Editing Philosophy – Mertens Creations

First of all, here’s an update on the way the monster looks. I haven’t posed him or anything. Also, I haven’t finished tweaking him.

Some things I still want to do (if I have time) are:

add claws
customize his hair some more
make his mouth more slobbery
make his gums more realistic

Before I actually started editing, I thought that deciding where to cut shots would be difficult. Questions would pop up like: do we need to see this character grimace here, or should I cut to the next shot where he groans and falls to the ground?

The reality of editing has been a little less romantic. More than anything else, my editing process has been guided by 3 “principles”:

Cut the beginning of the shot after I say action and after the actor cuts his eyes away from the camera to wherever he is supposed to be looking.
Cut the end of every shot a few frames before the actor bursts out laughing after delivering his line.
On a more serious note, don’t bore the viewer–if a shot can be shorter and give all of the essential information about the story, it should be shorter.

After applying these three priniciples, there is surprisingly little room left for “creative editing decisions,” which isn’t exactly a bad thing when you think about it!

-Jack-

Kenny says:

February 12, 2012 at 2:01 am

Nice! When you talked about actors bursting out laughing, it reminded me of when we were filming the part when the monster steps on Gordon.

Harp M. says:

February 12, 2012 at 5:13 pm

He looks like a cute puppy! At least, minus the red eyeballs.

You definitely need to tweak the monster’s fur. It’s too soft looking. And I think he goes to the barber every week :).

Overall, I think the monster is looking much better. The color of his fur is atrocious, so that’s good. And the hump is much more subdued, so the monster doesn’t look as much like a camel or buffalo or whatever.

KT says:

February 14, 2012 at 6:01 pm

I believe that the monster looks better, (or worse, whichever word is more suitable) since you’ve worked on him. He looks better as a monster, worse in terms of being un-cuddly, (I wouldn’t want to cuddle anything, no matter how puppy like it was if it had red eyes, slimy looking green fur and such ferocious teeth!) which is a good thing since it’s a monster :).

February 15, 2012 at 11:34 am

I think Harpo M has a point by saying that the monster looks like a puppy dog that goes to the barber too much. It reminded me of an albino cat. But that’s just me.

The red pupils are great. However, the rest of the eye needs to be more yellow. In turn making it look more evil. I have a book cover that has a perfect example of what I’m talking about.

I would like the fur pattern more if it had more brown.

Hiker says:

February 15, 2012 at 1:05 pm

I just looked at some pictures of lions and bears, and I realized that although they are some of the most ferocious mammals on earth, they look cute, puppy-like, or solemn when they’re just ambling or loping around. Also, their fur looks like it is trimmed regularly. The monster does look slightly too well kept, but not very much. In addition, I think that it is fine for the monster to look soft, puppy-like, or solemn when its mouth is closed, just so long as it has a more dangerous ferocity in it’s demeanor and mien when its mouth is open. Could you please post a picture showing the monster with its mouth closed if you have time?

Racheal says:

February 16, 2012 at 3:03 pm

He does look “better”. Claws would definitely help–nice big grizzly bear-ish ones. What would he look like with shaggy belly hair? Might make him more rabid looking… (Just thinking out loud here.)