Editing the final piece

I have began to edit the final piece and I have created an introduction. It features some nice imagery of Boggarts dancing outdoors, with some interview footage in the background, some short, fun and snappy dialogue clips that add a nice edge to the piece.

"Drugs, alcohol, sex" A little much perhaps, but I like doing things differently, stepping outside the box... followed by "Morris dancing", and we cut to Boggarts being interviewed over a few drinks in a beer garden.

I've overlaid a nice fun soundtrack that sets a nice mood for the documentary.

Come Monday I will assemble a rough edit, and then further begin to refine it.

Equipment List

Below is the equipment list for this weekend's shoot.

We have been shooting in the town centre again as the Morris dance 'community' are there again performing for the public, so we've taken the opportunity to collect more footage of the dancers, as well as more interviews.

For this shoot, we decided to focus more on the Boggarts Breakfast group as we're now aiming to focus upon one main group for our final 5-10 minute piece. Of course we'll be displaying other groups throughout the piece, however Boggarts will remain our main focus in the documentary.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to attend the shoot this afternoon as I've been ill for the last weeks. Come Monday I'll be importing and converting the footage and I'll be carrying on with the edit.

Poetic Documentary Feedback

We have received our feedback and provisional mark for our Steel Bells poetic piece. Upon first glance I am deeply disappointed in the mark. In some ways I can understand why we have received the mark, but I can't help think we were hard done by.

The following feedback was received during our presentation of the poetic piece -

• Take out the 'gold-fishing' in the piece, meaning take out the shots of people talking when you can't hear them. - we slightly disagree with this because we wanted to portray them showing one another how to perform the dances, and due to the piece being poetic, we thought it wouldn't matter inputting these shots. But we may now change this.

• Use more outdoor footage, it's brighter, richer, more effective.

• Good cinematography, especially outdoors.

• Footwork shots work effectively, perhaps show more

• The shadows create an effective contrast in the piece, perhaps use more?

• Unfortunately some of the indoor footages' quality is not very good

Documentary - 'The Archive'

The shot documentary 'The Archive' directed by Sean Dunne, is a piece that focuses entirely upon the elderly couple and their collection of records that they have gathered over their life-time. The short film is all-set within the room they keep their records in, from cutting to and from the couple to shots of the records, the audience are able to understand the bond between the gentlemen and his collection.

The audience is given a brief insight to their lives and how they came about acquiring such a large collection. The main emphasis of the film shifts from how he got them all, to what the couple are going to do with them. The gentlemen discusses the current situation he's in and talks about how people don't understand the true uniqueness and quality to records. The audience is put on the side of supporting the couple, because the only insight/opinions we're getting is from them.. not from external/opposing sources. However I feel the director intended this film to be a short, to the point, interesting and some-what thought-provoking piece that educates the audience into something that could be considered as a niche subject.

The shots in this film are simple but effective, they make the audience feel at ease and the pace of the editing matches the tone of the film. The approach to the film focuses solely upon the couple, not even a narrator nor' interviewer is implemented in the piece, and i feel this works effectively for the final piece.

Editing the Documentary

Following our structure of juxtaposing the colour outdoor dancing footage with the indoor, more 'bleak' footage, I attempted to find and input shots that added something more. For example the shot on the left, one in which shows expression, humour, interest and energy.

I am particularly proud of this transition. The first shot shows Boggarts performing in their practice session, as the shot continues the bodies from the dancers fill up the screen turning it black. On the black, I implemented a small transition and found a different shot than begins naturally 'black' to enable an effective, subtle and effective transition between two different shots/scenes.

An example of juxtaposing the bright, energetic, colourful and rich shots of the outdoor dancing to the practice sessions. Transitioning between footwork and upper body shots, adding variety and depth.

This final section being climactic and upbeat, I matched the cuts of the images with the beats in the soundtrack (the drumbeats), indicated by the red markers in the picture to the left. To make it climactic, I chose the most striking images, for example the most visually pleasing/strong dancing shots, to the drums that add strength and emphasis on the poetic piece.

With this shot, I wanted to briefly show the footwork involved with the dance. On top of this, the shot is both quirky, different and fun. I cut the shot as the foot contacted the floor.

I think with the brief stating it must be a 'poetic documentary' documentary, I asked myself what is a poetic documentary, what key ingredients are needed for it to be classed as poetic, or more so, what is poetry?

I think a poetic piece should create a mood, a feeling, an emotion, it should express something and convey it to the audience. Complexity is not needed in my opinion, less is more, especially for a poetic piece. Fast editing in this piece would have taken its edge and purpose away, it would have distracted the audience away from its main purpose, its purpose being to portray a deep, raw piece that the audience get 'sucked' in too that displays the side of traditional morris dancing people may have never seen or thought of before.

Documentary - 'The Security Guard'

This short documentary entitled 'The Security Guard' changes the audience's stereotypical view on a security guard.. By contrasting visuals between his day to day job, with what he's like out of work hours (and sometimes in). Humour plays a part in this short and is brought to life through the guard's mannerisms and dress-code.

Our typical expectations and perceptions of what a security does and how he acts is also changed when a shot of him laying down on a stone wall is shown. It appears the main aim of this documentary is to portray a more comedic view of such a (what is seemed) dull, boring and tiring job. This is successfully portrayed throughout the film.

Juxtaposing close-ups with long shots, we're able to view the person from close-up and from afar, further changing out perception on who he is and what he does.

Lense flare is used throughout this piece but in my opinion is over-used too much. The flare adds a nice touch to the film, perhaps giving it a more 'retro' feel, however laying back on the effect may have worked in the director's favour.