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| Editing the Picture: | |||||||||
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A film's staff shrinks when production is complete. Although a large cast and crew may have been required to capture the images and sounds needed for the film, when editing begins, a handful of people work in a darkened room, to shape the footage into a film.
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| Assembling the Footage | |||||||||
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The first step
for an editor is to screen all of the footage--and then assemble the best
shots for each scene in order. The outcome, called an "assembly cut,"
typically does not play well, and lasts about twice as long the finished
film. But it includes most of the material that will make it into the finished
film (along with a lot that will be cut or shaved). At first, editor Susi
Korda took about a week just looking at all of the footage in the editing
room (getting familiar with her raw materials). She then pieced together
the assembly cut, sticking closely to the script.
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Editors talk about "discovering the film" in the editing room. Editors aim to realize the story line and the thematic intentions of the writer and director. But good editors often find unforeseen solutions and effective juxtapositions that surprise (and delight) the writer and director. After editor Susi Korda screened the assembly cut with Dick Rogers (the director), me (the writer/producer), and Laurel Ulrich, we discussed what did and didn't work. The assembly cut was emotionally flat, and we talked about different ways to reshape the overall film--and individual scenes. Laurel spoke about the thematic elements that were essential to her. And Dick and I drew story graphs again, thinking through possible solutions. Susi began the process of whittling down the assembly cut. Quite a few scenes hit the proverbial "cutting room floor," and others were restructured. The film began to take shape. Another editor, Bill Anderson, was brought in. And after three months, the combined hard work of Korda and Anderson led to the film's "rough cut." The film's final shape and structure were in place. But the film was still rough, and about 15 minutes too long.
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| Tightening the Film to a Fine Cut | |||||||||
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After a rough cut, the incremental effect of many small editorial decisions can be strikingly dramatic. The emotional impact of a film can be radically altered by subtle changes in the film's rhythm and pacing, by small alterations in the way shots are juxtaposed, and by slight, but important changes in the interplay of sound and image. Dick and I gathered different sample audiences to react to several versions of the rough cut. We also screened the film for the senior staff of The American Experience, the PBS series which would broadcast the film. After finding out what these varied viewers found boring, intriguing, confusing, redundant, etc., editor Bill Anderson made thousands of adjustments. He worked to make the individual scenes play dramatically. And he struggled with the choice of voiceovers and their placement. With too much of Laurel's voice, the film became a dull illustrated lecture. But if too much of her voice was deleted, the film became little more than a wash of beautiful images. It was a delicate balancing act. After several months, Bill reached the "fine cut," when the film was working and was close to its desired length, but needed a final polish. With a few more weeks of tweaking, we finally locked the picture.
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| Locking the Picture | |||||||||
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When the picture editing is finalized, it's a "picture lock." On A Midwife's Tale, small but critical changes in both the images and the wording and placing of voiceovers were made up until the last minute. It was then time to complete the sound track of the film: the music, voices, and other sounds that belong in the world of the film, matching them to the locked picture--frame by frame.
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| Music Composition | |||||||||
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The emotional impact of
a scene is heavily influenced by its music. Watching the same scene
with different types of music is a simple but very instructive experience.
Depending upon the music used, a shot of someone walking up the stairs,
for example, can be made to feel hopeful, menacing, or even triumphant.
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Final Sound Editing and Mixing | |||||||||
| Sound Effects and Voices | |||||||||
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Sound editors work with huge libraries of commercially available recorded sounds--libraries in which one can find not one, but hundreds of different cricket or fly sounds to choose from, for example. Some sound editors also like creating and recording their own sound effects. Most of the sound effects in A Midwife's Tale were natural sounds of rural animals, insects, wind, rain, etc. The sound editors also spent a lot of time improving the sound of the voiceovers for both Laurel Ulrich and Martha Ballard.
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| Foleys and ADR | |||||||||
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A Foley studio is a soundproof
room with a remarkably eclectic collection of fabrics, household objects,
pieces of metal, small floor patches of different materials (wood, stone,
gravel, sand, etc.), and hundreds of other objects used to make and record
sounds to enhance whatever sound was recorded on the film set: clothes
rustling, footsteps, pouring water, objects being placed on tables, etc.
Foley artists precisely match the sounds they make in the studio with
the locked cut which is projected on a screen while they work. For example,
they match their footsteps with the footsteps on the screen while walking
on the patch of studio floor that has the right kind of surface (gravel
or dirt or wood). Or they create the sound of cloth rustling to match
the exact movements (and type of cloth) of a character moving (sitting,
standing, running, etc.) in the film.
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| The Mix | |||||||||
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Sound editors arrive at a sound mix with their many different types of sounds (music, sound effects, voices, Foleys, etc.) separated out on multiple sound tracks--dozens of them. During the sound mix, which can take as long as several weeks for a complicated film, these tracks are combined and levels are all adjusted to make the film's final sound tracks.
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| Reaching the film's many audiences: publicity and distribution | |||||||||
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A film producer's job is
not finished when the film is completed. The producer must launch the
finished film into the world, spreading the word, and finding the
best distributor for the film. In the case of A Midwife's Tale, we
had multiple audiences to reach: professional historians and history buffs,
healers and midwives, people interested in the history of medicine, senior
citizens, fans of the book, and people who want to know more about women's
lives in the past. Screenings were held with all of these audiences. And
the film received coverage nationwide in newspapers, magazines, radio,
and TV.
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