Studio Production: Helping with the fine cut edit of Mockumentary

Helping with the fine cut of the Mockumentary and Trivia VT

The editors had already put together their own versions of the Mockumentary and Trivia VT after the filmed footage was handed over to them. One of the feedback's from Helen was that we need to sit with the editors and go through what we would want which made a lot of sense. At first I wasn't sure if we were aloud to do that because it was their edit but during this process I realised the importance of working with the editors to create the desired piece. 

Our first step was to organise the new footage from the old footage, Rosie did an excellent job of this and it made our editing process go a lot quicker as we found that we needed to switch between the two multiple times a lot of times. We then had to create an edit keeping on board the feedback that was given by Helen. We were able to do this efficiently and successfully as the newly filmed footage allowed this. This is where I realised that everything was coming together as we hoped due to taking on the feedback from Helen about reshooting (e.g making him say the words quicker to keep a faster pace) Both Saskia and I sat in with Rosie to complete this and we were able to troubleshoot any issues that we had as we were both able to apply our knowledge as well. However, I noticed that with one of the feedback given to us by Helen we were unable to complete to the best of our ability due to lack of footage. (having close ups of the items flying out of the box). During the shoot day I warned everyone that the close ups would have to come from the second camera during the live action happening and not after as it wouldn't fit, there wouldn't be an accurate cut point because the camera wouldn't logistically be at the correct place is it's supposed to be in the style of a one take documentary. No one listened to my feedback on the day and so when it came to the edit there were lots of cutaways that we were unable to use because of the positioning. It is a shame that this happened and I am not entirely sure if it hindered the overall outcome but we were luckily only able to use one shot. Thus finding the final outcome of our Mockumentary VT to be a very neat one that required minimal changes but still could've been better if some tips where originally taken on board.


Here are a few screenshots from the first draft of Mockumentary in comparison the the updated version; 

old version;

New Version;

Here you can see that during filming we managed to eliminate the wire that was sticking out, the new image is a lot more clearer as well. 


Another example is where the actual set up of the room. Rosie had given me feedback about the wall being empty from the view of Norman's camera and so when it came to the reshoot I made sure to dress the set better. I believe this was correctly executed below. 

Before;

 After; 

Another thing we worked hard on was the colour correction of the footage, we mede slight changes that we thought needed to occur to make it look more unified. 

One is clearly over exposed and one has a more truer tone. It is the subtle things that make a difference. 



Overall I think we did a great job creating a better version of the VT's. I now know the importance of sitting in with the editors to get the desired vision, it makes the final outcome  arrive quicker because there wouldn't need a lot of changes. I noticed that when we first gave the footage over to the editors and they made their first draft, I noticed a few things that didn't match up to the script and so this is why it is necessary to sit in with the editors. Especially with my role as VT producer, it is my role to over see everything and make sure it matches up to original plans so I learnt a lot from this experience.