Finer Cuts

We have been working on making the fine cuts finer for Greater Heights. Part of the suggestions of the class from our last screening included reducing the vox pop even more and adding found footage of parkour injuries to the section where Tori discusses the YouTube attraction towards parkour. There were also suggestions to do more filming and incorporate more footage that is outside of the gyms. My partner and I split these duties between us. I took the responsibility of reducing the vox pop and adding the found footage.
The vox pop I have been struggling with for some time. I have long agreed that it was too long and I have, throughout the semester, been working to reduce it. With this last pass, I made the most significant cuts to date. I reduced the vox pop down to under a minute in duration. I did this by completely removing the young couple standing in the field. While I do think they had very good answers, the class seemed pretty unanimous in voting that they should be the ones to go. I also cut out some answers from the red-haired lady.
For the found footage, I watched many videos on YouTube by searching for "parkour fails,"parkour bloopers," and "parkour injuries." Many of the videos were quite disturbing; however, I only include those that I feel communicate our intentions but are still viewable by children. These included videos of people trying to do different parkour stunts but falling/slipping/tripping. I tried to fit as many examples of these fails as I could in the small duration i which Tori is describing the dangers of watching parkour on YouTube. As a result, there are many clips in that span that last only a few quick seconds. My intentions in editing them in this manner (and putting them after Tori's dialogue) is to completely bombard the viewer with what could go wrong if children are not properly taught how to practice parkour.
My partner took the responsibility of getting the added suggested footage. She went to the high school and shot footage of Yuri and the included students at school. From what I've seen, the stuff she obtained looks great. It should all fit nicely and give our cut some much needed variety and relief from the gym. She also wanted to do another interview, which she scheduled for last Thursday; however, the interviewee forgot and so was not able to participate. I believe she has rescheduled to get the interview this Tuesday. After she obtains this interview, we should have much more footage and diversity to include in the documentary.