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

Filming!

The day of filming!

After a considerable wait at the university equipment loan centre the group met up with the star of our video, Toni, and headed to the location.

Once outside The Boardroom we decided to start with capturing the audio before wearing Toni out with numerous takes. Unfortunately while setting up our zoom audio recorder, we found out that the zoom recorder or boom mic was not working. This was a little bit of a set back, yet we didn't let it hold us up. We attempted to record using the microphones on the cameras but Toni spoke to softly for them to pick his voice up. We decided as a group that we will have to record the audio another day and that we should focus on the visual today.

And thats what we did. We had three DSLR cameras between us in the group and all took turns using them and capturing different elements and angles of Toni dancing. We had prepared a call sheet and story board prior to filming to roughly guide us, however a lot of shots came from talking to Toni, letting him dance, then planning how we could incorporate that move - and the best way to film it.

Over all we were able to get a lot of footage from outside and inside The Boardroom. The group worked really well together, and communicated great. And Toni was even able to help as he has the superior knowledge about the form of dance. Now we need to go over the footage and edit a rough cut and see if we need to re-shoot anything. And of course we will be recording the sound too.