I did a first cut of the documentary by end-September. It came back with comments by mid-November 2014.
I did a modified cut, changing almost 70% of the structure. Basically re-cut the documentary, working carefully to make the structure 'flow' better.
When you do a 'first cut', you only visualise your script or the ideas that you had set out to express. You aren't really looking at the material that you have. Normally, an experienced editor does that for you- looking at the material rather than your script and ideas.
In the case of this documentary, I needed to do that part myself, Perhaps the delayed approvals were a bit of a blessing as that enabled me to get a bit of 'distance' from the 'shot material'.
These terms like 'distance'/'visualise' are what we use daily as filmmakers, but can sometimes get a bit tricky to understand for other people. So if you do have a problem with them, let me know, I'd be glad to explain.
What did help a lot were the screenings I had over time for other people- these really help in learning about how how people react to your work.
I made the final changes to the documentary based on the screening at Abha Manav Mandir. While discussing the screening with Shri Govil, the Chairman of the MGM Trust that runs the home, he pointed out that the documentary was a bit incomprehensible to audiences as they felt the story jumped in its themes, and perhaps I needed to 'guide' the viewing audience a bit more. I know that the structure of the documentary moves a lot, especially for a short duration documentary and the links from point to point are more in the nature of 'subject'/'topic'/ 'thematic' links. So I grasped the point about underlining the 'links', not making the documentary 'too abstract' in its style. Then I set about finding solutions to the problem.
This problem does happen and the underlining can 'add' to a documentary. I learnt that in the Karim documentary in Kenya.
The documentary is out in public now, unless I am told by the Censor Board to make further changes.
So this will remain the final post on the 'making' of The Caregivers.
I did a modified cut, changing almost 70% of the structure. Basically re-cut the documentary, working carefully to make the structure 'flow' better.
When you do a 'first cut', you only visualise your script or the ideas that you had set out to express. You aren't really looking at the material that you have. Normally, an experienced editor does that for you- looking at the material rather than your script and ideas.
In the case of this documentary, I needed to do that part myself, Perhaps the delayed approvals were a bit of a blessing as that enabled me to get a bit of 'distance' from the 'shot material'.
These terms like 'distance'/'visualise' are what we use daily as filmmakers, but can sometimes get a bit tricky to understand for other people. So if you do have a problem with them, let me know, I'd be glad to explain.
What did help a lot were the screenings I had over time for other people- these really help in learning about how how people react to your work.
I made the final changes to the documentary based on the screening at Abha Manav Mandir. While discussing the screening with Shri Govil, the Chairman of the MGM Trust that runs the home, he pointed out that the documentary was a bit incomprehensible to audiences as they felt the story jumped in its themes, and perhaps I needed to 'guide' the viewing audience a bit more. I know that the structure of the documentary moves a lot, especially for a short duration documentary and the links from point to point are more in the nature of 'subject'/'topic'/ 'thematic' links. So I grasped the point about underlining the 'links', not making the documentary 'too abstract' in its style. Then I set about finding solutions to the problem.
This problem does happen and the underlining can 'add' to a documentary. I learnt that in the Karim documentary in Kenya.
The documentary is out in public now, unless I am told by the Censor Board to make further changes.
So this will remain the final post on the 'making' of The Caregivers.
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