1. LOGGING SHOTS: Review your raw footage to see what material you actually have. Make notes on material that looks promising. Make note of timecode marks for important video and audio. Here are three important questions to consider at this juncture:
• What material do i have?
• What do I want to communicate?
• What can I communicate with what material I have? (improvisation?)
The problem with my footage is some of it was shot fairly poorly. There isn’t anything I can do about it, except cropping or editing the film in a way that will let me still convey the message across. Luckily, I have enough footage to communicate my message about nerds in the time allotted, and so with just a fair amount of editing, I should be able to complete that goal. However, relying on luck for films is not something I should do, nor do I want to do that. Therefore, for future projects, allotting more time for filming and planning would be a great benefit to making a proper video.
2. SCRIPTING + ʻPAPERʼ EDITING: Review what you wrote in the production phase on style, elements, composition, and form. Begin assembling the shots you think you want to use. Create a ʻpaperʼ edit – a list of shots in sequence, with notes on trimming clips, audio, transitions, etc.
The footage I have was fairly scripted. While I didn’t necessarily tell the people I interviewed what to say, I only used the footage of the relevant responses. As such, I was able to come across enough footage for my “storyboard” written earlier. The introduction of the word nerd progresses to what the word nerd means. And then how that word has evolved from its original definition to now. Shot sequence has already been placed.
3. RESHOOTS: Is anything essential missing from your raw material? Do you have everything you need, is there anything else that could further support your narrative? Are you really done shooting, or do you need to circle back to the production phase?
I did need to go back and reshoot a couple scenes to allow the video to have a better flow. There were some slight gaps that needed better transitions than what I had with my footage. A little more substance on the history of the word nerd was needed, but I didn’t want to overdo it and make it sound like a documentary on the history of a word. I guess I could potentially go back again and shoot some more, but I’m pretty much done at this stage.
4. REFLECTION: How are you feeling about your material at this point? What are you thoughts about how the raw footage can be edited to convey your intent? Do you see multiple possible narratives in the material? How do you decide what footage to use and what to exclude – what is your criteria? Why are you making particular choices?
I feel pretty good about my material at this point. The raw footage is enough so that I can fairly easily convey the purpose of my video across. I feel it might be a little short, but the piece taken as a whole definitely is able to get my message across. As for multiple narratives, I’m not entirely sure with the material given. I have many people, but the focus is a single narrative, told through multiple people. As for the selection of the footage I used, it was based mostly on what people said more so than how “usable” I felt the video part of the footage was. There were many clips that you could clearly tell were shot by hand that I chose to use due to the content being spoken.
5. IMPROVISATION: Are your ideas evolving? Are you utilizing new learning? Write about any adjustments and improvisations that you made while creating the paper edit.
Definitely the finished product wasn’t entirely as I visioned when I started out. I ended up using various cut-ins of different stuff throughout my video. For example, the pictures of when I was describing a nerd, ‘knurd’ being spelled out, etc. That was more editing than footage, as it was generated in Adobe Premiere rather than shot by the camera. I feel that was the biggest change, going away from strictly using and editing filmed footage and choosing to use edited/generated footage as well.
Bring me Java, Bring me Joy 