Semester 2 evaluation

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.