Moving Image Production Narrative Module - Evaluation

I am happy with the end result of my group documentary based on the homeless. There are a wide variety of strengths and weaknesses that have risen throughout the creating process of this documentary and it still shows many strong and weak aspects. I think the overall strengths for this film are through each individual role taken part. I am the film editor for this documentary film and feel that as a whole and with the time limit I gave myself to do it in, I feel that it is a well-established documentary, it clearly shows who the two main interviewees are and what the documentary is about. It also has an emotional aspect to it to which the audience can sympathise for. The cardboard feature in this documentary works well because it sets the scene for what the two interviewees are going to talk about. I feel that if I had given myself more time and put myself into this role much more I could have edited a much more polished and professional documentary, saying that I think the documentary I have edited is still a very respectable and interesting documentary to watch.

I think that one of the strengths are the two interviewees in the film, they both are middle aged men, which look warn down from what they go through on a day to day basis, one looks more warn down more than the other which is why he features in the film more. I wanted him (Adam) to be the main attraction out of the two interviewee’s because of a few reasons, one because he had a lot more in depth stories and things to tell and two, because he had a sensitive side to him which worked very well as a lot of people have these false perceptions of homeless people. I felt that I gave the right amount of time for both interviewee’s to tell their experiences of living on the street and being homeless, and felt that I didn’t over show any of them even though I edited Adam to feature more in the documentary.
I wanted to edit a simple, honest documentary that was easy on the eye and ear. I wanted to clearly show what the interviewee’s experienced and how long for and also link it with the cardboard feature, which I feel I achieved in doing so. The pace of it is nice and the cutaways aren’t over powering, I didn’t want the documentary to go any longer than six minutes as I think that it can get repetitive and boring for the audience to watch so I aimed for a five minute documentary.
I initially intended to edit one side of the interviewee then another side of them and start it with lots of cutaways so that the audience could see where some homeless people are living, but watching it back it didn’t flow right and it looked all over the place. So seeing that and realising the weaknesses I decided to edit both the interviewee’s close after each other, it then gave the audience to compare both the interviewee’s past experiences and opinions simply and it wasn’t complicating.
The cutaways work well as I placed most of them to coincide with what the interviewee’s are saying so that it gave the audience another angle as a whole, the audience could think about what they were saying as well as see it for them.
I feel that a weakness is that I could have used the cardboards earlier in the documentary so that the audience could realise that was the main focus, using the cardboard for the title screen would have been a nice way to open the and start the whole cardboard theme after the two interviewee’s introduced themselves.  
Another weakness in the documentary I found in the editing is in some of the interviews, some could have been cut a little shorter at the end as I could hear what the interviewee begin or continue in what they were saying, maybe it was me only hearing it because of the many times listening I knew what they were about to say, also it was difficult to cut down on what both the interviewee’s were saying as they never seemed to take a proper break from speaking.    

The main things I have learnt from the process of making this documentary is to give myself more time, communication and attendance.
I think that I should have been a lot more strict with myself with the time schedule, If I had given myself more time to edit this documentary I think I could have a really nice, professional and well-polished documentary. I could have spent a lot more time on cutting down on what each interviewee says and used more of their interviews in the film, I could have also spent more time with the cardboard feature and used it to its full potential by using the statistics on the cardboards earlier and more frequently throughout. If I started editing this documentary as soon as the footage was captured I could have thoroughly gone through each cut of this edit and really made it nicer on the eye and ear for the audience.
Communication is another thing I have learnt from the making of this documentary, I could have communicated a little more with my group to fully get the most from this documentary and engage with it entirely. For instance looking back I could have communicated with the producer and showed every edit I have done so that I got a lot more feedback into what we wanted to create as a group, I also could have communicated more with the tutors to have a look at the edit a lot more or even ask on what ideas I had so that again I gave myself more feedback to work with.
Attendance is another thing I have learnt and think it’s the biggest thing I have learnt, I know I should have attended many more seminars throughout this course so that I could give myself a much easier task as the editor, also I could have learnt a lot more about creating a documentary and I would have had a wider knowledge about the background and history of documentaries, this could have helped in editing and maybe would have given  me a broader variety of ideas when thinking of a subject or even when thinking of how to edit the documentary and how to tell the story.  

I have also learnt a lot in the editing process and the actual feedback given. A numerous things can and did go wrong through the editing process, I think the main thing I have learnt is not to panic when they do and be patient, with every problem that occurs whilst editing there’s always an answer to the problem I just had to be patient with it. I have also learnt that there are only so many times I can get feedback from, as with every piece of feedback its someone’s opinion and there are only so many times I can change it, because at the end of the day it’s my work and I can’t always change it to how other people think it will work as it wouldn’t then be my film. I have to stick to how the group and how I feel as editor works best while taking on board others opinions and feedback.  

My role was the editor for this documentary. I also did sound recording for the second interviewee. As editor it was my job to work with the producer so that I gave my ideas for what I wanted the outcome to be and also listen and take in what the producer’s ideas and opinions were. Once the documentary was finished in the filming and sound process, the footage was then put onto the Mac’s and I started to edit how I felt the documentary should look, once I finished uploading all the footage onto Final Cut Pro I began editing the introduction of the film. I wanted the audience to see where the sort of places homeless people lived, so I used several shots of alleyways and streets with the atmosphere sound in sync with each shot. I felt it set the scene pretty well for what the film was based on, I showed the producer and she seemed happy with what my intentions were but felt it wasn’t easy to watch and wasn’t very intriguing, so after another viewing from the tutor and other students and my group I realised that the introduction didn’t fit right with the whole documentary. So I then scrapped the whole editing process, and watched each piece of footage to get a rough idea of what cuts to use from each shot and where to use them. I then decided to use both the interviewee’s at the beginning as soon as it starts so that the audience know exactly what their watching. The problems were cutting down on what the interviewee’s said as both seemed to carry on talking without taking a proper break. But after going through each footage a numerous amount of time I managed to cut down a lot on what they both said so that it fitted into the five to six minute aim so that it flowed well.
I think we were pretty good working as a team because the camera and sound worked well to get all the footage and the producer worked well in knowing what to capture and giving feedback, also I worked with the sound editor/recorder and it helped us both out as we could oversee what each other were doing and give feedback throughout the editing process as we both knew what we wanted to edit. I feel that as a group we lacked a lot with communication, I think we could have helped all each other out if we had communicated more with each other so that we all knew what we were doing and when. It would have helped with finishing it all a lot earlier and we could have had more time to get more shots or more sounds or edit it more in depth.

After watching several documentaries, there was only one director’s work that stood out to me and that was James Marsh’s work. His films “Man on Wire” (2008) and “Project Nim” (2011) both had an impact on me and how I wanted to edit my documentary. The pace of both the films are very nice and smooth, the editing isn’t over complicated and the cuts from the interviewee’s are very nicely timed so that we see what they are talking about as well as see the interviewee’s expressions and emotions. The edit on both the films are simple but yet affective in that they both captured my attention straight away, and they were in control of my emotions as it made me laugh when it was funny and made me sad at the appropriate times throughout the documentaries. This is what I aimed for when editing my documentary, I wanted to be able to easily show the sad aspects of the film to engage with the audiences emotions and sympathise for the interviewee’s. I edited it so that it was easy on the eye and cut the shots so that you see the interviewee’s expressions whilst giving the audience visual aid throughout. The cardboard feature I felt I used them affectively and in appropriate times and by using the last statistic as an ending I felt was very appropriate as it was near Christmas and by using that statistic I think I affectively got the audience’s attention and emotion.

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