Still from the video portrait

So far my project is tracking along pretty well. I have (hopefully) completed all filming/recording of interviews, and I’m now working on creating an edit script that will inform the final video. I completed filming for the Portrait spread over two days in the semester break, mainly in Peter’s studio, but also with some outdoor shots around Brunswick and the CBD. I also filmed his Love Letters Project when it was exhibited at Spring 1883 last month, so this will also be used.

Everything went reasonably smoothly during the recording, aside from a slight misunderstanding. I had proposed to Peter, seeing as he didn’t like formal to-camera interview set ups, that we take a more casual conversational approach, which he seemed OK with. However when I turned up on the day with all my gear it turned out that he didn’t want to be on camera talking at all. If I’d known this I would’ve brought a Zoom recorder instead of a lapel mic and my camera, and I would’ve been able to get better audio. This means it’ll also be more difficult to edit the portrait as I’ll really be relying on visual material to tie everything together. It shouldn’t pose any major issues, as I’ve got plenty of footage and stills of Peter’s work, which he has given to me, and he has communicated that he’s happy to do reshoots if I run into problems.

I have around half an hour’s worth of interview audio, which is more than enough to edit down into a 4 minute video. I’ve transcribed all the clips into a google doc which will help me to create an edit script. I really want to have a solid idea of what the final video will look like and which shots I’ll use where, etc, as I know from last semester that it’s super difficult and annoying to try desperately to piece shots together if I don’t have any shots of the interviewee talking to the camera.
Despite that I’m pretty well ahead of schedule, this isn’t all good because some things have been brought up in class that would have been nice if I’d known before I filmed everything, such as some tips about recording ‘professional audio’ using the Zoom recorders. This means that my audio isn’t as good as it could be, but I’ll definitely keep this in mind for future projects.

I’d been pretty preoccupied over the last week with two major assignments due for other classes, but now that’s done I hope to make a lot more progress with the portrait and hope to start editing by the end of the week and have a rough cut done pretty quickly. That way if I do end up finding it too hard to cut together with just interview audio I’ve got time to shoot additional footage.