Major Project - Feedback Session w/ Beth & Simon (9th Apr)
Another Feedback Session With Beth & Simon
We arrived at the studios shortly after 15:00 after driving back from Snetterton circuit and our meeting with Abbi Pulling. We essentially walked straight into our meeting with Beth so our timing was convenient and we were fortunate that our plan to get that shoot done in the morning followed by time at the studios worked out in our favor.
At this point our current cut is approximately 25 minutes long, so we agreed to give Beth the laptop and a pair of headphones and let her watch through the entire thing, all the while making notes that she would then feedback to us and try and gauge where we're at and what else we can do to improve the general state of the documentary.
BETH:
We got a lot of valuable feedback following her watch-through of 'DreamChaser'. One of the key things she told us was that there's a clear story running through the entire thing; it's made in a way that emphasises Alex's long-standing passion/interest for Motorsport, training for a big race and questioning how he's going to get on by the time we get to the race day sequence at the end of the documentary. The voiceover however needs scripting and we need to avoid repeating ourselves, though we did re-affirm the fact that the V/O in its current state is far from final and we'll be making several adjustments as we go forward into the last month of production.
I think one of the main things we took away from the feedback session with Beth was that the entire project is "just a titan" as she put it. Some material feels slightly unnecessary and we need to revisit our timeline in terms of the selection of sequences we've chosen to include and ensure we're not repeating things and covering old ground during later sequences in the documentary. It's becoming clearer and clearer that we need to take a ruthless approach to the material we've shot and make some tough decisions about what to keep and what to cut. For example, the Bruno sequence which provides exposition about what a racing driver is expected to have in terms of equipment, helmet, neckbrace and more, is starting to look like it could be trimmed down significantly, or potentially cut entirely.
Beth particularly enjoyed the Alex's Dad sequence and said that it comes off as genuinely sincere and heart-warming to watch as an audience member which was nice to hear, given that I was the one who put it together. There was also a major emphasis on starting to think about sound design and music at this point, we want to get the pace and momentum going early on and in its current state the documentary feels quite slow until the mid-way point. She also told us that the fitness sequence is too long and needed re-arranging, which of course is already planned given that we recently re-shot a fitness montage on our pick-up day, this is still to be edited by George at this stage. The only other thing that Beth mentioned was the racing license ending being trimmed down by cutting straight from "I passed..." to the in-car PTC where Alex talks about how the day went. I think this will help streamline the sequence quite nicely whilst simultaneously shaving more precious time off of our total length, getting us closer to our time-limit restriction.
SIMON:
Shortly after speaking with Beth and hearing what she had to say, we went into one of the baseroom side-rooms so that Simon could watch the cut and give his own thoughts on what works and what doesn't. The first thing he mentioned was in regards to the Donington Track Day sequence which he saw for the first time today, admittedly I was fairly nervous about what he would say since I was responsible for th editing, however he said that it's a really solid sequence with a good mix of actuality and interview, the only critical thing he mentioned about it was that some of the stuff Sam talks about in regards to his car isn't all that pertinent to the story being told and can be cut, but other than that I was overjoyed to have that kind of reception for a piece of my work.
The transition between the interview with Jamie to the Kickstarter related material was really effective according to Simon, we just need to flesh the sequence out further with footage of Alex on simulators, creating the kickstarter page itself, signing up and other actuality like Alex sitting at his desk, typing etc. He mentioned that the Bruno sequence could be tightened up a fair bit as he begins to stutter and ramble at a certain point, though it could be improved with cutaway footage to him racing or even footage of Bruno's trailer which Alex says he has. Personally I'm beginning to feel like the Bruno sequence will get cut entirely at this point, but I'm still open to trying to make it work within the time limit that we have. Simon did mention though that the transition from Bruno to the equipment in the post sequence was effective, which was nice to hear.
Finally, Simon re-emphasised that the South Downs sequence is one of the stronger set-pieces of the entire documentary and belongs towards the end as we lead into Race Day - we all agree wholeheartedly on this as it acts as a great anticipatory moment before everything 'kicks off' so to speak. He also mentioned that the moments of "liveness" are the most worthwhile when it comes to what footage we capture, by which he means events that can't be faked or staged prior to shooting are what really give the documentary flavour, so that should be something we bare in mind when shooting the race day sequence next weekend!
We arrived at the studios shortly after 15:00 after driving back from Snetterton circuit and our meeting with Abbi Pulling. We essentially walked straight into our meeting with Beth so our timing was convenient and we were fortunate that our plan to get that shoot done in the morning followed by time at the studios worked out in our favor.
At this point our current cut is approximately 25 minutes long, so we agreed to give Beth the laptop and a pair of headphones and let her watch through the entire thing, all the while making notes that she would then feedback to us and try and gauge where we're at and what else we can do to improve the general state of the documentary.
BETH:
We got a lot of valuable feedback following her watch-through of 'DreamChaser'. One of the key things she told us was that there's a clear story running through the entire thing; it's made in a way that emphasises Alex's long-standing passion/interest for Motorsport, training for a big race and questioning how he's going to get on by the time we get to the race day sequence at the end of the documentary. The voiceover however needs scripting and we need to avoid repeating ourselves, though we did re-affirm the fact that the V/O in its current state is far from final and we'll be making several adjustments as we go forward into the last month of production.
I think one of the main things we took away from the feedback session with Beth was that the entire project is "just a titan" as she put it. Some material feels slightly unnecessary and we need to revisit our timeline in terms of the selection of sequences we've chosen to include and ensure we're not repeating things and covering old ground during later sequences in the documentary. It's becoming clearer and clearer that we need to take a ruthless approach to the material we've shot and make some tough decisions about what to keep and what to cut. For example, the Bruno sequence which provides exposition about what a racing driver is expected to have in terms of equipment, helmet, neckbrace and more, is starting to look like it could be trimmed down significantly, or potentially cut entirely.
Beth particularly enjoyed the Alex's Dad sequence and said that it comes off as genuinely sincere and heart-warming to watch as an audience member which was nice to hear, given that I was the one who put it together. There was also a major emphasis on starting to think about sound design and music at this point, we want to get the pace and momentum going early on and in its current state the documentary feels quite slow until the mid-way point. She also told us that the fitness sequence is too long and needed re-arranging, which of course is already planned given that we recently re-shot a fitness montage on our pick-up day, this is still to be edited by George at this stage. The only other thing that Beth mentioned was the racing license ending being trimmed down by cutting straight from "I passed..." to the in-car PTC where Alex talks about how the day went. I think this will help streamline the sequence quite nicely whilst simultaneously shaving more precious time off of our total length, getting us closer to our time-limit restriction.
SIMON:
Shortly after speaking with Beth and hearing what she had to say, we went into one of the baseroom side-rooms so that Simon could watch the cut and give his own thoughts on what works and what doesn't. The first thing he mentioned was in regards to the Donington Track Day sequence which he saw for the first time today, admittedly I was fairly nervous about what he would say since I was responsible for th editing, however he said that it's a really solid sequence with a good mix of actuality and interview, the only critical thing he mentioned about it was that some of the stuff Sam talks about in regards to his car isn't all that pertinent to the story being told and can be cut, but other than that I was overjoyed to have that kind of reception for a piece of my work.
The transition between the interview with Jamie to the Kickstarter related material was really effective according to Simon, we just need to flesh the sequence out further with footage of Alex on simulators, creating the kickstarter page itself, signing up and other actuality like Alex sitting at his desk, typing etc. He mentioned that the Bruno sequence could be tightened up a fair bit as he begins to stutter and ramble at a certain point, though it could be improved with cutaway footage to him racing or even footage of Bruno's trailer which Alex says he has. Personally I'm beginning to feel like the Bruno sequence will get cut entirely at this point, but I'm still open to trying to make it work within the time limit that we have. Simon did mention though that the transition from Bruno to the equipment in the post sequence was effective, which was nice to hear.
Finally, Simon re-emphasised that the South Downs sequence is one of the stronger set-pieces of the entire documentary and belongs towards the end as we lead into Race Day - we all agree wholeheartedly on this as it acts as a great anticipatory moment before everything 'kicks off' so to speak. He also mentioned that the moments of "liveness" are the most worthwhile when it comes to what footage we capture, by which he means events that can't be faked or staged prior to shooting are what really give the documentary flavour, so that should be something we bare in mind when shooting the race day sequence next weekend!
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