'Bear'- The Edit

After filming, I was extremely eager to get editing- I’ve always enjoyed editing as it feels like the bit where you actually ‘make’ the film. You know, turn a load of seemingly disjointed clips into something which tells a story. There’s just something fun about it- kind of like cooking a meal, going from ingredients which totally don’t mean much on their own, but when mixed properly, seasoned and cooked, you end up with something tasty! It’s quite fascinating what you can make with what doesn’t look like much to begin with.

I started the rough assemble edit the day after we finished the shoot. This was so what was shot was fresh in my mind, especially because I ended up not boarding a lot of it towards the end as we were pushed for time, but also because I was excited to get editing it!

Despite having moved from Premiere Pro to DaVinci Resolve (Adobe’s sub fees are ridiculous), I didn’t find much differentiation between the two and from a technical standpoint, the edit went really smoothly. To be honest, there’s not a large gulf between editing software anyway, it’s all pretty much the same but just with different hotkeys. It felt great to be back editing again especially a narrative piece, something I’ve not done for what feels like (and probably is) years.

I ended up spending a lot more time in the edit than I had originally scheduled for. This was because for some reason, even after multiple script and storyboard drafts, the story just didn’t seem to be working and the pacing was ‘off’. This was confirmed by my feedback process in which I asked several trusted friends/ colleagues for some honest feedback after a draft of the cut.

I decided to ask people who didn’t know the story to take a look to see whether or not my story was coming across. It was an interesting, but exciting process and I had no idea what to expect. I did this feedback stage as it’s something I’ve never previously done (or at least not to this extent) so thought it might be helpful, plus as I’m so wrapped up in the story, it’s hard to know whether the film I’m making translates/ comes across to people seeing it for the first time. It mostly did (phew!), though there were some slight issues echoed throughout a few of the responses- which I knew deep down anyway.

After a couple of breaks (to try and freshen my viewpoint), I redrafted several times. It was hard to get the mix right, but I feel I got there in the end- or at least for now. I think once everything is animated with the backgrounds and music/ SFX etc it might need a few small adjustments. Fun fact: it’s actually quite hard to tell if a story is working from watching a live action cut with none of the animated aspects included!

I’m aware this post has been a long time coming, but hey look, I got here in the end (just like the edit process)!