Time Travel

In class Oral presentation-

Pick a clip, roughly 2 minutes, from a film, music video, TV show... anything really- that has had some sort of impact or influence on you. Then talk about why it had an impact on you.

I think post production is ace. So I guess it makes sense to talk about my first conscious realisation of that fact.

Jump back in time to December 1999.

I had just started skateboarding, and what comes with that, is watching an obscene amount of skateboard videos.

While they were great to watch, the production lacked style and creativity.

For the average skate video, post production went a little something like this- import your footage- cut it- drop it in the time line- slow motion on a few tricks- add music track- export.

The style and aesthetic at that point in time was very simple, and every video kind of looked the same. Nobody really complained, they were just happy to see some skateboarding. But it was around this time that Transworld Skateboarding Magazine decided to start producing videos as well; The thing that would set them apart (and ultimately raise the bar for all future skate video productions) was that they were going to adopt cinematic principles, from preproduction right through to postproduction.

Chris Ray (Transworld cinematographer) preparing his kit, circa 2003

With more planning and consideration gone into shooting methods (lens type, camera angles etc.), this was already a big leap from the older method of just shooting from wherever was convenient, with whatever equipment you had with you. A lot more coverage of the environment was also shot, which would become crucial in what was to be the biggest change of all- post production.

Utilising all of the extra footage that was planned in preproduction, film makers now had the chance to edit thematically. In the example I gave in class (Transworld's First Love), the concept of passion for the sport is depicted using segments of voice overs from interviews of the featured riders. The actual footage of the urban environment is coupled with the skateboarding clips to edit to the beat of the music.

 

 

Gone are the days of shooting interviews in the kitchen with the cameras internal mic.

 

This element had an immediate impact on me, and how I perceived what was possible with post production. Having always been interested in the actual process of filming when my friends and I were skating on the weekends, I started to try to emulate the Transworld video productions- paying special attention to editing clips to the beat of the music.

I think the biggest thing i took away from these videos as a kid is that there is no right or wrong way to edit. If 200 editors working independantly are all given the same lot of footage and told "here, cut this together", you are going to get 200 different results. There may not be right or wrong, but just like any art form, some results are going to be more aesthetically pleasing than others- and it takes a whole lot of planning, instinct, and trial and error to get the best result.