Lara McEvoy - 319311
Unit 13: Final Major Project
week 10: 8 - 12/4/24
This week was solely focused on logging and making a start on post-production. Logging was my focus because during the week of the dance show shoots, I found I was overtired from the performance the evening before so didn’t get logging done when I had originally planned to. This is something I had anticipated would happen but now it has caught up with me and I have a lot of logging to get done this week to start my edit by Friday. However, before I could get to logging, I had to write up the production days, detailing what happened each day and how the shoots went. This was a fairly simple task as I had already made notes about what happened each day, so I knew what I needed to write. By the end of Monday, I had finished the write up of all the shoots I completed over the holidays. As a result of this, it means I can start logging tomorrow and try to complete it all by the end of Wednesday or Thursday at the latest.
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Tuesday and Wednesday were spent purely logging all of my footage. This was a long task to undertake but a very necessary. Logging allows me to see what footage I have gotten is good enough to use and timestamping certain points within a shot that I feel can be used. From the footage shot at the dance show a lot of the shots are long (the whole length of the dances) so not all of it can be used, so when going through I have noted down certain time stamps where I feel the footage can be used and paired with the interviews. This did mean it took a lot longer as I had to note exact timings, but it is going to be worth it when I, eventually, start editing.
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Luckily by the end of Wednesday I was done with my logging which meant Thursday I made small amendments to my website after a meeting with my tutor on Wednesday. These are small cosmetic changes which need to be made, there are some larger ones, but they can be made next week in the 13.5hours I have outside of mandatory college hours. So, tomorrow I can make a start on editing, not quite sure where to start but a start is a start.
On Friday morning, I made a start on the edit. So, I knew what footage I could use, from the logging I went through and only dragged in the good footage (highlighted in green) into premier pro and into set folders. Doing this helps me to
ensure I don’t have unusable footage sat in premier which cannot be used and will just be sat there being useless, basically. After this, I used a laptop to act as a second monitor with the logging on, meaning I could refer back to the logging to choose which clips I want to use, due to the fact that I have written descriptions of what’s happened and key moments. While having the correct clips in premier, having the logging up helps me to find the clips without having to re-watch them over and over. I found this really useful as it just made it a lot quicker for me to find clips and the correct timings.
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I really struggled on where to start with the edit as I was unsure on how I wanted it to open and what music to use. I knew I wanted a more montage feel to it, but it didn’t feel right just opening with a bunch of random shots with no explanation. So, because of this I decided to cut up parts of the interviews about the first show and piece them together to make it sound as though it was a sentence, in a way, (not sure if that makes sense reading that back through) as this gives the audience an insight into what they are about to watch. While I was able to piece together the interview footage, I knew that I needed to put actuality over the top or clips from the show/under the stage, before the audience see them speaking in the interviews. All of this can be seen in the timelapse shown on the right.
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While this editing took a while, I still don’t have music and am unsure on what music to use. This is a dilemma I need to work out sooner rather than later because, while this is a rough cut, it still needs to reflect the end piece. However, even though this is a dilemma it means I can create different cuts and try out how different music works with the content, then I can gather some opinions to decide on which music I should use. Editing will continue next week and hopefully I can make good progress.
