Production - Edit Week Review 1st - 7th April

As we are closing in on the race day we are preparing to have a fine cut of the documentary completed, giving us more time to focus on putting the race sequence together ready for a group screening after Easter. The progress so far has been good considering we were definitely behind, as recently as a few weeks ago. In hindsight, the reason for being behind on the edit was the continuous shoot dates as well as all of the editing being done by one person. We did not really gauge the reality of how much footage we would have and how long it would take to edit, thus leaving us further behind than we should have been. Since the shoot dates have slowed down and editing has now been split between George and Cailan, we are in a good place and I am really pleased we have caught back up to where we should be. With two large sequences, the gym and track day now filmed, we came together to ensure these were completed.

Fitness sequence 
After all of the issues, we have had with this sequence we have had to completely rework it in the edit and come up with some sort of sequence which reflects the reality of the story and journey I had when becoming fitter for this documentary. Because the gym in which we filmed the first segment closed down, we had to dramatically re-work this scene. In doing so we decided to cover this sequence through a voiceover, which also helped us because we are already struggling for time, as we have much more content than needed for our 20-minute university version of this documentary.

My plan was to include a small sequence showing me going through the tests at the old gym and then cover in voiceover the aims they set for me. This is because the aims are not actually stated to me on the day, rather sent to me through an email. This voiceover will then transition into a small montage of me putting the advice into practice as I head to the newly sourced local gym and do various exercises. It's a shame that the first gym sequence wasn't filmed in a way that was particularly interesting, also having dialogue from the instructors that was not very good. This meant even before the issues with their gym that we were going to have to find a way to make this scene more exciting.

When placing the new gym footage into a sequence it immediately made it more interesting. This is because the shots were much more dynamic and the exercises being shown were more interesting. Before the various stretches and push-ups were really hard to make visually interesting, so it is not surprising the camera operators struggled on that day, as well as George in the edit. 

Once we had looked through the new gym footage, we got it into a sequence and went about finding some music. We have worked hard on the music for this documentary since Simon mentioned it again recently. We have had so many shoot dates it has made it hard for just three people to complete all of the tasks. Nonetheless, we have found a nice song for this sequence and now all the sequence needs are the proper voiceover as well as editing to the beat of the song. This will allow the sequence to be at a very good stage for when we next show Simon.

Sam Trackday
In my mind, this is one of the most important segments of our documentary. It is my first experience of the car I will be racing in a few weeks time and the first time we will actually get to hear from Sam, the person I will be racing alongside. There is a gargantuan amount of footage for this scene so it was very important we all looked through it and decided what was best. There are a few sequences that we definitely had to include. The chat with Sam plus our conversation together as well as my debrief. Without these, we don't really come away from this segment learning what we did.

A few key shots seemed to be missed from my shot list when reviewing the footage which was a little disappointing. We didn't really get many travelling shots, bar the one of me entering the circuit shot on Cailan's iPhone. This meant the opening to this sequence wasn't particularly cinematic but we cannot re-shoot this so we have to deal with it.

Because of this, we have decided to speed up the introduction and use less shots of driving and establish that we are already at the venue to keep the pacing of this sequence up. It ended up working well and I am happy with how Cailan had edited the start as it allows the viewer to know exactly where they are and see some shots of the car and Sam. It was not as planned but it has worked which is the main point.

Something I had not noted on the shoot day was that Cailan could be using some of the actual sounds from the camera while Sam and I are speaking [Not staged and towards the camera]. In the edit when Cailan decided he wanted to use this audio it did pose a problem. The audio in some parts was drowned out by the audio of cars going past the pit lane or Sam's tools dropping on the floor. It is great actuality but we need to work on the sound in this scene. Saying this, I would much rather have a sequence that has genuine good conversation and acceptable audio than a staged sequence with good audio. I like that Cailan included this, I just wish we had a boom microphone available to us on the day so the actuality could have been recorded in good quality. Nonetheless, it's still a great addition to this sequence.

Sam's audio in his piece to the camera with Cailan was peaking, so Cailan has tried his best to make sure this is not too noticeable. He's done a solid job but I wonder if there is a further way to resolve this as I still think this stands out when listening to this sequence. I will suggest an underlying audio track may help but I need to do more research on this to understand how we might be able to improve this sequence.

The footage shot from around the track had fantastic audio and what Sam actually said was really interesting, so the two blend together to make a really interesting sequence. I am really impressed with how the editors have managed to pick out the best shots to work in this sequence so quickly. Considering the amount of footage we had, that is a great achievement in itself. All of the B-Roll and actuality shot makes editing this sequence a lot of fun and I am really excited to see how it ends up. The debrief with Sam did include both of us using a clip mic, but it was still natural and looked good, but it needs condensing as it is currently too long.

There are a few things we need to address in this sequence. Some of Sam's quirks when speaking need to be polished as they mean repeating what's already been said a few times and don't need to be said in a documentary like this. The overall sequence could be a lot tighter. I have said that we should aim to get this 3:40 sequence down towards 3:00. I know this is possible and with the suggested changes I can see it happening. This will help our overall run time which is still way over what we need it to be. Overall, this sequence edit is looking very promising and definitely has a strong message from it.

Transitions Between Sequences - Stings
Cailan has started on the timers for the count down stings. We are having to build tension and transition between some scenes as we build up to the final race. I have an idea of what these will be but a decision needs to be made as a group to ensure we maximise the potential of these. They can be powerful in allowing the documentary to move on when there is not a natural transition. This along with the fact some parts of our documentary lack a challenge. These stings will show the dedication and time I spend away from the camera in training for this race. Below are my stings for now, but I expect them to change a little as we craft the edit and get closer to a final cut.

1- 30 days to the race [Underlying footage - slow cycling, fundraiser slowly going up GFX]
2- 25 days to the race - THE RACE LICENSE TEST DAY [Underlying footage - exercises, fundraiser, simulator]
3-  18 days to the race - [Underlying footage - fundraiser going up quick to £750, exercises]
4- 10 days to the race - PRE RACE TEST SESSION [Underlying footage - drone cycling, simulator]
5- 5 days to the race [Underlying footage - leads into South Downs, so Drone shot?]
6- Counting down: 4,3,2,1 to the race - RACE DAY [Underlying footage - unsure]