The video above is edited from the content that Luke and I captured for exercise 3A. At the time we weren’t too sure on our theme and struggled to find something to focus on. It wasn’t until after we exhausted handheld filming various birds that we settled on the theme of rubbish. The composition of each shot we got of rubbish was always a little off. Certain shots needed to be tighter and others weren’t thought out and composed poorly. I think if we had had employed greater care when looking at this theme something of some form of decency may have eventuated. I also think that if we had explored the theme ‘rubbish’ a little bit more metaphorically, instead of chasing literal rubbish we might have come up with something with even the slightest amount of merit. This isn’t my initial edit of these clips and was only thrown together as a reference point when looking at the next couple of attempts at Ex. 3A. This edit which I spent some time on is fairly indicative of the one that I threw together in five minutes in class.

When first reviewing the footage of rubbish we realised instantly that it would be nearly impossible to fashion anything from the clips. So with some encouragement from Robin, Luke and I decided to go out and shoot something else. We decide to focus upon a single subject so that our attention would be drawn to composition and how we could frame a number of different shots. We decided upon the fountain for a number of reasons including the geometry of its design, the juxtaposition of nature and fabrication, and of course because the kinetic aspect of the water. Our approach in this instance was far more methodical and concentrated than in our other exercises. By picking the one location we were able to spend greater time ensuring the focus was right and the composition of each shot was pleasing. That isn’t to say that there weren’t flaws in what we captured but compared to our other work there is an improvement. We were also focused on capturing an everyday object/artefact in a different or new way. Instead of setting just setting a tripod at a right angle to the fountain and shooting a slow zoom; we explored a number of camera placements. In doing some we changed the height of the tripod, the width of its legs, the positioning of the camera on the tripod and at one point we attempted handheld once again.
This first edit of Ex. 3A was intended to be a chronological journey of the water as it makes its way through the fountain. The exercise finishes on a wide shot revealing the location of the fountain whilst also revealing that the water is confided to continue this cycle perpetually.

I completed this second edit as means to hone my Premiere skills and to play around with editing. Instead of using chronology to direct my choices, I looked at the aesthetics of the various shots we had captured. I then grouped the clips we had captured into themes such as geometry, water movement and leaves. In hindsight this thematic split seems quite simplistic and purely based on the aesthetics of each shot. Once I had assemble each clip in the sequence I then looked at finding movement or aspects of each shot that would tie it to the one that preceded it.

I’m not certain which edit I prefer and it both I find things that are frustrating. In the second edit the cut from a tight shot of the fountain to a wider shot of the same thing is arbitrary. I don’t think it is really necessary and my decision to keep it was mainly because I used the same clips for both edits. I definitely realise that in terms of grouping shots thematically I could have explored more abstract themes or tangents.