Major Project - [Editing] - The Introduction
Editing The Introduction
Since the introduction is more of a montage rather than an actuality piece/interview, I was designated the sequence to edit upon splitting the editing responsibilities between myself and George. My idea behind what I came up with was that I wanted to establish who Alex was, what he's already accomplished and give the audience a reason as to why he's so motivated to go on the journey that he does throughout the course of 'DreamChaser'. Simultaneously I wanted to also show enough of the documentary to establish the sense of that journey within the audience's mind, it's important to us to be able to show just how much effort has gone into this not just on Alex's part, but all of ours.
The sequence begins with drone material that was shot as South Downs, which then cuts to an aerial drone shot of Alex driving round a bend. We felt that this shot worked well not only aesthetically, but also it somewhat matches the kind of bends and cornering that Alex does around the circuits that he visits during the documentary - so in that sense we're already thinking about iconography and what these images may or may not represent. At this point the voice-over comes in establishing who Alex is, the fact that he has a YouTube channel and has been fortunate enough to have opportunities through the passion he already has for motorsport, but now is looking to take the next step into actually competing.
As Alex talks about his passion and these opportunities he's already been given, I overlay some of the VFX material of his channel that I put together prior to this, thus providing visual representation of the passion he's referring to, this then cuts in closer to his subscriber count to establish his already-existing internet presence and authority on the topic. Following this there's several shots of Alex preparing himself for on-track time during the race day sequence, including a shot of him tying his shoes in the garages and another of him watching the cars pass the pitwall straight at Brands Hatch. After this comes my favourite part of the introduction personally; since we made an effort to shoot several shots following Alex from behind with him C.O.F. I saw an opportunity to cut these to the underlying beat of the song. This fills time and keeps the audience visually interested without the need for voice-over during this down-period, but also gives them a really good glimpse of the scope of the documentary and how many different locations we've visited over the course of the last 3 months. The final shot hangs slightly longer than the others as Alex's voice-over fades back in and describes the kind of race that he's looking to compete in, all of which are accompanied by GV's establishing the car he'll be racing in, the series the race is a part of and of course Brands Hatch Circuit as the destination.
The final section of the introduction includes Alex acknowledging the challenges that he needs to overcome in order to be able to race, cut to footage of him getting into the BMW, speaking with Rod Birley watching Sam race past the Brands Hatch pitwall whilst looking nervous. I decided to bring in the audio of the clip at this point as having the sound of the car racing past the camera was effective at establishing the speed at which you're expected to go, which of course would be more interesting to those who are strangers to the world of motorsport and exactly what it entails. The introduction then closes with some shots of Alex on the fitness equipment to establish that he has to work to achieve his goals, followed by the introductory titles "An AFR Production" & "DreamChaser". In order to make these titles pop a bit more, rather than just have them appear on a black screen I overlaid footage of Alex's helmet in the background, lowering the opacity and adding a vignette to create a sense of depth to the image and ensure the text is readable. The final touch were the sound effects of a key turning the ignition of a race car and the sound of Sam's car revving in the background.
Since the introduction is more of a montage rather than an actuality piece/interview, I was designated the sequence to edit upon splitting the editing responsibilities between myself and George. My idea behind what I came up with was that I wanted to establish who Alex was, what he's already accomplished and give the audience a reason as to why he's so motivated to go on the journey that he does throughout the course of 'DreamChaser'. Simultaneously I wanted to also show enough of the documentary to establish the sense of that journey within the audience's mind, it's important to us to be able to show just how much effort has gone into this not just on Alex's part, but all of ours.
The sequence begins with drone material that was shot as South Downs, which then cuts to an aerial drone shot of Alex driving round a bend. We felt that this shot worked well not only aesthetically, but also it somewhat matches the kind of bends and cornering that Alex does around the circuits that he visits during the documentary - so in that sense we're already thinking about iconography and what these images may or may not represent. At this point the voice-over comes in establishing who Alex is, the fact that he has a YouTube channel and has been fortunate enough to have opportunities through the passion he already has for motorsport, but now is looking to take the next step into actually competing.
As Alex talks about his passion and these opportunities he's already been given, I overlay some of the VFX material of his channel that I put together prior to this, thus providing visual representation of the passion he's referring to, this then cuts in closer to his subscriber count to establish his already-existing internet presence and authority on the topic. Following this there's several shots of Alex preparing himself for on-track time during the race day sequence, including a shot of him tying his shoes in the garages and another of him watching the cars pass the pitwall straight at Brands Hatch. After this comes my favourite part of the introduction personally; since we made an effort to shoot several shots following Alex from behind with him C.O.F. I saw an opportunity to cut these to the underlying beat of the song. This fills time and keeps the audience visually interested without the need for voice-over during this down-period, but also gives them a really good glimpse of the scope of the documentary and how many different locations we've visited over the course of the last 3 months. The final shot hangs slightly longer than the others as Alex's voice-over fades back in and describes the kind of race that he's looking to compete in, all of which are accompanied by GV's establishing the car he'll be racing in, the series the race is a part of and of course Brands Hatch Circuit as the destination.
The final section of the introduction includes Alex acknowledging the challenges that he needs to overcome in order to be able to race, cut to footage of him getting into the BMW, speaking with Rod Birley watching Sam race past the Brands Hatch pitwall whilst looking nervous. I decided to bring in the audio of the clip at this point as having the sound of the car racing past the camera was effective at establishing the speed at which you're expected to go, which of course would be more interesting to those who are strangers to the world of motorsport and exactly what it entails. The introduction then closes with some shots of Alex on the fitness equipment to establish that he has to work to achieve his goals, followed by the introductory titles "An AFR Production" & "DreamChaser". In order to make these titles pop a bit more, rather than just have them appear on a black screen I overlaid footage of Alex's helmet in the background, lowering the opacity and adding a vignette to create a sense of depth to the image and ensure the text is readable. The final touch were the sound effects of a key turning the ignition of a race car and the sound of Sam's car revving in the background.
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