Major Project: Feedback before submission

Nathan Caws

Today we had our meeting and viewing with Nathan Caws. It was a successful tutorial overall and Nathan was impressed with the quality of our film and thought that everything that needed changing was very minor and it wouldn't make a big big difference but they're those bits of fine-tuning. Annoyingly me and Jack were late for our meeting as we had the times mixed up which looked very unprofessional and if Nathan was a client we would have the sack. However, he was kind enough to still give us a full hour. Below are some of the notes we took during the meeting:

• Raise highlights darken police shots, Jordan smiling but victim, make photo sound effect quieter, make lamp darker, zebra crossing light distracting, music too loud on Liam Allan news intro, corner of the screen on black news guy, Liam Allan title more to the left, zoom into police car,
• Merseyside title bottom, Jerry title more right
• Evidence planted over police officer make black and white to not stand out as much 
• Allan Jamieson title more right
• Peter adjust shadows less saturation on close up 
• Try black and white with edit flash back of prison
• Keep separator at the end but keep constant for all people 

This feedback was interesting and as editor myself in my finishing stages I found it especially interesting having this feedback from such a professional who was able to identify minor things some of which were in the back of my mind but I didn't have it confirmed by anyone else and also bits that I didn't notice at all.

Major Project: Fine Cut Feedback 2 Simon and Helen

Today we showed Helen and Simon our project to get more feedback. I feel it is good to take on a good level of feedback and take a pinch of what everyone says on board. Whilst I analysed what both said I didn’t necessarily agree with every single thing, I could see the logic behind what they were saying which is important and it is important to be able to accept feedback, even if you don’t go through with all of it. One of the main concerns was sticking to what Simon said with regards to the fact we forget about Liam after Eddie has such a lengthy piece. I am yet to figure out how to change this having tested different ways. Annoyingly what Eddie says links and flows so well with what our DNA expert says so it would need to be brought in before that at some point. I have experimented with this since but am yet to find something that fits but I will keep on trying as I can really see the logic behind what he was saying and having watched it 1000 times before as editor and worked on the project so know the contributors I know what is coming so I therefore don’t see it that way; it is only through having a fresh pair of eyes that helps that. One thing I could see the logic behind but didn’t necessarily agree with taking out was the part where Peter Jones talks about self harm. Simons reason for removing this was because none of the contributors talk about self harm. However, my reasoning for keeping it in is because I feel it brings a certain depth to the documentary to help understand what it feels like to be in prison when innocent. They feel forgotten and they self harm in order to feel. In a sense it looks at the bigger picture. People self harm to feel something when they feel so numb. The system has done people like Eddie and injustice. It then goes onto the people talking about what it is like have thoughts of suicide knowing they wouldn’t be able to cope in prison. I will also need to enforce that the crime scene reconstruction is Eddies.

• Maybe cut Jerry legal aid lines
• When talking about 4 walls cut to each contributor
• Liam jump cut at end
• Eddie text is too long and too much to read without Eddie talking about it 
• Jan talks too long about Jordan case intro
• Press conference cut when he mentions Gary Newlove- I did cut this but it seemed really out of place when he just says it has been a dreadful tragedy so in a sense you need more to be said there.

Something Helen said was the title could be changed as it does fit with the basis of the mental health aspect. We are both pleased with the title Assumed Guilty because they all have been assumed guilty even now after they have finished prison. Besides form that we have done all our branding and our poster has been printed. She also suggested that we have more of Peter at the start so the audience knows it is coming. I still need to work out how to do this, I am thinking in the introduction I find a key line such as “Even when they are out of prison they struggle to survive”. To enforce the fact that the stigma and aftermath is just as bad as the systematic failings.

Bring music right down when people talk, make sure we know what each person is there for e.g. digital evidence disclosure or joint enterprise. The music becomes like wallpaper and is just there in the background and it needs to bring impact when it needs impact.

Some of the clips I struggled to color grade the most were from the production cinema. Unfortunately the screen isn’t color accurate to what is being recorded so the Kelvin setting was too high for individual shots so shots came out very orange. This meant adding a lot of blue and green colours to the video in order to bring the real colors out.

For example you can see below with the wide shot from Eddies interview the outcome grade is completely different from what the original recording was and to color this has been a very tricky job but Nathan Caws was very impressed by the color grade at the end and said he found it difficult to fault it the colours compliment each other very well, especially with Eddies interview with the cinematic blue and orange teal. This is something I had researched with colour grades in the pre-production unit with my editors statement.