Commission Documentary Unit 3: Final Documentary : The Cathedral Apprentices'

Commission Documentary Unit 3: Final update and looking back!

After a long day of re editing our film, we finally have it all finished! :)

Although we had to cut some parts out and re arrange bits, we're over all happy with the final outcome, however I feel like it's a very basic documentary and very sync heavy as when editing I mentioned we should of added more cut aways in the final as we had in the previous edits.

Over all the project has been quite stressful however it's taught me a lot about working in groups and how it's crucial to collaborate, meet up, consider each others opinions and make sure that everyone is communicating well with each other. It has also taught me not to judge how someone will be in a group just because they have good work - it doesn't mean they are good to work with in a group.

As myself, Vic and Andrei are very passionate about our ideas in our projects, I tried to push that aside and make sure I am fully listening to other peoples ideas instead of wanting mine, however this didn't work vice versa for some aspects in our group so I felt like I should of been more adamant with putting my ideas out there.

Overall, if I could do the project again I would definitely allow more time for research as I had so much to say and do but not enough time to come up with a solid idea, just the outline of an idea which got brushed out the window because the Cathedral idea was unfortunately right there for us to do, so what are outsiders going to think, pick the girls idea who doesn't have a solid idea, or pick the Cathedral idea which has definite characters, a story and locations? ...

Although the Cathedral story is an extremely huge project and we had the privilege to work on it and document the stone being replaced after hundreds of years, I still wish we went with the 'My Hero' brief as it would not only allow lots of different ideas to flow, it would push us into not just going for something that's laid out in front of us on the table.

Commission Documentary Unit 3: Final music.

As we have failed to find any music online that fits with our documentary, we had to go back to the music producer Andrei had found and try fit the song in with our film. 

Here is the final song we have used.

Although in my opinion the song sounds too depressing and morbid, it's the only song that the group agreed on.

Commission Documentary Unit 3: HUGE update!

Today myself Vittorio and Andrei was all meant to meet up to finish adding the interviews and finish off the edit.

However after various phone calls and messages off Andrei we had found out that our work wouldn’t re link therefore we couldn’t carry on with the edit and needed to find a way to re link the files. Usually it’s a simple process of clicking ‘Re-link files’ finding the folder and locating the files that way. As this is no body's fault and there is no way we could of prevented this (apart from being more time manageable...) we've decided to come together and try fix the problem. Andrei came round to the flat and we decided we’d try work on it for however long it took. However, for some un- found reason the files was not re linking and seemed to either be corrupted or lost, even though we had it saved on Vic and Andrei’s hard drive. We still don’t know what the problem is now (whilst sat here editing all over again) which is the most frustrating thing.  We decided to try re import the footage and then re link it from the new folder or ‘Replace’ each file individually in the timeline, however as we’d cut the footage and bladed it precisely, when we put the file back into the timeline, it only would replace the footage from the beginning – so although the footage could still be put back in the order we had it – we’d have to cut it all again which would take hours… another bad thing was that the footage didn’t always fit in properly and pushed some other files around. To fix this we had a huge discussion came to the conclusion we would have to start again and put all our work back starting from scratch. Although we had all the footage and it was a matter of placing it back in the timeline, I was really irritated as I’d worked none stop for the past week editing the footage precisely trying my best to make it work – and now we had to start all over again. This irritated me even more because if we’d just hurried up with the transcriptions, had the correct interviews without having to go back and film them again (because we had audio only) and synced up the audio quicker without messing around we would have finished editing so long ago. We’re all sat here now editing together trying to figure out where everything went and re adjusting clips until it’s finished – there’s one thing having a script to go by, but scripts can change and adapt throughout the process so it’s not as straight forward as one of us sat there editing looking at the script. As we all wanted to make last minute finishes on our blogs, it’s irritated us all that for some unknown reason the edit won’t re link, and we have to put off finishing things off until we’ve finished the edit. We aren’t rushing the edit as we don’t want it to look messy and unfinished, so we’re all giving our opinions and gradually getting our piece back together one step at a time. Luckily it’s not taking us too long but we’ve got a long way to go!

Commission Documentary Unit 3: Music update!

After not being able to find a free royalty free song online, I showed our group the song below, 

they all agreed it sounded good, however when I mentioned we needed to pay a small fee they didn’t want to use it. I understand that paying for a song that we are only using for a small section is a waste however I said I would pay for the song as we needed some music for the introduction to the cathedral, maybe during the middle and at the end. However, the group was adamant on not using it saying I should save my money, although I really wanted to use it as parts of it really fit well with the idea we had, as everyone agreed it sounded good and we wanted an upbeat ‘inspirational’ song as it’s meant to be a promotional piece. Nevertheless we will see what everyone comes up with music wise and hopefully we will be able to find a good instrumental piece in time to fit with our documentary. 

Commission Documentary Unit 3: Editing day 4

Today Andrei, Vic and I all agreed to meet up and the library to further edit and sync audio and generally try finishing the edit. Annoyingly it took a while to re link the files as we was working on a different computer, however Vic helped me do it and it didn’t take too long. Throughout the day I aligned the rest of Steve and Darren’s interview together and synced up the rest of the clip mic audio. All together I was really happy with the process as I’d edited a lot together and added cut-aways to the footage and cut and trimmed the footage extremely precisely to cut out the huge gaps and pauses that Darren and Steve took in between words as well as the ‘erms’ and repeating words. To make sure the footage didn’t look choppy I used cut-aways of what they are talking about and I also kept switching between the close up shots from the interviews and the mid shots to make it less boring – but didn’t do it too much. Throughout the day Vic was sat next to me doing some work and kept looking at the edit giving opinions, Andrei also came to check as well and we all looked at the video to see how I was doing, after receiving feedback and making minor changes we all agreed it looked okay so we all carried on working. However, I really wanted to start on Marella’s interview and sequence as hers was a very large chunk of our video, but Andrei was still lining up the audio with the interview clip - however I knew I could do it myself on Final Cut as it took a matter of minutes for me to do Darren’s, as at the beginning of the video Andrei had clapped so that when we placed the clips above each other it would align perfectly and make the process easier for us. I felt like we was going round in a circle as to save time I said I would line up Darren’s visual with the clip mic manually which worked fine instead of Andrei doing it on Premiere Pro separately as it was taking so long and wasting so much time. However, as the day went on I was getting nowhere waiting around for hours when I could have been doing it myself so I began aligning Jake’s interview in place and said I would add the clip mic footage myself as the process I did didn’t take long at all. It got to 7pm and the library was about to close so we had to leave, after saving the file and also saving it as an XML file on every ones hard drive and checking one more time it had saved, we all left. Today I felt like we wasted a lot of time as Andrei and myself was practically doing the same thing and I had to wait around for a lot of time which frustrated me as I knew the deadline was extremely tight.

Commission Documentary Unit 3: Music Producer

In our group we’d discussed the type of music we wanted, but we didn’t have a certain song we could find on any royalty free websites. Luckily, Andrei knew someone that was able to produce a soundtrack for our documentary, so we began brainstorming ideas between us of the type of track we was looking for (as we didn’t want the classical genre). I myself began brainstorming ideas and I’m going to create a post on the songs I choose today. Andrei contacted his friend and gave him a few examples, however the music he kept producing was too depressing and slow paced – therefore we couldn’t use it. We asked him once more, sending him more reference material, however he hasn’t got back to us so we unfortunately had to get rid of that idea and begin searching the internet again for some ambient/upbeat/happy instrumental music that can go with our documentary.

Commission Documentary Unit 3: Editing Day 3

Today I finally began editing the interviews together after a long process of waiting for transcriptions to be finished. I started by editing in Steve’s interview into the sequence and adding cutaways where I had made notes on our video. The process to do this was quite time consuming as I precisely cut the interviews to make sure it all looked and sounded as smooth and continuous as possible.

Another process I did during the edit was editing the intro into our video. To do this I took some exterior shots of Canterbury that we already had from the field trip and added it into the sequence, I also added a short sequence of Scott walking into the stonemasonry workshop room to introduce the workshop. I also wanted to start on editing Marella into the sequence however I didn’t yet have the highlighted transcription of what parts of the interview we was using, to further speed the process up Vic said he would take Marellas transcription and highlight the parts we needed, I then received the transcription and began editing Marella into the sequence.

I was quite happy with what I edited today however the process could have been a lot quicker.

Commission Documentary Unit 3: Transcribing New Interviews

After Vic and Andrei had successfully filmed interviews with Jake, Marella, Scott, Darren and Steve, we decided we each needed to transcribe an interview to speed up the process as the interviews were 10-20 minutes long.

As I’m a quick typer I decided I would take on Scott’s interview as he had a lot to say and if I finished I would do Marellas.

I successfully finished transcribing Scott’s interview and quickly moved onto Marellas, after the process I felt relieved as it felt like I’d heard the same interview a million times!

I tried to go back to editing the video after I’d finished as Vic and Andrei was still transcribing however, Final Cut kept crashing which meant I couldn’t do anything else that day, after telling Fergus he told us that the problem was being fixed.

Commission Documentary Unit 3: John Ramsden

Today we had a workshop with John Ramsden who is an editor at the BBC. 

In a workshop with John, we had to look at a transcription from an interview from Canterbury Cathedral, and edit together the highlighted sections to create a short interview. We had to find the right words which fit in the video and make sure it sounded natural, to do this I closed my eyes and listened to the footage together to see how it sounded. After it being checked, when got given some cut aways of the workshop which we could add in the sequence so it wasn’t choppy from where we had edited it and cut it. I liked the workshop however found it quite annoying to try find the words that sounded best when edited together but the transcriptions was really helpful as we could follow the time stamp and go directly to the part of the interview we wanted. Here is the finished video I produced.

Commission Documentary Unit 3: Day 2 Edit and update with Helen.

After problems with editing today, Helen Curston and John Ramsden wanted to see our edit to have an update on how it was going.

Throughout the video Helen made notes on our video and I began feeling that our piece wasn't strong when watching it back over.

Helen began with giving us positive feedback about how the shots were filmed beautifully and liked our close up detailed shots, which we were all happy with.

Helen also mentioned the sequence with Jake (which Vittorio edited together) looked really nice as it followed continuity edited and wasn't choppy, she really liked that sequence which we all agreed on.

Helen began discussing music choices with us and we all agreed we want an upbeat song that's unique and shows the audience that the video is fresh and aiming towards promoting the apprentices.

However, then came the negative feedback..

The ''dirty frame''...

I noticed Helen say 'ooh...' in a negative way when there was a shot of Steve, the reason for this was because Andrei had insisted that every-single-shot needed to have something in front of the subject. In his defense I think something at the side of the frame looks appealing when first seeing someone from far away and you pull focus to them from the object, or when a sequence has finished and you see a few people stood by themselves in the distance with a tree slightly in frame, but this particular shot was absolutely disguising and off putting- the shot is a medium shot of Steve and all you can see is his head poking out at the top as there is a massive white, out of focus semi circle filling the whole screen. 

During filming myself and Vittorio had picked up on this and said we don't need something in the frame in every single shot as the audience want to see what the subject is doing not random blocks of colour... However our opinion wasn't listened to as apparently a film photographer had told our group member that this was the way to film every shot which I personally disagree with as what's the point in filming the subject if you can't see them AT ALL?

This really irritated me as I knew that our group member didn't listen to my opinion as I was 'younger' and 'less experienced'.

Another problem that Helen had with our footage was that it was too choppy in sequences, I admitted this was my fault however I had nothing to cut to (faces, hands etc.) to make the sequence shorter to allow myself to cut bits out without the audience noticing - so I felt annoyed once again that my opinion hadn't been listened to.

However, we will all need to learn from this experience again like we should of from the audio only interview problem, however it seems communication and listening to peoples opinions is a huge problem in our group.

What we need to do next: 

• Use/shoot more close up shots of faces and hands to cut to if there is a long seqence that we need to cut down - Good example to reference, the sequence of Jake that Vittorio edited together.
• Be careful of the line - take out the shot of us crossing the line when filming Steve in the workshop
• Take out un-needed shots.
• Choose upbeat, fresh music

Commission Documentary Unit 3: Editing Day 2 & Filming day 7 - MULTI TASKING!

DAY 2 OF THE EDIT - RUBY

As Vittorio had put the actuality cutaway sequences in a basic order on day one of the edit, it was my turn to edit on day 2. 

I started by importing the footage that Andrei and I had filmed a few days before of Jake helping put the stone in for the practice run the day before the actual stone was due to be put in. As we used a two camera set up it was quick to cut from the wide angle camera to the close up camera, however the sequence was EXTREMELY long and only needed to be around 1 minute long in total. On the day of filming I stressed that we needed close ups of Jake's face and hands so that we had something to cut to so that the sequence wouldn't go on to long as then when we cut away from Jake's face we could chop the sequence so it wouldn't go on too long as the audience wouldn't notice we'd cut some out - HOWEVER, this wasn't the case as I kept being told it would be 'fine' and we didn't need those close ups... But as soon as I began editing the sequence together I knew I should of been adamant and got those shots as the sequence was going on for more than 5 minutes...to allow myself to cut the sequence down, I had to make it choppy and just insert notes into our video that interview clips would be put in between those sections to make it look like it was following continuity. However this looked extremely choppy and I knew it would get picked up on when Helen wanted to see an update of our edit.

Throughout the day I also went over the sequences that had already been edited and cut them down a little as our video was going way over 10 minutes.

In total the editing day was productive as I got a lot done but also stressful as I couldn't do anything else until I had the re filmed interviews and  more close up shots of people's face and hands.

Commission Documentary Unit 3: Filming day 6 & Editing day 1 - MULTI TASKING!

Today Andrei and I went down to the Cathedral to film the stone being put in the Cathedral. We met for 7am and got to the cathedral for 8am. Unfortunately I wasn’t feeling well all day with backache so felt useless to both of us, but tried to ignore it and make sure I was focused on filming. However, we was waiting around for around an hour and a half before we actually went down to the scaffolding due to none of the members coming back up to take us (as we needed assisting). This was annoying as we was wasting time doing nothing, at 10:15am we found out from the apprentice Jake that Darren had already gone down to the scaffolding after having a meeting and now he was about to go on his tea break. After waiting around again for half the day we decided to try get some extra shots until we could go up to the scaffolding. Jake then came down and said he was going on the scaffolding and asked if we wanted to come – obviously we said yes and followed him down there. We had to sign into the scaffolding area and wear a safety hat and a bright orange overall to show we were visitors on the site. When we went up to speak to the builders we asked when the stone would be put in, they told us to come back at 11:30 am as that’s when some equipment and stones would be delivered. 11:30 soon came as we headed back down, however unfortunately the company that delivered the equipment and stones didn’t have a driver available – one of the builders decided to head down to Sittingbourne to collect what they needed. This prolonged the waiting till around 1:30pm when we could finally go down and film. We’d asked Jake and the workers if Jake would be allowed to help put the stone in the lift to take up to be put in the cathedral which he was allowed to do, this was so we could show what sort of work the apprentices got up to. The filming process was very long as it took us ages to film something that could of taken around 15-30 minutes instead took us around 2 hours. Although the builders were joking around a little at times I could tell they was getting restless and bored especially because it was heavily raining and really cold, I felt really rude as the workers kept getting interrupted by us, so after wards I apologised on our groups behalf for not working around them which they asked us to.