Here she is, the final edit.
Pieced everything together, the footage, the establishing shots, the graphic work, the whole music track, and the animation itself.
Really happy with how it turned out, and proud of my effort. It's something I've achieved on a scale I wouldn't even have attempted had it not been for the time frame of Grad 2, and the fact that it was the very last project.
I tweaked a few things from what I had planned. I added a short title screen after naming the piece "Braving the Beast", which I felt appropriate and relevant to the issue.
I also dropped the second set of title, the ones which state what my idea was. I just didn't like them, they didn't feel right, whether it was the wording or how unnecessary they sounded, they just didn't work for me, and I didn't wanna lose my viewer's attention by including them.
I adjusted the order of editing too, in order to best fit the final music, which started more ambient and soft, but built to a big dramatic crescendo. So instead of showing all the footage, and THEN the shots of my drawing the animation, I mixed them up accordingly, so that when the music gets all dramatic and "dangerous", it suited the video on screen, in this case, talk about the cartels and the danger the migrants find themselves facing.
As I couldn't get the train to move like my original idea, I digitally created a shot that kinda set the scene here instead. Its a panning shot of the train, made by piecing together high quality photos of the actual caridges and then moving them in after effects, which gives the impression of the train used as a timeline canvas, but in a suggestive sense. It serves to just set the scene for the animation that follows, and while I suppose I could have done the whole animation in that manner to recreate my original idea, I didn't want to "blag" it, if that makes sense. I'd rather do a more basic method that was legit, than a fancy one that wasn't, just to keep an idea alive.
I also added end credits based on one shot I got on location, giving a shout out to everyone who helped me, not just in this project (Alex for music, Mr. Ultreras for his footage, and my girlfriend for helping me film and drive me to Healey every day!) but also for Matt and Johnny who have helped me these past 2 years, and guided me towards a better future for myself and my career.
As it stands, I'm happy with the work, but obviously I'm so "into" it by now that I see the many faults in it. It's nothing major that will require further editing or anything, but a few things I don't like, such as the pace of the intro, which seems a little slow (due mainly to the length of the music and me trying to time it right for certain parts), a little disjointed in edits (ie: coming in and out of the animation montage itself), and just general quality, which seems a little rough around the edges (which kinda suits it to a point).
But for all it's faults, I feel good about how it came out, and feel the months and months of research, planning, development and application were well spent. Not that I'd put myself through it again anytime soon, but still. Looking back, it makes me feel even prouder, knowing how hard it was, and how high I aimed. It's certainly set a new standard for myself and my work, something I will aim to take with me, wherever the future might lead me, career wise.
