Monday, May 25, 2009

Problem and Solution

Before leaving for Maryland I turned in a copy of my first cut to Dr. Holmevik. We watched it together in his office and he gave me some pointers on things I could improve on. While I was away, he watched it a few more times and thought that the narration had a metallic sound to it and would like me to have Jay Hope do it again with a voice recorder instead of video recording it.
I was able to set up a meeting with Jay Hope for May 21 and went to Greenville to do so.
Drr. Holmevik also thought that some of the pictures I had were grainy and I tried to find some better quality photos, but a lot of the pictures are from the 1920s and later, so the original quality of them is not the best. Having a good quality photo will make my project look better, but for some of the photos, a better quality is just not available.
Before going to Greenville, my computer died again, so I spoke with Apple and they completely replaced my computer, so hopefully those kinds of problems are behind me. Since my computer did not arrive before I met with Jay Hope, I went to the MATRF and borrowed an Olympus digital voice recorder and a microphone.
Now that I have my new computer, I will again work on a new first cut to get out to my committee and client by Monday, June 1. I will be meeting with Dr. Holmevik this Thursday and will have a cut to show him.

Monday, May 4, 2009

Post Production Begins

When beginning post production, I realized I did not have enough content for the narration, so I went online to find more photos. I also needed to find photos for other parts of the documentary. I found the following photos: the first Rosenwald schools; the blue prints for different sized schools; Rosenwald and Washington, together and separate; children playing outside of a Rosenwald school; students in the Tuskegee library; a teacher with a student in a Rosenwald school; a child studying; a bible; and a vacant Hope School. These photos will be included to help me tell my story.
When I began putting things together I had to refer to my script and the story I wanted to tell. I knew the kinds of photos I wanted to place in the beginning of the documentary and how I wanted to display them. The photos I chose are serious and reflect the seriousness of the documentary.
Before I could import any of the video files into iMovie, I had to convert them from .mpeg to .mov because iMovie does not import movies in .mpeg. I downloaded a free program called ‘Prism’ in order to do this. As of right now I have not been able to convert all of the files because it freezes a lot, so I may need to use a different program or try it on a different computer.
After converting the files, I needed to figure out how to get the audio from the narration to go along with the photos. I went online and found help through a blog “Unlocking iMovie ‘08” that was written by someone named Aaron. The most difficult part of this process was making sure I only had the audio I needed for that section.
The decisions I made during post production were intended to reflect what I set out to do. I was thinking about what my client wanted and how they would be reflected in the film. I also wanted to be sure that the importance of this time in history was stressed.
The font I chose for the opening of the movie and subtitles was Papyrus. This font looks serious, but also soft at the same time, reflecting the seriousness of the documentary, but also showing a more emotional side of the film.