Adding my Archive Footage

Following my storyboard, I added archive footage of examples of sexist music videos within my documentary to align with expository documentary conventions and support my narration with evidence. The music videos I added were taken from the most popular suggestions of controversially sexist music videos within my questionnaire, in order to effectively target to my audience through music videos which are relevant to them, and also included sexually explicit music videos which I felt were more sexually liberating rather than sexist to follow the line "Some would say this has liberated modern artists by allowing freedom and pushing the boundaries of creative expression". Therefore the music videos I added are;

• Beyonce 'Partition'
• Nicki Minaj 'Anaconda'
• Miley Cyrus 'Wrecking Ball'
• Lil Wayne 'Love Me'
• Redfoo 'Literally I Can't'

From researching how to download music videos, I tested keepvid.com and savevideo.me, and found that savevideo was the most effective.

Link to post about copyright and permissions.

Next I imported the videos to my Final Cut Pro project, trimmed them, and detached their audio to overlay my voiceover. However as I'm criticising the lyrics of 'Literally I Can't' in an individual section, I left kept this audio and researched ducking tutorials for Final Cut Pro so that the transition between my diegetic/ voiceover narration and the song gradually builds for a clear, smooth and flowing effect, using these resources;


www.geniusdv.com/news_and_tutorials/2011/10/ducking_audio_in_final_cut_pro_x.php

Ducking my audio by lowering the height of the waveform from at the beginning and end of the clip, creating a fading in/ out audio effect and ducking my voiceover which overlays the quieter fades.

To address possible copyright issues with using this archive footage, I will need to research this area further and add appropriate disclaimer text over the footage - which I will update in a separate post.

Rough Cut

Rough Cut of Documentary from Courtney O'Donnell on Vimeo.

This is a simple edit of just my timings and structure so far, as Windows Movie Maker doesn't provide many audio or editing transition options. Some of my clips are also repeated, as I haven't chosen which final ones to use.

Audio: Rowan's narration audio is mostly clear due to the quiet locations used and her well-spoken, clear and projecting voice; however I will use noise reduction for all of the clips, with higher percentages for her narration inside The Forum location which is muffled. The background noise during the interview proposes a greater problem, as I noticed it's quite loud. I will test how effective noise reduction is on Final Cut Pro during my final editing, but if it's ineffective, I will foley their dialogue. This would be especially important for Emily's dialogue, as she's slightly quieter than Rowan. I'll also add my non-diegetic music in my final edits with ducking, as I don't have enough final footage to organise the timings yet. I'll also be splitting the audio from some of Rowan's footage to use as a voiceover for the location and tracking shots.

Timings: As 30 seconds+ of my footage so far is repetitive shots or shots which will be split into voiceovers during my final editing, I only potentially have 2 minutes of footage whilst I've shot less than half of my total footage. Although it's possible that I could reach a 5 minute total duration once I've finished filming, I feel that this would be too risky in relation to my deadline. This has therefore encouraged me to adapt/ add to my script and shot list and re-shoot to prevent this issue.

Quality: Overall I'm very pleased with my lighting and high footage quality so far, however I may apply a brightening filter to counteract the yellow glare from the artificial lighting with my interview footage.

Editing footage: I will be applying all of my editing transitions, titles and subtitles, text, effects, crops/ kens burns, and filters etc. according to my shot-list and storyboard during my final editing on Final Cut Pro, as Windows Movie Maker is very limited in this area for the types of editing which I require.

Cinematography: I'm slightly unhappy with some of my quality of shots, particularly this shot of Rowan in The Forum.

I don't like the amount of space above her within this mid shot, as it is unconventional for mid shots and makes it look unprofessional and un-aesthetically pleasing. I also don't like the background of the fire extinguisher and the bottom floor. Therefore when I next re-shoot this footage, I will use a mid shot in front of the 'BBC Radio' sign, which is my cleaner and therefore focuses to Rowan whilst looking aesthetically pleasing. This sign also relates to the music industry which she is discussing during this shot, making my footage and narration link/ flow - one of my main aims for my production.

I will also consider using a different location for this shot, as I'm not sure on whether I find the drainpipe which takes up the left third aesthetically pleasing; however I'll ask for a second opinion from my media teacher.

My extreme wide, tilt and pan shot (00:29) is also unstable once it reaches the lowest height within the shot, therefore I'll be testing whether it could be corrected using Final Cut Pro stablisation, or re-shoot it during my next shoot.

Audio

I've considered foleying my diegetic dialogue and narration in order to improve their sound quality and clarity by removing background noise; however I found from research of documentaries that this technique is unconventional, most likely due to the vast amount of speech to foley and the fact that documentaries are mostly unscripted and shot on the move. 'Blurred Lines the New Battle of the Sexes' also included a shot on a busy London street with lots of noise to present their city location, which is also appropriate for my production.

As I am shooting in mostly quiet locations (including a library and relaxed area of the city centre) at non-busy times (9:30am and 4:00pm with the latter being shot in a calm indoor location), I will rely on my high quality camera and the noise reduction audio editing process to eliminate the need for foleying.

I will record my voiceover with Rowan using the same camera in a quiet location within the library, as it is especially important for the voiceover to be clear, as there would be no context presented by the footage for where the background noise is coming from, and could therefore confuse my audience.

Finally, my non-diegetic music is prepared for editing: