SING
“Finding the Rhythm: Editing SING” Featurette
If you thought making a live-action movie was hard, well, making an animated movie is a whole different challenge. There is so much more that goes into making an animated movie than you’d expect. From storyboarding to 3D rendering, animation is certainly no easy undertaking.
One of the most essential components of any production is the process of editing. Editing ensures that the movie is set at a good pace and seamlessly transitions from one shot to the next. Without editing, the movie would lack direction and focus altogether. Editing Illumination’s SING, for that matter, proved to be one of the contributing factors to its success. Luckily for you, you now have a VIP pass to go backstage and watch “Finding the Rhythm: Editing SING” in our behind-the-scenes features.
While watching this featurette, you’ll come to meet Gregory Perler, the editor of SING. Perler says that there is a whole misconception surrounding editing. Many people assume that the process is all about cutting out the bad parts. However, Perler believes “It’s not about cutting anything out. It’s about choosing what to put in. And, on an animated movie, there’s an almost endless amount of choices and creativity.” Editing an animated film, therefore, can be likened to playing in a sandbox. There is so much potential in what you can build and what you can play around with. Editing may result in completely different cuts and scenes. However, those trials lend themselves to ensuring that the final product is just right.
During this SING extra, Gregory Perler goes on to say that there are different editing styles for different kinds of scenes. When there is an action scene, for example, there are a lot more cuts between shots. These quicker transitions make the scene feel extremely fast-paced and adrenaline-filled. If you remember the scene when Johnny (voiced by Taron Egerton) is in a high-speed chase with the cops, there is a considerable number of cuts. As you’re watching, the quick cuts literally put you in the driver’s seat as you drive to evade the police.
This is in contrast to a more serious scene, like when Buster Moon (voiced by Matthew McConaughey) and Eddie (voiced by Danny McBride) are talking about Buster’s dad. The cuts in this particular sequence are much longer so that the animation team can emphasize the more serious matters at hand. However, it is always a good idea to use a mixture of these editing styles. A long take that is unexpectedly intercut with several quick shots can create a different meaning to the sequence as a whole.
As you’ll find out in this featurette, editing is also used to create the overall mood for a scene. Just like what it does for action and somber sequences, editing ensures that the audience is able to feel a certain way while watching SING. Gregory Perler admits that the crew originally intended to have a dialogue between Buster Moon and Nana Noodleman (voiced by Jennifer Saunders) at the end of the movie, but the idea was scrapped because it took away from the scene's emotional impact. By just having Nana clapping in the crowd while music plays over the scene really captures the triumph that Buster and the rest of the cast are feeling. All of this is told with absolutely no words at all.
All of these scenes are meticulously stitched together to form the feature we now know as SING. If you can’t get enough of SING, you can watch all the behind-the-scenes features of the movie when you buy the movie on 4k Ultra HD, DVD, Digital, or Blu-rayTM*.
*Bonus features are only available at select digital retailers. Check the retailer for details.
Like this article? Read more about the making of SING here: