2000 word Drama and Documentary Evaluation - Semester 2

During this semester, we had the opportunity to produce both a five minute documentary and a five minute drama. I have found this module the most enjoyable and interesting to explore out of the ones studied this year, as I have enjoyed the experimental side to creating such different types of film and having such open briefs.

The documentary brief required getting into groups of six and planning then producing a documentary film with the theme ‘Liverpool Stories’. The brief outlined a requirement to work with students that had previously not collaborated with one another, which although was new experience, it was one which I found to be advantageous. I found being put in a position of sharing creative ideas and inspirations a good way to get to know each other.  I was assigned the role of Producer, which I was pleased with as I enjoy the organising and initial creating of a concept side to filmmaking. Documentary film is also where my main interest lies, so taking on this producing role was an enjoyable experience that I learnt a lot from. The group worked well together and I think this was partially due to the fact that no member of the group lost interest in the project and we all contributed ideas.  This reflected during the production days when we would discover new opportunities whilst on location. I think communication and early organisation were the main strengths of this group, as everyone was supportive, especially at times when it felt like there was a lot of responsibility for me to take on as producer. I think the fact that we contacted potential contributors early on and did a lot of early research was vital to how our production days ran in Liverpool and the final outcome. We initially had two ideas; a film documenting the story of The Vinyl Emporium, whose entire record collection was being sold on eBay and a film exploring the celebratory side to the Liverpool street art culture. With the record idea, gaining access to a location was a huge issue, as the store had recently closed down.  For this reason, we decided to develop the celebratory Street Art idea. Personally, I still prefer something more about the record store concept, as I feel that it is a story that really could be explored through film and would be more unique than a street art film. However, being the only member to think this and understanding the importance of access issues, I was happy to work towards the other idea.

One of the challenges of the producing role was initially approaching contributors. Previously when I have been involved with documentaries, I have not been in a Producing role so not been directly responsible for starting this. I got around this by planning how I would best approach this before acting upon it, which was to firstly research a few key street artists and organisations, and then contact only these few by email, as opposed to sending out lots of the same general email to many places. I was unsure whether to expect any response or interest, so was pleased to hear back from an organisation within a few days asking them to call them for a chat about the project. From this first phone call onwards, it led into our production coming together.

When it came to being in Liverpool, the first day felt a bit vague but did mean we were able to get to know the city ourselves which felt necessary. The interviews went very well and we ended up getting a lot more out of them than we originally expected to. Discovering that our contributors knew each other made our film feel like it captured a shared genuine passion for our subject matter through a community of people, which is an experience that I feel pleased to have caught on film. I enjoy the sense of unpredictability that comes with documentary and that opportunities can arise whilst on location which the film can end up being adapted towards.

In terms of the final documentary, I think it definitely communicates the subject matter from the celebratory angle that we planned to take, however personally I would have preferred a slower moving film.  Having a lot of interview footage from passionate contributors meant that it was a shame that the brief restricted the film to just five minutes. I also feel that we could have put more focus on holding close up shots of items which could have slowed the film down, letting the viewer have time to take it in.

Since this, I have noticed I appreciate the amount of detailed street art around Sheffield, which has originated from being involved with creating this documentary and learning from our contributors. Our contributors have also offered us the opportunity for a screening of the film during the International Festival for Business this year, which we are looking forward to creating a longer version for.

 

The second project was a five minute drama film conveying the theme of ‘journey’. This brief excited me as the theme of journey can be interpreted in so many different ways, which gave us the chance to really explore our creativity. I agreed to take on the role of sound recordist, which I did not feel too confident with, but wanted to challenge myself for my final project of the year. Sound design is an area to filmmaking that I hadn’t considered in so much depth before university, but that I have found can really add to the effectiveness of a production. I wanted to feel more confident with approaching the technical side to this film, as I have always had more of an interest to the creative side of coming up with and developing concepts and scriptwriting. I wanted to use the last production process of first year as an opportunity to try out new things.

Oliver and I choosing to work together again within a larger formed group was a decision that took time to make, however after talking to tutors about our concerns and trying to form separate groups on several occasions, we decided for the project’s sake in terms of the timing schedule, that it would be beneficial to stay together. We joined a group with Sarah, Adam, Rose and Louise and began developing a concept. The group both worked and got on well together and I think one of our main strengths was that we were organised enough, committed to and all passionate about the project from the beginning. This reflected throughout our production process, as it did not feel like the film was rushed or unachievable within the given amount of time. We also compromised well, particularly when working out a schedule to arrange assistant roles for when members of the group were unavailable.  

An early established aim for our film was to keep it simple. Our idea explores the fear agoraphobia, through the use of a single character, no dialogue and one space.  Although we knew this would be a challenge, the aim was to experiment with it. We also liked the no dialogue aspect to the film as it was a different way to approach how we have seen others explore fear as a concept. An early identified issue for us was the location, as this was an important element to our film. The considered possibility initially was Oliver’s house, which was not ideal as it meant travelling to Halifax when we felt more could be achieved and any problems dealt with more conveniently if it was a location based in Sheffield.  After discussing this with Lee, he offered us access to a location within Sheffield, and after a visit to this we agreed that this would be a more practical option and are all grateful for the offer of this. The process of working with actors was new to us, however we were lucky that we found our actor early on and were organised enough to manage our time around finding the right person. Through this experience, I have learnt the importance of getting to know the created character as much as the actor does, so that there is a joint understanding of the script and character build between the actor and filmmaker(s).

Although we were organised beforehand, during the actual shooting days there were times when we spent a long time working out where to position ourselves and I was conscious that we could be using this time to work with our actor and should have planned this out in advance. Luckily our actor had a lot of time, however if I was to approach a similar situation in the future I would definitely plan this out earlier, as this may not be the case. Other than this, there were many strengths to our group, which I became particularly aware of when facing technical issues with a faulty zoom recorder. I was grateful that the other group members were so patient and understanding as I tried to work around this. We were all keen to create a film we would be proud of as our last of first year, and we all worked collaboratively on developing our concept and inputting creative ideas equally.

With the finished film, I think we have achieved visually showing our concept in the way that we originally intended.  I am pleased with this, as I knew that the subject matter of the film was quite sensitive and that it was the way that we portrayed the fear visually that the film’s effectiveness would depend on.  Having always wanted to create a film about mental health, but being unsure how to approach this in a different way to how it has been seen many times before, I am pleased with the final outcome and the way in which we approached this. In particular as sound recordist, I discovered that a lot can be achieved with not just manipulating sound but also recording natural sounds from elsewhere to the filmed location in order to create a character’s headspace through sound alone. I found the process of this really interesting, and it has inspired me towards incorporating this technique into other film projects in the future. I also think that our themes of isolation and restriction by fear came across well by our choice to not ever place the camera in a position that would make the viewers aware of the size of the full room.  Within the editing stage, I think we could have collaborated further as a full group at an earlier point than we did. Although some group members did not seem interested in attending to review the edit progress, the rest of us knew the importance of all of us sitting down as a group and the editing being a collaborative process.  However, during the last week of editing the full group did all come together and review the footage, which was appreciated  as it meant we ended the project on a positive note.

Comparing the documentary and drama projects, I have discovered just how much content can be fit into five minutes worth of film, both visually as well as through audio. I also found groups of six to be more advantageous with the drama film than documentary.  In comparison to the producing role where I felt I learnt a lot more about the practicality side to filmmaking, with sound recording I feel that I learnt a lot more about the technical side.  I am pleased that I chose two very separate job roles and managed to learn a lot by challenging myself in trying out new areas.  I have preferred the process of putting a documentary together, however in terms of comparing the final films I am much happier with the outcome of our drama. I have really enjoyed the practice module throughout the year and have learnt a lot creatively as well as technically and personally to take forward to my second year.

Final Sound adjustments and gaining feedback

Today when watching our final film back, we discovered some slight tweaks with the structure of the sound that could be made in order to build upon the connection with the audience from the character's perspective, which is something we have aimed to achieve throughout this project. Oliver and I stayed in the edit suite for a while to try and work on these, before showing the rest of the group the updated edit and gaining any feedback.
 The group are pleased with these changes, and we have discovered that although they are only very minor changes, they do make a difference to the atmospheric feel to the film.  One of the most effective slight changes that we made was the choice to include a few seconds of complete silence as the character's hand moves towards the door before it freezes. Another one of these is when halfway during the panic attack sequence we chose to take out the ringing, almost white noise like sound, and just keep in the sound of the character crying and hold this for a few seconds, before returning to the ringing noise.

Before putting the finished film onto DVD, we asked some of the other course members in the edit suite to have a watch through to see  how our film was interpreted and if the main ideas that we wanted to get across were communicated. We got some interesting feedback from this - it seems that people understand the agoraphobia narrative, which is positive, and that the theme 'journey' that is outlined on the brief can be understood in a number of ways, such as a journey of progression, an interruption or change to an everyday journey and an emotional journey exploring a fear in depth, which is what we were aiming to achieve. We also found that people were looking into features of the background production design to search for clues about the character and their history, which is another aspect to the film that we spent a lot of time developing and wanted the viewer to work the character out for themselves, leaving them to discover the narrative and back story to our film without us directing them to think in a particular way through the use of dialogue or music.

Production Folder - Organising files and Sound Logging sheets with notes

Organising the sound files

 During the first week of Easter, I re listened to all of the sound files and spent some time renaming and organising them into folders to make the sound edit a lot easier. This was quite a difficult task, as some of the sound recordings from the first day of filming were hard to recognise without viewing the footage alongside them. This was mainly a difficult task to complete with sounds of slight movement which went alongside shots such as the picking up of the tie and viewing of the dropped photograph.

This was an issue that I picked up on after listening to the sound collected on the first day when I got back to Sheffield. Realising this early on, it did mean that on the second day of production, I was able to make sure to record each clip slightly earlier than the camera, in order to record myself saying a shot description for each scene and take I was about to film.

Sound Logging with notes

After listening through and organising all of the sound files into folders, I created the following sound table, and also renamed all of the best takes to make it an easier job for Adam when it comes to designing the sound in the final edit.

Filming week - Day 3 - 10/04/2014

After a long day of filming yesterday, we expected today to take a similar amount of time, but actually found that because we were aware of the issues that we did face yesterday that took up a lot of our time, we were able to act upon these and make today's shoot both productive but also a much shorter production day which left us with plenty of time to gather extra cutaways, close ups and atmos. sound recordings.

One of the main scenes that we focused on filming today was the panic scene, which was both quite difficult to film, as well as a learning experience. Because of his past experience, as well as practicing of getting into character during the weeks in between giving him a script and the filming, Jonathon did a great job at acting this out. We managed to get a close up shot with Jonathon in the exact center, which was difficult to film as he did end up getting quite emotional, which was productive for the content of the film but which did get to the stage at one point when we were unsure whether to intervene and cut the filming or not. Thankfully Jonathon was alright and I think we managed to time the cut call of the scene and deal with this well.

The rest of the filming was loosely based on the first half of the script, which mostly shows the beginning of a new day for George (our character), which is aimed at introducing the audience to him and what his usual routine and daily journey consists of. However, whilst we were on location and with Jonathon, who would sometimes act out certain scenes in a particular way that might not have necessarily have been firmly  scripted, we started to discover ideas for new shots and sounds, and began experimenting with these in different ways. This meant that it gave Sarah (visual editor) and Adam (Sound editor) a wider range and collection of footage to work with in the edit and to experiment with in terms of exploring different ways of showing the character's progressive journey narrative. This also ensured that we made best use of the time and space made available to us during this week.

I think that in terms of group work, the six of us have really managed to work well and share ideas, whilst also being understanding and patient in helping each other out with any technical or creative issues that we faced. Jonathon has also been great to work with, as he has been patient with us when we have faced issues, but we also feel that we have learnt a lot about our character from him during the filmmaking process, and it helped a lot that he knew the script so well in advance of the shoot and has also been contributing ideas to further show the character's struggles and explore their fear throughout the production process.

Personal job role - Sound Recordist

Because of yesterday's issue with the zoom sound recorder, I bought two spare packets of batteries during the morning, as I was aware the same issue could occur today and I wanted to make sure this didn't cause too much of a disturbance to the filming and progressing of the script. As sound recordist, the issue was a bit frustrating and felt difficult to get around at times, particularly during the panic filled scene. This was because we knew that we wanted to get as few takes of this as possible, as it was the most difficult scene for Jonathon and I needed to get the balance right between not wanting to have to interrupt this by mentioning the issue, but also not wanting to risk not getting clear enough audio from this scene. I changed the batteries and kept turning the zoom off during the times when Rose was setting up the camera and Jonathon was getting into character, before Oliver marked the scene, which luckily did work out as a way of getting around this issue for this particular scene.
Another issue during this scene that we faced was deciding where each member of the production crew should be positioned during this, as we were aware that it was not going to be an easy scene to film, both from our perspective as well as Jonathon's. For the over the shoulder and point of view shots of the door, we decided lighting equipment would be required due to the positioning of the door and where the natural lighting lay within the room. This meant that Sarah and Adam were aiming the reflector, whilst Louise was operating the light from behind Jonathon. Rose and Oliver positioned the camera directly over Jonathon's shoulder, whilst I worked out how best to position the microphone in order to pick up the closest sounds as possible. This meant that I ended up being positioned underneath the tripod, in order to collect as many close up details included within the sound during this scene. This worked well and was a good arrangement, however we also managed to get a close up shot from the other side of the door, with Jonathon positioned centrally as the fear starts to build in his face, which we feel will come across more strongly in the edit and connect with our viewers more.

At the end of today's shoot, we tidied up the room and made sure that everything was back to the way it was prior to our arrival on Monday, before thanking the staff and Jonathon. Transporting all of the equipment back to Oliver's accommodation was a concern that we had, as we realised that we had all of the props that formed part of the room's set design that we had left at the location yesterday, on top of all of the lighting, tracks and sound equipment. To make it cheaper for us, we also only ordered one six seater taxi, which in hindsight probably wasn't the best option, as although we did manage it was quite a difficult journey as we almost didn't get all of the equipment to fit in with us.

We arranged to keep in contact over the Easter holidays, and the three of us that are back in Sheffield for the second week (Sarah, Oliver and I) have organised to meet up to review the footage and create a rough visual and sound edit structure during this time.

Filming Week - Day 2 - 09/04/2014

Today was our first full day of filming and working with Jonathon. Although it was much a longer day than we had originally planned, it went really well and this meant that we managed to gather a lot  more footage than we originally planned and expected, as we came up with further ideas and shots to gather on the day.

When we first arrived at Wood Hill Grange, we all signed in and made sure staff were aware of our filming and alright with this. We put the following sign up on both the room's door that we were filming in, as well as the corridor.

























We decided to manage our time by splitting the group into two smaller groups; Louise (Producer), Sarah (Editor) and Adam (Sound Editor), who would stay inside and set up the lighting and camera equipment for the indoor scenes, whilst Oliver (Director), Rose (Camera Operator) and I (Sound Recordist) went to a wooded area with Jonathon (actor) in order to gather a few shots outside.

We started off gathering some outdoor shots and sound recordings, which we did face some issues with. Originally, our idea was to combine the outdoor and indoor shots, to create a representation of the character's mind set by bringing the outdoors inside of the room. We planned to do this by connecting certain shots, such as the close up of the character's feet on the floor inside, with outdoor shots which would be the same shot type but from an outdoor, wooded location. However, when we came to film this, we realised it was going to be quite difficult to recreate the exact shot again and match this up within the edit, without it having moved, even if slightly. We decided to collect all of these shots anyway whilst we have access to a location as well as our actor, so that we have more than enough to work with within the edit, and plan to discuss this further after reviewing the footage both after today's shoot and also when we come to edit the final film. We did manage to gather some further outdoor sound recordings in this location, however the recordings that we gathered from the other outdoor location earlier this week seem to be clearer as there was a road quite nearby, which did cause some interference at this location.

The indoor scenes worked really well today, as did having a group of six members for this project. Sarah, Adam and Louise helped us out as we filmed and recorded, by holding wires and operating the lighting equipment. The shoot didn't feel too crowded at any time either, which is something we thought may occur when originally planning how to arrange each member of the group before we began filming at the location. There always seemed something for everyone to be doing, whether this was redesigning the set of the room, reviewing footage and contributing opinions/further ideas for this or holding the reflector and operating lighting equipment. The group has been working really well together, and when we have faced problems everyone has been patient and understanding in trying to help to deal with these as soon as possible and without too much interruption to the filming. Reviewing the footage throughout the day helped with this, as one of our main issues was continuity, and keeping this throughout our film, which at times was quite difficult as we were moving features of the room around as part of our narrative, so needed to get the right balance between doing this purposefully and the audience understanding it and not mistaking it for a continuity error. Working with Jonathon has also been an enjoyable experience, as up until this project I haven't really had the opportunity to work with professional actors before, and feel that a lot has been learnt from working with him, whilst he also was asking us about the filmmaking process as the day and film progressed.
We finished the day off by thanking Jonathon, before tidying the room up, in preparation for filming the first half of the script tomorrow.

 

Sound Recording

Throughout today, I have noticed there has been an issue with the zoom sound recorder, in that the battery is draining really quickly, which meant that I had to change the batteries every few shots. At first, I found this quite a difficult issue to deal with, as I wanted to get a good balance between not interrupting Jonathon when he was acting and Rose whilst she was filming, but still make them aware of the problem. This did mean that we had to do quite a few extra takes, however the group were really accepting of this and we got around the problem by taking a few extra breaks than we had planned to see if we could fix the issue, and I also turned the zoom off after every scene to try and see if this would save the battery.

 

Production Folder - Outdoor Location and Sound Files

For the first half of our script, we wanted to experiment with bringing sounds from the outside into the room space, to see if this would work in creating the build up of fear that we want the audience to connect with when being introduced to our character. After designing the set of the room today, Oliver and I went to a wooded area that we found just off Ecclesall Road to gather some clear sound recordings for this. We also found an area with a skip within this, which we used to our advantage by creating different sounds with this, as well as some railings next to it. On top of gathering the sounds that we required, I used this time to experiment with sound recording and create some further tests and recordings, to familiarise myself with the options that were available to us and to get used to gaining clear sound recordings. We managed to collect a wide range of recordings, and after this I felt a lot more comfortable with taking on the role of sound recordist within our film tomorrow and the rest of this week.



 Here are a few of the outdoor sound recordings that I gathered at this location:

 

Filming Week - Day 1 - 07/04/2014

Set Design

We used today to set up the location, as our film is being shot entirely within a single room, therefore everything within it needs to be carefully placed and suggest something about our character.

After arriving at location, we all signed in and introduced ourselves to the staff and informed them of our plans for the day. We went to the room that we are filming in on Wednesday and Thursday of this week, and spent some time viewing the room as it was already set out, before working out where to start with the rearrangements. We decided that we would not need to use the bathroom, as we really wanted to keep the film focused all within the one space of the room. We decided to use the bathroom as storage space for all of the items we had brought to fill the room with before we started on progressively building up the set, as well as any items that were previously within the room that we did not need.

We discussed the script as a group, and in terms of blocking we worked out that the second part of the script will be the most convenient to shoot first (whilst the room is full and set up like a long lived in space), followed by the first half of the script (when the room is shown to be empty).

The last thing that we film on Wednesday will be the progression scene - from the lived in, messy room shot, we will spent a lot of time very gradually taking away and replacing elements of the set (some hardly noticeable), in order to create the impression of the passing of time. Within the editing, this can be adapted and experimented with, and can be reversed to show the room getting very gradually messier, then maybe tidier as more and more time passes.


Empty Room Shot Layout


















Perception of Time Shot Layout -

Within this scene, elements of the room slowly begin to change. With this, we are aiming to experiment with the viewer's perception of time; we would like to show the passing of time, but also on a narrative level make the viewer begin to pick up on the fact that the character has not left this room in some time.

Visually showing the passing of time

 
 

Character connection with the outside world

The colour red will be used within our film as a symbol/recurring motif, relating to the way in which our agoraphobic character tries to connect with the outside world. There are a few subtle ways in which this will be used throughout, such as the red plant pot (the plant being another form of connection between the character bringing the outside in) and the more noticeable change to a red tie in costume. The one main connection that our character makes is when they write down (with a red pencil) in a filled diary at the same time every day what happens at a fixed spot that they look at repetitively outside of their window.

The below shot can in some ways be used to sum up our film within a single image; it will be the only area of the room that stays exactly the same throughout, even when the empty to messy transformation scene takes place - to show the importance of this one obsessive activity that our character takes part in as part of their structured, daily routine.