Analysing Final Cut

I have been looking through our second rough cut, looking through the shots to see what I think has worked and what we could have improved on if we were to do it again. I started by looking at the opening of our documentary and the logos that appear at the beginning. I think that this worked really well and it was a good idea to speed them up a bit. However, I don't think all of the needed logos were included and I think that some were missed out or forgotten. This is quite a serious issue, especially in the media business - as forgetting to credit someone could mean not being able to show the video.

The next shot/s that I looked at was the montage of all of the footage that we had gathered and the music that was ran over the top of it. I have taken a screen grab of one the frames within this montage and this one displays some footage of one of the bands that played at the Fiver. We decided to add in shots of the bands as well as shots of the CRaM group filming because we thought that within the montage, it would add to the feel and keep the audience more interested. I think that this montage has worked really well because it plays over the top of some music and it gets you interested from the beginning before all of the interviews start up. We have also chosen to put the montage at the end of the video as well and we have worked on cutting that a lot faster so it cuts to the best of the music. This makes for a good finish to the documentary and I think makes it quite different to the typical 'boring' documentary that you would watch on tv.

However, I do think that using a lot of the shots of the CRaM filming works to an advantage. It really shows of the message that we are trying to get out and it shows the stu

dents working professionally and well with the Junction. This really shows the opportunities that students can get out of this course and also what happens when funding is available from companies such as Skillset.

The next part of our video that I wanted to look at was the interviews, especially the Junction interviews with Simon and Gary. We decided that with the interviews that it would be too boring for them just to be on their own, one after the other so decided to over-lay some relating footage to make it more interesting to watch. The footage that we placed over the Junction interviews are either of us shooting at the junction Fiver or the bands from the Fiver and each would come in at appropriate time when the interviewee has said something relating to it.

The final part of the video that I thought I should look at is the interview with the Pete and also the footage that we have used to over-lay over the top. I think that the interview setting works very well in this case, as it give variety, instead of being in a quiet room, we have chosen to make the interview in the room that we edit in and also while the rest of the class is hard at work. This gives the viewer an insight into how we work and visual aids seem work a lot better to explain what the interviewee is saying. We also managed to do a similar thing with the footage we have put over the top.

We have chosen to make some close-up of the class editing, showing the software that we use and how we work together in paris to produce our work. I think that it may have been useful to change the scenery a bit as it was just the same room and i think that we could have also made some interviews with some of the members of the class.

Overall, I do think that our documentary has gone well, even though we have gone over deadline, the editing was enjoyable and we learnt a lot from the experience. I think there is a lot that we can take from this and we know where we have gone wrong and where we can improve if we were to make a documentary again. I think that we need to manage our time a lot better and I think it takes a lot more focus to make a successful documentary. It would have also of helped for us to have done a lot more planning on what footage we needed to get, how much, how long and make sure that we are shooting variety.

Analysing Rough Cut

After completing our rough cut, I have decided to go through our rough version and analyse it and see what we could have done better and what was good.

I have started at the beginning of the video and I have decided to go through it and pick out the parts which I think we need to improve on and how.

This first image shows you the opening credits which are basically the logos that were needed for the video and also a text introduction to the documentary and who is speaking. I think that the logos and effects with them work really well, however, I think that it is a long gap of silence and that it would benefit from some sound to make it more interesting.

I then went on to look at the introducing of the interviews. These done using simple text and fonts and just in black and white. I think that these were also a bit too quiet and that we could have used the audio from the footage that is going to played after, to play over the intro. The image below then goes into another frame which introduces Simon Bates.

I have also found that some of the shots that we have chosen for the live footage, are very dark and hard to tell what is going on. I think that we either need to find some other shots or if they are none of the same footage we will have to fill it in with something else. The images below show a bit of what the certain parts of footage are like.

I think that overall it was a good first attempt but it still really needs some work. To make it more interesting it needs to have some of the audio in the background still playing under the voiceover of the interviews. Some of the footage needs replacing or getting rid of and it also needs to be shortened a bit and cut a bit quicker to make it more viewable.