Four Minute Cuts

I’m narrowing the subject matter of my documentary on Iranian emigration as a result of the Islamic Revolution. It will now be focused on the women’s experiences, and will include many different women’s voices telling the story of before, during and after the Revolution. I’ve been challenged to tell a good story by sifting through my interview footage. My task for the month of April was to lay down interview clips on a timeline to start shaping the storyline. The visuals will come later. To simplify this task, I broke down the material into many different themes.

This task helped reacquaint me with my footage, but by the end of the month, I felt overwhelmed by all the material! So when I met with Dana in May, we spent the time editing and used several useful clips from the first iteration of my documentary that I did in 2008 for my final project at the Center for Digital Imaging Arts at Boston University. Since our meeting, I’ve cut a sequence with a story arc from 10 minutes down to 7 minutes and finally down to 4 minutes. According to Dana this will be the spine of my film. Dana has given me suggestions along the way of how to better shape the story. Here some examples:

·      If one person mentions something it’s enough--it doesn't need to be repeated. 

·      Think about this as trying to tell a story with as little words as possible.

·      Let characters begin and end their sentences and breathe a bit before cutting to the next shot. It makes it look more natural and less like you’re forcing them to construct your story.

·      Let the tension build up, starting with the good life in Iran. It’s important to emphasize the good life so that the change will seem drastic. 

·      It’s better not to jump back and forth between characters when talking about the same time period. 

Here are a few production stills of the characters I’m including: