BBC documentary editor Sam Billinge says "The film-making process is personal as well as professional. You’re making subjective decisions based on your own feelings and instincts." (BBC, 2017). A lot of what happened at the weekend was to plan, we still managed to get a good number of cutaways shots and a lot of on-track footage. Of course, I never got to race which left us with a small hole in the ending. Nonetheless we captured a PTC at the end of the race which can bring the documentary to a natural end. I did, however, think we could film the "Diary Room" but as we are not sure this would work now we have the change of ending, we will wait until we have a response from Simon before dedicating an afternoon recording a sequence. We need to be very careful with the amount of time we have left in this project and ensuring we use that time wisely is key. I am sure we will film the Diary Room, but it would not have made sense to rush it after the issues in the first race. I needed to spend some time deciding how it would be filmed and creating the right prompts before we spent time recording it. If the race had gone well we would definitely have filmed it because it was all set up. But, after what happened, I needed some time to understand what we would need to change and we wanted to hear an opinion from Simon. The PTC we filmed at the end of the day was very powerful and could be a great ending point, we just need to see how that works in a timeline before making any decisions.
The problem I had with this ending PTC when I watched the rushes was that I was not sure if it fits the tone of the documentary. Even though I was devastated about the result, the video doesn't show me in tears or really upset, I seem somewhat normal. "Ultimately, while the approach and workflow between narrative and documentary editing may differ, at the end of the day, as with all of cinema, we’re still locked in a constant battle to balance story and character and to strike the appropriate tone. In turn, the skills we learn in the depths of real human drama become highly transferable to any genre or medium." (nofilmschool.com, 2014). My issue is whether the viewer will be able to read past the facial expressions which make me look somewhat happy, and listen to what I am saying. You can tell from what I say that I loved the journey but at the same time, am very disappointed about the way it ended. I feel that, by this point in the documentary, the viewer would have connected with me, so I am very wary about the ending being completely different from the rest. This is the reason for me wanting an opinion from Simon as I believe he is best qualified to answer this. In my opinion, I think we should end on the PTC as it shows my actual emotions at the time, even if they may not be exactly what the viewer expects. I think this shot would need blurring of the background to take the viewers eyes away from the car being worked on to myself speaking in the foreground. Visually the PTC doesn't look great because of the limited depth of field, but I will ask Cailan to work his magic by creating this sense of depth through editing it. I personally think this is the ending we should have if we do not film another race day (to be spoken about in another blog). I honestly see this as our best option as I am unsure if another Diary Room could capture the same emotions and thoughts as the PTC on the day, even if it isn't visually perfect.The issue we would have with ending it with a PTC as suggested above is that we lack footage showing my emotions after the race. The limited resources we have would be enough to make a sequence, but I don't see us having many shot choices in the edit. There were suggestions that we could have suggested the race happened as expected and somewhat cover up that it did not happen. I strongly disagreed with these suggestions as I believe we have earned the viewers trust and to destroy that at the end would be terrible. "The first point of call is to tell the truth. We may find ways of doing that that take an interesting way to get there, but we get to it. It’s essential." (Indiewire, 2012) . I was strongly against these suggestions and once I explained why this would be a bad idea, the team agreed with me. I think this PTC would give us the most authentic and truthful ending, even if we don't have much supporting footage because the pitlane camera had stopped recording. I know I can work on the actual turn of events with the editors to create a fantastic and meaningful sequence and I think that this is our only real choice. This ending allows the viewer to have experienced the highs and lows of my journey and I am sure they will be hit hard by the messages shown in this closing sequence. Using the commentators recording that I suggested, we will be able to build up to the moment where the accident happens and I am sure that the viewer will be struck by the reality of me not achieving my dreams. I see this as the most truthful ending and as we never knew exactly what was going to happen in this ending, it makes sense to do what we would have always done, show the truth in the most interesting way possible.
I was speaking to Cailan and George about how we edit this sequence because we do not now have a clear idea of how we would like it to look. I know how the first half of the race day will look because of the plans I created, but the ending part is where the accident happens and I am not sure exactly how we craft it with our less than ideal material. Joe Bini, who is an American documentary editor states: "We, editors, always have to be absolutely focused on the fact of what is in the material – not on what is pre-planned or what the director would like to have had happen, but what you actually have." (Marta Obršálová, 2017). I think this is where help from George and Cailan will be very helpful. Using the footage we do have available they will undoubtedly be able to make a thought-provoking sequence. I am probably biased towards certain pieces of footage as I specifically wrote them into my shot lists. It will be much more beneficial to the edit, if Cailan and George work together on putting a sequence together, not worrying about who's idea it was to film them. Despite missing some relevant shots, Cailan did get some fantastic visuals on race day and I am sure there is enough to make this ending powerful. My worry on first reflection was that there were no shots of me contemplating what happened after the retirement, which I thought would have been incredibly powerful. Maybe it is just how we work differently, but I would have recorded everything after the car was retired because that is where so much key material would be found. However, I am sure that Cailan recorded enough for us to make an emotional ending to the documentary. I am sure most directors would love to have such a hard-hitting ending to their documentary and to be honest I think it will be powerful. But I would have liked to race after all that effort so it may taint my view on the day, somewhat!
I feel confident about how I want to end this documentary considering the majority of my research has led me to just tell the story as it is. My worry with that is that we may not have enough footage. Powerful documentaries are often those which have an element of unpredictability. "Another big difference between narrative and nonfiction film is that much of the documentary work seen today is driven by vérité storytelling. Editorially, this means that while narrative films have scripts, which can serve as a road map for the editor, while documentaries do not—and may even lack an outline. Documentary directors and editors must look at what they’ve shot and what they might still intend to shoot and reverse-engineer a film’s structure and pacing." (filmindependent.org, 2018) I am clear about what the ending of our documentary will be I am currently just not sure about what footage we have available to cut around. I personally think ending on the Diary Room instead of this powerful PTC would be the wrong decision, as what we have can really connect with the viewer's emotion after such a hard-hitting sequence. I will be looking through the material we have with both Cailan and George to understand how we structure our ending. I think the ending PTC should be the last thing we see before the credits, especially with my words "I'm 99% closer to achieving my dreams, but I'm not quite there yet". I think that is really going to show the viewer how much this journey has meant to me and why this has been a once in a lifetime experience. I think, in reality, if we want a powerful ending we go with this. The truth and reality of what I said on the day. Trying something else would ruin the tone and I suggest we use this as the end of the journey. It means more than a staged PTC and certainly holds the right tone, even with me not looking especially sad. We have our ending - a very powerful one. It is now our job to craft it using the available resources.
References:
BBC, 2017 https://www.bbc.co.uk/academy/en/articles/art20170606141808270
nofilmschool.com, 2014 https://nofilmschool.com/2014/10/if-you-want-learn-how-tell-story-edit-documentary
Indiewire, 2012 https://www.indiewire.com/2012/06/here-are-8-ways-to-be-a-better-documentary-editor-46540/
Marta Obršálová, 2017 https://dokweb.net/articles/detail/318/joe-bini-documentary-filmmaking-through-the-eyes-of-an-editor
filmindependent.org, 2018
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