Major Project - [Editing] - Formula Ford Montage Sequence & Feedback From Simon

Formula Ford Montage Sequence

As a part of putting together the 'What I've Done' sequence, a montage dedicated to showing Alex taking part in the miscellaneous track days at Brands Hatch, I put together a minute long montage of just the formula ford single-seater track day with Steven that occurred last month. This is the first example of polished content produced as part of our documentary so it was incredibly fun getting to be the first to put something like this together.


I chose the song 'Discotheque - Bolier' as I felt it was upbeat enough to suit the mood of the montage, and the way that I edit tends to be centered around music more often than not. This is of course not the case in all of the sequences that I'm going to be editing - the Donington sequence for example consists much more of traditional, actuality-based storytelling that documentaries are known for, so in that sense I'll be stepping outside of my comfort zone for that sequence. I was happy to be able to incorporate as much footage as I did into this prototype of a sequence that I was putting together. I also took the opportunity to experiment with various different visual effects available natively within Adobe Premiere Pro, for example when the roaring sound of the engine kicks in on black, the frame of Alex pulling his visor down in the wing-mirror of the single-seater flickers downwards into view to the sound of the engine purring in the background. Effects like these help add production value and provide a more visceral viewing experience for the audience.


I also got a sense of how to begin grading and colour-correcting some of our footage during the process of this edit, with myself opting for a warmer tone for the majority of the shots included in this sequence across the board. There's many different ways to go with our footage given that our colour palettes are fairly neutral by default, however due to the fact that we are shooting on different brands of cameras in general, there's going to have to be some kind of mandatory adjustment on many shots in order to more accurately colour-match them to the rest of the sequence. Many of the shots in the pitlane during this sequence for example required a lot less colour-correction than some of the track-side material up at Druid's Bend, since that location was filmed on the Panasonic DVX200 which seems to lack contrast in a lot of areas, it required adjustment during the panning shots of Alex accelerating out of that corner.


Feedback From Simon

Following the edit, George showed this to Simon and he criticised the music for not matching the tone of the documentary, which is fair enough, however I'm currently not too concerned considering that this piece was produced primarily as a proof of concept for 'DreamChaser' montage sequences and would be changing dramatically in the future anyways considering that there is also Ford Puma and Mazda MX5 track day footage to be added in, whilst maintaining the same length (1:01 approx).

This feedback in regards to music was an important point and is something I'll personally be baring in mind as we go forward, at least when it comes to the music I choose for sequences that I edit.

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