Fiction Adaptation: Montage Workshop and edit

Montage Workshop

Today I took part in the montage workshop where after being put into groups to come up with a montage that illustrates the feeling of "Despair",we then had to create the shots that we planned between the group. Here is an example of the small shot list that we had in mind at first. 

At first we thought it would be a good idea to have a Hot fuzz style montage where our central character had  a series of unfortunate events happen to them one after the other throughout the day. After being shown this example in a previous workshop, we decided that we wanted to incorporate this style as it would go along with the mini narrative that we had. 

However, upon arriving to film. We had to brief our ideas with Helen and Mike and it turned out we slightly misunderstood the task as it wasn't supposed to be as narrative based as we planned. It was meant to be more symbolic and so Mike gave us a good example which is something that really helped with the planning of new shots; "instead of showing the person opening the door, you can show the door closing". This really put it into perspective for me as I was able to think a bit more creatively about the shots required. So, we didn't completely scrap our idea, we went through and made it better by incorporating the feedback we received. 

Below is my version of despair which I am very proud of; 

What I liked about shooting and editing this is I was able to get a greater understanding of both the equipment and what it could really do, as well as knowing how powerful shots can be when you don't show too much narrative and think about symbolisms. The use of breaks between sounds can also build tension and so I wanted to incorporate this throughout the video to break up the pace a little bit. I learnt the importance of sound design, to me it is equally important as the shot types. I managed to find the right sound effects that I knew would enhance the piece and therefore I am very happy with the end result. Overall this workshop has really opened my mind to thinking outside of the box more. This is something I will take on board when creating my shot list as I would like to incorporate and abstract/ artistic feel to it as well.