- Drone shot of the London Bee's Stadium
- Drone shot of Harefield (area of training sessions)
- Piece to camera to end the documentary
- Some scenic filling shots between the days, so it doesn't jump for me at the training ground back to me at the training ground.
I had decided to just focus on getting shots of the Harefield area and film a proper ending for the project. Picking up these shots were important to me to make this project feel complete. "In filmmaking, a pick-up is a small, relatively minor shot filmed or recorded after the fact to augment footage already shot. When entire scenes are redone, it is referred to as a re-shoot. Both types of shots usually occur after continuity, logic, or quality issues are identified during the film editing process." (Wikipedia, 2017) I wanted to get to the London Bee's stadium to pick up these shots as well but as I was short on time I decided to stick to one location and get the most important shots.
I filmed multiple some drone shots of the area which will work as a nice transition between days, they all look different so unless you knew, you probably would not know they were all shot on the same day. I also recorded an ending to the documentary. "Ending your film with a conclusion can help the audience members make up their minds about the information you’ve presented. Your conclusion summarizes the main points covered in your film and brings the story to a natural end, leaving your audience feeling informed." (Dummies, 2017) While I don't have a massive conclusion, it was important to round off the documentary with a piece to camera otherwise it would just not feel right. From my research, I have noted that most documentaries end with a piece to camera.
Once I had these shots I could finish off the edit. I placed the drone shots into the gaps at the start of the film and then between day 1 and 2 & 2 and 3. This worked as a nice transition rather than just a hard cut which just did not work and my feedback from peers suggested I change that. "Transitions can be a lot of fun but be warned: Over-using transitions is a common mistake made by amateurs. In most professional productions, almost all transitions are simple cuts or crossfades. Too many animated transitions are distracting and impact on the flow of the video." (The Video Transition, 2017) I decided to stick with crossfades in my project, with the occasional fade to black to help signify the changing of days. As the drone does not record audio I decided to add in some "atmos" that I found online. I regret not filming my own buzz track on the day as that would have made the atmos more authentic.
For the drone shots, I also added a letterbox, in hope of making it feel more cinematic as well as making the viewer pay attention to the center of the screen. I also slowly fake out the letterbox and it goes back to full screen by the end of the drone shot. I wanted to do this and it worked effectively. It may not make a massive difference to some people but my creative decision was to do it for these shots to draw the attention of the viewer.
I added in the ending that I recorded near where I had filmed the drone shots. While it wasn't in the place the viewer thinks it is, it needs to have a proper ending and I could not record an ending like this on the actual day because I was a one-man crew. This completed the edit in terms of the clips that made up the documentary but I still had a few things to edit.
One thing I kept on making sure was perfect was the audio levels. I notice a problem with a lot of student projects if the up and down audio levels. I always seem to leave the audio until the end and I think in the future it would be worthwhile planning more around audio because it is important. "You can perhaps begin with the levels and panning of the elements. This refers to the arrangement of the elements; say drums, bass, piano and vocals, in such a way that they make sense and tell a story. At this point, you can group together the same elements so that the mix won’t sound cluttered and disparate." (DCC Studios, 2015) While this is referencing music, it works with video editing as well. I spent a good amount of time making sure that the "peak" audio level throughout the project was -6db and all of the project was between -6db and -18db. I took into consideration background noise meaning some are louder than others.
I am happy with the edit, it has gone pretty smoothly and I have enjoyed editing it. If I had more time I would have probably filmed the extra clips that would have made the project more professional. I would probably also work on the transitions as some of them don't quite work as I wanted them to. It has been a fun edit and great to work on a project that I completed all the way through by myself with some help of filming days.
Bibliography:
(Wikipedia, 2017)
Accessed 13th December 2017.
(Dummies, 2017)
Accessed on 13th December 2017
(The Video Transition)
Accessed on 13th December 2017
(DCC Studios, 2015)
Accessed on 13th December 2017
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