When I was starting my Video module (straight after I finished Audio one), I was absolutely sure, that they will be pretty much the same, with the only difference – the picture. In the end it turned out not to be true. Video module was not only about pictures, and was much more difficult and complicated than audio. I’m not only talking about editing, it is also about building a story to fit it into the screen. But yes, editing was really really tough.
My expectations were massive in the very beginning, so I decided to aim high and chose to film a documentary. The main task was to film something you find interesting, to stick all of the pieces (sounds, pictures, clips) together and to make it no more than five minutes long. I could not come up with an idea for the video for quite a long time, but then I found some inspiration in the very unexpected place – at work. I work in a Thai restaurant with quite international staff, so I decided to research the question of why people from all over the world choose London over any other big city. Vox pops and interview came straight after the idea did, and then some scenery, some city views and just some pretty clips. Thanks God I know how to use a camera. But I wish everything was so bright.
I only realised how complicated the whole thing was when it came to editing. Creating one minute of the video was taking an hour or so. That must have happened because I was not skilled enough, even though I thought I was. The day I was editing must have been my unlucky one, because sounds were playing jokes on me and the computer crashed twice, so I had a tiny little heart attack (nobody would like to remake a four-hours-long work, right?). When I was uploading the video on YouTube, I was pretty satisfied with it, but then…The volume was much more quiet than I was expecting for no reason, and on some devices it has been disappearing at all. If I ever find myself working with video material in the future, there will be several things I need to pay attention to. Editing, for instance, does take a lot of time, effort and patience, but if you mix it all together within your work, you will get what you want. You always need to double check things while editing – all of the versions of clips and sounds, full and cut ones, the volume (because it is usually lower when out of the programme for some reason). Video is tricky, but if you are patient enough and if you are able to pay attention to details – you can consider yourself to be successful in this sphere.
I really don’t think there is any sense in comparing my work with the work of professionals – it is really really far from it. There are still loads of things left to learn and to understand. But at this stage, I think, I got enough. Multimedia Journalism module (both its parts) has taught me the importance of details in any kind of work. It also made me realize how all of those details work together – words and sounds, picture and sounds, picture and text. It might seem simple from the side, but it is really deep and detailed. Even though the second part of the module was tough, I would really like to continue learning about broadcast journalism in the following two years.
The Diary of a London Newbie 