Reflecting on the final outcome

After two days in the edit, one of those days I edited the start of the interviews as they needed to be synced  before I could cut them. The next day the sound man edited the rest of the interviews and started to build a basic structure, the editor had a basic cut but needed to add  the rest of the cutaways and the final tweaks. We helped out as she was busy with other projects.

I must admit, it was not how I expected. It seemed that the storyline still wasn't there which is very disappointing as the script is only just in the 3rd draft, and whilst editing we still needed to ask how this documentary was going to end and what he wanted from each contributor as is didn't seem set.

I noticed how the lack of the script made it very hard to find cutaways, yes we got lots of them but not the right ones that related to the story. I felt like I needed to have known clearly on each shoot what cutaways were needed rather than shoot cutaways because we think we may need them. I used the Canon 1d to make it look nice visually but due to struggling with knowing what to film, it reflected in my work and I needed to know what to shoot as the shots didn't always match up. To get the best out of your crew you need someone who knows exactly what they want and I feel that more thought needed to have gone into the story, which is a shame.

After seeing the final documentary, I was surprised to see some night shots that were filmed by the director whilst we were filming the police in the final edit. These shots weren't framed correctly as horizons weren't straight, were under exposed and were very shaky. I shot for 50 minutes on a tripod so thought that there were better shots that could have been used.

I am extremely impressed by the outcome of the strip doc. I have been working along side the director and together have produced something I would class as not being a typical "student film", therefore no use of local locations or filming around the university. It has pushed me and I know with a strong crew you can get the best out of everyone.

I think this has given me practice for the industry and it is definitely important to make sure you have a strong director to get the story needed and with this it helps out the crew.