Jason Stringer

Being a long weekend, Drum made the trip to Roxby to catch up with half the town.  Thankfully, I was also scheduled in for an appointment.  He excitedly dropped ‘round to check out the first cut of Hair Dye.  It would also be the first time I would watch the short entirely from start to finish, uninterrupted.  I had cut the film in-sequence according to the screenplay, and now pieced those sequences together ready for a complete viewing.  It is the first indication as to how ‘watchable’ the film is going to be.  It’s also nerve-wracking!

The results were varied and definitely covered the length of the scale; from horrendous to award-winning-potential (though we might be bias).

I should mention that this entire process of producing short films out of our own pocket is to ultimately learn as much as possible.  It’s always one long learning curve and we hope to continually see improvement as we progress.

Knowing this, we quickly conceded that – having watched the film for the first time – the first 10-15 minutes of Hair Dye were completely fucking awful, and thus ruined the entire film.

It wasn’t so much the editing (I had done all I could do with the footage and remained true to the writing)…  It was just blatantly obvious shoddy camera work, poor story-telling, performances, framing, pace; the lot.  It just completely missed the mark and made the film a pointless watch.  It distracted from the crux of the plot.  In discussion, we even ventured all the way back to the pre-production stages (writing, storyboards etc) and realised we were probably off-the-mark back then.  Even the production days for the scenes that didn’t work in the editing room were not ‘solid’ days at the time.  It sure shows.  Hindsight is a glorious thing, eh?

Thankfully, it wasn’t all doom and gloom.  The second half of the production was phat ‘n juicy with goodness.  Nice pace, nice framing, great performances and just engaging the way we had hoped.  Indeed, the middle of the film onwards is fuckin’ grouse!

We were left with no choice.  We had to cut the first half in order to salvage the film.  We went straight back to the PC and went to work, utilising the sequences I had already pieced together to re-arrange the story into a more ‘freaky’ and engaging experience, instead of a strict narrative.

It was brutal.  The 25+ minute video has been carved back to a much-more easy-going 10ish minutes.  It is still incomplete at this stage, but we are definitely on the right track and much closer to completion.

It felt great to figure out these limitations and make amends so easily.  The discussion with Drum immediately after watching the first cut was really rewarding.  We just continued to open new doors to new solutions and realise where we went wrong during the production.  It was really cathartic.

Drum needs to head back on Wednesday, but is cruising around tomorrow night to see if we can’t complete it right here n’ now.  I think we can.  One hurdle.  It’s Kerry and my Anniversary.  He wouldn’t ask his wife to cancel Anniversary plans to edit a film with a mate, would he?? You’re asking yourself?  Stay tuned.  My next post could be very fucking interesting.