''The creative treatment of ACTUALITY is one of the greatest gifts a filmmaker can have.''
This whole assignment went so quickly in my eyes. We have done so many creative work within one day, one week and almost one month. I really enjoyed the mini-documentaries we completed as it gave an extreme time-limit on most of the productions and I really enjoyed working to strict daily deadlines.
1) Evaluate how you have grown and developed as a practitioner, during this assignment?
There are many ways I have developed during this whole assignment. Working on my own with pretty much nobody to help me was a real eye opener to how much I like working on my own. It gives a real element of my own understanding of filming, planning and editing during both short and long assignments and I feel I am ready to do even bigger productions in the future.
2) What two things were you most proud of?
I am most proud of the Pandora Advertisement that myself and my colleague, Naomi Doddridge completed about half-way through this assignment. We had about two weeks to complete it, including research, planning, filming and editing, and I feel as if we did an amazing job with it all. We're best friends, so working as a team was pretty easy and we were both into the topic of the advert, which made it extremely easy to look into and research around.
The second achievement I am most proud of is how my editing skills on Adobe Premier Pro have grown. Since purchasing a MacBook Pro and Adobe Creative Cloud, I have been able to complete a number of my own videos and productions at home in my own environment. This gives me again, the freedom of my own creativity in a way that I can't find in college. Being in my own space really helps me concentrate more on both blogs and editing.
3) What two things do you think you could improve in the future?
I have said this for every assignment, but I would improve how I manage my blog work. As our deadline was 2 months 'long' so to speak, I assumed we had loads of time to complete blogs, so I focused on the production side of things more. Research in blogs takes time and I need to realise that before I decide to leave things until the last minute.
The second thing I am going to improve is the level of my critiquing in blogs. I tend to do more of my own opinion without backing it up with evidence, and I feel like I am ready to take the leap and go into research next time I do a critique, as my writing skills are fine, but research need more work.
4) Write down some future targets you would like to achieve...
There is only one main target I would like to achieve, and that is being comfortable when being interviewed on camera. I feel really self conscious and anxious, and I prefer to operate the camera as opposed to being on it. Over the Easter holidays my friend is going to do some camera exercises to complete to try and make me more comfortable, so hopefully in the next assignment, it won't take me an hour to record a 5 minute interview.
Roll on the next assignment!
Cheerio. :o)
- Olivia.
Wednesday, 26 March 2014
Documenting The Doing #25: The Final Documentary
It was time for the absolutely-final-amazingly-important documentary. You know something's important when you have to do every single bit of paperwork possible and have 3 final weeks to complete it in.
The final documentary. This was a real chance to show off my skills in every area possible. Planning, pitching, filming, editing, directing. It was all based on this one documentary. Exciting, but nerve-wracking. To make this more challenging for myself, I decided to throw myself completely into it and work on my own. This way, I know I could really showcase my creative side and put my ideas on the table, without having to try and push them on to anyone else.
It was extremely hard for me to settle on a particular topic. I went from Oreos, to perfume, to celebrities, but finally settled on country music. I knew this would be a pretty big challenge to film, as where in Devon is there anything to do with country music..? Thankfully, my auntie works at a caravan park, and the owners were kind enough to let me film in their clubhouse, which was designed in a country and western theme.
Week 1 was all about the planning. Getting all the paperwork together was a real challenge, as I just wanted to get out there and film. The first Monday it began, we were told we had to do a quick power-pitch, which would last no more than 2 minutes. Pretty informal, sitting at a desk, with my Prezi in front of me, showcasing my final idea off to one of my tutors.
When it came to the filming of the clubhouse, I ensured I recorded around 3 minutes worth of footage. With this, I would have more than enough shots and cutaways when it came to editing. I would mix this footage with a recording of myself talking about country music, and ensured that I mentioned something about working in a Texan bar and grill, therefore it would fit in with the film.
In the clubhouse, I filmed things like the jail that has been set up, the features on the wall and the bar area. This would then coincide with the country music film. I really wanted to make it seem genuine so I kept the orange-tinted colouring to fit in with the western-theme.
- - - - - - - - - - -
Editing
During editing, I had a bit of a problem figuring out how to keep my personal video and the sound in synchronicity with each other. The editing process was over 2 days as I had so much to do. I also wanted to gather clips of country music artists and festivals to slip in to break up me talking, and the country club. In documentaries I have seen previously, they have had archive footage from internet-based clips. I wanted to make my documentary as professional as possible so I saved a couple from YouTube and incorporated them in with what I say.
My colleague, Scott Friday, showed me many techniques on Adobe Premier Pro to enhance the footage and make it look extremely professional. When I was filming, I didn't use a tripod, and this meant the footage was a little shaky. As my idea was for the shots to pan, I wanted to make the whole thing as smooth and sleek as possible. With this, we used the Warp Stabilizer. This stabilizes the shot and stops it shaking, without seeming blurry.
The final edit was 2.5 minutes long. I made it this length so it wasn't dragging out for too long and still seemed interesting by the end. It was a challenge to pan it out for so long, as personally, I don't like talking in front of the camera. It's something I need to overcome a fear of during the Easter holidays so I can just crack on with it the next time I have an assignment like this.
- - - - - - - - - - -
Overall, I did really enjoy completing this production. My favourite part was filming at Chapmanwell Caravan Park, as this gave me the creative freedom I needed to explore an area I was particularly interesting. I thought I incorporated everything in the final edit really well.
The only couple of sections I would change during my production is I would find people to interview, as this would be another body in my production instead of just me. I feel like if I had done this, it would've looked even more professional, as nearly every documentary we see on the television, includes an interview of some sort.
I am really looking forward to completing my next individual project as I feel like I have much more to give and can be even more creative next time.
Cheerio. :o)
- Olivia.
http://www.chapmanswellcaravanpark.co.uk/ - accessed on 26th-March-2014
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Country_music - accessed on 26th-March-2014
http://www.youtube.com/ - accessed on 26th-March-2014
The final documentary. This was a real chance to show off my skills in every area possible. Planning, pitching, filming, editing, directing. It was all based on this one documentary. Exciting, but nerve-wracking. To make this more challenging for myself, I decided to throw myself completely into it and work on my own. This way, I know I could really showcase my creative side and put my ideas on the table, without having to try and push them on to anyone else.
 |
| Risk Assessment |
It was extremely hard for me to settle on a particular topic. I went from Oreos, to perfume, to celebrities, but finally settled on country music. I knew this would be a pretty big challenge to film, as where in Devon is there anything to do with country music..? Thankfully, my auntie works at a caravan park, and the owners were kind enough to let me film in their clubhouse, which was designed in a country and western theme.
 |
| Chapmanswell Caravan Park Clubhouse |
Week 1 was all about the planning. Getting all the paperwork together was a real challenge, as I just wanted to get out there and film. The first Monday it began, we were told we had to do a quick power-pitch, which would last no more than 2 minutes. Pretty informal, sitting at a desk, with my Prezi in front of me, showcasing my final idea off to one of my tutors.
I originally decided to aim my documentary at a younger audience, and hoping to bring country music to life with people my age and possibly even younger. I tried my hardest to determine the target audience during the filming and editing of the final piece however it was really hard. I filmed at an secluded location which none of my colleagues could access, so there was no possible way of me interviewing anyone. Time wasn't on my side and I just wanted to have something under my belt before the final deadline.
When it came to the filming of the clubhouse, I ensured I recorded around 3 minutes worth of footage. With this, I would have more than enough shots and cutaways when it came to editing. I would mix this footage with a recording of myself talking about country music, and ensured that I mentioned something about working in a Texan bar and grill, therefore it would fit in with the film.
In the clubhouse, I filmed things like the jail that has been set up, the features on the wall and the bar area. This would then coincide with the country music film. I really wanted to make it seem genuine so I kept the orange-tinted colouring to fit in with the western-theme.
- - - - - - - - - - -
Editing
During editing, I had a bit of a problem figuring out how to keep my personal video and the sound in synchronicity with each other. The editing process was over 2 days as I had so much to do. I also wanted to gather clips of country music artists and festivals to slip in to break up me talking, and the country club. In documentaries I have seen previously, they have had archive footage from internet-based clips. I wanted to make my documentary as professional as possible so I saved a couple from YouTube and incorporated them in with what I say.
 |
| Editing process |
My colleague, Scott Friday, showed me many techniques on Adobe Premier Pro to enhance the footage and make it look extremely professional. When I was filming, I didn't use a tripod, and this meant the footage was a little shaky. As my idea was for the shots to pan, I wanted to make the whole thing as smooth and sleek as possible. With this, we used the Warp Stabilizer. This stabilizes the shot and stops it shaking, without seeming blurry.
The final edit was 2.5 minutes long. I made it this length so it wasn't dragging out for too long and still seemed interesting by the end. It was a challenge to pan it out for so long, as personally, I don't like talking in front of the camera. It's something I need to overcome a fear of during the Easter holidays so I can just crack on with it the next time I have an assignment like this.
- - - - - - - - - - -
Overall, I did really enjoy completing this production. My favourite part was filming at Chapmanwell Caravan Park, as this gave me the creative freedom I needed to explore an area I was particularly interesting. I thought I incorporated everything in the final edit really well.
I am really looking forward to completing my next individual project as I feel like I have much more to give and can be even more creative next time.
Cheerio. :o)
- Olivia.
http://www.chapmanswellcaravanpark.co.uk/ - accessed on 26th-March-2014
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Country_music - accessed on 26th-March-2014
http://www.youtube.com/ - accessed on 26th-March-2014
Monday, 17 March 2014
Final Documentary: Power Pitch
What do you intend to produce?
Tell us about your idea and where it stands. What are your intentions? Give us a working title. Do the audience need to know anything beforehand? What are the ingredients that make up your documentary?
The plan for my documentary is to give people in the UK more of an insight in to country music. This genre is specifically popular in the USA, however I intend to make it more well-known and popular over here too. There are many things I wish to do, such as film parts of a clubhouse designed in a Western-Texas theme and interview a couple of people regarding their thoughts and feelings towards country music. Facts and figures are also going to be shown during this documentary. The production side of things that I am intending to achieve will include a wild track, a generic image over the duration of the documentary, and a clear voice over which people will find endearing to listen to.
Influences, research and target audience
What primary research have you gathered that focuses on your subject matter?
As part of my primary research I have created a questionnaire which has given me specific answers I will need and use during my documentary. Simplistic questions mean simplistic answers and I will be displaying the facts and figures in my final production to show people the vast opinions I have gathered.
These two questions have been reviewed and looked at as a whole and will have the most impact on my production. The first question, Which of the following music artists have you heard of? (if any), will determine which type of music acts I talk about during my documentary. I plan to do a few voice overs of clips I have discovered along with an interview based scene, discussing the music artists Dolly Parton, Tim McGraw and Eli Young Band. Although 2/3 of my choices were not the most popular, I feel as though this would be the best way to widen the knowledge of the audience. It would be pointless talking about artists that everybody knows - hence why I have chosen to discuss two of the least-known in my survey.
Just under 46% of the audience that answered this questionnaire are aged from 16 to 24. This will be my main target audience, as I believe these will be the people who will have the biggest impact on my production. Tying this evaluation in with the last question asked, which was What age range would you say Country Music appeals to?, I will use these to bounce off of each other when creating my documentary.
Tell us about your idea and where it stands. What are your intentions? Give us a working title. Do the audience need to know anything beforehand? What are the ingredients that make up your documentary?
The plan for my documentary is to give people in the UK more of an insight in to country music. This genre is specifically popular in the USA, however I intend to make it more well-known and popular over here too. There are many things I wish to do, such as film parts of a clubhouse designed in a Western-Texas theme and interview a couple of people regarding their thoughts and feelings towards country music. Facts and figures are also going to be shown during this documentary. The production side of things that I am intending to achieve will include a wild track, a generic image over the duration of the documentary, and a clear voice over which people will find endearing to listen to.
Influences, research and target audience
What primary research have you gathered that focuses on your subject matter?
As part of my primary research I have created a questionnaire which has given me specific answers I will need and use during my documentary. Simplistic questions mean simplistic answers and I will be displaying the facts and figures in my final production to show people the vast opinions I have gathered.
 |
| Two questions that will impact my production |
These two questions have been reviewed and looked at as a whole and will have the most impact on my production. The first question, Which of the following music artists have you heard of? (if any), will determine which type of music acts I talk about during my documentary. I plan to do a few voice overs of clips I have discovered along with an interview based scene, discussing the music artists Dolly Parton, Tim McGraw and Eli Young Band. Although 2/3 of my choices were not the most popular, I feel as though this would be the best way to widen the knowledge of the audience. It would be pointless talking about artists that everybody knows - hence why I have chosen to discuss two of the least-known in my survey.
Just under 46% of the audience that answered this questionnaire are aged from 16 to 24. This will be my main target audience, as I believe these will be the people who will have the biggest impact on my production. Tying this evaluation in with the last question asked, which was What age range would you say Country Music appeals to?, I will use these to bounce off of each other when creating my documentary.
 |
| Country Music appeals to...? |
As a round up, with 46% of my audience being 16-24, they had the biggest impact on my questionnaire. The above question shows that 60% of the audience as a whole believe country music is most appealing to adults. With my documentary, I am hoping to achieve what seems impossible, but for more people to approach me and say 'Oh, wow, I'm so glad you introduced me to country music!' - I'm a dreamer, but nothing's impossible.
To make my production appealing to my target audience, I will ensure the documentary is fun, informal and exciting to watch. By including a wild track in the background, then the viewers will not switch off. There will be constant noise. I will also interview approximately 3 people, ranging from 18 years old to 40-ish years old. This will show a wide variety in research and hopefully give the viewer a chance to see that this documentary is a selling point for country music.
Problematise / Solutionate
Give us a problem you think you might face and contract it into one word. What is it?
APPEAL - BELIEF
5 word tagline
Express the essence of country.
Cheerio. :o)
- Olivia.
Tuesday, 4 March 2014
Documenting The Doing #24: Scratch Video/Furious Footage
It was time for another documentary in a day and this one involved absolutely no camera work on my behalf. We had a choice as to whether we worked individually or in pairs, so I chose to work with my colleague Scott Friday. We had a bit of a discussion for quite some time, but we eventually focused our idea on a set topic.
We had to produce some furious footage. This concept originated in the 1980's and consists of footage found and cut into sequence. This was used to make a statement, in many cases political. Our production had to be from 30 seconds to 1 minute long, and must ensure that it was not discriminative in any way. The aim of the project was to make a statement without spelling it out.
During our project, we took all of the footage from YouTube. We originated with the idea of Anxiety in Public Speaking, but this proved hard to find a decent amount of footage for. We thought for about half an hour after, and settled with terrorism. We were sure to find at least 1 minute of footage regarding this.
I am really pleased with how our final production was completed. I felt like it gave a real indirect insight as to how terrorism has affected every single person around the world. Myself and Scott had found the worst quality footage we could find, as we were informed by our tutor that the worse the quality, the better.
Cheerio. :o)
We had to produce some furious footage. This concept originated in the 1980's and consists of footage found and cut into sequence. This was used to make a statement, in many cases political. Our production had to be from 30 seconds to 1 minute long, and must ensure that it was not discriminative in any way. The aim of the project was to make a statement without spelling it out.
During our project, we took all of the footage from YouTube. We originated with the idea of Anxiety in Public Speaking, but this proved hard to find a decent amount of footage for. We thought for about half an hour after, and settled with terrorism. We were sure to find at least 1 minute of footage regarding this.
I am really pleased with how our final production was completed. I felt like it gave a real indirect insight as to how terrorism has affected every single person around the world. Myself and Scott had found the worst quality footage we could find, as we were informed by our tutor that the worse the quality, the better.
We ensured that the clips were short and sweet to keep the viewer on edge and enthusiastic about the topic. I have shown it to a number of my friends and members of my family and they have all said they really enjoyed the concept and editorial side of the production. I thought this was quite a relaxed type of project to complete, and really enjoyed the down time of sitting at a computer. I'm so used to running around with cameras and things these days, it was nice to do a quick fire production which involved nothing but YouTube and Adobe Premier Pro.
Cheerio. :o)
- Olivia.
What is a Scratch Video?
The Scratch Video technique was founded in the early to mid 1980s. It was a form of British Art Movement and was characterised by the use of found footage, fast cutting and multi-layered rhythms. Scratch Video arose in opposition to broadcast TV, as anti-artists attempted to deal critically and directly with the impact of mass communications. Most of the work was politically radical, often containing images of a sexual or violent nature, and using images appropriate for mainstream media.
Two very famous scratch video artists, Rik Lander and Peter Boyd MaClean, who are also known as The Duvet Brothers, are the creators of one of the world's most famous scratch video. This video gives a great insight into it's chosen topic and it gave myself and Scott a lot of inspiration as to how we would edit ours together. Short, snappy clips with low quality.
If television was our shop window on the world, scratch has just chucked a brick through it, and is busy looting 30 years of goodies with abandon. - Andy Lipman, City Limits. 5th October 1984.
Scratch video establishes a radical new approach to television itself. It abandons the idea that TV images are mere representations of what’s real. It starts to disassemble the images themselves by indulging in orgies of editing. In a sense scratch is the epitome of what professional broadcasters would call irresponsible television.' - Benjamin Woolley, The Listener. 14th September 1986.
Two very famous scratch video artists, Rik Lander and Peter Boyd MaClean, who are also known as The Duvet Brothers, are the creators of one of the world's most famous scratch video. This video gives a great insight into it's chosen topic and it gave myself and Scott a lot of inspiration as to how we would edit ours together. Short, snappy clips with low quality.
If television was our shop window on the world, scratch has just chucked a brick through it, and is busy looting 30 years of goodies with abandon. - Andy Lipman, City Limits. 5th October 1984.
Scratch video establishes a radical new approach to television itself. It abandons the idea that TV images are mere representations of what’s real. It starts to disassemble the images themselves by indulging in orgies of editing. In a sense scratch is the epitome of what professional broadcasters would call irresponsible television.' - Benjamin Woolley, The Listener. 14th September 1986.
Cheerio. :o)
- Olivia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scratch_video - accessed on 4th-March-2014
Monday, 3 March 2014
Documenting The Doing #23: Space is the Place
It was time for another documentary that we had to complete in just one day. This would be a challenge as we had to find a place outside of the college grounds to film. I worked with my colleagues Naomi Doddridge, Jade Popham and Scott Friday throughout the duration of this project. We all had a pretty good sense of adventure so we decided to make our way down to Plymouth Hoe, towards an abandoned building we had found a few days back by fluke.
During this documentary we had to make the most of using a sound recorder to ensure we captured the essence of the surrounding sound. Editing would be important during the process of this project as we would have to record individual clips in our chosen destination and add suitable sound effects to capture the essence and vibe of the place.
Throughout the production, there had to be a wild track which would last the whole time the production was in motion. A wild track is almost like the base noise, the background noise, or the noise that gives a video that extra depth it needs to have to get a real sense of what it's like to be at a certain place. For our wild track, we recorded what we heard when we were silent, which was the ocean waves and seagulls at the shore. The building was based on Plymouth Hoe, overlooking the ocean and islands, so it was very picturesque and a perfect destination for soundtracks and vibes.
When recording the sounds for the effects, myself and Scott came up with a number of noises that would give a real feel of the surrounding environment we were in. Broken glass, scraping of stones and cluttered footsteps were my favourite three, and these three I used in the production.
I felt like my final edit would've been near enough perfect if the shots were in focus. I feel like this ruined the whole production and I'm absolutely gutted, as we picked a really crisp and well thought-out environment to film. I really enjoyed editing this as I pt my own twist on it, which I like to do with most of my productions that I edit on my own as I really want my work to be memorable. The footage as a whole reached around 45 seconds, but the production had to be 1 minute long. I decided to use the cross fade and title tool, and add a beginning introduction and an end credit to set the tone of the video.
As a whole, I really enjoyed filming and editing this production. It's a shame we didn't get the footage as crystal clear as we would've hoped for, but we did our best, and it's something we will all bare in mind for next time. This video also taught me how important background noise is, as we learnt that nowhere is ever silent. There is always background noise, no matter what environment you're in.
Cheerio. :o)
During this documentary we had to make the most of using a sound recorder to ensure we captured the essence of the surrounding sound. Editing would be important during the process of this project as we would have to record individual clips in our chosen destination and add suitable sound effects to capture the essence and vibe of the place.
 |
| Our destination - an abandoned property on Plymouth Hoe |
Throughout the production, there had to be a wild track which would last the whole time the production was in motion. A wild track is almost like the base noise, the background noise, or the noise that gives a video that extra depth it needs to have to get a real sense of what it's like to be at a certain place. For our wild track, we recorded what we heard when we were silent, which was the ocean waves and seagulls at the shore. The building was based on Plymouth Hoe, overlooking the ocean and islands, so it was very picturesque and a perfect destination for soundtracks and vibes.
During the editing, I got a little worried when I was watching the clips back. It's such a shame to say, but most of them were out of focus. I'm not sure how or why, but it just lost that professionalism we were looking for. I tried to cut the clips out where it looked out of place, and obviously did this to the best of my ability. If we were ever to return to this building, I would definitely make sure the footage was recorded on a tripod, and put on manual focus on the Canon 600D to ensure a crisp, clean, final shot.
When recording the sounds for the effects, myself and Scott came up with a number of noises that would give a real feel of the surrounding environment we were in. Broken glass, scraping of stones and cluttered footsteps were my favourite three, and these three I used in the production.
I felt like my final edit would've been near enough perfect if the shots were in focus. I feel like this ruined the whole production and I'm absolutely gutted, as we picked a really crisp and well thought-out environment to film. I really enjoyed editing this as I pt my own twist on it, which I like to do with most of my productions that I edit on my own as I really want my work to be memorable. The footage as a whole reached around 45 seconds, but the production had to be 1 minute long. I decided to use the cross fade and title tool, and add a beginning introduction and an end credit to set the tone of the video.
 |
| The captions I chose to put my own twist on the production |
As a whole, I really enjoyed filming and editing this production. It's a shame we didn't get the footage as crystal clear as we would've hoped for, but we did our best, and it's something we will all bare in mind for next time. This video also taught me how important background noise is, as we learnt that nowhere is ever silent. There is always background noise, no matter what environment you're in.
Cheerio. :o)
- Olivia.
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