More edit thoughts

So I finished the rough cut of the first 20 minutes... Before teh discussion lets look at Walter Murch's priority list for making a cut...

1. Emotion - How will this cut affect the audience emotionally at this particular moment in the film?

2. Story - Does the edit move the story forward in a meaningful way?

3. Rhythm - Is the cut at a point that makes rhythmic sense?

4. Eye Trace - How does the cut affect the location and movement of the audience's focus in that particular film?

5. Two Dimensional Place of Screen - Is the axis followed properly?

6. Three Dimensional Space - Is the cut true to established physical and spacial relationships?

Now for HSM I'm assuming the music IS the emotion... it is the natural emotional flow so if I cut to the music I am cutting on emotion...

I already cut out a ton of "cool shots" because they were not moving the story forward in a meaningful way... they were just saying "look what a kewl shot I R!" and since I don't want to make SET PIECE:THE MOVIE PART II: COOL SHOTS I gutted them mophukAZ!  This is a tough one because since you animated everything and did all the shots you want to look at them and feel all proud of yourself BUT that is the job of your DEMOREEL not your film....

Also the music is the strongest rhythm, the dialog another... and the cinematography another...so I must balance all three...

As for 4-6 I don't look for those consciously... If a cut feels wrong then I do something about it... but since every shot was boarded and planned out to fit with its surrounding shots I don't have to think about these decisions much... So I'm not too concerned with technical issues.... its more the pacing and the flow AND whether you will be able to understand wtf is going on or not... Endika and I discussed getting a few people together who know nothing about the film and have them watch some segments then ask them questions to see whether they can follow it or not... so yeh we're probably going to do our own little focus groups ^ ^Brought to you by professional weirdo M dot Strange.