Major Task – DOCUMENTARY final cut
Final Reflection
What an incredible journey! I can’t believe I did it!
I don’t remember having been so nervous about something in my entire life! The amount of information, the new skills needed to acquire for using Premier Pro, the time pressure… it was overwhelming!
But the feeling at this moment, after finalising my project, is hard to be described. It’s a mix of joy, amazement, fulfillment and happiness. I really enjoyed the ride.
After getting my A levels and will continue to invest time and energy into developing the filmmaking skills. I have been always drawn to documentaries, I like exploring many areas (from philosophy, psychology to building efficient real estate) and I also like sharing information. So, who knows, maybe one day, filmmaking will be more than a hobby to me or a simply a marketing tool for the business I intend to start.
Shifting the focus from my current feelings to a more objective view of my project, I can certainly see a lot of gaucheries and a lot of room for improvement: panning too fast the camera in some instances; poor stabilisation of the image while following a subject with handheld camera; eyes on the prints rather than into the eyes of the interview body; forgetting the TV screen on, with moving images in the same scene of our running interview, diluting the focus of the audience… and many others. It’s like when I do the proof spelling of something I wrote: even when I read the 100th time, I can still find a small correcting to be done.
But being my first complete project of this kind, I am more than happy with what I achieved. I had everything very clearly set up in my mind, but after the montage, the combination of footage, sound and graphics allowed me to dive into a much touching experience.
I am also very happy about my choice of music. If I was very critical with myself on this topic at the preliminary project, I think this time I nailed it. I found a very good combination of soundtrack which work well together and which can also convey the emotion needed to complement the footage.
