My Biggest Challenge So Far

Okay, so this project was by far my most challenging one so far (hence the title) and the one that I was most nervous about.

Here's the back story. I'm an assistant editor for an animation company and I was given the opportunity to edit this showreel to show off the realtime department.

Now the editors that have done the reels before me all say the same thing, 9/10 they will like the edit but will make you change the music and therefore change the edit. The reels that I've got to do at the company so far however they've liked my music choices and never asked me to change it (and I know that it's the exact same people who would make the other editors change their music.)

So this time around I had an idea...if I've been able to pick music that they've liked for previous edits, I'd see if I can write something that they would like this time around. Here's the thing though, I didn't tell anyone that's what I was going to do. I wanted geniune feedback on the track and was worried I wouldn't get it if I told them I wrote it, so I didn't tell anyone until the edit had been approved and uploaded.

The other challenging aspect of this was that since I was editing it I didn't want to put in any temp music just in case the piece I wrote was too similar. Plus if I used temp music I think it might have made me chicken out and go "I don't need to write anything, everythings there already." So, I cut the whole thing with no sound first, then done the music afterwards.

The most nerve wracking thing was that they wanted the first draft of the edit within 3 days, so I had 3 days to make an edit and get the music as good as I could get so they didn't think it sounded completely rubbish.

It was pretty stressful but I'm glad I done it in the end.

The edit and the music are by no means perfect, there's a lot of things I wish I could do but wasn't able to, and there's a lot that I think I could do a little better now (I done this a few months ago and it's only just being uploaded now) but it was a good learning experience for sure.

 

I do agree that the change between the flutes to the guitar is pretty abrupt. Maybe it would have been better to use Violins instead of the flute since they stay throughout the piece?

Not sure how I would do the transition as the edit is just now as it does go from nice and peaceful to "the big bad is here" pretty quickly. There were a few shots that I wanted to add in where you get the sense that something is wrong before it all takes a turn but unfortunately we weren't able to use them. Just might have made it a little easier.

Could you send me some examples? Never heard anything with a flute and electric guitar before, would be interested to see how that's used.

I do also agree that the piece is very repetative, it doesn't develop at all which is a shame cause it could have ramped up the tension a bit more. Think I definitely tried to play it too safe.

Although I'm not 100% happy with the piece I'm still quiet proud that I managed to push myself enough to do it and that it was approved. I do think there's some good ideas in there so maybe I'll revisit it another time and just make it a standalone piece without the visuals.