Monday’s class was a true introduction to documentary storymaking. It was a haphazard, unfortunate obstacle of events in which we were thrown into a situation and just had to roll with the punches.
My group experienced many technical difficulties. First, our camera battery died, and then our replacement battery was also dead. Unfortunately, we didn’t find out any of this until after we had decided to go outside to shoot our film. After we finally got a replacement camera that was fully charged, the sun had gone down and we had to relocate to inside a classroom. We lost a lot of time during that dilemma, and then struggled to turn on the microphones, which lost us more time. One of the students helped us with setting up the camera and tripod, and from there we were able to get some footage to compile our short doc.
When it came to editing the footage, we faced a lot of problems because no one really knew how to navigate PremierePro. We all took turns editing clips–cutting, adding transitions–so that we all could get a feel for the program. It was especially difficult because this is also the staff’s first year using Premiere, so they are also getting to know the program just like us.
I think the hardest part about last week’s class was time management. The thing about filmmaking is that you have to be able to adjust to any obstacles in a proactive way. Given more time, I think we could have come up with a more creative and fun short doc, but since we were pressed for time, we just wanted to compile the individual clips into one short story.