Unit 43
In this unit I will be showing the pre production of my skateboarding documentary and everything that me and my team did leading up to and following the filming of our short film.
Documentary Research
Before the storm is a short sports documentary which was directed by Jake Churchill and Prokopi Constantinou of itdrewitself. The documentary is from the point of view of a group of bike riders from London and they describe how riding has allowed them to escape from the broken societies that they live in. The documentary has been created for a youtube channel called 'Huck' which features videos expressing different cultures and other peoples creativity in different ways. The interviewees that have been interviewed for the documentary are the main focus point as they are the only ones seen in the shot when they are seen being interviewed. The style of the interview is as if they are speaking about how they feel. There are also no questions that you can hear the interviewer asking which makes the things that the interviewee seem more honest and personal. The message that is spread throughout the documentary is that the youth who are living a hard lifestyle have more options than drugs and crime which is a common thing in rougher areas of cities I like the idea of having interviewees telling their stories alongside action in a documentary and having them interviewed with action happening in the background because I think it gives the documentary a natural feeling.
P1-
This short documentary is called 'How Mental Illness Derailed The Career Of A Promising Young Skateboarder'. It is a sports documentary which tells the story of a young skateboarder from Bristol called Paul Alexander who suffered from mental illness. The documentary is told from the point of view of him and his friends and family. This documentary was created for a youtube channel called Vice. Vice feature documentaries which have a thrilling storyline and many of the documentaries that are made address some issues which are current in the world. For the majority of the documentary, it is set up as if it is just his friends talking about their perspectives of Paul as a skateboarder. When Paul comes in for an interview, the interviewer can be heard asking him questions behind the camera. The effect of this shows the change of tone do the documentary as he begins discussing how his mental health conditions were making him feel. This documentary was made to address the issues of mental health and make people realise the effect that it can have on a person. I think that this is a powerful way of doing this because it includes how other people see mental health from a different perspective. In this documentary, actual footage of Paul skateboarding was used during the interviews to let people see how he actually changed. In each section there are also lots of different locations that the film crew have been to. I would like to use these things in my documentary because it adds mood to the words that are being read and allows the viewer to picture things that actually happened.
Treatment
This is our treatment which shows our planning for our documentary. The reason that we decided that having our film on Dave at 5:00 is because in our documentary there is an informative effect but also a comedic effect and we thought that this would work well with the things that are often on Dave. In addition we decided that we will put our film on youtube and Vimeo because they are platforms which are used by young people to show off their short films and documentaries. The short films that are put on these platforms are also a good way of making a portfolio of the filming work that we have done. We are choosing to aim our short documentary for older teens because this is a key audience for Dave and the person in the documentary is an old teen and is talking about his experience with growing up skateboarding. It may also give other teenagers inspiration to start skateboarding or inspire an idea for a film or documentary with a similar theme. We also want to make sure that teens enjoy the documentary and find it interesting rather than just a normal informative documentary which is why the comedic effect that our documentary has makes it interesting to watch.
Legal and Ethical
Offending race and religions - When doing a video shoot, making sure our work is acceptable and appropriate is necessary. If we are recording videos of ethnically diverse people, or in cultural places, the shots would need to be considered respectful. Framing something in an offensive style would be unethical. In this case, we will be shooting in a local area although that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be careful. We will need to make sure we frame our shots respectfully and consider the meaning behind them.
Trespassing/ private property - When looking for locations to do our shoots we will need to be sure that we research whether the area we intend to go is public or private land and that we have the correct permissions/ arrangements to do a shoot there. Without the correct permissions this is considered trespassing. It shouldn't be a problem here as we are shooting in public skate areas, however of course I still must be respectful. If we were to move slightly more off grid we would need to be sure we had researched if we have the correct permissions.
Environmental factors - When shooting in any area public or private It's important that we leave it how we found it. It may be necessary to alter the surroundings slightly to get the correct frame for a shot, or perhaps in this case we may move things out of the way so that we could perform tricks while skating. With this we would need to be careful not to alter any habitats of animals or damage the ecosystem. And then make sure we put it back to how we found it. A use of flyers is something I should be aware of. Too many may be a waste of paper and potentially litter if they were to blow away. Also, to conserve electricity I should use natural lighting where possible.
Model release forms - When filming a subject it's important I have their permission to do so. Without permission there may be upset from the subject. To protect both us and the subject, a model release form is used. They are legal documents that have to be used when something recognisable is taken of the subject, for example, a face or a tattoo. They allow the image to be used on any media form.
Copyright act - The copyright act protects anyone from using our work as their own. Likewise, it means we cannot use copyrighted work as our own. It protects the images under it. For example to claim a famous photograph as your own and attempt to sell it, that is
illegal.
Defamation - Defamation is taking a real image and, for example, editing it to make it look like something else, perhaps to destroy a reputation. It is illegal to take an image and make it look like something else at someone else's expense.
Intellectual property rights - This is the right to have an idea and not be feared that another company will steal it for a given amount of time. It means that innovation is encouraged without fear your idea . will be taken and used by someone else.
Audio/music - We would have to be careful of what we are recording and what may be in the background of our shots and be sure that it doesn’t reveal any personal information without consent. In addition this links back to the copyright act in that we cannot use music in our video that isn’t royalty free or doesn’t belong to us.
Language - although our target audience is older teenagers, we would like our final product to be accessible and viewable by anyone such as young aspiring skaters who are looking for inspiration. Therefore, we don’t plan on including any language considered rude in our final product. Also, we must be careful that we don’t say anything either offensive or politically incorrect or controversial as it may hurt our media product and upset some viewer
Documents
When filling out these documents, our team worked on them as a combined effort which is why some of the documents have names of other members of my group on. We all contributed equally when filling out our documents and gave each other ideas for what to write.
Budget
The budget sheet shows how much it would cost to hire the equipment that we were using on the two days that we were filming. However we did not need to pay as the equipment was already owned by boomsatsuma.
Location recce
Location recce sheets allow you to plan how you will do the shots and makes you aware of some possible hazards that could happen and allows you to prepare as well as possible to avoid those hazards. It also makes you aware of what facilities are nearby the location.
Production Schedule
The production schedule helps you to get organised for your shoot and get a sense of time planning throughout the entire production process.
Daily Shooting Schedule
The daily shooting schedule helps the organisation of the filming on the day of filming and gives the group a plan of roughly where they need to be when so they know how fast to work and when they have more time.
Risk Assesement
The purpose of the risk assessment is to show what could go wrong while filming on set and lists how high a risk is and how its likelihood of happening can be decreased. The risk assessment is important because without it a crew cannot film on set and it is important that everyone on a film crew follows the risk assessment.
Model Release Form
The model release form is required to be signed by anyone who appears in the documentary. It shows that the person in front of the camera gives permission for the person to be filmed and their face used in the shot.
Story Board
These are screenshots which link to a couple of scenes from our original story board idea and were then kept in our documentary but followed a different story. We wanted to use some of our initial shot ideas that we came up with.
Our original story idea for our documentary was to do a kind of 'coming of age' story type which would show the journey of a skater from when they were a child to where they are at with skateboarding now. We thought that it would be interesting to make it seem like we could document a skaters life as if in snippets showing key things that have happened to them along the way. From this story we got some shot ideas and discovered quickly that we wanted to film it in Bristol as we had some nice locations that we knew we could film at. We thought that by doing this film, we would be able to show the progression of the skater. The only problem we found with this was that we did not have any old footage of our subject opening or riding a skateboard at a young age.
P2-
Set design
Lloyds-
The Lloyds Amphitheatre in Bristol is a place where skaters often skate and film daily, It has 3 large stone steps which stretch around a concrete flat area with breaks in between to allow people to walk through. there are also supermarket shops nearby to buy food and drink.
Memorial spot-
The memorial is a completely flat ground skate spot apart from a war memorial statue at one end with two small steps. It has benches surrounding the area and shops very close by for refreshments.
On The Day
On our actual day of filming we made sure that we were treating it like a professional shoot. Before shooting we made sure that we said action and made sure everyone was ready for whatever we were about to film. We were efficient about setting up the equipment as we had a practice session before the shoot where we set up and packed away the equipment and knew how everything that we were using worked. We did not need to make any changes to the set as the places we were shooting were in good condition and we were using natural light.
We ended up changing the storyboard slightly by rearranging the story and changing some events because there were some things which happened while we were filming that we could put into our final story to give it a more interesting story line. We wrote questions for the interview in the early stages of the pre production but when it came to doing the interview just after shooting, we decided as a group that it would be better to have a recording of our interviewee talking about skating and his experiences when skating. We wrote notes for some subjects that we wanted to include in our interview and our interviewee just used the sound mixing controller to record himself talking about skateboarding and telling his story.
The only equipment that we were using on the day was:
-DSLR Camera x2
-Gopro x2
-Gimble
This meant that we did not need to tape any equipment. However, we made sure that we were using all of the equipment appropriately. Before each shot, we made sure that the quality was the best that we could make it and that it was in focus, if we were not using a nimble we would make sure that the shot was as stable as we could possibly make it.
We made sure that before we started filming we had done location recce sheets and tried to ensure that we were following safe working practices. We were also as safe and careful with everything that we did on the day including the way that we treated the equipment e.g packing up everything before we moved locations and setting up the equipment quickly and correctly.
The only way in which safety was not maintained was that in the location recce it says that I would wear a helmet buy I did not and consequently I ended up in hospital with a cut on my head which I got at lloyds amphitheatre. The reason I was not wearing a helmet was because I did not anticipate to fall and hit my head or do any damage. It happened when I tried to drop down onto a step to do a grind but the skateboard slipped from underneath me and I hit my head on the side of the stone step. After it happened we put pressure on the wound to stop it from bleeding and checked that I did not feel light headed and did not feel any sickness. A member of public who was passing at the time phoned an ambulance while a first aid woman from the offices next to the steps came to give me a bandage and after that was put on I walked round to the foyer of the offices to sit down and wait for the ambulance and drink some water. When the ambulance came I was given a checkup that I was feeling ok and was driven to hospital where I later received staples to help the cut heal.
We thought that we could use this and by slightly changing our documentary we were able to make it more interesting to the viewer by adding the element of risk. This meant that we do not have a final story board but there are elements which we have changed and elements which we have kept the same from our original story idea.
M1 and D1-
P3-
Practice Session
In this session I was getting used to setting up and using equipment that we would possibly be using in the final production. In this session we were getting used to using industry standard equipment and getting comfortable setting up and down. The equipment that we were using in the pictures were:
- Canon 600D Camera bodies x2
-Rode telescopic boom pole
-Sennhesier boom mic
-XLR cable
-Manfrotto tripod x2
-Canon 50mm EOS Prime Lens
- Canon 18-55mm EOS Zoom lens
- TASCAM DR-40 audio recorder
- Zuiyutech G6 Plus Gimbal
The Offline Edit
Offline Review
I am happy with the way that my offline edit went because I have become more experienced with using premier pro to create a sequence using visuals and audio. at first I didn't know how to use premier pro but I was able to develop my skills to use the footage that I had to create my own idea for the story of our documentary. If I was going to change anything in my edit I would use more of the footage to my advantage and make there be less pauses. I would also make sure that I have everything recorded that I need to because I found that I had to record more audio for the interview as the offline edit went on.
Online edit
Comparison with Offline
Within our group, we all created an individual offline edit. We then came together when we had all finished and we watched each of our offline edits individually. I thought that each of us had very good ideas and there were similarities that we noticed about our offline edits and we were all given ideas which could be involved in the online edit. We came together after watching them and discussed and noted down our ideas. We chose another member of our groups offline edit to base the online edit from because his was the most developed and we could see where our ideas could be adapted into his offline edit. The story of his offline edit was similar in some ways to mine but a lot of it was in a different order to mine which is why the online edit is considerably different to my offline edit however it contains many similar ideas that I have used in my offline edit.
In the online edit we all decided that we wanted to focus more on what I was saying in the recording of my voice. We decided that the shot of me stood at the bus stop outside Poundland was a good basis shot to return to throughout the documentary. By doing this we were able to show short clips as cut aways from that clip when it related to make it seem like a flashback or the thoughts going through my head. This made the documentary more powerful because we thought that it made the documentary seem more personal and like the viewer was getting a clear idea of the thoughts going through my head. It also allowed us to have another section to end the documentary on which was more of a showcase of the clips of me skating. The effect of splitting up the documentary up into the story section first and showcasing the skateboarding after makes the viewer understand how much the protagonist likes skateboarding and also makes them feel inspired. I like the way that in the online edit we frequently used the rule of 3 technique which is often used by people who make skate edits and parts for skateboarders. The rule of 3 is where 2 of the fails which the skateboarder did is used in the final edit which shows the process of trying the trick and often shows frustration from the skater.
I think if we could change anything from our online edit, I would like to have the protagonist talking more about their experiences as a skater and telling more stories that they have. This would give the documentary lots more possible ways to branch out and have a more interesting story. I also think that we should've recorded our interview before going out to film because if I was doing this project or anything similar in future, I would get more ideas for things to film after listening to what the subject says in the interview and in the stories they tell.
The purpose of the EDL(Editing Decisions List) is to show what shots where used at what time. This helps the organisation of the team as it makes it easy to find any of the clips which were used in the final edit.
Editing Decisions List
Rushes Log
The rushes log gives you a clear idea of the shots that you will be using and what points in the shot can be used. The point of this is to make your job easier when selecting clips and putting them together for your online edit.
P4-
Audio Issues
When recording the audio for our documentary, we tried to record it to get the most accurate sound that we could. Unfortunately we had some issues with the levels of the sound and fitting it with the music was a challenge. If I was doing this project again I would make sure that we went to a space which we could record some good quality sound such as a recording studio. We used a silent classroom to record our audio however there was still natural reverb of the speakers voice being picked up and loud room noise. To help this issue next time I would also make sure that our sound levels were set correctly for our documentary and all the sound was mixed as best as possible.
The Documentary
I have enjoyed the process of making my documentary and I have learned a lot about working with professional equipment and undergoing the processes that would be done in a realistic film production set. I am happy with the way that I have performed and I am glad that I have been able to gain experience and knowledge about working with different equipment and working on my editing skills which I have never done before. I have learned about the time management and production that I have never done before and experienced new things in the process such as filling out forms and recording the planning information. This has taught me that when working on a film, it is good to be as organised as you possibly can so that the whole process runs smoothly.
I think that as a team we were good at decision making throughout the process of making our documentary because we all had very similar ideas for how we wanted the documentary to look. This showed when we all showed each other our offline edits as we noticed that we all had ideas which linked together in different ways but were ever so slightly different.
I think that we used the right equipment for our documentary which gave our documentary a good style and gave it a good feel throughout. If I could change one technical thing about our documentary I would have a filmed interview instead of just recorded so that we had more available cutaways if we wanted to make our documentary longer and then we could also have the option of just using the audio from that interview anyway.
I think that the platform we have chosen to stream our documentary on is good for us to reach our target audience and works well for a documentary like ours because people will be able to watch it when they watch documentaries similar to the subject and they will feel inspired.