Major Project - Editing Process

Originally I was looking forward to this process since it is my favourite area but when I started the post-production process I came across a lot of issues and crashes. When looking over the clips I was fairly happy with the amount of footage I have and the sound that the Tascam gave me. I struggled to find a starting point, I wasn't sure exactly how to start the documentary, I had a vision in my head and it was written down on script but it did not seem right to actually follow. However, I started the edit with following the script and footage throughout because this way I could have kept changing and improving but at least I finally had somewhere to start. When I started to edit the process took a very long time especially since I had to add subtitles over the interviews. I felt confident with the way the editing process was going until a few feedback sessions with Simon, he gave me a lot of great feedback to go and work on. 

When editing I had many different rough cuts edited, I was working off over 20 different versions. This was to make sure I had different possibilities with the edit, I knew that I didn't get enough information from my father to make this the documentary that I originally felt so strongly about but this didn't mean that I can't work towards making it even better now, this motivated me to work harder. I had some small issues with working on Adobe where as I had almost over 35 crashes in one day for unknown reasons.

First Cut:

As you can see from the timeline I had some issues with the Audio, it was corrupted. This audio was mostly the voice-over and some background music used for certain sections. In the first rough cut I only used 2 voice overs, since I wasn't original very keen on having any. As I originally wanted to have piece to cameras at all times, but this was disturbed due to the weather and my sickness, that meant I had to rely on my voice overs. I made my beginning montage and made sure to implement Lama Rinchen's interview as well as adding his captions, I added the default open captions that Adobe supplies within the software and I really liked the look. Originally I was adding default text over and over again until I learnt that Adobe offers these open captions. 

Rough Cut 2:

Already in the second rough cut I had made improvements, I added subtitles in for the first two interviews so that when I had my feedback session with Simon and Beth they would understand the interviews. I have also added a few more voice-over audio clips. I recorded my voice-overs on Audacity and edited through the application, it was all filmed on a Blue Yeti Microphone. I'm not very great with editing sound clips but with the voice overs I had to edit them within the application to reduce background noise and make my voice-over clearer to understand. I had another audio issue with the second rough cut where I was interviewing Izabella and she kept touching her clip mic which made the sound peak, but she says something very important and key at this moment so I couldn't exactly figure out what to do just yet. The opening sequence I was fairly happy and left it to move along my edit quicker, I knew with my feedback sessions that I would have to work on it a little bit more but wasn't sure how. 

During this edit I already was unhappy with the way that Lama Rinchen's interview looking, I noted this after filming it is too grainy and yellow hoping I could fix it with colour correction on Adobe. 

Original

Second Attempt

Third Attempt

Final

As you can see I've been struggling with making the clip look better from the original, I needed to lower the saturation and decrease sharpness to stop it from having such an intense yellow grainy tint. Although it looks darker and still has a yellow tint is is a much better improvement from the original. What I did was use the Adobe colour panel to improve the look of this sequence. This was very important for me to work on since I knew from the shoot day that I was in trouble with this sequence. On the other hand I personally really like the background of the shot, the background elements that are seen are very colourful and I tried to enhance them by increasing the contrast and saturation in the Adobe colour panel. I also had to do colour correction with Isabella's interview since the brightness was too harsh but this was a quick simple fix. 

Rough Cut 3:

After having feedback from both Simon and Beth I knew exactly all the changes that I had to start getting working on. For my first ever feedback session with them I had no subtitles or any clear voice over so I was excited to see their feedback after I had implemented these. I had 4 weeks left at this point to complete these changes before my last 2 feedback sessions. Beth didn't give me as much feedback as I would've liked, she really likes the narrative of my documentary and the way I am presenting it. The few changes she mentioned for me to make are; 

• Finish Subtitles 
• Improve voice over - more emotions 
• Colour correction outside 
• Improve PTC audio 
• Change background music

After Beth gave me her feedback I had Simon watch my rough cut, he gave me a lot more to work on in regards to setting up my story the correct way, Simon said I don't have the correct layout to tell my story yet and I have to improve this as it is important. A few things he mentioned to work on; 

• Subtitles need work, spelling mistakes
• Voice over needs a lot more versions 
• Interviews feel too long
• Add coverage over interviews, we need to see what they are talking about
• Out of sync 
• Coverage over cuts 
• Improve the beginning montage, we want to see you and your father not cinematic shots
• Open voice-over needs to outline the documentary
• Montage of me and my father needs to be placed somewhere different 
• PTC seems awkward 
• Explain your thoughts and feelings through voice over 

All of these were fantastic points to make, one of the reasons I felt very grateful for these feedback sessions to make my work much better. Knowing that Simon has worked on his own projects before as well as Beth I really trusted their judgement and started implementing all these changes. I started off with finishing the entire edit sequence and finished the layout to then implement the changes. I haven't had time in this rough cut to do any changes for the beginning montage I focused on making sure that the cuts are covered with images and the interviews have coverage. Some of the audio capture off the Rode Mix, for example when Lama Rinchen is talking about not remembering my father has a lot of fuzz in the background, in this instance what I did is edited the audio inside Adobe Audition. What I did first is within the Adobe Premier pro edit I opened the sound file in Adobe Audition, this instantly opened up the software and I was able to play around with the sound and get it to what I'd like to. I started off with capturing the noise print and then going through a noise reduction process to get the background noise reduced. This process really improved a lot of my rode mic sound issues when I wasn't using the Tascam. When looking back at my previous work throughout the years I knew that sounds is a key element in any project, without good sound the overall film isn't enjoyable. 

I also used Adobe audition to edit my recorded voice overs since they also had small noticeable background noises which I could afford to have in such an important major project. 

Sound improvement:

Rough Cut 4:

This was the final rough cut I had shown before submission, I had worked night and day on this edit to become much better than any of the other 3. I made sure that all interviews are in Sync, most spelling mistakes have been taken care of and specifically the colour correction had been improved. I had also completely changed my opening sequence. In the first two rough cuts my opening sequence did not involve enough information as to why I am making this documentary I also did not talk about my past, simply it was not good enough to set up the entire project. As Simon mentioned to me before I can't just have a travel montage, which is what my script stated. I had to have myself my father and archived photos appearing on the screen as well as a more in detail voice-over - this is exactly what I did. I removed all unnecessary clips of random cinematic shots and replaced them with something meaningful. I also decided to change the name of my project from 'Life In Kamtsang' to 'Moj Tata, My father' it suits the documentary much more and is a lot more personal. 

Montage Change:

I then made a list of other changed I had to make with my final sit down with Simon. This included last minute changes of; 

• Cutting down Lama Rinchens interview
• Condense his beginning speech
• Add coverage between my question to Lama Rinchen and him speaking
• Cut out the story of his previous work 
• Add photos of him and my father after the interview is done
• Remove V/O ending after Lama Rinchens interview
• When talking about the community add before and after photos of it
• V/O before you Lama Rinchen clip begins
• Sync Izabella's first interview
• Summaries Iza's interview with V/O 
• Coverage over cuts
• Do not add text
• Move father montage somewhere else
• Set up meeting my father with a V/O 
• After meeting my Dad for the first time add the father montage after 
• Cut down the interview at Izabellas house
• End the documentary in a V/O talking about the oevrall experience and what I've learnt

I followed the list all the way through making sure that each and every change was made since I definitely agreed with it all. I am very happy with how much improvement I made with the edit since the beginning. As well as knowing that I didn't manage to get all the answers from my dad as I originally wanted, this really made me worried at the beginning of editing as I had no idea what to do and how to fit into the narrative since the whole idea was to find out the real reasons as to why he decided to leave us in the United Kingdom and live in a Buddhist community. Since he didn't give me these answers Simon helped me work around the edit making the whole documentary focused on how the community had a major impact on my life, how it's influenced me and coming back to the community after 10 years really had an impact, I realised a lot about myself. Overall I learnt the importance of coverage, syncing the Tascam audio, I taught myself how to use Adobe Audition, worked with voice overs, colour grading there was a lot I improved on and a lot I had taught myself for the near coming future. 

Rough Cut:

Final Project: