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

Fine Cut 1:

Once I'd worked off all the feedback I assembled the fine cut. Jemma and Victoria also organised a temporary voice over for me to work with so we can see how the voice over will work with the narrative. Most of this edit was cutting to the script and fixing some shots and changing them.

With the pageant, here I was told to cut to the music which helped me so that when ever there was a beat I used that as a cut point and it helped make the sequence flow better. I didn't do this with Blackburn but I'm sure that this will happen in the next sequence.

One of the main bits of feedback we got from our tutor was that the GV's at the beginnings of the interviews were too much, Simon recommended that we only have 1 or 2 for longer so that you can really take in what you're seeing.

Another aspect we'd managed to add into this edit was archive photos from the first ever skin the pink event which really helped show the evolution of the group and event as you see these photos which looks like a small party and then we show the huge event it helped show how popular this really is.

One of our main issues is that we need to cut more of the documentary as we're over the 20 minute limit so Jemma is working through the script and deciding what we can cut out of it to bring the timing down, she's already stated that the Blackburn interviews will be cut down.

Our next viewing is with a previous BBC 3 Producer called Beth where she'll be viewing this edit and giving feedback.

Beth's feedback:

• Feels like a documentary now (unlike the assembly edit she saw 2 weeks ago)
• It's very watchable now
• Good pay off seeing the shows
• Tone and pace works in the intro
• Pace lowers after the title sequence
• The middle needs more energy
• VO is a bit flat, good its temporary
• Amy often cuts to abruptly
• Good seeing Tanya without makeup on as you see the difference between them and Miss Zodi
• Would be potentially good to make the pay off into one big montage at the end- see all the parties at once
• Conor's pageant is all energetic then the energy is taken down with tanya's part

Jemma and Victoria feedback:

• 0.09- blurred shot is still in the intro
• still too long on tanya's intro- maybe cut after ‘stunning’
• cutaways- still too quick and too many- all contributors, most cutaways
• branding needs blurring 1.24
• cutaways in Tanya's room need stabilising or changing 1.26
• 2.40- change shot, conor needs to go straight into his interview not a cutaway
• 3.48- still does not match script, needs cutting to match the script
• screen shot the 11k followers
• 4.30-live stream- needs more variety- 6.43 in live stream
• start Amy off with the arts club, not name
• 5.00- still does not match the script
• Amy's cutaways too quick 5.10
• find a better ending than 'its mind blowing'
• conor- only need 1/2 pictures 5.55
• 6.36- irrelevant cutaway
• drag day cutaway comes in a bit early
• 7.26 colour grade or get rid
• lower third pete
• put in the ugc from the first performance 8.09
• Dreamland shot cut - use another shot of the bay
• cuts visible when Amy is talking- 9.35 and 9.43
• instagram logo- cant use
• hide tanya's cuts
• 11.02- transition now too slow it doesnt run smoothly
• 12.02- need a gap for the new voiceover
• safe space- odd cut place for amy
• 13.46- location GV, not hotel
• lower third victoria carriage
• lower third sonja, sophia and blake
• blackburn- bring in another soundtrack to keep energy up?
• charity kase lower third
• sort v-log footage
• Make more of a montage out of the performance
• look at the script and rearrange the ending as written

Fine Cut 2:

Once I'd applied all the feedback and cut the relevant sections Jemma had suggested we managed to get the edit down to just over 20 minutes. The film it flowing a lot better now as well. I haven't added in the lower thirds yet since I haven't put in any text but once I add in the text I'll return to this feedback. I've missed a few other bits from the script which I need to work through.

Fine Cut 3:

This version I mainly adjusted more of the interviews bringing the time down by around 30 seconds. I also added in some more archive photos to this footage. From 10:48 (Tanya) I'm having issues hiding the cuts here as I don't have much footage to use with it so Jemma and I need to discuss what we could use here.

So far we have 2 different songs being used within the edit (Jemma has been in charge of finding the music) and we could potentially be getting another track as well for the credits.

In this edit I also got the archive footage of Tanya from her first performance in Plymouth. From 7:31 we bring in the footage as Pete talks about it. I had to do the same style as I did for the photos with having the blurred background as the footage was taken from Instagram so it's square. I also had to take away the audio same as the pageant and Blackburn footage due to the music being protected by Copyright, however this doesn't seem to effect the archive here.

From 5:00 I also needed to find a new editing for Amy as it's clear she hasn't finished talking when I cut her off originally, when I looked through the transcripts I found this ending:

This section where Amy is talking about the experience she has with 5000 people being at Sink the Pink and how she hopes people feel about Sink the Pink. On paper this looked like it would work really well and it was the end of her sentence here. When I tried in the edit I found it fit really well, I just need to see how Jemma and Victoria feel about this.

For the next edit I'll be getting the actual voice over with our Actor Carly Harding and I'll also be putting together the title sequence for the edit so we can see a full edit with all archive images, footage and titles

Jemma and Victoria feedback:

• Need something before the intro- maybe r and c presents? 
• Vo comes in a bit early
• Title sequence- need to see
• Cornwall flag very quick still
• 1.15- cutaways too dark
• Cutaways go dress, make up dress instead of two dress shots in a row
• 2.14 fade sound more 
• 2.29- start shot later, so we get to conor’s interview quicker
• 2.32- don't like this shot, can we go into the interview? 
• 3.28- GV needs to say cornwall more- use welcome to bodmin? 
• 4.21- use a landscape shot
• 4.37- see amy talk about the club
• 4 cutaways in a row is too many
• Good end for amy interview
• 5.27 drag room shot holds for a bit too long
• 6.55 shot needs to cut when it's just conor’s stomach
• Better place to end tanya and dad?
• Boat shot then margate shot
• 10.21- cover cuts with a screen record of scrolling through her insta
• 11.31- cutaways seem odd here
• After VO come in with ‘ it's definitely been a change’ rather than previous shot
• 13.11- folkestone GV, not hotel
• Use jessica and vera in pageant for more variety
• Rearrange to have the all the events at once at the end
• Sort v-log footage
• 16.20 awkward shot outside
• Montage- add performance from margate
• Cut the ending to match the script

Fine Cut 4:

This edit is much more of a full cut with everything in it, I even added in some of the credits as a rough idea, Jemma and I still need to decide on the chosen font for graphics through the film and for the credits. This edit also has the title sequence finally in (separate post to be made about editing that)

Jemma felt the beginning of the documentary started very abruptly as it would go from black and just start. However, back during pre-production I organised our group to have a logo made for "R&C Productions" which can be seen to the right, so I added this in but due to the way the designer made the logo I had to have it with a white background. 

 I also added in a rough idea for the lower thirds, with Tanya, Conor and Amy I wrote their actual name first and then their Drag name below. Pete Hale I simply wrote "Tanya's Father". In Blackburn, when I did a lower third for Charity Kase, I wasn't sure what to put below so I simply wrote "Drag Queen" as I didn't know what else could go there (Discuss with Jemma) I'm not overly happy with the way I've done the titles here as they're very boring and it takes away from the feel of the documentary which is very uplifting and energetic, especially towards the end. 

From 16:48 we see the newest edit I've done for the Blackburn edit, I found there was a section where the song starts that the beat has 4-5 hits before going into the song so I used these as cutting points so we got a fast paced sequence where we see all the queens and then it goes into the performance video, this worked really well with the music and added a little more dynamic to the edit. I went with my gut instinct on this and think it really benefits the performance shots.

With the performance sections, the edit for this changed as Jemma asked for all the performance to be together so we see all the actuality interviews from the pageant to Blackburn and then we get the performance which works really well as a lead up to the hyped event. I also added in more footage for Miss Zodi and Charity Kase performance as they had sections that were really hyped such as Charity "cutting" the fake dead body and Miss Zodi smashing the wedding cake which I felt needed to be see to show how much happened at this show. I also added in some audience shots to show the atmosphere of the event. 

As well in this edit I'd received the actual voice over from Jemma, she had put together a script with different option for the voice over and recorded them all. When giving me them, Jemma separated the voice overs that she felt were the best into a folder called "VOICE OVER BEST" and asked me to try them out and if I felt they didn't work to listen to the other versions and find a replacement that did work.  

These actually worked really well and I didn't feel I needed to change any. I did have to normalise and balence the audio levels on the voice over though as when I brought it into Premiere it was very quiet and low but this was an easy alter. 

Jemma and Victoria Feedback:

• Black background r and c logo at the beginning? 
• Conor in the intro- shot is too quick 
• Misconceptions- text larger and no outline
• 1.00 cut in tanya’s interview between the live stream and UGC
• Lower thirds need to be in the same font at titles/ credits
• 2.41- use shot of conor walking into drag room instead of hairdressing
• 3.28- hold shot longer before cutting back to bodmin
• River GV seems irrelevant
• ‘On twitter’- keep shot on interview longer
• 4.14- only use one live stream shot 
• Go to the interview shot between live stream and follower count
• 8.19- use ‘lash shot’ as a transition from interview to actuality
• Lower thirds for Victoria and Charity- only need name 
• Sort V-log
• See Lussi talking and have a lower third for her
• Lower third sonja and sophia at same time, then blake after
• 
  

MONTAGE

• Change order
• Mix in the other performers more
• No crowd shots 

Fine Cut 5:

With this edit I started putting together the credits with the actual font we wanted to use. When I edited the title sequence and I put the graphics in I was going off the poster that Jemma had created:

The text here I found would work well for the title sequence so I asked Jemma what the font was and found it was 'Tuesday Vibes' so I tried to put the credits the same as the titles:

When I asked Jemma about this she didn't like it, it's not very appealing to look at, although it worked for the titles with the credits we need something a bit easier to read. We ended up deciding on having the names in Tuesday Vibe and the role in "KufiStandardGK" which is a more formal font and easier to read.

When going through the credits there were sections we found that the names needed to be read more than the "role" such as the interviewee credits, technical support, executive producers and music page so we swapped the fonts here and had the role in Tuesday Vibe and the names in KufiStandardGK so that it was much more clear to read. 

Also with this edit I changed the background of the R&C Productions to a dark grey which I don't feel works very well, me and Jemma have agreed will come back to this and try and fix it in the next edit.