Documentary Production (Part 2)

  Editing the documentary took two days. Day one, November 13th, was all about making a line edit, which is an edit that just contains the interview without any b-roll. This part was harder than I thought it would be. I had to intercut Jaden and Sawyer's interview together and make it coherent, like it's a continuous speech being given by both voices. I tried my best to alternate between the two subjects, but in some places I had to show two responses by one person back to back, as it just flowed better. This is also where I did the color correction of the interview clips. Jaden's raw footage looked fine, I didn't really need to do much. Sawyer, on the other hand, had some lighting in their house that didn't look the best on camera. The main correction I made to it was giving it a white balance, which made it match more with Jaden's footage and improved it noticeably.

Before

After

 The next day was the day the project was due, meaning I had to add all of the b-roll and the music and the "special enhancements" (don't worry, we'll get there) in one day. I began with the b-roll, adding in clips to mask cuts in the interview, act as transitions, and prevent the audience from getting bored staring at talking heads for too long. I realized that I had undershot the amount of b-roll I had needed, but the bright side to this was that it gave me an excuse to implement something that would really make the documentary stand out.

 That idea was doodles. I went into Microsoft Paint and made little sketches based on the unfinished stories. I added to the DIY, Exit Through the Gift Shop inspired aesthetic I was going for, and like I said earlier made the film more visually unique and interesting. It also illustrated the idea of young artists trying to get their work out there, and I used the doodle aesthetic for the end credits as well. All things considered, I'm proud of my artistic accomplishments.

 Once that was done, I added the music. I already gathered a number of stock tracks (pictured on the right) a few days ago when I had free time in class, so now it was just about adding them in. I didn't use every song that I downloaded, but I overprepared enough so that I had something that fit each moment in the film. The first song that I used was this alternative rock one. I wanted to feature alternative and punk music in the film because it would represent the chaotic feeling of being an artists, having all of these ideas screaming at you in your head and struggling to get them out, all while having to balance your life as an artist with other responsibilities. Naturally, by using that kind of music I had to lower the volume on it significantly so it wouldn't overpower the subject's voices.

 Finally, I had a functional documentary, but there was still a piece missing. A secret sauce, if you will. You see, as I edited the film, I knew something was missing. I wanted this film to capture the chaos of being young and being and artist, as well as the aggression and frustration that both leads to and comes from leaving things unfinished. In it's current state, I felt like it wasn't going far enough to do that. On a more petty level, I also wanted to eliminate every possibility of the audience being bored, especially during the beginning.

My solution to both of these problems was simple: go crazy. For the first minute of the film, as well as in a few other moments, I employed some pretty unexpected and nontraditional editing tricks (like colorful filters and a repeated split screen effect I call "bug eye view"), and that combined with the thrashing alt rock that plays during that section really works to give off that off-kilter, anxious energy that's just shy of causing most people a headache.

 And with those finishing touches done, I exported the film, submitted it to my teacher, and took a deep breath. I had finished "Scrapped", my first documentary.