Rock Climbing Documentary - Rough Cut (16/03/13)

Today, I finally was able to get on with the rough cut for the Rock Climbing project that I had been set. After sorting all of the clips out in the previous weeks, I was able to start cutting the piece together. I looked at the rough cut that we had been provided with and decided that it would probably be easier to start a new sequence and build the film up from scratch.

I had a structure in mind that I wanted, which was to first have an opening establishing shot to show what the documentary was going to be about, then I wanted to use the bedroom scene to show that the first thing the climber does when he wakes on a morning is start rock climbing, to show his passion for the sport. Then I wanted to use one of the locations to show him bouldering and then finally use another location to show him rock climbing. Over all of this I would like to use voice overs from the interview to explain rock climbing and what it means to the climber.

So first of all, I found an establishing shot, the shot I used was a pan across the landscape to the climber in the distance, almost as a silhouette, climbing onto the top of a rock and then have to title coming in at the bottom of the screen. I then faded to black and faded back up to the bedroom scene. I wanted to use a small montage to show his morning routine and I also used some jump cuts whilst he was climbing the wall that he has in his bedroom.

After that, I wanted to show the climber doing some bouldering, which is like rock climbing but on a smaller scale. I wanted to use the shots of the climber in the foggy area for this because I think the fog added a nice element to the scene and also the bouldering in this scene was better than in the other shots. I wanted to show him trying to climb to the top of the rock but in the process I wanted to show that it took him more than one attempt and then wanted to use some of the interview where he talks about how the temperature effects the rocks. Also during this scene, I used a shot that was a close up of the climbers feet landing on the safety mat. However, the problem I encountered with this shot was that his feet landed the opposite way to how it should have done so I had to flop the shot. To do this I used the flop effect, shown in the screenshot below. Then finally I wanted to show him getting to the top of the rock before cutting to the next and final scene.

The final scene I wanted to use was the climber climbing up a cliff. This would add a sense of excitement to the film and would also show off the climbers abilities. I wanted to start the scene with him walking up to the cliffs and looking up at them before starting to get ready to climb. I then added a small montage of him getting his kit ready and getting geared up before starting to climb the cliff. Then I did a small montage of him getting to the top of the cliff, packing his kit away and then a small interview at the end before ending the film.

Also, I went through all of the interviews and turned them into sub-clips, having each question and answer in a different sub-clip so I could rename them and be able to know what each clip was easily. This was a long process but would definitely be worth it in the long run when it comes to adding the interview over the film.

After piecing the entire film together, I saved it and sent it across to Lewis for him to look at and change what he thinks needs changing and starting the sound. We agreed that we would meet on Monday 18th March to discuss our progress and where we wanted to go with the film and continue editing.