The Official Blog for David Whittet's Motion Picture Trilogy

Piecing the Jigsaw together

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Much of my life in the past couple of months has been spent in a darkened room, colour grading Rere’s Children. This key scene of Miriama’s first meeting with Koriata has been a particularly difficult scene to balance and getting it right has become an obsession!

Making a film is like doing a jigsaw. Both films and jigsaw puzzles are made up of a large number of pieces which must come together to make a satisfying entity. In the case of a film, those tiny pieces are shot out of order and often in isolation of each other. The challenge for the film maker is getting each shot, each little piece of the jigsaw, as close to perfection as possible. And just like a jigsaw, one piece that doesn’t fit can ruin the entire picture.

Editing a film always entails shuffling scenes around into a different order in search of that elusive prefect fit. Juggling story lines, juxtaposing images, this is where a film is made or broken.

For Rere’s Children, the jigsaw is at last compete. All the elements have come together to produce a compelling story, that elusive fit has been achieved!

This First Look video is a rough cut of the scene which has given me so much heartache in post production! A tense, edgy scene where Miriama and Koriaita first meet in a dockside cafe.