The next cut we've produced is an improved rough cut. On revision, we rearranged much of the content, getting rid of as much excess as we could leaving us with around eight minuets of concise material. The structure of it has been much improved also, we realised that while on paper five lines of text doesn't seem like a lot, once you get the material, that one section can last anywhere up to 5 five minuets. As a result we've made more transitions between contributors, a decision we feel improves the pace of the film.

The fragmented clips toward the end of the time line are bits of interview we deemed unnecessary and therefore scrapped. We thought it better to run under time rather than contain irrelevant material that slowed the film down. 

As part of the editing process of the ten minuet documentary, we've written out all the interview dialogue in order to get more familiar with it and to make it easier to organise. With it in this format we're easily able to rearrange and structure the material in different ways. 

Once we're happy with the order in which the interviews are played back we can match the visuals then start to fill in the spaces with the many cutaways and tracks. An important element of this film is that the images are able to tell a story in much the same way that the interviews will. Its crucial that we don't intimidate the audience with loads of dialogue and instead be very selective and leave plenty of room for a minimal soundtrack, using the images to their full potential.   

Here is a screen grab of the first half of the transcript. Material from the three stall owners from the fresh food section of the market. 

(Michelle:

Hi my names michelle, I've worked for Pickles for 19 years. I first started off in the sheaf market and got promoted to manageress. I've got a little 9 year old girl which i just packed in work for a year to have her then came back to work. 

Unfortunately when this market does open down at the moor, if we've not been managed to sold to another person we will loose our jobs and be made redundant. 

So when it does happen we'll either have a job if someone does buy us or we'll be made redundant and have to go and sign on basically.  

We do get a lot of the same customers and we've made friends with them and they keep asking us, "are you moving down to the other market" and we have to keep saying no and they're quite sad really cause they keep saying "where will we get our same meats from?" Because they do get used to going to one stall and you get used to seeming them as well and you do make quite good friends, working behind a counter actually. 

And they tell us all their little problems and we're there to listen to them and to chat to them.

From me being a little child, I can remember coming in here with my mum, and going to cockles stall, and having a plate of cockles every saturday morning with my mum.

And i just don't think it'll be the same going down there

I 'suppose it's just what you get used to really, i suppose if it'd been down there originally you'd think nothing of it.

Since me being a child, there was the sheaf market, this market and the setts market and i can remember all them, and now its just down to this one market here. And I think personally they should have just had the money and re-vamped this market and made it a lot, lot better, rather than move it, so…. 

I think there'll be a lot of sad faces in here when it actually goes, no trust from staff, from customers as well.

Butcher:

Yes, I'm Robert Wain and i've been here, trading in the market for 13 years on my own, I've been in the market all together 36 years and about this new market I'm hoping to go down in the next 18 months.

We're hoping we can afford to go down 'cause the prices what we're paying now are going to quadruple, we we hope we can afford it y'know. 

Sorry 'bout that, and like I say, i hope and pray it takes off cause it's my livelihood at the end of the day. Councillors are here like everyday, day in day out, they've got a job, it's out livelihood, we've got to fog down there and make a living, y'know what I mean? An with these prices what they're going to charge us for rent I feel that I'm going to be struggling a little bit, you know what I mean? But at the end of the day, as i say, its my livelihood, I've got to go there, I've got to give it a good. I've got a young family and that's it at the end of the day, I've got you y'know, go for it. 

As it is we've got to move the market to a modern place, its been here forever really, I can't understand why they can't do this up. By all accounts there going to make that the new town centre down there so everything's going to be diverted down t'new market. I mean its a good idea really but I will say again, it's the cost of the rent, god knows whats going to happen to me at the end of the day but I just hope and pray I can afford it.        

Our committee are fighting for us, they're doing a good job for us, we're all sticking together, we're all in it together at the end of the day we've all got young families, it's all our livelihood and we've got to look after each other at the end of the day and lets hope city council look after us.)


Following this, we then took what we'd typed and organised it into several topics of conversation. We thought it best to jump from contributor to contributor, linking them all with common themes, rather than have them tell their story one after another. 

The screen grab illustrates the new form and its from this plan that we will begin to structure the clips in Final Cut.

I'm at the stage now where we have organised the clips according to the structured transcript. At the moment its in its roughest cut form, from here we're able to rearrange footage until we are 100% happy with the order in which the interviews fall; then we can begin to fill the gaps with cutaways. The use of cut aways both creates space between interviews, allowing the audience room to think and take in information. However, in a more practical sense, it will allow us to cut up interview footage and edit it into what sounds like a seamless response.

This stage of editing is the most important as its this that will become the very skeleton of the film, get it wrong and no matter how beautiful the imagery is, if the content isn't engaging, the piece cannot be successful.

As part of the editing process of the ten minuet documentary, we've written out all the interview dialogue in order to get more familiar with it and to make it easier to organise. With it in this format we're easily able to rearrange and structure the material in different ways. 

Once we're happy with the order in which the interviews are played back we can match the visuals then start to fill in the spaces with the many cutaways and tracks. An important element of this film is that the images are able to tell a story in much the same way that the interviews will. Its crucial that we don't intimidate the audience with loads of dialogue and instead be very selective and leave plenty of room for a minimal soundtrack, using the images to their full potential.   

Here is a screen grab of the first half of the transcript. Material from the three stall owners from the fresh food section of the market. 

(Michelle:

Hi my names michelle, I've worked for Pickles for 19 years. I first started off in the sheaf market and got promoted to manageress. I've got a little 9 year old girl which i just packed in work for a year to have her then came back to work. 

Unfortunately when this market does open down at the moor, if we've not been managed to sold to another person we will loose our jobs and be made redundant. 

So when it does happen we'll either have a job if someone does buy us or we'll be made redundant and have to go and sign on basically.  

We do get a lot of the same customers and we've made friends with them and they keep asking us, "are you moving down to the other market" and we have to keep saying no and they're quite sad really cause they keep saying "where will we get our same meats from?" Because they do get used to going to one stall and you get used to seeming them as well and you do make quite good friends, working behind a counter actually. 

And they tell us all their little problems and we're there to listen to them and to chat to them.

From me being a little child, I can remember coming in here with my mum, and going to cockles stall, and having a plate of cockles every saturday morning with my mum.

And i just don't think it'll be the same going down there

I 'suppose it's just what you get used to really, i suppose if it'd been down there originally you'd think nothing of it.

Since me being a child, there was the sheaf market, this market and the setts market and i can remember all them, and now its just down to this one market here. And I think personally they should have just had the money and re-vamped this market and made it a lot, lot better, rather than move it, so…. 

I think there'll be a lot of sad faces in here when it actually goes, no trust from staff, from customers as well.

Butcher:

Yes, I'm Robert Wain and i've been here, trading in the market for 13 years on my own, I've been in the market all together 36 years and about this new market I'm hoping to go down in the next 18 months.

We're hoping we can afford to go down 'cause the prices what we're paying now are going to quadruple, we we hope we can afford it y'know. 

Sorry 'bout that, and like I say, i hope and pray it takes off cause it's my livelihood at the end of the day. Councillors are here like everyday, day in day out, they've got a job, it's out livelihood, we've got to fog down there and make a living, y'know what I mean? An with these prices what they're going to charge us for rent I feel that I'm going to be struggling a little bit, you know what I mean? But at the end of the day, as i say, its my livelihood, I've got to go there, I've got to give it a good. I've got a young family and that's it at the end of the day, I've got you y'know, go for it. 

As it is we've got to move the market to a modern place, its been here forever really, I can't understand why they can't do this up. By all accounts there going to make that the new town centre down there so everything's going to be diverted down t'new market. I mean its a good idea really but I will say again, it's the cost of the rent, god knows whats going to happen to me at the end of the day but I just hope and pray I can afford it.         

Our committee are fighting for us, they're doing a good job for us, we're all sticking together, we're all in it together at the end of the day we've all got young families, it's all our livelihood and we've got to look after each other at the end of the day and lets hope city council look after us.)

Poetic Soundscape

It was this aspect of the poetic documentary that I found the most challenging. 

The plan for the sound was going to be simple, non sync atmos recorded in the market and layered on top of the visuals that would rise and fall as the day progressed from morning to evening. When it came to doing this however it didn't sound as tasteful as I imagined. One of the many problems we encountered was the music that's played throughout the market. To get a clean recording of speech without an over powering pop song was near impossible. Second to this, the speech that we did manage to cleanly record was so clean that each individual word was audible. The result of this was a soundtrack of several clear conversations that seemed to have some importance to the piece where as in actuality they were meaningless. All we really wanted was some of the general jumble of noises the market produces. 

Eventually we found a few recordings that were free of any music and began playing with ways to make them less clear. We got around the problem of being able to hear every word by chopping them up and layering them on a number of tracks while panning them left and right to give them a sense of depth. The result is atmos that seems to surround you while at the same time being essentially unrecognisable as real conversations. As planned, the sound of customers and traders begins very faintly, climbing to a climax at around the one minute mark then beginning to fade away. Rather than just increasing the volume of the atmos track to represent a busier space, we layered more and more tracks of atmos on top of one another giving the sound added density. We found that if we played solely with the volume the result was a loud, yet hollow track. It wasn't convincing as portraying a space that filled up with people and the noise. 

The grab above shows how two of the three layers of atmos are combined and panned to increase density and represent space. The third layer, not visible in this image, was used as a constant track that the ones above added too when the climax approached. 

With the basic atmos in place, we set about adding more specific sounds to the piece. While initially we thought we wouldn't need any, with the results we had achieved thus far, it was felt that since we had the opportunity to produce a more creative soundscape, we would. The most noticeable and most challenging sound to get right was the sound of the fluorescent lights turing on during the opening track. Though the sounds arn't that obvious in reality, we were so pleased with the look of shot we felt that it was necessary to give it added impact by creating a definitive soundtrack to accompany it.  We started by getting recordings of the same type of lights turing on, then we went though the clip and synced the flashes with the sounds. Next, we added a small amount of reverb to give the sense that the lights are turing on in a space the size of castle market. Finally, we used a succession of fast pans left and right to match the sequence in which the lights turn on left and right of the centre of the frame.       

We did the same thing with the footsteps, playing with EQ and reverb to give the effect that they were recorded at the time of shooting. 

To help with the sometimes 'clunky' cuts between shots, we used a number of sound bridges to help carry the audience from scene to scene. Below is a grab that shows how the sound of the trader pushing a trolly bridges from the clip before and the clip after, leading the audience through. I've also panned the sound to the left toward the end to represent the side of the screen he exits. From here, the scene changes completely, now set around 11am, the sound of voices slowly start to the heard, this marks the first major change in time.  

Trader exiting to the left

  

Pan left, following trader

Poetic Edit

I've included a number of screen grabs that better explain our choices and methods during the editing process. 

Our goal was to produce a film that represented the market at different times of the day, in order to do this we shot in this fashion to help us when it came to the edit. This meant that when we came to edit the first job was to select the best looking clips that also contained varying levels of action. Once we had a rough idea of the order we wanted the clips to appear we had to make the creative decision whether of not to make use of cross fades. Being that we hoped our film would appear to be one long journey through the market, initially we assumed that we would crossfade each clip so as lessening the juxtaposition between differing shots. Another reason we assumed this would be the best method was due to our research into Sea Change. Pedlow and King's use of quick dissolves works really well when changing time of day as nothing in the frame changes except the light, giving the transition a very natural feel. This was not the case with our film however, we soon realised that using a dissolve looked messy due to the frame completely changing shot to shot. It also felt like while it looks sloppy, it would have been the easiest way to transition and therefore felt a bit like a cop out. 

Following the initial dismay at the realisation that our hopes for a continuous shot would be impossible to achieve, we soon realised that the use of a cut gave the piece more definition and form. We then found that the sometimes abrupt transitions were useful in giving the film a sense of pace. By using clips that contain customers then cutting them so that they 'appear' in the middle of the frame resulted in an interesting juxtaposition of movement; rather than the film getting boring and predicable after the initial tracks, it throws up surprises that grab the audiences attention. 

These screen grabs above illustrate where I've used the combination of movement within the frame alongside the movement of the camera its self, cut abruptly to sustain pace.

A drawback to these abrupt cuts is that there are times where they work better than others. This is because it was very hard to put the clips in an order that worked in terms of portraying a rise and fall in people whilst at the same time getting the two clips to flow seamlessly when put back to back.  

There are only two places I chose to utilise a dissolve. To introduce the piece, and the transition between the two last shots. We had filmed the lights turing off, a replica of the first shot only in reverse and it was this that we had suggested to end the film with. A repeat of the opening, going full circle in the journey through the market. I still like the idea however it was felt that it may have been to predicable. Instead, I cut all the footage from the begging of the clip of the lights turning down and start the shot with the lights already off. I feel this works better for two reasons, the first being as i have said, its less predictable to end the film with a static shot and asa result gives the ending more impact. Secondly, due to the symmetrical nature of the footage, there is always a central focal point that doesn't move and is never reached. This is opposed in the final shot as its the security guard thats centred and its him, not the camera thats moving. Its also suggested at this point that what the audience has just seen is the journey of this unknown character, satisfying in my opinion as it reveals some context right at the end and leaves the audience wanting more.      
   

An aspect of the film that if I were do it again I would change would be the use of repeated locations at different times of day. The reason we didn't do this was due to the impractical nature of taking the track and setting it up in such a cramped and busy location. A lot of the shots we managed to get were during a two to three hour period, excluding those we shot between the hours of 3-5am. Despite this I feel we have a range of footage that does a good job to portray different times of day. Being the month it was when we shot the documentary, it got dark early, helpful being that the light changed dramatically in the space of an hour. This is evident in some of the footage, particularly when filming in the non-food areas of the market (below)  

However, in the food market there is no natural light meaning that essentially the lighting is constant from the moment the main lights are turned on until they are turned off at the end of the day. This meant that the only way we were able to imply the time of day was through how many people we would allow in the shot at any one time. Filming quiet areas to use as early morning shots, then five minuets later shooting a busy area and suggest a new time of day. 

Around 3pm

Around 3.30am

^
You can see the problem.

Talking of repeating locations, we did use this technique once not that it's very noticeable as its not a technique we relied on. I wanted to include at least one comparison if for no other reason that to see if the audience would pick up on it.  

The aspect of the film I'm most please with are the very styled 'Kubrick' tracks. As you can see in the screen grabs above we paid particular attention when setting up the shot that the central focal point was in the same place and that where possible the strip lighting matched up as well. It was crucial that we tried to match them up as it would give us a better chance for smooth crossfade transitions, as it is we abandoned that idea, still, it's the fact that all the shots are framed in the same way that enabled us to use a cut instead.      

Today we we went for what will hopefully be the last shoot in Castle Market. In order to complete our poetic piece we needed to film the market opening up, mainly in order to catch the traders setting up their stalls. Since we've spent a lot of time there over the last two weeks we managed to get relatively friendly with the security staff, this has been a massive help as its through them that we managed to arrange an early morning shoot. We were told that the first traders arrive at around 4am, we got there for 3.30 and started setting up. This gave us the invaluable opportunity to play with the lights before anyone came to start work and the results look great. It provides the perfect opening to the poetic piece, a slow track through the centre of the empty market as the fluorescent lights start to flicker into life. Following this we stuck around for a bit, capturing cut aways to be used in our ten minuet film. When it hit 4.30 traders began to arrive at which time we once again set up the track and managed to capture them setting up the stalls. With this on film I feel we now have a well rounded journey through the different stages of the market, from lights on to lights off and everything in between.

Below are a few images captured within castle market during the wee-hours.

Poetic Tracking

Sea Change

http://flamin.filmlondon.org.uk/showcase/assets/showcase_items/sea_change

"Filmed on a caravan park at the end of the season, Sea Change reveals a landscape dramatically transformed by light and time, and resonating with the transience of human presence. The old caravans that fill the site are soon to be removed and crushed to make way for a new housing development, so the film also acts as a kind of document for an unusual place on the brink of disappearance." 

With our poetic documentary, our overall goal it to a piece reminiscent of this work. Like the subject in Sea Change, Castle market's days are numbered and by making our documentary inside it gives us a chance to capture this unique location before it becomes a thing of the past.

We too will be using a track, albeit a much shorter one, in order to achieve fluid movement through the environment. The reason Sea Change works so well is because the makers have managed to capture the same scene in very contrasting lights and times of day. This throws up the first problem when trying to imitate the work, the fact Castle Market is indoors and in places underground, the light stays essentially the same throughout the day. The only changing factor is  the footfall, however, in this dying market place the different from 9am to 6pm is so slight that if portrayed on film, I fear the message would be lost. The only way in which this would work is if we arrived around 5am to catch the traders setting up and then came back at closing time, to see it all winding down. This is what I feel we'll have to do if we want to produce something other than a film that simply relies on camera movement to classify it 'poetic.' I would feel the film would be much more of a success if it could be broken down into identifiable times of day.

The second limitation is that our track at full length is around six meters, not three hundred as it is in Sea Change. This means that unlike Sea Change, where the fades from one time frame to another blend seamlessly, our film will have to fade from not only a different time of day, but to a different location. I hoping that through the symmetry of the market aisles that this doesn't make the film feel too disjointed and if anything it actually be reminiscent of the chaotic and hectic feel of the market its self.

The soundtrack is interesting as it uses both recorded atmos of bird song and occasional barking dogs, layered with an eerie, echoing, almost musical track. The two combined create a sense of great emptiness, reminiscent of the large, flat, empty plain on which the caravan community are situated. There are elements of the sea played into the track too, the birds sound like sea gulls and the faint sound of waves/wind can be heard, also connoting the feeling of a great emptiness. What I take from this is the fact its important for the soundtrack to add too and match the themes of the work, in the case of my film, while at the begging when the market is being set up, while there will be noise, not so much as during peak opening hours and again. To resemble this, a suitable soundtrack would raise and fall as the market fills then empties.

Sea Change, 2005. Film. Directed by Rosie PEDLOW & Joe KING. UK: Folk Projects.  






  

Tracking Practice

After finding out we had access to a track and dolly, it was quickly decided that our poetic documentary would take the form of one continuous journey through castle market. By setting the track up in the middle of numerous aisles and cross fading the footage we hope to create seamless motion that highlights the markets unique sights and sounds. Before attempting to use the kit in the busy market we thought it a good idea to test it out so we could be more efficient on location. As it turned out the whole thing was extremely easy to put together and use, below are the results we achieved during testing. 

     
< In castle market, setting up the track and dolly. Aside from the frequent odd looks and repeated "whats that for?" the filming went well and we're pleased with the results.