Daniel Rowland's documentary blog

Our final Edited version of our Docu

rowland10 — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 15:11:45 +0000

Personal Critical Evaluation

rowland10 — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 02:51:58 +0000

when we first started this project i knew it was going to be quite a tricky piece- i hadn’t really made an observational piece like this before- so i knew that i would be learning alot as i made it. when we first began, the narrative was quite unclear to us all- and our ideas didn’t make much sense. but as we went deeper and deeper into the project, a narrative revealed itself- and we ran with that.- because of this, our style was slowly developing, and a structure was building. this was quite stressful though- as for a long while it seemed as if we were changing our minds every day, and we couldn’t go with one specific idea- what was really happening was that we were slowly building layers onto what we had already.when we first started our shooting and editing- we did not really have a clear purpose as to what our film was going to be about- we didn’t know what message we wanted to leave with the audience. this meant we started to take a route which wasn’t really linked to the brief- we got really involved with thinking about celebrity culture, and fashion. which is linked to capitalism, but there wasn’t much of a message that we could leave with the audience. as time went on, we developed an idea to focus on advertising, and media- how this is used to control us as consumers. this idea was very strong- and we knew what message we wanted to bring to the audience through this narrative.

my personal involvement with this film was fairly heavy. the original idea was Chris’- it was a great idea, and i wanted to fully support it- which is why i joined his group. however (as i have been saying) there was alot of potential with the idea, but Chris wasn’t really too sure where he wanted to go with it. during our initial pre production meetings, i think i was a key player in laying some foundations in what we wanted our visuals to be like, and what ideas we could run with. when the ideas started to come away from the brief, i was able to notice that, and think of ways to bring it back to the brief.

in terms of practical involvement, i think i have been quite influencial. i am an artistic person, and so have always loved being involved with the practical sides of a project, however, i understand that in order to make the practical work successfull, you need to understand the theory behind a piece. i was able to link the two, as i was heavily involved with both. if we decided to change our narrative slightly, i was able to think of ways to change the visuals and audio according to the new idea. i did the storyboards for our piece- which was a great way to put what we had in our heads down onto paper. i would never create something without checking it with my group- as i believe a group work is only successful when there is good communication involved, and a respect for the other group members.

i was present every time we filmed and edited, i have a good eye for things, so when we were filming i wanted to be there. i made sure we had the simple things down to a tee aswell- for example how to frame a shot of a person. i enjoy editing a great deal, and my group mates understood this, so i was involved with this too. i am getting more and more fluid at using avid, and now find it fairly simple- which means i can start exploring more of the complicated things which are possible in the avid programme. so i was able to do the simple things in avid (e.g. piecing together clips- making sure sound levels are good, making sure there are no dodgy cut aways) easily and quickly. after doing this project, i have realised that editing is maybe something that i want to take further and persue. i was also involved in creating the mash ups, and doing a voice over in the middle of the film, which is there to help carry the narrative.

i have noticed a few things about myself while creating this project:

firstly, i need to sort out my time management- although i was present everytime we were doing group work, i was often 10 or 15 minutes late. i understand that this wasnt helpfull for my group mates. and so in future this is something i want to improve upon.

another thing, is that i find group work fairly difficult- because i like being involved with every process of production (pre production, production, and post producton- planning, filming, editing) i could see myself doing freelance work. however, i do enjoy being in a group- as it means ideas can be bounced off of eachother- for example, if it wasnt for Chris, we wouldn’t have had our initial idea- i understand this and appreciate this. so i am perfectly happy to work in a small group (up to 3 people) as it means there is respect, i can cope with the amount of ideas going around, and cummunication is fairly simple. in a group which is bigger than 3 people, i find there isnt as much respect, there tends to be one leader who will do what they want, and not necessarily listen to the others- this is why i prefer individual work, or small group work. another plus about working with chris and tristan, is that we have got used to eachothers creativity and ideas- we have worked well together, as we now understand eachother. we have set up a small ‘business’ between us,where we will work in this group as much as possible- either with course work or external work.the last thing i have learnt about myself is that i need to learn how to communicate properly- for example with editing- i found myself doing things without running them by the other group members- so this is something else i want to improve on in the future.

Inspiration

rowland10 — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 02:03:09 +0000

We have had alot of feedback sessions form our tutor- Ken Fero. whenever we had shot some new material, or finished editing a certain sequence we would ask him what he thought. Also, as we were editing, we would often ask for other peoples opinion- because we were so used to editing our piece, it was possible for us to loose touch of the narrative of the piece. so we needed other people to watch it, and to tell us if it actually made sense. the feedback we got from the other people around was normally constructive and helpfull- especially when they said that they didnt understand the narrative, as it meant we could improve. Ken’s feed back was also very helpfull- having a professional opinion was a great help, because we would often get to the point of being happy with what we had made. but then we would realise that we needed to have a wiser opinion on what we had made- to make sure we were fitting to the brief. fairly late on in the production of our piece, we had a guest speaker ( Adam Hopkins) come in to give a lecture. he had filmed a number of documentaries in the past, it was great to have his insight into our film aswell as Ken’s. Adam was a big help when trying to decide how to end the film- keeping it fast paced, while giving the audience hope.

Sources

rowland10 — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 02:01:52 +0000

when we were first introduced to this project, we all had different people in mind. my subject was going to be a paramedic- i have written my treatment for this idea earlier on in the blog. i knew this subject from my church. Tristans idea was a man who was on the run from the police, and was very much and outsider. chris’ idea was to do an observational documentary on a population of people, rather than a single subject. we all really liked chris’ idea- i was very keen on doing an observational piece, as last year the documentary i did was following one man around, and interviewing him- i wanted to break away from this style, and explore new areas. i thought this idea was a great way of doing that. We ended up going with chris’ idea- Tristans subject had vanished, and we couldn’t get in contact with him, and my subject was busy and couldn’t give us much time to film. i was pleased we all agreed with Chris’ idea, as i thought it had alot of potential, and as i said, i was keen to try and do something i haven’t done before.

Process

rowland10 — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 20:53:15 +0000

While shooting and editing our film, we have changed alot of our ideas- we started off with a vague idea as to what we waned to film, and what narrative structure we wanted to have. But after we did our first session of shooting, and editing, we decided to change the way we were going- because we were too vague and not really fitting to the brief. we then started thinking about celebrity culture as a topic to run with.. but this ended up focussoing on fashion, which again wasn’t fitting with the brief. so we became very strict with ourselves, and ruthless- throwing out any clips an ideas that we had which were not helpful. we then came up with a clear narrative structure telling the audience how we are victims of capitalism, is there a way out, if so- how do you get out. this narrative structure is alot more organised, and it means that it is alot easier for us (as a group) to stick to the brief, and be strict with ourselves. for a while we couldn’t think of a way to end the film- that was because in our own minds we had not come to any real conclusion as to what we wanted the overall message of the documentary to be. now that we have that sorted we can see what would be good ways to end the film- giving the audience a ‘hope’ rather than telling them information and expecting them to evaluate themselves, we have to lead them into that, and then lead them into another way of thinking- how they can stop the media targetting them as a consumer. I have enjoyed working in a group of 3. it means that we all have an equal say in what we want to do with the film. i think that i have been a vital contributor to the group, however, i would also say this about the two guys that i worked with- as we all brought different skills and knowledge to the group. when planning the main idea we all contributed equally, and bounced ideas off of eachother. when it came to the practical work, i was keen to get involved also- we all had different images in our head when we were planning the production, so it was sometimes a struggle putting them all together, but we all understood eachother well and so could be ruthless with ideas that weren’t fitting to the brief. when filming i think i was good at simple things- e.g. how to frame a subject, how to make sure their voice was clear etc. while editing, i enjoyed making the ‘mash up’ sequences, and edititng the whole piece to be fast paced- i find that the more i use avid, the more and more simple it becomes- so i am always happy to be involved with the editing process.

Feedback

rowland10 — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 14:48:50 +0000

this is the feedback from our seminar, after showing ken our film:

opening sequence- it was good, the fast pace shots worked well. however, if we want to keep it then we need to be prepared to keep it going througghout the whole film- at the moment it gets slow afterwards and maybe boring.

the feel- its too negative, we need to give some ‘hope’ at the end. we need to make the audience realise that THEY are victims of capitalism. and they need to get out of it.

subject matter- our film is not necessarily about capitalism, but one tiny aspect of it- celebrity culture.. dont get too caught up with focussing on this.

short doc no.1

rowland10 — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 14:37:55 +0000

this is our short documentary finished, however we are expecting feedback, and we are prepared to change it.

Experimentation and Exploration: Fight club

rowland10 — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 14:09:31 +0000

We were only influenced by one scene in this film. where Tyler (Brad Pitt) looks directly to the camera, and questions the audience on their thoughts. there are other scenes like this where the boundaries of the fourth wall are broken down, and the audience is direcly spoken to, or asked a question. We were very keen on using this style, as we wsanted out audience to be directly questioned about what they were thinking. so we have used this style throughout thge film- in order to not let the audience feel comfortable while watching our film.

Experimentation and Exploration: RIP: A remix manifesto

rowland10 — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 13:59:57 +0000

Me and chris light saw this film at sheffield film festival a week or so before we started shooting for our idea. the film influenced us alot- it showed us how a documentary could be informative aswell as entertaining. there was alot of wit and clever interviews in the film- this also made us realise how a documentary doesn’t need to be pleasing to everyone, but the film maker can take a ‘higher ground’ and speak clearly about his views. this was a huge revelation to us, as we had been trying to think of ways to stay neutral in our film making. the style of editing was also interesting- the iflm used alot of cartoony superimposed images, which i thought owuld have looked slightly tacky, but it worked very well- and emphasised the idea of the diretcor taking a ‘higher ground’ as if he was teaching his audience things in simplistic terms- using cartoons. this film was a very big influence for us when considering our ‘style’ of shooting- from what kind of questions we were going to ask (quite intrusive ones) to how the film was going to look visually (what editing techniques we were going to use)

Shooting Script

rowland10 — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:51:31 +0000

Shot 1 – a mixture of YouTube clips mixed together to give a sort of narrative telling the audience what we are going to do, this will be shot over the shoulder of someone watching T.V	AudioThe sound of the T.V giving the audience the narrative and telling them what we’re going to be talking about.
Shot 2 – a visual conflict between people and animals these shots will compare people to animals e.g. pigeons or cattle.	AudioThe audio from YouTube clips talking about materialism using the visuals to aid the audience
Shot 3 – Shots of people worshipping celebrities, using tacky images placed onto archive of people worshipping in the style of “RIP Remix” showing how celebrities produce materialism	AudioThe same as above, still talking about materialism but also the cult of celebrity using visuals as an aid for the audience
Shot 4 – another visual conflict shot, involving a shot of an animal documentary, possibly a peacock, conflicting with a celeb in a beautiful dress or even an actor in drag to give comedic relief.	AudioThis audio will be from the documentary of the animal mixed over both the doc’ and our shot of the celeb or drag.
Shot 5 – Vox pops of intrusive questions to the public about their clothes and why they spend so much on clothes etc.	AudioAudio from people bring interview non-diagetic music in the background , girl talk the band from “RIP remix”
Shot 6 – Ending shot, businessman in full suit on white background giving the idea of an internal monolog giving an aggressive speech on materialism and how we don’t need it	AudioAudio from the businessman’s speech and non- diagetic music form girl talk.