The Clootie Well. Short doc piece.

[johnmacp]

My first dslr effort, and my first foray into FCP in earnest. This is a local spring where a tradition has developed over several hundred years, to wet rags in the well, and wipe an afflicted part of the body then hang the rags in the trees.

I wanted to strike a balance between wonder and spookiness. There is an element of whimsy in some of the stuff hanging there, but also a darker side as evidenced by many of the written comments, so I've tried to capture that. Have tried also to capture the scale of the phenomenon, as well as the smaller details, but retain a degree of edginess to all of it.

I'd like to do some colour adjustment to perhaps desaturate it a bit, not sure, but looking at Color last night was daunting so I'll need to do some homework.

This was shot this week over Tuesday and Wednesday, 3 hours each day, edited on Thursday and uploaded that night. My long term aim with this, hopefully, is to get some narrative from users of the well and maybe pick up some backstories about the ways their use of the well has affected them. The sound recording stuff is next on ny learning curve.

Anyway, any comments harsh or otherwise are very welcome - learning curve is steep but I'm having fun!

 

[Danny1280]

John, I like the visuals a lot. Beautiful. What did you use to shoot with? The music complements nicely as well. So, yes, now if you had just a little (not too much) voices telling some story, I think you'd have a really nice little piece. It's refreshing to see a story start as a visual rather than with wall-to-wall voiceover broken by occasional "b-roll." Instead you have a gorgeous visual story that just needs a little narrative context. But make sure you keep some music/visual sequences even after you add the voice/words. One note: The long cards at the beginning were annoying to me. I don't to have to read so much, especially all at once. I almost didn't make it to the visual part. I'd say start with visuals/music, then if you HAVE to, bring in some short cards. But try to find other ways of telling the story. I suppose that's what the narration will do. But let it unfold slowly, don't give it all away at the beginning, let there be a little mystery.

 

[johnmacp]

Danny - many thanks for the feedback - very valuable.

I'm very keen on the human voice (of experience) as narrator, and I think the challenge will be to include that without it dominating and being overlong.

On reflection I agree with you about the opening cards - and I think your suggestion of breaking it up and letting it unfold is a really good one. I guess in tha absence of the voice telling the story I felt I needed some way to introduce the subject, but I think you're right that more pf a sense of unfolding mystery could be achieved by more careful structure (and fewer written words!).

Simple kit really - Canon 7D, mostly with a 24-70 f2.8, and a few shots with a 100mm macro, 17-35 and a 70-200, all Canon f2.8's. I used a fader filter to keep the f2.8 and 1/50 combination, and did the focus shifts by doing a couple of practise runs before pressing the record button.

Focus was the biggest challenge - I knew what I wanted to try to achieve with the focus shifts and short dof, but I dont have any form of viewfinder aid or monitor so establishing focus was >stills mode > AF > focus on point A > note focus distance on lens scale > slide > focus on point B > note focus distance on scale > return to start point > shift to video mode > repeat process with camera running and shift focus manually as the camera was doing the slide. Slider is a Konova device I got from Korea which seems really well made and is very smooth.

Thanks for taking the time to comment - its really appreciated.

 

[maranfilms]

It's a cool vid. Im not so sure I would have shot it on a sunny day, of course there's times when you have no choice. But I think a rainy day an hr before twilight would have given it a more interesting feel. Dont get me wrong, you did a great job capturing the place. Just my opinion.

 

[johnmacp]

Thanks for your opinion, and a valid one too.

I had a choice and decided sunny!

Reasoning was that the place itself has an air of decay and edginess, and I decided that rather than go all the way towards gloom, I might provide a contrast with that decay by having some dancing light and shadow.

It was a tough call because for all its evident decay the fundamental premise behind people's use of the well/spring is about hope and aspiration.

I do a load of stills work in overcast and wet conditions and the colours can be incredibly vibrant, and the absence of shadows gives a beautifully soft and I might even say flattering lighting effect. I thought that that 'beautiful' light might be too 'nice' for this piece. I guess its the absence of shadows that I didn't fancy. I think shadow areas, if used properly, can bring an extra dimension to images.

You might be right though about later evening/lower light - could add a more sombre feel.

Thanks for taking the time to consider it.

 

[johnmacp]

Danny1280 - have followed your sage advice and re-edited the start to break up the long intro, choosing a suitably short sound clip and trying to fit the opening titles/info to the rythm of it.