Making Curry Chicken

Yes. It's a complete rip-off. But like every other dude who's ever wanted to make a 'movie' of some kind I wanted to start it off like that and BE like George. I did this a few years back. I didn't use markers for any of the cuts. I basically sized the clips to the length of the music. Learning how to cut is a on-going process. But I liked it and in the end, the food was really good! Spongebob carrots are the ISH! I can't remember if the music was too loud over the sounds of cooking. I was also trying to get that effect like after watching Ang Lee's Eat Drink Man woman.
Eventually I will replace that music with my own.

You've always been good at taking criticism so don't get offended...

I think this is an example of bad jump-cutting. Robert Rodriguez uses six angles where two would do, but he does motivate the cuts. He shoots with that editing style in mind and gets the sufficient multi-angularity so that his shots don't "pop" in place, in that cheesy "I didn't get enough coverage", amateur-filmmaker way. Also, the actions where he does that are not ordinary actions; they're frantic action scenes, such as when both the character's guns are out of ammo and he has to frantically get bullets in before he's shot to pieces. The speed cuts convey the frustration of trying to complete a 10-second action in three seconds of film time. Also, it's humorous because it makes the character seem superhuman.

In my opinion, that style doesn't work here at all. You're just cutting for cutting's sake. Why am I watching four consecutive, jump-cut mediums on chopping up an onion? Every time you cut, the image pops. You're not timing your cuts to how the knife moves in each take; you're trying to cut to a general "Rodriguez beat" and to the beat of the music. And that just craps all over the visual rhythm of the shots. A lot of your cuts are missing the sweet spot -- neither tight enough to the end of the action for abbreviated staccato energy, nor far enough with enough angle change for smooth classical editing.

I'd start from scratch and cut without music. Cut the onscreen movements well and the music will fit itself in. Instead, use the sound of the chopping -- natural sound often gives you a far better metronome for your scene than any piece of music arbitrarily chosen for a scene. Look at the second barroom shootout in Desperado carefully ("I'm just looking for a man...who calls..." and try to see exactly how Rodriguez does his frantic cuts. His cut points aren't arbitrary. Go back even further in time and look at Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch.


www.derekmok.com

LOLOL
Not offended at all.
I embrace the criticism. It's one of the ways I can work harder to get better at this.

I'd be more upset if I were told I did a good job but in reality was doing a crappy job.

One of my goals is to someday hear "He took our advices worked hard at it and did a great job...but.." LOLOLOL

It's all in the game.

I don't mind the jump cuts so much as you deliver that style from the very beginning. It would benefit from color correction so the clips match and that would solve a bit of the pop problem.

Michael Horton
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