Alas, I will not be discussing the ins and outs of Final Cut Pro. Â I will reserve that lively discussion to a later point, but rest easy for I assure you the program is wonderfully effective. Â Â Instead, today, I will be stepping back and looking at the overall aim of what I want to produce.
While editing yesterday, I had this strange, creeping feeling as I cut one and a half hours of footage into my timeline that I was soon going to end up with three hours of footage with no idea of how to manage it. Â I needed direction. Â I needed to hoist my loins, no, lift my whole robe up and think freely and thoughtfully. Â I was too tight, too trapped. Â Erring I was, without a breath of fresh air.
And so I created the story boards or little boxes of thinking to work through my vision:
As you can tell, dear and enthused reader, I have many disparate segments of film. Â When I embarked into Cambodia, I used my video camera as an extension of myself to observe the world around. Â I was travelling to many different places, with no idea of what to expect, how long I would be there, or even of how long my camera was going to last. Â There are holes in the footage, of when I was sick, occupied, or simply didn’t want to film. Â But I have to tell a story, and I have to make it look precise and focused like the ebb and flow of the Tonle Sap.
Furthermore, this isn’t a film about the trip nor the people I was with. Â Actually, I anticipate to have no to very little dialogue of any sort in the final product. Â No, this is a look into the world I saw and experienced and hopefully can convey something about the mechanisms through which tourism operates. Â Below is a flow chart I made to work through the basics of how this footage could be organized:
There are some central components to the film. Â First, I have a number of still landscape shots, of sunsets, sunrises, of the farm, of places in the city, of the beach. Â These segments can be used as the introduction and the conclusion and as a frame into the Cambodian landscape for the documentary. Â Then, I have a day of footage at a Zoo which has more action, which can serve as the first major part of the film. Â This will kinda of set the stage and be shorter.
Afterwards, I have a bunch of film while I was moving on a tuk-tuk or on a river boat, which is beautiful and can also symbolize as movement and the passage of time between the zoo and the second larger piece, Â Angkor. Â Angkor, also, has captivating shots and a good deal of action from the intensity of tourism infesting every temple. Â From there, I can depart into the sunset and go home, hopefully.
So from here, I aim to start building the intro and the Zoo part, since I have nearly extracted all the footage I want from these parts. Â From there, I can see what works and what doesn’t as I go into extracting the final four hours.
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