9. The Cutting Room Floor
Aug 1st, 2021. Cold Start production blog post written by Richard Townsley
Welcome back to COLD START: The Road to Production. Yes, the road to production has ended, but the long road into post-production has just begun. Regarding the video editing process of Cold Start, it was a cakewalk. Having such a clear vision of the film, combined with obtaining every single shot that I wanted, resulted in very little on the, albeit digital, “cutting room floor.” The entirety of Cold Start’s video editing will be completed by mid-August. The editing process was heavily aided through the use of temporary music. Some of the temporary music that was used as the soundtrack of the edit was the same music used when I was writing the film. This ensured that the tone and speed of the film were close to how it was originally envisioned, however, some music was swapped out with other options. Temporary music will also come into use again as a potential reference for the film’s Composer.
On Cold Start’s set, the Script Supervisor provided an excellent eye for all the little bits of detail that everyone else wouldn't even notice. Script Supervisor notes could be as simple as, “this prop was facing left, not right.” Or, in other cases, the Script Supervisor would notice details as small as “he grabbed the prop with his right hand, switched it to his left hand after this line of dialogue, then blinked twice.” While on set, this ensured that we were avoiding continuity errors- breaks in a continuous flow of time. Even subtle errors can subconsciously be noticed by viewers and fully pull the audience out of the film, ruining the viewing experience. I am proud to say Cold Start has no continuity errors. Partly, this is due to my approach to directing that comes from a background of video editing, but my hat goes fully off to the Script Supervisor who provided precise notes both while on set and for me later while editing.
Returning to the topic of the cutting room floor, I cut out the majority of the final dialogue scene between Carter and Aunt Leona. I found that, in comparison to the rest of the film, this scene was too long and redundantly provided information. The full, uncut scene will be available for viewing via our website once the film is released.
