Production - Edit Week Review 22nd - 28th April

As we are closing in on the final few weeks of this documentary, we are starting to get together a full cut of the project. It has taken time due to its sheer length as well as how late we have had to film due to the race and test day dates being out of our control. We have been focusing on the main race day for this week as well as going through the documentary as best as possible to understand what we can do to get to the time limit. I personally think that a lot of stories has been removed because of this time limit, which is a massive shame, but I am doing my best to ensure all of the key parts are included. On the left is the current version which sits at 27min. Once the race day is done and condensed we expect it to be around that, as a few other parts need to be cut along with the race day being trimmed from what it currently is.

My feedback on this cut as Director & Writer

My job as director and writer in the edit is mostly to make sure the documentary is telling the story that I want it to, so I am giving constant feedback about what is working and what is not. These are the notes that I sent to our group chat and they agreed that there is still quite a lot to do in regards to finessing the edit. It's hard being brutally honest on a piece of work that we've crafted, but in doing so we are able to make it the best version possible.

• Audio in 'What's to come' is bad (also this drags on)
• Fitness intro needs to be redone
• The shots with dad sequence still show me on track in events I haven't done, which is a bit odd
• The time between the first two diary rooms should be more?
• L cut the Jamie, MUCH more
• Include audio of cars on track in stuff like Bruno/fundraiser intro, really boring otherwise
• 10:27 - use a better version of this shot
• We need more stuff in the license, happens way too quickly, maybe even one more line from Wil could do it 
• Bruno intro to be redone 
• Kickstarter funding animation doesn't really work (sorry) - overlaying it on clips which have no relevance to it looks SO odd. we also don't want to see it hit 100% as that's the surprise in the PTC. Overall not a fan of this graphic and we should look at other options
• Gaps in the Dan intro for no reason? 
• Audio levels in Donington seq are a bit all over the place
• The intro cutaways (marshal etc) are a bit odd in the race day intro, don't really make sense (it's sunny and looks like a completely different day?)
• "So uh what is qualifying" -> put "Sam, what is qualifying" or "What is qualifying" You don't caption stuff like "uh" and "erm" at all!
• Don't need to hear "looking forward to seeing it" 
• Cut at 26:57 isn't great

RACE DAY

The race day was supposed to be a triumphant end to our documentary but because of the events of the past weeks, that was not the case. Saying this, it did highlight the reality of motorsport and allowed us to give a fuller picture of what this means to me. It is the thing with documentaries of this nature, you don't know what's going to happen and that is part of the excitement.

Therefore, editing it did not really change from what I expected it to be. We built up to the race like we would have even if we did not have the car issue. The point was to build interest in the race and show that the journey up to this point has got me into a position that I am ready to race. We pretty much have all of the footage needed to ensure that this sequence is a success, so the edit was just about ensuring we chose the best parts.

We had an aim of 3 minutes for this segment to ensure we tried to stay as close to 22 minutes as possible. We are struggling to get the documentary, with some of the new scenes, down to this length and we will be making some key decisions over the next few days to make sure it is there. It is hard doing this as we have attachments to all of these sequences so it would be really hard to cut any of them.

The race day edit was not as tough as I originally thought as it was about placing the day into a condensed sequence. To save time, both Cailan and George worked on the edit, with George doing the interviews and Cailan doing the rest. Cailan really edits well to music and throughout the project his choices have allowed the documentary to have greater meaning and place further emphasis on the journey.

After selecting two songs to use in the race day he got to work. The day starts with myself giving my honest thoughts on the day ahead, with the music in the background as well as the cutaways, this scene is powerful and allows the viewer into my mind before I get out on the track. I think this opening works well and pushes home the message that is shown throughout the documentary.

The rest of the sequence that is edited so far is about placing the day into the timeline in a condensed format. Meeting Sam, getting ready for qualifying as well as an explanation of what it is from Sam. Thereafter some thoughts from myself before I get ready to take over the car from Sam.

There is time to cut in both the PTC from myself and Sam and this is how I see us cutting the sequence back to three minutes. My decision to record the race commentary on the race day has also helped us so much in the edit as we can build the tension for the race and throughout with this and the music bed behind it. We also have some fantastic audio of the cars on track which also highlights a sense of speed and danger in this sequence.

The whole sequence is much shorter than I really want it to be because of the time limit and I am certainly worried that a lot of our key messages are lost because of this. There is nothing we can do about it so we are looking at options to see how we can least affect the story and the tone. The race day sequence is not quite finished yet, but Cailan should have a full cut for us over the coming days and it will certainly be in there for the University screening.

The progress is good but as always, we need to be conscious of time and my biggest worry is losing the tone of our documentary. We are having to trim back so much, it is hard to take but I know that its the reality of it. I am looking forward to seeing a full cut very soon and then we can get to work on deciding what needs to be axed for the University screening.

STINGS UPDATE

Over the past week, we have been working on the stings to ensure they are a bit faster as well as showing key information such as the Kickstarter goal and the fitness element. Cailan created a Kickstarter motion graphic which shows the viewer that the money we have been donated is going up. I personally don't think this works as it currently is, as it looks a bit cartoony and doesn't really bring home the point about how hard it was to raise the money. We have not found a solution to this right now so this will be something that we speak to Simon about next week.

The stings are now cut to the beat which makes the whole sequence a lot more snappy and I enjoy them more because of it. This alongside the beep does work, but we are struggling to find a backing track for these to add another layer to the sound design. As they are right now, they look unfinished and I think we need to spend some time understanding how we maximise the use of these in our documentary. They are a way for us to show the immense challenge that this journey was, without dedicating a lot of time to them.

INTRODUCTION SEQUENCE

Originally we were going to cut forward to the race day just as the film started so we would get the viewers attention right away. However, due to the time limit, we have had to merge this and the opening montage into one, because otherwise, we are cutting important parts from the story thereafter. It is a shame as we had a clear visual plan of how this opening sequence of shots would work, but alas, we have changed it to ensure we get the rest of the story within the time limit.

Last week I recorded a new voiceover for this opening sequence and this has been put in with new clips as well as some from the original ones to create a better opening V/O. It identifies some of the issues I may face on the journey ahead of me as well as being condensed in a way that the viewer gets the point of the documentary as well as showing my dedication to the sport and why I want to do this.

This new voiceover, along with the shots from the race day, means this opening segment is much more powerful than before. The shots of my YouTube also show that I have been involved with the sport for a number of years and that I have already followed the dream in one way, creating video content on the sport I love. This opening sequence now works a lot better than it did before as its deeper context and better clips allow the viewer to know exactly what is happening.

As this is a documentary for BBC3 we need to ensure that it is relevant and to the point and this introduction certainly takes the start of our documentary in the right direction. We now need to sort out how the rest of the journey can be filled with the same passion and energy, as without it, the tone of the documentary will have changed and the viewer may not feel much of an emotional attachment towards myself and the journey.