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.

Two Minute Poetic Structure

Structure

Introduction 

• Several clips of the 'dance out' (big opening)

Middle section 

• Cut/fade to milling around at practice (natural scenes; laughing, chatting etc)
• Move on to the dance practice
• Move to just before the dance out

Ending

• Final shots of dancing... impressive shots, of Boggarts For Breakfast

This is the structure Alice has given me to me to follow for the edit. For the poetic piece, we're aiming to create a juxtaposition between the Morris dancing, and the dancer's in their natural environment. There will be no dialogue throughout the two minute piece; only soundtracks/effects will be used (courtesy of Alice's sound design). This is to portray a sense of emotion to the audience.

Converting the Footage

Currently I am converting all the HD footage that's on my hard-drive to be able to edit, without losing all quality in the footage itself. Chris, the editing teacher has told me that by doing this, there will be no loss in the quality and overall the process of editing will be more fluent and fast.

The reason I'm converting all the footage is because we experienced a problem whilst putting together a rough edit; the footage on the timeline appeared pixelated and the quality was poor.


The following couple of pictures show the process i'm undertaking to convert the clips. The process itself is incredibly time-consuming; I've been sat here for around 3 hours now waiting for the footage to convert. One of the reasons to why
it is taking so long is probably because we're importing the footage off a USB hard-drive.

The following couple of pictures show the process i'm undertaking to convert the clips. The process itself is incredibly time-consuming; I've been sat here for around 3 hours now waiting for the footage to convert. One of the reasons to why

it is taking so long is probably because we're importing the footage off a USB hard-drive.

On another note, Alice has given me a structure she wants me to follow for the edit. I'll upload the small document at a later date.

Once the footage has been converted, we will be left with the original footage as well as the converted footage.
I have downloaded and installed the software I'm using on the iMac onto my laptop, however for an unknown reason the options I need to be able to convert the footage are not there, meaning currently, I cannot continue to convert this footage  overnight at home...

Filming Session 4

We've completed our third and possibly final training session shoot.

Once again the shoot went well, we got more than enough footage, from close-ups, to long shots, wide shots, mid shots, close ups on the instruments used and more.

The next stage will be to put together an edit for the two minute poetic piece.

Filming Session 3

Over the weekend, we filmed on location in Sheffield's city centre. This was the main shoot of our production as what we were to capture to here will be used for both our 2 minute and 10 minute piece. 

The weather was beautiful, the conditions were near-perfect for shooting. We went for the two camera setup once again (Natalie on the 600D and myself on the 550D). We also had an extra pair of hands as thankfully Emma and Neil helped us with the sound. 

Throughout the day Alice let us know which dances to shoot, as she knew a few of them personally. This first hand knowledge really helped us with the shoot. Interviews were shot, close-ups were captured, long-shots, wide-shots (both handheld and tripod). Just about everything we needed on the day was captured.

After the town centre shoot, we ventured up to the Uni of free house where it was packed with the Morris dancers in their costumes. It was apparent this was the meeting place for them all after they had finished dancing in the town centre. During our time there, we got a couple more interviews that were more close to home. By that, I mean the interviews themselves were more personal, and a sense of community and joy was shone across the tradition. Some of the reactions we got were superb; laughter, jokes, humour etc.

Obvious problems sometimes occurred during the day, from people walking in front of the camera, to lens flare and more. 

The amount of footage we captured is huge... Below, are a collection of productions stills that were taken throughout the day...

Rough Assembly

Currently we're piecing together a rough draft for our tutorial. Unfortunately we have spent over three hours putting all the footage onto different devices, and a few technical difficulties arose that were eventually sorted.

Our current train of thought is to begin with an assortment of different dances, from the three groups in which we've interviewed and covered in the practice sessions... we're due to film at our third and final session this evening at the 'Boggarts Breakfast' practice session in Hillsborough.