CDM 301
Documentary Producing
What is the brief for CDM 301?:
For CDM 301, we have been asked to make a short portrait documentary about a place or a person and this unit links to the previous unit, where we had to do our pitches. If you want to have a look at my brief for the pitch, go to CDM 304 where I have everything there. For the production of our portrait documentaries, they must be between 2 and 5 minutes and we must stick to the genre of non-fiction, so we will be actually documenting an actual story of someone or some place and in this case we could film someone who has faced a big challenge in their life and that they would talk about how they have overcome that.
Unlike our other units, this one is completely individual and all of our pre-production, production and post-production will all be completed on our own. This was the same for the pitching, but since these units are linked, it doesn't feel like two big tasks and they instead follow on from each other. In addition to this, we must explain the process of filming and how we collect archive/stock footage that is relevant to our idea and how we shot our b-roll shots. If there was anything that we had to change at the last minute is also something that the brief mentions as for example, we could have thought of a new idea or that there is something that we don't like and we would rather modify it.
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This unit follows on from CDM 304 and this is because we need to implement all of our ideas from that unit into this one because this is the production stage of the documentary and since we have an idea in place, it's time to start preparation for it and how we will go about filming it.
Following on from the previous unit 304. Summary. Section 1.1:
How did I produce my Pitches:
Summary of both elevator pitches:
Includes mind maps as well
Elevator Pitch:
For an elevator pitch, you have 3 minutes to describe what your ideas are, how you are going to document it and why you need investors for the project. When I was doing my elevator pitch, I conveyed that my 2 ideas were filming someone who was in the War and filming my brother's work. However, when the pitch finished, those ideas weren't that confident with me as I felt that the ideas weren't going to work that well or they wouldn't be interesting enough for a documentary. So, that is where the actual pitch comes in as I had made my mind up of what to document by then. The way in which I planned this pitch was simply by practising conveying my pitch to someone in my group and this actually helped a lot as I was then more prepared when it came to the elevator pitch. Since the elevator pitch isn't as important as the actual 10 minute pitch, it allowed me to know what to expect.
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Going back to my 2 ideas for the elevator pitch, neither of these ideas were actually used for my final idea as I couldn't proceed with filming at my brother's work place and the person that was in the War was an idea that I thought that I wouldn't be confident on. Overall, my final idea that was used in the 10 minute pitch was so much better as I was confident in it and I could easily film it.
10 minute Pitch:
For my final idea, I want to go and document my Dad as he is a spray painter, in which he does metal spraying. This is a great idea for my pitch, due to the availability of B-roll shots, which work really well in a documentary portrait. For example, I could easily get some shots of my Dad spraying different things and combining those shots together, so when editing the footage: I have lots of spraying shots, interview footage etc. When it comes to the interview part of the documentary, I will film him at home, rather than him at work as it's noisy and you wouldn't be able to hear him. However, filming the b-roll shots at work wouldn't be a problem and they aren't that difficult to film.
Mood-Board:
Back to CDM 301.....
How will I interview my subject?:
Interviews require a lot of setting up and getting to know and chat with your interviewee, so that you can create questions and generally be able to have a conversation to unravel more from the subject. Additionally, you would want to not interrupt the interviewee until a few seconds have passed and then you could even carry on the conversation with a good response that links to the answer of the person that you are questioning.
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Having a relevant background and prop positioning is also key to having a good interview set up as you would want the viewers to gather that what they are watching is the title and topic of the video. You wouldn't want random props in the background that wouldn't link to the idea of your interview, because the audience would get confused. Also, keeping the subject engaged means that you can carry on the interview, without the passion dying down, but this involves a pre-hand chat with your interviewee about the idea and any information relevant to it.
Pre-Production:
Kit List:
My Kit List for this unit is a little different as for an interview, lighting and an attachment mic is kind off needed as for one a well lit background helps to focus the camera on the subject and eliminate shadows. Secondly, the attachment mic or a boom mic would be needed to combat unnecessary sounds that you might hear, such as the wind or a dog barking.
Recce:
A recce is needed for every shoot and in this case, I noted down where the sockets are for charging things and places in the area for specific b-roll shots and if the weather would affect the shoot.
Risk Assessment:
Risk Assessments are just as before but some more have been added since the work place has a lot of possible dangers, so I made sure to highlight if it was relevant for my scenario or not and I am generally just sticking to a few locations for my interview and B-roll.
Shot List:
For this portrait documentary I have included a shot list, especially for B-roll shots as they would consist of a few different shot types and framing and interviewee angles. In the notes, I mentioned the duration of each shot, just so I can get an idea on how to pace my documentary and not make it too long or too short. This will definitely help with organising.
Production Schedule:
My production schedule tells you basically what days I will be filming and if that is either a day for interview or a day for B-roll. Equipment/Kit will all be needed for each day and lighting would probably include a key light and a fill light.
Shooting Script:
Shooting scripts are for when you need to organise your shot list as I have two locations to go to. So, this allows me to figure out the most efficient order in which I shoot each shot. For example, Interview shots are presented out as being the first few to shoot, whereas B-roll shots are the last few shots as that is where I will go to the workplace. In terms of the sound associated with each shot, I will be using an attachment mic for focusing the sound on the interviewee and my voice won't be recorded.
Production:
Write-Up:
The first thing I done when i got to the location, was set up the camera and I made sure that all of the camera settings were correct for the shoot as the lighting in the room was over exposed, so when I brought down the exposure levels, I had the look I wanted.
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Secondly, I was getting prepared ready for the interview questions, so I gave my Dad the script and I let him read it and prepare himself for the next part which was checking if he was able to be filmed as he had a job to do. This wasn't a problem as it turned out because I was able to film the b-roll shots of him spray painting rather than waiting a while. Basically, what I would do was film part of the b-roll, then go upstairs to set my laptop up with Premier Pro open ready for some editing and go bak down to get even more b-roll.
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Thirdly, filming the interview scene was an absolute breeze as my Dad managed to remember everything from the script and he had no issues in responding to my questions, which would help prolong the footage, so that I could get every bit of detail as possible from him. Whilst filming the interview scene, I remembered that I need to take care of the audio, because I didn't have any attachment mics because they were booked out as well as the lighting.
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Finally, I wrapped up the footage and sent it all to my laptop, ready for the full editing process and I managed to get quite a lot of editing done and I even managed to mix some b-roll in with it. I then let my Dad carry on with his job and I started to pack up equipment ready for leaving.
My 5 Favourite Shots: Behind The Scenes
1.) For my first favourite shot, I have went with the behind the spray booth doors shot as it looks unique as it is slightly blurry and messy but this mess is from the spraying, so it matches the aspect of spraying and how it can get everywhere. Also, this shot looks great as well, due to it showing that I am filming from a spot other than my Dad, so it shows a different point of view from my Dad.
2.) Another b-roll shot that I really like is this one of my Dad spray painting a door because it's first of all a very graphical shot, where the spray paint is rapidly getting shot out and secondly, spray painting lasts quite a while, so the more footage of this b-roll, the better.
3.) My third favourite shot is the interview positioning and lighting set up, which makes the whole documentary look and in my case from the day, it looks as though I managed to get a nice sharp, well lit and perfect positioning for my interviewee.
4.) A wide shot, showing his spray booth is a good shot to introduce to the viewers what environment my Dad works in and it links quite well to the interview as well. This shot actually zooms in to a close up of him spraying to get a little bit of variety.
5.) An Establishing shot is my first shot introduction to my documentary and the reason that it is my final favourite is because I want to set out the film, but by firstly showing the audience the surrounding area and it's just the same as when feature films do this, so they can start with an introduction to the setting/surroundings.
The Portrait Documentary:
Post-Production:
How did the Editing go?:
As you can see from the screen grab above, I have included an intro to my portrait documentary and this was made by using effects in premier pro, such as ultra key, which is used to allow other text/footage to be used on top of the main footage or it can be used to change the colour of a graphic, by using a pen tool which is included. Additionally, a combination of masking the area in which the text should come in to link the spray painter at the same time, was used very effectively, so when you play the intro, the spray painter sprays the text on screen. Yes, when I say "spray painter" , the intro footage is not of my Dad, but stock footage, so I could be more exact with spraying the text on screen. I would rate this effect an 8/10 because the graphic works very well, but it takes quite a bit off effort just to get it working well.
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Sound was also a challenge due to the fact that I had to use the 'pen' tool quite a lot of times as some parts of my dialogue and background music wouldn't sync in audio levels together, but as I kept using it, I managed to get everything perfect and it allowed me to get rid off some unusual cuts in the audio.
Editing sometimes involves tampering with graphics/effects and in my situation, I had to mess about with 4 different photos and get them p on screen in a quick amount of time, so they wouldn't take up a lot of time and if you want to see what I had done for that, watch this mini clip.
Screen Recording of how I edited the documentary:
Evaluation:
For the preparation section of this unit, I managed to get a lot done, such as
the: kit list, shot list, shooting script, recce, risk assessment and a production schedule. These were all annotated as well because I was told to make my website "idiot" proof, so when anyone looks at my site, they would straight away know what they are looking at and what a risk assessment is and why I have included certain things on there to be looked into. All of the annotations are needed for all of my units, so this was no different and I have noticed that I have improved on the analysation because I was much quicker than before and I have improved on focusing on the hidden details, such as why I chose that type of shot for the shot list and why it would be effective in my film. Additionally, pre-production now is kind off like second nature, as it's like a standard procedure to always do before filming any film, so I will always know what to do for any upcoming film.
On the day of filming, I found that my initial thoughts were correct in the fact that the positioning of everything and the lighting was great with no issues. No lighting was actually required for this shoot as like I said it was great, as the work place offered lots of ceiling lights, that eliminated any shadows. Filming using the canon camera gave me no issues either, but the quality isn't as good as my phone's camera which kind off prompted me to use my phone for some of the recording. So, this left me with full HD footage at 60 fps. My only issue when filming was the fact that I had to wait for my Dad to finish his job, so that I could then film the interview.
After filming my portrait documentary, I thought that I managed to do a great job at getting a variety of camera shots, camera angles and overall lots of b-roll shots of my Dad spray painting. This is a much notiable difference from my other projects as I had to do all of this on my own with no help and it really does show that I can direct and film at the same time, whilst also managing lighting and props. There were no issues to begin with as I got to the work place and started filming some shots straight away, but later on throughout the day, my Dad encountered a problem that is to do with contamination on his work. As i'm filming him and he has to deal with me and his job, things were bound to go wrong, but in the end, I just straight up filmed this instance and used it to convey how my Dad deals with these problems and how he adapts to overcome them, as though they are challenges in his daily career life.
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Editing has also improved a-lot compared to my other projects, especially since I have learnt a variety of different effects and I have even messed around with ultra key for some footage that isn't in anyway linked to a green screen. Learning these new effects has allowed me to produce a greater piece of work as the narrative of my documentary fits with the edits applied to it. One of the things in terms of editing that was most difficult, was the fact that a few people who watched the documentary gave feedback that they couldn't really hear the interviewee and that the background music also was too loud at points, so I took their feedback and modified the audio gain of each clip and cut through some points of the background music to lower the volume and in the end I managed to make it as easy as possible to listen to. As I never used a boom mic or any attachments, I should keep in mind that for next time I try a better day to reserve equipment, because I couldn't get the attachment mics that I wanted for this film.
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In terms of what I have learned, I have a lot to say and this includes the fact that I now understand the consequences of not having any mics to film with, as I would soon find out that my audio was pretty poor quality. To fix this next time, I would definitely bring with me an attachment mic or any sort of boom mic, because watching something with poor audio quality isn't the nicest thing. In addition to this, I must remember the fact that preparing/blocking shots would be much better for next time, since most of my shots were one take, but this was all thanks to my Dad who was a good subject to film, but this wouldn't be the case for every shoot.
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If I were to film this whole thing again from scratch, I would consider the following: Good audio quality - so an attachment mic, good lighting - so if kit is available to be booked, then lighting will be a definite, some behind the scenes would need to be shot, because I somehow forgot this and finally I would do some blocking of scenes more and taking safety shots.
Overall, I feel that I have produced a greater piece of work than some of my projects, especially since I had done all of this individually and I have learnt multiple things about editing and camera work.
Bonus Task: Fake Netflix Doc.
The Final Product:
How did I edit this?:
For the intro of the timeline, I have added an adjustment layer after the Netflix logo, because I didn't want it to be grey and all of the other clips are grey since I wanted that depressing vibe to it. Additionally, I have included captions manually as I couldn't really hear anyone, but I have increased the audio gain as well. As you may be able to see, I have added some green screen footage to go above the original clip, so that you would see a rain effect at some depressing points in the documentary.
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To make this documentary funny, I added lots of memes that fit with what people were saying at some points. For example, when Harry Panter was acting in a distraught way, I put a meme that mimics that as seen from the screen shot below:
To actually get these memes above the actual footage, I put an ultra key on top of the footage and then went into effect controls to match the background:
