Since the last post, I’ve been doing some changes to the final piece.

I managed to cut down the interview form 18 long minutes to just under 4 minutes. I did this because I needed to put in some other elements to the project and not just having the whole documentary filled with people talking, as suggested by Kim, which I definitely agree with. I also realised that I need more shots of the store, because at that point I was definitely lacking shots of good looking visuals and more so the environmental shot of the store itself.

Thus, I decided to go back and shoot yesterday and took the footage that I needed. Aside from getting the environmental shot of the store, both inside and outside as Kim suggested, I also get some close-ups of the products sold in the store, as I was lacking that as well, I also asked some of the volunteers to stand and take shots of them. I didn’t include their face because they were a bit reluctant and I didn’t want to make anyone uncomfortable. Overall, I was happy that I went back to gather these shots because now I have the materials I needed to work with.

Another problem I had with the documentary would have to be that the main character pauses and stuttered a lot in her interview, so I had to cut away a lot of parts where she did. This in result made the visuals a little bit jarring if I didn’t layer another clip on top. Yet, at the same time I couldn’t just use visuals all the time, as I needed to give her some screen time and have a chance to project her personality which I think is important (thank God she’s an interesting character). But I think I am managing this problem pretty well, balancing between covering it up with visuals and actually having her on the screen.

By next week, I hope to have finalised my work. I also needed to show Kim my rough cut, where I hope that I’ll get some feedback on what I needed to improve or work on.