Doc Post-Production

     Post-production of the doc began that same Tuesday. I volunteered to take care most of the editing, so that's what I did. I started by putting together the b-roll that is featured in the opening of the doc alongside a voiceover, then I structured the interviews question by question so the doc would be easy to follow with interviewees staying on the same topics. After that, I had to take a pause on editing to focus on other school work, but returned to it on that Thursday. I started to add b-roll during and in-between interviews, and I wanted to do this specific thing where the audio of the interview would start as a voiceover on the b-roll before cutting to the interview. So the audio of the interview would start before the visuals do. I believe I picked up this idea from Exit Through the Gift Shop, and I found it to be a very simple idea that made the interviews flow a bit better. This was a bit of a hassle to do though, as I had to extract the audio from interview clips, move it before the interview clip starts, and cut the interview clip down to find the length where the clips match the audio and there is no delay. Was there a better, simpler way to do this? Maybe. Did I know it? No. I don't regret doing that for every interview segment though, I think it really helped the doc feel a bit smoother so it was worth it. 

(Look how the extracted audio starts before the interview footage does!!)

    Editing was pretty straightforward all together. It consisted mostly of me placing b-roll where I found would be best, which was mainly in-between interviews, where the interviewee would mention something that can be demonstrated through b-roll (b-roll of soundboard when mentioning soundboard), or to break up the interview clip when it could be a bit more engaging. I did leave the last interview mostly untouched by b-roll, as Andrea was discussing how people find their only real safe space in theater, and I found that this genuine, emotional answer that she was giving needed to be shown in full by the doc, facial/body expressions and all. This is something I picked up from A Robust Heart, which did not use b-roll as it wanted to highlight its subjects' expressions and bodies. I continued editing on Friday, where Ale sent me the voiceover for the beginning and she came up with a title, 'Mic Check,' which is clever. She also sent me a heap of archival footage of past theater productions that Inside Out presented and behind-the-scenes rehearsals, all of which helped make the doc more engaging. I looked for music to use in the background on YouTube, I found one track I really liked and used that for about 3ish minutes of the doc. But I found that it would be pretty repetitive if I used the track the whole way through, so I decided to keep looking for more music to use and, eventually, found another track that worked with both the previous track and the doc itself, This, I think, helped the doc stay engaging and stray away from making the background music distracting and repetitive, allowing the viewer to focus more on what was being said. I also used slower, piano music for the final bit of the doc to highlight the emotions and it worked as a nice closure track. Is closure in adjective? I dunno. That was pretty much it for editing, my team said that at times the music was a bit too loud and the interviews were too low so I went back and lowered the music during certain segments, but I had finished. I honestly think I did pretty good. I think how I used b-roll kept the doc engaging and the music fit and it wasn't distracting, I did pretty swell I think.