Week 11 | Jwhiteual132024

Week 11: 15th-19th April

Monday

As I had filmed Tom’s interview on Friday afternoon, and I was busy throughout the weekend, on Monday I decided it would be best to complete Tom’s logging. The photo below shows proof this. As the interview was all on Zoom, instead of logging and listing the suitability and quality of each shot, I instead created a new table that listed the time stamps for when the subject matter changes. From here, the timestap description then goes into more detail, listing what was said, and any specific notes I would like to give myself when cutting it into the documentary. The small amount of cutting I have done so far has not been affected without having Tom’s footage as this was the first scene which he is not in. However, now having all the footage I need, I now have freedom to edit anything I like, and in whatever order I am most suited too.

Furthermore, I also finalised all writing for the production process, meaning that I was now fully on the post-production stage. I find it important to get tasks like writing up around my work done and dusted before moving onto the next stage, as then I can essentially forget about what I did and move all my attention onto the new stage. This also stops me from my mind wandering, becoming distracted and thinking about other parts that aren’t part of the post production stage.

Tuesday + Wednesday + Thursday

Throughout the next 3 days of the week, I dedicated all of my time to cutting the documentary. The more and more I got into it, the more I realised how much of a monstrous task I had ahead of me, and I'm very glad with my commitment I have put in within these days, because without this, I would be worried with the time I have to get this done. Each day I referred back to my gantt chart to ensure that I was sticking on track with the main objective, which kept me going each day. On the whole, I'm happy with how it is turning out so far, but honestly, it's hard to tell when I haven't yet got half of it cut.

To view what I did during the post production stage, click here.

Additionally, what I also did was, on Thursday, show what I edited so far to my family to get a little bit of feedback. The main consensus was that it was good and looking good, but the gaps between scene 1 and 2 was too long and felt like the film had ended. Additionally, some cuts could have been shortened slightly. I took this advice on board and put it into action that same day.

Friday

On Friday morning, to begin the day off, I realised that since the interview, Tom had not send me his consent form that he said he would send after the interview - this was now a whole week ago. This form was a legal requirement if I wanted to use Tom in the documentary, so was very important to have. Therefore, to overcome this problem, I sent Tom a catchup email, as my assumptions are that he forgot about it. The email that I sent him can be seen below.

I got a response from Tom very quickly, where he attached the signed form back to me! I had now completed the entire preproduction stage and I could tick that off. This was really good as it was now one less thing to worry about, and could continue to move forward with my production.

To round off our conversation, I sent the following email to him, once again thanking him for his contribution kindness for helping me.

After completing this, to discuss where I was at and the changes that needed to be made to keep me on track. Overall, the discussion was very positive, and there was nothing that I needed to change in regards to the website. There were minor changes that he suggested to me in the edit, but these were easily fixable, meaning I got back to continuing my cut very quickly.

It was good to hear that I am on track with everything as this allows me to feel positive about the outocome of the work and effort I am putting in - this keeps me motivated towards the end (which is very important on such a long project like this).

I then continued working on the edit - proof of this can be seen below in the timelapse video:

After the day’s continuation of cutting, you can see in the image below that this is what the timeline currently looks like. Today I was able to have a good go at cutting section 3 of the production. I struggled quite a lot today as I felt it was really difficult to understand the pacing of the section. Section 2’s structure was that each new ‘character’ that we meet in the documentary gives their definition for misophonia, though they never actually say the word ‘misophonia’. After the three characters state their definition, I took a clip of Erin stating that ‘it feels like someone else is taking control of you’ which is really quite dramatic and intense. This hooks the audience in and keeps them engaged; remember, we are 2 minutes in and we don’t know what this disorder is called yet, the audience are waiting for it. After Erin, we also hear Eddie say that ‘it can be a very hard thing to deal with’, which pairs with it nicely, adding emphasis to what was said by Erin. Furthermore, whilst still keeping the audience engaged, I’m dragging the ‘want’ from the audience out. It was important whilst cutting this section that I don’t add anything not necessary as it’s vital I don’t lose engagement.

As you can see, when cutting section 2 I had a good sense of the structure, but I’ve definitely struggled with it more today. This is because this section is more chronological, starting from the age they learnt they had misophonia, instances from their first realisations of having misophonia, the consequences they have from having misophonia, and the emotions they felt from that. There is a lot more literal content that I needed to fit in a small space, so intertwining what the interviewees were saying, and selectively choosing the most effective clips from what they say is why I have found this much harder. Though it was much harder, I now feel far more well equipped moving forwards with the production, as I have never done this before and now have more experience.