Assignment 4 - Constructing a narrative (Documentary)

Notes on the shooting and editing process: The process of planning this final assignment will be long and complex. I have decided to make notes of the process to give and idea of how it is progressing.

Introduction: I have chosen to use the historic Dutch three masted topsail schooner Oosterschelde as the location for my documentary narrative. I have filmed life on board over a one month period from 1 April  to 1 May 2013. These are the notes that I made on board to give myself a skeleton on which to hang my story:

10 April 2013 Tell story with voice over narration from crew members? Three threads:

• Thoughts on the ship, have they been before? What are their impressions?

• Arrival and experience of Tristan da Cunha

• Anticipation and arrival at Cape Town. How was their overall experience?

Record interview to camera, preferably outside with off camera mic. Start on camera and cut to voice over of activities over the voyage. Short questions, encourage narrative answers that can be edited easily into short chunks. Ask fellow watch members to help and others to fill in i.e. Permanent crew, other watches. (external mic cable broken so rely on on camera mic and audio editing) Example script: 1. Please tell me your name and why you are making this trip, whether or not this your first voyage and your impressions of the Oosterschelde. 2. We are about to, have just or are unable to visit TdC. How did you like the island? How disappointed are you that we were not able to visit? 3. Now we have reached/are nearly at Cape Town, have you enjoyed your voyage? What was the highlight of the experience for you? Will you return to the ship for future trips? 4. Ask Alice to talk about her project on making the anchor bell cover to go over the footage I have. Include a final shot of it at the end of the film. Inter-cut the to camera interviews with footage that includes the speaker, shows time passing or general fill in shots. De- edit the Oosterschelde promo videos for ideas on narrative. Tips from 'Documentary Storytelling':

• Write an outline to plan and diagnose.
• Sequences, like chapters in a book, should feel complete within themselves. Use to help in the editing process.
• How many? 20 minute film about 5 or 6.

Who's on board? Crew

• Capt. Floris
• First mate. Maarten
• Engineer. Jana
• Cook. Wouter
• Boatmen. Peter, Jakob
• Trainee.Yorick
• Film maker. Daniel

Guests:

Red watch: Richard Simon Jan Alice

White watch: Erik Olaf Weitske

Blue Watch: Peter Maarten Kirsten

15 May 2013

Back at home I have reviewed the footage I shot on board. I am now making notes on the sequences I need to tell the story of the voyage from Santos in Brazil  to Cape Town in South Africa via Tristan de Cunha. I need to include a lot of the daily activities on board, the interaction of the crew members and trainees. This will give me  the feeling of the “place” and what it is like to be part of a small community over an extended period.

My first thought on the narrative is to introduce the vessel as she leaves Santos, show the interviews with Alice, Jan and maybe Simon (may need sub titles as his English is not that easy to understand) As they talk of their experiences and feelings, edit the daily activities under their narration. The anti-climax of not going ashore at Tristan can be a turning point and the anticipation of the arrival in Cape Town. I will proceed on that basis but remain open to other themes that may emerge as I go on.

I am also continuing to learn about my video and audio editing software and will include notes about this.

Rough Edit Notes:

Introductory sequence – put together shore based footage up to the point the boat is off  Santos on the first day followed by footage shot during departure.

Second sequence – introduce crew interaction and training function – safety brief?.

(Card 01-0042) voice under clips of sails as they are named by Peter.

Third sequence – First (maybe only) interview/statement – construct subsequent sequences over the dialogue. Interviews:

Jan: Card 01-0053, Alice: -0054, Simon –0055 edit carefully, cut similar ideas and look for clips to go under their selected individual comments.

(At this point I started looking at the time code, realised I didn’t really understand it and found this reference on Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMPTE_timecode ) The final figure after  the semi-colon is the frame number i.e. ;1 – 29, further complicated by Drop Time Code, video at 29.97 fps using the media frame rate as default for this application)

30 August 2013
The deadline for  the submission of my final assignment is here and I will summarise my editing process over the past few weeks.

I met up with Robert my tutor at the Genesis exhibition and I asked him how long the documentary film should be. He told me to aim for 10 minutes (a comfortable length for the assessment process) and to let him look at what I had done before my final edit. With over 40Gb of HD video to process, I had an awful lot of footage to work through and to condense a 31 day voyage into 10 minutes.

I had worked out a basic three act scenario for my narrative and wanted to include most of the routine things that happened on board, introducing the ship and the crew and their motivation, the tension in the decision on whether it was possible  to go ashore at Tristan da Cunha and  the resolution of the safe arrival in Cape Town and the celebration of a unique achievement as a climax to the story.

A lot of what I had planned was excluded and when I got the rough edit down to 12 minutes I let Robert see it and asked him about the use of sub titles, title cards and the level of finish expected for the final submission. He advised me on these matters and asked me to attend to the sound volume which should hover around –12Db and not go above –6.0Db.

At the same time I showed the rough edit to the Thames Valley Study group and got some good feedback about the use of narrators. The thought Simon Pelikan’s sequence was good as he was more than just a talking head. I cut one of the narrators out and reduced the time that Alice was on the screen as a talking head to just two in the final sequence which sums up her experience of the voyage. I also had a comment about the pace of my editing, it seemed that half way through, the shots became longer and it was felt I had run out of steam. As I was matching the shots to the narration, I quickly improved my skills in the sound editor and cut out a lot of pauses and repetitions which enabled me to tighten the whole  thing up. Comment was also made about the camera movement and without any prompting from me, several of the group agreed that this gave a realism and immediacy to the film.

Evaluation: This was a challenging assignment, not only because of the unpredictable conditions under which it was executed but also because of the sheer volume and variety of material that I shot during the five week trip.

I chose the “location” because I would have recorded my trip in any case.  This was my second voyage on the Oosterschelde and my second project for OCA, the first being a photo essay I submitted for The Art of Photography course. I was already familiar with the ship, I knew what there was to film and I was sure I could capture the character of the place, who was there and what happened on a daily basis which provided the pace and rhythm. I feel that I have managed to capture all of this by recording the daily activities of the crew as they went about their lives, restricted physically in a space 50m long and 7.5m wide over 31 days.

The narrative was easy to find. The voyage has a beginning a middle and an end. (see above) The tension existed right from the start as it is only possible to go ashore on Tristan on average 100 days a year so there was uncertainty right up until the morning we departed from Tristan waters. I didn’t make a shot list, I knew I had to be ready with my camera at any time but even then, seasickness, sleep and a 24 hour constantly rotating watch system meant that there was a lot I didn’t see. I planned to use the three other members of my watch to tell the story but Alice was the only member who was able  to be interviewed three times.

Having lived with my project constantly for the past weeks I’m not sure I can be objective. there is a lot I like about the film, some things I am not sure about. Bringing the film down to 10 minutes (and 23 seconds with the titles and credits) was hard. I took out a lot including one interview which was purely conversational and added nothing to the narrative. I am happy with the background music, it provides a certain movement and carries the film forward at a suitable pace. Wind noise was a constant problem. I misplaced the lead for my external microphone which has a decent wind baffle so I have had to rely on audio restoration software to reduce it. The constant sound and movement are features of life on board so I have left the sounds in at a much reduced level. There are places where the visual quality is lacking, below decks in particular was poorly lit. I had an LED array lamp but it had a restricted range. Filming at dusk and dawn had its problems too. I’m hoping that even within the limits of the available equipment I have managed to put together an interesting and engaging film. I learned a lot about recognising narrative from this assignment. I hope to be able to put this to use in other courses that I undertake as I work towards my degree.

Crossing the Atlantic - Three Masted Topsail Schooner Oosterschelde - April 2013 from Richard Down on Vimeo.

Assignment 3–Creating meaning

Objective: To chose a scenario and film a sequence with an implied meaning with any number of shots but no longer than 90 seconds.
For this assignment I have chosen:
Action Somebody chooses a drink Implied Meaning One of the drinks is poisoned.
I have my friends Julie and Cavan helping me with the acting and while I am starting with a script and storyboard, this usually is flexible with suggestions and ideas from the set.
Here is my basic script and story board:
Frame/shot 01

Man arrives home: close up of key unlocking door.
Frame/shot 02

Medium shot of man opening door and stepping inside
Frame/shot 03

Medium shot of woman pouring drinks in kitchen, “Hello darling, just pouring us a drink”
Man: “Just what I need, I’m exhausted!”
Frame/shot 04

Closer shot of woman placing tray on table. Zoom in on the lipstick smudge.
Frame/shot 05

Man picks up smudged glass,
Woman:  “Oh dear, here have this one I’ll get a clean glass” Man takes the other drink, woman goes to kitchen.
Frame/shot 06

Woman washes glass;
Sounds off: Thud and a chink, the man has fallen. Woman looks over her shoulder and smiles to herself.
Frame/shot 07

Down shot of man’s legs sticking out from behind the coffee table with a spilled drink.
Either a pan up to the woman dialling a mobile phone or a separate shot:
Frame/shot 7A

Woman is speaking to the emergency services, “Yes. I’d like to report an accident………………”
Having recorded the sequence and put together a rough edit, I couldn’t find any other way of sequencing the shots to make any different sense of it. I finalised the edit as shown below.
Evaluation

On the whole, I am pleased with the way this came together. I had the idea initially working on the premise that whichever drink was chosen, the poisoned one or the dirty glass, the poisoner would succeed by taking away the safe drink if necessary. The implication is not obvious until the sound of the body hitting the floor is heard and not confirmed until the body is seen behind the table.

I was pleased with the opening shots, starting outside and filming from inside as the man entered gives a nice flow. Shot 3 was not so successful, Julie should have been pouring drinks as Cavan called “I’m home”. She paused until he spoke which was a mistake. Also I didn’t leave enough time for the shot and cut too soon. As it was I had to edit out my calls from the audio track from the start and end.

Shot 4 worked quite well although I did depart from the storyboard/script here. The lipstick smudge on the glass wasn’t really clear enough so we decided to just refer to it. I think that was perfectly OK and made the point. It would have been good if Julie had said “You have mine” rather than assuming Cavan would take the second drink. Julie and Cavan are quite good at ad libbing. Perhaps I shouldn’t rely on this at the expense of losing meaning in the script.

Shot 5 is again too short. I had to edit out my calls again. We forgot to film Julie’s reaction to the sound effect of Cavan falling i.e. a knowing smile as she washed the glass. This makes the sound a little ambiguous although the reason for it is shown in the next scene. Because this take was so short I inserted a fade to and from black, to signify time passing. There were several ideas for the final scene as indicated in the story board but in the end, I combined the two ideas by panning up from the body to Julie speaking on the phone in a calm detached manner showing that she had planned it all along – or had she?  The ambulance siren over the credits rounded the act off nicely.

My own skills and understanding:

• Working with actors is great fun but I do need to balance their needs with mine. I was conscious that these people had given up a couple of hours of their time to help me so I was rushing a bit as I knew they had things to do. Less haste, more speed.
• Panning and zooming – more practice needed. I need to loosen off the fluid tilt head on my tripod a little more and practice slow, smooth panning and zooming!
• Planning and preparation – I need more. Because these sequences are so short I have tended to rely on just the storyboard/script and my memory to shoot with. Perhaps for the remaining assignments I will make detailed notes for each shot so I don’t forget things. Working on the premise that it is always better to have too much and leave it on the cutting room floor ………………

Assgnt03 Creating Meaning from Richard Down on Vimeo.

Assignment 2: Creating Atmosphere

Assignment Objective: To create a scene with a strong sense of atmosphere

Introduction & Planning I bake every week and I want to capture the activities involved to show the sense of anticipation I have while I am baking. The whole process takes about 3 hours so I have to work out shooting and editing techniques to condense the whole process into less that 3 minutes in a maximum of 12 frames. I am thinking of using jump cuts of very short but even length and merging shots (in the same frame) to speed up the slower processes. I also want to finish on a still, I need to work this out in the editing package.

I did a rough storyboard in my notebook. Initially it had 10 frames but with the way the project is developing, I may end up with more and have to edit out a few.
Here is my initial storyboard:

Adding dry ingredients	+ Making the dough
Kneading and shaping	Proving (merge several shots)
Loaf glazed ready to bake	Into the oven
Baking (merge several shots)	Finished loaf cooling
Slicing	Close up of mouth eating a slice (freeze)

Forward Planning: I have started planning quite early for this assignment. My initial thought was  just run through the process, looking at the lighting available, the space needed for the camera in the kitchen and whether I could work around it. I also checked the operation of the remote control for my camera. This will make things easier if I can use it. I also anticipate having to shoot the whole process twice to get enough  good shots. One thing I did learn and managed to fix was that the glass door on the oven reflected a lot of what is in front of it, including the camera. I fixed this by changing the angle from which I shoot so the camera is not reflected and I draped a black backdrop over the units opposite the oven to avoid those reflections.

First Attempt: This went fairly well but as anticipated, there were some shots that didn’t work, namely the adding of ingredients to the bowl. I hadn’t planned getting the camera high enough so I could work around it so I am planning a second shoot in which that is the only part I will be shooting. This will mean I can halt the process and clear away the tripod before continuing with the baking of a second loaf. (time is always an issue here). Apart from that, I got enough footage of the rest of the process and I finished with the loaf cooling. Later that day, I returned from work and filmed the slicing of  the loaf and the close up of eating, without problems.

Lighting: Along with the mood of anticipation, I needed the light to be quite warm. Fresh bread can be seen as a comfort food so I am aiming to enhance this feeling. The light in the kitchen is normally fluorescent but I left this off and used window daylight  from the right and the tungsten cooker hood light from the left. The oven light is also tungsten.

Sound: I’ve used diegetic sound throughout, with very few changes. See final Edit below

Editing: This was my first sizeable edit using Sony Vegas and I am finding new things every time I use it. I watched all of my shots and listed the ones I wanted to use. It was a great discovery when I found the trimmer!

Frame 1 I started by cutting the shot of the ingredients going into the bowl into the constituent parts and decided on 0.25 sec was enough time for each clip to speed up the process. I also cut the shots down and only included 5 items. (an impression is all that is required) At this point I noticed a continuity error. I had inadvertently placed a dish next to the bowl in shot. (something to watch for the future).  I wanted to achieve a rhythm with this edit. I think it worked well.

Frame 2 My next frame was a crossfade of five clips of making the dough in the mixer. In my 2nd edit I cut this down to four as the last shot was zoomed in and did not fit the frame.

Frame 3 is the prepared dough being removed from the mixing hook and Frame 4 is the dough being knocked back and shaped ready for proving after being returned to the bowl in Frame 5.

Frame 6 I needed 4 shots of the dough rising during proving, this process takes about an hour so I took a 10 second shot at 0, 20, 40 and 60 minutes. I prove my bread in the airing cupboard which is pretty dim so I have used the domestic (tungsten) lamps to light this frame.

I originally included a lengthy shot of the loaf being glazed with egg wash followed by another frame of the top being cut. However, I left out the glazing shot and Frame 7 is the decorative cut or marking.

Frame 8 is the loaf going into the oven and Frame 9 is another composite of the loaf browning. I originally took four shots over 40 minutes but there was little difference between the third and fourth so I left it out.

Frames 10, 11 and 12 were straightforward to shoot. I did have a shot of the loaf on the cooling tray but felt that this was unnecessary. I did however fade out to black and back up again between frames 10 and 11 to indicate a period of time passing before the slicing and eating sequence.

Final Edit: In the third edit I added the titles and credits, changed the white balance  of a couple of frames that were a little too orange and I worked out from my editing software how to freeze a frame. Basically, I took a screen grab of the final frame at the point I wanted to freeze the action, inserted that into a slide show and added it to the timeline with a duration of 5 or so seconds before fading it out before the credits.

Although I have used diegetic sound throughout there was only one problem I encountered. The proving sequence was shot away from the kitchen so it was very quiet until the kitchen timer sounded as I was filming the last shot and two peeps were heard. To overcome this, I muted  the sound on this sequence, copied the audio track from the background sound in the kitchen (the sound of the oven fan and the fridge freezer provide a sort of busy, productive sound) and ran a loop below the sequence. You will notice the change in sound level during this sequence, indicating that it takes place away from the kitchen.

Bread Final edit from Richard Down on Vimeo.

Evaluation:
Frame by frame I am quite pleased with the resulting sequence. This evaluation supplements the notes make above after a couple of days reflection. I know I have taken liberties with the number of frames but I considered three or four shots from the same camera position to be in one frame. I’ve added two extra frames that weren’t on my story board. What I have tried to do is to keep the process moving on. The first frame was an experiment and I was pleased that it worked so well. I left out the addition of  the oil and yeast but the general idea is there.
Frame 2 is possibly a bit long. At this point I have used crossfades to suggest the passing of time in a continuous process. Some of  these clips could have been shortened by a second or two without taking anything away from the sequence.
Frame 3, 4 and 5 show some manual handling. The feeling of soft dough is part of the baker’s experience. I’m hoping the viewer can imagine the texture of the dough in their hands and maybe remember childhood baking days.
Frame 6 is the proving or rising of the dough. Four shots composed with cross fades into one. I left the oiled cling film on the bowl but perhaps I should have removed it before each shot as it looks like the camera is not focussed properly.
Frame 7 is the glazed loaf being marked  before going into the oven in frame 8. Frame 9 works well and speeds up the browning/baking process. I’m hoping by this time your mouth is starting to water.
Frames 10, 11 and 12 all went as planned. My idea for the freeze frame was to concentrate the viewer’s mind and bring their anticipation to a climax by imagining the taste and smell of warm fresh baked bread. Leave it hanging there…..

In trying to create this atmosphere of anticipation, I had to decide if I was going to show my own anticipation or try to induce it in the viewer. I thought inducing it in the viewer was probably more straightforward and went for that option. In less than 3 minutes I had to engage their interest, get them intrigued and follow what is going on. I tried to work out the thought process that would arise:

What’s this? Ah, making something, looks like dough, (reminder of childhood, playing) Oh yes, it’s rising (is it alive?) now looks like a loaf, that’s it in the oven, baking nicely looks delicious, taking a slice, I’ll bet that’s good…………….

Did I succeed? I hope so. My fellow students will pass judgement in due course.
Would I change anything? I need to pay more attention to continuity. If I’m acting myself, I need to get out of the habit of unconsciously sighing and grunting as I work. (video is good for  improving your self image!) Maybe melted butter running down my chin……..?
In this assignment I have definitely improved my attention to detail and learned a lot more about editing software. There is still more to do though. I shall keep reading and watching films to get ideas about lighting, narrative and composition. If I’m filming in any domestic situation, I’ll need to do a “background sound audit” before I start shooting.

Assignment 1

Objective: Produce a short sequence, of no more than 5 shots that tells a simple story using images alone.
Planning: After much thought I decided to use the simple narrative of a journey. It has a beginning, a middle and an end which can fit into 5 frames. It will start with an the view of a finger tracing a route on a map, a car being loaded with luggage, the same car being driven past an iconic landmark that everyone will recognise (Stonehenge), arrival at an address and finally a greeting.
1. Look at the map.(close up) This shot needs to introduce the journey. I will do this by showing a finger tracing the route, close up, from above. I will restrict the frame to only what is absolutely necessary to give the information.

2. Load the car. (Mid to long) This frame will show the car and luggage being loaded into the boot using  a medium to long shot. I will probably include the driver getting in starting the engine and pulling away.
 

3. Journey (Driving + significant landmark - Stonehenge) (wide, mid, low or high angle from the back seat) From the moving vehicle I’m planning to show that time has passed and the journey is passing Stonehenge. I’m using an open topped car and this would be the ideal shot if we are able to drive with the roof down. Traffic conditions and weather will play a major part in the success of this shot.

4. Arrival (sweep into the drive POV) The plan for this shot is to follow  the movement of the car off the road, through the gate, onto the drive of the house. This will show the arrival at an address and the end of  the journey. It needs to show an end so the car will stop and movement will cease.

5. Greeting (mid to close) The final frame will show the driver emerging from the car to greet her son. There is little movement here other than the hug and greeting and there is no need to show more than just that in this final shot.


Untitled from Richard Down on Vimeo.

Production Notes: This sequence was shot in one day on a journey from Hampshire to Devon on the Jubilee weekend. I wasn’t sure how I was going to get the shot of Stonehenge if it rained but luckily we were able to put the roof of  the car down. Shots 1 and 4 needed two takes. As the brief called for a story using images alone, I muted the sound on each clip to avoid distraction..

Evaluation:

Frame 1 works well. There is not a lot of action but the shot is close enough for the map to be readable. This was filmed outside on the bonnet of the car when the sky was cloudy. Perhaps a little reflected light may have improved the contrast. The map and the moving finger quite clearly indicate a route is being planned. Timing: 7 seconds

Frame 2: I automatically zoomed in on the rear of the car and panned right as Angie opened the door, got in and started the engine. I could have left it as long shot but I think zooming in confirms to the viewer that the main action is about the car and driver. I did think about showing the car driving off but the brief was quite specific about confining the action to the frame. Timing 16 seconds

Frame 3: I shot this on the move with only vague idea of what I would be able to shoot. As it was, in one pass I got two sequences. The first included here, of the monument as it comes into sight as you drive towards it and a second, where I filmed it from the drivers eye level and zoomed in and panned right as it passed along the passenger window. Unfortunately both of the windows were up and were distracting as they are tinted. This was quite a lengthy shot at 29 seconds. I was pleased to have kept fairly well to the frame just by raising and lowering the camera and all of the action is through the frame top to bottom rather than across it.

Frame 4: This frame contains more movement as I wanted to show the car pulling off the road at a recognisable location that was the end of the journey where the car pulls to a stop. I have managed to keep the camera fairly steady. My attempt to “read” the house name as I passed was not successful but this final part of the journey comes to a clear and definite end at this point. Timing 15 seconds

Frame 5: This final shot could have been made outside of the car but I maintained my point of view within it as I wanted to give the impression that the camera is a close observer of the action but remaining at a discrete distance. I think shooting from within the car at a low angle ties the journey, the car and the reunion together. Timing 15 seconds

This is more of a narrative and I was aware that this could be documentary footage. Indeed, all of the action is what happened on that day anyway, just not necessarily in the order shown. There is a lack of continuity in my shots, note the car roof is up, down and up again.

This was a good dry run for a proper shoot. I could have benefitted from more planning rather than grabbing footage in a documentary style during a routine journey to visit family. I’m hoping that my approaches to the local drama group give me the confidence to ask for help with my projects so I can plan more interesting sequences. My camera techniques are improving but I pan and zoom almost instinctively. This may be good but I have a feeling that my tutor may ask me to think more about each shot before pressing the record button.