What kinds of transitions do you make between scenes? Do you plunge right into the next scene with a smash cut or jump cut? Descend thoughtfully into it with a long dissolve or super? Or just plain cut? Chances are you’ve made all these kinds of transitions and many more as you’ve paced out scenes as well as individual edits.

Boxing

I’ve been thinking about transitions as I’ve made a major life move from LA to northern CA as part of setting the stage for the third act of my life. Scoring boxes has underscored my transition. First I drove to various locations in LA: a floral shop for gangster boxes good for shipping bazookas (or sculptures and wrapping paper in my case); a grocery store, a friend’s house and that of a relocated couple.

Recently I’ve been on the other end: recycling the boxes. We advertised on Craig’s list and five people – all women – showed up, each with her own story of transition.

#1, in her mid 30’s showed up in a VW camper and paid $40 for as many boxes and wrapping paper as we could stuff in. Naturally, we made conversation about where we’d moved from and where she was moving to. She told us she was getting divorced and stifled a sob with “It’s all for the best.”

#2, in her mid 30’s the first of the four who responded to the updated entry stating “free boxes,” drove a big, late model truck owned by her ex-boyfriend’s business. Her dogs bared their teeth at us as she related how she was downsizing to another city and on her way to a job interview where she stood a good chance to get a job that she was way overqualified for that paid slightly more than her unemployment which was running out next week.

#3, in her early 60s, appeared in a borrowed pick-up and turned out to be PhD in psychology. She had always worked contract as a corporate consultant but now, to get her son through college, was taking an in-house job at Lawrence Livermore lab. She works with engineers and loves it, helping them to communicate and succeed in a corporate environment. I took her card and referred her to a friend who is writing a self help book for geeks who need to pick up on social cues to better their work life.

#4, mid-50s came directly from teaching Bible school. As we efficiently crammed most of the remaining picture boxes into her Passat wagon, she divulged that she and her husband were headed back to Texas after 20 years in CA to watch over family members.

#5 The last boxer showed up in a Camry and was around my age.  She’d attended the same college I had in the same major around the same time. We didn’t know each other then but we have friends in common now. So who knows, we may see her again. A semi-retired MFT, she is moving to a town she loves that has good schools as she is raising her grandson.

So these are my latest tales of transitions. What are yours, in or out of the cutting room?

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My friend, linguistics expert Paul Frommer, the professor who created the Na’vi language for Avatar, called me last week to catch up and wish me well in my new home in northern CA. He mentioned that he has created a blog and is giving lessons in Na’vi for all levels online.

“I don’t make a dime from this,” Pawl (his Na’vi name) explained, ”but the fans are really demanding it.” So if you’re interested, go to his website, http://naviteri.org/ (Na’viteri means “Concerning Na’vi”) which lists other resources, events, and developments of the language.

I’ve blogged about Paul before because he’s a terrifically brilliant and kind person and I find his achievement amazing for several reasons. First, his success exemplifies how there are many paths into filmmaking. I’ve known editors who came from music, physics, literature, etc. There is no one career path for filmmakers. Second, Paul worked long and hard on languages and on Na’vi before it hit the screen. And he still loves it so much he is composing new words and developing the language on his own, keeping it pure and complex linguistically. Third, the language is taking him around the world for lectures and workshops and has led to work on two other movies. Fourth – and this is just my opinion – the Pandoran people carry a lot of Paul’s own life values and values which he’s able to infuse into the language.

So whether you want to learn Na’vi or not (and I don’t), it’s interesting to learn about another aspect of filmmaking and the person behind it.

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This post concludes my report on my evening at the TV Academy where part of IFC’s six hour docu-series on Monty Python was screened followed by a panel discussion with Python actors and filmmakers involved.

What struck me was the scrappiness of this irreverent band of brothers and how hard they worked at experimenting and creating all the loony, slyly subversive skits and movies that so many of us love to play and replay.

Show expectations

Monty Python’s Flying Circus ran on PBS from 1969-1974. Eric Idle recalled, “It wasn’t promoted, sold, or hyped so kids could find it. It was subversive [so they found it].”

“We were never sure anyone was going to laugh at what we did,” Terry Jones stated.

When moderator Pete Hammond asked why the show is so long lasting and still fresh, Idle responded, “It followed a period of political satire so it had to be generic.”

Pythons on comedy

Idle made a series of observations:

”Comedy is about telling the right thing at the wrong time.”

“If you’re an actor you’re always playing something that isn’t you. I’ve been sheep, fish, women.”

“Comedy is dangerous. You’re telling the truth to people who don’t want to hear it.”

Reunion

Hammond quizzed the two Pythons on this possibility and got these response:

Terry Jones, “We’d look too old.”

Eric Idle: “When people ask this, they’re really saying -- as they would with the Beatles -- is that they want to be young again.”

Movies

Hammond pointed out that none of the troupe’s films ever got any awards. Terry Jones agreed, “Python films were never taken seriously by the film people.”

When I first heard it, I thought “Always look on the bright side of life” was an old pop tune. I didn’t realize that Idle wrote it to end The Life of Brian. Here are the boys at their witty, subversive best:

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Now that we’ve got our heads around DSLR a bit, it’s time to learn more about the features of these new dual still and video cameras. And actually view some videos shot on DSLRs.

Here’s a summary of features gleaned from attending LAPPG’s* monthly meeting last week.

DLSR cameras -- Video features

• Sharpness and ability to adjust to low light conditions of film cameras.
• Adjust well to low light due to large size of images.
• Good with motion though needs some correction.
• Shallow DOF (depth of field) as opposed to video camera which has deep DOF.
• Close to film style shooting so DPs like.
• Workflow simple except for longer transfer time.

A few specs

• Shoots 720p, 1080p, 24p etc.
• Makes super 16/35mm frames and reg 16/35mm frames
• 2K and 4K possible, depending on model.
• Four basic color settings:
1. Saturation
2. Sharpness
3. Color tone
4. Contrast

Day footage

And now for some gorgeous DSLR shots in a video which shows off its outdoor capabilities and includes DLSR audio filmed by a veteran videographer who gives on shooting engaging rock climbing footage.

Night footage

Beijing captured with available light and background sound shot by news shooter Dan Chung:

Showcase

DP Shane Hurlbut’s video about the final moments of a man’s life showcases DLSR and was sponsored by Canon.

Hurlbut used 24p for the office shots at the start of this short film and 30p converted to 24p for its flashback sequences. Read more details on Hurlbut’s blog.

* Los Angeles Post Production Group monthly meetings are topical and well worth the $5 donation. Plus there’s a raffle of editing software, T-shirts, etc., home baked brownies, and a chance to schmooze with 50 other editors. www.lappg.com

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Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

OK, all you creative maladjusts, it’s time for a great contemporary movie on King as well one about Shirley Chisholm and Barbara Jordan.

In the meantime, I hope you, like many of us, are smiling at the words, deeds, and promise of our current president.

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Step away from your editing keyboard and insert a pause in the action (you can cut it out later). I want to talk about everything that is editing and editors and hear from you with your experiences, challenges, opinions, and questions.

What is editing?

Editing, like life, is about change: A change in a shot, frame, scene, or location; a change in tempo, rhythm, sound, pitch, volume; a change in technology, process, speed of operation; and lastly, editing is a change in ourselves and our viewers.

We’ll look at editing from every angle here, including history, theory, technology, and practice and how it affects movies, positively, negatively, or somewhere in between.  Lately I have become interested in how editing affects our lives so I will include my and others musings on this subject as well. Feel free to comment with your own insights and questions. We’ll go wherever our curiosity or the river takes us.

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