Project 03- End of a Journey

I have successfully recovered the files off of the previously corrupted hard drive! My high res video, web res video, and website are all completed and turned in.  Now I've learned what never to do with an external hard drive.

In all the excitement on actual turn in day, I forgot to wrap up my project.  My video ended up being 6.30 minutes long.  While this is a good bit over the criteria, I believe it was necessary and keeps the experience fluid and cohesive.  I tried to keep it under 5 minutes and was finding the narrative to be awkwardly short with too quick of an ended.  I was told that a couple minutes over the limit was acceptable as long as the reason was justified, and I believe that in this case it made the most sense.

As always, my website was possibly the most difficult aspect for me.  It was especially tough in this case because of the abstract nature of the concept.  How do you graphically display the effects of divorce?  But after some serious feedback and critique from the professor, I ended on a visual representation that effectively translated the mood of the video.  I still have a lot of work to do learning web design, but I've come a long way since the beginning of the semester.  Most of my learning has been based on HTML and CSS tutorials online, but a few studio friends have helped me out as well.

I set out to make a documentary examining the effects of divorce on children and ended up with something way more personal than I could have expected.  Originally I had intended a section devoted to facts and statistics, but the interview material was so engaging and enlightening in and of itself that I didn't want to break that connection with the viewer by switching focus.  I was extremely satisfied with the final product.  

Project 03 Setback

Upon completion of my video and conversion to web res, I headed back home to finish up there.  When I plugged in my hard drive, however, it was corrupted and all the files in my project inaccessible.  Fortunately, because the web res version auto opened in iTunes when it finished exporting, a copy of my final movie was saved to the iTunes library.  The bad news is I can't get to anything else, including the full res video and all my website files.

Today is hand in and I will putting the web version on the HandIns drive along with a very early draft of my website (it will be changed drastically).  By Friday I hope to have recovered some lost filed and maybe my website.  If not, I'll remake my website and just have my lower res video to submit.

Project 03 Screening

I held a screening of my documentary in my hostel last night.  The idea was to get some feedback from all kinds of students, not just design focused, in order to see some things that my I missed being too close to the project.  It was very helpful and I'll be going back into studio on Tuesday to make my final edits.

For some reason my titles aren't rendering properly when I export the final video.  I had them working really well before, so I just need to figure out what changed along the way.  Besides that, I just need to do a few spots of color correcting and website shifts (although I'm still waiting on feedback for that) and then I will be fully done.  I mentioned this in a previous post, but this is really my most successful project.  I feel very good about and am extremely proud of the final product that will be.

Documentary Update

I presented roughly three and a half minutes of my documentary in class on Friday and received some very useful feedback.  I think I'm on a solid course with the direction I'm taking and now I just need to finish.  I plan I'm being completely done with the video by this afternoon.  I have the whole video segments edited, just need to add in some B roll and fix a few audio issues.  

Some color correction also needs to be done to bring a cohesive feel to the whole piece.  This is probably my most successful project, at least on a personal level, and I'm really excited about the final product.  I'll be checking in later.

Project 03 Updates

I finished the website portion of my project yesterday and also completed going through all of my interviews and marking which portions I'm going to use.  Now I just need to get back to my Avid project and throw in those last bits of interviews, touch up the soundtrack, and just generally make sure everything is looking clean.  I should be finished well in time to get some good sleep tonight, which is an exciting prospect.

Documentary Concept

I've have finished writing up my concept for project 03, which is basically a refined version of my last post.  I'm going ahead with the divorce effects idea and already have completed most of the interviews.  Besides the interviews, I am also going to need statistics and animation from after effects to display them,  plus some ambient shots that compliment what is being said in the interviews and shown with the data.  Even though (as of right now) the documentary is based on the effects of divorce in the States, I don't think filming ambient scenery around Wellington will be a problem, as long as what I get is universal with know key Wellington or NZ landmarks being shown.  

As far as what shots I will need, this I won't know until I finish sifting throw all the interviews and decide on a definitive structure for the video; what to focus on, how many interviews to use, what is actually being said, when to smoothly transition into statistics.  I have sent off a storyboard and sample footage to my friend and composer Joe Kennerly and he has already begun work on a score for the film.  Once I have the final (or close to the final) video, we'll be able to really refine the score to fit the mood, transitions, etc.  It's all coming together nicely and I don't foresee too many issues as of right now.  Knock on wood.

Project 03 Concept

For my documentary I originally wanted to study the Wellington wind turbine, the effects if had on Wellington, and how wind turbine is being used in general to shape the future of energy.  After doing some research into this and brainstorming some more, I decided that I would rather do something more unique, something more personal to me.  I came up with doing a study on divorce and how it can effect the children of a divorce differently, depending on their age.  Divorce is something my siblings have had to deal with on more than one occasion, and many of my friends are also children of divorced parents, so it is something that interests me.  I'm going to interview three or four people with different stories and mix in some facts on divorce and separation. 

 As of right now I don't know if I want to focus on world statistics, New Zealand and U.S., or just the U.S.  The U.S. is obviously the most relevant to me and will make it the easiest for gathering interviews from the people I know.  I'd also like to bring in NZ, since I'm here now.  However NZ and the U.S. are  not actually related when it comes to divorce issues, so it might be a bit of a stretch to try to tie the two together.  On the other hand, it may be interesting in that regard, to see its effects in two totally different parts of the world.  Maybe not culturally, but at least geographically.

At any rate, I still have a lot to work out, but the ball is rolling and I've already begun interviewing and collecting data.