PRODUCTION: PROJECT EVALUATION

Throughout this entire project I've worked through a range of skills between the role of Director of Photography and Editor. I took on many different roles within these jobs as well and had a range of Strengths and Weaknesses as the project went forward but ultimately the outcome is our finished documentary which shows the amazing diversity within the UK Drag Scene and how much it's growing and evolving and how much of an art Drag really is.

Pre-Production

During the Pre-Production, as the Director of Photography the communication between myself and Jemma kept at a high level. During the Pre-Production stage prior to Christmas there was a misunderstanding on who's job it was to decide on the visuals for the documentary and it was then made clear that Jemma needed to set out the visual picture and I then had to bring it to life with my technical skills as the Director of Photography. When planning out the shoots the communication between Jemma, Victoria and I was kept at a high and professional level. We always knew the latest script, the newest schedule, I would keep Victoria updated on dates I would be working to ensure we always knew what was happening. I kept them updated on the situation with the Canon C100 and how the borrowing of that was going.
My preparation for the majority of the shoots was at a high level with the detail within the shot lists I did. Although Jemma and Victoria didn't require them, they were more for me to look at and refer back to if ever I needed to know what we had and hadn't filmed. The reference images were an really helpful idea I had in terms of finding locations on shoots, by doing that little bit of research I knew what I was looking for when I arrived at the location and helped me if ever we all wondered what we could go and look for next.
As well as the planning I did for each shoot in terms of what kit would work best. As I learnt from my research from Lee Thomas, choosing the kit is literally like choosing a tool. It has to be right for the job and I took this very seriously. With Blackburn I found that I'd need high quality cameras to get the best footage of the event but I'd need a light weight and high quality camera that I could quickly grab and use to film small actuality and vox pops. Where as with interviews I knew I needed a high quality camera that could have clip microphones running into it for high quality sound that could also attach to a rig for handheld operation. All of these aspects I put into consideration when deciding what to take in terms of kit for each shoot.
Organising the kit hire from Mann Bros Productions was a good skill for me as the DOP as it was my job to recommend the kit hire to Jemma and Victoria and then being able to find the camera for free meant that we saved money on budget which could then be put towards travel which was highly important for this shoot to happen.

In terms of weakness for the Pre-Production I would say my recces were a weakness as I didn't do any. Although Blackburn and Cornwall couldn't be helped due to the distance, Folkestone I could have gotten the train down one day with Jemma and walked around and planned out where we would film. Although the reference images did help we could have gotten a much more clear idea prior to this if I'd have recce'd. Also, if I'd have gone to the hotel where the pageant was being held they may have let me view the event room and I could have made a detailed camera plan rather than deciding during production how I would film the event based off the success of Blackburn. This could have really helped in terms of planning out where to film the event and also me allocating time for set up as I was the only one who could set up the kit.

Production

During the Production stage, my role began to split as I began to research into what it takes to be an Editor.

As the Director of Photography, my strengths would be my technical management and multi-tasking. Throughout the shoots I would be in charge of setting up the cameras, lighting and sound equipment and once I'd done these I would adjust the cameras, white balance, focus, expose and set, lighting I would need to adjust, add in diffusers if needed and ensure it all works well in the camera and once that was done I would then set up the clip microphones (if doing an interview) on the subject and set the audio levels on the camera to record the audio and then set up a back-up microphone for back-up sound via Shotgun microphone to ensure we had coverage on sound. All this I would do alone and ensure it was all set before shooting and then when recording I would be monitoring the visuals as well as the sound levels. I would also have to do a mixture of tripod and handheld operation with a mixture of different cameras depending on the event which I did without hesitation.
Team work between Jemma and I during Production was excellent. Throughout when we were shooting we'd be communicating whether it was on a shot or location or during interviews where we would communicate on when to adjust the shot.  Communication between Victoria and I was also excellent as she would regularly update me on changes to shoot dates, events or locations and also keep me updated with the relevant risk assessments. I kept Victoria and Jemma updated on the kit that would be being used and how long I would require to set up for the shoot. As well as Jemma and Victoria working with me with shoots where I needed a second operator but we didn't have one such as the last day with Tanya where Jemma filmed the cutaways she wanted so we didn't go over on schedule or during Miss Drag UK where Victoria operated the Panasonic because we didn't have another operator. The team work between myself, Jemma and Victoria was consistent throughout production.
My operating through the shoot was one of my strengths due to the amount of hand held operating I did from shoulder rig to handheld, this isn't easy to do and even though some of the footage is shaky, I'd argue it's at a good quality for footage that at some points I wasn't able to actually use the rig.

My biggest weakness during the Production stage would be my communication during actual shooting if I began to panic. At stages such as in the Tom Thumb Theatre where I would begin to panic about not getting shots or going over schedule I didn't communicate very well to my team and from this it made the shoot stressful and caused us to go over on schedule. This could have easily been avoided by me telling Jemma and Victoria that I was panicking but instead it lead to the camera and gimbal dying as I wasn't paying attention to the battery, me and Jemma getting stressed and a lot of miscommunication. Another example is the gimbal that I organised for the Tom Thumb Theatre I hadn't kept Jemma and Victoria in the loop about getting that, although I'd mentioned I was trying to organise one I never confirmed when i did get it.
Being put in the situation of not having a tripod I couldn't have handled better. Whereas at first I was very against this (for obvious reasons that it meant a lot of handheld and manual handling) I should have sat with Victoria and explained my concerns, although the outcome wouldn't have changed due to filming permission it would have resolved the situation better and in a more professional way.

In terms of being an Editor, my research into editing during the Production Stage was very high. Not only was I looking into the correct way to edit and documentary but I looked into what a Documentary Editor does and what it takes. When trying to contact Editors and not getting any responses I found online articles and Masterclasses from Editors. I also contacted a self shooting editor Tom to ask questions which the Masterclasses didn't answer.
With logging the footage and organising it, I did this as I went along with the shoot days, I made the organisation of the folders as simple for me so that if Jemma or Victoria said (for example) "I want to see Tanya's cutaway of her art work" I could easily find it and show them and then when it came to the edit I would be able to quickly find the relevant clips and get them into the timeline.

A weakness from my research was definitely not researching into colour grading. This is an EXTREMELY complex part of Editing and something I've never taken on before so I should have done some serious research into it and how to colour grade as it may have made grading easier and I may have been able to finish it.

Post-Production

During the actual edit, my technical skills and organisation of the footage was one of my biggest strengths as I knew all the footage and where it was so assembiling the edit while working off the detailed script that Jemma provided was simple and easy. My knowledge of Premiere Pro meant I didn't struggle to assemble any of the edits and I knew all the relevant tools when I needed them such as Blur, Warp stablizer, Noise reduction, cross fade, etc. and I was able to fix next to all of the audio in Premiere without needing to go into Audition to do more complex audio editing.
I would regular upload the latest version of the edit for Jemma and Victoria to view and feedback on which I would act on.
The partnership between Jemma and I during the edit really helped to get it to the high level it was at. Working together on choices such as graphics, music placement, archive photos and montage assembly. However, I was also given freedom with sequences such as the montages, the title sequence and finding alternative sections of interviews such as with Amy when I had to replace the ending of her first segment due to being such off.
My work on the title sequence was something I'm very proud of, I had little inspiration with this and simply went off an idea and my gut instinct and it worked well. This is something Editors have to do, I knew my Directors vision for the documentary and the tone of the film and feel I put that really well together in the title sequence as well as working with aspects of the film which had been done through the poster (the title font) and keeping that consistent throughout the entire edit.

Post-Production brought out a few weaknesses for me. Time management and organisation with feedback would be 2 big issues. Keeping to Victoria's post production schedule proved harder than I thought which did cause late viewings or issues when it came to receiving feedback, as well as repeatedly missing sections of the script which I want meant to edit or misreading sections which would then lead to another version being made to amend the changes. This could have been avoided with more organisation and management of my time better.

The grade is one part which is a real weakness. Quite simply I was not prepared. Although a Colour grader and Editor are 2 very different roles. I should have prepared more for this and given myself more time for the edit as it was repeatedly not being fixed and caused more and more issues for me. Although it resolved in the end if I'd have gotten to know the software and the process better it could have benefitted the film much more.

PRODUCTION: MISS CONCEPTIONS SHORT DOCUMENTARY

Miss Conceptions Poster:

Production Stills:

Miss Conceptions Short Documentary:

PRODUCTION: THE GRADE 1-3

For the grading section the edit, we were fortunate enough to get a Masterclass and also a 1-to-1 tutorial with Finish editor Nathan Caws.

Nathan Caws Website

Nathan works for a company called Ignition Creative and he's worked on grading trailers for big films such as Fast and Furious, Halloween (2018), First Man and First Purge and has a large amount of experience using a wide range of software including the highly recommenced software DaVinci Resolve which Nathan walked me through during the tutorial.

Grade 1:

I struggled highly with the grading process as prior to grading I'd found out I was Colour blind, to be exact 'Protanomaly' which is apparently were red, orange and yellow appear greener and colours aren't as bright. This later proved to be quite an issue for me later on down the line.

Nathan helped me grade Conor's interview first and then I edited the others myself. Nathan showed explained about first bringing the black down so they're actual black and the highlights down if it's too exposed. Nathan also showed me how to select an area so he used Conor and brought down the exposure around Conor and blurred the background very slightly as this brings all the focus onto Conor.

Ungraded:

Graded:

PRODUCTION: FINE CUTS 11-14

Fine Cut 11:

Through this version I ended up cutting quite a lot out as was noted in the script given to me by Jemma. I re-ordered a fair enough as well including Conor's sections where we ended up bringing in his photos as Sapphire Stonee sooner and we cut bits that we're relevant. 

Another song was also added in called 'A Slow Dream', in a previous version I added in music as requested by Jemma for emotional sections of the film such as when Conor is discussing the issues he faced at his previous job, to add to the emotion at these sections, once watching the last edit Jemma decided the music didn't work and found the newest song which fitted better. We've also got a song called 'Midnight drive' which we have for the ending and credits. Overall music is becoming an aspect right through out documentary. 

I also re-ordered the ending of the documentary. The main feedback here was:

• 11.17: Amy still sounds like she is saying ' safe spay' not safe space'- please sort this fade
• 13.18- Folkestone is spelt wrong
• 15.29: Conor has been cut off- he needs to finish his sentence
• in Margate the order of the montage feels wrong. put the clip of Hermione Fallon turned around at the end again
• is the crowd sound genuine? sounds a bit fake
• the ending needs to be reordered as asked for in the script
• Conor's ending doesn't match the script- cut to match script please
• 18.17- Licensed spelt wrong
• 18.18- the song title is a slow dream, not slow dream

With the last few edits I added in a small montage of the Margate Arts Club event as it was feeling left out, Jemma had also added it into the script. The biggest issue with selecting the clips for this was we could use next to none of the footage of the actual event as we didn't have permission to use the footage of the public at the event so I had only a short selection of footage I was able to use. The performance by Drag Queen Hermione Fallon I could use however, her outfit was slightly revealing around her breasts so I had to avoid using any footage where she wasn't holding up the sign: 

PRODUCTION: FINE CUTS 6-10

After V5 of the Fine cut, I received the feedback for the edit which I acted on:

• Not sure on the grey- fade in from black slowly so white is less jarring
• Lower third- Tanya- hold longer, add space between Miss and Zodi
• Background for L3s?
• Name in Tuesday vibes font, position in regular font
• 3.02- shot moves a lot- stabilise?
• 3.15- hold cutaway slightly longer to hide a camera wobble
• 3.47- is this shot in focus?
• Amy intro- put her saying her name back in
• 7.49- UGC- cut out the arrows? ( and throughout)
• 9.14- 9.24 add the UGC as given
• Lussi- reveal earlier- 14.45 get rid of bar focus pull shot
• 16.40- face can't use
• Add amy in the DJ booth 
• Credits- with thanks to: make in the correct font
• Turn music down when people are talking

Fine Cut 6:

Through this edit my main points of focus was the lower thirds and making them in the new style which is the interviewee's Drag name first in the Tuesday Vibe font and then their real name in standard font below. The choice for this was that the focus is about their Drag Persona's and we're learning more about that side of their life as well.
I also changed Charity Kase's "role" to Headline Act as she was headlining the Blackburn event and we see a lot of that in the footage because when she's performing all the crowd have their phones out which we don't any with any of the other performers. We also have a short vox pop with Lussi who organised the event, however the issue we've got here is that we aren't sure is "Lussi" is what we should be crediting her as, we're awaiting confirmation from Tanya to be sure of this.

As well as lower thirds, I began working on footage that needed stabilizing, most of the clips that I could stablize were cutaways such as in Tanya's room as they were a bit shaky, I used Warp Stablizer in Premiere which worked to remove the basic shakes.

Footage such as Tanya walking in the park or Conor styling a wig couldn't be stablized with this as it's too shaky due to the handheld footage. However, this I felt we could get away with, it's not all over the place and it works quite nicely.

Jemma also wanted to show more of Tanya's instagram during her interview about her online presence, we also needed to hide her cuts in the interview so I screen recorded my laptop while I scrolled through Miss Zodi's instagram, I then cut it and cropped it before moving it to hide the cuts.

PRODUCTION: TITLE SEQUENCE EDIT

When it came to editing the Title Sequence I chose to make it in a separate sequence rather than making it all in the main edit timeline.

When putting together the title sequence I'd already been told by Jemma to refer back to The Great British Bake Off title sequence. However, I didn't see just simple clips of our dancer cut up working or fitting. I knew the final shot was going to be the camera pointed up from behind the dancer as it's a nice still end where I can bring in the titles "Miss Conceptions". We had shot the dancer writing that on a mirror but the final look of it just looked very basic and didn't get the effect that Jemma had wanted.

I ended up almost working backwards, I already had the intro and now the final shot but I needed the sequence in-between. Looking through the footage I found a lot of footage that could work but with less than 20 seconds for the actual titles I couldn't use a lot. Since the fast cutting effect worked so well with the Blackburn opening and we had that same beat I used that with the shots of Eye lashes, jewlery, Make-up brushes and make-up palette as these are "the tools" of a drag queen and quickly seeing them and then going into the performer would work well.

I ended up deciding to overlap the footage and cross fade between them as there was so much I wanted to put in. I actually was inspired to do this after watching the Title sequence for the Netflix Documentary series Making a Murderer:

PRODUCTION: FINE CUTS 1-5

After showing Jemma and Victoria the rough cut I was given the following feedback:

INTRO

0.09: change shot

TITLE SEQUENCE

0.30: Fade music, no dip to black ( will confirm when titles are done) 

TANYA INTRO

0.36: background hiss

Too long for VO

0.56: no cutaways here, need to see tanya

Less cutaways, held longer.

1.00: over exposed

1.08: 2 pictures at most, hold longer

1.27: blur brand

1.51 cut at ‘better about myself’ 

CONOR INTRO

2.41: only 1 or 2 location GVs needed. 

2.44: colour correct conor

2.57: go to the interview sho

2.34: cut the GV

3.44: Miss Drag UGC/ scrap- use suitcase shot [7.29]

TANYA

Swap the NSW of tanya walking and the location GV

4.11: get rid of tracking shot

4.26: fix shot

4.26: cut audio to match script 

5.04: UGC number of followers screen record

AMY INTRO

5.35: cut to match script

5.38: use focus pull shot

5.44: use one cutaway

6.24: cut at mindblowing

CONOR

6.45: picture of conor in drag

7.00: repeated shot, don't use

7.29: move cutaway to 3.44

7.47: blur got2b

7.47: vary between drag room and wig styling more in cutaways

8.09: put in drag day footage

8.23: show Mrs Claus outfit in drag room- punch in if conor is talking

8.36: use the pictures suggested

8.52: cuts to husband too quickly

TANYA

9.12: cut the roast dinner chat

9.34: change cutaways

Cut tanya- start at ‘ i feel like it was always underlyingly about drag’

10.21: get UGC first performance

10.50-10.59- cut end of pete

Tanya actuality- cut to no zooms

AMY

11.27: Margate establishing shot, not a glass

13.04: too much UGC here?

TANYA

13.25: instagram logo can't use. Screen record her instagram instead

14.12: cut into picture too early- wait until she says it. 

14.20: fade slower to highlight the transformation

Script will shorten tanyas section here

AMY

16.53: clearly hear song in back

17.31: Script will cut

18.20: cut at ‘especially us’ end here

19.20: irrelevant cutaway

PAGEANT

Fade music in earlier 

Shot of organisers first (use the shot at 20.34)

Cut to music more

19.53- don't use

Too long on carriage

No Miss Bambi

Show conor outside talking, with ginger winning as a cutaway

Blur sands charity

20.38: no cut away, see sonja talking

Trim end of blake

BLACKBURN

22.29 ‘one night only’ sign: use under VO, instead of blackburn market

Will cut the script to shorten the dressing room section

Too longer shots of Jay and Iris, cut more, use more different parts of the performances

ENDING

25.32: need a less abrupt end

Music track throughout the final thoughts? 

Reorder- Conor, Tanya then Amy

Conors- shorter

Tanya- shorter or different sound bite

Amy- ending the doc

PRODUCTION: ROUGH CUT

This is my first full assembly of the edit. Using Jemma's newest script really helped me put together the story but it's also helped me see sections which do and don't work. However, prior to making changes I let Victoria and Jemma view the footage and give me their feedback (I'll go into that later on)

When opening the project, Jemma had noted a montage of footage from the performances but when asking her about what footage I could use we came to the choice not to actually use any of the actual performance shots, rather use footage of them either in Drag and about to perform or getting into Drag. Jemma was also very clear on what music she wanted to use, the track in the intro is a edited version of a song 'Neon Lights' which Jemma edited together as she knew how she wanted it to flow, I simply gave her the timing for the intro and title sequence which I worked out to be 27 seconds, 10 seconds for the introduction with voice over and 17 seconds for the title sequence. 

I haven't edited a version of the titles yet as I'm still assembiling the edit itself. I added in a temporary colour matte with the correct timing for the title sequence. I've done the same for some of the archive footage/photos that we don't get have. Most of the archives we've obtained now after me and Jemma sat down and went through Tanya, Conor and Amy's Instagrams as we were told by Victoria we'd been given permission to use anything from them by our contributors.

Tanya:
We needed to find photos of Tanya from her early stages of drag when it was more make up looks (a couple of examples below):

These and then more recent photos where Tanya's look as Miss Zodi has developed. Tanya also says in one of their interviews:

"I guess you never really know what Miss Zodi's gonna pull out of the bag, like it could be something so nice and like pretty and soft and then next it'll be horror and blood pouring out of everywhere" (Tanya Hale)

So Jemma wanted to see a variety of looks, quite literally what Tanya says, soft and nice looks and then bloody and horror looks and we found these photos for that:

PRODUCTION: ASSEMBELY EDIT

This is the first assembly of the documentary. I've done a mixture of both interviews and also cutaways and actuality footage. I found it easier to edit this together rather than just the interviews and nothing else. Speaking to Jemma, I know she doesn't like jump cuts and they also don't work for this documentary, this is a nice and simple doc that we want to flow nicely together. This also isn't a full assembly either. I found there was a lot to get through and I didn't have enough time. This was around half way through the script but it's allowed us to see whether the interviews are starting to work together and also where we'll need extra footage, archive, etc. to hide the cuts. 

There are some cuts within this assembly which aren't hidden yet and also a lot that needs cutting down, especially sections where Tanya or Conor say "umm", this can easily be cut and help shorten the film. 

The next assembly will be a full rough but while I'm doing this, Jemma is also writing up a new script with all the new events and information we've gained from filming which will also have the relevant sections of the transcripts in there so it'll be a much more detailed paper edit that I can use to put the edit together. 

PRODUCTION: THE PAPER EDIT

As I was shown to do in my research from the YouTube Tutorial, I got all the transcripts from Jemma and Victoria. In total there were over 15 Transcripts as Jemma and Victoria had also transcribed the vox pop interviews as well as the full interviews with Tanya, Pete, Conor and Amy so I was able to have all the interviews here. I went through all the transcripts and highlighted all the relevant sound bites that I found were good or helped tell the story, always referring back to the script which Jemma had supplied.

Once I'd highlighted all the relevant information from the transcripts I needed to organise them into Topics, looking through everything I found these were the best Topics to use:

Daily life & Drag Persona (About themselves)

This is where I would have any of the interviewee's talking about who they are, where they live, about their home, family, friends, etc. and also this is where any information about their Drag persona such as style, background, looks, how it started, etc. would all go here as well.

Balance between In & Out of Drag

This section is more for Amy, Conor and Tanya where they tell us about how they balance their normal life and their Drag Queen life. We do get some answers from Pete talking about Tanya and Miss Zodi which can go here as well though.

Opinions of Drag

This is where a lot of the answers will be as we talk about peoples opinions of of Drag Queens and Drag in general, what they think of it, whether they like or dislike, if they believe it's an art form, etc. All our interviews have these sort of answers in them so this will be a very big section of the cut sheet.

Miss Conceptions of Drag

This is where we'd have the information about what our interviewee's feel are miss conceptions about Drag Queens, such as people believing it's only gay men who do it or only men in general, that isn't not an art, Conor talks about how people thought it was a gate way into transsexuality for him when he first began doing Drag.

Diversity in Drag

Here is where we have all the information we're given about the diversity in Drag, Tanya and Amy will have a lot in here about themselves as Tanya is a non-binary Drag Queen and Amy is a female Drag Queen. As well, we'll have people discussing what they think about the diversity in the Drag community and other answers like this.

Live Event

This final topic is where all the interviews at or about the live events will be. Since the story takes us to these events I found it best to have it all in one section where I can quickly and easily find them.

Cut Sheet

Once I'd gone through all the transcripts, marked and organised them into topics, I put them together in the cut sheet (Screen shots below):

This helped me easily find the sections and answers I needed for the paper edit which I put together once this was done. This is also what I'll be using from now on if I need to find relevant bits of the interviews as I've cut them down to this now.

The actual paper edit looks very similar to the Cut sheet. I simply put together the relevant interviews which matched the script into order so I could then quickly and easily find them and get them into the timeline.

Miss Conceptions Paper Edit

Now that the paper edit is done and the footage is all organised, I'm able to assemble the edit.

PRODUCTION: HOW TO EDIT A DOCUMENTARY (EDITOR RESEARCH)

There isn't a huge amount of research or classes online about editing Short Length Documentaries, there is a fair amount of Feature Length though so I decided to look into this as I'll be able to adapt what I find for my own documentary, regardless of length.

On the BBC Academy, there's a 30 minute podcast between a Factual Film Editor called Sam Billinge and a former BBC Producer/Director called Jacqui Farham. The podcast talks about editing an hour long documentary and the process of it including between the Director and Editor:

How to Edit a Documentary Podcast (BBC Academy)

Sam is first questioned how much he'll know about an edit before be begins cutting it or before he's even been given the footage. Sam explains that often he'll know nothing about the footage and the story and this is a better way as it mean you'll be like the audience seeing the footage for the first time. This is also what I found from my Masterclass with Claire Ferguson. Annoyingly this won't be helpful for me as I've seen all the footage already from being the DOP and I'm fully aware of the story. 

Sam does say though, at the early stages of the edit. Knowing the footage and having it well organised and easy to find is key for an Editor. You need to learn the material anyway and know it well. So even though the first stage I can't achieve because I've been the person shooting the film, from that I have gain a high knowledge of all the footage and already organised it in a way that I can quickly and easily find it for when I begin assembling.

Sam also talks about the first point of the edit being the discussion with the Director and where the story is going. With the Editor watching the rushes and the Director writing out what they want from the transcripts, together they assemble the first edit of the documentary. Once this is done they spend the next few weeks of the edit assembling the film with footage, music, graphics, archives and get a version of the film, not a perfect version, they'll be some rough bits which get fixed at the end. This is helpful to see as much of what I have found has structured the way of editing but when it comes to assembling the actual edit I always see it as the "cutting" stage. This is helping me to see you can go into detail here adding in all the relevant footage, audio, music if it'd beneficial at this stage, etc. 

PRODUCTION: EDITOR ONLINE MASTERCLASS

Above is an online Masterclass I found with award winning documentary Editor, Claire Ferguson. 

Claire has been a documentary editor for many years with a wide range of experience. Her credits include Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer (2003), Up in Smoke (2011), Guilty Pleasures (2010) and End of the Line (2009). Claire has also edited a music documentary called Concert for George (2003) which documented the emotional tribute concert at the Royal Albert Hall for George Harrison a year after his death. Claire's editing has won her many awards and she is a well known Editor in the world of documentaries.

The beginning

Claire begins by talking through the edit process and she also explains that every film is a challenge and that each film is different and offers different challenges. As an editor, this is something you can't simply learn to avoid, but instead prepare yourself for it and you'll need to use your skills as an editor to find a way around this to fix the problem. 

Claire's first step is one I've not found in my research previously, where as others have said organise the footage or create a paper edit. Claire explains the first step is to meet the Director. You need to find out what is this film, why are they making it, what is their vision and then from that, it's the Editors job to bring that vision to life. 

I've very forchanate in my role as I'm fully aware of what Jemma's vision is and I've been in the documentary from the very beginning, from the idea right through to the edit I've been involved and I've been speaking to Jemma all the way through and I've seen every draft of the script and I'm confident about what she wants from this documentary, which is showing the development and diversity within the Drag Queen Community in the UK. But in terms of not being in that position I hadn't even considered meeting the Director as an Editor but I've not needed to since I'm also the DOP.

PRODUCTION: PAPER EDIT RESEARCH

A paper edit is something I've heard of but never actually created as I've not edited together a documentary before. However, after speaking to me Documentary Tutor Helen, she explained that the entire point of doing the transcripts (which Jemma and Victoria are writing up) is to use them to create a paper edit which helps build the edit quicker and also helps to refer back to if later on you need to add in something from the interview and rather than going through all the interviews you can refer back to the paper edit.

Looking online I couldn't find a simple walk through that explains a paper edit, however I did find a 4 part guide on YouTube, although quite outdated, does explain what a paper edit is and how it'll help the edit and also how to make one.

The first video of this tutorial simply explains the importance of the transcribes and helps more for people who are paying the Editor as this can cost hundreds of pounds per hour. The video explains that the Editor will use the time codes on the transcribes and paper edit to quickly find sound bites which can take the longest time. For me, although I'm not being paid this will definitely help save time, so rather than searching through all the interviews to find the right sound bite I can easily just look at the paper edit, find the relevant sound bites and then focus on putting together the edit with the footage and working on the story of the film, which needs to be my main focus. 

PRODUCTION: ORGANISING THE FOOTAGE

All shoots are done, all the footage has been filmed and now my role changes from Director of Photography to Editor. Prior to going into the edit stage, from my research so far one of the main things I've found I need to do before assembiling my edit is the footage needs to be organised. While researching online and finding an article by Mark Heidelberger, the beginning of an edit involves choosing the software which I've done by choosing Adobe Creative Cloud. Mark then goes on to say:

"Much of the job will include inputting footage into your editing system and organising it in such a way that you can find and access it quickly. This is particularly important with documentaries since there are often large amounts of footage to deal with, no script to work from, and few (if any) slates to demarcate the heads and tails of shots. The footage is usually provided to you by the producer or director on a hard drive. Upon connecting the hard drive to your system, you can begin the process of logging the footage, which consists of watching and labeling it according to the content. Editors of scripted films can use the scene number or slug line for logging; but documentary editors must come up with a description of the scene." - Mark Heidelberger 

Since I've been the one shooting all the footage for the documentary, after every shoot I logged the footage onto 2 separate hard drives (one as a main and another as a back-up) and began organising them into folders ready for the logging.

As we were still shooting while I made these files I organised them by days, in each file I organised the footage by cameras as this was easier for me to remember. As you can see from the Blackburn file, here were have 4 cameras (Canon DSLR is behind the scenes photos) as all of these were filmed in different formats as well. But this helped me begin the organising.

The Canon C100 footage all comes into a ACVHD File which I need to open through a logging software such as Adobe Prelude to play it back. But I also needed to rename and organise the footage more anyway so I decided to do all of this through Prelude.
When bringing it all into Prelude, because I'd already organised the folders on my hard drive, I had all the footage organised, I just needed them organised a bit more. By this I mean I wanted the interviews in a separate folder to the actuality footage so I could easily go and grab them when I needed them.

Once I'd organised the footage into folders and separated the interviews and other footage to make it easier to find, I went through all the clips, watched them and renamed them as well. As you can see from the screenshot above I named them with the type of shot and what was going on in the shot as well. I did this for every clip and made it simple:

W.S = Wide shot
M.S = Mid shot
C.U = Close up
E.C.U = Extreme close up
(P.F) = Pull focus
(Pan) = Panning shot
(Tracking) = moving shot with the shoulder mount

What Prelude also allows me to do is add comments onto the clips which I used a lot for footage which would either require extra grading (vlog footage) or the performance videos where I could note where the shots start and end rather than having to watch through the entire video to find what I need. This was really helpful with clips such as Tanya's wedding mix at the Blackburn performance. Here the performance starts slow with her in a wedding dress and then later it changes and she rips it off and goes into a much more lively performance:

So the key points of this performance were the mood change and also when Tanya smashes the wedding cake, so I was able to note where these sections took place which would stay in when I send the footage over to Premiere. Already I'm making the edit easier for me by making the footage much easier to find and cut by organising it all like this.

PRODUCTION: THOTANY BAE SHOOT PREP

The final day of shooting is at an event in Margate at Amy's art club.

Annoyingly I'm unable to make it to this event due to work commitments so Jemma, Victoria and Zak will be going there, with Zak shooting the event and Victoria filming the vox pops interviews. When speaking to them they asked what prep I'd done so they could work off it but since the event was like the pageant and Blackburn (we weren't sure what would be happening there) I couldn't do a shot list. I arranged for Victoria to have my Rode VidMic Pro microphone and my Tamron 24mm-70mm 2.8F lens to shoot the interviews on and she said she would use her own personal Canon DSLR camera.

The cutaways and footage of the event would all be shot on the Panasonic DVX200 and I arranged for them to use it with a tripod to get the stable cut aways. However, due to the rush of the last event, the crew ended up taking a Panasonic which had a different base plate to the tripod which they'd taken so it all had to be done handheld.

This was all very rushed and simply a mistake, I hadn't been aware of the cameras still having base plates on them after the pageant event because we'd been busy de-rigging after the final interview.

PRODUCTION: MISS DRAG UK SHOOT

The next shoot we did was the Miss Drag UK Pageant. This was similar to the shoot at Blackburn in terms of we didn't really know what we were walking into. Because of this I couldn't do a shot list or plan for how we would shoot the event. However, the set up in Blackburn worked so well I decided to go with the same set up except rather than shooting the vox pop style interviews on the Sony A7S, I chose to use the Canon C100 as it allows better control over audio and I had hoped to be able to set up the radio microphones on the contributors. However, this proved difficult as they were all trying to get ready when we were shooting prior to the performance in the dressing room and during the event when we would grab quick vox pops I had to use the shot gun microphone as I didn't have time to get up the radio microphones.

However, this didn't stop us getting everything we needed. When we arrived at the event we found that 2 of the organisers were Sonja Wilson and Sofia Mayers who were two of our models for our Studio Production Steal the Style so we were able to get an interview with them and another organiser Blake Allum later on during the night.

I set up the 2 Panasonics at the centre of the room by the performance area. Sadly, we weren't able to get extra crew for this shoot so it was only myself, Jemma (Director) and Victoria (Producer) so I had to ask Victoria to operate the other Panasonic, however I set it up on a wide shot so Victoria wouldn't have to change shots or worry about focus, exposure, etc. I would have asked Jemma but we had already planned that during breaks we would go and get vox pops either with Conor or with other Queens from the pageant.

PRODUCTION: CONOR SHOOT (DAY 7)

The start of this shoot went really well. Communication and team work between me and Jemma was excellent, the reference images helped find the locations we needed but also when walking around and looking for locations we found really good areas including a big sign by the the light house saying "Folkestone". The weather turned from Sunny to cloudy while we were filming the GV's so the footage is slightly different at some parts, however we may be able to change this in the grade.

Once we got to Conor's house, we started setting up the interviews straight away. Victoria found that we couldn't actually interview Conor's husband or his friend, this didn't cause huge issues as we were able to get the information we needed from Conor, the others would have been extra. When setting up Conor's interview, Jemma and I added in some photos of him and his husband behind him to add into the background and just dress the set, the rest looked fine as this was his living room but we just wanted the extra little bit of detail.

Prior to filming, Jemma and I discussed about changing the shot during the interview and Jemma noted on her list of questions what shot she wanted where using the following:

W = Wide shot
M = Mid shot
C = Close up

This really helped me when shooting the interview as this meant I didn't need to look to and from the camera and Jemma and I could simply focus on the camera and then change the shot when the relevant question is being asked.

PRODUCTION: CONOR SHOOT PREP

Our next shoot is set to be with Conor Allum (AKA Sapphire Stonee) filming his interview and also the GV's of Folkestone where he lives. The set up for this will be similar to Tanya's shoot and we'll be using the main camera again as we're filming our third and final main interview.

Kit list:

As the kit list worked so well for Tanya's I chose to keep this for Conor's shoot. The entire shoot will be shot on the Canon C100 however as I'm confident with the Canon now and I know there aren't any issues I'm not bringing the Sony as a back-up camera as I found as handy as it was, it did mean extra kit being brought and out of the 3 days with Tanya, we only used it for one.

The lighting worked well for Tanya's however, since the batteries were an issue I've now sorted a power cable for the panel light so that we can have one of the lights powered through mains electricity rather than battery powered.

Shot list:

Speaking to Victoria about the schedule, we'll be setting off to Folkestone in the morning and then spending the first part of the shoot filming the GV's of Folkestone. Like Bodmin, none of us have been to this location so I spoke to Jemma about what she wants from the GV's. Jemma wanted the hotel that the Drag Queen pageant is being held at and also the town centre. When I googled Folkestone I found the beach, colourful buildings in the town centre, light house and the harbour as main photos that came up. The hotel which the pageant is being held at is the Grand Burstin Hotel and is located in the harbour as well so it's easy to find. Jemma and I agreed we'd use the reference images but also as we'll have time, walk around and find as much as we can. 

I was also told that Conor will have his Husband and one of his friends who will be in the pageant as well so we would be able to get an interview with both of them as well so the plan for these is a double 2 shot interview, one with Conor's husband and Conor and then with Conor's friend and Conor. This will help match in with the documentary as we've shot Tanya and Pete as a 2 shot interview as well.

The cutaways are similar to Tanya's, showing Conor's drag looks and wigs, I've also noted for more GV's to be filmed around Conor's house as we'll need to look around and find relevant GV's in Conor's home that we're also allowed to film, so communicating with Conor will be key during this section.

PRODUCTION: TITLE SEQUENCE SHOOT (DAY 6)

The title sequence shoot was where we had the most amount of crew. I was able to have a Camera & Lighting assistant and a second cameraman as an option as well. We also had a behind the scenes photographer, Jemma and Victoria (Director and Producer) and also Zak as helper for the shoot.

When arriving at the Theatre we were let in and we were told we only had till 2pm (originally we were told 7pm) however, as I was focusing on setting up and planning out the lighting in my head I didn't catch this piece of information, my own fault which did cause issues later on in the shoot.

While setting up the lighting on the theatres lighting stands, I had Effie and Ebony (Camera and Lighting assistants) set up my Red Head lighting with blue gels on them. 2 Red head lights and 3 key lights with pink and red gels helped get the lighting I needed:

No matter how much blue we added though, the red gel over powered it. I tried dimming and diffusing the light as well but this still didn't help. It gave us enough though that I knew I would be able to adjust the colouring in post-production. I've never been a believer or fan of the phrase "Fix it in post" but in this case it was the best way to move forward.

We ended up getting some extra footage such as Laura moving a disco ball around, I also got a shot from behind Laura as she walked up stage and then posed, the gimbal really helped here as I could remotely pan and tilt up so the movement was nice and smooth, this did take a few takes as it was difficult to get the timing right but the final look was definitely worth it.

Due to not knowing the time change for the schedule, we ended up running over schedule. Because of this, I started to panic in terms of getting all the footage and didn't communicate enough to Jemma and Victoria to explain this to them. I also messed up by trying to get footage on a low battery to which half way through a take the camera and gimbal died. This could have easily been avoided by telling Jemma before the take that I needed to change batteries. This ended up adding more time to the schedule and also adding unnecessary stress to the shoot.

Although all the footage we got from this shoot turned out really well, I feel I failed slightly as a team member on this shoot. One of the main parts of my research I could was communication and professionalism on set and this is where I failed at today, I didn't communicate enough here and from that it effected the shoot and made us run over. After speaking to Jemma and Victoria after the shoot we agreed moving forward my communication needs to be more clear, if I begin to panic I need to make sure they're aware and ensure I'm getting all the information needed.

PRODUCTION: TITLE SEQUENCE PREP

Our next shoot is the title sequence, the idea that Jemma had for the titles was to have a dancer performing on the stage mixed in with Slow Motion footage. Our performing however is our friend Laura so Jemma has said that the footage needs to hide her face as the idea for the opening is that it's a Drag Queen and also we'll need to get a mixture of shots to cut between.

Jemma has said she wants a title sequence slightly like that of The Great British Bake Off:

The idea from this being the close up shots, and the variety of different elements leading to the final cake shot, so we see flour, eggs, oven and then finally the cake. With our title sequence it would be showing elements like eye lashes, make-up, dress, etc and then finally seeing the dancer.

Jemma wrote up a plan for what she wanted filmed for the title sequence:

Jemma explained that she wanted all of this footage in slow motion, so I needed to decide what camera to use and also how to film it since Slow Motion with handheld footage isn't the nicest looking footage. I quickly looked on Fatlama.com (rental site) and contacted a seller I've worked with in the past about borrowing a rig for this shoot. I've organised to borrow a gimbal called The Zhiyun Crane 2 with Follow Focus. The gimbal is small and light weight and ideal for small DSLR cameras, the Sony A7S is one of the recommended cameras to be used with the gimbal. 

The gimbal comes with a follow focus attachment which lets me control the focus of the lens with the small dial on the side of the gimbal. The gives the operator stable operation but also I'm able to pan with a small joy stick on the gimbal as well. I decided using a gimbal would be best as moving footage with a dancer is better and with it in slow motion I'd want it nice and smooth for the edit. 

From this I made up my kit list:

Since Jemma wants the footage shot in slow motion and with some movement I chose to go with the Sony A7S as this allows me to film in Full HD at 50 fps or I can go up to 120fps filming at HD 720p. The camera is small and lightweight so makes it ideal for the gimbal and this is one of the reccommedned cameras to use with the gimbal. For lighting I'm bringing my Red Head lights but I'm also bringing with me a lot of gels for the lights (not listed here). Likely it'll be a lot of blue and pink gels as these are the colours Jemma wanted more to try and match with the bisexual lighting she's discussed. 

Although sound isn't required, I'm bringing my small Rode microphone just in case. I've chosen to also take all 3 lenses as I'll need a mixture of footage (explained in shot list).

Shot list - Page 1:

The main point for making this shot list was for me to figure out what lenses to use for each shot. Most of this shoot I'll be shooting on the 50mm Prime lens as it gives me more of a film look and gives me much more of a focus length. 

Everything will be filmed on the gimbal and also in 50fps. Likely the only footage I'll be filming with the 24mm-70mm Tamron lens will be the footage of Laura dancing on the stage (Wide, Mid, Close).