Documentary: Pockets

Pockets is a short documentary created by James Lees in 2008. It was based around the stories of objects that people carried around with them in their pockets; sometimes the object was a keepsake, other times it was something randomly left there.

Pockets - Short Film (Channel 4) from James Lees on Vimeo.

This documentary is very cleverly put together. The shots are very well edited together in correspondence to the sound bites. This documentary uses interview sound bites and cutaways of the objects the interviewees were talking about, intertwining the two cleverly to show you the character behind the object.

For example: I like the cuts between these two:

Whilst the man talks about the object (which I assume is a form of food), we’re shown a shot of his mouth while he talks about the object, whilst chewing some at the same time – there are a variety of these shots, for example when the woman shows her compact mirror for her makeup, you’re shown her entire face – to make the audience automatically examine her face for product, as well as (below) the shots of the boys playing with their toys and then showing them in their hands – showing their interaction and importance of these objects to these people.

The sound edit also plays quite a nice part to the film. The music itself is quite light-hearted but noticeable. It creates an atmosphere for the audiences, just as to the setting of the work – where these people are, just out on a street. The background atmos track is plain and simple, this doesn’t distract the view from the main purpose of the film, which is what each person in the shot presents.

In the edit, I noticed that throughout, the interviews don’t always show a full face, but focus on a particular feature of that person (if it’s important) sometimes it would jump cut from a standard documentary set up and then only show the side of a face. I like the idea of using these shots, it makes listening to the dialogue more interesting, and also makes each person they interview different from the previous one, it almost gives the audience a surprise as the styles of shots change. It keeps the film interesting throughout and also promotes people’s individuality.

I really enjoy this documentary and the editing style. The simple topic is explored in a very creative way, and I find the range of shots and styles interesting. 

Documentary: Project Nim

Project Nim was a documentary I watched recently by myself. The project tells the story of a chimp who is taken from his mother at birth and raised like a human child by also learning sign language.

I really liked this documentary, I feel that it really played with my emotions and because it was a feature length documentary, it had many emotions to share.

Most of the footage of Nim was archive from the family and other resources, which shows that Marsh has researched and used a lot of relevant data to present this documentary's purpose to it's audience. It shows the chimp from being a baby, growing up, good points and bad points up until Nim's death.

This style of documentary uses interview and sound bites throughout to tell the story, rather than using a narrator. The film uses cutaway to move from one bite to another which works amazingly well with the shots used within. The edit is smooth and seamless almost, it's used to create emotion. The edit is bias to those involved within the interviews - you see mainly their point of view and therefore emphasise with them.

The subject is to the side, talking to the side of the camera. I like that the background is plain because it allows you to focus on what he is saying rather than where he is. The set up of these shots are continuously set up perfectly in regards to lighting and space. I also like the fact that once again the interview style changes with each person, for example, one of the ladies being interviewed is sat straight, looking straight behind the camera. It gives each person their own character in a way...

The sound is used very cleverly to play with your emotions and set the scene of a certain situation. For example when you first are introduced to Nim (as an audience member, of course) it's soft music, lighthearted to create empathy for the chimp and make you feel happy or feel that it's cute. The music tends to play on the emotion of whether the project was the right thing to do or not. When the good parts of the project are shown, the music is quite upbeat and positive, whereas the bad points are accompanied by quite droning, almost unsettling music to make your mood as a viewer change. It's showing you the project in full, the for and against almost to allow the audience to decide whether they think it was right to do this or not. 

Overall I enjoyed the documentary, the use of sound and edit techniques work effortlessly to create an emotional work. 

The Art of Interview

If a documentary is created through the structure of interview clips, then a lot of the time as an editor will be used to organise all the material and ensuring you create a story arc. This means that as the editor, I’d spend the majority of my time editing and re-arranging sound bites to allow the film to tell a completed story without the need of a form of narration – (this usually means creating an assembly of sound bites in a different way they were recorded.)

Editors can apply two types of sound bite constructions: 1) Splicing together the parts of two or more sound bites to create a new statement; or 2) editing a word or phrase from another part of the interview to get the right ‘inflection’, for example, using a sound bite from the end of a sentence to make a statement, whereas the original recording was at the beginning of the interview. This is called a ‘Frankenbite’. – (I like the idea of using this to make your work more professional or to get the point across, but not using it to make the interview dishonest, the interviews used need to work but not be taken out of their original context.)

The point of splicing this way is to collapse time, and to get the point across quickly, rather than having a long take of sound rambling on. As long as the content stays true, the film will be okay. These edits are usually covered with the use of cutaway shots to hide all the jump cuts between splices. Even though I prefer this method, some directors prefer to show the jump cut to give a certain interesting rhythm to the cut, which with cutaways wouldn’t be there. It also allows the audience to see that the edit has been made within the footage.

Tips on Cameras…

Using a HDSLR allows you to work on two-camera shots, which is known to be useful when it comes to documentary interviews.

‘Often directors will set up two 5D or 7D cameras – one facing the subject and the other at an angle. This gives the editor two camera angles to cut with and it’s often possible to assemble edited sound bites using cuts between the two cameras at these edit points.’

This method allows you splice together the different thoughts – without a jump cut. 

Documentary Editing Introduction

For my second project in this module, we were asked to edit footage taken from a documentary called ‘In A Climbers Hands’. This documentary followed a young man who explained about the different locations he climbed in, different styles of climbing and about obstacles he faces. It looked like quite interesting footage.

I enjoy watching documentaries. I feel that they present information in a very expressive way, a way the audience can connect and understand the information they are being presented with, as well as being able to envision what the documentary is about – for example, a space documentary has interviews by experts, but also shows footage of what they are talking about (be it CGI or real footage taken from space) to allow the audience to entice themselves further into this story.  I also enjoy how documentaries can be created as entertaining as drama features – only the features are reality.

In regards to editing, Documentaries do tend to present many challenges to an editor. Documentaries allow an editor to play a ‘writer’s’ role within the film to select the correct shots and construction to present the story clearly and effectively.

One of the important features of editing is the Structure and Style. There are different ways you can build a documentary. The aim of this style of film is have an end product that tells the audience an engaging story. In regards to structure, there is a variety of ways/forms that the film tends to take:

·      Using ‘the voice of god’/narrator to guide you through the film

·      Interview sound bites that completely tell the story.

·      Re-enactments used that show the events that happened by using acted scenes or readings.

·      The hidden observer – the audience being involved almost.

It is known that the best way to approach a documentary is to use a combination of all these forms. For example, you may be able to set out an entire story, which is completely told through the use of sound bites, however it isn’t entirely ‘fleshed’ out. This is where parts of narration would help clarify the story and bind all the elements together to bring the piece together as a whole for the audience to understand.

Another important feature, which is mentioned above, is the Story Arc or the Character the film is focusing on.  The people you see within a documentary are real, but when it comes to watching the film, the audience perceives that these people are no less characters in a film, playing a role performed by a dramatic actor. For the editor, the way sound is selected and put them together (as well as the order that these are presented to your audience) establish this vital story arc, but allows the audience to create the idea of heroes and villains within their minds.

Audiences have always wanted a film that starts with a logical beginning, it then needs to build some form of tension and then have an ultimate resolution. This doesn’t mean that every film created needs to have a happy ending, just an ending that allows the story to leave the audience with conclusions and answers.

A key aspect to think about when it comes to editing the story arc is to ensure that your characters are balanced out. In interview-based documentary stories, the same, or similar questions are asked to a variety of interviewees as the different interviews are taking place. This is extremely helpful when it comes to the editing stage because it allows you to balance the different on-camera appearances, and mix them up when choosing whose response to use in the final film. This way, it allows the same subject to be discussed between a number of people, rather than heavily viewing one person. TIP: it’s sometimes best to have one person start the thought or the statement the film is trying to get across, and then conclude with another, assuming that the two different compliment each other.

Another important idea behind editing a documentary is Objectivity. The majority of documentaries are created from a point-of-view, and sometimes a bias one of the people involved – whether it be those in-front or behind the camera. Even if you try to portray each side of an argument fairly, the choice of shots and sound bites reflect an almost ‘sub-conscious’ opinion of the person who’s in charge of making that decision. An important tip for this aspect is it ensures that as an editor, you make it clear that this is a personal statement by those involved, so the audience isn’t forced or tricked into believing the filmmakers view.

Drama: I Do Air

I Do Air is a short drama directed by Martina Amati, which follows a young girl who was a fear of swimming underwater, the film shows that through determination and the ability to escape her world, she conquers her fear with the help of two underwater scuba divers.

One of the most interesting features that stood out to me was the sound edit. Throughout the piece, there is the ambience of the swimming pool – the echoes, the water as people diving and conversations of people using the pool. But you also get some music within this (mostly used towards to end of the piece), which I think helps create a more emotional atmosphere for the audience to react to.

However the shot above – I really liked the idea. When the girl holds her breath, all the sounds disappear and silence occurs. She wants to escape all the noise, all the fear and pressure, and be able to swim. The use of silence within the edit gives a sense of escapism, and occurs twice in the film. The holding of the breath appears to link the internal and external.

Even though she is afraid of going underwater, it is her dream to do so, to be free within the water. This is shown within the changing room scene, when she holds her breath and imagines she's underwater, and as an audience member, we see her fantasy visually, as she floats in the changing room as if she's under the water.

The colour scheme of the film works very well, because it follows the genre and tone the piece creates - she's sad that she can't do what she dreams to do, however the sound works together with the visual to raise the tone and make the audience happy for her being able to conquer her fear.

I enjoyed this piece, the edit was flowing like the water, the visual and sound worked well together and complimented each other to create the emotion for the audience to emphaise with the character.

Walter Murch's 'In The Blink Of An Eye'

‘In The Blink of an Eye (Second Edition)’  by Walter Murch was very informative in regards to his editing styles and found this very interested.

I did enjoy reading this book; many of the chapters were very enlightening. I’ve had an interest in editing since studying Creative Media for A-Level, but never fully understood the reasons why certain styles or cuts were used, and how effective they were on the audience. Even though I’d experienced editing in my first year, I didn’t learn too much about what was behind the cut and what the rules were in regards to the style or theme of the film, I learnt more about technical aspects, and therefore this book has helped me greatly in regards to analysing films and also helping me determine which cuts would be best and where it would work best with my audience.

One of the chapters that stood out to me was the chapter containing Walter Murch’s theory on blinking – he believed that the concept of blinking is associated with trains of thought, and in my opinion, this didn’t completely make sense to me – does this mean that every time we think of something new, even just a new word to continue the train of thought we blink? Every time we create a new thought or action we blink? It didn’t seem to work in this aspect for me, however I could understand how this theory could link to cutting action films, but doesn’t match every style of film.

I found out a little about Murch before reading this book fully, and once again the rule of six intrigued me – that an editor should edit for six main points – Emotion being the most important to story, rhythm, eye-trace, two dimensional plane of screen and three dimensional space of action. I think these rules once again link to a particular style of film, for example a drama will focus on emotion, because you want the audience to emphasize with the character, whereas in an action, the idea of the three-dimensional space seems more important to present to the audience. It’s a good guide to cutting films, however I feel it could be altered depending on the genre of the film you are editing.  

Another interesting theory I found was the bee theory. This is the idea that the audience can allow themselves to not be dependent on a clear new setting, or it’s similarity to the previous shot. The cuts that are subtle and ‘invisible’ are successful, then the audience can recognise different context but if there is a displacement (a jump of some form) then the audience notice and make them re-evaluate the situation, creating a mental ‘jarring’ within the film.

I also like the idea that the editor gets to look at the footage as ‘fresh’ and make more rash decisions than those who were involved in the production. Because the editors are unaware as to what happened on the shoot, they can look at the footage with a variety of possibilities and try more complicated cuts and decisions to bring the final piece together. In this sense, Murch stated that it was best that the editor tries only to see what’s on the screen in front of them and work in a mind-set that they are part of the audience.

Even though these techniques were written about Murch’s work on 16mm film, they do still make sense and work with the editing styles of today. Even though we’ve moved onto more digital editing, the ideas of emotional cutting and keeping the editor’s eyes fresh is still important in this sense, and therefore these points will, in my opinion, always be a key aspect when it comes to editing.

Overall the book was very inspiring, it includes many techniques and quotes which have opened my eyes to different ideas of styles of editing myself – as well as also knowing that the audience always needs to be considered, but not given everything.

Suggestion is more important than exposition.

Drama: Misfits

Misfits is a British sci-fi comedy-drama television show, which follows a group of young offenders who are sentenced to work within a community centre on a community service program. Where a mysterious storm occurs and that obtain supernatural powers.

In regard to the edit, Misfits starts with a lot of cut showing flash backs of previous episodes the show have already aired, that is an on going series, these cuts are hectic. The edit focuses on the drama and the comedy, and therefore the emotion within the film.

One of the most recent episodes followed the group at a house party where the host takes drugs and hallucinates ‘The Rabbit’, and because of the storm the hallucination becomes real and terrorises the house block and the community centre crew.

Near the beginning of the episode, we, as the audience, are told about the group going to a house party. The two male characters, Rudy & Finn are walking around the community centre, and juxtaposed shots of the host, is shown. Rudy talks about him always being drugged up and always hallucinating – and are shown a range of shots (Extreme close ups of him taking drugs, watching TV program on a rabbit having surgery – shot of the scalpel on TV juxtaposed with the boy’s scalpel cutting the drugs). This worked really well to show the audience the character and the description.

I think music plays a massive part in this style of drama, it sets the mood, the atmosphere and also makes any action scenes much more dramatic. For example, there’s a scene where the group look for Jess after she’s captured by the rabbit. The set is the basement, where it’s dark and the pipes are noisy and drippy – creating tension straight away. The shots are slow, some slow tracks are used, as the characters quietly search for their missing friend, and quick when they encounter the ‘killer rabbit’ creating different types of tension between the two scenes.

I like misfits as an audience member, the shots are cleverly cut to create the right emotion within a particular scene and entices you into the story.