Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
chapter 1
Familiarizing Yourself with
the Film
The film you'll
be editing is a 12-minute children's ghost story called
Pranks,
which was written and directed by
Marios Chirtou and produced by Mark Riley. The film's original rushes—the raw, unedited footage shot during
the film's production—has been made available to you, and by following the exercises in this topic, you'll be
taken through the process of editing this short film from start to finish.
The task of an editor is to take the individual shots filmed by the production crew, and assemble them into a com-
plete movie that tells a compelling story and entertains an audience. Editing is not simply a case of piecing to-
gether the shots into the correct script order; instead, it's an art and craft that has a major impact on the final film.
How a film is edited dictates the tone, overall pace, and emotional impact that the film delivers and, when done
well, the viewer never even notices the editor's art at work.
This topic aims to reproduce many of the common challenges that an editor faces by taking the reader through a
typical workflow for editing a film. Each chapter focuses on a different part of the process, everything from or-
ganizing the rushes to the final export of the finished film. The first step in this process is to become familiar with
the story that you're about to tell (the shooting script) and the material that has been captured by the production
team to tell that story (the rushes, continuity script, and shot list), which is what this first chapter is all about.
The making of
Pranks
Pranks
was shot on location, over a four-day period at a large Victorian house in St. Albans, Hertfordshire, which is 23 miles
from London. The cast included the great English actress Jenny Seagrove—whose many successes include the film
Local Hero
(1983), directed by Bill Forsyth, and the long-running BBC drama series
Judge John Deed
(2001-2007), initially directed by
Alrick Riley—and 12-year-old Ellie Darcey-Alden, an amazing young actress who took on the lead role of Katie, playing op-
posite her brother Joseph.
