Comedy Editing: Intro & Prep

In session, we were told about our next assignment for this module. We were shown where to access footage of a comedy we needed to edit. We were told that we needed to pick one three-minute scene, or two different scenes if the particular scene you chose wasn't long enough. I've previously read through the entire screenplay which was available on blackboard throughout the module, but nothing really stood out to me at this point in regard to which scenes I wanted to take on. 

I decided it would be easier to look through the footage and decide which stood out to me the most. Firstly I decided on the opening supermarket scene, I thought it looked interesting and stood out to me, at this point I didn't know how long it would be - so I chose a second scene - the house scene with Alf, Tony & Penny in case my rough cut of the supermarket wasn't long enough. I liked some of shots within these scenes and I could picture in my head how I wanted them to work. 

Firstly, I sorted through all the footage of these scenes by labelling and sorting them into different bins.

Documentary: Fine Cut

After creating a rough and cut creating some music for our piece, we needed to bring it altogether into a fine cut. This meant ensuring that the shots of the interview where in sync (to the frame) with the audio bites, fine cutting the shots to cut out any unnecessary features as well as matching the music we made to the shots, to create a rhythm within the piece.

We enjoyed this process, we spent time ensuring the shots worked together, the sound worked well as well as using cross fades when necessary on the sound to allow the change in sound bites to flow more easily. The fine cut allowed me to use some of the tools on Final Cut Pro more efficiently, for example, the trim tool was helpful in ensuring we had the right frames for what we wanted for our piece.

Documentary Editing: Editing Interview Sound

After the rough cut, we decided that we first wanted to edit the interview sound in any way we can to make it sound better within our film. We sent the sound file to SoundTrack Pro, where we edited the interview sound by changing the levels - trying to get rid of any buzz or atmosphere noise as much as possible as well as make the vocal levels stronger. This worked well on some of the clips, however some didn't work as well, so we either used the original or cut it from the film, if it wasn't usable.

Soundtrack pro was also used to make the atmos last longer, as well as edit our Garageband track to fit the project sound levels. We rendered the changes and sent the file back to Final Cut Pro to continue the edit.

Documentary: Rough Cut

After sorting through the footage, we first created a rough assembly of shots we liked and sections of interview we wanted to use. We transcript the interviews and highlighted bits we wanted to use beforehand - because we thought it would be easier to work the visual around the audio.

After assembling the shots we wanted and the audio, we started working on our rough cut, by first sorting an opening montage - Alli created a great edit of shots which was over a minute, and we decided to cut it down and use different sections in different places throughout the film. I then took the task of finding other shots to use, as well as cutaway shots to go with the interview footage. I chose a range of L/S and shots of the climber working to correspond with what he was saying during a particular section.

We then worked together through the rest of the rough cut and assembling our 5-minute piece.

Documentary Editing: Re-Capturing Footage

At the end of the session, we learnt that we could have access to the original footage tapes. So later in the week, me and my friend Jess took turns to capture footage and shared them between us (we worked with different people, and the capturing process took over 8 hours). I'm glad we had access to more footage, because we found more interviews (with better quality audio) as well as more picturesque scenes and landscapes which I think would capture an audience's attention.

When we captured and imported all the footage back into our Final Cut Project, we spent more time labelling and sorting bins.

Documentary Editing: Sorting Through Footage

After getting the footage from the Shared folder, we decided to look more thoroughly through the original sequence we were given. Some of the footage was missing (mostly interview and music) so we decided it would be easy to start a brand new sequence for our own project, but also look at the visual footage and set up of the original one to see what worked and how we could change it and make it better for our project. Some of the footage is really nice and others not as much, so we decided it would be best to label things clearly and sort them into suitable bins so we knew which footage is better.

Alli & I spent the majority of the session labelling the footage and setting up the bins. I liked the look of this documentary and was excited to make it from scratch - as we thought this would be easier for us to get a fresh start. 

The first thing we noticed is that we didn't have much interview footage, which documentaries do heavily rely on! We were slightly worried about making it a  5 minute piece with what we found, but carried on checking everything anyway. Some of the interview footage was also not recorded very well - both the audio and video qualities were quite low, so we knew we would have to spend a good amount of time working on them to make them better for the piece.

Documentary: The Apology Line

The Apology Line is another documentary created by James Lees. This documentary takes a different approach to ‘Pockets’, by using sound bites, but no shots of the interviewees getting interviewed whatsoever. This documentary is about a phone line called ‘The Apology Line,' where members of the public can anonymously confess anything and everything. It was inspired and based on the original apology line project in New York. The apologies used within the film were all really different concerning emotions — uncomfortable, rude or comical.

I did enjoy watching this documentary again, I found it really different to the standard style of documentary editing – on television documentaries, I’m used to set ups such as ‘Project Nim’ where we’re shown the interviewees and shown corresponding shots – however we’re shown shots of a city/tower block at night almost setting the scene for the different apologies. I like that the edit includes completely different apologies instead of focusing on one emotion – it broadens the audience more and makes it more interesting to watch throughout. The fact they’re so different keeps the audience watching to find out what other people may have done, it may even give you the fear of your own apologies or also give you confidence in your own experiences to feel that you are sorry for something. – I believe this  a nice strong message to present and think that it has been approached well and creatively.

A feature I liked within the film (which weren’t used that often) was the juxtaposing shots that matched the sound bite used. For example, when a girl rings the apology line and says she cheated on her boyfriend and didn’t care, it shows this shot (an unfocused shot for the lack of the apology?) – allows the audience to know she isn’t sincere about what she’s done.

This edit actually plays with the audience’s emotion. When I watched it as an audience member, this apology almost made me angry, because it wasn’t a real apology for something she did wrong – she doesn’t care.

The edit of sound is also thought about well. The sound is edited to create a phone-call style atmosphere; with this, the audience can clearly understand that these people are ringing up a ‘help-line’ to confess things they’ve done wrong.

I also love that you don't see any faces in the piece. Usually any form of line, whether it is a helpline or the apology line, it's anonymous, so you don't know whom the information is coming from. The film has reflected this in showing its anonymity and reflecting the idea of sound to it's visual. I love this fact, it's cleverly created to stay unknown, even the actions aren't shown it's that secret. 

The lack of sound works well in this piece. It's good because it's set in a night scene (shots of the city at night) throughout the piece. It's usually when you'd expect people to ring this type of line, which I think has cleverly been thought about to create the realism of the piece. The sound is silent under the phone calls because realistically, that's what would happen. No music makes you tenser, makes the calls centre of attention, therefore the apologies the centre of attention. It's cleverly made eerie/disturbing sometimes, but the change in apologies makes the mood change throughout the piece, so no music is used to distract you from the moods the calls are creating.