Rate This Edit – Looking for Positive or Negative Feedbck

[Richard Herd]

As edited, pretty well done. Here’s a thought: as he drinks down the water, and wine, cut to his OTS as way to increase the pacing. Really showing her reaction. The slow pace work well up till that point, no conclusion otherwise.

A few things out of the editor’s control though:
— more coverage, woulda been nice to see a WIDE 2 Shot.
— more coverage, woulda been nice to see a shot of the table
— more coverage, since the gag ends with him drinking down the wine and water, woulda been nice to see some of that before the end (foreshadow type thing–another moment to increase the pacing)
— wine glasses were filthy
— must’ve been cold outside with her breath puffing out, doesn’t match her summery dress

[Chris Durham]

Richard pretty much said the things I was going to say. The edit’s nice and clean and if I weren’t looking at it as an editor, or with the intent to critique I probably wouldn’t notice these things. I have the feeling that some of this may be out of your control, but the piece definitely relies too heavily on OTS shots. There are points where the non-speaker’s reaction is certainly important, but I’m slightly distracted by just watching the speaker’s jaw wag from behind. A good medium 2-shot would have fixed this, but, like I said, I suspect that’s not your doing.

You got the beats right which is most important, though I did notice a spot or two where, on a cut, the new subject seems to pick up dialog too quickly. It’s probably just a frame or two and, again, I think I wouldn’t notice it if I weren’t looking for it.

Overall though, nice job. It’s a neat little piece and I think it was shot well even if it might not have been covered properly.