Cutting Down the Clips

After I compiled every clip I planned on using I had a huge issue. The full length of the film was 3 minutes and 21 seconds which is way too long. I need to cut it down to around 2 minutes. Luckily a lot of clips can be seen as repeated so they aren't as important to add to the final project. Some clips also go on for way too long that I can definitely cut down the seconds on some of them. By the end of most of the editing and cutting down I got the time to about 2 minutes and 13 seconds. This was very difficult to do because I felt I was deleting a lot of shots which I took time to film but that is just a part of the process. I should have planned it out better with the shot durations so I could've fit what I wanted to in. I went through all of the clips over and over again to cut down every millisecond I could from wherever I could find. The thing I deleted the most of was him walking. I had filmed various scenes of him strolling through the streets in the dark, but it lasts for a while and some clips felt repetitive. I kept the important ones with good camera angles and even cut them down so it was less of a slog. One thing I noticed while editing was a mistake I made during filming. The camera had moved in between scenes during the phone call with the mom when it's supposed to be a continuous shot. It really affects the viewing experience because it is noticeable to all. To reduce this I cut off one of the lines he says that felt least important. This makes it so this scene is only a small portion of the film. This was frustrating but also helped since it was something I was able to easily get rid of even with it still being prevalent a little bit. Now that I cut what I wanted to I want to talk about what I kept. I needed to find the most important aspects. I needed to ask myself what key elements have I explored and built the story? This was more difficult said than done because I felt like everything I filmed was close to necessary. However, the scenes I kept were the major story ones with major dialogue or actions happening. This leaves it so almost every scene has something going on compared to the original with some moments that could be boring. This does make the final product better because there is no point in the opening that the viewer will just be watching with no action going on.

Examples of two scenes I cut