Read BEFORE posting Trades & Request
Really interesting read, thanks for sharing your thought processI'm in a position to say I'm happy with my renders and everything I've setup. It's time for some reflection.
When I watched this movie many weeks ago, it was my second viewing. I felt like I had a decent idea of what could improve the movie, but I didn't clearly understand why. Over these weeks, chopping up and rearranging these scenes, becoming more familiar with the dialogue, then getting such fantastic feedback from a few of you.... I have gained a much more clear picture of what this movie represents for people, specifically those of Chinese heritage. I was guilty of ignorance and I've learned so much culture. I've learnt exactly who Awkwafina is and learnt more about these beloved Chinese actors. I've learnt a bit more about some editing techniques and polished my skills. This was far more extensive of an edit than what I have done before.
I decided to go back and have a quick analysis of the original theatrical edit. I was quite surprised at how different it was and how much I have actually changed it. I also found I am far more able to understand the different elements and recognise why I was confused watching it. Quite simply, it's a mess. Maybe that's not completely fair, but for someone with a disibility to do with short term memory, it's almost impossible to keep a lot of these elements in mind. The movie had this ongoing mystery about Shaun's past along with the Katy story, the Wenwu story, the Xialing story, the Trevor story, etc. There was so much going on at once and it was so easy to forget about stuff. like the cut back to the plane with the stewardess, incredibly distracting and almost as if the director was saying "forget about Shaun's past, pay attention to this joke instead". In fact that really does highlight something I noticed quite clearly this time. This movie seems to go out of its way to push Shaun into the background. at every opportunity it tries to distract you from him. Even some shots have him off to the side as if he's a bit character. I realise I was unaware of that before and it's something I could have rectified. I could have reframed those shots, so maybe that's something for a future version. It's almost like this was "Katy and the Legend of the Ten Rings". Then when there was any opportunity "hey here's xialing's flashback", "hey here's a joke about aeroplane food", "hey look, it's wong fighting abomination!", "hey look, it's a postcard", "hey look, it's trevor!", etc. It was startling to see. Then I went back to my edit and realised, I've fixed that. I think the reason is, how I front loaded Shaun's story, and removed a lot of shots of Katy. The beginning of the movie really is Shaun focused now, so at the times where Katy is centre frame, it still doesn't seem like she is meant to be prominent. I believe this is about setup and payoff.
Setup and payoff.. I like that concept. It's like, one of the more important aspects in narrative, is setting up a character, who they are, what they want, and then getting them some payoff through the story. I think I managed to do that pretty well. In the theatrical version, I spent most of the movie wondering what happened to his mother, that I wasn't really following the plot well. In my edit, it's immediately established what happened to his mother, and the rest of the plot can be focused on fully. I'm pretty biased, so I think what I did is pretty cool, but of course there's a lot that could be better. I see a ton of stuff I'd like to work on more, but I have to draw a line. The work is done.
P.S. I can't normally write a lot due to my dyslexia. I'm impressed.