Adam – On the Editing Process

Coming into this process as a journalism major, I was excited for the opportunity to explore the media side of the documentary genre, but less aware of the technical aspects that this would entail. The editing process has been a learning experience for me that has given me the ability to make creative media decisions in a way that I can back up.

Early on in class, we learned to create timelapse sequences from multiple frames, a skill that I put to use when incorporating the animations into the premier file. Each animation manifested as a series of photoshop files that I then sequenced in premier, meaning that I could choose a slower, simplistic pace for the animations, which reenforces Robyn’s more simplistic imagination. Similarly, Stephens animations are a little more complicated and fast paced, reflecting his own unique imagination and storytelling style.

A technical difficulty I experienced while editing was dealing with the shadows and washed out portions of the green screen. The dilemma I ran in to is that darkening the shadows created an even greenscreen, but lighting imbalances on the upper half of the subjects body. I made the decision to go with the darker shadows, as I thought this made for a nicer visual effect than leaving imbalances in the green screen.

Other elements of the edit – such as the animation and music – were incorporated stylistically throughout our groups entire invention and creation process. These are blogged about extensively throughout.

Though there was certainly a learning curve, I was finally able to create a rough cut of our video, wish I sent to Kaimana and Reeve to polish.