Documentary
Our original idea and pitch was to do a documentary on
the lives and acts of street performers in Liverpool. We chose this idea after
collaborative group research into previous documentaries about Liverpool as
well as research into the area and its culture and we found that there is a
heavy movement of street performers out there and that there was even a law
that was almost past meaning it would be near impossible to perform on the
street and to get permission to. This was therefore a somewhat controversial
and topical subject for our film to be based upon and especially seeing as it
was half term when we went to Liverpool, we knew there would be a lot of
performances going on whilst we visited. We had also discovered, from the
pitch, that this subject matter hadn’t been covered an awful lot so our film
would stand out and be original contextually. Even with our planning, our
original idea change quite a bit due to unforeseen circumstances technically
(which I will go into detail later) which eventually left us with a final piece
on an individual aspiring musician, Vanessa Murray.
Even though we did a fair amount of preliminary
planning before setting off for Liverpool, including shot lists, shooting
schedules, locations and contact details with meeting times for our
interviewees; we failed to properly test our equipment before going meaning on
the first day of filming, our camera packed up and we couldn’t use it for more
than 5 minutes at a time due to a faulty battery connection. This meant on the
second day we had to borrow someone’s DSLR which none of our group had any
experience with, and we only had the default lens which hindered our capability
to produce a variety of shots. With this mixture of Z1 and DLSR footage, the
edit proved to be quite difficult as we had to render very frequently because
of the difference in footage on the timeline. Then the hard drive with all our
sound and edit on broke and we didn’t have a backup of them anywhere. After
speaking with our tutors and the other members of the group and being granted
an extension, we decided we should re-shoot the documentary as best we could
focusing on only one of the subjects we interviewed on our original shoot,
Vanessa. Next time I will test the equipment thoroughly to make sure it is in
working order as well as keeping a backup for all our work on another hard
drive. Finally when we went back to reshoot, the sound we recorded was in mp3
which meant the quality was very poor and in the end we reverted to using the
camera sound which made it very poor quality. Although the blame would normally
go to the sound recorder for not setting up the Marantz correctly, this fault
was partly down to the fact we had only 4 members in our group out of 6 (and
only 3 who were at the reshoot) which meant we didn’t actually have a sound
recorder in the first place which made it very difficult to do more than one
role effectively.
With these issues, our film had a fair few weaknesses,
and the major one was the sound. Due to the poor quality of the recorded sound
on the Marantz, we had to use the camera sound in the edit which made the sound
design aspect which I did the majority of, very difficult. I used the dynamic
compressor effect to make the sound actually audible, as well as having to
constantly have to reduce the noise on every piece of sound we wanted. This
made the dialogue very tinny and poor quality, with a lot of background noise
interfering with it. Also, due to the haste in which we recorded the reshoot in
(we only had one day) the exposure on some of the interview shots were poor due
to the shutter speed being too high which in turn meant Vanessa’s face was
underexposed and the backdrop was slightly overexposed. In the edit this proved
problematic as we wanted both to look good and in the end I slightly
overcompensated with the colour corrector and made certain shots seem
over-produced/edited. A final weakness, once again due to lack of detail
because of the time limit, was that in the edit there was a few false finishes
with the interview which made the narrative and content a bit difficult to
follow. Some of this was due to the sound recording as well because a few
answers were unusable. This being said, our film did also present a lot of
strengths as well. We had a huge variety of different establishing shots to
choose from and a lot of really strong compositions for cut-aways, L-Cuts and
J-cuts as well as to set the location of the film. This was due to the strong plan
and shot list we created before going to reshoot. The actual content of our
film was very strong as well due to the very thorough and extensive list of
questions we wrote up before going back. This gave us very solid and
interesting answers from Vanessa which ultimately increased the strength of our
film making it more enjoyable and interesting to watch.
We had a variety of problems with our group for this
film, firstly that we only had 4 members so we all had a lot more work to do
between us and share certain roles and responsibilities which proved very messy
and problematic in terms of sound. Also, due to availability of certain members
and their technical competency, myself and Chris (the director on this film)
had to do the vast majority of the work overall, doing pretty much everything
from setting up compositions on camera, recording atmos tracks, attempting to
salvage audio using sound design and also working on the whole final edit alone.
This proved to be very difficult for just 2 members and given the short
deadline, really hindered the quality of the film overall. From this experience
I have personally learnt to always check equipment properly before going on
locational shooting, set it up correctly, back up all work on numerous devices
and how important it is to have a full crew for a film such as this
documentary. Things I would change are using a lapel microphone for better
sound quality, plan ahead more frequently and never assume everything will work
perfectly and finally to always give yourself time to give your best in your
work by sharing the workload evenly between members of the group by using
realistic goals.
Drama
Our idea for this piece was based heavily around the
brief of making it about a ‘journey’. As
a group we discussed and decided that we wanted our film to be about a
metaphorical or emotional journey and not just a plain physical one. The
reasoning behind this was to make it more open for interpretation so we could
get a good range of ideas down, as well as making it more original and less
linear as a film. We decided to make it about a brother and sister who have
recently lost their parents and following the emotional journey of recovery of
the sister (Abbey) with help from her brother (Alex). The brief specified only
3 characters can be used in the film and 3 locations so we chose the interior
of a house, a park and a city center. There is some tension and conflict
between the siblings and Abbey believes that Alex is trying to replace and
compensate for the loss of their parents. After a few confrontations, Abbey
accepts that Alex is trying to help her and they make up. Although we have developed quite a sturdy
script for the film, we decided that it is open for improvisation from anyone
whilst we were on set if the group agreed that it will strengthen our final
piece.
We met a lot as a group before we started shooting and
everyone came up with a solid list of things that they needed to do whilst on
set (shot list, floor plan, sound list e.c.t.) This really helped whilst on
location due to the limited time we had in the house because everyone knew what
they were doing and what needed to be done (bar a few details). We also
improvised when shooting and used 2 cameras when possible to get 2 different
angles on the scene. We also went through about 3/4 takes on every scene just
to make sure we had a variety of shots, sound and got the best performance out
of the actors. We all collaborated very well even when not filming as the
communication between almost all members was very good which I think shows in
the final film. The sound recorder and I exchanged notes, sound lists and
discussed foley sounds, with the director to insure we had all the sounds
necessary to make the film flow smoothly and match industry standard. The only
things that didn’t really go to plan were we all originally agreed to use the
Midi keyboard with Logic to create mood provoking melodies that match with the
theme of the film. However, when we discussed this with our tutor we were
advised against it unless we really knew what we were doing at the risk of
making the film ‘cheesy’. After being
told this we all decided against it and instead try and provoke the same kind
of mood by editing around the atmospheric tracks.
Our film had a few weaknesses with it however, the
main one being the sound recordings. Due to the fact we shot on different days
for the same scenes a few times, there is a distinct change in the levels
in-between dialogue. To try and compensate for this and these quiet recordings,
I attempted to use the Dynamic Compressor effect to increase the voice to make
it audible. Unfortunately this also increases the atmos track within the
dialogue which meant that a few bits of speech have a fluctuation in the atmos
which makes the film a bit uncomfortable to listen to. Due to the short notice
cut of the use of the Midi, it also feels like in some places there is a lot of
sound missing which could/should be there. This is because we didn’t plan for
this to be the case and as a group didn’t adapt to the change well enough. This
being said, the film also showed a lot of strengths especially in the variety
of shots used. This is because of the use of the two cameras and the amount of
takes we did as it allowed us to select the best compositions within scenes for
the film. The compositions themselves also stand out in certain places, and
accompanied by the sound design really do give a heavy mood to the visuals. I
believe that the narrative itself is also quite strong as it uses a bit of
light humor tied in with the heavy and dark implicit themes to really provoke
mood swings on to the view making the film more powerful and enjoyable.
As a group almost all of us worked very efficiently
together especially the producer and director and only the cinematographer let
us down due to unavailability’s because of other commitments which meant the
editor and I had to do the majority of the setting up cameras, finding good
compositions and actually filming the drama. This leads on the fact that
because we were a big group and the actors schedules, it was a bit difficult
for the whole crew to be in a location at one time which caused a few problems
as some people didn’t know what was happening a certain stages in the overall
production of the film. From this experience as the sound designer I have
learnt the importance of foley sounds and making sounds perfect for effect,
also how difficult it is to get a decent dialogue recording when on set. Also I
have learnt the importance of collaborating and communicating with the whole of
a film crew as it is vital to make sure everyone knows what is going on to
create the best possible final product.
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