Documenting The Doing #23: Space is the Place

It was time for another documentary that we had to complete in just one day. This would be a challenge as we had to find a place outside of the college grounds to film. I worked with my colleagues Naomi Doddridge, Jade Popham and Scott Friday throughout the duration of this project. We all had a pretty good sense of adventure so we decided to make our way down to Plymouth Hoe, towards an abandoned building we had found a few days back by fluke.

During this documentary we had to make the most of using a sound recorder to ensure we captured the essence of the surrounding sound. Editing would be important during the process of this project as we would have to record individual clips in our chosen destination and add suitable sound effects to capture the essence and vibe of the place.

Our destination - an abandoned property on Plymouth Hoe 

Throughout the production, there had to be a wild track which would last the whole time the production was in motion. A wild track is almost like the base noise, the background noise, or the noise that gives a video that extra depth it needs to have to get a real sense of what it's like to be at a certain place. For our wild track, we recorded what we heard when we were silent, which was the ocean waves and seagulls at the shore. The building was based on Plymouth Hoe, overlooking the ocean and islands, so it was very picturesque and a perfect destination for soundtracks and vibes.

During the editing, I got a little worried when I was watching the clips back. It's such a shame to say, but most of them were out of focus. I'm not sure how or why, but it just lost that professionalism we were looking for. I tried to cut the clips out where it looked out of place, and obviously did this to the best of my ability. If we were ever to return to this building, I would definitely make sure the footage was recorded on a tripod, and put on manual focus on the Canon 600D to ensure a crisp, clean, final shot. 

OUR FINAL PRODUCTION: Space is the Place

When recording the sounds for the effects, myself and Scott came up with a number of noises that would give a real feel of the surrounding environment we were in. Broken glass, scraping of stones and cluttered footsteps were my favourite three, and these three I used in the production.

I felt like my final edit would've been near enough perfect if the shots were in focus. I feel like this ruined the whole production and I'm absolutely gutted, as we picked a really crisp and well thought-out environment to film. I really enjoyed editing this as I pt my own twist on it, which I like to do with most of my productions that I edit on my own as I really want my work to be memorable. The footage as a whole reached around 45 seconds, but the production had to be 1 minute long. I decided to use the cross fade and title tool, and add a beginning introduction and an end credit to set the tone of the video.

The captions I chose to put my own twist on the production

As a whole, I really enjoyed filming and editing this production. It's a shame we didn't get the footage as crystal clear as we would've hoped for, but we did our best, and it's something we will all bare in mind for next time. This video also taught me how important background noise is, as we learnt that nowhere is ever silent. There is always background noise, no matter what environment you're in.

Cheerio. :o)

- Olivia.