Post-Production Seminar: Managing Media

In today's editing seminar we were shown how to manage our media across the shared network so that we can continue working on our projects on different computers. This process was quite complex so I noted it down step-by-step, but it will be useful for future productions due to the issues we have been around space on the computers.

We were first shown the contents of the 'Creating' file within AVID and the important files that we need to copy across and which should not be changed. We were told how AVID manages the metadata within the media files and which we needed to move about. Then within the edit we were introduced to the Media Tool Display which shows us what clips our sequence consists of so that we don't have to copy across the entire library of footage. We were shown the effects of consolidating and condensing our projects and how to target a computer on the network for the destination of our files.

At the end of the session we watched the opening to 'Lost in La Mancha' (Keith Fulton, 2002), a film about Terry Gilliam's ill-fated film 'The Man Who Killed Don Quixote' in late 2000.

We were asked to identify the different documentary and editing tools it uses to create meaning, of which there were many:

• Authoritative voice-over
• Music with fitting tone
• Fast-paced editing to create excitement and interest
• Superimposed images 
• Expository narration
• Talking heads interviews
• Title cards
• Animated storyboards with sound effects and voices (in Gilliam's signature style)
• Archive footage explaining the history of the project

With further analysis we identified one of the film's key themes: exposing the magic of movie-making. The contributors talk about the parallels between the fictional story of Don Quixote and Terry Gilliam himself, how they both set out to turn fictional stories into a reality.

In another sequence, Gilliam is introduced to the main members of his crew in a meeting during pre-production on the project. The editing makes good use of creating subtext and foreshadowing by including the 1st AD talking about how they should talk to him if there's any issues surrounding the relatively small budget, and the juxtaposition of the crew laughing and being serious talking about money. 

In the first archive sequence we are introduced to the other attempts to make the film in the past, once by Orson Welles, contextualizing the danger of the film and foreshadowing problems further. When looking at the pace of the editing here it was noted that although it wasn't rapidly cut, there were enough 'new thoughts' and new sequences to keep the audience interested, which is a useful tip for future projects.

The film reminded me of a documentary I watched recently called 'Jodorowsky's Dune' (Frank Pavich, 2013), about Alejandro Jodorowsky's ill-fated attempt to adapt the sci-fi novel 'Dune' in 1965. As a similar topic, the film makes use of many of the same techniques used in 'Lost in La Mancha',  including complex animatics from the director's extensive storyboarding, and interviews with many of those who would have been involved such as H.R. Giger. Similar to Gilliam, Jodorowsky had an eccentric, strong personal vision which was brought to life faithfully through the film, importantly instilling a sense of what it could have been even without it being made.