Part 1: Describe what you gained from the studio
My outlook on editing has completely changed since the beginning of the semester, I was originally disappointed to be in this studio as it wasn’t my first preference but I have learnt some valuable skills that will help me in developing myself career-wise. At the beginning of the semester, I wrote that “I am more interested in the documentary and commercial side of editing as opposed to scripted dramas and improvised works” but something that has surprised me is that I have actually thoroughly enjoyed editing the narrative-based works. I think what works well for me is having that structure that a script provides whilst still being able to make creative choices regarding camera shots, duration and angles. l experimented with some colour grading and was really surprised and the difference it made, especially in my documentary edit, I have attached a photo of before and after the grade and the vibrance of the colour makes such a big difference to the overall appearance of the video. YouTube was a big help for navigating this and I feel more confident to use YouTube to further assist my learning in future works. A class that has really helped me is our recent class where Sebastian spoke all about freelance work, it has opened my eyes up to opportunities that I could potentially see myself doing in the future. Throughout the semester I was also completing my internship which I undertook at a PR agency, this was something that I thought I was going to enjoy but didn’t, I realised I wanted to do something more creative and to be on the other side of PR, whether this be making content, being the photographer/videographer at the event, creating a brand video ect, Instinct and Intention and Sebastian’s class about freelancing has got me excited to look into work as an editor and has helped me to realise that I want to use these skills.
Part 2: Reflect upon your work and contextualise it considering the studio prompt, brief and aims.
My Documentary edit “Maxxis” has definitely been the hardest to edit. I was quite excited for this edit after doing Rohan’s documentary subject in the summer however it was the edit that I struggled the most with. I think what made it so difficult is that my subject Max is a big talker and tends to waffle on, which whilst filming I thought would be great as there would be so much content that I could sift through and pick out but this just made it so time consuming for me and I felt as though I really struggled to get his story across in 2 minutes. For example, I wanted to include his response to whether he prefers to DJ solo or back2back but his answer went on for around 3 minutes itself and there wasn’t a part that definitively answered the question so after I had spent quite some time trying to cut it down in many ways I ended up giving up on it and deciding to leave it out, this was the case for a lot of questions. The last documentary I made was 5 minutes and I still had that structure in my head but the time difference of 3 minutes made a big difference. My previous documentary consisted entirely of B-roll footage so I wanted to focus more on the face-to-face interview in this one to try something different. I took on the advice of using lighting that replicated the vibe of a DJ set up by dimming the lighting and projecting a sunset lamp onto Max and I feel as though this gave a really nice finish especially when saturating the colours more through a colourgrade. I faced some issues with audio as one of the cords given to me for the boom mic was dodgy and created a crackling sound through parts of my audio but luckily I had the backup audio of the camera.
My Commercial edit “Experience the Kimberley Day Cruise” was definitely the easiest one to put together out of the 3 edits as first of all, I didn’t have to film anything myself as I had access to a variety of videos, some professionally shot, some iPhone shot, which meant I simply had to download all the footage and sort through it, selecting the videos I liked. The second thing that made this edit easier was that there was no audio, so I didn’t have to spend time fixing audio levels. After selecting my music I started playing around with the clips I liked in different orders and then cut them to the music. It is a very light piece that would be found on Instagram, the feeling I want to be evoked from the viewer is relaxed, in awe and hopefully interested in booking.
My Narrative edit “Smile” was the edit I was least excited for but turned out to be my favourite, I found it so satisfying to see the scene come together. It is a comedic scene, which is something I have never attempted before, I tried to emphasise this in a subtle way, rather than by gimmicky laugh tracks, I focused on the importance of timing as it is crucial in comedies, a few frames too long and a joke can be ruined or miss the point. I learnt a lot from this edit in regards to audio as I recorded my audio using voice memos on my phone but because I didn’t use a clapper I had to match the audio up for each clip which was a tedious and time-consuming task. Something else that was tricky was the two characters said their lines very close to each other so I had to be very precise with my cutting to make sure the audio wasn’t jarring at all. I want the audience to enjoy the light-hearted funny piece.
Part 3: Collaboration
The collaboration in this class was very strong, we had many class discussions (circle time) and openly gave feedback on each other’s work, complimenting things we liked and strategies to improve. Collaboration was also seen in the class activities we did as we were assigned into groups and given tasks to do, this is representative of the industry where you can be put in a team with people you do not know and may not relate to but you have to work together to get the task done. I collaborated with Caelan outside of class and we gave feedback to each other on our work and helped each other with questions we had, this was very helpful to have someone who understood what the task at hand was and was able to provide constructive feedback to better my work.