Critical Reflection 1

During this trimester we were finally able to choose our own group members for our documentary films which was a nice change that allowed me to join the team that I feel will all work hard and in return help us excel. Each member of my team had separate different strengths which was very helpful as we were experienced in every aspect of the filming process such as cinematography, directing, producing, and editing. At first, we had actually planned on filming a documentary at the Dubai Safari park on animals, their importance to the world and how they are taken care of. After having filmed the trailer and having our producer in constant communication with them, all signs pointed towards this coming to fruition. However a week before we were meant to film we had received an email saying that we will not be granted permission to film, we managed to scramble and agree on the topic of Brazilian Jujitsu and the impact it has on peoples lives, which I personally prefer. Being the editor, it was important for me to always be around set in order to visualize the style of edit that I am going for and from there be able to communicate that to our Cinematographer in order to get specific shots that I would need to make it work. An example of this is after the 3rd day of shooting, we had thought that we got everything we needed, however when began the editing process I had realized that I needed more b-roll footage of the gym and cage to start the documentary off in a cinematic tone, so I had communicated this to our producer and we were able to schedule one more day to get the rest of the shoots that were needed. The process that I employed for our documentary is that I would always be near our cinematographer watching the shots that he is capturing and seeing the way they look so that I could know weather or not they would work, and if I felt it wouldn't have a place in the edit I would tell our cinematographer that it is not needed so as to not waste time on that specific shot. Our director was very passionate about the topic of jujitsu which translated very well into the amount of content that we were able to get from shots to interviews to the excitement of the contributors involved. I am currently in the process of editing the documentary and it has been a smooth process so far which is a good sign that it is headed in the right direction. Myself and my team remain in constant communication throughout the process and we all very much looking forward to showcasing our film at the SAE showcase.