Drama
And Documentary Evaluation
Our
initial concept for our 'Liverpool Stories' documentary was to create
a film exploring the effects that a legislation, clamping down on
buskers' rights, would have had on a range of different street
artists. We were relatively successful in gathering the contacts and
contributors needed to actualise this idea and as such, managed to
line up enough interviews to propel the documentary. However due to
camera faults and an absurdly large array of technical issues whilst
editing (two hard drives packed up, the tape chewed itself up and we
lost our sound) we were forced to jettison this initial concept and
head in a new direction. The weekend before the deadline we had no
option but to plan a reshoot; a difficult task with such little time.
Due to the last minute nature of this undertaking we were unable to
meet up with any of our original contacts save one (Vanessa Murray).
We therefore decided to adjust our idea in order to make the most of
a bad situation. We managed to secure a day filming with Vanessa and
as such decided to focus the film solely on the singer song writer
with the intention of telling her story. This second shoot was far
more successful and we managed to obtain enough footage to make a
coherent piece of work (despite some sound issues of which I will
cover later) in a miniscule time period.
Thankfully
the drama film ran far more smoothly than my documentary; our idea
was to create a short film exploring the theme of identity and the
lengths our character will go to discover it. Brock (our director)
therefore crafted a script to embody this theme that involved our
adopted protagonist (Sammy) tracking down her real parents only to
realise her life is fine the way it is. The shoot and edit for this
project went far more smoothly than the documentary with very few
issues or problems to overcome.
I
feel that one of the more successful areas for our documentary was
the amount of planning that we carried out prior to the Liverpool
shoot. We were able to secure with relative ease, interviews and
contributors to carry the film and we had a very clear plan of how we
were going to spend our time. We managed to stick to this plan until
the camera we were filming on died and we were left struggling to
find a solution. This meant that we lost out on a day of filming and
were forced to borrow a course mates DSLR (which, unfortunately none
of us had experience using). To avoid this problem on future shoots I
intend to make sure that we bring a second camera as back up. I feel
that more time and thought however, was needed for our questions; we
had not thought out our script thoroughly enough and as such,
struggled to get the answers and responses we were looking for from
our contributors (many questions yielded closed answers or dead
ends). We did however address this issue for our re shoot and
collectively came up with and organised more than forty questions to
ask Vanessa, resulting in a much better exploration of her story and
influences. Whilst our reshoot ran far smoother than our initial
attempt, it was not without flaws, due to the short time period we
had to film in we struggled to find quiet locations to conduct our
interview in. We settled for a shoot at the docks which, although
produced aesthetically pleasing footage, was slightly too busy a
location and as such we frequently had to stop the interview to let
the public pass. We also only managed to film Vanessa in one
location which was not an ideal arrangement. I do however, feel we
managed to obtain some great footage, given the short notice of the
re-shoot.
Once
again the drama shoot ran far more smoothly, with very few issues to
speak of. I am proud of all the footage taken outside of the house
and feel that it looks very professional. I also feel that the
transition between static and handheld camera work, was pulled off
successfully. I did however struggle whilst filming the interior
shots, as thin clouds on the day meant constantly changing light
levels. This presented me with a problem as, mid way through a take
the sun would come out and overexpose the footage forcing us to
undergo multiple takes. I spent the first day of filming battling
with the light to obtain the right level of exposure and
unfortunately some of the footage came out slightly under exposed.
However whilst this was a problem it was a relatively minor issue and
was easily fixed in the edit.
As
aforementioned, we encountered an unbelievable array of problems
whilst filming the Liverpool documentary. First of all being our
faulty sony Z1; whilst filming the battery would suddenly die despite
claiming to have full charge. We managed to work with the issue for
the best part of the first day, eventually however, the camera packed
up altogether in the middle of an interview forcing us to prematurely
cancel the day's shoot. Not only did this mean we lost out on one of
our main interviews, we were also left without a camera for the
remaining two days. We were debating returning to Sheffield in order
to procure a second camera; an endeavor that would have meant
forfeiting a second days filming. Luckily we were giving a group's
spare DSLR and we managed to film the rest of the shoot on that. This
was not without problems however, our inexperience with the camera
meant we struggled to obtain some of the wide angle establishing
shots we were hoping to get and we collectively spent a fortune on
memory cards as we were filming on an incredibly memory intensive
setting without realising. Other issues arose when we returned to do
the edit; we realised that not only had our Z1 died it had also
chewed the tape up so that it would repeatedly jump when we attempted
to capture the footage from it. This meant that large chunks of our
interviews had been lost and we would have to edit around the
problem. Despite this issue, we managed to put together a rough cut
that we were all pleased with, enter our next problem; the hard drive
with our marantz recordings on inexplicably stopped working and was
unfixable. This meant that we had the
remainder of our rushes, but no sound to accompany them, rendering
them useless (we attempted to use camera sound but the quality was
far too poor and at times incomprehensible). This build up of
technical issues left us without any kind of presentable film at the
time of the deadline, luckily we were granted an extension meaning we
could attempt to salvage the situation. After racking our brains for
a solution we were unable to produce anything from the footage of our
first shoot. This lead us to the decision of organising a reshoot. We
carefully planned the second shoot and gained all the footage we
needed in one day leaving us a couple of days for the edit.
Unfortunately another issue with sound arose as our recordings had
been compressed into mp3 format, meaning they sounded tinny and,
ultimately unusable. This time however we learned from our mistakes
and set the levels on the internal mic of the Z1 as a backup. Whilst
the sound quality is not perfect as a result of this, it is a vast
improvement on our original shoot. On an additional note, I feel that
perhaps our greatest problem was the shortage of personnel in our
group; we were two people short, forcing an increased work load upon
us. Whilst we all attempted to put in equal amounts of work I feel
that myself and Nathan carried the project as we did almost all of
the camera work and the entirety of the edit between us. This hefty
work load put a great strain on the two of us, however I feel we
overcame the problem and put in an extraordinary amount of effort to
salvage the project. As such the documentary provided me with an
invaluable learning experience and I feel far better equipped to
overcome future challenges.
We
were faced with far fewer issues whilst filming our drama thankfully,
however, a couple of issues with planning acted as a small hindrance.
We were unable to procure a second female actress to play the part of
Sammy's mother and as such were forced to shoot from the character's
point of view out of the door. This was not a huge problem however as
the initial plan was to show the character from an over the shoulder
shot and never show her face. Other small issues in terms of planning
meant that we had to record voice-overs for both Sammi's real mother
and her foster parent at a later date. We were very well equipped for
the shoot as well, bringing a spare camera, a shoulder mount and
dolly tracks in order to produce smooth footage. Another small issue
came from a fault on my behalf (as cinematographer), I was unaware
whilst filming that my reflection was visible in the opening reverse
tracking shot, thankfully Matt was able to blur this out in the edit
however.
It is my opinion that our documentary is a mixed
bag in terms of strengths and weaknesses due to the rushed nature of
the final cut. I feel that we managed to capture some very
aesthetically pleasing footage on the day, despite the adverse
weather conditions and as such came back with a nice array of
establishing shots and cut always that really aid the film. The edit
however, was slightly choppy and noticeably rushed at times; we had a
couple of false finishes and perhaps some of the images did not match
the verbal content (this was mainly due to the lack of time). Other
issues with the edit arose when we realised that some of our footage
was very slightly under exposed due to the poor lighting on the day,
I feel that we managed to colour correct and saturate the footage so
that it was more pleasing on the eye, however, some of the interview
footage clearly looks over colour corrected which detracts from the
interview slightly. I do however, feel that we managed to tell
Vanessa's story in a fairly coherent and succinct manner and the
changes in composition during the interview work effectively in
combination with some smooth L and J cuts that we had learned about
in a seminar. The films biggest issue comes in the form of sound; we
realised after returning from the second shoot, that the marantz had
not been set up correctly and as such all of our recordings from the
day had been compressed into a tinny mp3 format. We were forced to
use camara sound (which we cleaned up in soundtrack pro) as a result
of this, but the quality is noticeably poor.
I
feel that the drama film is a fairly strong piece of work; we
explored our key theme successfully and I am pleased with the camera
work. I do think we should have found an actress to play Sammy's real
mother in order to play up the fact that she is an inferior option to
her adopted parents (this may have helped contribute to the theme of
identity). Other smaller issues can be found in the films lighting;
we brought dedo lights with us in order to obtain control over
brightness, however we were completely at the mercy of ever changing
weather conditions and as such, some of the footage is slightly
under-exposed and grainy or a little too bright. I do not feel this
detracts from the narrative however.
I think we worked very
well as a group as we were all friends prior to the shoot. This
provided a warm chemistry that I feel made our actress comfortable in
turn. I enjoyed working with this group and think that we performed
in a very professional manor; all evenly contributing and working as
a team. We all attended preliminary meetings and performed well on
set and I feel that is is reflected in our finished film.
