“The Spirit of Ricks is more than a phrase or a tradition. It is the influence of the Holy Ghost, manifested through consecrated discipleship. It is kindness and warmth. It is obedience and sacrifice. It is the unity that binds us together in Christ.”

-Sister Meredith, September 16th, 2025

I’m Abrielle Millet, a communications major with an emphasis in video production. I enjoy finding the story in film and people focused documentaries! I am the editor for “Foundations: a Spirit of Ricks story”.

Film Intro

This short film project, I worked with 7 other students to create a documentary that features something that we care about and has impacted our college experience here. “Foundations: a Spirit of Ricks story, is a short documentary about the impact the campus spirit has on those who attend BYU-Idaho. It focuses on the scope of the spirit, what it brings into your life now and in the future. In our film, we follow 3 unique individuals (student, alumni, and faculty) to find how their foundation in the Spirit of Ricks affected their lives.

The goal of the film was to be something for prospective students to feel inclined to attend BYU-Idaho.

Pre Production

In my role I focused on the style of editing for the documentary and what the vision would look like in the final production. It can be difficult to imagine what the end will look like when you have started, but this is key to executing a successful video process. It is important for documentary to research, know your subjects and what similar projects are out there. This can help you have something to reach for and encourage a quality video. Our professor introduced this app called Milanote, it is like an endless board where you can stick virtual notes/docs. It was incredibility useful to create a visual board of what we wanted to do. It helped us collaborate in our given roles. Here I created a board for editing.

The pacing and flow of the story was important to our overarching message, BYU-Idaho is the school to go to because of the influence of the Spirit of Ricks. Going into this project I tried to collaborate closely with the director and producer so I understood the story I was editing. The film features an opening/closing on the Spirit of Ricks as well as 3 mini stories that give life to President and Sister Meredith’s talk “Preserving the spirit of Ricks at BYU-Idaho” (September 2025). I found a lot of inspiration from personal short church videos and broken down the time we would spend in each part of the story. Below is an early example of pro production editing. If I worked on this project again, I would plan out more reference material and how much broll we would need for the interviews. I would have as soon as we did the interview breakdown what were the key points and broll we would need. I tried to pay attention on set, but I wish I took notes on what was said and how that might fit into the story.

Production

We worked hard and well as a team on set, my role was not production heavy, but I still assisted in set. On set I assisted the crew mostly as an AC (assistant to the camera operator). I was able to assist my team in set up and takedown. I think in the real world it is a rare opportunity for editor to be on set, but being there helped me understand the edit process needed. I helped move light stands, change lens, and get additional props needed. I think it is always important to be a helping hand on set, ask questions and be prepared to take the initiative. Many hands no make light work (filming is still hard work). Everyone showed up and we ran into few hiccups filming. I think as another set of eyes on a student film, you should always look out for each other and speak up when you notice something. Nothing is worse than realizing you made a mistake when you set down to edit.

We captured 3 interviews (all separate shoot days) as well as some broll on set. We also had 2 additional days for broll based on the interview material. If I could change something on set, I would have made sure we asked the same questions because it would have made crafting the story in editing easier. Also always remember to capture scratch audio when capturing separate audio. You’ll thank me later. Below is a link to our social, that showcase our production process! Including the trailer!

Post Production

As an editor this was my moment! I haven’t usually been the editor on my group projects, but I wanted to prove myself as an editor. I am more familiar and confident on using DaVinci Resolve now. It is an excellent tool, if you know how to use it right! I initially reviewed the interviews and colored cuts that I thought were good for the final story. This is the most important part, because if you can’t get your story right it doesn’t matter what fancy things you put on top. I assembled them together in a cut when I had all the interviews together. I adjusted our audio, opting for the lav mic recordings because they were at a clearer level.

In rough cut my professor and group were a big help in giving feedback! They helped me improve my editing skills and project. When you are stuck in an editing bay for hours it is hard to see the gaps in your work, and so I appreciated their guidance. My professor gave me the tip for writing the question for the answer the interviewee was giving, to help me see what the story was and how to adapt it. Also making sure you are cutting as the beginning of a thought, rather than mid sentence so it flows better. After fixing the story structure, I worked closely with the director and producer to fine tune the pacing- cutting more closely. For me the hardest parts was bring out the cohesive story and the broll for the whole film. I think we underestimated how much and the variety of broll needed. I think editing taught me the importance of quality and quantity of broll. I had to work hard on the shots because we weren’t nearly as meticulous with the broll as we were the interviews.