Post-Production Editing: Visual Storytelling

We are officially in the post-production phase of our project, and I have come to truly appreciate the impact that editing has on a story. Editing is just as critical to a film as writing, directing, and acting. We initially had a script heavy with dialogue. This is not a negative thing since many films, like The Social Network, start this way…but we only have two minutes to make an impact. This realization made the saying "a picture is worth a thousand words" resonate really deeply. It was one of many “aha” moments I have had during this project.

Instead of just talking about how much we wanted to get into UM or about how close our friendship is, we decided it would be better to show it visually. We will incorporate shots of UM merchandise in our rooms and focus on pictures of us from childhood and more recently to quickly, as in a few seconds, tell the audience about our deep friendship and our goal of getting into UM together.

 
(Disclaimer: Alessandra and I met this year in our AICE Media Class and became AICE Media buddies, teaming up for all our projects. So, this is all fictional, and no, we are not going to UM.)

Some visual elements we'll include in the film are:A photo of when we were young together (really a picture of my sister and cousin when they were 2 or 3). We will make it black and white to show that it was some time ago.

A current photo of us together...coming soon.
Some UM merch on our walls and desks:

Shot to us typing away in our rooms and then hitting a button and having creens that show Common App for UM being submitted:

Calendar that shows UM Decision Day marked:

A countdown board that we will fast forward through within the story, and that will be a good place to show some credits too.

This way, when our dialogue begins, we won’t have to put in so much effort to explain to the audience what we are looking forward to. Instead, they will be right there with us.