Final Video and Evaluation

Below is the final version of our documentary video, T-Pro. It has gone through a couple of changes over the last couple of months, having first planned to include two different dancers. When we found out only Toni (AKA. T-Pro) would be available the group worked well in coming together and creating a new plan for the video. I am very pleased with the outcome of the video, I think it represents our hard work. And we did truly work hard, and made sure we were ahead of all the deadlines, to give us the benefit of receiving feedback and also giving us plenty of time to make any changes needed.

This payed off as we were encouraged to re-film some of the panning shots. As we left time and had planned to re-shoot certain aspects of the video, re-filming the panning sequences was not an issue and we were able to move forward without it disrupting out video schedule.

As already mentioned the group worked really well together. Although working with friends can be risking if there are disagreements with the video, somehow our group managed to get by without any arguments - thankfully. Everyone was able to put their views and ideas across and we all felt like we were being listened to. I am sorry for this module to be over as I truly had a great time with the group, from start to finish on this project.

I hope that our enjoyment in making the video, and our interest in the topic makes for a enjoyable documentary video.

Video Catch-Up

The video is coming along nicely and we have almost finished editing the final video together. Today was spent syncing the audio to the interview of Tony (AKA. T-Pro) together with the visual footage. This proved to be more difficult then I originally anticipated, as it requires a fair amount of patience as you line the two files up.

Here is a screenshot of our editing time line.

Rough Cut Presentation!

Todays workshop was an opportunity for the group to showcase their short documentaries so far. I was very pleased with the quality of our rough cut video. Although the video did not include much of our audio that we recorded the day before, the improvement in quality from the audio we were using before is clearly noticeable.

In terms of improvements to the video we still need to add most of the interview with Toni, for this we are going to listen to all of the audio recordings and figure out which parts we want to include. We already have a good idea of what we want to include; About Toni, how he got into breakdancing, competitions he has been in and would like to be in, and where he see's his future with breakdancing.

Apart from the audio the video still needs credits as well as some text during the actual video that will be naming the moves Toni is performing. Some shots of Toni may be cropped shorter or perhaps completely cut from the video depending on how they work with the audio thats to go in.

Overall we have a manageable amount of work still to do on the video, and I think we will finish comfortably in time for the final hand-in.

Recording Audio and Re-filming.

Today we re-shot some of Toni's performance, mainly focusing on improving the panning shots that feature at the start of our video. In post-production it was noted that the panning was a little bit jittery. Although the style of film we are going for is a little bit rough and urban we decided to re-shoot the panning sequences, hopefully in doing so it will create a better flowing video. We also decided to film some more of Toni breakdancing from different angles, seen as we had the chance too.

We also recorded the audio for the video. On the first day of filming, last week, Toni was a little bit stiff when answering the questions. However after having a week to prepare and being more aware of the questions we were asking he was able to answer the questions more confidently. Though he would occasionally make a mistake, I kind of like that human quality about the interview and hope we can include it in some way. As I feel it show him as a relatable person, and will help the audience connect with him - and therefore the video. Which may be difficult otherwise as not many people are into breakdancing.

Music

There is going to be a couple of different forms of sound in the documentary; the interview, soundscape of Toni dancing - foot rustles, atmospheric sounds from location and of course MUSIC!

The music for the video is a crucial element to the video, as it will be support the majority of the visual elements of the video - Toni dancing. For this Jason has agreed to create a sample using Logic a sound editing software. We are extremely lucky to have Jason make us an original piece of music for the video, the whole group will be keen to learn these skills too so will be helping out where possible with Jason.

Below are a couple of screenshots of the music being edited.

Beginning to Edit

Today we continued to edit the video from filming yesterday. I say continue as yesterday after filming Jason took it upon himself to edit together some shots to give us a rough idea of what the finished film might look like.

We know that with out audio the film will be lacking a little bit, however the subject we have decided to document is very visually interesting. Therefore we are able to give good representation of how the final film may look.

From editing a rough cut, we noted that some shots would have to be re-filmed due to stability issues. This was not an issue as we wanted to get Toni back to record the audio anyway, and we all want to make the video perfect.

Location Release