Bailey Furman produced a documentary by filming an interview with his dad and capturing additional footage. He edited the material together into a 3 minute video. Bailey color graded the interview footage with a yellow tint. He cut the two interviews together and added supplemental footage of his dad walking to transition between topics. Bailey added music and rendered the final video in h.264 format. Though lighting and some footage could be improved, Bailey is pleased with the quality of the color grading and flow of the edited documentary.

1. Production Log
Bailey Furman

2. Today, I started by filming the interview. I did this by setting
up my Nikon d3200 on my tripod with the sofa centered. I
then setup an audio Technica at2020 on a boom stand as
close to my dad as I could but out of the camera frame. I
then had an XLR cable going from the microphone to the
studio 24c audio interface I had going to a laptop which was
recording the audio into audacity. I then plugged
headphones into the audio interface and monitored the
audio so I could see what sounds the microphone was
picking up and how loud it should be. I then placed an LED
headlight on the boom stand since it was one of the only two
LED lights that I own. I then balanced the other LED light
slightly further away from my dad on a cushion. I then also
put on some lamps above and to the side of my dad to
brighten up the shot. but tried to make sure that there was
minimal yellow light on his face. I also recorded from a
Takstar camera microphone for backup audio incase the
audacity audio corrupted. I then recorded the interview once
with the camera centered and then again with the camera
moved to the right so that I could get a closer shot from a
different angle and so that I had two different versions of the
interview that I could pick bits out from. I really enjoyed
filming the interview and I think the two different camera
angles I had were good and I think the center shot was very
symmetrical. I wish that I had better lighting, because a lot of
my light was natural, it changed throughout filming it would
of have been nicer if I had bigger lights and more of them so
that I didn't have to use lamps which give off a yellow light.
Later today I am going to film more footage of my dad that I
can put over the interview.

3. Today, I went on a walk with my dad so that I
could get filler footage of him that I could put into
the documentary, I also let him speak to the
camera so that I can put it between bits on the
interview to keep it funny and interesting. I did
this by using my Nikon D3200 with the TakStar mic
mounted on the top. I used my 35-55mm lens. I
really enjoyed being able to move around the
camera because I think that it gave me a lot more
creative freedom than recording the interview
did. I think to improve it, I could get better at
focusing the camera whilst object move because I
have a lot of shots that go out of focus midway
through because my dad is moving, and I would
like to improve at working around this. Tomorow
morning I am going to get some footage of old
photographs and clothes.

4. This morning I got footage of old photographs and
clothes from the 90s. I did this by putting them on a
wood table and slowly moving the camera above
and around them slowly. Whilst doing this I planned
on putting warp stabilization on them in premiere
pro because I was doing it all handheld since I don't
have anything to stabilize the shots with. I did not
really enjoy doing this as I struggled to find a place
to film the objects and I found it hard to get a good
shot, so I think that I am not going to use a lot of the
shots that I got. I would like to of have more lights so
that I could get better lighting on the objects. I also
would have liked to have had more time to make a
dedicated stage/background for the objects. I am
going to start editing everything together in two
days' time.

5. Today, I started my editing by adding an adjustment layer which added
black bars by adding the crop effect to it and cropping the top and
bottom by 5%. I put this adjustment layer over all the footage that I
shot and didn't put it on the footage from the internet.

6. I then colour corrected the footage of the interview and then colour
graded it. I decided to colour grade it a yellow tint as I think that it went
best with the lighting and I think it had the right style for the type of
video it was. I colour graded the video by using the colour wheels in
premiere

7. I then added in the footage of the gladiators opening after my dad introduces himself. I then added reverb to the clip to show
that it's in the past. To transition to the reverb; I added reverb to when my dad says "gladiators" so that you know what the
next clip is. I also added a fade to black and a fade into the next clip since the reverb echo's it would look strange if the video
abruptly ended but the audio echoed. I then added in lowpass audio filter to the end of the gladiator footage and increased
the lowpass cut off frequency as the clip ended so it sounded like it was fading into the past.

8. I then edited all the footage of the two interviews together and cut it
down to under three minutes. I tried to edit the two different
interviews together so that it seemed like one take done on two
cameras.

9. I then tried to put footage of my dad that I got on a walk we went on
into the video. I decided to try and put most of this footage in parts
before he starts talking about a new subject. I did this so that it would
all blend together better and obviously show the different parts of the
interview. I overlapped some of the interview audio at the end of the
walking clips so that it made the transition back to the interview
smoother.

10. I then added in music that begins after the gladiators opening footage. I
had the music at –17.4db throughout most of the footage. I had the
music fade into this volume at the start and had it increase to –12db at
certain parts where there was no talking to remove the awkwardness.

11. I really like how the edit is looking and I think that the pacing is good. I
have managed to get all the footage down to exactly three minutes and
I think that I have managed to get a lot of stories is from the original
twenty-minute interview. I think that I did a really good job at the
colour grading on the interview and I think that it fits the style that I am
going for. I also think the volume of the music works very well and I
think that I got the volume right at different parts of the video. I also
like how in the middle of the video I have two different clips changing
in and out. I think to improve I could have the interview parts be
shorter and have more clips over the top of them and I think that the
music could be improved upon, however I'm not sure what else I would
use because out of everything I found I think that music worked best.
Tomorow I am going to add more footage over the interview parts of
the video, and I am going to colour correct all the other footage that
isn't the interview.

12. Today I added in extra footage over the interview parts so that it stays
interesting. I tried to make sure what was being shown was relevant to
what he was saying so that less of what he is talking about is left to the
viewers imagination. I made sure to add the footage at the start or end
of new shots so that when the footage starts or end there isn't too
many angle or shot changed so that it looks as smooth as possible.

13. I then colour corrected everything except for the interview as it was
already done from yesterday. I then colour graded all the footage. I did
this a yellow colour because I think that it fits the very calm and relaxed
feel of the video, I also think that it blends well with the sun set colours
of the walk that I filmed. I added yellow highlights and added in blue
shadows to contrast the yellow so that the yellow overtone isn't too
harsh.

14. I then rendered the video. I rendered it in a h.264 format. I did this so
that it would export as an mp4 which I have found has the most
compatibility with most things and is a good quality but doesn't make
the file size too big.

15. Today I finished my production and I really like how it has turned out. I
think that the colour grading is one of the things that stands out and I
think it is the bets colour grading I have ever produced. I also really like
how well everything fits into three minutes and I think that it flows
well. I also really like the transition from the introduction into the
gladiators opening, I think that it sounds and looks very good. I would
have liked to of have better lighting in the interview and I think that the
footage on some of his old clothes could have been a lot better. I would
of also of liked to of had more time to do a second interview so that I
could cut out some stuttering in certain parts so that it flowed a little
bit better. I am very happy with the final product and I think that it is
one of the best things I have made.