Cutting Down

The first thing to go was the ending. It had already been suggested I lose the final joke but when I noticed that the people I showed it to often mistook the heart with J+M in it as the end I realised it would be simpler if I jsut ended it there I tried it and sure enough it worked much better and left the audience with a warm feeling it wasn't as realistic but it didn't have to be.

After that it was hard. I cut down the montage by about half including losing the girls reactions because they weren't nearly as strong as what Matt was doing and putting the dissappearing toblerones at the end because it made more sense there. After that though I still have a couple of minutes to cut and I was really at a loss as to what to do.

I tried cutting down the kitchen scene first- starting it from later on but there was ust no conviniant place to cut it even though its the weakest scene in the film it also seems to be the most important. I cut a few shots shorter here and there where I could afford to- especially near the beginging but after that I was stuck again.

I didn't want to resort to this because I really liked the little scene between Joe and Michael before Joe has his little exchange with Natalie. I liked how impossibly well it worked in that single shot but as I said in the end I had no other choice. I cut the whole section with Natalie and went straight from the scene with Sarah into the montage- it worked. Although we missed some nice moments I felt the scene with Natalie was pretty weak anyway as I really don't like not having complete control over what's happening behind the camera.