Editing “A Certain Kind of Beauty”

Editing “Another Run Around the Sun” was straightforward. Witham had filmed the project using two Panasonic AGDVX100 cameras, so all of the footage was consistent in both quality and format. Using two screens, Witham put her bin on one screen and edited on the other.

But not all Witham’s projects are — in terms of editing — that cooperative. Her major new release, “A Certain Kind of Beauty,” presented challenges that might inspire some film editors to consider new careers.

“A Certain Kind of Beauty” is an unflinching look at the ravages of multiple sclerosis. It follows six years of Dan Aronie’s evolution from a motorcycle-riding rake to a courageous, resilient, and spiritually-grounded man facing the debilitating disease.

“With Final Cut Pro’s color correctors and brightness and contrast tools, I was able to bring the two sets of footage close enough where people don’t even notice that two cameras were used. That’s pretty huge.”

Intercutting

“A Certain Kind of Beauty,” Witham explains, “exercised every single function in Final Cut Pro. I had 75 hours of footage shot by people who are close to Dan but who aren’t professional shooters. The sound was an issue. Color was an issue.”

Nancy Aronie had been filming her son for years, using a Sony consumer-level camera. It, says Witham, “tended to be a little more green” than the color generated by her Panasonic.

Frame rates were different, too; the family’s original footage was shot at a standard frame rate of 29.97 frames per second. Witham’s footage had a more film-looking 24p frame rate.

“When I was editing a scene with Ram Dass and Dan,” Witham recalls, “I was intercutting between my camera and Nancy’s camera. When I laid it out, it was jarring to go from the look and feel of progressive, film-like frame rates to standard interlaced video. People can accept film if it’s all degraded or it if all looks great, but you can’t expect them to jump between the two.”

“Make It Look Beautiful”

“With Final Cut Pro’s color correctors and brightness and contrast tools, I was able to bring the two sets of footage close enough where people don’t even notice that two cameras were used,” Witham says. “That’s pretty huge.”

Final Cut Pro allowed her to make color corrections on the fly. “I can match different cameras’ colors and make quick adjustments,” she says. “Even if I’m doing a quick project that doesn’t require a lot of finishing work, I can make it look beautiful without having to put in a lot of extra time.”

One feature Witham especially likes about Final Cut Pro is the color wheel and, she says, “the intuitive ability to either select a color with a dropper, move the white balance around on the color wheel, or enter a color by numeric value. Then being able to replicate corrections from file to file makes color work go very quickly.”

Thanks to Final Cut Pro’s color correction tools, Witham says, “we went from a scenario where I thought I couldn’t even use the second camera angle to one where I was able to integrate both of them seamlessly.”

Hitting the Road Running

Witham comes from a family of musicians and was encouraged to become a professional musician herself. “But I wanted to be on the other side of the lens,” she says. “I enjoy learning about other people’s stories and I enjoy telling stories.”

Witham emphasizes that the Mac platform has made it possible for her and Wentworth to launch their documentary film company. “We wouldn’t be able to afford a $50,000 system,” she says. “It just wasn’t realistic for us starting out. And we wanted to make films right away.

“I earned a master’s in documentary film and video production at Stanford, and that program uses all Macs and teaches on Final Cut Pro. I had access to all of the software I needed. As a graduation present to myself, I bought a Power Mac. It allowed me to start on ‘A Certain Kind of Beauty’ almost right away.

“That was really exciting — to be able to graduate from film school and hit the road running.”