Friday, March 11, 2011

DONE! SORT OF!

I must say it feels good to be done with this project and to have finally seen it on the big screen! It was a hectic week of editing, but it worked out. Unfortunately, I'm not really done with this project yet.  Now that all the fun stuff is edited, I now get to make a Tagalog version of the video... My next step is write up all of the English narrations in the video and send them off to be translated into Tagalog so I can add subtitles.  I must say I am a little disappointed that I will not be present at the actual screening of my video, since it will premiere in the Philippines.  After that it will be used as an education tool around the country I guess... It's weird that I won't really know where it will be ending up.  Overall though I am very pleased with how the video has turned out.  I think I hit all the points I wanted to cover and I've been working on this project for almost exactly a year, so it is nice to finally see a finished product.

Rhinolophus philippinensus AKA The Most Kick-Ass Bat in Town
I must say now that it is (almost) finished that this was quite a bit more logistically challenging than I had expected. I had sort of expected that doing the actual editing was the only hard part, but organizing the translations (with the help of Jodi of course) and figuring out the soundtrack was pretty tricky as well.  That being said, the use of the internet has been an invaluable help in making this project, and it would have been nearly impossible to do everything I wanted to do in the time I had without the internet.  Both the translations and the soundtrack were organized without a single face-to-face meeting, which I thought was amazing, but a little strange.

3 comments:

  1. Viewing your documentary on the cinema screen today entirely altered my perception and view towards your work! During class, when we used to view it from a computer screen, it didn't seem as high quality, as it did today. Today, when I watched it, it just seemed extremely professional and high-quality work, which was very impressive!
    I am sure the translations were extremely tricky for you. Nonetheless, I think you did a great job combining the interviews and the footage together.

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  2. I agree with Anam. I know your early cuts looked pretty professional from the beginning, but the end product and viewing in the cinema really made your documentary look fantastic. With the new music, interviews with Prof. Sedlock, etc. it came together to be so smooth and concise that it seemed like something much more than before. Bravo!

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  3. We agree. The final video is lush and substantial on the big screen. The conservation issues are presented in a visually compelling way and you remained sensitive to the native people portrayed. The music is excellent but the volume needs to come down as it sometimes distracts from what's being said. We also suggest clipping the high and low frequencies because over the speaker system the video had some feedback sounds from hitting higs/lows. Can you post it on YouTube and add a link to your blog? We understand that there may be copyright issues other students may not have so maybe it is not possible. It is truly remarkable that the digital medium enabled you to collaborate and work on an international level from Appleton. It was your methodical tenacity and ability to best use all the resources you currently have access to that resulted in a completely professional and impressive truly sensitive final product.

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