Project Description

Focusing on UK skate culture and primarily looking at skate parks in Brighton and London, this documentary outlines the perspective of skateboarders Sam De Saulles and Samuel Giuseppe Parasiliti on their discussion of how the practice outcasts them from mainstream society. The gritty context reveals an insiders view of how skateboarding as a hobby reflects their personality. It creates the paradox of how it can be an isolated sport yet simultaneously forms a relationship between those involved.

Demonstrating an influence from All This Mayhem (2014), which reveals the darker side to skateboarding, and its alignment with drug culture, On The Edge uses the expository mode to uncover the “grey area” of skate culture that the audience may not be aware of. Thus they are exposed to the profound qualities that the skaters hold, as they openly address the negative stereotypes that surround them and contrast with the positive aspects that influence their lives. Through their own personal stories, the subjects also explain what the sport means to them, how it becomes a key part of their identity, aside from just being a form of exercise.

Targeted at a wider audience, the documentary aims to “bring the “initially disinterested” audience members along” (Bernard, 2010, p.50) whilst making them aware of the culture they have little or no knowledge about. Moreover skaters are able to see themselves portrayed in a positive manner presenting the welcoming nature of the community.

Bibliography

Bernard, S. (2010) Documentary Storytelling, Massachusetts: Focal Press.

DVD Covers

As previously mentioned I had already started to edit. I had put the title ‘On the Edge’ across below the skateboard but Bryony had decided it looked better in the bottom right hand corner and I agree as it filled that space. The text also matches the graphics used in our documentary.

Peter then selected the image on the back and edited it. I had already started writing the blurb as well but we needed to add a bit more so we did this as a group. Our final steps were added the age classification sign, DVD sign and credits.

I think our cover looks really professional and the aesthetic reflects the urban skateboarding culture.

Bryony also suggested making a cover for the disc which was our final task before finishing our whole assessment.

Feedback from Sound Design

The day after I had made the sound design Bryony was at university so she was able to listen to it and give me some feedback so I could change it the following day. Here are the points she made:

• Sam GPs interviews still have quite a fair amount of background noise so I need to make this even more quiet.
• Some of the fading doesn’t work. Need to make sure the end of sentences are heard before the volume of the soundtrack increases again.
• Take out some of the birds chirping during the interview that then shows the urban skate park
• At 01:40 there is a slight gap where the audio goes quiet – I may put some more wind at this point so it doesn’t go completely silent.
• When Sam talks about how he got into drugs it should have hardly any or no background noise to make it more dramatic
• Increase the sound of traffic during the fill shots of London to make it more obvious that they are in an urban place
• The interview with Sam GPs interview needed to be normalized more as it sounds too different to Sam DS

After being given these points we re edited. Peter also helped with the editing of this sound by correcting Sam GPs interview by normalizing it, then using the multi-band compressor, then normalised it again. We also then added a Parametric Equaliser to make the interview clearer against the background noise.I thought this sounded too loud and didn’t match Sam DSs interview so I quietened the volume and faded the interviews together. Then as a group we listened to it alongside the video and it really fit well together. Once the sound was exported we added it to the video and then finished!

Sound Design

To create the timeline of sound I needed to export the audio from Adobe Premiere so I could edit it in Adobe Audition. From the list I had created previously on what sounds would normally be heard, I went through the sound library and looked on the internet for any additional sounds I did have an imported all the ones I would use.

Firstly I normalized both the interview voices. This made them louder and clearer to be heard above the music. I also faded some parts that didn’t flow well together. Another aspect that really needed to be changed was the difference between the Sam’s interviews which sounded quite different due to different recording equipments being use. I had to lower the volume of Sam GPs voice and lower some of the background noise so it fitted better with Sam DSs interview.

After these basic adjustments were done and the interviews sounded the best they could I needed to move on to adding sound effects. To ensure that the sounds matched the visuals I ran the two side by side and noted down some timings so I was aware of what needed to be added in.

First was skate boarding sounds that I had captured during the production. I needed to put these quietly alongside Sam DSs interviews as they could be heard naturally in the other interview. This created more of a steady flow between the locations.

The soundtrack had already been faded in some places but I needed to dip the volume in some parts to heighten the atmosphere during some of the more personal bits of the interviews so the audience would pay more attention to what was being said.

Finally, I added the sound effects. I used a range of sounds to create an atmospheric background and to give the audience clues on their location. It also helps lead from one scene to another. During the clips showing Sam at the skate park in Moulsecoomb, I used an effect called “Late Spring Evening” so you could hear a light breeze with a few birds chirping in the background demonstrating his rural location. I also added a few of my own recordings of birds and wind especially when you can see Sams T-shirt blowing in the visuals. For the clips in the Urban Skate parks such as the Level and Southbank, I used a lot more skating sounds as you could see far more people compared to the other isolated area. Furthermore, I used traffic sounds, bike in traffic sounds and people chatting. There is a lot going on in the visuals during these clips and I wanted this to be realistically represented through sound.

Tomorrow I will be showing Bryony this design and getting feedback to see if any sections need changing but I am happy with the progress I made.

 

Editing Session

As a group we met up and went through the colour corrections. The main things that we needed to fix was the brightness of some of the days compared to the others. A day or two before Jessie and Bryony had also gone out to film a few more fill shots as our previous timeline looked a little repetitive. By the end of the day we had finalised the whole time line with colour corrections as well as brightness/contrast being fixed.

The contrast was added to all the shots to make them all stand out a little more. Also general colour corrections/brightness was adjusted on all clips. The major colours we adjusted were the ones of Sam with the white sky on that cloudy day. It made him look a little like he was in heaven so we used the colour wheel to make it a little more blue. We also brought up the saturation in some clips so it didn’t look too dull.

These corrections have made the video look more vibrant and finished. At the end of this it meant we have finally completed the visuals so I could move on to getting the sound design done.

Publicity Stills

 

As talked about before in a previous post, Bryony did a photoshoot with Sam on the first day they filmed him. She also got a few photos of him in action. We also go a few photographs from the day at Southbank.

A publicity still or ‘film still’ is usually taken on or off set during production and help with the publicity to help advertise or promote a film.

Below are the publicity stills we have selected from on set:

DVD Cover

During the last workshop I also started working on the cover for our DVD. I selected the below image and edited it by using a high contrast and putting a black and white effect. Although this doesn’t represent our documentary as the visuals are in colour, I believe it is more aesthetically pleasing as the eye is drawn along the skateboard, down the legs and off the page. The black and white effect took away the colour distractions and emphasised the focal point. I also think that it represents the skate boarding culture well as it makes it look more urban and gritty.

When finalising our DVD cover in the future I will use the inspiration from the below DVD covers of a few skateboarding documentaries:

The first is simple but striking. The eye is automatically drawn to the silhouette of the skater and then is led towards the title which stands out against the dark background colours. The third also shares these characteristics.

All feature either the DVD logo or film classification sticker at the bottom. We will be including both in ours along with the credits and blurb on the back cover.

 

Last Workshop

In the last workshop we were going through the narrative and trying to finalise the shots. Peter and Bryony had met up previous to the last workshop to work on the editing the majority of the footage into one linear storyline and deleting a lot of what we already had to make sure it fit in the brief of 5-6 minutes. When I arrived at the workshop I could see that we were mainly focusing our whole story now on Sam which was good as it makes the documentary a lot more personal and in depth. Although I thought the other interviews we had recorded had some good visuals and sound, it just made the narrative a bit disjointed. This also helped us get out of the ‘news report’ we were told to steer clear of in our original feedback.

Whilst Peter edited we all put in feedback about how everything should look. Although some of us had different opinions on some shots, the whole story was formed by the end of the workshop and we were all very happy with the progress we had made. We showed our tutor this new timeline and he gave much more positive feedback and said it realted more to the brief and made a lot more sense now we were just focusing on two main skaters than the opinions of many.

The final bits left to do is all down to editing. We will all be meeting up as a group to do colour correction, titles and other finishing touches. Once the visuals have been completely edited I will then be taking a few days to create the sound design.

 

Going Through Footage and Feedback

In workshop 10, Bryony and I went through the footage of Sam cutting down the interview from 18 minutes in to 3 minutes using the responses then worked well with our narrative. Jessie was filming a few more cutaways with Sam this day whilst Peter had already put together an opening sequence so we now had a direction. Because there was so much footage, it took Bryony and I the full 4 hours of the workshop to cut the interview up and select the bits without being repetitive. I believe with this interview we got to a new personal level as harder hitting questions had been asked. We also decided as a group to disregard Tristens interview as although he had said some good points, they were clearer in Sams interview.

The sound was better than I expected in Sam’s interviews and there is not much background noise so it will be easier to create a design according to that. However I will need to make sure the sound flows between one interview to the next using Audition.

 We also looked at the narrative and changed it a bit according to the outcomes we had over looking at the footage:

Opening

– Looking at skateboarding as a culture

– Negative views

– What other people think

Middle

– How it is a community

– How the individual is part of an outside culture

– How it is personal

Ending

– It isn’t about yourself as an individual but about yourself within this separate world

Thinking about Sound Design

Before starting on sound design, I wanted to think about what needs to be heard to compliment the visuals and for it to grab the viewers attention.

Soundtrack
Out of the songs listened to, we finally decided a soundtrack by Ryan Little called Tuesday Morning which was sound on http://freemusicarchive.org/

Due to it being free from copyright, we didn’t need to contact him and ask permission making it quicker and easier to use for the soundtrack however we will need to make sure his name is referenced in our end credits and on our DVD cover.

RYAN LITTLE – TUESDAY MORNING

This soundtrack is of the hip hop genre which correlates with the skateboarding cultures music taste. This creates an emphasis on the narrative. I felt that the use of an instrumental would help as if we had chosen a lyrical soundtrack we would’ve had to dip it in and out according to the interviews. This way, it can be running throughout.

The song is also upbeat and will grasp the audiences attention. Some of the beats in the beginning will be a indicator of where to put some of our jump cuts to highlight the music.

Diegetic Sound/Sound Effects

Some diegetic sound has already been picked up in the interviews such as children’s voices in the background of Sams DS interview and skateboarding sounds in the background of Sam GPs. I also will be adding some sound effects that I have recorded as well as sound effects I have access to via the internet and/or teaching drive. I will be adding sounds that should be in the background to create a better sense of realism. Below I have noted down a few sounds that would normally be heard in the particular locations shown.

Urban Skateparks (The Level/Southbank) –

Skateboarders wheels
Seagulls (Brighton)
River (Southbank)
Traffic
Cigarettes being lit/smoked
People chatting
Footsteps
Bike wheels and skids
School children (At the level due to being next to a park)
Wind
Buses

Rural (Moulsecoomb) –
Birds
Wind
School children (again, the skate park is next to a playground)
Skateboarder wheels
Dog/Dog walkers
Gravel
Sounds from the playground – swings/slides

Interviews

For the interviews I need to make sure they are clear enough and the audience is not distracted by the background noise but just realises where the location is due to the clues being heard. The use of a directional microphone has really helped however I will still need to adjust some of the sound levels of the interviews in Adobe Audition. During the more personal sections, I want to make sure the soundtrack is dipped and the background noise has been quietened or removed completely.