The final cut!

Here is a link to our final version of, 'Millennium Mum:'

Thats a rap!

Maddie and I had a very busy day yesterday with a 12 hour editing shift at the studios,  Maddie got to work on the edit, while I made a up all the graphics we needed on another computer and I also sorted out the music for our film, then Maddie and I uploaded all the music and graphics and set all the levels and it really gave the film the uplift it needed. 

Now the only thing left to do is burn it on to a disc...............Go Damned Productions :D

Dean

Finished!

And thats a wrap, we have finished! All burnt onto a disc and and handed in. I thought Id write a blog entry conclude this unit. Overall I have enjoyed this project but I have learnt alot of valuable lessons along the way.
My favourite part of the whole unit was all of the pre production work and the research. I really enjoyed writing the shooting script and location scouting.
The actually shooting and interviews proved difficult, as Abbi had chosen to use her family. They are a very closed family and were not willing to talk unless being pushed to. In the end i asked the questions as Abbi was not willing to ask certain questions as she did not want to make them upset. If we were to do this again, I would deffinatly use people that are good speakers and that are not relatives.
Choosing to shoot in Brighton may not have been the best idea either, luckily we all drive, but as poor students, we spent 40 pounds in petrol overall going back and forth to Brighton twice. If we had chosen to film nearer we could have kept going back till we had all the sequences we wanted.
Aswell Abbi had an accident that meant she could not attended many editing sessions, which left us one man down. Although this couldnt be helped, it did keep us on our toes and we realised we had a lot of work to do.


I think the final edit turned out better than expected as we put a lot of effort into it and worked very hard over the last few days.
Maddie

Nearly finished!

So two more days, till hand in! editing is going well, after a slow start and realising that we may not have all the footage we needed, we are finally working really well. I concentrated on editing the shots today, while Dean worked on our production logo and any graphics we wanted in our documentary.
I have been struggling with editing, as we have not covered each interview and sequence enough for a perfect smooth edit. So to overcome this problem I have had to put in a lot of rostrum and footage of the family to cover up the jumpy cuts. The plan for tomorrows edit will be to record our narrators voiceover in the studio, upload it to the final cut, import the title and credits into final cut and make our chosen music piece fit into the documentary. Hopefully all will go well and all of our group will be in.

This is our production logo and name:


Maddie

Sounds terrible!

So after spending many days editing our documentary, the comparison of the sound from each of the 3 interviews are so different. Lorraine's interview sounded so good as we used the radio mic and it worked perfectly. However, when we recorded Sam's main interview we could not figure out why the radio mic would not work, after trying to figure out why for an hour, we gave up and decided to boom the interview. There is a clear difference in the sound quality, but we have to make the best with what we have!

When we returned the radio mic and told Simon about our problem, he quickly figured out that it was because the mic was on mute!!!!

Oh well, everything is a learning curve!!!!!!!!

Maddie

Next time!

I have learnt a lot of things about making documentrys throughout this unit, which were all very valuable and I will be sure to remember and include next time.

One thing that Helen told us about was the eye line. We didn't get our interviewees eye lines right so they look strange in some shots, its not to noticeable but it is to the trained eye. 

This is an example, of how Sam's eye line does not look quite right in a shot:

Another lesson that we learnt was about framing the shot up properly, We do have some good shots that the framing looks really good, but then there are other shots, where there is just too much head space and empty space that is doing nothing for the shot.

Example of good framing:

Example of bad framing:

Maddie

Commission Unit: Editing.

For the last few days Maddie and I have been in the studios editing like crazy, trying to get our documentary done, and its finally getting there, with writing and shooting last minute voice overs its been pretty hectic but we're on course and hope to be all done by Tuesday. If all this editing isn't enough to worry about, we've been trying to find time to do our essay, which is due in on Monday! No rest for the wicked! ha.

Dean