Documentary Filming Begins

This week we begin filming for our documentary. We have come up with a schedule for the week to keep us on track and professional, aiming to get every shot we want so when we are in editing we have a lot of footage to use to bring our documentary together.

Schedule:

Monday - exterior shots of house, communal filming to catch housemates interacting

Tuesday - shots of housemates rooms to get their personalities, interview two housemates

Wednesday - (main filming day) film four interviews, communal shots in the kitchen, come back in the evening to catch meal time

Thursday - interview final two housemates, film housemates just doing their thing in their rooms to capture their personalities

Friday - general housemate interactions, review footage to make sure we have all shots that we want

Although we have a schedule of what we want to film, it is very open to change due to the fact that some housemates are only available on certain days and therefore we have to respect this and work around their own timetables.

Even though we may have some adjustments to our timetable, I'm sure we'll be able to get everything shot that we want to, and we'll have enough footage to play around with in the edit.

Final Portrait Project Image

Final Portrait

It was difficult for me to choose a final image, as I was stuck between two options, which I've displayed below. I think both of them are really strong images, and they stood out to me amongst all the photographs I took for this project. I also think they really show development from where I was at the beginning, not really knowing how I wanted to compose the image, or what colour filters I really wanted to use.

I liked both of these photographs in different ways. I used a different colour filter for each, so I couldn't really compare the colours, however I did prefer the brightness of the pink. I loved how close up the second image was, I think it made it feel really personal and somewhat intimate, having the focus just on my eyes. The only thing I would change about the second image is the placement of my head, as I'm not sure that I like how its off to one side, with only negative space on one side of my face.

However, I eventually made the decision to go with the top image, as I feel it shows more emotion through the smile and the slight covering of the face. I also like the central placement of my face, with the space around it not drawing any attention away from the main focus. I also think that the pink filter really compliments the image, and its also really bright which makes my photograph different. It was really fun to be able to use the colour filters and the multi image lens to manipulate my photograph, as we weren't allowed to edit them at all.

Final Portrait Image

1/160

F 3.5

ISO 1600

I am really pleased with my final image. I've managed to create something original with the multi image lens and the colour filters on the flash. I'm also really pleased with the composition of this image and how it has turned out overall. 

My main inspiration was Emily Knecht in the end, as I loved her self portraits and wanted to do something similar with my own spin on it, hence why I am smiling / laughing in my portrait, as I wanted it to be something positive.

I'm pleased that I went with the idea of self portraiture, thinking about intimacy and displaying personality and identity. This image is really expressive, although if I could change one thing I think I'd rethink the idea of intimacy within expression, and work on really capturing that in a self portrait.

Overall, I am really pleased with the research and work I have done for this project, and I'm satisfied with my final image too.

Documentary Discussions

As our documentary group, we met and had a meeting with Anne about the progression of our ideas. We discussed our plans to move forward and how we want to develop as a group.
After the meeting we went to the library to do some more work on the documentation that we have to fill out, and we wanted to do some further planning.

We set up a google drive so we could all share our ideas and make them accessible to each other. The first thing we did was come up with a to do list, of all the things we need to work on. The main things we had to do was sort out what documents we need to fill out before we start filming.

Documents needed before filming:

• Synopsis
• Treatment into characters
• What kind of documentary is it (style)
• Short list or storyboard
• Checklist
• Filming schedule
• Risk assessment

Schedule a professional day (8hrs)

Then, we came up with a list of questions that we would ask when we interview our contributors:

1. Where are you from?
2. What course do you do?
3. How are you finding university life so far?
4. Do you see yourself living with anyone in your dorm next year?
5. What was your first impression of your housemates in your first week here?
6. How have your impressions on your housemates changed over the term?
7. Have there been any issues revolving the kitchen space?
8. How did you react to Callum’s incident?
9. What is your relationship like with the people on your course?
10. Is that also reflected in your relationship to your flatmates?
11. Have you been home yet since moving to uni? If so how did you feel being away from uni?
12. Did you meet or get to know your housemates before moving in together?
13. Do you go out drinking together? Or go out together in general?
14. Did you bring anything with you to remind you of home?
15. Describe yourself with one sentence/word? (We could then possibly ask the other housemates to do the same with each other and gather how differently they see each other)
16. Do you feel at home here? Or what have you done to make yourself feel more comfortable?
17. Are you close with any of your housemates?
18. Have there been any arguments at all?
19. Have you thought about cooking for each other at all?
20. Are your housemates helpful at all?
21. Would you ever go on holiday with any of your housemates?
22. How often do you eat together? (If not much is it due to time or relations)
23. Have you all been out to the SU at all?
24. Are you a squad?
25. Do you know what your housemates favourite (blank) is?
26. How would you describe the way you all get along?

We didn't want the questions to be too formal, as we want more of a conversational interview. These aren't set in stone since we want to go for a conversation, so they won't be asked as formally, simply just slipped into the conversation. Also, if someone begins to talk about something interesting, we may begin to question them more on that. Therefore these questions are simply a guideline to the sort of things we want to find out from the people we are filming.

Shoot 2

I've decided that I want to focus on self portraits, after being inspired by the work of Emily Knecht. I still want to stick with my colour filters, using mainly the orange and the pink, as I highlighted in my last shoot that I thought those were the most effective colours.

In this shoot I used a new lens on my camera, a multi image filter lens. It divides your lens into three, allowing you to capture insanely cool pictures with an effect you would usually apply during the editing process of an image.

The images above show what effect the lens has on the image. I think the effect it creates is really interesting and makes my portraits really original. I also still really like these two colour filters.

These two images, shown above, are my two favourites out of 36 that I took for this shoot. I really like them because of the placement that the image is repeated at. The colour of the images is also really bold, but each individual shade still stands out.

Below are the rest of the images from the shoot:

Within this shoot, I was still experimenting with the lens and the composition as I tried different close ups and extreme close ups. From this shoot I have come to some final decisions; I want to use the pink and orange colour filters and I want to use my multi image lens for my portraits. Now I need to conduct a final shoot to take some images that I really like and want to use as a final piece.

Shoot 1

This was the first shoot I did combining the essence of colour filters and actual models. I was able to take some images that I am proud of, however out of the shoot of 114 images, I am not pleased with a lot of them.

This was one of the first candid shots I took, with an orange filter. I like it because the photo isn't posed, its natural and you can clearly see that. I made sure that I had a composition I liked before I took the photo. I think because the orange filter is so strong, it makes the image more interesting.

I then decided that I want to focus on close ups of the face, to bring in that intimacy. I loved using the orange and pink filters as they gave me the strongest colours on the image. I really like this image because once again it wasn't set up, it was entirely natural.

I added this image to show the contrast between the filters. The image above was taken using the blue filter. Although I like this image in its own way, I don't really like how it makes the image look cold in comparison to the pink image, which is more feminine and bright. I feel as though this filter doesn't suit this image, but could work with a different subject.

I then attempted to take some self portraits using the two filters I liked the most. I much prefer the extreme close up, as I think it forces the viewer to interact with the image. This is something I'd like to do more of. I feel like extreme close ups can be a good way to also capture identity, as you can really capture the detail in someones face or the marks on their skin, piercings, hair, makeup etc.

The pink and orange filters were definitely my favourite.

Here are some more images I took and liked:

Here are some images I took, and I didn't like: