The 8 hour movie

Stranger Things (2016)

Stranger Things is one of the latest hits to come out of Netflix this year and Megan asked me to watch it as it was a reference she used when writing the script for Wallpaper. So I watched it. It's a little hard to get into at first (for me anyway but that could be my inner sceptic coming out) but overall it's a great series and I can't wait to see what season 2 brings... and explains.

As an Avid editor I follow a lot of the Avid Blogs, websites and have a subscription to their email service - then the other week I got an email through talking about the fact that Stranger Things was actually edited on Avid and they were going to have a Q+A with the editors live on their website. So I set the date and watched the entire thing, I even asked a few questions regarding Avid itself. 

Below are the notes I took whilst in the webinar (I was mainly listening to advice on editing itself rather than show specifics, they spoke a lot about how they got to where they are in the industry etc...) and the webinar is available online now so I can go back and re-watch.

Stranger Things Webinar Notes

Kevin Ross - Editor

Dean Zimmerman  - Editor

Kathryn Naranjo  - Kevin AE

Nat Fuller - Dean AE

Notes;

• Edited as 8 hour movie rather than episodic
• Organic appearance on 80s films
• If someone is looking one way, they are still looking that way in next cut
• Don’t cut on a blink
• Shot at 6k quicktime, imported at 4k DNX files
• Animatte - 5 sec freeze frame on cuts

Inspiration

Edgar Wright

Directors didn’t give visual aids for editors, gut instinct.

Transitions

Sprinkler - EP1

Hamburger Patty - EP1

Sound design aiding transitions 

Favourite scene

Dean -
EP 1 Dinner table scene, Will was taken

2 year old cut away, when everyone going crazy

Reversed cuts (Bag of tricks)

Turned into comedy scene, wasn’t touched after editors edit.

Kevin - 
Holly get’s up and follows christmas lights

How much monster

Why didn’t Joyce see it

Finishing process

Feature workflow

THEY SHOT IN 6K WHO DOES THAT!

Anyway moving on....

The main reason Meg asked me to watch was for the pacing and the story development but it's been very interesting to hear the reasoning behind the edits. From what I heard a lot of what they did was based off instinct. They even alternated episode edits between editors and they just happened to have the same way of handling the footage to the point that they didn't have to change anything to make it look seamless. 

One of the big things I took away from this was the idea that they treated the project as one long movie, albeit a 8 hour movie, but a movie. Which is why I believe I like the pacing of the show, they don't rush things but they also don't linger too long because people would get bored (especially at the beginning when they aren't as invested in the characters as they are at the end).

Stranger Things (2016)

So that's a small chunk of my research for my role, I believe a lot more will come after Christmas when I have footage to work with. Right now I'm focusing more on a possible sound edit (I know I'm not sound designer but it's easier to edit together a soundscape than it is to wait for footage - I'll figure something out for assessment).