Chapter 55

Requesting recommendations and votes for the Three Rivers!

As he stood at the classroom door, Xiao Ming took a deep breath and firmly held the letter containing secrets that his mother had given him.

In the midst of cherry blossoms dancing in the wind, Misaki opened the old diary and read the words of promise written there.

The editing process for the entire film was mainly carried out by Murphy and the editor Griffith, with intern Paul Wilson and Griffith's two assistants providing support. The specific editing was handled by Griffith, while Murphy was mainly responsible for reviewing and explaining his requirements for the film.

Any editing has a main thread, and Murphy's was quite simple: Haley finds the evil hidden in Jeff's room and punishes him accordingly, then finds and punishes again, until the final castration and hanging.

The reason for this was simple: in the film altered by Murphy, the female lead Haley was more ruthless, which was to increase the appeal with more intense scenes. However, this also posed a problem: viewers might develop a dislike for the female lead, which was not what the director wanted to see.

If the audience disliked the protagonist, would the film still be appealing?

Therefore, Murphy increased the degree of Jeff's evil. After each torment by Haley, new evils would be found, deepening the audience's disgust and making Haley's actions seem justified and satisfying.

However, this technique couldn't be overused. Murphy planned three main stages: one binding and pepper spraying, one castration, and one hanging.

Of course, verbal and psychological torment were also essential.

Post-production wasn't just about editing. Murphy first focused on this aspect. He and Griffith repeatedly watched the black-and-white opening scene footage shot from all angles, ultimately deciding to use the seventh shot, a diagonal overhead view, as the opening of the entire film.

This shot was quite brutal, fully showcasing the different reactions of the victim, played by Emily, and the perpetrator, Jeff.

The opening scene was only a few minutes long, a complete long shot. After discussing with Griffith, Murphy decided not to re-edit it for now and to use it directly.

The editing process was not fast. Even at the rough cut stage, it took Murphy nearly the whole morning to confirm just one shot. He was very cautious, more so than during the shooting, as editing could directly determine the success or failure of a film.

Now, montage was a fully cinematic term. In essence, montage was the process of connecting different shots and scenes through editing and compositing, creating a unique cinematic time and space to guide the audience's emotions and psychology.

The most typical function of montage was to speed up the film's pace, which was the greatest application in a simple narrative film like "Hard Candy."

Later, when Griffith edited Haley and Jeff's first meeting, he used montage to speed up the pace. Two strangers meeting would inevitably be verbose, and the film's length dictated that this part had to be concise. Through editing, the scenes would constantly shift between Haley and Jeff, completing these scenes in just a few minutes.

Griffith stood at the workbench, fully focused. In front of him was an old-fashioned screen, with a piece of chalk placed in front of it. This was a common method used by experienced editors. They would place an object in front of the screen to gauge the proportions—like a cigarette or a piece of chalk—and use it as a reference to judge the feeling on a larger screen. This was the rough cut process.

However, after editing each segment, Griffith would always check it on a large screen.

After completing the rough cut of this part, Griffith handed it to his assistant to play the edited segment on a 27-inch screen.

On the screen, only Haley and Jeff were visible, with the camera circling around them.

"Jody!" Murphy walked up to Griffith and pointed at the two on the screen, saying, "Can we add some individual shots of the two, making the screen frequently switch between the gray and red they represent?"

Griffith immediately understood Murphy's idea and lightly clapped his hands. "Good idea."

He called his assistant to pause the playback and prepared to re-edit.

Paul Wilson, on the other side, had been paying close attention. He was a graduate of a film school but lacked experience, not understanding what Murphy and Griffith meant. He couldn't help but quietly walk up behind Murphy.

Paul Wilson was willing to work as an unpaid intern to learn, and when he encountered something he didn't understand, he naturally asked.

"Director," he said softly, "I..."

Murphy turned to look at him. Paul Wilson, embarrassed, scratched his head and didn't finish his sentence.

"What Jody and I mean is to try a montage of comparison and contrast between Haley and Jeff," Murphy, who liked this diligent and free labor, lowered his voice and said, "Imagine the screen constantly switching between Jeff's gray and Haley's red. These two contrasting colors, through editing, can not only introduce their possible meanings but also compare the two, establishing potential conflicts."

Paul Wilson immediately thought of the hidden thread in the film—Little Red Riding Hood killing the Big Bad Wolf—and suddenly understood.

When he saw the re-edited scene on the screen, he couldn't help but nod in admiration. "Director, your ideas are really amazing."

Murphy just smiled.

Many things he could think of, but in practical application, he was far from the experienced hands like Jody Griffith.

Jody Griffith still seemed unsatisfied and continued to refine this segment. Murphy called Paul Wilson to his workbench and had him assist in editing another segment.

Compared to the previous ones, this segment was much simpler. Murphy had already carefully considered the final effect he wanted during the shooting.

This was the segment of Haley and Jeff's online chat.

Murphy didn't have the actors appear in the shots during filming, so the editing naturally only included the computer screen. The editing started with close-ups, then cut from top to bottom according to the chat content, presenting the chat content on the screen.

"The top-to-bottom panning shot can force the viewer to quickly scan the content, creating a sense of tension from the beginning and establishing the film's tense, fast-paced tone."

While completing his work, Murphy also explained to the curious Paul Wilson. However, for the next editing, he didn't use close-ups but instead used panning shots. "Panning shots can gradually narrow the depth of field, from a few sentences to a single sentence, and then to a few words, creating a sense of pressure and curiosity, making the audience eager to know what will happen next."

Although his skills were not high, the novice Paul Wilson nodded in agreement.

Murphy added, "This part also needs dubbing to achieve the best effect."