Rhys Sadler-Scott conducted four experiments to practice skills for his documentary film project. The first experiment involved editing music on GarageBand to practice soundtrack skills. The second was making an anti-littering poster in Photoshop to learn design techniques. The third was filming classroom shots and editing them together with music to practice cinematography and editing. The fourth was filming a mock interview about a paranormal experience to learn interviewing skills. Overall, the experiments helped Rhys learn skills in music, design, filming, editing and interviewing that he will apply to his documentary.

1. Experiments
Rhys Sadler-Scott

2. PROCESS
• Experiment 1: GarageBand music editing.
https://youtu.be/tneszN7plQc

3. For my first experiment, I decided to create an original track on GarageBand. When I make my Documentary, I want
most of the music to be originally produced by myself, or under my direction, so I thought it would be a good idea to
make a practice track. Mostly, I did this to practice editing different clips of music together and supplementing them
with additional notes or tunes from different instruments.
First I picked a royalty free song off of sound library on YouTube. Which I then cut down and edited to make the audio
a bit smoother, so that I could add to the track without as much dissonance as there would have been otherwise.
Then I Used a drum kit simulator (SoCal) to add some extra beats and
sounds to the song to enhance it. Once the audio was synched up to my
satisfaction, I decided it was tine to add another song, since I wanted to
practice musical transitions.

4. I used a couple of Tambourine loops to open the medley of music. I was aiming to make the
transitions between the different genres of songs I was using a little smoother. This was done with
some success, but I think there was still quite a lot of tonal dissonance in the track at this stage.
So far I had a 80’s funk style intro, into a 50’s style
mamba, with drums and tambourines added into
the background for effect. Next I decided to ad a
dramatic, cinematic piano based melody to finish
off the mixed track. This and the mambo were both
obtained from the royalty free sound library on
YouTube. But the background instruments are all
my own melodies. I used trumpets n the
background of the final dramatic snog clip, which I
think meshed quite well with the style, though the
timing of the beats could have been better. I then
finished all of this off with a final cymbal sound
effect. Which worked well to finish the jumble of
songs I had blended together, with mixed results.
Overall, While the track I produced bended
together fairly well, I think my music editing skills
will need a large amount of polishing before they
are good enough in quality for me to use in my final
documentary. After this experiment, I think a
licensed, royalty free soundtrack, should be
considered.

5. Experiment 2: Poster techniques on Photoshop

6. For my second experiment, I decided to practice Photoshop techniques on a poster. Though I hadn’t
originally decided to do a poster for my Documentary, I think it would go well with the trailer, in tying the
whole project together. To begin with I decided on what kind of poster to make as an experiment.
Eventually I settled on a quick ad for the prevention of littering. I started by finding a base image.
I thought this city skyline would lend itself well to a poster on keeping a city clean. Since it
would be easy to isolate the skyline from the sky, leaving room for giving the image a more
posturized feel. Since I could make the sky more interesting, while also giving it a somewhat
more whimsical feel, which draws the gaze a lot more.

7. I used the gradient tool (after a short tutorial on YouTube, to help me understand how best to place
the colours) To simulate a sunrise in the background, the effect is a little jarring compared to the
realism of the city, so my next move was to use a filter and posturize the image. I merged the layers to
make sure that each part of the picture would be included in this effect.

8. Now that I had the image as I wanted it, I needed to add in the text I had decided on for the
poster. But I knew that with the coloring of the image, it would look shabby if I put words over it.
My solution was to use a translucent white text box. Which means that both the image and the
test will be visible without looking unprofessional or being hard to read.
Once I had the opacity right. I added in the text. I wasn’t sure what colour to use
initially for the text, so I researched the most eye catching colours and how they are
employed. My decision was to use red, and highlight it with an anti-littering sign.

9. • With a few finishing touches, like dropping shadow and using the stroke effects where
appropriate, as well as adding a small trademark logo in the bottom corner, the poster was
finished. This experiment has helped me to realise how simple and effective posters can be. I
think it would be lucrative to produce one to go with my final project.

10. Experiment 3: A short film, practicing blending music
to shots and transitions.
https://youtu.be/oabsfjCkG6s

11. For my third production experiment, I decided to do a short compilation of shots from the
classroom, students working and interacting, etc. Which I then cut together into a cohesive
whole. I did this as a smaller scale version of what I will have to do in my final project, I.E
cutting together several smaller shots into one big film. I also took this opportunity to
practice the technique of syncing music up with my shots, which is something I haven't
really done before but I think went quite well.
I began by taking some varied shots of the classroom and its students (With their consent) in
order to get some footage to splice together. I tried to learn some new techniques on
panning and how to make it smoother when done by hand, but I didn't have a lot of time to
study it, so this might be something to look at next time I have to film similar shots. Once I
had everything I wanted, I imported the clips onto PremierePro

12. I used a blend of wide, panning shots, close ups, Dutch angles and handheld zoom in shots to
make up the clips that went into my experiment. Once I had clipped them together in a way that I
was satisfied with and edited them down for viewing, I also reversed some shots for better flow
and made many of the close ups black and white. This was for two reasons. One, because some
of the colour correction was off and the shots wouldn’t have been consistent. So I will need to
work on that next time. And two, so that the film had more of an identity and gave the viewer
some more varied shots to look at, so that it wouldn’t be too boring. I also tried something I have
never done before, choosing an original licensed, royalty free, song to blend with the shots that
are being shown in a way that didn’t cause tonal dissonance. I settled on the indie, country song
“Meet Again” Which I downloaded and fit to the sequence I had created. I edited the shots down
even more, so that the changes would occur on certain beats in the song. This helped to make
the video much more interesting and also give me some experience blending music to shots,
which is something I should be able to do for the documentary. All In all I think it was a success,
though there were some issues with colour correction and focus , but I think all I need to correct
those are time and practice.
https://youtu.be/oabsfjCkG6s

14. Experiment 4: test interview.
For my fourth and possibly final production experiment, I decided to experience what the interview process in a film
might be like, something I haven’t explored in any of the other short films I have produced. First I considered what the
interview might be about, several ideas came to mind, lifestyle, food, gaming, general media. In the end though, I
decided on an interview with a ”survivor” of a visit from a ghost. I had this idea after a brief viewing of the TV show
‘True Horror’ which focuses on interviewees who have had experiences with the paranormal. Though the entire
contents of the interview are fiction, it is still shot and acted quite realistically. Once I had shot Sam from a fairly low
angle, with a tripod, against the white background answering my questions, I shot myself in the same manner against
a black background to provide contrast and filmed my reactions to the questions, which was sometimes difficult, as I
didn’t actually have Sam in front of me to react to, so I had to do it based on memory and what I thought would be
natural. Then I had to splice the two pieces of footage together in a way that looked like they were filmed at the same
time and tied into each other.

15. I started by importing the footage I had onto PremierePro and began to splice my reaction shots into
Sam’s interview. I also lowered the contrast of the footage slightly, to give the interview a darker, more
sinister feel, as I wanted the audience to feel a sense of unease and supernatural from the get go. I also
inserted images where appropriate, that of an open door at the point where Sam talks about answering
his hotel door, and an obscure ghostly woman when he describes the ghost. Once all the footage was put
together, I also added in a message at the end about coming forward with other ghost stories, to give the
whole interview an air of realism. Once all the footage was edited together nicely and the finishing
touches were added, I decided the whole scene might be improved with some music to tie it together.

16. To tie the whole process together, I took three dark, ambient, sinister tracks from the YouTube
sound library and timed their usage in the video at significant moments; The beginning, the first
mention of the haunting, and the ending of the video. I think the whole interview was enriched
by the presence of the music. And this served as my most educational experiment so far, doing
well to help me understand how best to conduct, film, stage and frame filmed interviews, which
will be very useful to me in the future.

17. Reflection
All of my production experiments have been very useful to me for learning new techniques and
tricks that I could apply to my final works. Each experiment focused on a different, but important
aspect that I will include in my final product: Music, Poster, editing, and cinematography. For my
first experiment I practiced editing music together on Garageband. I did this by attempting to to
splice a variety of different genres together. I reasoned that when the time came to include a
soundtrack in my own work, whether it be original or licensed, I would be much better versed in
the techniques for editing it together, at least on GarageBand at any rate. Despite increasing my
skill with the application overall, I didn’t learn a lot of new things about GarageBand during this
experiment, except for an easy way to include more than one instrument in the background and
for keeping track of the chords I have already played, and even moving them around. So while it
was not especially useful for learning new things, it was a very good crash course in sharpening
my skill with it, so the P.E was successful overall I think and will help me to edit the music,
whatever I chose, in my own documentary.
My second experiment was a poser for anti-littering. I came up with the idea at random, before
expanding on it. I did this both in preparation for the poster I will make for my own documentary,
and to learn something new on Photoshop. In both of these endeavours I was fairly successful. I
took several tutorials on YouTube on blending colours and the usage of gradients to enhance a
poster. Which I employed in the background of this work. I also did some research on how colour
is employed in posters to draw the focus of viewers. Which directly influenced the tones and
shades of red I used in the text at the foreground. I also learned more about how to make text
stand out against a busy background. So despite the result, which was a basic and simple poster, I
did learn a great deal about Photoshop techniques while I was working on it. All of this will be
very helpful to me when I create a poster for my final Documentary.

18. My third production experiment was the most difficult to make for me. I chose to practice my camera
skills and editing skills by taking several shots of my class at work and putting them together in a way
that scanned, with some music in the background. Taking good, usable shots of the room was difficult,
as I am not very good at smooth panning, and the colour correction was off for some of the shots, So I
had to get creative in order to fix them. By putting some of the shots in black and white, I was able to
make sure the shots blended together much better. However there were several issues with the focus
that I failed to pick up on until it was too late and the footage was being edited, so I need to be careful
during the filming of my final Documentary, and make sure that every shot counts. I picked a licensed,
royalty free song for the background music and timed my shots to coincide with the beats, this, I think,
was the most successful aspect of an otherwise difficult and mediocre experiment. As the shots and
the music tied together well. Overall, I have learned much more about focusing, colour correction,
steady panning and a few editing tricks to correct below-standard footage. So despite the sometimes
mediocre experiment, I did learn a good amount from it, and won’t repeat the mistakes I made in my
final product.
My fourth and final Production Experiment was, in my opinion, of the best quality compared to the
others. It features an interview with an individual who had an experience with a ghost and tells the
audience and the interviewer his story. I did this to practice formatting interviews for my final product
and to learn how interview shots are typically done. I did learn that the camera is best placed at eye
level with the interviewee, so as not to appear ‘above them’ when watching. And I learned about
where the subjects of the interview should be looking during the interview, and how important the
framing and presentation of the background and subjects can be for the audience in order to make
sure the scene scans. All of this knowledge will be extremely useful to me when filming my final
Documentary, especially when I pick the locations for the interviews. I also learned about how the
interest factor of the interview can be enhanced by both music in the background and the use of other
footage and images to illustrate what the subjects are talking about. This, combined with the overall
quality of the final experiment, makes it my most successful production experiment.

19. Bibliography
1. N/A. (2018). Documentary. Available:
https://www.audionetwork.com/playlists/documentary. Last accessed 18th April 2018.
2. PremiereProTips. (2012). How to Make a Video Black & White in Adobe Premiere Pro.
Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vje-Fq2ZjNY. Last accessed 19th April 2018.
3. SwiftSloth. (2017). How to Fade-In and Fade-out on Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2017. Available:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ln_S-gkFXTw. Last accessed 19th April 2018.
4. Channel 4. (2018). TRAILER True Horror. Available:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWhgkpE0c1s. Last accessed 26th April 2018.