Post Production - Editing

Empire

Coming to the conclusion that I am happy with how my script looks, but am continuing to make changes, I began editing my first venue section after my introduction - The Empire Theatre, Sunderland. Having previously had access to film at the venue back in January, I already had my own footage, and from here had to collect more - From old photographs of the venue itself, images of stars who have performed there, and even interviews sourced from online.  

 

For a first creation I am happy with the outcome, but I will continue to develop the clip to ensure I can improve it for the final piece. I decided to open up the Empire section with footage from Sunderland on Film, which shows the building in what I assume is the 1950s with a crowd of people outside, which I felt was a nice opening since it is the only older piece of footage I can find of the venue - Since due to the time, there wouldn't be a lot of footage to look back on, perhaps just photographs. Afterwards I decided to use some of my own footage, almost to show a before and after, followed by the information on Tommy Steele, to which I included photo's as well as video footage, simply to show the audience who is being discussed, as I feel a lot of my audience may not know who he is. I was able to use interview footage from an interview Steele did with Sun FM where he discusses coming back to the city, as well as reminiscing on fond memories of the venue. Initially I decided to only include the short clip of Steele with my narration on top, but in the end I felt it would be better to hear him talk about it himself, rather than just me, since I believe it comes across more refreshing hearing more than one persons voice. 

I then move onto talking about The Beatles who famously played the venue in '63. Before writing my script when I only had a vague idea of which places and who I would be discussing, I ensured there would be enough footage to talk over, and luckily there are several images of the band at our venue allowing me to talk about them for a little longer. Afterwards, I include my own footage of inside The Empire when discussing my experience going to film with Steph Durkin, which I felt was important to include due to the fact for a lot of venues mentioned I am unable to use video footage, or even my own footage at times, due to them being in the past. This shows I have took time to research into my chosen topic and even visit the site, allowing me to get a closer insight on the venue. 

The Rink section

Before the editing process began I knew that when I would come to create The Rink's section, it would be more difficult than others due to there being a very limited amount of images, as well as no video footage at all. After collecting all of the images I could to pair with my voiceover, I soon realised I may not have enough footage, since I ran out of images of the venue to use before I had finished my voiceover narration, which is why this section is somewhat shorter than the last. From here I will look at my script and see if there are any parts I am able to take out so I am only discussing the important information / information which is necessary. As of now I think the first draft looks okay, but due to cutting off half of what I originally wanted to say, I am unsure if it will fit well into the documentary as I now don't feel I have spoke about the venue enough as I should. 

Upon editing my first draft, I felt there was a lot I said that perhaps wasn't necessary to mention, or that I spoke about for too long. From here I shortened my script down, while ensuring I was keeping all the important information in. Following this, the editing process for this section wasn't too bad, as I knew exactly what I wanted to discuss, as well as there only being a certain number of images of the venue and inside. This meant I had to keep my script shorter than other sections and to the point, which I think I have achieved. My updated draft:

 

The Mayfair section

Compared to The Rink, there was a lot more footage of Newcastle's old Mayfair venue, as well as video footage including performances from Nirvana and The Ramones, allowing my section on this venue to have more variety. I opened up discussing the comparison between both venues in Sunderland and Newcastle which share the same name, showing images of the building's exterior from years previous. When researching into these venues in my post production stage, I had to ensure the chosen few had enough suitable and clear images to allow my audience to see it for themselves as I provide some more information. Thankfully there were various images of the venue, inside and out, including images of Led Zeppelin performing there in March 1971, to Jerry Lee Lewis fans dancing at one of his concerts in February 1980. Upon completing my first draft of this section, I have since made a minor improvement - After researching more into the venue I was able to find an image of Metallica performing there which I have now included, rather than just an image of the ticket.

Following this, I discuss things like events which took place at the venue, as well as some big names who performed there, including artists I know have an image to accompany the voiceover. Again I was lucky enough to be able to find video evidence from several shows at the venue, allowing me to include video footage from Nirvana's performance in December 1991 - To possibly make further improvements, there is footage of The Jam performing back in 1977 which I could include, allowing me to use more video footage than imagery when discussing the venue and what happened there. To conclude this section, I was led to a video on YouTube in which someone filmed the very last night the venue was open, stretching to over an hour long from a VHS tape. While not very clear, the video shows people dancing and simply enjoying themselves, with the likes of Wham! playing in the background. Ending the section with this clap I think was the best choice since it shows the venue in the most positive light and simply for what it was - Like every venue, hopefully allowing an audience to personally identify with what is being shown. 

As of now, I am happy with the first draft of this section, but hope to make improvements upon receiving feedback.

Introduction

Editing my introduction didn't take too long as it's rather short. At times I do think I should've created a longer introduction to explain my documentary further and in more depth, but on the other hand I do think that just getting straight into the information works best. I opened up the documentary with my own footage, followed by footage sourced from online as it was suitable to what I was saying in the voiceover. Since creating this section, I am still unsure if I should add in some text or my logo, or if I should just keep the logo till the end - This is something I could do next lesson and see how it looks. As well as this, I am not sure how I feel about the first gig video shown as I feel it looks somewhat out of place, so I may change this and see how it looks / how I feel. 

The Modern Day + o2 Academy

When it came to editing the section discussing the modern day, and beginning to talk about gigs I myself have been to, I did face a slight problem in that not all of my footage is steady. For example, when discussing the Spice Girls being at our stadium, I hadn't realised just how little footage I took myself, and since I wanted to make this second half on the modern day more unique to me in using a large majority of my own footage, this became a problem. My script on this section was already slightly short which helped in the long run, but thankfully I was able to use two videos of my own that were quite steady. I only talked briefly about the music event at Herrington Country Park, as I only took two videos, so when writing my script I knew I had to keep it short but effective, and I hope that payed off. The opening clip to the section I sourced from online, and was free to use. If I could do something differently, I would go into Newcastle, as well as around Sunderland, and film some clips around both city's, so that when I do have these small parts in which I don't know which footage to show on screen, I'd be able to show parts of the location I am discussing. Nevertheless I think I am pleased with the current state of this section, and am glad I can use my own footage to show people our musical history. 

I always knew I would include information on Newcastle's o2 Academy since it has so much history, and I have been lucky enough to attend several gigs there. When I got to see Blossoms there, I took several videos and thankfully most were steady, unlike other gig footage previously mentioned, but I ended up only including one video as I think it sums up the gig nicely - If I were to go back and change this / the footage, I know I have enough to replace it. I already knew of the venue's history, but this project allowed me to research further into its past and who had played there, learning more about how the venue first began in more depth. I was lucky in that I was able to find images from the 1920's of how the venue once stood, which I instantly knew I would have to include as it's quite interesting being able to see how far it has come - And I hope my audience think the same. 

Interview with Tom

During my second year of college I created a piece around 'Culture in the Digital Age', to which I created a short documentary, discussing the vinyl industry and how it was affected. I felt it would be interesting to include different opinions and viewpoints, especially from a musicians perspective. I am lucky enough to have close contact with Welsh band Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard, meaning I was able to ask frontman Tom some questions ( I, in a voiceover while showing their music videos, exclaimed his answers ) whereas this time around, I wanted to elevate this. 

I was able to call Tom and record our interview, in this case I asked questions relevant to the brief, such as what he likes about performing live, etc. The interview went well as I had prepared my questions previously, whereas I found the editing process somewhat difficult. My first problem was that, not having used Zoom before, I didn't realise that whoever speaks appears on screen, so for example when Tom would speak and I would agree, I would appear on screen. This wasn't much of a problem, as I wanted to include some shots from their music videos, allowing the audience to see more of the band, so whenever I would appear on screen I included a short clip from one of these videos. The other slight problem was that, since the interview was quite informal and felt more of a conversation, there was a lot to edit out as it perhaps wasn't as relevant to the question or to the documentary, meaning I had to cut some parts out or shortened some down where I could, but I think I did this well and there are no noticeable jumps throughout. 

Upon completing editing my interview with Tom, all I then had to do was edit all of my footage together, as well as add in some credits as well as my designed logo. This didn't take too long, as I already had an idea of what footage to include in this short section to end my documentary on a positive note.