So, on the whole, I was happy with what Jason and I came up with. I think my biggest concern about what we did was the sound. We were taking bits and pieces from the whole episode, and there were definitely times when the music went a little crazy from all the cutting. Thankfully, I don’t think it was as noticeable as I had feared it might be.

One of the biggest challenges we faced was, quite obviously, that we were trying to create a radically different text, one which the show really did not support. Most everyone else was able to pluck out rather long passages of their works, and present them more or less as is. While we were certainly able to do that in some sections, there were also points where we had to edit much more extensively, in order to create our ridiculous little scenario of Ned-as-necrophiliac-murder. Probably the most obvious example is the scene near the end, where we tried to edit together several different shots to make it seem like Ned tried to murder Lily, who then shoots Ned. Whether or not it succeeded, I can’t quite say. If you’re really scrutinizing the shots, it’s quite obvious that the man suffocating lily is wearing a ski mask, which Ned isn’t, but I hope it worked alright.

Another concern I have is that the editing pace might seem pretty erratic. We kept alternating between long periods of using scenes more or less as is, and then having to start cutting scenes together rapidly to create the effects we wanted. Hopefully, it’s not too jarring.

Perhaps my biggest regret is forgetting to use Ned’s line “That’s how I roll.” Or maybe he said “That’s not how I roll,” I can’t exactly remember. If so, I’d cut out the “not.” If I could go back and change one thing, I would take that scene where Ned watches Chuck’s hearse drive away, and we added in Ned saying “Necrophilia,” and put “That’s how I roll” after that.

I may in fact be a sick bastard.

I’ve been rewatching the rest of Pushing Daisies with my friends, who got their first taste of it when it was shown in the TV and American Culture class, and every so often I see a scene that really would have helped flesh out the Ned-as-murderer concept. However, considering the crunch for time I was under last week, I’m glad we didn’t spend time going through other episodes for potentially viable scenes. Considering we used just the pilot, I think we managed to do a pretty alright job, even if perhaps there might be some better scenes later in the series.

Another idea I had, which definitely would have involved a whole huge time investment, going through mining for scenes to use, was turning The Singing Detective into Highlander. My idea was this: it might have been possible to re-edit together all the different time frames and subjectivities to make it seem like all the characters are immortals, feuding across time. There was even an absolutely perfect moment in the last episode, where Niccoletta says to Marlowe (in a fantasy sequence) “There’s not many of us left.” Although I think the idea could have worked, the amount of work it would’ve taken would have been a bit much.

One thing that really surprised me about other people’s projects was (and I mean no disrespect) that it seemed like a lot of people didn’t necessarily capitalize on the full potential of the project. As I envisioned the assignment, we were all going to take things we’d watched, and create entirely new narratives from the existing footage. I was surprised to see how many of the assignments were more new perspectives on the original’s narrative.

On the whole, I really enjoyed this project. Being able to do a creative assignment was definitely a nice change of pace from the frequently rather dense theory we read.