We have finally met our goals of the project.

Everyone took their role seriously and have done their job very well I think.

Even though I was an editor, I could see what was required from the other roles and with all the cooperation a project was finely made.

It was first time for me to work on a documentary so there were unexpected problems and extra work.

We started now knowing so much about the documentary but i guess even though it took more time and effort we have learnt a real lesson that will be useful in next production project.

This project was very meaningful because of the main characters George and Lola. We’ve built up a good relationship with them and I guess that was our biggest motivation to make a project that’s valuable for us and for them.

writen by gloria

Urban Vignettes: Russells Old Corner Shop

Feedback from Screening at Ryan’s House
-    Superimpose name and relationship that the people have (accepted)

-    Have cutaways of them doing things, people peering in etc(accepted)
-    Show more of the ambience of the place

Consultation with Daniel Rigos
-    Possible to find soundtrack or to go without music(accepted)
-    Have an establishing shot of the building
-    To start with George first and just the clock ticking, and end with Lola’s piano piece?
-    Cut out the conversational/bickering part where Lola and George talk about Lola Russell Productions

Consultation with Anne Carter
-    Have the logo in the beginning, establishing shot of building at the end (accepted)
-    Can have just the clock ticking, or have music in the background (below the clock ticking), or have voices/ambience/traffic(accepted)
-    Reduce the shot of George in the kitchen humming OR put Lola in between the shot of George in the kitchen(accepted)
o    Keep the sound of George’s humming going as Lola comes down the stairs; don’t keep Lola’s audio as audiences may feel like they’re missing something if they can’t hear her.(accepted)
o    Do this to introduce Lola, to show that there’s two of them living in the shophouse
-    Increase the volume when it comes to Lola talking about the photographs(accepted)
-    Lola’s intro to the café should be shortened up to the point where she says that it is a working class area → rest of it unnecessary(accepted)
-    Can start Shane’s voice with him and granny seated at the table (overlay)(accepted)
-    Have cutaways of the place while Shane talks(accepted)
-    Keep George’s audio of “goodbye joy” as shane and granny walk out(accepted)
-    Too abrupt going to George talking to Ian; fade to black with the goodbye, then come to George talking to Ian and go straight to “there’s a pile of stuff over here”(accepted)
o    Fade out sound towards the end of the shot before Ian’s individual shot so that the sound doesn’t overlap(accepted)
-    Super Ian’s name and relationship only when he talks individually(accepted)
-    End Ian’s shot at “very convenient”
-    Have a bit of time before the shot of Ian ironing if possible so that it is not so abrupt and sound doesn’t overlap(accepted)
-    Drop George’s shot at “I did a course in Russian” → start the shot at the computer with George talking (overlay); extend the vision earlier.(accepted)
-    To put George and Lola talking before Alan talks about his involvement with the play
o    Include cutaways of the posters while George & Lola are talking(accepted)
o    Keep the banter/bickering of George and Lola when they talk about Lola Russell Productions
-    Footage of Lola playing the piano and talking about history can come earlier
o    Maybe after she introduces the café?
o    Before/after George is at the computer?
-    Have photos of the store come up during the credits
-    Try using overlays!
These are the feedbacks and I have accepted most of them and applied to the rough cut.

it’s gonna get better and better ~~

After the rough cut screening with Daniel and Anne I just had adjusted sound levels and put in the names introducing the people, and the logo.

It still needs lot more adjustments with the picture/ colours/brightness and so on.

This secound rough cut version will be handed on to Lydia which she’ll bring to Russell’s and view with them.

meanwhile I’m waiting for new feedbacks to come@.@   

today we’ve just viewed our rough cut with daniel.

I have made myself some notes to fix. things like the level of the sound or the edit between the shots.

The music seemed to be bit off track as we heard so it will be out and I’ll try two different ways to connect the opening sequence with the next scene either to continue with the clock ticking or another type of music.

and when we get the supers to explain the relationship between the people and Lola and George, there seems to be no problems with the flow of the documentary.

next things are to put in the main image (Russell’s old corner shop) , supers (will be made by lydia by tonight) and the credits at the end.

snapshot week9.

Difference from last week are.

• we have shot all the footages

• have a brief schedule for editing

• have started on logging all the footage onto a piece of paper so we can do paper edit

At this stage everyone are watching the clips to analise and make it easy to view what we have and what we’re going to use for the actual project.

While we are logging the clips and the transcripts, an an editor I’m also reading and searching for what others have done for their documentaries. what skills or the systems they have used that could help me.

Even if we could create a good documentary this time, I think that could have happen because of the time we spent on it. in other words I don’t think that we had much knowledge about making documentary rather learnt it as we went through. but I think it’s still very valuable because this won’t be forgettable when we met another project similar to this.

by this tuesday the transcripting will be done so I’m aimming to have the rough edit done in that week.

Online stuff is working out with Deti and Gloria and if we can view the rough cut to Deti it will help her in inderstanding the project and so the design of the website.

Lynn will be helping out in making the short clips to put up on the website.

We’re a week or two weeks behind the schedule but since we have given us plenty of time before the due date, there shouldn’t be too much trouble in finalising the project.

so far, everything’s going well.

Basically, the editing principles of fiction and documentary are the same. However, there are more possibilities when editing a documentary, as you are not bound by causality in the same way and thus do not need to tell your story in a certain way, which gives you a high degree of freedom; you should therefore consider alternative ways of piecing the material together. Try to maintain a certain sensitivity towards the raw material in order to avoid forcing it in the wrong direction because you are too focused on the story you had planned to tell.

-Guidelines for producing a short documentary-
by Kirsten Sørensen, Mette Bahnsen, Henrik Holch, Gitte Hvid and Lise Otte

It makes me feel good about being free with the editing. there are no limitations or rules or certain shots to appear at the scheduled time.

Since we had a direction to follow and have shot in that way, it will be a matter of deciding the bad bits and take out that so the remain will be our documentary. even though there were set up of picture/sound it will be shown in the most natural ways.

Documentary editing in this sense seems very unlimited. but still I think we shouldn’t force it to form in certain ways.

In his article “The Voice of Documentary,” Bill Nichols writes:

Documentary displays a tension arising from the attempt to make statements about life that are quite general, while necessarily using sounds and images that bear the inescapable trace of their particular historical origin. These sounds and images come to function as signs; they bear meaning, though the meaning is not really inherent in them but rather conferred upon them by their function within the text as a whole. We may think we hear history or reality speaking to us through a film, but what we really hear is the voice of the text, even when the voice tries to efface itself (Nichols in Rosenthal, 1998, p. 52).

while reading this statement, I wanted to re-think about our intension or the direction of the doco.

even though it’s documentary, we must have a flow and the direction and the key question will be to find it out. Find the value out of the footages that we already have.

Today, by talking with David Carlin, He recommended a great to way to edit doco.

which is done by paper edit.

we have to log and write everything down onto a piece of paper.  including the trascript of every scene. so we know exactly what was being said and what was being done.

In this way it will limit the chance of losing important shoots.

The only concern is there’re too many tapes….but I think it’s worth trying.

There’re a lot of things that I’ve learnt by making the documentary from the scratch.

I think there’s something that we’ve been missing. being natural wasn’t really shooting whatever that comes out. it’s been quite hard to edit and focus on one direction because it just flowed through how it comes out.

and we had to go back and ask questions and shoot few more parts that we needed to keep our documentary flowing.

It’s very hard to edit when the story is open (not knowing what to expect)

but one thing that’s working out is that we have chosen the right characters and there’s a lot of stories to tell.

Hopely at the end…… we could come up with something that suits our intension.

We have captured most of the footage. and by viewing it with Lydia today, we have decided extra footages that we’ll need to shoot again.

Some pictures aren’t as good ( over exposed at the back so the main figure is quite dark, or the sound was recorded at too high level so the sound is crappy, the picture is too shaky as it was often hand held) but I’m going to trying adjust as much as i could. so we don’t need to shot the same shot nor we can’t have it repeated because it’s documentary.

But I think the quality doesn’t really matter especially for the movies that are going to be put up on online. Some degrading pictures can still be used together if it’s needed to suit the original aim of the documentary.

A good news is we have found a person to build up our website!! very excited about it.

but still got not much idea for the music..