Documentary
and Drama Evaluation
Having been given the brief for documentary we needed to
decided who we would be working with and since I knew Oliver and Hannah I
wanted to work with them as i knew they were hard working and good at what they
do. We also found Alex, Saul and Noah had also formed as a three so we joined
with them to make a six. In the first meeting we started to give out job roles
and decided as a group what we would be doing in the project and I found that I
was assigned camera and cinematographer. As a group we decided to meet on a
near to daily basis for a meeting to try and get a strong narrative structure
for the piece and make some early arrangements for the trip to Liverpool where
the documentary was to be filmed. We looked in a few Liverpool based newspapers
and a few online newspapers to try to find the basis of our narrative and ended
up after a few days of finding two, the first was a record store that was
trying to sell its stock of 15,000 records online through the website of ebay
as its store had been closed down, and the second was the street art scene in
and around Liverpool with a couple of companies that we could try contact to
get some interviews from. We then pitched both ideas to the teachers and the
class and the teachers liked the record idea whereas the class liked the street
art one, we decided t go with the class as the idea we felt as a group had more
potential and depth in content. I also
started to find some influences to help me get a real feel for the piece and
came across Skatistan and the bridge documentaries. Skatistan had a real urban
middle eastern feel to it and explored the contrast of war and something that
can make people happy. The bridge was then a film about the San Francisco
suspension bridge and about the people that chose to take their own lives
there. Both were shot really nicely and the framing of the interviews were
really useful to take in for when I went to Liverpool.
The tip to Liverpool came round fast and having had a fair
few meetings before hand we had organized a number of interviews having been in
contact with urban canvas (a pavement art design company) and a person called
Tristan Jacobs who seemed to know the street art scene in Liverpool. The shot
list was also created in order to have an idea of what we were going to shoot
when we got there as well as a production schedule and shooting schedule. So having got the train to Liverpool the
group set out as soon as possible to try to find some street art that we had
looked up on Google maps and to get a feel for the local area, We came accross
a fair few things and shooting the different types of street art required
different types of shots, for example long and low pieces I thought tracks worked quite nicely whereas
long and high a pan looked better as a shot and was more practice. The one
problem we did have however is that the tracks stuck a few times so when
rolling the tripod along them it seemed to be a bit jumpy and unstable making
when looking back at the footage the camera a bit bumpy and unsmooth. However
for the majority of the trip the tracks were fine and having taken another shot
alongside the tracks as backup there would always be another shot for the
editor to choose from. Then the next day we had our first interview with Urban
Canvas and having decided on a set up for the interview the previous night and
got a room booked within the hostel we found a nice background and the natural
lighting of the room was also perfect to shoot in. Having changed the white
balance and aperture on the lens the subject matter was ready to film. Looking
back upon the footage now I like the way it looked and I feel that the subject
talked really well to camera and the way the interviewee was set up was a
credit to the team working well together.
The next day consisted of meeting Tristan as well as filming
some more street art around Liverpool. We found that we would be doing our
interview with Tristan down Mann Street which was the main street art scene of
Liverpool. I found that the lighting in Mann street was hard to work with but
changing the aperture and iso on the camera I compromised and we ended up
getting some really nice shots of Tristan with a really nice looking set up due
to the colourful art behind him that he was talking about. I chose to use a
tripod for this set up as well as outside it was quite hard to keep a steady
hand so with a tripod I would have no problems and allowed me to frame the shot
nicely leaving Tristan some headspace as well as showing the street art behind
him. He then gave us some contacts of people who might be interested in our
film and having filmed them on the last day of our Liverpool trip it was a huge
bonus and the footage gathered together over the 3 days was ready to be edited.
Looking back at the project I am very happy about how the final piece looks, I
think the only problem we had was the amount we could put into the 5 minute
time space we had and having gained so much nice content it was hard to get
everything we wanted inside the final sequence. Apart from this I feel I really
like how it was shot and feel my role as cinematographer went really well and
is something I can be proud of as a piece of work.
The Drama project then came around and having been given the
brief for this I set about finding a team. I had worked with Heather Hall
before for experimental so I formed a pair with her and having looked for other
people we came across a 3 in Billy Jackson, Heather Kelland and Tom Noonan.
Luke McKnight would later join us. We then had a few meetings to decide job
roles and what the basis of the narrative for the film would be. I was assigned
editor for the project and was pleased as editing I find as well a
cinematography could be a good career choice. Knowing this and roughly the sort
of project we were going for I set of to Park Hill to look around and maybe
film some footage to see what things would look like. Heather Hall joined me as
she wanted to practice using the camera as she was cinematographer and camera
for the project and I could help her. We got there and the footage looked
really nice on derelict and abandoned buildings and I knew I could add a grade
and be able to make a short little sequence about the place. Having got there
and filmed we headed back and I started to make a small 3 minuet edit. I added
a colour correction grade to the sequence and it looked really nice with
professional looking footage as well as cutting between the clip with constancy
and fluency.
Having done this piece it set me in good pace for the film we
had pitched to our teacher. The film would consist of two main characters Lola
and Larry who are close friends, Larry has a full time day job whereas Lola
seems to be always around. The back story of the piece is the emerging conflict
of war between Ukraine and Russia and having this in the background along with
what happens in the story (Larry gets fired from his job) would create a mood
of danger and unhappiness and the war would be shown as a news broadcast on the
television. Not only this but Larry would be faced with the problem of what to
do next as is Ukraine at this current time. So having had a fair few meetings
and planning some organisation we decided to film the news report befire the
holidays. We booked out a room in the university and we able to get a grey
sheet that acts as a greensreen and through the camera we used we were able to
place a green LED light on the front that would shine onto the grey background
making it greenscreen. The shooting for this went really well and Jonny our
actor sounded really professional. The editing for this then came round and working
with Heather Kelland the director we were able to make the news report, firstly
myself and Heather Hall had filmed a small background of the train station that
could go behind the news reporter, The news reporter was then taken out from
the green screen by selecting the green around him in final cut pro and placed
onto the train background as if he was in front of it reading the news. This
was then exported onto a disk where we could put it on the television ready to
have during the house scenes.
It seemed that we hadn't got a huge amount sorted than we
originally had, the original actors we had planned for we unable to film over
the holidays as well as the equipment issue, we were using my camera but the
problem we had is that we had no sound and from the documentary we learnt this
was vital to pick up as clear sound as possible. So as a group we decided to
wait and film after the holidays where actors would be available and the
equipment store would be open.
Having planned it, it came to the first day of shooting and
things ran smoothly, I filmed the first scene as Heather Hall was unable to
make it so having been cinematographer on documentary everyone agreed I was
fine to film the scene. The shooting went well as it did the next day with the
next two scenes and the footage was ready to edit.
I started by importing the footage into premier pro and then
decided to edit on order of scene to make things easier and just keep the story
in order. The first scene was inside Lola's house and the lighting and way it
was filmed was the best it could have been but was still hard to keep the
quality in the footage. To keep the quality I added a slight grade by changing
the mid tones in the images as well as lowering the contrast and upping the
brightness to get rid of the yellow glow the image originally had. Having done
this the scene needed to have a flow between the conversation and working
closely with Tom the sound editor I was able to cut where I wanted to so it
wasn't always just cut where the sound finished and speak finished from each
character it was sometimes half way through providing the actors had done the
same performance which a lot of the time they did making my job as the editor a
lot easier. So telling Tom where the sound needed editing within the scene and
providing it worked the scene was cut together so that there was a consistent
pace and the viewer didn't get to bored. I feel the next scene when the boss
fired Larry not only looked nice but the soundtrack over the edit I did made
the whole film go from an average film to something far better than we had
originally thought. editing it was simple but effective as it didn't need to
much colour correction but the scene needed to have a few quick jump cuts as
well as allowing the viewer to understand what was going on. The next scene was the final scene and with
the ending happening in Park Hill and having made the film previously it was a
similar feel to this film so was able to add the same sort of colour
corrections as well as a scene with actors in and cutting between footage with
dialogue again working with Tom.
Overall having had such a small amount of time to edit in the
end I'm really pleased with how the film looks and feel the group did work well
together. I think a couple of the scenes are better than others but as a whole
the film looks professional and having spent a lot of time editing its paid
off. I think the team was enthusiastic and having eventually made plans our
ideas came together to help make the film work.
.JPG)
