Editing is a process with in post production in which the programme comes together. An editor’s job is to cut the original footage, from the camera, to create a programme. It’s the editor’s job to hide the cuts and create an illusion of a flowing programme.
“If you don’t notice the editor, he’s done his job correctly.” Neil Garner, 2010. BBC.
When editing my video I first imported it into iMovie, from the camera. I then imported the footage to Final Cut Pro, an advanced editing program. Once my media was imported, I watched through my footage and labelled the clips accordingly. Once my logging process was complete I was able to import my interview clips to my time line and cut them to achieve a rough narrative. I then showed this rough cut to my tutor. She said that the shots were not flowing correctly, and to consider the use of a lot of cutaways to make the interview more interesting. She also said that the audio on the interview was not loud enough.
After taking into account my tutor’s criticisms I did some research and discovered that professional documentaries are usually picked up on a “boom” microphone. These microphones are directional, which means they pick up sound where ever they are pointed. Because I was using the camera’s internal microphone, the interview was quiet and I picked up a lot of atmosphere sound.
I had to boost the audio levels within Final Cut. This was achieved by opening up my audio channel window and adjusting the volume slider. I then began to add more cutaways to my time line. These are short clips laid over my interview that relate to what my interviewee is discussing. These cutaways added depth to my programme and helped the viewer visualise the bookshop. Along with cutaways I also added some shots to break up my interview. These included close ups of books, or any images I thought the viewer would be interested in. These shots cut up my interview, allowing the programme and audience to breathe. And take in any information they may have picked up within the interview.
I wanted to use music within my project. After a Google search for “Royalty free music” I discovered a website named, incompetech.com/m/c/royalty-free. The website contained hundreds of free to use music tracks. I found a tracked entitled, Somewhere Sunny. The track consisted of an acoustic guitar, a sound I believe fitted nicely within the overall feel of my documentary. The sound levels on the music were lowered so I could hear the interview and were raised during my “breathing” clips.
I created a title and credit sequence for my documentary. These were created within Final Cut, using the text tool. The titles are purposely very basic as I did not want to draw attention from the sombreness of the programme. My introduction title is part of a quote, taken from a sign within the book shop. I feel the quote tied in nicely with my documentary and was relevant to my subject.
Finally I added fade effects to my shots. However, I didn’t over use this effect. During my research process, I watch many Channel 4 style documentaries, nearly all of which used simple cuts and only used a fade or dissolve to suggest a movement in time. I also discovered I was able to add an audio dissolve to my audio timeline. These were added to fade out my music towards the end of my documentary. The sequence was finally exported to a “Quick time” file. Ready to be viewed by an audience.
I then showed my final cut to my tutor and she said that she was happy with the result. Overall, I enjoyed the editing process. In comparison to last year I think I’ve improved greatly. I believe the use of Final Cut Pro allowed me to create complicated edits that iMoive could not create. I also found some useful online tutorials at www.youtube.com. These tutorials helped me find the buttons and switches I needed to create my effects. To summarise, I am very proud of my final project. It displays my creativity and technical skill. The editing process took me just over 5 days to complete and thoroughly enjoyed the process.
References:
The Use of Microphones, 1974. [Book] Alec Nisbett, Page 70. (google books)
BBC Training, 2010. [Book] Neil Garner’s, Introduction to Editing.
The Shoot
The shoot took place on the 15th of February. Initially I was concerned that I would have to return to the bookshop at a second date due to the amount of footage that I would be able to get in one day; however in the end I had over an hour and a half of footage to work with, plenty for a five minute film. The weather was sunny, which was particularly lucky as it meant that I could film outside and there was a lot of natural light inside the bookshop for filming. On arrival inside the bookshop I noticed that there were no customers, which posed a problem as I wished to film them browsing, but as the day went on more arrived alleviating the problem. The interview took place in the office of the bookshop; I had a very narrow space to set up and the tripod I was using did not fit easily. I shot the interview first as the bookshop was fairly quite, however after looking back at the footage some other voices were picked up on the internal microphone. I thought that this may cause a problem when editing, however after listening to the scene several times I feel that the voices may in fact add to the effect of the documentary. Because the bookshop was quite narrow moving the tripod around was quite difficult, however I managed by collapsing it. Lighting did not prove an issue because there are many windows in the shop. All in all the shoot was a success and I feel I can successfully edit what I have.
Newspaper Advertisement- What I did.
I used the programme Photoshop cs4 again in the making of my newspaper advertisement. I decided after looking at other newspaper advertisements that I would use a whole picture of my subject as the background. I used a picture that was also used in my double-page spread as if this were an advertising campaign there would be themes and similarities between printed products, to reinforce them in the readers mind. I used the picture as my first layer. It was an ideal photo to use, as the subject was placed on the left of the photo, allowing plenty of room for writing on the left hand side. I then decided to place text over the top. For the title, I used the same font as on my magazine, Lucinda Calligraphy, to show continuity through my advertising campaigns. I decided against using a variety of colours in this piece, as I felt it may be too overwhelming for such a small space. This is true of many other newspaper advertisements; they tend to stick to simple colours. First of all I used only white for the text, however I realised that this was not bold enough, and would not capture the public eye. I then started toying with the layer style of the text. I decided to use the stroke option, which meant that the text had a kind of border around it. I decided on black, to keep with the simple theme. I now had a black and white title. I also used the shadowing option, as I felt that a shadow behind the text made it stand out more. I then added another text box for programme information. I used the same colour theme of black and white, using the stroke option. I placed the colours the opposite way around; leaving me with black text outlined by white. I did not use a shadow on this text. I kept the amount of information to a minimum so as not to over power the audience, and to leave some mystery behind what the programme was actually about. I decided on a sub-title merely saying ‘A look into the life of one woman and her love of books’ and then the programme information. I decided that this would be a sufficient amount of information and was happy with the outcome of my work.
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