PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE: Planning, Filming and Editing in Response to Feedback

I amended my shooting script and shot list in according to the changes made with Rachel and Steve.  I changed some of the words in the script to be more child-friendly because when I listened to it again I thought young children may not be able to understand some of the words, and I thought there was a lot of dialogue to understand also, e.g. I changed "with a perpendicular top grip" to "with a small handle". 

Below are the updated script and shot list:

Script

Visuals/sound	Audio
Fade in Shot of the whole of the spade, on table	V.O – “The Fly Tool is a spade-like cutting object…”
Shot of the Medway River/mud or dirt around it Waves and water sound effects	V.O – “…used for digging and loading mud from the Medway River onto barges for the cement industry.”
Someone digging, showing how exhausting the work was. Cuts to stock photos of the real ‘muddies’ (Victorian workers).	V.O – “The spade was mainly used by Victorian workers, who were also known as muddies. The need for a strong reliable cement increased due to the growing engineering works from the late 18th Century onwards.”
Natural lumps of chalk from beach	V.O – “In the right proportions, chalk…”
Someone playing with clay	V.O – “…and clay were used to make the strong cement.”
Someone lighting a match, showing ignition of flame Sound of ignition of flame	V.O. – “The materials were broken down and fired in a kiln at a very high temperature.”
Stock photo of mill stones. Crushing powder with something else to show the 'ground to a powder' visual	V.O – “…they were then ground to a powder with mill stones…”
Powder through a sieve. CU/slow mo. Fade to black	V.O – “…and finally sieved.”
Fade in The shaft of the tool	V.O. – “The Fly Tool has a wooden shaft…”
The grip at the end of the tool	V.O. – “…with a small handle.”
The spade shaped end	V.O. – “The end of the spade is covered in iron, which creates the sharp cutting edge.”
The whole tool in shot. Fade out	V.O. – “Apart from the iron feature, the rest of the tool is made from wood and it is just over a metre in length and about 12cm wide. The Fly Tool is one of the objects which helped make Kent what it is today.”

Shot list

Shot number	Shot type	Description of shot
1	WS/MS/ focus pull?	Whole tool in shot
2	WS – MS	Medway River – waves
3	MS/CU	Person using a spade to dig
4	MS/CU	Natural lump of chalk along a beach
5	CU	Clay in someone’s hands
6	CU	Ignition of the flame
7	MS	Using a pestle and mortar to crush a substance
8	CU	Powder going through the sieve
9	MS	The length of the wooden shaft
10	ECU/CU	The top grip
11	ECU/CU	Iron spade, focus on the detail in the iron and wood
12	MS/ focus pull?	Whole spade

Extra filming

Before I could re-shoot, I needed to create another two risk assessments for an additional two locations, the beach and at a house. Down the beach I needed to film the natural lumps of chalk and someone digging with a spade at the mud. A the house I needed to film the grinding action with the pestle and mortar. Both these risk assessments were signed off by Helen, via email and sent onto Ferg.

Beach risk assessment

Once I had picked up the equipment from Ferg, I was able to go to the beach to film natural chalk, I went down to Botany Bay in Kingsgate as the small beach is surrounded with cliffs with fallen chalk on the sand. This was a perfect location to film the chalk and it there were not many people around at all so I was able to film with no interruptions. I roped in my friend Dan to help with the digging part. I managed to get a lot of coverage from different angles so I could choose which ones I liked in the editing process. We then went back to the house to film using a pestle and mortar for the 'to a ground' line in my script. I used gravy granules to grind as they are a dark brown colour and therefore follow the clay/mud/cement colour throughout the film. This looked a lot better than using the glass because it didn't make sense using glass to grind something when I was talking about stones, the mortar looked a lot more suitable. 

Editing for fine cut

I edited in the re-shoot into my original timeline and already it is looking a lot better. It has better visuals and makes more sense for younger children. The only thing I want to change is the voice over, which I have scheduled with Katie for tomorrow (Tuesday 5th Dec), this is because I think I will be able to make the dialogue simpler for children. When I was watching the edit through, I thought the words may be a bit too long and are spoken slightly too fast for young children to understand. However, I asked Dans 11 year-old brother Bradley to watch it through and to see if he understands it and he said he did and told me where it was slightly too fast in places, which could maybe be made a bit slower. This was really helpful hearing it from a young child himself. 

I proceeded to try and find stock footage of millstones to show the real stones which helped in the cement-making process but I was unsuccessful so I stuck with the pestle, I zoomed in slightly to make it look less like a pestle and mortar set which looked better. All my shots of the tool had a nice light to them on the camera on the shoot day but they were a lot darker than I thought when I brought them onto Premiere, because of this I brought up the brightness of the shots and played with the contrast, highlights and shadows and I am pleased with the colour of the tool now. 

I decided to show the length and width of the tool when it's being described, e.g. I put a graphic of an arrow against the length of the tool and one going across the width with the measurements, this way children will be able to visualise the description of the tool better (below). 

Screenshot of graphic

Voice over
I was happy to re-do the voice over because Katie had a cold on the first recording which was slightly noticeable for me because I know what she sounds like without a cold. I also didn't realise at the time of the first recording but the dialogue was spoken a bit faster than it needed to be. I made sure I asked Katie to speak slightly slower and leave bigger pauses so I was able to cut them around the footage. Again, Ferg set us up with Adobe Audition and Alex helped amplify the voice over which made it sound even clearer which I was very happy with.