The documentary/interview piece needed a couple of versions to get it to where I was happy with it. I had all of the areas below to consider from my own point of view and from the feedback I got from those that I screened the work to. I took all of this into consideration and ended up with the piece below which I am pretty happy with.
COMPLETED DOCO FINAL 2 from Jon Saward on Vimeo.
Titles for the start and credits for the end.
I wanted to keep the piece clean and simple and short to keep the length down. The title seemed obvious Global Warming, Global Warning. I used Adobe After effects to play around with the titles. I wanted the titles to have a clean simple news feel with a little bit of character and tried a variety of fonts before settling on Courier New. This is a very typewriter looking font so brings those semiotics to the piece. I played around with the colour but white worked best. I also wanted a little movement in the titles so through animating the text managed to have one word appear on screen and then the other. then I had the brainwave of then combining the two words into one Global Warmning the name of the movement. I animated these so they moved to the middle and then converged to make the word Global Warmning. I then thought it would be good to warm them up by turning them red. the titles are very simple but work well in my opinion.
A way to open the piece and set the scene
I decided against adding a scene of the crew all being taken to the secret location and did not like the me introducing the film I shot so decided to go with on-screen titles. These were added but the wording was tricky but they were needed to contextualise the piece. I wanted to try to add some drama and an edge as well as exposition at the start. I added in the put in an van and taken to a secret location for the drama and intrigue. Also I added the fact that he thought the interview was just a platform for his cause but I was really after the dirt and scandal on HIS story which i had been told was off limits this created a set up and let the viewer in on this. I also added the interview was given almost reluctantly and on his terms.
For continuity I used the font Courier New font here too in white and kept it simple and the word count down as much as possible. I played around with the order of the titles and whilst they needed to be on screen long enough to read them (standard thinking is 3 times quickly) I did not want them on for too long.
Solution for the opening of the piece.
This was a hard problem to solve. Generally in an interview you ask a person to introduce themselves first but this seemed too contrived and too long. I looked through all of the rushes and found a good wide shot of the whole scene and me asking if everyone was ready before the interview starts. I liked the idea of this as it established the scene of the interview and cabin in a wide and the crew lights etc. It also gave the piece a sense of urgency and the warts and all behind the scenes liveness I wanted to convey.
More/longer awkward pauses in exchanges when I am challenging him.
When I am challenging Ben about disappearing, the incriminating evidence the awkwardness needed more from the rough cuts. I added a long awkward pauses at the junctions and cross cut exchanges of looks and held stares. pauses almost too long and uncomfortable to watch as I try to put him on the spot and am rebuffed by him or cut dead with a lazer guided stare. I feel these work well and create some real quiet controlled drama and conflicts in these exchanges.
More pacey editing at the end of the piece. More cutty and disjointed to capture action.
I applied this to the ending. I had to stop short of jump cuts as the action was supposed to be continuous but upped the shot count in the final scene to give a feel of jump cuts. hard edits from WS to ECU to MS to BCU all work well to capture the moment that ben explodes. More CU too to see the two men lock horns at the end and to capture the emotion and feeling.
More use of close ups of both faces to build confrontation, conflict and action.
As mentioned above at the ending but also more throughout especially in the awkward exchanges in the game of mind chess the men are acting out.
The interview felt too long at 11 minutes. The drama and interaction between the characters was good and needs to stay but less preachy global warming as there is too much.
From the initial cut I managed to lose 3 minutes of facts to streamline the piece. I did not want to lose too much as there need to be a pace and ebb and flow. me trying to put him on the spot being reprimanded by him. Building his confidence and indulging him with questions he ants to answer before chancing my arm again with the personal questions. The balance feels much better and the piece now runs to 9:30 and that includes the titles, captions and credits so it is a much slicker watch.
Possibly more abstract GV's as I loved their awkwardness.
I added more in and I do like these they are a real fly on the wall and in themselves feel awkward replicating the feel of some of this piece.
Music.
I tried a variety of pieces of music for the intro and even as a bed underneath but they all detracted from the reality of the action playing out on screen I am still not 100% sure about no music on the opening. I may try some other music possibly but i really do like the starkness of no music and you have to fill in the emotion yourself and it makes the viewer concentrate on the dialogue and performances.
Consider grading.
I did a few grading tests but this seemed to make the piece feel too polished which I was not after. I feel lost the grittyness and contrasts in the shots works well. It actually feels like a polished rough cut and I quite like this.
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