Untold Stories | Week 10 Blog
In the reading, it introduced the basic function of editing, simply a matter of “cutting out the bad parts”. For the normal film, it means to choose the footage that is technically strong and the better performance of the actors. However, in regard to the editing of the documentary, it’s more complex due to its high shooting ratios and huge raw material base. For instance, the shooting rate of the observational documentary Hospital (1970) is about 64:1, “Frederick Wiseman indicates that he shot at least ninety hours of footage on 16mmfilm stock, with a final running time of eighty-four minutes”. Therefore, an essential part of the editing process is to organize and assess materials, building an editing log is also a smart idea for the postproduction. The reading also talks about the responsibilities and relationship between editor and director. Director needs to be familiar with all the footage and collected materials for a project and the editor need to understand the director’s sensibility, approach and aims and to manifest these as well as possible, while also offering a fresh perspective and a second opinion. The director and editor should be on the same page and with a sense of the editing style for the project. The selected footages mainly depend on the story or the central question that the project wants to present.
In regard to our project, audio tour, we list all the destination we will introduce to the audience beforehand and in order to avoid making the audio tour too long, we also listed the estimated amount of time of each section of the script, thus, when we do research for interviews and archival footages, we can shorten content effectively, preparing for the postproduction. In terms of the collaboration, we are responsible for different parts of the destination, so we discussed what will include in each part of the script to make sure that each part will come together as one piece of work at final. Sammy does all the editing and the rest of us give opinions to the audio piece, thus, the editing style will be consistent.
Fox, B 2018, ‘Chapter 7: shaping reality: the post production process’, in Documentary Media: History, Theory, Practice, 2nd edn, Routledge, pp. 213-250.
Thank you very much!