Evaluation

Overall, this module has been very much a mixed bag.

My idea has changed greatly… it went from a video documentary on a basic website. To a video documentary on a website with text information to an audio documentary on a website with text information… to an audio documentary on a website with text information and more downloads!

It has been an interesting one, though. I’ve learnt a lot to do with the website aspect of things. I’ve spent hours editing HTML codes and messing about with css to change the website and it has gone through a couple of redesigns since its original look. Dreamweaver has been a good help but somethings needed to be hand coded and it takes up a lot of time.

The documentary has caused me so much stress over the past 2/3 months. At one stage I thought I would never find any contributors but luckily Zoe got in touch and then through her I found Sarah (more on her next.) – the Zoe interview was great, apart from a few sound problems, extremely informative and her story was extremely upsetting. Especially as she, and her daughter, we both so lovely when interviewing.

The Sarah interview was decent, quite short but her story came across well – it is such a shame she pulled out in the end as it made my documentary much stronger than the version I will be handing in. I can’t see her getting in touch with me again so I guess that’ll never see the light of day.

If I could’ve found a professional to talk about Domestic Violence, or a male victim, I would’ve been happier with the end product also but still, I think it is a well made, coherent piece that lets the listener into the world of Domestic Violence and maybe someone listening can relate.

As for this wordpress blog, I have enjoyed doing this much more than a workbook from years past on the course. I spend a lot of time online anyway, so I was able to do posts here and there documenting the work I’ve been doing – whether researching Domestic Violence, watching/listening to documentaries or just my progress throughout the module, it soon adds up and looking through my blog – it shows my progress well.

I hope I come out of this module with a decent mark, and people start looking at my website – there’s a contact email on there for me so even if it helps only one person – I’ll see it as a success.

Snippit of the cut “Sarah” interview

As I cannot use my original documentary that I have edited, with the original “Sarah” interview – it seems a lot of work has gone to waste and it’s all very annoying.

However, as this blog is not common knowledge to the pubic, I’ll place a couple of short clips here to show what it would’ve sounded like.

http://www.fileden.com/files/2009/5/10/2437401/sarah/1.mp3

http://www.fileden.com/files/2009/5/10/2437401/sarah/9.mp3

Burning everything onto disc

Everything is burnt onto disc.

The entire website on one data disc and then the documentary on an audio disc. If my printer was working I could print off the covers (the website in a box is a dvd cover and the documentary a regular cd with the same design as the one I posted the other day) and get it all done tonight but that shall have to be a last minute jobby tomorrow at the library – nearly all ready for hand in!

Removing Sarah

I’ve had to remove all files from the original “Sarah” interview from my website. This is infuriating!

Project not done!

I’ve had another phonecall from Sarah not long after I finished my project – she doesn’t want to be involved at all now.

I got her to sign a release form but as it’s such a sensitive subject, I am going to respect her wishes.

I can’t have the documentary with only the one interview so i’ve done a quick edit adding in “Jane’s Story.” As both Jane and Sarah’s names were made up, I’m not going to edit any of the narration (also, because I can’t at such a late hour).

The new second interview isn’t as long as detail… or as good to be honest, as it’s recorded by an actress (and not the best!). I’ve had to change the voice to stick to continuality – Zoe’s interview was always the main interview in the documentary and the focus. But with a weaker second interview in the documentary, I think it brings the documentary quality down which is absolutely gutting to me at this late stage and I hope my mark isn’t effected too much.

I would do some screenshots of the change but i’m too stressed and in too much of a rush!

Web address working

I have set up webforwarding on my domain account so users can now access the site from:

www.gethelp-wm.co.uk

It’s all coming together…

It’s DONE!

Documentary, new title: “Get Help” – (dunno if i’ve mentioned that?) is done and dusted. Now to upload it to fileden and then upload the final website.
Running time: 11 minutes, 49 seconds.

I had to edit the music track (which was just under 3 minutes) to extend it to the entire piece – but that barely took any time.

Music Purchased

I have just bought my musical track for the documentary, entitled “The Longest Winter” by Simon Wilkinson @ TheBlueMask.com.

http://www.thebluemask.com/shop/the-longest-winter/ – a short clip is available for listening here. The track was 79p for the MP3 and then it was an extra £9.99 for a license which is for student work and/or non-commerical. I fit into both categories!

The track will work nicely with my documentary, it is billed as:

Haunting wintry solo piano piece with very subtle atmospheric background texture. Sparse and melancholy with a slight Thomas Newman feel. Could work well in film or documentary scenes with a thoughtful, longing and melancholic feel.

License will be handed in with my DVD.

Editing the Documentary

I spent most of yesterday editing my documentary – going way into the night – and I have it allll ready (except the music – which I’ll be sorting out within the hour).

I had a couple of problems whilst editing but I overcame them pretty easily.

First, whilst my interviews with the two women were recorded at a rate of 44100Hz (CD rate) – I accidently recorded my narration at 48000Hz. I didn’t realise this was going to be a problem but when editing together, when it went from playing a 48000 to a 441000, it often missed out on the first second or two of dialogue on a different track. Converting my narration into 44100Hz solved this problem and made editing a more smooth transaction.

Adjusting the levels became quite difficult too, as Zoe’s interview was a lot louder than Sarah’s and my narration – plus adding the Kiera Knightly Cut movie was another task. I ended up having 4 seperate tracks, one for my voice, one for Zoe’s, one for Sarah’s and one for Cut and edited them all at once to make sure the sound levels were constant.

The above screenshot is the editing towards the beginning, as you can see, I have sorted my narration out into the order I wanted it to be read in and have imported some of the interview questions at the bottom, ready to move them into place.

Here’s the documentary (without the music, however) – it’s clocking in at around 11 minutes – which is longer than I anticipated, but to tell both of the lady’s stories, I think this length is needed.

Today, I shall edit in the music, burn it all to disc and done done done!

Getting the Media Player sorted.

I have found a media player to use on the website, it’s flash based – using the Mp3s I have hosted on fileden.
It is a flash player from the website www.odeo.com – with the site linked on the player, giving advertisement from the. The page with Zoe’s answers will have around 20 players on it, but I have found that these flash players still let the page load instantly, no lag whatsoever. They have a play/pause button on them aswell for good usability for the website readers.

A screenshot of the media player working

For the non-internet based “website in a box” – I will be unable to use this flash player as it is hosted online, I will have to use the standard “embed” HTML code and either windows media player or quicktime to embed the MP3. If past experience is anything to go by, it’ll make the page load slower but as it’s off the disc and not the internet, it shouldn’t be too much of a problem.