The importance of sound

Sound in any production is vital it can add real depth and help communicate the emotions that are taking place on the screen. I have to say that I was thinking of just using free stock music or throwing something together on soundtrack pro. Thankfully one of my lecturers pointed out how detrimental this could be to my final production and introduced me to a sound student called Steve Dean. After having a conversation about the documentary and listening to some of his work which was excellent. I've sent him an email and will be sending him all the pre-production documents and hopefully he will be interested in creating some music for the documentary.

Just to clarify I will be doing the sound on location and for the interviews. Steve will be adding the non-diegetic sound and creating relevant soundtracks and sound effects. He will also be helping with any voice overs that are required. 

This is actually a real weight of my mind, I have been helping out on some of my fellow student productions and having a dedicated sound operator who knows what their doing is so important. In previous years we did it ourselves and added some terrible stock songs of cars and birds chirping and usually a rush job at the end of the edit before handing it in. 

I'm looking forward to hearing what Steve comes up with and I'm sure will add real depth to the documentary.

Documentary Angle

One area I may have overlooked in my quest to document the enthralling world of online poker is

the overall angle of the documentary or what I'm trying to say about poker. After an interesting and somewhat heated debate with one of my lecturers and my peers over whether poker is really gambling or more of a skill game. At the end of the debate and although I don't think either side really backed down I have to except that I may be somewhat biased in the direction that poker is not gambling and the better players will always come out on top eventually, but my lecturer and peers all appear to have the view that poker is gambling in the same respect as playing the lottery, betting on horse racing, playing roulette or blackjack are all as bad as each other.

I will be as unbiased as I possible can within this documentary but my hopes are to highlight how poker players earn a living and the strict rules many successful players follow to allow for the downswings and how they differ from gamblers. I except that many people out their play poker for fun and play for the thrill which makes them a gambler. I also understand many successful poker players can lose all their money but this often because of they stray away from the rules which made them successful in the first place. 

The outcome could show that poker is gambling like any other form such as the lottery or roulette or it could show how poker may have luck elements to it but is not a typical form of gambling and if played optimally can mean you beating the game.