We were cutting it fine with the editing and just got the video finished in time, as it took a long time to filter through the vast amount of footage from three cameras. The students we had become friends with in Omnia came in to the class to wish us farewell, and said that they hope to see us when they come to visit Galway in the Autumn. We gave gave gifts to the teachers who accommodated us. We gave a bodhran and a card to York and a candle and a card to Elina. York said that it was a pleasure having us and he was very impressed with our abilities.
-Cathal Flannery-
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Today, we spent the day starting and making the final edit. As it is Thursday we were aware that time wasn't on our side. This wasn't easy as the software only worked on one computer . We all gathered around the one computer and helped with editing .We discussed different ideas again and which performances to prioritize.
York set up a the sound for us ,which enabled us to project the footage on the wall rather than huddle around the computer screen. This meant everyone could see and be involved at all times. We received a file that included the theme song for Saku Stars. We used this for the background music throughout the edit. We cut the interview with Saku stars manager and mixed it with performances by the students, showing the different types of events involved in the competition. We then added in another clip from the interview and then moved on to a performers interview with their performance. The Sony Vegas software struggled with the amount of footage being loaded form the computer's scratch and often took 10 or 20 minutes to load an interview or performance. This was very time consuming and extremely frustrating but we kept good humor and chatted with Roope , discussing the differences between Ireland and Finland and the upcoming celebrations at the weekend in Helsinki. After a long day, we headed home.Some of us napped and some went to see the Estonian president dj-ing in Helsinki! Back to the early starts again, as I was awoken by a very unwelcome alarm at 7:30 after my lie in and afternoon nap yesterday. It was back to reality after our trip by ferry to the beautiful old town in Tallinn, on Saturday. As soon as we got to Omnia it was editing the vast amount of footage we got. We all agreed that we would take different sections each to work on. I took the footage from my camera from Tuesday and cut out all the empty footage and synced the separately recorded sound to it. Tomorrow is a case of us all coming together to decide which footage makes it to the next round of editing.
Cathal Flannery We had the majority of the main editing for the video finished so there wasn't a massive amount to do this day as we prepared to string together the final video. I was working on the b-roll footage and the footage from last Wednesday. Cathal was working on Tuesday's footage, Sean was working on the video's audio, while Roisin and Roope worked on the interviews. Nobody seemed to have any major problems with the editing and Sony Vegas in my opinion was really easy to use and I hadn't used it previous to this. That evening, Roisin, Sean and myself went to an Irish pub in Helsinki called Molly Malones. Sadly we were the only Irish people there and they're having a laugh charging me 6.70 for a pint. We arrived at the school at ten. Roope had let us have an extra hour sleep after the busy few days. York wished to meet us in the canteen to discuss editing ideas. He gave us ideas and talked about the work involved in SakuStars and what he still had to do. He organised that we would receive extra footage from other student's filming for us to add to our documentary if we wished. This was very helpful of him. Conor and I also met Alena, the lady who helped organise our trip and enabled us to come here. She wanted to know how we were getting on and what our experience has been. She was a very pleasant woman and it was lovely top meet her. He said she had heard good things about us and hoped we were learning a lot and enjoying ourselves. After this, we headed up to our room and started discussing how we would organise editing of footage. Conor had done a great job organising footage into folders, so we knew exactly what day footage was taken and whether it was b-rolls, performances or interviews. This was a great set up as it would have prolonged the editing by a day or so. As Roope and I filmed the interviews, Roope suggested that he and I should edit the interviews as we need what ones were good and what ones were not so good. I was happy enough to do it. For the same reason Cathal edited his footage and Sean edited the second day of performance footage.. Conor helped with editing the footage from Cathal's camera and the b-rolls. Everyone agreed this was the best decision. I found Pro Vegas hard at first to use,but after some time it became easier and i had no problems editing. We were all happy it was Friday as we are all tired, but disheartened at the realization that we only have one week left. Next week will be a busy one. After work , and comparing Irish and the Finnish language with Roope,we all visited a different area of Espoo .When we got home of us tried the saunas with our Estonian housemates., which is a popular hobby for Finns. Tomorrow morning we will take the boat to Estonia for the day.
I had been working in the editing room all week, uploading and organizing footage on the computers. I also had to clear and swap the sd cards each time one of my class mates came in so that none of the cards would fill up mid-filming. We didn't have much to do today and all that had to be done really was a few interviews so we didn't have to come in until 11 am unlike our usual 9 am mornings. We were finished at roughly 2 o clock and we cooked a barbecue later that night. Bacon kebabs are nice!
Start of Saku StarsWe got to Omnia at around 9am to get all the equipment we needed ready for the first event at twelve. We had to sort out three cameras, three tripods, various mics and recording equipment, a shoulder rig and 5 sd cards. When everything was organised some of went down to the entrance and filmed the people arriving and all the general excitement and anticipation. We had all decided on primary roles and I decided that operating one of the cameras would be mine. It was a small bit stressful lugging around a big camera and tripod to eight different venues and up and down to the editing room, but a really enjoyable learning experience. The events we covered today were solo dancing, bands, plays, drawing from a model, dj mixing, dancing duos, choirs and rap. The rap and dancing duos were the most exciting
We met Roope at Omina College at 9.am. We headed upstairs to our editing room where we began to organise equipment and finalise schedules for the three days of the competition. We collected the equipment we had already sourced and we scanned them through the system. We then tested equipment to ensure it was all in working order and Sean ensured the sound equipment was compatible with the mixing desk. I printed out a schedule as so we could discuss it with York and make changes if necessary and Conor prepared folders to load the footage to the computer.Roope sat with those who needed to familiarise themselves with SonyVegas software. We met with York and he was happy with how we had planned the schedule. He gave us a Schoeps MSTC 6 microphone to capture the ambiance of the room during the acts.None of the group had seen ,heard of or used this microphone before and were delighted with the opportunity. York gave us a history of the mic and told us how it is used mainly with orchestras. I was given a Genesis Line VSS rig to build. I had not built one before but had seen another student of Omina building one the previous day. This was a great opportunity to learn hands on how to set the rig up straight from the box. We then practiced using the cameras, shooting footage and loading footage onto Sony Vegas.We had issues initially with the footage appearing grainy, but Roope and Sean figured out the problem with the settings and rectified it. We we glad we had used this time to practice so we could eliminate some problems for tomorrow. Sean talked with the students at the mixing desk an organised mixing for the desk, to allow us to use the audio from it. I prepared and printed out the discussed schedule and interview questions so each team member had a copy of there our to navigate themselves to the different venues. We took the usual 'bus 18' which stopped outside LIDL just down from our accommodation. This was our first day looking at the equipment we would be using. It was a similar process to GTI when checking out equipment although we had to scan the items into a computer once they were being checked out.
The value of all the equipment came to a total of almost 14,000 euros once we had decided what we were going to use. We will start work on the SakuStar competition this coming Tuesday. Later that day, we got the bus out to 'Nouk' nature park which surrounded a massive lake and we all chilled out there for the evening. There wasn't much wild life to be seen but the scenery was great. We began today like any other and caught our bus to Omnia and met up with Roope, the day was spent mostly finalizing our shooting schedule and once again becoming familliar with Vegas. our editing software and just generally discussing how things are going to go next week,
As we finished a little bit later than usual today we opted for something a little different, instead of taking our usual bus 18 to near where we are staying, we took the train to the Klauklahti district to explore our surroundings a little bit. Klauklahti Station is a very interesting building, which is built at an elevation, There are stairs down from the platforms, and a Main tunnel underneath for foot traffic linking all of these. When we arrived at Klauklahti station we took a short walk through these tunnels and found the espoojoki river, before taking the much shorter bus 18 journey back to our accomodation, on the outskirts of the district. we have also been taking the oppertunity getting to know the immediate area around Finns Omnia where we are staying, It is a wonderfully peaceful area that is quite secluded and great for relaxing after a hard day of work, or sight seeing...... |
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