Project 18–Motivation

Exercise: De-edit a sequence
I’ve taken a sequence from Sliding Doors to de–edit. It has 9 frames and lasts 30 seconds.
The elements within the scene establish (from earlier scenes) that this is Helen and Gerry’s flat. There is a bookcase on the left of  the frame, the door is beyond the bookcase. A full length window with a half lowered blind is at 90deg to the door. There is a radiator to the right of the window and a garden bench with some boxes on it in front of the window. The back of a black leather chair can be seen left of centre at  the bottom of the frame. Helen comes home not expecting Gerry to be there but senses he is there when she comes in.
Motivations:

• Frame 1 High viewpoint med long shot. See door open, Helen steps inside and starts to close door.
• Frame 2 MCU of Helen as she closes the door. Looking past camera. Need to establish that she senses that Gerry is home, calls out to him.
• Frame 3 Camera returns to frame 1 viewpoint to show Helen looking around, she drops her bag onto the floor
• Frame 4 MCU again walking towards the camera, calls “are you back?” Is startled by Gerry's hand thrust from right of frame handing her a glass of wine.
• Frame 5 close up of Gerry and Helen as Gerry explains.
• Frame 6 close up of Helen as Gerry kisses her left cheek. Her attention is drawn to something beyond the camera. Looks in disbelief and asks “what are they?”
• Frame 7 close up on Gerry. He follows her gaze.
• Frame 8 change of viewpoint low med long shot to include flowers low in the right of the frame and Gerry explains they are for her.
• Frame 9 Helen stares open mouthed as Gerry asks, “do you not like them?” She is recalling an overheard conversation about “guilt flowers” in the previous scene in the restaurant where she worked. Scene ends

I looked at shortening some of the shots but because of the dialogue I could only cut two seconds one each from the first two frames. This made no difference to the meaning or feeling of the shots. The rhythm of the sequence is really governed by the dialogue. There are no frames longer than 6 seconds in this sequence.
As I am unsure of uploading other artists work to Vimeo especially that which I have copied and altered, I have not uploaded my edited sequence.