We showed John our new timeline with how we've edited the video so far. He said that it makes a lot more sense now than it did before and approved of the way we've tied in Sam's interview. The only critic he had was that the interview with the son and dad that we filmed on the South bank was a bit disjointed. If we were to include it, we'd have to include some more of what they said, or we should just get rid of it altogether. We decided on the latter, as this would give more of a focus on the skaters' own perspectives.
From there we just worked on filling all the gaps in terms of cutaway footage. The opening of the documentary features footage of Sam skateboarding on his own, as he talks about being an introvert and how skateboarding is an isolated sport. I think that the shots we used work well as they build tension, and give the audience an insight to the skater's life.
After removing the part with the son and the dad, Sam then goes straight into talking about he got into drugs. This is accompanied by visuals of skaters hanging around in large groups. These observational shots create a sense of mystery, because you can't really see what they're doing. From our research, it seems like a lot of people outside the skating world "the other", believe that skaters just hang around do drugs all day. Therefore by pairing these visuals with Sam's talk about drugs, it plays up to the stereotypical beliefs that people have of skaters.
I think that this shot might need to be changed because it's a bit busy and you can't really tell what you're supposed to be looking at. Instead we could have a similar shot, that was framed more accurately, perhaps just from behind the bushes.
We also used visuals of people spray painting as this is strongly linked to skateboarding and it's antisocial aspects. This relates to what Sam says, that doing drugs stopped him from doing what society wanted him to do, because in most places graffiti is illegal vandalism, and considered rebellious against society. The shot denoted above is too dark and should be changed for one with more exposure.
We then move on to another skater's perspective, (also named Sam) who talks about doing drugs at the skate park. This is accompanied by shots of other skateboarders at The Level.
Although this is a somewhat interesting shot because it shows a skateboarder performing cool trick, it doesn't relate much to what Sam 2 is saying. He says: "it's like a community or social centre where you're not being monitored by anyone, you have the freedom to do whatever you want". I think it would look much better if we had a wide-mid shot of skateboarders sitting in a group.
Sam GP then talks about being in a place with people the same age as you, and you get accepted into a small group. We didn't have any relevant or interesting shots to put here, but I think it would be great to get a close up shot of the skateboarders, showing their perspective.
As we draw to the conclusion of the documentary, Sam 1 talks about how other people have negative views towards skateboarders, but within the community it's all positive. We have a shot with the Go Pro, however I think that it lasts a bit too long (4:49-5:23 - about 30 seconds). Ideally I'd like to have another shot at the beginning, I think we have a shot that was filmed in an observational style behind the gates. Then we can cut the Go Pro shot down to about 10-15 seconds.
Our final shot is then related back to our main character with a close up shot of Sam's face, with a cheeky grin. I think that this shot, especially with the white background, and as Sam says "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger... it's kind of a metaphor for life" makes him seem like an omniscient representative for skateboarders.
This shot will then be used to show the credits, on the left hand side.
Overall, I think that we've got the most part of the visual editing done. I just think there's about 3-5 shots that could be replaced, or re-filmed.
Inspiration for alternative shots, from Levi's Skateboarding Youtube channel:
A shot like this could be used when Sam 2 talks about how skaters aren't being monitored by anyone else. This makes it appear like it's just the skateboarders on their own, and how they form their own small community.
I think that we already filmed a shot similar to this, which gives an outside perspective to the skateboarding community.
In contrast, this shot is much closer to the skateboarders, and you can see how they interact with each other. I think that our film is currently lacking something like this.
