I finally sat and watched your much anticipated fifth instalment and, I have to say, that you did once again a brilliant job.
I will also compliment on your opening montage of Sansa’s story. The narration with the music and the intermediary scenes were a nice way to catch up with her journey from where we left her in the previous film, leaving out any unnecessary bits.
Overall, I liked that this film focuses mainly on what happens on the North and Beyond the Wall, following Jon in this very important part of his story, while summarizing Tyrion’s journey to Meereen. You also did an exceptional job on “un-cringing” the events in Dorne. That was a major issue for me on Season 5 and I am very happy with what you did.Again, as in your previous films, the editing and the transitions were flawless. I took the time to make subtitles for this film (not in English though), so I think I took a good glimpse on how you managed some dialouges and plotlines, so once again I applaud your effort. Also, the addition of extra music was a nice touch that gave a more cinematic feel to the film.
If I had to nitpick, I found odd a certain transition somewhere around 01:57 in which Ollena chats with Margaery in King’s Landing and the scene cuts to Dorne. I wonder if that was a choise of yours or a mistake you didn’t notice. I would also have liked to have seen a bit more of the whole Faith Militant thing and what happened to Margaery in this film, but I am not complaining. 3 hours is a perfect runntime for this kind of projects and a man can only fit certain things into one narration.
Once again, great job. I am so grateful for your efforts and I am super pumped about the next instalment.
Thank you so much, my friend. This was a great message to read after a very long and hard week.
The nitpick you mention is actually a very weird one; you see - that is actually there in the original footage. For some reason the editors cut away from The Queen of Thorns and jump to a wide shot of King’s Landing i believe. This do of course work a little bit better as a transition as the scene with Margarey and her take place there, but it was still a very odd transition. My guess is that something about the scene looked wrong in post (one of the actors dropping the mask a little bit too quick perhaps?) and therefore they jump to another scene mid-dialogue. It is a very weird one, and I did as best I could to “make it work”. But yeah, it is a weird one and I am not surprised that was found a little jarring. I would of liked to know myself why this was done.
You will see a lot more of the Faith in the next film, and a lot more Margarey in the film after there again (the seventh).
As you yourself so easily figured out, keeping one 3-hour long narrative is the goal and also the hustle - and therefore, when characters of importance are for instance imprisoned, or held hostage, or kidnapped - or whatever - leaving them for a while also serves to heighten the tension of said events, but also gives me as an editor a great possibility to include other - often more urgent - plot points to emerge or at least start the foreshadowing of upcoming events.
Take Maragery for instance. She is mentioned by name I think thirty times in the upcoming Film - but we only have one scene with her (and the High Sparrow). But in the seventh film, we get her plan to fool the High Sparrow and the Faith Militant because it becomes relevant to the third act of that film. But as for this next one, she is only relevant to two main characters; Tommen and Cersei, and both have a lot going on that I find more important to focus on than Margarey sitting in a cell. So it’s so much trying to balance that I sometimes find myself scratching my head for days, but I have found this approach to work the best having now edited five “film versions” of the seasons.
Woah. That was a long answer, I hope it was satisfying.
And once again, thank you for your very kind words. It is always a huge compliment I do not take for granted when something I edit is appreciated. It makes all the countless hours of a hobby so worth it.