Following a Transcript | Workshop

We had a workshop with someone in the industry called, Tim Bentham, and he talked to us about the use of a transcript.

Definition

• A transcript is a written or printed copy of something that has previously been said.

Why are Transcripts useful?

• By writing a transcript of the audio from the original footage of a documentary, it will be helpful when editing the video.
• When the transcript is written, you can read through it and cross out/delete the parts of audio that you don't want or is un needed within the documentary. Then when it comes to editing, you know what parts of audio to cut out and what parts to keep in the video.
• Once you a have rough idea of what audio clips you want in the video you can focus on cleaning up the audio and then you can add in cutaways to hide the cuts you have made previously.

The Task

• With this information, we were given a transcript with some of the sentences crossed out, indicating the fact that they should be cut out. We were given the interview clips and some of the cutaways for the interview, and we were told to create the video from the transcript.
• The first thing I did was find the correct interview clip. Once I found this I cut out the parts that were un wanted and made sure that the sentences I was left with made sense. I then cleaned up the audio by using the 'Constant Power' effect, also by adjusting the audio on the clips.
• Once this was cleaned up, I added some of the cutaways to hide the cuts that were made. When choosing what cutaways to add, it was a hard decision as it needed to make sense with the audio. When you hear something you want to see it as well, which is something that I took on board with this edit.

What I've Learnt

• From doing this workshop I have learnt that writing a transcript for our documentary will be useful when starting the edit. The interviews that we have shot are very long and there is quite a lot of information that we don't need to show within the documentary. 
• If we write transcripts of these interviews, we can easily locate the different topics being said, and we can decide on paper what we want said and what we don't want said.
• I've also learnt that everything that is being heard through the audio needs to be seen through the pictures.
• Another aspect I have learnt is the fact that documentaries are mostly made up of cutaway and GV shots. This is useful information to have as we now know to film more GV's in order to create a smooth and interesting documentary.

Filming: Wildlife & Nature | Production

On our second filming day, we decided to film the nature and wildlife shots. We knew it would take us a while to find some wildlife, and we understood it would be difficult but as a group we agreed that we would take our time finding the wildlife ad we wanted good coverage.

Camerawork

• We had three different cameras on this filming day which helped a lot with getting wildlife shots and getting a good range of different shots. 
• To start with we walked to the bluebell pathway we filmed in to get some cutaways of the landscape and the bluebells, but also to find wildlife.
• Sammi stood at one end of the pathway, I stood in the middle, and Nisserin stood at the other end. We all set up our cameras and started to shoot some landscape shots while also searching for wildlife.
• We managed to find some different type of birds, and a few insects such as bees and butterflies which would be our cutaways when editing the video.
• We walked around the farm and got a variety of bird and butterfly shots, while also getting some landscape shots that we could use for commentary shots. 
• When we imported the footage, we found out that we didn't get enough wildlife shots, so we will have to go back and find some more wildlife.

Sound

• We didn't need all of the audio from the cameras, so we decided to put a microphone on one of the cameras.
• This was done so we would have some atmosphere audio that we could add to the edit and it would create the desired tone and atmosphere.
• By adding the tweets of the birds and the rustling of the trees, it will make the documentary more realistic and 'alive', which is something that we were aiming for.

Lighting

• Again, due to filming outside we knew we would have some weather issues, however the sun was out for the majority of the day, which made our shots look bright and pleasing for the eye.
• However, it might be hard for us to colour match the clips together, mainly because of the brightness of the clips. 

Overall, the second filming day went well, but we will need to go back another day to carry on filming the wildlife and got more footage of animals and insects.

Filming: Interview & Presenter | Production

On our first filming day, we decided that due to availability of the presenter and the farmer, we would film their parts.

Our individual roles for the filming day were as follows:

• Me: Camera operator
• Nisserin: Director & camera operator
• Sammi: Sound operator

Camerawork

• During the setting up of the equipment we decided that we would film with two different cameras at the same time to avoid continuity problems when it came to editing. Nisserin filmed the main shots that we would use as our master shots and I shot the apposing shots that we could use to help us cut the interview when editing.
• Due to complications with one of the cameras - it wouldn't focus very well - we had to assign one of the cameras for the close-up shots and one for the wide/long shots.
• Nisserin's camera had a nice focus, so the close-ups were filmed on that camera, and the wider shots were filmed on the other one.
• When importing this footage, we decided that there were a few shots that were missing, and other shots we weren't too happy with like the lunchtime scene.
• We went away and brainstormed some other options for this scene as we didn't like the location too much.

Sound

• Sammi recorded the sound on a H4 recorder, which was connected to the boom mic.
• This boom was used to capture John's audio and his answers to Carols questions.
• We recorded Carol's audio on a clip mic which was connected to Nisserin's camera, so she could hear what Carol was saying.
• When importing these recordings, the clip mic audio sounded really good and clear, but the sound from the H4 recording didn't sound as good.
• You couldn't hear John that well, and the wind interrupted some of his speech.
• We all agreed, after some discussion, that we should aim to re-record some of the audio when re-shooting some of the interviews, but also we might put write some of the interview as commentary and get her to record it at the studios.

Lighting

• Due to filming outside, we were bound to get some problems with the lighting.
• At the start of the day, the lighting was bright and nice, however it was quite cloudy. Then during the day the weather changed and the lighting got darker. This was a problem for us as we didn't want to film in the rain, which meant that we had to wait for the rain to stop before wrapping the day.
• This is more of a problem when it comes to editing as it will be quite hard to match the lighting and the colours, but with the three-way colour corrector, it shouldn't be too difficult.

Overall, the first filming day went well, but there were a few hiccups which means we will have to film again.

Shot List | Production Notes

Here is the shot list for our first filming day. We weren't 100% sure on the exact shots we are filming but we knew roughly, so I put in a rough idea of what it might look like.

After Film Day - Refilming

Once we edited the first bits that we previously filmed, we decided that we needed to re film some shots so we created a second shot list to help us when filming the different shots.

Having a shot list will help us when filming as we will know what we are going to film and our shoot day will run smoother.

Storyboard | Production Notes

Here is the storyboard for our documentary. 

• Myself and Nisserin draw the storyboard and we only drew rough sketches of what we wanted it to look like. 
• Due to not having filmed yet we didn't know exactly what shots we would use within the documentary so we drew a rough image of what we might use. 
• We didn't draw detailed pictures of each sequence because we weren't 100% confident of what our sequences we contain and how it would look. 
• I draw half of the storyboard from the first half of the script and Nisserin drew the other half from the last half of the script.

Our Presenter | Research

When we decided that we wanted a presenter for our documentary, we had to begin our search on who we wanted to play the role.

• Sammi suggested someone who had worked for her on one of her previous projects. She was one of the main roles in Sammi's first uni project, and when I thought back to her video, I remembered her acting skill and thought she would work well.

Carol Ball

• Carol usually works in Theatre productions. 
• She has performed in the West End in shows such as:
• 'Chicago
• 'Hello Dolly'
• 'Guys and Dolls'
• 'The Goodbye Girl'
• 'Thoroughly modern Millie'. 
• Not only does she perform in the theatre, but she also performs on TV. 
• She has appeared on TV programmes such as:
• 'The Bill'
• 'The Trip'
• 'Sherlock Holmes Smarter Brother'. 
• She has also been in films such as: 
• 'The Boyfriend'
• 'Valentino'
• 'Muppets Most Wanted'.

After watching her performance in Sammi's video, I could tell that she had a good personality and she would be able to carry our documentary really well.

Equipment List | Production Notes

This is the equipment list for our shoot days. This will be the same for any other day we have to re film anything.