admin

we are a filming company that provides audio-visual productions in Kenya and Africa at large. we are passionate about telling African stories.

Professional Video Editing Tips

Leave a Comment / Editing Tips / By

It takes an in-depth knowledge of human behavior to succeed as a video editor in any video production company or as a freelancer. With the help of this information from Take six Africa professional experts, editors can leave a powerful impression on potential viewers as well as construct compelling stories.

A strong and efficient edit allows the viewer to follow the video information without interruption. For the audience to feel the same way and be in the same mood throughout the video, you should strive for “invisible” editing.

You can achieve this by utilizing some of the following professional editing guidance and methods that we have highlighted below:

  1. Find the Best Camera Angle for Each Shot

If your video is a narrative or documentary, you should look for footage that strikes a balance between the speaker’s intention and the audience’s expectations. For example, in a TED talk-style film, you want the ideal camera angle that best conveys the speaker’s story and highlights the audience’s reactions (if any) around the room.

  1. Pay Attention to the Body Language or the Way Something is Spoken

Multiple expressions can be seen frequently in videos of speeches or interviews. Consider the speaker’s posture and pace of speaking when making modifications. Despite reading from a script, the subject’s voice has a natural pace that may be precisely tailored to your changes.

  1. Remember to use both medium and close-up shots.

Utilizing various camera angles will help your audience comprehend the setting or location of the scene. Medium to close-up shots might be useful during interviews to allow the audience to see the interviewee’s or interviewer’s expressions. This is also applicable to videos of the documentary or interview variety. Medium to close-up shots during significant moments in wedding videos might serve to emphasize the happiness and emotions present at the occasion.

  1. Keep Things Moving Along

Observe the pacing of your movie or video. You are responsible for making the rules here and ensuring that your audience has enough time to take everything in. Using several camera angles can provide your audience with a variety of sights while also adding movement.

  1. Cut on Words or Action

Cutting on a word or gesture is one method of hiding an edit. If you have a speaker, you can cut during one gesture and have it flow into another, demonstrating continuity and enabling a quiet motion to go on to another scene. This technique can also be used to shorten sentences, which will help the audience remember what you said.

  1. Don’t Be Afraid to Edit Mistakes

It is possible to eliminate speaker and technical mistakes so that they don’t annoy your audience. It is best to cut out any speakers that use the word “uh” frequently during interviews or lectures, as well as any obvious errors that would upset viewers when the video is finished playing. Pay attention to this because it occasionally requires a keen eye to identify minute errors.

  1. Revisit Your Edits

Most video editors who work full-time for video production services or businesses know how crucial it is to step back from their editing tasks. It’s a good idea to take a break from editing after becoming completely engaged in it so that you can return to it with a new perspective. It is also possible to ask someone else to review the edited scenes and inform you of any changes that they think need to be made. By doing this, you’ll be able to produce your best work.

 

It pays to learn everything you can about the different cuts and edits you may do to improve your work if you’re serious about video editing and want to become a top video editor. There are a lot of more practical strategies you may learn to use and put into practice; these are just seven of them. If you have any questions regarding the topic, feel free to reach out to us through our social media handles or contacts on our website.

 

References:

https://newdawnfilm.com/7-top-video-editing-tips-and-tricks-professionals-use/

https://newdawnfilm.com/blog/

 

 

 

 

 

 

DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKING AT TAKE SIX AFRICA PRODUCTIONS

Leave a Comment / Documentary / By

Production of documentaries is one of the projects that we at Take Six Africa excel at.

Our documentaries are based span from corporate, commercial, impact and/or success stories.

We make tales that communicate to our clients, and most importantly, the target audience/masses whether it’s a brief 5-minute or a one hour documentary.

What we will discuss below may be helpful to you in your quest for knowledge and research, or as merely a supplement to what you already know.

The Process

You can follow these steps to assist you make an impactful documentary that your audiences will genuinely like once you have your video camera set up for filming.

  1. Kick-off Meeting

The first thing that Take Six Africa Productions does is a kick-off meeting. Understanding your goals and gathering the first information for the video production is the main goal of this meeting.

  1. Research and Originality

We enjoy asking questions, as you’ve probably discovered by this point. And a number of questions will be asked at this stage.

Like our other projects, we want this one to be a success. It will be great to investigate the solutions.

  1. Pre-production

At this stage we now develop a logistical game plan to carry it out.

We’ll put out the schedule, the necessary equipment, and the days for shooting and editing. We’ll lay out all the additional components that will affect how the final video will seem, sound, and function. We will also develop script and/or shooting plan at this stage. Finally, if need be, we will acquire necessary filming and location licenses.

  1.      Production

The exciting part is when Sound, Lights, Camera and action happens.

We’ll go out with you and put all the pieces of the puzzle together to map the ideal story using our cutting-edge cameras, lights, sound equipment, drones, and many other tools. At this point, the actual magic will take place.

                   5.   Post-Production / Editing

Here is where we add icing to the cake.

After taking the photos, we will combine them with some graphics and music. Finally, we’ll make sure that your video appears just as we had visualized during pre-production.

                          6. Presentation and Revisions

During presentation of the drafts to you, you will have the opportunity to share your feedback and adjustments up till the final output is flawless.

                      7. Launch

This is the final stage. After your approval of the final cut, we’ll share high-quality files of your video that you can use on your preferred platforms, including the web, social media and broadcast.

 

In conclusion, making a documentary and learning how to make one takes time and effort. Therefore, to share your ideas with the world through storytelling, you must face many obstacles. You go through rigorous filming process, starting with selecting the type of documentary you want to make to the visualized final output.

You may not have much experience but you can make a documentary yourself following the right procedure.

All the best in your quest!

 

MEMORIES OF DELIGHT

Leave a Comment / Uncategorized / By

2019 was a great year, one of my best years actually. I travelled out of the country a number of times within a short period of time. I produced important stories, I worked with amazing global organizations, and I got an opportunity to interview a significant number of important people in the African Society. Travelling, no question makes my work more exciting. After sitting in office working post-production a long while, when you get out you breathe a fresh air that comes with new ideas and unique perspectives in story telling-you learn more, acquire more and tell more. When you get assigned to work with an organization such as UN Women or Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, you feel important too, because at that moment you prove that you made the right choice in pursuing journalism and working hard to become a great audio-visual producer, at that very moment you get to feel so proud of yourself and proud of what you do to earn a living. In some instances, you even whisper to yourself ‘I’m in the right place, no question.’ When you get face to face with renown pioneers, advocates, activists, changemakers, or members of vulnerable communities or groups. It’s a reckoning moment of perfection before you meet them, introduce yourself as their interviewer, have them wear a lapel mic and sit in front of them to ask them important questions. Right away, you know that they are your story, so before sitting with them for an interview, you must already have it all figured out ─ What’s the story; Which questions will you ask, where is the setup location, which camera angles will you use, is the lighting and audio perfect, which language will you use… Because to make a great story, be it documentary, a feature, a corporate video, a success story, a PSA, a promo or a commercial, a producer simply cannot afford to miss a thing.

2019 was an amazing year for more than a reason ─ I lost my job.

Travelling is one of the most exciting adventures I can talk of any day and time. If you get to use the flag carrier airways of Kenya, you get that wonderful feeling flying with the pride of Africa, and if you get to use any other planes, you get the comparative exposure of flying with foreign flights. Besides the amazing plane rides you get to touch down on the fantastic African destinations, where you get to see it yourself, how beautiful Africa really is; its vast deserts, tropical rain forests, rugged mountains and fertile grasslands. But there is nothing more beautiful about Africa than its people… And the food of course. More exciting for me however, is the wealth of perspectives and exposure of Africa and the world at large. Travelling, especially on assignments, one gets to network with new people, and if favour is on your side, you also get new employer(s) in waiting while at it, which is exactly what happened to me.

When I went to film an African Agriculture Congress in Gabon, I did not know that I’d meet my future boss as we waited for our connecting flight at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Nigeria. So, when I lost my job, it was a blessing in disguise, in less than a month I was being onboarded into a new job with great colleagues and an upgraded compensation. This blessing, however came to a sudden end last year, 2020. Covid-19 churned through African borders, devouring lives of thousands of people, and with it came the loss of countless jobs ─ Mine was in the mix.

I’ve been freelancing for one year now, and I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that it has been a devastating year, it has been for thousands, maybe millions of others worldwide. But I cannot forget my 2019 ─ a great year when I travelled the most and produced some of my finest stories; a story on Child Marriages in Africa that looked at UN Women’s contribution in pulling together African traditional and religious leaders to help end the harmful cultural practices in Africa. From Malawi, Eswatini, Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia… They all came, discussed and agreed on policies to help reduce the practices. I also co-directed another great story on animal freedoms inspired by World Animal Protection, a documentary that was nominated in the 2019 Cannes Films Festival in Los Angeles, USA, and won A special Mention by the Jury Award in Bogota, Colombia. Then there was a story of young Ugandan entrepreneurs’ enterprise funded by Mastercard Foundation ─This enterprise seeks to lessen post-harvest losses through sustainable mechanization of food drying technologies.

These are just but a few examples why my 2019 was significantly exciting. I achieved the most, acquired the most and saw how, if Africa plays the cards right, she is on the verge of global civilization and self-sufficiency. And while Covid-19 began to encroach our borders, probably here to stay, a recollection of delightful memories helps me pull my focus back in place, because I want to see better days and more exuberant encounters worth sharing.

So, tell me, which is your most exciting year?

Netflix & UNESCO Launch Groundbreaking Competition In Sub-Saharan Africa Netflix and UNESCO have teamed up to establish an innovative short film competition in Sub-Saharan Africa called “African Folktales, Reimagined.”

Leave a Comment / Uncategorized / By

The competition’s winners will receive industry training and mentoring, as well as a US$75,000 production budget, to create short films that will premiere on Netflix in 2022 as an “Anthology of African Folktales.”

One of the competition’s main goals is to find fresh perspectives and provide young filmmakers from Sub-Saharan Africa with global exposure. We want to uncover the most daring, witty, and unexpected retellings of some of Africa’s most beloved folktales and share them with entertainment enthusiasts in over 190 countries.

The tournament, which will be run by Dalberg, will run from October 14th until November 14th, 2021. Each of the six winners will get a US$75,000 production grant (via a local production firm) to create, shoot, and post-produce their films with the help of industry mentors chosen by UNESCO and Netflix to guarantee that everyone is engaged in the production is appropriately compensated. In addition, each of the six winners will get a cash prize of $25,000 apiece.

Both UNESCO and Netflix agree on the importance of promoting and sharing varied local stories with the rest of the globe. They recognise that many aspiring filmmakers struggle to get the resources and exposure they need to fully realize their potential and advance their creative careers. This competition aims to address these difficulties and provide a platform for African storytellers to showcase their work to a worldwide audience.

This alliance will also assist to create long-term jobs and stimulate economic growth, contributing to the UN’s 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, a set of goals aimed at ending global poverty in all of its forms by the end of this decade. This film festival will also contribute to the reduction of disparities by allowing access to global markets and ensuring decent working conditions. All of these are important targets for the 2030 Agenda.

On the theme of “African Folktales, Reimagined,” the competition is accessible to young filmmakers from across Sub-Saharan Africa. Folktales have long been a vital means of transmitting culture, tradition, and values to future generations, while also challenging people to reimagine their significance in modern cultures. Aspiration 5 of the African Union’s 2063 Agenda, which celebrates African cultural identity, common heritage, values, and ethics, inspired this theme. This competition strives to modernize this essential tradition by utilising new platforms for sharing artistic and creative content, such as Netflix.

For the first round, applicants will be required to submit a synopsis of their concept (no more than 500 words) as well as links to a recent CV and a portfolio/ evidence of any past audiovisual work they have produced. Applications can be submitted via www.netflix-growcreative.com/unesco from October 14th at 16:00 CAT and will close on November 14th, 2021 at 13:59 CET.

Open chat
Powered by Join.chat
Hello, welcome to Take Six Africa, for inquiries click below to chat us on WhatsApp