Day: April 15, 2016

Let me think of ways I can write an academic analysis on my editing skills so far, too be honest there’s so much information I wouldn’t even know where to begin but for this post’s sake and for the sake of my beloved readers I shall start with ‘Project Brief 3’. I should also note this is a personal reflection therefore I will be using it as a reference on my own learning skills as well as a personal reflection on myself as an editor

Originally when I go to choose my interviewee or subject I think about people who have a drive to talk about something they are passionate about (which I knew the participant in mind had) so I had no problem getting him to talk- that is until I put him in front of the camera.
The truth is people who are articulate in life aren’t always going to be the same on camera, that goes the same when saying subjects with captivating stories aren’t always the best ones to tell them. My learning experience from this is to always make sure I create a small demo piece with the interviewee in mind before asking them to commit to a full interview or project.

After my interview I knew the pace the subject was talking at was too slow for my audience, to be more blunt my ‘hyper attentive’ audience (which the majority of our/young adult generation is) and who I knew would most likely end up watching this.

All I can say is thank god for other mediums. By the end of production I knew this piece would now really rely heavily on visuals (especially the aesthetics), jump cut editing and ways to mix the audio underneath the overlays so that the interviewees voice would sound naturally faster without any ‘silent’ spaces- I believed overall this would create a stable momentum for the piece.

Below are examples of the overlay being used to hide my chopped up/mixed audio, and thank got it worked I believe I did it to the best of my capabilities with the footage I had at hand.
Now to another note; going back and reediting my work after receiving feedback was difficult at first, I was a little bit confronted with how I would change the pace and what risks I would need to take in order for me to be able to first off add in found footage (as my interviewee didn’t refer to it or the footage I did have him talk about it wasn’t usable to my standards) and secondly create the faster pace. Pace, is important, momentum is important and overall a climax is important and when I went to show my rough draft I knew there was barley an exciting climax or change in the piece.

This is why I completely rearranged the introduction- with the added found footage and a whole new track (replacing the slow Jazz audio I originally picked out) I had a whole new idea that would delve into new perspectives, after a few hours of re-editing finally the piece was able to gain a meaning and most importantly display a narrative that flowed.

The Jazz had changed to Progressive house (with vocals I knew were risky in a documentary based piece), I knew I needed audio that would ultimately give this project a different life than the one it already had, I also added in more overlays and new snippets of found footage, I spend more time removing the audio silences (as previously stated) and restructuring the story so that the conclusion was solid (as previously in the drafted edit the interviewee drift off leaving the piece with an unsatisfying ending).
Overall this was a test of my editing capabilities a massive learning experience in handling feedback and taking it constructively in order to produce- and have the confidence to produce something with a new perspective out of the same material.

This project has also influenced me to look back on previously viewed materials especially action sport pieces in order to take the influence of pace from them (as well as their narrative structure), as within my feedback my practical filming is aesthetically pleasing but the content and tempo of the project needed more of a push, ultimately the drive to be inspired also helped me find visually pleasing royalty free found footage, so again overall I am quite content with the re-edit of my project although I know there are still quite a few hiccups.

As a teacher  last year once told me “Editing is never complete we only say it is done when we have run out of time”.