transition as it was one of the most difficult and would be very time consuming. George suggested we add some orange tape onto the book that the 'Boris' clip disappears into, this would allow him to add the visual effects over the top later on. This turned out to be more of  a hinderance than a help; as the vfx students had to drop this and other effects offered as they had a large workload. Though the bright orange tape made it very easy to see where the clip was to go, it stuck out like a sore thumb which meant something had to go over the top of it. This transition took a lot of time and patience, I ended up adding keyframes to each frame of the 'Doug book' clip, resizing and moving the 'Boris' clip to cover the orange crosses. 

The final shot in the sequence takes a shot of Bricktop's screaming victim (who looks less in pain and more like he's opening wide for the dentist) which fades to an extreme close up of the diamond which loops back around to the start of the opening sequence. This was a fairly simple effect to replicate, potentially as it wasn't as complex as the others but it's more likely that i's become more comfortable with DaVinci at this point. I've not used much of Premier Pro, Avid or other editing software but I found DaVinci to be very user friendly. Once i'd found my feet it was pretty straightforward. This shot consisted of a cross dissolve between the shots with a zoom and a 360 degree clockwise spin. The difficult part of recreating this shot was matching the clips as to recreate the desired shot the 'diamond' clip had to be constantly zoomed. Once again I keyframed each frame of the clip and adjusted the positions of each clip so they were aligned. 

I've definitely become more comfortable with the editing process and with using DaVinci, i've gotten a few strange looks when i've told people i've used it and I really don't know why, the software is responsive, it is super compatible with Blackmagic high resolution footage and i've been able to come in as a complete novice and work with it (I swear I don't work for DaVinci, I just really like their software... really). Big big thanks to Joe Mcfarlane and Doug... of the production hub for all of their help. You guys have been so helpful and I just can't thank you enough. 

Da Vinci masterpiece

Piecing together the shots was fairly easy, I loaded the RAW footage into DaVinci Resolve (V12) as well as the time coded clip from the original film. I went through the time coded clip and marked every cut with frame markers, using a different colour for each character to mark the scene change. I began dragging in the first set of clips from my media pool and dropping them into place on a separate video track, by disabling clip link I was able to delete any audio from the files and just work with the video clips. By closely examining the movements in each original scene I was able to match them with our raw footage, it was interesting seeing how many of the clips in the sequence had been sped up or slowed down just slightly, some of which were obvious but others were much more subtle. Matching the speeds to make sure the characters were moving in the right ways was fairly easy to do in DaVinci; when selected to change the clip speed I was given the option to add a speed point which enabled me to grab the clip and literally drag it to be the right size so it matched the original. Adding a speed point at any point in the clip enabled me to slow down or speed up certain parts of each clip with ease, so I could put a speed point a third of the way through the clip and only speed up the first third or second two thirds if I needed to, meaning i didn't have to splice the clip into sections to change the speed at certain points.

At this point we're waiting on the character freeze frames to come back from the VFX students. For now i've left a gap at the precise moment where the freeze frame begins and ends. The only problem with editing without them is that I don't know at which frame in the selected clips they will use for the freeze frame, this means that i'll have to go back later on and change the clip if they don't match.

For the moment i've just pieced together the clips and made sure the timings match, next time I edit i'll starting on the freeze frames and effects. There are several tricky transitional edits that will require using the keyframe tool which is completely new for me so should be a challenge, but so far the rough edit is looking remarkably like the original and that's without a final grade or effects! Just goes to show how getting the initial shots right can do so much for the editing process.

Production problems and radical remedies.

Several weeks have gone by and the last shot for our 'Snatch Edit' shoot has been captured. We've had a few bumps on the road and a few delays but we've got there and the final product is looking spiffy. We've got a wealth of different shots to choose from for each scene, most of which we've had to whittle down to find the best ones, now each scene has around 3 different shots to choose from.

We had to make a few compromises for the shoot, the problems and solutions are listed below. 

Problem). No caravan for the Mickey shoot

Solution). Use Damon's bedroom and dress it up as a caravan (as discussed in my previous posts)

P). No classic car for BTT shoot- we were hoping to have a classic car for Tony's shoot, at the very least we were hoping to have a car with an older style boot and not a hatchback such as any of the crew's cars. After asking around some local dealers/car for hire businesses  there are none available for shooting. 

S). We've had to make a compromise and use one of the crew's car, we've matched the shot as best we can via the location and costume so hopefully the different car will go un noticed. 

P). Lack of available actors- we were hoping to not have to reuse actors (unless their face is not seen) so each character would be represented by a different person. Unfortunately there were fewer people available during our shooting schedule. We were also hoping to have the appropriate ethnicities for each role.

S). Unfortunately there was no solution to this, we had to shoot and so we reused actors who have previously been in the shoot, such as Damon, who has pitched in on several occasions. Big thanks to Oliver Byrne for stepping in last minute as Bricktop so we didn't need to repeat another character. 

P). Location fall through- the pubs we were hoping to shoot in all refused as we needed to have someone lying on their pool table (can't blame them really). 

S). We dressed up the room next to the studio as an impromptu pub, with the same green felt used for the Franky poker scene we turned a few tables into a make do pool table and in a clever and creative move from Peter we managed to make a pool table light out of cardboard and hung it from the ceiling with tape, it didn't look amazing close up but ads more to the scene and helps flesh out the otherwise drab background.

P). No spare lighting- Though the dedo's and lamps we've booked out have been proficient in lighting up the studio, the bricktop scene next door was lacking. At short notice we were unable to book out more lights and couldn't wait to reschedule the shoot. 

S). There wasn't a vast amount we could do to change this, with the deadline looming we had to get the shot done (lesson for the future - you can never have too much lighting). With some cleverly placed reflectors and a quick rearranging we were able to get the lighting to a good standard but not quite right, and though it's the worst thing you can say on a shoot we knew we could 'fix it in post'.

Overall though it's been a relatively successful shoot without a lot of problems, everyone has worked hard to get the rushes ready and finished so we can get cracking with the edit. To ease some of the workload we've taken on some of the VFX students to help create the freeze frames for each character. Hopefully we can get those back nice and quickly so we can each make our edit amazing with the time we have left. Let's do this! Here's a rough edit of our scene with some effects in lovingly uploaded to vimeo for your viewing pleasure Password: Dags

https://vimeo.com/162717180

Franky Four Fingers & Boris the Blade

Shoot 2:

The first of our studio shoots has been completed, we began our shoot by creating the set for Boris' scene in which we see Boris taking a shotgun from his cellar via a low angle shot from inside said cellar and one more shot of him cocking the gun. In order to get this shot we created a rig with a box on top that our cameraman could set up underneath, from there we could get the low angle shot seemingly from a basement without having to find a location with a hatch basement. We then added a ceiling tile to disguise the studio ceiling and lights and set the scene as Boris's house.

There were two issues with this rig that we discovered only when using it. Because the box was quite tall we had to raise the height of the false ceiling, the lights and the actor. This meant taking the extendable height of the light stands to the limit to ensure there was enough light in the scene and having the actor stand on a table, it took us quite a while to get the shot right because of the difficulties with
the lighting.










The second shot was much easier to complete, it consisted of Jordan having to come up into the frame as if standing, and cock the shotgun while looking at it. The only issues we had with this one was trying not to laugh while he repeatedly bowed at the camera in a grey suit that hung off of him as if it were his dads and he a small child (it was my jacket).

The second part of the shoot is probably the best looking shot so far, from day one Louis was suggested to play Franky Four Fingers and it's easy to see why, he's got that Vegas look. While this shot was fairly simple to set up it is one of the only scenes that is one continuous shot and so was slightly more difficult to get right every time. There were some more difficult camera movements that required getting the camera from an extreme close up at the centre of the table, back to a mid shot then back in for another close up. The only problem with this was having the rig get close enough to the table without hitting it as the jarring would ruin the shot, to combat this we had Damon steady and stop the camera from underneath while Peter made sure the shot was looking as it should through the viewfinder. 

The lighting for this piece was nice and simple, the dedos were placed directly at the table and high over to cast a few shadows and get that Ritchie look. The original setting appears to be an old warehouse or otherwise empty space composed of mainly shadow (makes sense for a dodgy poker game) so the studio was a great setting as we could use the space and the black curtains to get the shadows we needed. The closeness of this shot meant we were able to get the lights in really close as well and get their full effect, that and we were able to bring a tv close to the set so the actors and cinematographer could study the movements and other aspects of the scene such as prop placement.

TEAMWORK!

The thing that stood out most in this shoot was the level of effort everyone was willing to put in and how well we work together, sure there were moments where we disagreed or felt something could be done better but we were always keeping to the task in hand and making sure we were working to the best of our abilities to make sure our clip was the best it could be. It was lighthearted and fun working with these guys and I'll definitely think about shooting with them in the future (after this project is finalised of course). Peter was invaluable as a cinematographer and cameraman and always made sure the shot we got was the right one and matched the original clip in as many ways as we could manage. Damon was handy once again with costume and props just making sure we had everything we could need as well as a few options. I made sure we were well organised and not running over our time in the studio without getting what we needed, all of the actors were really accommodating and took direction well, they all got stuck into their roles and had some fun while doing so. Everyone else in the crew was always ready to help and pitch in wherever needed, we always had plenty of help on hand for even the smallest task. Though we took our time with this shoot and could have potentially got more done, we may not have ended up with such high quality footage and we wouldn't have been so relaxed and enjoyed it as much. Great job team!

Let the shooting begin!

The day has finally come and we've started principal photography for the snatch edit sequence. Shoot 1 is scene 3. Mickey's caravan. Unfortunately all of our efforts to use a real caravan have not been successful and though we were hoping to have this location be as close to the film as possible we need to be realistic with our scheduling. So no caravan, however we have the luxury of a second option; Damon's bedroom has a large space by a large window with netted curtains and so by making only a few adjustments (adding a table and some pictures of 'his ma' we have transformed the space to resemble Micky's caravan.

Damon has made a big effort in recreating the space for the shoot while Peter (our cinematographer) has focused on getting the angles and lighting right. While most of the shots are one continuous shot with the camera on a dolly or steady cam changing the focus of the shot we found it would be just as easy to have the camera on a fixed tripod to get a better shot and shoot the scene from different angles. As each clip has several jump cuts it will be easy to blend the images later on. The camera placement for this shoot was never going to be ideal, if it were in a caravan as planned we would have had the cast and crew in an enclosed space so we planned for that eventuality. The house we did shoot in was obviously much larger than a caravan however the window placement was important to the shot which meant that the camera would have to be positioned in the doorway. This obviously presented issues as the cast and some of the crew would potentially be trapped in the room which of course is a problem if there were ever a fire or another emergency. Luckily there was a patio door leading to the garden at the rear of the room so there was always an exit available (though it made tea runs a bit of a nightmare). 

Possibly the biggest issue at this location was light. We had planned for a decent amount of light coming through the windows and brought dedo lights and reflectors with us to make sure our talking props looked picture perfect incase there was no sunshine (which being in Cornwall right next to the sea is bloody likely). Instead the unexpected happened and there was a flood of light streaming through the windows washing out everything and ruining the 'caravan-ness' dingy aesthetic we were going for. Luckily the reflectors and some spare cardboard worked nicely as impromptu sun blockers (luckily Damon and his housemates are big pizza eaters).

Props and Costume:

Luckily for us Troy makes a wonderful Brad Pitt (who would have guessed?), he has a similar wiry build and the same facial hair as Mickey so just needed some costume. The Mickey costume was fairly easy and Troy was able to provide most of the clothes himself. All he needed was a vest a pink shirt a waistcoat, a hat and some gold jewellery. I went hat hunting around the charity shops and Damon hit the costume shops to get some costume gold. 

  

The outcome was pretty close to the original, though we were unable to find a suitable pink shirt and the hat was more of a tweed than leather, the look was pretty spot on and we were happy (as was Troy who spent the rest of the day talking about dhags).

Props in this scene were mostly provided by Damon, he was able to find a striking leather purse 'from his mum' to put the gold jewellery in. We found a small box and painted it dark brown to match the one used in the scene and Damon just happened to have an ash trey and a lighter in his house. The playing cards used on the table were part of a set bought for the Franky poker scene. I found a picture of Micky's Ma online- the same one featured in the background of the actual scene and referenced later in the film. I also printed a picture of Jesus which is always visible in Mickey's caravan as well as printing out some actual size bank notes. I had planned to head to Lloyds and get the real thing for the scene however I was informed by a member of the group that using real money in films was illegal. After some quick research I made my way to tvtropes.org (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/StageMoney) and verified that this was true, you can't use real money on film legally, thus I ended up looking sheepish printing out £20 notes on campus - 'it's for a film...honestly'.


Outcome:

We were shooting for most of the day but that was mostly due to all the cast and crew finding their feet and getting into the swing of shooting again. We got some excellent shots and are ready and rearing to get the next shoot rolling.

Until next time film fans!

Pre Production- Locations & Dates

Our production group consists of mostly amateur editors, Peter and Damon are the only ones in our group comfortable with the editing software, so once again ambition is the name of the game. To take some of the pressure off of the two of them I have agreed to be the groups producer and handle all essential paperwork. This is an entirely new experience for me and I look forward to the challenge. We began planning our shoot by laying out a rough time table based around shooting locations.

Scene breakdown

Avi->Sol->Mickey->Vince->Franky->Turkish, George, Tommy->Tony->Boris->Doug->BrickTop

  1       2         3             4            5                            6                          7           8          9           10

Shoot 1:

Shooting dates: 01/03/16

Scene 3: Mickey caravan scene. 

Location: TBC

Finding an actual caravan to shoot in is going to be the most difficult of all of our locations and so we've decided to tackle it first. We have submitted requests to local caravan sites as well as requesting to use the caravan of an actual travelling family camping close to campus. It's important for us to use an actual caravan for this location as it is a highly recognisable location from the film and will set the bar for our efforts to recreate the sequence as realistically as possible.  We would ideally find a caravan with a table and a large window to make sure we have enough light for the scene. 

Shoot 2:

Shooting dates: 08/03/16

Scenes 8&5: Boris & Franky 

Location: Studio

As both of these shots have little in the background and require odd angles (Boris low angle shot from inside his cellar/box) we will be shooting these in the studio. 

Shoot 3:

Shooting dates: 11/03/16

Scenes 1,2,4 & 9: Avi, Sol, Vince & Doug 

Location: Studio

Again, more shoots that will require the studio, as these locations are essentially blank rooms with props in it is far easier for us to shoot several scenes in the same space in one long day. 

Shoot 4:

Shooting dates: 15/03/16

Scene 6&7: Turkish, George, Tommy & Tony

Location: TBC (Scrapyard)

In the film an empty warehouse is used as a boxing promoters training yard. This will be very difficult to find as we will require an empty warehouse either with a caravan inside or with the potential to put one in there. If necessary we will add the caravan in post and just use an empty warehouse.  We will also require an industrial like setting for the back alley of Bullet Tooth Tony's scene. 

Shoot 5:

Shooting dates: 19/03/16

Scene 10: Bricktop

Location: Pub

In another attempt to maintain realistic locations we have requested permission to shoot in several local pubs all of which are of an older style and have pool tables in. 

Before filming in any location the production manager and myself will be completing a full recce and completing a thorough risk assessment. There is the potential that several of these locations may not pass our risk assessments (such as the caravan or warehouse) so we will make sure to have them signed well in hand to combat any issues

Snatch opening sequence: A story within a story

Guy Ritchie's Snatch (2001) is widely regarded as a good follow up to his 1998 debut film Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. It is well regarded with critics, as well as fans, as a great twisted and witty telling of an underground crime story, and is often awarded merit because it is well written and well acted. While Ritchie's editing style has been both criticised and praised, the film won several awards, as well as being nominated for best British film and best editing from the PFCS. Whether you enjoy Ritchie's choice of fast paced MTV generation editing or not, most will agree that the opening montage is a well made and spectacularly edited scene.

The one minute opening sequence manages to introduce every key character in the film by name while giving us a brief glimpse of the characters motivations and style. It tells a brief story of greedy, corrupt and violent characters through it's use of fast paced punchy editing that times perfectly with Klint's Diamond. The scene is not so much telling the actual story of the film but simply introducing the key themes and how the characters fit into this world with this fictional one minute story. The editing is used to push the story forward, in this sequence we see a large diamond (that we see being stolen in the opening scenes) handled and traded by the characters who are either seemingly involved in making money from the sale of the diamond, or causing pain and being malicious in pursuit of it.

The clip has no real master shot as it is a montage but it does begin and end with the image of the diamond bringing the small story full circle. Considering the scripting for this piece is so simple:

CUT TO: MUSIC,A CLOSE UP OF THE DIAMOND. MIX TO: ANOTHER DIAMOND BEING HELD BY AN OVERWEIGHT BLACK MAN. CUT TO: MONTAG INVOLVING ALL THE CHARACTERS IN THE FILM. DEALING OR HAVING SOMETHING TO DO WITH DIAMONDS OR THEFT. ONE SHOT AND SET UP TAKES US SEAMLESSLY INTO ANOTHER SHOT AND SET UP. THIS GOES ON FOR THE DURATION OF THE CREDITS. CUT BACK TO:

It's easy to see how the editorial choices did much for this iconic sequence, with no other direction other than the words  'montage' and 'seamlessly' this amazing story is told in a highly stylised and memorable sequence. Damn Jon Harris, whatever it is, you've got it.

Snatch II: The Edit Awakens

It was a rainy Tuesday as we sat in the grey muse-less classroom staring a blank sheet of paper. "Choose any one minute sequence to recreate for your editing module...any one minute sequence..." what could go wrong?

We submitted three seemingly amazing ideas for our sequence. The car scene from Goodfellas, the opening sequence of Snatch and Vince's speech from Pulp Fiction (looking at our choices it's not hard to surmise the collective gender of our group).

We were confident on our choices and all agreed that we would put the work in and go for something ambitious with plenty of shots. Unfortunately Snatch was the only one to be approved as the others were deemed too ambitious and unlikely to yield results; we were able to choose from any of the approved clips from the entire class but for us the choice was already made and so our saga began.

"This looks fairly simple" we all thought when first studying our chosen clip, "It's going to be so badass and so much fun to do" we pondered. Instead of collectively unravelling the clip to see the tangled web of jump cuts, sped up/ slowed down scenes, freeze frames, zooms and the great number of locations and actors used in the scenes and rethinking this  everest of a task, we were busy deciding who we would each like to appear as in what was going to be the pinnacle of our second year editing module.

May the force be with us.