Here is a set of four (4) basic scenes which explain the story of Amy, the daughter of the storekeeper and his wife. These are four separate scenes but since they are based on the same characters and story, I am writing only one desciption of the four scenes. These scenes are in separate folders on the disk. Each scene has its own overview movie and set of film dailies.
The location
Near the house of the main characters of the televison show, there lives a storekeeper and his wife. It is now ten years since the end of the TV show. The storekeeper's wife feels frustrated by being just the wife of a storekeeper. She wanted to be much more. Since she did not get what she wanted, she planned that her daughter would have everything that she did not have. But her daughter did not want that.
The characters
All of the scenes center around the storekeeper and his wife who live at the general store.
The story - "A letter from Amy"
The storekeeper receives a letter from Amy. He wants to give it to his wife to read but she refuses to look at it. The wife says she is not well and cannot work today. When the wife leaves, the store keeper opens the letter and become very happy.
The story - "Special Bulletin"
The storekeeper and his customers are talking about the new house for the family. Then the radio announces that President Kennedy has been shot. This upsets everyone and they all leave.
The story - "Story of Amy"
The storekeeper is very sad at the death of President Kennedy. He says why President Kennedy was so good for the country. Even though the storekeeper's wife said she is now well, she is dresses for going to church. Then they talk about their daughter, Amy. We learn that the store has a gas pump for selling gasoline. One day, the man drove up and purhcased gas from Amy. They fell in love and she married the man. This upsets the mother because she wanted Amy to be what the mother wanted to be - an interior decorator or a famous actress. The storekeeper and the storekeeper's wife argue.
The story - "Happy Homecoming"
Earlier, the storekeeper told his wife that they would eat at a restaurant for Thanksgiving. But now, in this scene, we see the storekeeper preparing a turkey for the oven for Thanksgiving dinner. The storekeeper's wife is surprise, specially because of the large size of the turkey which is more than two people can eat. Soon a car comes down the road and Amy and her husband and their new baby come home to a very happy ending.
The challenge
All of the scenes are very simple and relatively easy to edit. Music or just musical effects are needed at the end of most scenes. These scenes are excellent practice scenes.
Edit this scene
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The Overview Movie
Start by looking at the overview movie for each of the four scenes. (Remember that the overview movie files are in a separate folder.) The overview movie shows you the important parts of the film dailies in chronological order so you can quickly see which shots are best.
Transfer the dailies
Copy all the film dailies (not the overview movie) to your hard drive. If necessary, convert the dailies to whatever format your editing program prefers. Import them into your editing program.
Edit the scenes
Editing the scenes is easy. Always start by looking for the best audio. Once the audio (along with the picture) is edited, you will lock the audio and roll the picture edits to find the best visual transitions thereby creating "L-Cuts".
Notice for "Special Bulletin" that you have a wide section of shots to select from. When do you use the wide angle shots and when do you use the close up shots? The answer is not obvious.
The opening shot of the exterior
These four scenes do not appear one after the other in the movie. Instead, these scenes are inserted between the other scenes. To help the audience know that these scenes are from the story about the storekeeper's family, you might want to show the exterior of the store at the beginning of each scene of these four scenes just of a few seconds. This shot is included with the first sets of film dailies.
Voice over
For "Special Bulletin", the director reads the part of the announcer. This must be replaced by an actor reading the same lines. Want to try? Should be fun!
Watch the overview movie for Letter from Amy (which mistakenly appears as "Letter fot Amy"). Draw a line between the two actors. Once you begin editing, you should never cross that line unless the camera is rolling. In this scene, the director seems to violate this rule. Do you see how confusing things can be if you jump across the line. Try editing this scene in different ways at the beginning and you will see the problem.
Following the director's instructions
Watch the overview movie for "Happy Homecoming". Listen to the directions of the director. In this scene, the actors have nothing to look at. The director must help the actors with their timing, etc.
Notice that the director does not step on the words of the actors. Therefore, the words of the director can be easily removed.
Notice when the storekeeper shakes the hand of Amy's husband. In the first take, this is not totally clear. By the second take, the actors are repositions so the hand shake is totally visible. The director has to notice these things and make the necessary changes to make the scene more rewarding for the audience.
The next scenes
There are another four scenes which simple to edit from the TV show. These four scenes are about Jason. All are easy to edit... except for the last one which is "Come on In".
