During mid semester break following a group meeting with Amalina, Jac and myself went down to Testing Grounds to interview our artist Hannah Courtin Wilson. As we had trouble getting in contact with our initial assigned artist (who eventually declined to be part of our project), it was refreshing and deeply relieving to arrive on site to a beautiful day, fairly consistent lighting, and a wonderfully open and engaged individual as Hannah.
The interview went smoothly as Jac had set up the two cameras and lapel mic previous to my arrival. The use of two angles was a decision initially suggested by Amalina and since we incorporated that into the filming process, I’ve found subsequent editing sessions have been afforded several degrees of freedom. This is something quite new to me, as I’ve only ever produced media / interview footage in one previous class last semester (Broadcast Media), and one of the primary challenges I noticed was the lack of adequate footage which eventuated in a do-or-die mindset which meant our final cut included a pastiche of average and just acceptable footage, in place of a well produced film.
On Wednesday, Amalina and myself edited in the basement suites in building 9. Jac joined us in the process, and as editing can be described as a one person job (as there is only one mouse and one keyboard essentially), feedback was rampant and group decisions were made through conversation and live critique while Amalina and myself took turns to do the physical editing.
It was enriching to have such a collaborative dynamic between Jac, Amalina and myself as in previous group situations it has often been difficult to balance and mitigate work to different individuals, without feeling some level of politics involved. But as Amalina was skilled in editing due to her previous studies, Jac was in operating tech, and myself having done a bit of both to be fairly comfortable with the software, our filming and editing process was very fairly spread, and I was able to pick up new skills regarding the use of multiple cameras as well as neat tricks on Adobe Premier.
This informs my approach to group situations, as I’ll now be more conscious of involving members (and my own contributions) based on their experiences and strengths; a process which means everyone has a say, and has a say on the topics they are most in tune with. Simultaneously, it means every group member learns from the “expert” in the team, and subsequently enhances their own knowledge of the discipline.
I was ill on Thursday and did not make it to class, but Amalina and Jac continued the editing process which involved fine tuning our original structure, and synchronising the sound to the use of the alternative angle footage. I was told that Robbie had given our group the suggestion to include more textures in the film : examples of the artist’s work,
On Friday, Amalina and myself again ventured down to the suites and (with much appreciation to Hannah and her contributions!) began to layer the structure of the documentary with images of Hannah’s work, and residency at Testing Grounds. We were both very pleased with the final rough cut (we plan to edit further on Monday to fine tune everything), and look forward to receiving feedback and giving it when we share the films in class in Week 8.