Almost finished

Today we all got together and did the narration for the piece. It is a lot harder than initially thought to write the narration, and we spent quite a lot of time trying to work out on the specific arrangement of words to make it as clear as possible. Louise and Ella wrote most of the script, and as i hadn't, I could tell them if it sounded right or not- this actually worked quite well. The narration had to be clear and interesting, but not too complicated, or to full of ideas. We spent a lot of time a few sentences trying to decide what word fitted best.

We then went down to the edit booth, and used a marantz, and a handheld microphone to record. We decided that Louise would do the speaking (as I had a cold, and Ella is the one who studies sound and knows how the marantz works best.) The speaking went well, though it took quite some time to get the emphasis right and make sure the sound wasn't too quiet. We had to break the script down into sentences and work on each section, which we repeated several times in case Louise had stumbled, or got the tone wrong. She was very good, and I helped to cue her and hold the mic.

After this, Ella and I edited the narration into the first edit she had created. This took a long time, as we had to pick each perfect sentence, place it in the right order, and then switch around footage until the things that were being said matched the picture. (as our initial edit had been based on the paper edit, which had been made before the narration had been written. Probably this wouldn't have taken so long if we had written the narration ages ago, and had shot/edited to it AND a  paper edit, however, as we didn't know from the Dome if we had an interview this isn't a 100 percent our fault)
The edit was on occasion difficult, as sometimes the narration was too long, and we had to search through all of our footage to get relevant material- which took ages, as we took so much footage. This is a downfall of our shooting, and next time we have to make paper edits and shot lists before, so that editing isn't such a hassle because of this.

We also edited in the music from the organ that we filmed, and created a start and end which placed the Dome in Brighton, in an interesting way. This looks much better than before, as it allows for a start and end. It will look even better when there is music on top of it too. I was pleased with the way it looking, though we still have to find some sound scaping and music. I am quite sad that we will not be able to have some of our ideas from the concept, (timeline etc) but these problems are very much affected by problems we couldnt control. (Cal leaving, the Dome not letting us film, etc) However, we have tried to follow these ideas as much as possible- we have made titles which look like a timeline, and we are trying to soundscape underneath the piece. I did try and find how to use after effects and made a timeline, but it was too complicated, and so we decided to just let it be, and use titles, which might not look as good, but still work as well.  This is the next version of the piece:

I have also been looking at our schedule which we wrote before, and noticing that we have not kept that much to it, but that we didnt do too badly in keeping to it.  If we had been more active, we could have made sure that things were done. I have learnt from this project that organization is everything. I am pleased that we have got so far already though- many other groups haven't finished shooting and we have a second edit, which I am very pleased about. I feel like we had a turning point and really pulled ourselves together to make sure we got everything done and ready in time. I feel like this is quite professional and good. We are hoping to have a final edit on Friday.