Documentary Project: Group Planning

My current working group for the Documentary Film Project consists of George Pryer,  Ben Manning, Luca Balivo and myself.
We sat down together to discuss some further ideas for our documentary and how we want to conduct our filming.

Our idea at the moment is only very general, as we still need to refine some points in order to begin filming, however we have a lot of small niche plans under one big idea. We know that we want to capture life in the student village, how people are dealing with living in halls not only away from home, but with lots of other students who they didn't necessarily know before they moved in. We also want to capture each individual's personality and how this might affect their house's dynamic as a whole. Community is a key term that we are inspired by when planning our documentary.
We have also thought about the theme of enthusiasm about university as a whole, and how that influences the way people are choosing to live, such as being more enthusiastic influencing you to have a better connection with your flatmates, and more dedication to your course.
We want our documentary to be more lighthearted, which will not only make our contributors feel more at ease, but will convey our message a lot better than being totally structured and serious.

The ideas we discussed today are as follows:

      1. Meet the contributors and hang out with them to gain trust and familiarity, also developing their comfort around the camera

This is a really important point as we want our contributors to feel comfortable in their own home and also around the camera so we can capture really natural footage of their environment and the way they act within it.

      2.  Exploring flat dynamic 

We discussed the idea of drawing attention to the flat dynamic, and how well people are living together. This can even be noticed just by observing the environment sometimes, such as people sharing things in the kitchen. Personally, I think the flat dynamic can really tell a lot about the people that live together, as we are all thrown into this environment and everyone deals with it differently according to their personality.

      3.  Make sure consent is fully understood

Making the contributors feel comfortable is key. Giving them the understanding that they control what is being filmed and they have every opportunity to opt out is important, as some people might feel very uncomfortable or not want to continue with being filmed. We plan to have an introduction before we start filming to make sure the formalities are discussed and let people know what we want to film and what to expect to avoid people feeling uncomfortable. We also want to film inside some peoples personal space, being their bedrooms, so we need to get consent from them that they won't mind that footage being shot.

      4.  Filming throughout the day

We don't want to just film consistently at one regular time of day, as if we can have some variation we  have more of an opportunity to capture different interactions that occur at different times, such as everyone eating dinner together contrasting with an early start to the day, making breakfast etc. 

      5.  Continuous filming

Leaving the camera rolling throughout general interactions might capture something we didn't expect to gain footage of, such as someone receiving a phone call from another housemate, or someone knocking at the door. This can also show a different side to someones personality when they react to different people or different situations.

      6.  Having an agenda

This will not only keep us organised, but also make the contributors more comfortable with what is being filmed and when to expect us.