Documentary Final

Self Evaluation

Strengths 
As a group I think we had many strengths, the main one being our communication. As we had a group chat we were able to be in constant contact. For me, this was really helpful because as soon as an idea popped into my head I was able to share it with my group and get feedback on it, with the others doing the same. This allowed us to be constantly improving and developing the ideas for our documentary, meaning it got better every day.
We also worked really well as a group, making sure each of us was comfortable with everything that was going on. We met up regularly to discuss everything and make sure that everyone was managing their work well. Also, we had a google drive that we all had an input on, allowing us to share all our work and files so we could give feedback to each other, and work together to make improvements on each document. 
Also in the filming process we took it in turns to operate the camera, the boom mic and to direct the scene. I thought this was a good idea because it gave each of us a chance to trial everything and learn what we were best at, or what we most enjoyed.
Personally I feel that my main strength was staying organised throughout and managing the work load. We divided all the pre production paperwork out between each of us to make sure we got it done, and I found this helpful, but I was also able to stay on top of everything I had to do and made sure it was ready for when my group needed it. 
I also found that my strength was in directing some of the shoots, and camera work. I wasn't really as fond of operating the boom mic, but I'm glad I had the opportunity to try it out.   
Challenges / Short comings / Areas for development
Probably our main challenge as a group was making some initial improvements to our ideas, as we had come up with something we thought were so strong initially that we weren't as open to change as we should have been. However, after we started having more discussions as a group, and tutorials with Anne, we began to make changes for the better and then our ideas were consistently flowing and developing for the better.
There were obviously some basic challenges when filming, such as clashing timetables as the housemates had their own coursework to do and different hand ins they had to prepare for. However we could easily overcome this by making slight changes to our timetables and staying in contact with the members of the student house. 
I'd say personally my main area for development was being comfortable with change, because at the beginning I was so set on the idea we had, much like the other members in my group, that I didn't really want to change anything. However after time we began brainstorming more improvements and I got really excited about the development. I think next time I should be more open to change in the more initial stages so the idea can progress quicker.

Summary
Overall I think this documentary project was really successful. I really enjoyed working with my group, we all got on really well and I found that most people were really efficient and worked really hard. I loved the concept for our documentary and the development of our ideas meant we have got more footage than we need, and we love everything we've captured. The filming process was really fun and I really enjoyed working professionally with the camera and the boom mic. I think this project has really helped me develop my individual skills with the equipment, and I would feel confident going straight in and using it again in the future.
We didn't really come across many challenges due to the fact that we were all pretty organised and got things done fairly quickly, this could be due to the fact that we were in constant contact as well.

Group Presentation

We each took on one of the learning objectives to give a response to so we all had an input on the group presentation. Before we finalised anything, we all looked over each response and made some adaptations until we were all happy with it.

LO1 - Engagement with relevant researchfrom a range of reliable sources referencing contemporary and historical film and fine art practice in your reflective and creative journal
addressed by Luca

Lift is a short film about 25 minutes long, it's one man in a lift for about 10 hours a day filming residents that live in the building and capturing small interactions with them in a lift. As the documentary plays out you see a relationship form but more importantly we are drip fed information and personalities with different degrees of pace. Some of the contributors were slow to open up and others were very confident in front of the camera. How you view each person gradually shifts and becomes more positive, as the camera observes their quirks, humourous tales and friendly interactions with one another and the cameraman. The camera man manages to bring out the light in a lot of them and seemingly makes the community come together more in the process.

image from the Lift documentary

Our documentary is all about students coming into a community within their student house, and being put into a situation they’ve never been in before. As a group we thought the observational and participatory way of filming, that Lift incorporates, would fit best for how we would go about our documentary. Because Lift captures this informal and friendly persona from each of the contributors that we can hopefully replicate. With this in mind we stayed in the same house recording anything interesting that came our way, we started initially by stationing ourselves in the communal kitchen. We did this to build a sense of normality for our contributors with us filming, so that hopefully they would not feel like our filming was invading the private space of their rooms.

The difference between the lift film and ours in the sense of questions is that the camera man in the lift was asking total random questions which took the edge off it a bit, making it humorous and entertaining to watch. Our documentary, when it comes to questions, was more of a structured welcoming documentary, it was finding out more about the background of the individual and how they are finding their new housemates, positives and negatives of living in the student village but overall how a small community works together after only a few months of knowing each other.

Also, looking at influences such as Louis Theroux helped us to adapt the approach we had to asking the questions to our participants. Looking at the way he integrates himself into the lives of the people he’s interviewing, we noticed that he uses a very conversational style of interviewing, meaning that the participants feel comfortable around him and discussing their personal lives with him in such detail. Although we wanted to ask leading questions to encourage them to open up, we also wanted to try and keep it very conversational so they felt more comfortable, making it seem more natural and less serious and intense. Making sure our participants felt at ease with the interviews was key, which is why filming in their bedrooms was ideal as it’s somewhere that they would feel most comfortable.

LO2 - Records of conceptual development, evaluation, and considered decision-making in relation to the final project outcome
addressed by George

Initially Ben, Danielle and I spitballed ideas with each other during a class, just so that we would explore the limits to what community can be documented - Luca was not part of the group at this point but was added once we had a better idea in mind. We floated around multiple vague areas, such as sports teams as a community, Farnham heritage buildings that unite a community of locals together or even just how well the strangers of Farnham are connected. Though one idea we developed and pondered on the most was how, as students, we are forced to interact and make communities with strangers from all across the country and globe - first this idea started with focussing on a single course and how relations started and developed over the term. Though this idea was quickly tweaked to focus on the community of the student village, in which the first year students are placed into a completely new environments with a completely new housemates - which in itself is a very intricate dynamic for most.

With this idea came a lot of wishful scenarios and messages. We wanted to document how a community can form or potentially fall apart in such an odd scenario such as this - because in a few completely strangers are situated in a house to replicate a family dynamic so that they can settle into university. From the start we knew this wouldn't be smooth and envisioned potential arguments but before all this we had to decide a crucial element that would dictate the structure - Do we focus on multiple houses or one house in-particular. After multiple group discussions we decided to focus on one house and the relationship from the beginning of moving in till near the end of the first term.

Sadly we had to shelve one idea that focused mainly on personal possessions and use of the private space, in attempts to document individual students transitions from home to dormitories. Instead of this being a fully fledged idea we would incorporate this into potential pick up shots to capture the raw personalities and background of each contributor through the contents and appearance of their rooms alone.

Once we had done all our filming and presented a few of the clips to our tutor we then decided on the structure while overlooking all the clips. Upon doing so we crafted a sort of narrative for the flatmates varying rocky starts, to how they distanced apart and now reuniting for secret santa and Christmas dinner; in attempts to end the whole documentary on a lighter tone and positive things to come in the future for their relations.

LO3 - Evidence of core technical and creative skills demonstrated in the video and production pack
addressed by Ben
When filming and editing the documentary, there were certain techniques that were used to make the finished film easy and enjoyable to watch. One of the techniques used was the way in which we went about filming the housemates. We began by filming them in communal locations such as the hallways and the kitchen so that they could become familiarised with having a camera around the house constantly. We felt as though this approach was a lot more helpful as it meant that when we asked to film the housemates in their rooms then they wouldn’t feel alienated and would hopefully feel a bit more at ease which thankfully they did.

In the editing process of this film, there were a lot different tricks and techniques used to make the tempo of the film stay at a certain pace throughout. There were lots of rapid, quick cuts used at the start of the film; this was to give the viewer a quick introduction to each flatmate and as the film goes on, the shots are longer, giving a better insight to each person.

A technical method that was used whilst editing was overlaying audio tracks. When there was ‘dead air’ in a clip, I would start the audio of the next clip which was then shortly followed by the actual visuals. I did this so that the viewer didn’t have to experience any awkward silences and the viewing experience would be a lot smoother.

There was also a part in the edit in which Ben and Callum are singing a song together and the clip is recorded on an iPhone so we thought that it would be a good idea to download a filter of an old camcorder so that it looked like an old family video and would give off a more sensitive feel to the clip but unfortunately we were unable to find a downloadable effect, this is something that we will have to bear in mind for the future if we want to go for that certain look again.

screenshot of editing process

The structure that we had in mind was very important when editing; I think we did very well to achieve what we originally set out to do. We made it so that the beginning of the documentary is quite fast paced so that you quickly come to terms with who is who and where everyone is from. We then wanted to slow the pace of the whole film down.

LO4 - Evidence of effective communications with the production team and the community during the film-making process
addressed by Danielle
I'd say our group had particularly effective communication throughout the duration of this project. 
We set up a group chat on Facebook from day one, making sure we could keep in touch at all times. This allowed us to constantly be in discussion about ideas we were having, progression with these ideas and allowed us all to have an input on everything.

screenshot showing our group chat on Facebook

We also had several conversations on Skype when we needed to discuss ideas with each other. This was a major help because we were able to brainstorm with each other and sometimes actually having a discussion about something is easier than trying to type it all down.

screenshot of one of our Skype conversations

The use of technology was definitely helpful for our group keeping in contact daily, making sure we could all have input on everything that was going on. It also helped to keep us organised and in touch with each other if anything was going wrong, if anyone was going to be late or couldn't attend to meet or get to a shoot in time. 

Ben also has a group chat with his house, which were the chosen student house we filmed, therefore he was always in contact with them, asking when they were available and keeping up to date with their whereabouts. 

We also got a copy of all of their timetables so we knew when each housemate would be around to be interviewed. This was helpful as a group because it meant all the pressure didn't fall on Ben to be harassing his housemates to find out where they were or when they were going to be available.

a brief example of the timetables of housemates we were filming

With the use of technology we were able to keep in constant contact with everyone involved in the production. This was definitely helpful for us as it kept us organised and on schedule. We were definitely very organised in this sense.

LO5 - Effective time management through teamwork, punctuality, planning and submission of well-executed work.
addressed by Danielle
As a group, we worked really hard to stay punctual and have effective time management throughout the project. 
We quickly came up with a shoot timetable that we wanted to stick to, however after talking to all the students in the house we had to adapt it to work around their own individual timetables. 

the two schedules we came up with, the second one being the one we stuck to

The fact that we were in constant discussion as a group meant that we really worked well as a team, and the planning and submission of our work was really well thought out and done efficiently. 

There was clear teamwork and dedication to the project from the beginning, as myself, Ben and George were brainstorming before we even knew we could be grouped together. With so many ideas we had quickly found enthusiasm for the documentary we had hoped to make. This meant we wanted to make more time to sit down together and discuss ideas, brainstorm as a team and work towards creating a really professional documentary that we could all be proud of. 
Separating the work load also helped us to stay focused and make sure we could meet deadlines. With our shared google drive we would upload all the documents and refine them as a team, making sure we were all happy with the work before it was submitted.

Plan for Group Presentation

Motivation for initial ideas and research

• Started by thinking about everything that would have an interesting outlook on community such as sports teams, clubs, memberships to things
• Development to think about the university as a community, then progressed into thinking about student village and the individual communities that are forced within the student houses
• Thought a lot about the idea of international students being thrown into a community of completely different people but also a completely different country, the struggles they might face to feel like they fit in and belong within this community
• Further development just to think about students living on campus in general, all the difficulties they face fitting in, how well they get on with their housemates, if they feel they fit in here and belong in this community

Synopsis of project

• Main focus on one student house in the student village, interviews with each of the housemates regarding how comfortable they feel at university, do they feel they fit in, what they think of their other housemates and the friendships they’ve made with each, or not at all
• Taking a look at how they interact as a house, things they do together, environments they share

Treatment of project - how you have approached subject matter in terms of camera, sound…

• Thinking about shots for the interviews, keeping them all very professional with a tripod set up
• Capturing all sound with a boom microphone
• Hand held shots when following housemates around the house, capturing interactions in the kitchen and hallways

Group meetings - how the concept developed as a result

• Meetings at least once a week to discuss the development of ideas, letting everyone have an input on the idea
• Use of social media such as a group chat on facebook and skype to keep in touch and provide regular updates to each other on work we were doing or new ideas we might have
• This made it easier for us all to share ideas as soon as we had them, allowing our concept to develop quicker and not solely by one person’s work, we all had regular inputs on everything and were in constant knowledge of what each other were doing

Storyboards

• Instead of storyboards we created a shot list of everything we wanted to capture and in what part of the house, at what time
  
  

Roles of individuals in the group

• Nobody really had a set role, we all tried out working with the boom and the camera, giving everyone an equal opportunity to try everything out and get a feel for what they liked best
• We all planned the shots we wanted and the questions we were going to ask together also, so everyone had an input on all elements of the documentary

Other artists and filmmakers you looked at for inspiration

• The work of Louis Theroux, the documentaries he makes, thinking about the way he asks questions and puts himself into their environment comfortably so they are more likely to open up to him
• Lift documentary

Thoughts and research into techniques used

• We structured our questions to be more conversation leading so it wasn’t as serious and demanding as some interviews can come across, this was something we thought about after looking at the ways in which Louis Theroux asks his questions and how he gets such a comfortable interview with someone, with them opening up to him and talking about more than he’s asked
  
  

Production diary

• Photos of some of the interviews we did, showing the setup of the shots and how we worked in such a small space, being the bedrooms of the housemates
• Timetable of what we shot on each day

The shoot

• All the positives and negatives we faced throughout the shoot
• Gaining of so much footage we can’t include it all
• How well we worked together as a team

Use of post production techniques

Building of the soundtrack and all sound elements

Individual assessment based on own opinions

Final product - strengths

Final product - challenges/shortcomings/areas for development

Summary - what have you learnt from this

Planning for the areas I'm chosen to cover:

LO4 / LO5

LO4 - Evidence of effective communications with the production team and the community during the film-making process

• screenshots from group chat on Facebook, keeping in contact daily to develop new ideas and inform each other of what we were working on
• Skype calls to share work and brainstorm ideas together
• photos of the team working together during the filmmaking process
• timetable of shots we wanted and days we filmed, put together by the group as a whole

LO5 - Effective time management through teamwork, punctuality, planning and submission of well-executed work

• time management developed by constant discussion of what worked best for everyone in the group, days and times everyone was/wasn’t available
• keeping in constant contact with one another made us work more effectively
• punctuality was essential, everyone had good respect for each other so we were always on time and ready, keeping in contact to let the team know if something came up that we couldn’t control/manage
• plans were made together, making sure everyone was aware of what was going on and everyone had input on the work
• everyone was organised, each helping each other out to stay on top of things and meet required deadlines

Post Production

Now that filming is complete, we have to move onto the process of editing all of our footage to produce our final documentary.
Since we interviewed 8 housemates, we aren't really short of interesting footage so it's going to be a challenge to cut down all of our footage to make a 10 minute documentary. 

We wrote transcripts of each of the interviews, then went back through and highlighted aspects from each that fit the topics we wanted to address in the documentary:
 - introductions
 - first impressions and how everyone settled
 - how they are at the end of term
 - how they reflect on their relationships now

extract from the transcript of the interview with Spike

Above shows an extract from then transcript we wrote from the interview with Spike, this shows some highlighted elements which we thought were important. We did this with all of the transcripts to make it easier to find relevant clips we wanted in the edit.
At first I didn't really think writing transcripts would help us that much, but since we've started the main body of editing they've really come in use to make it quicker to find relevant conversations for the edit.

As a group we also need to come up with a group presentation to show everyone our work and progression as a group throughout this entire project. There is a criteria we should address to make sure we cover all the relevant points in our presentation.

criteria for our group presentation

We have divided all of these learning outcomes so we can address them more efficiently, and then we'll each upload our individual ideas to the shared google drive so we can all look over each one and finalise them as a group before adding them to the presentation.

As long as we work efficiently as a group we should be able to stick to the deadlines we have been given, and produce all the work we need to to a high standard ready for our hand in deadline.

Documentary Filming Progresses

Already the beginning of this week has been successful for filming. We managed to get some establishing shots on Monday, and also some shots of the housemates interacting in the kitchen, showing how they are as a community and a house in general.

Tuesday we shot some interviews with two of the housemates which were really successful. The only problem is that they are really long with lots of good discussions, so it will probably be hard to cut them down in the edit since they have lots of interesting conversation that we would want to include in the documentary. 

Today we wanted to film more interviews, however a lot of the housemates have deadlines for tomorrow, therefore we've had to postpone them until tomorrow as we need to respect the timetables of our contributors. 

However, as we had a free day today we managed to capture some more footage of the housemates interacting, reshot Ben's interview as we had some sound problems with the first one and we also had a chance to look over all the footage we've shot so far.

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.

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.

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.

Our responsibilities to the people we film

In today's session with our tutor, Anne, we looked into how we have to understand what issues we may face when dealing with the public and the people we want to film, but also how to be responsible and considerate when filming them in their daily lives.

Elements to be considered are:

• allowing people to have some control over how they will be portrayed
• negotiating the permission to film
• does the presence of the camera affect what is being filmed
• is the camera acknowledged or hidden
• what, who, when and where to shoot all crucial choices and may affect the viewers opinion on those filmed
• how will the contributors be perceived by the public
• how can informed consent be obtained under the influence of drugs, alcohol or mental health issues
• why might people agree to be filmed

Each of these things should be considered beforehand or when filming in order to capture honest footage that wont offend or affect anyone personally. 

One thing I think I would be concerned about would be the presence of the camera. I would want my documentary footage to be natural, and it is an obvious concern that when faced with a camera, people become nervous and can potentially change their behaviour. I would want my contributors to feel comfortable about the camera so they are more willing to be natural and not feel as though they are being filmed particularly. An obvious way to make people feel more comfortable would be to keep the camera at a good distance away from the contributor, so they don't feel as though a camera is being forced upon them, also this way you can capture more of their environment.

In the session we watched a short clip from a documentary called Social Workers, which Anne had worked on. The footage showed two individual mums that were struggling with their own problems whilst trying to raise children, which resulted in them being visited by a social worker who was trying to help them balance their lives so they can keep their children around and manage to cope with raising them. We looked at all the elements listed above in relation to this footage as a mini task to see if we can identify an answer for each one within the footage. It was interesting to watch and analyse as it made it easier to understand why each of these elements are important to consider when filming.

When planning our documentary shooting with my group, I think we should consider all of these points so we can conduct a professional environment that makes our contributors comfortable with being filmed and that they have a clear understanding of our investment in filming them and gaining information about their lives.

Documentary Planning

Before discussing some ideas with the group I have been put into, I decided to do a small brainstorm surrounding some of my own ideas. 

I was mainly thinking about conducting a documentary surrounding living in student village, as although it may seem like such a simple concept, to a lot of people it is a really big deal that they're having to face and might not have been completely comfortable with at first. These were just some of the immediate ideas that came to mind.

I want to develop further into the ideas of personality and how it can affect someones contribution to their flat dynamic, or how they choose to spend their free time at university. It would also be interesting to look at this in regards to whether they get on with the people they live with, whether the like their course, how far away from home they are etc.