Week 11 - Pass and Proceed

Ironic that the most exciting, fun and creative part of editing took me barely an hour after having spent three full days trying to digitise and organise all the footage. Having finally finished capturing all the media for Little Clown and then cut together my half of the film Michael and I combined our efforts to form a first rough editors’ cut. This then Adam had to see first and, although not one for unnecessarily displaying emotions, I think he was rather impressed though he did, of course, have a few suggestions. Following this Charlotte was finally allowed to see her film and she too provided us with some notes. So adjustments were made to the rough cut and steadily the film began to fall into shape.

Tightening of the edit continued throughout this week as did frantic discussions with the composer who wasn’t quite getting the tone that Charlotte was looking for and seemed to be providing either Harry Potter-like horror music or the score for a tragedy (after all, he is Greek!).

On Tuesday afternoon we had our last screening of the year; a film from 1970 called MASH. Regretfully I found this rather disappointing; firstly because it hadn’t really decided what it was. It could have been either a comic war-time drama or a full-on comedy set during the Korean War but instead it seemed to be simply a mess; but as Andy said, the shoot was such a kafuffle it’s a wonder they got a film out of it at all. Secondly the humour was not at all to my taste. Much like The Hangover which I saw earlier in the week most of the comedy seemed to be derived from sheer craziness and inappropriateness or from archetypal characters who are inevitably the focus of much mocking. Call me old-fashioned but I prefer humour that is less impolite and more witty; I like things that make me laugh out loud and unfortunately most of the comedy in MASH left me either confused or embarrassed. However, I have since learned that it spawned a TV series and it’s possible the sprawled, incoherent, zany nature of this film would lend itself better to the small screen.

Thursday was another full day on Little Clown, now at the final stages: minor adjustments to the edit, sound editing, grading (by Gavin) and scoring. I also had a quick tutorial with Adam to chat about how the year had gone. He was quite complementary about how he thought I was doing and I was quite complementary about the programme so I think we were both happy. Certainly, on reflection, I am able to realise just how much I have learned and I know that the wisdom, knowledge and experience that I have gained from this year will make a strong foundation to build upon in years to come.

So my final morning in the Academy in Term 3 was spent putting the final touches to Little Clown and burning it to a DVD for a screening. It was in a very presentable form, though I expect it may need a bit of tweaking after the summer before the final version can be screened.

So again I have to stop myself and look back on just how far I’ve come. When I compare myself now to what I was at the start of Year 1 I can see quite clearly the development of my skills and understanding and just how perfect this course was for me. I was eager to learn and hungry for knowledge and the Academy provided the resources and environment where I might satisfy that hunger and also discover more to be hungry for. Any day is an experience but on this course every day is just the experience I would want, and that is a wonderful thing. The list of marks for this years’ graduates was rather impressive – all 1s and 2.1s – but also quite daunting if our year is to live up to that. For us it was simply a “Pass and proceed to Year 2” which is slightly less dramatic. I don’t often mention my class as a whole but I feel I should say that in that too I am hugely privileged. They are an amazing group of people, all excellent practitioners as well as great friends and it is an honour to know them. The tutors also are inspiring people and I have a great deal of respect for them. I could go on praising but I may begin to make even myself envious! The fact is; this is an awesome course and I am very blessed to be on it.

Now I am away to enjoy what I hope will be an awesome summer, then it’s back to work in what I’m sure will be an awesome second year and so it goes on… life is one awesome adventure.

God bless.