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OVERVIEW
overview
"The Spirit of Haida Gwaii and Beyond" is a documentary film that will bring audiences through a journey of a decade long friendship and works between Bill Reid, a famous Canadian half Haida artist and George Rammel. In partnership with SFU's Moving Images video course and the Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art, our team worked with George Rammel, a sculptor who helped Bill on some of the most famous pieces, to create a documentary about his experiences and stories of Bill Reid for the Bill Reid 100th Birthday Celebration Exbihition.
My main role was the final cut version editor for the video using adobe premiere while working along with my teammates. I also improved my cameraworks skills in this project and filmed various b-rolls in the film during the protest, Bill Reid Gallery and John's Studio. During the project, I was also the person to handle communications between our guest artist, the gallery curator and location coordinators.
TEAM
CHRISTY CHAN
JINTAO WANG
SHERRY WANG
JAYTON ZANG
AWARDED
BEST NARRATIVE
2019 MOVING IMAGES
SPRING SEMESTER SHOWCASE
TOOLS


INSIGHT

THE SPIRIT OF HAIDA GWAI & BEYOND
"The Spirit of Haida Gwai & Beyond" is one of the five documentary video series that focuses on five influential artists who worked with Bill Reid and their memories of the man for the 100th Birthday of Bill Reid Celebration Exhibition.
The documentary focuses on George Rammel, a Vancouver sculptor who has worked on over 14 projects with Bill Reid such as 'The Raven and the First Men' and 'The Spirit of Haida Gwai". Our film, "The Spirit of Haida Gwai & Beyond" focuses on George and Bill's friendship and George's thoughts on Bill as he goes through his works.
Idea
MY ROLE
My main roles in the film include editing, camera works and being the main communicator between the artist, client, mentors and facility managers. I was also the interviewer which meant I helped to facilitate the conversation and made sure our artist was comfortable.
Many of the B-Rolls at the Bill Reid Gallery and at George Norris studio were captured by myself along with another teammate. I was one of the main editors (adding b-rolls, transitions, music cutting) for the final version while my other teammates gave guidance and did other parts like colour correction etc.
Meanwhile, I was responsible also for communications with Geroge Rammell, Bill Reid Gallery and location coordinators.

STORYBOARD & RESEARCH
After being assigned to George Rammell, we did intensive research about not only about the guest artist himself but also about Haida Culture, Bill Reid and any articles or biographies. Having an understanding of the Haida culture is important as many of the art pieces are deeply enrooted with Haida Culture and we wanted to portray those stories or meanings properly.
At first, we came up with a couple of directions such as starting the conversation with a conflict (the protest). Some aspects we knew we knew we had to talk about (instructions from our client) was about the pieces "The Spirit of Haida Gwaii" and the documentary must be somewhat Bill Reid focus as it was his exhibition.
MY ROLE DURING THIS PHASE
Research, Production Package Writing, Communications
Key
INTERVIEWING & FLIMING
After a series of emails, we went to interview George Rammell. I had the interview questions prepared but as the Interviewer, I had to be open-minded and checked with George if there was any insights or stories he wanted to tell. I help keep the conversation going and support our artist by making sure he expands or explains certain things when he mentions them as our audiences may not understand (such as potlatch culture etc).
CHALLENGES
We interviewed him a lot of 3 times in different locations. Our team had difficulties filming the art piece at the airport at first due to the crowds, bright windows and reflection from the piece itself. We had to reshoot multiple time to get it correct.

NARRITIVE DRAFT
After filming, we had to create a narrative with all the new stories we had. Our direction completely changed and moved away from telling facts (things that people can learn from going to the gallery or Wikipedia) to telling stories which could be lost because ultimately, we are not just filmmakers but historians as well.
After a couple of iterations, we put a series of A roll together to confirm our narrative first. After getting feedback and approval, we started to film the b-rolls / footage we would need for it. I went to the Bill Reid Studio and John's Studio, this time as a camerawoman to film a series of footage along with my teammates who went to other locations to film.

NEW SKILLS
From this project and course, I actually learnt a lot especially regard camera skills. I am now able to know how and what to adjust (ISO, Shutter, Focus) when I encounter issues. I also had a lot of fun filming b-rolls and composition, practicing manual change of focus was really educational.
Other things I learn how to stabilize films, using speed to manipulate certain things and I am now more familiar with Premiere. I use to only use After Effects and doing many visual effects with tripod films so the change has taught me a lot. I hope this experience can be transferred to the future works that I am currently working on.
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