Editing #2

Editing #2

Now we have filmed the majority of our documentary, we have edited the cut away shots that introduce the documentary and establish the location. We have also edited one of the interviews with an international student. The interview starts with the student introducing himself whilst looking at the camera and then he goes on to answer the questions. We have edited in cut away shots of this students doing work to create more action in the documentary. 

This editing session was very successful as it allowed us to come up with a solid structure of the documentary and now we have a much better vision of how it will look at the end. When we next edit we are going to finish the interviews and then see if we need to film any more cut away shots. It is likely that we will need to do this as we want to fill some gaps in-between the interviews. We also may need to record a voice over to introduce the documentary. 

Voice Over Practice

Voice Over Practice 

As we are going to be using a voice over for our documentary, we decided it would be useful to get some practice in the voice booth so we can get an idea of the sound quality and how we would edit this with the non-diegetic soundtrack. For this task we were given a script, along with a video and a soundtrack. After we recorded the voice over, we edited this together of Premier Pro. Here is my final product:

If I were to improve on this task, I would turn the volume of the background music up as this appeared louder on the editing software, than watching it now. I feel like we cut the voice over clip to the right places of the clip as the voice over matches up with what comes on on screen. This task allowed us to practice editing a voice over with the clip as we will need to do this for our final documentary. 

Filming #3

Filming #3

Today we filmed three interviews for our documentary and these were with international students from China, Luxembourg, and Germany. We filmed them in each of their flats as they were happy for us to do this, and we also filmed cut away shots of them in their everyday lives. These included shots of one of them reading and one playing bear pong with flatmates. 

Filming these interviews was successful as each interviewee had interesting things to say about the topic and the different settings made it look more interesting. We will edit these interviews and cut aways during the week. 

Filming #2

Filming #2

Today we filmed some establishing shots of the university to use to introduce the location of the documentary. This included panning shots of the whole campus using a high angle, a time lapse of the main square in the university, and a shot of the main 'University of Sussex' sign. These were our plans for todays filming:

Filming these shots was successful and we are happy with the result of the quality and content. One particular shot I was very happy with was a shot that panned across to the 'University of Sussex' sign. We will start to edit these shots during the week, with the interviews that we are filming over the next couple of days. 

Contacting Interviewees

Contacting Interviewees

As we want to film more interviews for our documentary, I contacted the international student officers  in order to arrange an interview. 

We're hoping to receive a response so we are able to interview them as this is a big part of our documentary due to it introducing the topic.

Editing #1

Editing #1

Since filming an interview with the first international student in our documentary, we attempted to start the edit. However, we came across some problems in our footage and the sound quality was very fuzzy meaning the audience would be distracted from what the interviewee is saying. 

As we want our documentary to be high quality we have scheduled to re-film this interview during the week, this is because the content is still high quality so want to include this in our final product. 

Filming #1

Filming #1

Today we started the filming for our documentary and we chose to film an interview with an international student first. We thought this would be a good idea because it would allow us to look at what direction the documentary would go in, in terms of what the interviewees would discuss. 

We interviewed an international student from Brazil and I found this very successful as we asked the questions that were planned and he told us everything we wanted to hear in our documentary and more. He specifically discussed the effects of Brexit effectively in the way we want it to be portrayed in the documentary. We also filmed some cut away shots of him cooking in order to convey the fact that he is a student an university. 

Moving on from this, for our next filming day we are going to focus on establishing shots of the university, including a time lapse and a high angle shot of the campus. These are important shots for our documentary as they establish where the documentary is set at the beginning. We are also going to contact the international students office in order to try and get an interview with them. 

Story Boarding - Continued

Story Boarding - Continued 

Since previously starting to storyboard, we have now continued by sketching some ideas for the beginning of the documentary as we will film this during the week.

 Here are some sketches:

The beginning shots establish the location of the documentary as we are going to start by film the university and this will include a time lapse. We have then decided to interview someone working in the international students office to introduce the topic of the film. In these story boards we have also to include some cut away shots, such as a long shot of a student we are interviewing walking to their lecture. 

Practicing Editing - Adobe Premiere Pro

Practicing Editing - Adobe Premiere Pro

For this task I was given a set of clips that were all recorded to be edited together, along with some still images and audio clips. We needed to decide how we would edit the clips in a particular way to the audience to portray the message we wanted to. This task was really useful as it let me get to grips with basics on the software. I have never used the Premiere Pro software before so it is new to me, however I have previously used both IMovie and Final Cut Pro X therefore I know some basics that are similar. 

Here is the video my partner and I created:

Over all, I am happy with the overall video and my favourite part is the beginning as I like how the music kicks in at the particular point. This emphasises the start of the video and makes it seem upbeat. The music throughout the video as an empowering feel to it and this links to the topic of feminism. However, there is one cut towards the beginning where the shot changes as the speaker is talking and this makes it slightly jumpy. If I were to improve this video I would make the transitions smoother in-between the diegetic dialogue so they flow more and match the non-diegetic background music. In terms of the music, I would also lower the volume of this whilst she is speaking so that the viewer focuses more on what she is saying. 

To conclude, I thought this task was very helpful because it made me think more about the way I will be editing my interviews together in order to create continuity and a flowing documentary. 

Questions We Will Ask

Questions We Will Ask

As we are currently planning the filming process of our documentary, I started to think about questions we are going to ask the interviewees. This is important as we want the questions to be open enough that they know what to talk about, however not so open that they talk too much and about irrelevant subjects to our documentary. The questions need to framed in order to get the interviewees to talk about what we want them to talk about. 

Some questions to ask the students as sussex are : 

What did you choose England/ Sussex? (This is a good starting point as it references the documentary title)

Do you feel that the university has helped you settle in?

How do you feel about the cense of community? 

Have you joined any societies/ taken part in any international student trips? (This clip would be after the officer talks about what they provide)

How did Brexit effect you? - Did it have a negative impact? 

Some questions to ask the international students office members:

How many international students come to sussex? (we want the statistics of international students to be discussed)

How do you help new students that have travelled a long way? What do you provide?

Offer any trips/ events?

Shot List

Shot List 

As I have started to create a story board, I also decided to start a shot list in order to help plan where, how and when we are going to film particular shots. This shot list is unfinished and has gaps towards the end, however it has helped me get a better vision of how I want the final product to look like and what types of shots will be used.