Tutorials with Ali

 04/05/21-

In this session, we spoke about the movement video I had created. Of course, this was just a draft to present the footage I had filmed to portray identity. We discussed the next steps of my film- whether I am going to include the movement in that same way, whether I want to layer it over the top (of the interviews) or just have it playing by itself. 

We spoke about Akram Khan exploring similar ideas even as an "established choreographer"- important that migration and identity is relevant. 

19/05/21-

In this session, we focused on my written document with Ali answering any final questions I had. 

Questions included:

• Word count 
• Formatting
•  Editing the document 
• Submissions 
• We spoke about cutting/ editing so that my document is more succinct 

Feedback for written

• Think about moving the hypothesis, make links throughout the essay
• Cut out any repetition 
• Check for grammar, spelling etc 

May edits

 01/05/21-

My aim for the next few sessions was to merge the dance clips with my interview clips (where necessary). I did not want to include movement for the sake of it so, for at least 3 sessions I worked on mixing the clips around to see what worked and what did not. I found that the shadow clips worked best with my participants content as all features were hidden. To start, I struggled to include my movement clips as they did not fit in with what was being said. 

New things I tried:

• Having 2 clips play at the same time- one more transparent than the other
• Using effects to make the transitions smoother 

05/05/21... 07/05/21...

In these sessions my aim was to start coming up with a rough structure. However, every time I came back to edit, I found myself changing the order of the clips. It was difficult to maintain a structure as I did not know what order I preferred the clips to be in. 

I did not want it to come across as an "interview" but when the clips were all together, this was the impression I was getting. To solve this, I decided to film more content- mainly scenic videos; from Southend, London and Albania. Of course, I was unable to go to Albania myself so I had to ask one of my cousins to film specific sections for me. The rest of the shots I filmed myself. 

26/05/21...27/05/21

I took some time away from editing as I felt it was necessary. In this next section,  I started to include the different clips and scenic footage. I found that this added to my project, making it look more like a documentary. I also started to work more on the structure, linking the clips more smoothly and adding different images and videos to the content to make it more interesting. 

28/05/21-

In this session, I decided to re order the whole project.

• Added a title 
• Started the documentary off with myself talking about my project, identity and my family
• Mixed the sections up a lot more so that it switched between who was talking rather than having 3 separate sections of my parents, myself and my uncle
• I have also left gaps for extra footage I need to include as well as Albanian folk music for the background
•  I added extra transitions between clips so that they look more professional 
• I added subheadings so that we know who is speaking

All these changes started to bring the documentary together. I feel more content with this video. However, I do still need to work on some of the sections- adding more movement, more footage and making sure the order of the clips makes sense. 

This video reflects the end of the May edits.