what i have done..

I have just realised that i haven't really been documenting all of the work that i have contributed to this production, something that hennie,lauren and i will have to discuss to sort out credits... So far I came up with and pitched the idea, done some research (this was my slightly less active area) found the experts and liased with them. A fair bit of editing, and took part on almost all shoots, and did 2 on my own, this couldn't be helped and narrated the documentary. I know that Hennie and Lauren have contributed a lot too, Lauren's editng and camera skills are phenomenal, and to be honest she has taught me a lot about Final Cut. Hennie has been great on sound, and research, as to has Lauren, and to be honest sometimes just having them around when your all trying to make sense of the mess, is really helpful for moral. Both of them were really great at putting together the script, and shooting shedule, such an essential for documentaries, and it really helped us during the edit, when we were putting together the rough assembly.
I couldn't have done it on my own, and Im glad they were part of my production team.

update

today we have almost finished our documentary, its been long and hard, and very stressful. However after Helens viewing today she gave us some very positive feedback, and all that is left, is to sort out the audio levels, and some colour correction.. Thankfully the filming i did last night means we have the material we needed to cover the rest of the edits,which we did today. This unit has been the hardest to date, but the most enjoyable.

Editing

We have begun editing and when we initially added all the clips in we wanted it ended up being about 30 minutes long we knew this was way to long so we went through the whole project and typed up what everyone said and then printed it out and highlighted the most important bits which we knew we had to include in the film. The next day we cut down the film according to these highlighted bits and we managed to get it down to 16 minutes. We realised that the section about Ari's kidnap was 6 minutes long but we knew that once we had filmed the reconstruction that we would be able to cut this right down.

On Tuesday 29th November We knew that we wanted commentary in our documentary and so Jane and Lauren record the speech we wanted on Garage Band and then started to add it in to the project.

On Wednesday 30th November me and Jane began adding in the archive which all of us found and went through and made the film flow together so that the story made sense.

The documentary is coming along really well and once we have fitted in the reconstruction and therefore cut down Ari's speech we will be able to create a final cut and their for a final documentary ready to hand in.

Crime Rate in South Africa

The graph shows that the rate of robbery went up after the reversal of apartheid.
http://www.boxofficefootball.com/is-the-crime-rate-in-south-africa-putting-off-fans/

With a multitude of tourists heading to South Africa for the World Cup, a question hangs on many lips: how dangerous is the country?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8668615.stm

filming update

Filming of Skyla fundraising outside Tesco went well on the 12th Nov, with the exception of a member of staff being rude thinking I wasn't allowed to be there, however this was quickly resolved, and I manged to get some nice shots of Rita and the girls all together fundraising, aswel as some close ups of Skyla.. The 15th Nov we were filming our interview with Renee, our expert, in Kingscross at SOAS university, this went very well, although I am concerned about the edit, as Renee talks very fast and this could make it difficult went cutting to different sync.. So far this project has been very demanding, but it is going well, we have a reconstruction left to film, which we will be looking at doing this week. I hope the edit wont be too difficult.

Production

Just shot some beautiful-looking sequences of Rita cooking in the kitchen, Skyla doing her homework plus an interview with her about how she feels about leaving South Africa and coming to the UK, she was natural in front of the camera. We also got some shots of Rita holding the baby, Peyton, and making her giggle. Then we went outside and took some shots through the window watching them all eat dinner, some slightly out of focus in all different frame sizes. We then took various shots of Rita feeding Peyton.

Tomorrow morning we plan on shooting them again, getting ready for school, ie. packing lunchboxes, putting on coats and shoes, walking out of the front door and leaving the frame. Then we will be off the London to shoot the interview with Renee.

update

Last night's shoot went well, with the exception of some sound issues because of the children, which meant occasionally re taking.. All of us worked together well, with Hennie on sound and Lauren on camera, and myself asking questions and keeping time logs. This Sat I am filming the oldest daughter fundraising for cancer, as part of one of our cuttaway sequences. I am looking forward to this.  Renee our expert is going to confirm on Monday 14th Nov whether or not she can do the interview on the 15th Nov.. She is still happy to the interview we just need her to confirm the date, so that we can inform the university she works at which day we will be arriving, as they have given us permission to film on the condition we let them know what day we are coming. So far everything seems to be coming together..