Film In A Night Evening - One Concept, Told In Multiple Genres
2026-03-17 19:45 - 22:00 UTC | Sutton FilmMakers Club – Parochial Rooms, 42 The Broadway, Cheam, Surrey, SM3 8BL, United Kingdom
Session led by Adrian Dean

One Concept, Told In Multiple Genres

On 18 March, Adrian Dean is running a Film In A Night challenge built around a simple idea, one concept told in multiple genres. We’ll split into teams and be given a basic plot plus a genre to tackle it in.

Each group will then discuss and plan quickly before going off to shoot their idea, aiming to edit in camera so we can screen a finished film to the rest of the club at the end.

No pressure, just a fun, practical evening of filmmaking with friends, and a great way to see how much genre comes from choices, not budget.

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Film In A Night Evening – One Concept, Told In Multiple Genres

In a film in a night challenge the teams that finish strong usually do one thing early, they commit. Not to perfection, just to a clear direction.

Start with three quick agreements:

Genre Promise, what do you want the audience to feel most, amused, tense, unsettled, warm, suspicious

Genre Signal, pick one obvious “tell” you can lean on all the way through, sound, lighting, performance style, pacing, camera movement

Final Beat, decide what the last moment is meant to land like, so you’re always shooting towards something

Then keep the rest ruthlessly simple.

Time Saving Tips That Actually Work On The Night

Planning can drift into a mini writers room if you let it, so for a film in a night challenge give yourselves a few constraints and stick to them.

Limit locations

One location is ideal, two at most. Moving between places eats time, and it’s where continuity and sound start falling apart.

Keep the shot list small

Aim for around 6 to 10 shots. If you’re listing 20, you’re probably trying to cover uncertainty rather than telling the story. One strong wide and a couple of close ups will do a lot of heavy lifting.

Assign “owners” even if roles overlap

Someone watches sound, someone watches framing, someone watches continuity. People can double up, but it helps if each area has a name attached to it.

Rehearse the blocking once

A quick walk through of where people stand, where they move, and where the camera is, saves more time than repeating takes later.

If you get stuck, go more obvious

Film In A Night is not the moment for subtle genre. Make the genre clearer than you think it needs to be, especially in the first 20 to 30 seconds.

What Editing In Camera Means

Editing in camera means you’re assembling the film as you shoot, rather than collecting lots of coverage and building it later. In practical terms, you film only what you intend to use, and where possible you shoot shots in the order you want them to appear.

It’s a great approach for this kind of challenge because it keeps things moving, and it stops the evening turning into a long laptop session.

You might also want to read how to get it right colour wise in camera

How To Get Editing In Camera Right

Shoot in sequence where you can

If your story beat order is A then B then C, try to film in that order. It reduces confusion and makes the “assembled” version feel natural.

Give every shot a clean start and finish

Hit record, hold for a second, let the action happen, hold for a second at the end. Those little handles make it much easier to stitch together quickly.

Cut on actions, not on words

People turning, standing, picking something up, reacting, these are natural cut points. Cutting mid line can work, but only if you’re doing it deliberately.

Fewer takes, but one safety take

Do not chase perfection, but if a take felt messy, do one more while you’re there. “We’ll fix it later” is how Film In A Night projects die.

Prioritise sound

Clear dialogue makes a film feel finished. Get close enough to the actors, do a quick listen back before you move on, and avoid noisy corners if you can.

At The End Of The Night

We’ll bring the films back together and watch them as a group. Same basic plot, different genres, different choices, and a lot of laughs, plus you’ll probably pick up a few tricks just from seeing how other teams tackled the same starting point.

The Basics Of Film Editing
2026-04-07 19:45 - 22:00
Session led by Peter Leverick

If you’ve ever sat in front of a timeline and thought, “I know what I want this scene to do, but it’s not landing”, this evening is for you. We’re keeping it simple and practical, a night focused on the basics of film editing and the core decisions that make a sequence feel clear, natural, and emotionally right.

We’ll work through the three questions that sit underneath almost every edit:

When to cut

Sometimes the cut is obvious. Sometimes it’s a tiny moment you can’t quite describe, but you can feel it. We’ll explore the cues that tell you it’s time to move on, pace, performance, energy, eye movement, and even breathing.

Why to cut

Cuts aren’t just there to shorten things. They shape meaning. They control what the audience notices, what they miss, what they expect, and how they feel. We’ll look at the most common reasons for cutting, to tighten rhythm, to hide problems, to heighten emotion, to build tension, to reveal information at exactly the right time.

What to cut to

This is where the basics of film editing starts to feel like storytelling rather than assembling shots. We’ll look at how choosing the next shot can change the mood of a scene, and how different choices can make the same material feel funny, unsettling, calm, or urgent.

We’ll also look at how the basics of film editing shift depending on genre, because genre is basically a set of audience expectations, and editing is one of the quickest ways to meet those expectations, or deliberately play against them. We’ll talk through a few common genres and the sort of cutting style they tend to lean on:

Comedy, timing, reaction shots, and how a fraction of a second can make a joke work, or kill it

Horror, controlling what the audience sees, when they see it, and how cutting can create dread before anything even happens

Drama, staying with performance, letting moments breathe, and knowing when not to cut

Suspense, tightening the rope slowly, using pace and withholding information to keep the audience leaning forward

Peter Leverick will also focus on one of the most useful skills an editor develops, knowing whether the cut feels right. Often the editor’s first clue is simply that something feels off. It might be a timing issue, too early, too late, not held long enough, or it might be something else entirely, a mismatch in energy, a performance beat that’s been cut away, or a moment that needs a different shot to make the scene make sense emotionally. Peter will share ways to spot what’s actually wrong, so you’re not just nudging clips around at random.

We’ll also cover a couple of common cut types that editors use all the time, including J cuts and L cuts, and why you might use them. They’re simple techniques, but they’re surprisingly powerful for smoothing transitions, pulling the audience into the next moment, and making scenes feel more natural without the edit drawing attention to itself.

This is a hands on learning night in the sense that it’s all about real decision making, the sort of stuff you can immediately apply to your own projects, whether you’re editing on a phone, a laptop, or a full editing suite. If you’re new to editing, it’ll give you a foundation. If you’ve edited a bit already, it’ll help you understand why some sequences work and others don’t, even when the footage is decent.

Come along and sharpen up your instincts, get clearer on the basics of film editing, and leave with a few practical ideas you can try the very next time you sit down to edit.

Non-members welcome for the evening (first two nights free as our guests) Here is how to find us

Date: Tuesday 7th April 2026Time: 7:45 pm – 10:00 pm
