This was our first group shoot in college. We were ready and well scheduled by Vi to have our classroom over a lunch break and so set up an interview set in the corner thanks to the combined efforts of Jacob, Vi and myself. I had more experience using the camera thanks to Day 1 so I was happy to assist Jacob when he got stuck. Sadly, this shoot was probably the least successful as the contents of the interviews wasn't best delivered and Cai didn't show up so we couldn't get all the interviews done anyways. As the director and interviewer, I had prepared a series of questions and we more or less wanted truthful answers from everyone so the script was loose. 

For this shoot, now with all five of us there, we were able to redo the interviews with the set up in the exact same location as we took pictures of it on Day 2. Before the interviews, I decided we should get do our segment of walking around the college first as we could easily track down our class mates for their involvement and the camera wasn't yet fixed to a tripod so Jacob could use it hand held. These run of shots went well and I could direct Jacob from in front of the camera as well as it reflected the college student vibe I was trying to capture. 

Following these, we returned to the classroom with the tripod and filmed a long take of the character development stage. Everyone was onboard with the structure I had in mind as I wanted the camera on the tripod to be moved whilst still filming to justify its location in the interviews. This was most likely going to be cut but I wanted a sense of continuity. Second time around, the interviews were alot cleaner which I partially put down to people being more aware of the questions. I was ok with their being background noise of the rest of the group making characters as it suited the attempted realism and mockumentary.

Day 4 was our biggest and most ambitious day for filming. I wanted to capture a lot of footage to use as B-roll from the group playing a D&D session so we really set that up and went along with it to get a raw atmosphere. We had three cameras across the day and moved them around after a break in the middle to get as many angles as we could. I knew that, with these being over 30 minute recordings, not much of the footage would be used so I wanted to maximize our options of lighting and position to get shots on different individuals. On this day we also filmed a second round of interviews from after the session to mirror the one we did in college and entrances and exits for everyone. These shots were meant to making the session feel more real and establishes relationships before and after the session. In my direction, I really wanted to focus on the people playing the game and how it affects them. We all helped on the cameras throughout the day and Vi and I downloaded and converted all the footage in the evening. By this point, we also had a google drive set up so we all had access to the same resources. 

After looking over some of the footage, I realized that the content covered in the secondary interviews, although perfect for what they were, didn't give the closure I wanted from them. So, I devised an extra final set of interviews in the edit suite to talk more about their experiences as full members of the D&D community. For this shoot, we had a closer look at using artificial lighting rather than the natural light we were using previously for a more professional look and feel. However, when watching it back, it was actually this more professional style that we didn't like as it wasn't inline with the mock style and naturality we were going strong with although the audio and interview content was exactly what I needed. 

The final stage of filming was down to me alone again. This was a very simple task as it one required one camera on a tripod to filming my on a zoom call. I also screen recorded the call to get two angled that I could cut between. I was very happy using the camera on my own at this point and was prepared for sound checks with a better mic than I used in my house the first time around. As this shot was fairly short with little to set up, nothing held me back on it. On the zoom call, I managed to get some of my other friends to play D&D so this shot could feel raw and organic also. 

Our plan for editing came in two stages. First, I would compose a rough cut, using my edit decision list to find the right moments to represent our central narrative. With all the important moments and shots on the timeline, I handed the project over to Josh, as our editor, to have freedom in  adding music, moving the shots around to create a fully flow and adding effects and graphics. This meant that I would get more exposure to editing as it is my favourite aspect of the process prior to this assignment and my directing would stay true but when it came down to it Josh could be our editor and play around with the overall style and presentation of my vision. I didn't want to tread on his toes too much as, although this is a group assignment, everyone has their role to play and needed points of their own credits. 

So we were able to share the workload and keep the edit moving, we began with my composing a phase of the rough cut at home before bringing it in for Josh to adjust in college and continue at home also. This plan worked out for a few days however, my adobe Premiere decided to update so the most recent version of the edit could only be accessed from my laptop. This was a slight problem as Josh wouldn't be able to take that version home to continue on but we were able to resolve this quickly as we simply decided to both work together of my laptop when in college. As well as using the footage we had, I also wanted the final video to include an opening montage of D&D youtubers explaining the basics, footage from D&D streamer games and a credits list. So, while Josh and I were working on the central edit, I asked the other three to each take a part of the edit so everyone could get some practice and speed up the process. Jacob's credits and Vi's Youtube montage were perfect and I could take those to put in the main edit. Cai, Vi and I also found the streamer footage and I put them together to overlay the ending interview speeches due to the lighting problems which was a perfect fit.

The main problems josh and I found when editing were brightness and exposure and audio levels. Balancing the backing tracks, supplied by me on spotify, and the interviews was difficult as we didn't want the background noise of the footage to get in the way. This was a particular problem with the start of the video but I managed to do some simple training on Adobe Audition to try and get the levels and background noise aligned. Vi drew the backdrops for each phase's title card and this set a great modes and palette for our edit. As the week went on with editing, Josh began to let up and focus on the audio but not the overall composition so, after we agreed it, I stepped in to complete most of the edit. Josh had added some interesting name card graphics and additional stock footage but the timeline as a whole was still clumsy and unfocused. I rearranged many of the interview sections and even considered changing the number of phases to keep interest. Both Josh and I attempted to colour correct footage from Day 4 as the lighting changed drastically between cameras and the time of day. Along with this, the lighting in some of the shots was interrupted by dots cast on Jacob by the blind. My eventual solve to this issue was using this footage as flashbacks to the session thus making them black and white. 

I think by the end I had ended up doing most of the edit but this what was Josh and I felt was right for the state we and the video was in. We made a good team and were able to sort most issues with the tone, colour and sound.