Imagining Reality - Presentation

Title page from our presentation

Personally I wasnt happy with how our presentation went, we weren't as prepared as I would have liked to be and I was a bit thrown off with how we we're first to present. I personally like to be in the middle of presentations and really dislike being first as it makes me incredibly nervous. I found out afterwards that adelaide got our presentation moved to be first as she needed to leave immediately after it for some reason that I was never told. To be truthful this really annoyed me as it threw me off drastically and I feel like my presentation of our film wasn't as strong as I would or and could of been if I was able to prepare myself mentally during other people's presentations. Other then that I feel like I was able to get my point forward about how even though this documentary isn't the best thing I've ever made I'm still proud as I tried my hardest during the whole production.

Imagining Reality - Final Film

The Imagining Reality Project has been an odd one. I kind of put it on the back burner at first because I was mainly focusing on the Portraits Project, But once I got stuck into it i really enjoyed it. Luckily, I got on well with all of my team mates for the most part. There was one member that myself and the rest of the team clashed with and I feel the film did suffer from it in the end. This film was my first ever documentary I've ever made, normally I make experimental film in the form of music videos so this was very different from what I'm use to. I feel like I managed to transfer my skills from that from what im use to into the documentary genre well.

Imaging reality - Editing Week

Now that Filming Week is over we can finally start on the edit. I thought that this week would be a good redemption week for Adelaide as she was absent a lot during filming and I feel like this week is her time to shine as she was adamant from the start that she wants to edit.

To start off the week we were told by our documentary tutor to write up transcripts for the interviews we filmed. Not going to lie but this was a complete shock to me and I had no idea we were going to have to do it. As a group we got together and split the interviews between us in order to speed up the transcribing time. Following how we've been working in the pre production we set up a Google Document from which we could all transcribe our interviews into one space that we could all access in the future. For my transcribing I wanted what I wrote to be exactly as the contributor said so it'll be easier for us to pick out key quotes that we want to include in the film.

Small segment from my transcript

After a day of transcribing, Adelaide was able to move on to actually reviewing the footage and getting a very rough edit together. Adelaide kept very organised and ordered the footage into different folders of what the footage was n whether she found it to be usable or not. I thought this was great too keep organised as it streamlines the editing process. As myself and the rest of the group worked on blog posts adelaide was handling the edit. The agreed upon goal was for Adelaide to crate a rough arcing narrative and we and work out the smaller details in further cuts.

I think this cut was great at creating a generalized tone to the film and works a a strong base to build off of, I know that Adelaide went through the transcripts and looked for interesting clips from peoples interviews to work with and I think this cut is a strong start.

Our first social bump that we had as a team happened during this cut as Adelaide mentioned that she thought over half of the footage was unusable, this by its self wasn't that disruptive even thought it was a real hit to team moral seeming as we all worked very hard during filming week which Adelaide was barely at. The main problem with the the discussion we had was Adelaide presentation or at least how she came across over instant messaging. As a group we managed to sort through the miscommunication.

After this cut was developed We all gave feed back to Adelaide as a group as suggestions for aspects to change and add in. Adelaide then used this feedback along side her own creative freedom to create the next cut that we've all be calling the skeleton of the documentary as it perfects the narrative structure.

After this cut I watched it through and created a list of changes that I thought should be sorted in order to progress the film. I gave a lot of my points time-stamps in order to make it easier for Adelaide to find and carry out the changes.

Initially I had a section about the intro as I find it quite jarring and impact in a negative way, this is because it all just suddenly starts at once. I also added points about swapping the voice over and vox pop around to see if that would calm the intro. I also had point on the sound bridge over the title, I felt it ruined the impact of the title and buried it in sound. Then I moved onto my time-stampped notes.

Screenshot from my Ipad of the notes I wrote for the second cut 

I took these notes to the next meeting I had with Adelaide and the group and used them as a guideline to talk to Adelaide about my concerns with the documentary. We watched through the film together and I would pause it on each not and suggest ways to fix the section. She noted this down and said that she would be able to take all the notes and make all the changes.

The next day Adelaide sent the video above to our documentary instant message group chat and at first I was disappointed, mainly because she assured me that she would get the notes done, I realise that some of the notes couldn't be done without filming extra footage. This ended up leading into a small arguments that we manages to sort out the next day. I happy that we got to sort it out quickly and we ended up as a stronger team in the end. Because this edit wasn't as much of an improvement as I would have liked it to be we planned to out out filming the next day to get extra footage that we can use to bulk out the film and improve the introduction. After this filming session I had a one to one with Adelaide where I sat with her for a few hour to help edit. I really enjoyed doing this as I was able to communicate my ideas for the edit easier and I was able to construct the Introduction in a more successful way. Editing is my favourite part of the film making process So it was great to be able to partake in the editing itself rather then just telling Adelaide what to do.

This is our final edit before the final export, This edit is a combination of everything I did at the one  to one with Adelaide and some extra notes I gave her verbally. I think its is leagues better then the previous as it has more of a professional and finished feel to it, the only problem I have is there are some people missing from the credits and the ending song makes the documentary have a really depressing vibe at the end. For me this is a problem because the whole point of this task for me was to learn and I wanted to have fun doing it so I wanted the credits to leave the viewer feeling happy.

Overall I think the editing process went well, any disputes hat happened we managed to sort out as a group and I think this week has been a fine way to end off this project.

Imagining Reality - Shooting Week

Even though our roles were as i said in my post about the Pre Production of this project we all decided to help eachother out with their role if they need assistance but also so we can have a go at every role and get use to alot of the processes of making a documentary. 

Monday, 28th November

Unfortunately I started the week quite slow as I had to take today off due to a family matter. Since then I've taken the documentary into priority and been present every day. 

Fortunately, after the filming day was finished my group filled me in on what was done. They picked up the equipment and it was all signed for in Gareth's name. and then as a group they filmed some establishing shots of the university and suzi walking around. I think the footage they got was excitement and was a great start to get everyone into the swing of filming. At the end of the filming day Ciara and Suzi took the equipment home even though they both live the second furthest away which I thought was odd, also seeming as it is a little risky to take such expensive equipment on the bus. 

Tuesday, 29th November 

This day was technically my first day of filming but overall was the second day. As part of our preparations we had contacted Surry TT, the timetabling service for our University and they gave us a room in order to film interviews for our second and third filming days. Also as preparation for the next two days Suzanne had posted in the university's freshers page (a Facebook page dedicated to news and info for first years at FarnhamUCA).

A screenshot of Suzanne's post she made in the freshers page

With this we were able to schedule in different students to interview, we we able to get around 10 people agreeing to help and gave them all a half hour slot over the two days in which we can interview them.  Also Suzanne stepped forward to interview the contributors. 

This day of filming started a little show as our first contributor didn't show up but luckily we we're able to wrangle in one of our class mates to help fill the slot. Also Adeliade our editor didn't show up On this day of shooting, she said she had personal reasons at the time. We ended the day by going packing up our set and then we headed to my home in Dollis Drive to film some internal shots of Suzi. Overall though I think it went really well, the set up we created worked well and the footage came out really good in my opinion. we managed to get some really interesting answers that should make some great vox box clips in the documentary. 

Wednesday, 30th November

The second day of interviewing went very similar to the first but alot smoother as we had already set up the scene. we started strong and had some great interviews and then a few people pulled out but me, Ciara, and Adelaide stepped forward and got interviewed by Suzi as well. I think it went well and got some funny stuff out of us. After this it was lunch and we had 4 more interviews in the in the afternoon. 

The afternoon session began with Adelaide not showing up after lunch which was rather disappointing. We carried on without her though and Me and Ciara had a go at interviewing in order to practice our skills that we'd learnt previously in class. I think it went well and I really enjoyed interviewing so much in face the interview i did ran over by half an hour, luckily it was the last one of the day. 

Thursday, 31st November

For this day of shooting we filmed the main chunk of our external outdoor shots, where we follow Suzanne around as she asks out random people for dates. This day was very fun but on the other hand very awkward. Even though we had had practice going up to strangers and questioning them the moment they message got onto dating it just became very uncomfortable mainly because Suzanne got turned down alot. After filming this part of the film we we're contacted by our classmate who wanted to be in the documentary and we decided to go off and help at his house which was very close to the university. at this point Adelaide went off to lunch and said she was going to stay home and that if we needed her we should ask her to come down. This disappointed me again as I get she needs munch but the fact we have to ask for her to come help its makes it seem she just couldn't be asked to help. On a lighter note the filming at our classmates house went very well and we got some quite funny shots.

Friday, 1st December

Finally we reached our final scheduled day of shooting. This day went really well in the long run, it was All shooting at my house and we got lots of interview imagery shots and shots of Suzi talking to the camera, we plan to use these at the start of the documentary as a way to introduce the film. The only bummer for this day is that Adelaide we're not present, without them me, Ciara, Gareth, and Suzanne got alot of footage and had fun doing so. 

Weekend 

The weekend was unscheduled time but we were allowed to use this time to get any extra footage we might need and we used these days to get some more footage in my room and Me, Suzanne and Ciara we're present for this filming and I took on Gareth's role as sound man for the day. I think we got some great extra shots to bulk out the film.

Also on the weekend Adelaide told us that she had had some personal issues to deal with during this week and this explained why she was off. It was still disappointing that she wasn't their for alot of the filming as it did bring the team moral down as her help would have helped alot.

Overall I think filmed went exceptionally well, we got everything we had planned and I feel personally I was able to practice a lot of different skills as well as improve my skill in directing quite a bit. I feel I fit into my role quite well during this week as I feel like I took notes from others well and helped direct what we we're filming by help Ciara with some camera angles and filming techniques.

Imagining Reality - Pre Production

Before we can start out Pre production we had to decide what role everyone was going to take. From the start of the project Adelaide has said that she wants to be the editor as it is her prefered field of work, initially I was a little annoyed at this but I soon changed my mind as this is a learning exercise so I'd rather take a role I've never done before and can learn new skills in. Up until this point we all realised the Suzanne was doing a really great job of organizing the team so it was decided as a group that she would fit best into the producer role. Gareth spoke up about wanted to try more sound work and chose to be the sound technician and said that I would make a good Director and gave me that role. This leaves Ciara as camera woman, I know initially she was nervous about this as she joined the course late and didn't have as much exposure with the XF305 but I think she'll do great. 

In preparation for our shooting week to begin we have to sort out all of the PreProduction paper work that we can send to out documentary tutor to be greenlighted. With this we'll be given the okay to start filming.  for our paperwork we have to make a synopsis, treatment, and production schedule. we also must fill out risk assessments for each of the locations we plan to film in. As suzanne is our producer of this documentary she has been leading the paperwork section and really dictating the process well. Shes done a great job of separating out the different tasks between us in order to get the work done faster. Ciara had the great idea of setting up a system of Google Documents that we can all work freely on together and can see the progress of others on their task. I think this is a great idea and good way to work and I think we'll keep using this throughout the documentary.

Synopsis 

Screenshot of our synopsis from a shared Google Document

Call Sheet

Treatment

Production Schedule 

DAY 1 (28th Nov): 10am - 5pm

10am:  Pick up equipment
12pm: travel to Ciara and Suzanne’s house for filming
1-2:  Set up
2-4: Start filming the footage in Suzanne’s room, i.e setting up online dating, and taking selfies to use. She will also be looking at her horoscope.  
4-5: Film the last scene as it will be set in Suzanne’s room, here she will be staring out her window looking sad and upset.

Scheduled Breaks:
Lunch break at 12pm - 1pm
Break at 3 - 3:30


DAY 2 (29th Nov): 10am - 5pm

10-5pm: This day we will be filming interviews with people who have agreed and volunteered to take part.
In Between interviews Suzanne will also check her dating profiles.
(Interview Times will be sorted today)

Scheduled Breaks:
Lunch break at 12pm - 1pm
Break at 3 - 3:30


DAY 3 (30th Nov): 10am - 5pm

10-5pm: This day we will be filming more interviews, similar to the day before. We will also film suzanne chasing a guy down the corridor.
(Interview Times will be sorted today)

Scheduled Breaks:
Lunch break at 12pm - 1pm
Break at 3 - 3:30


DAY 4 (1st Dec): 10am - 5pm

10-5: This day we will be filming around campus, speaking to people and asking them out, and filming their responses. Again we can also fim Suzanne checking her online dating.

Scheduled Breaks:
Lunch break at 12pm - 1pm
Break at 3 - 3:30


DAY 5 (2nd Dec): 10am - 5pm

Here we will be filming on campus again, this time suzanne will be more desperate chasing people.

Scheduled Breaks:
Lunch break at 12am - 1pm
Break at 3 - 3:30


If need be we will have the weekend to collect extra shots, if we feel like we need to shoot more. (5th - 6th December)

Risk Assessments

Outdoor Shooting

Indoor Shooting

Shooting at Dollis Drive

Ethics of Representation

Before we start filming our documentary, we were given a tutorial by out documentary lecturer about the Ethics of Representation. It mainly highlighted how to avoid manipulating the truth and what people say about the lives or the story they tell. It's mainly an exercise in how to respect the contributors.

The first aspect of fair representation we tackled is that we must get the permission from everyone we film to be in the documentary, A standard participant must sign a contract that states they agree to us using the footage of them in our film. A small contributor, maybe a vox pop or brief interviewee, simply just needs to give a verbal acceptance tahts recorded as proof that they let us use the footage. If a contributor is not of sound mind then we'd need to get a doctor or guardian to be present at signing to show that they know what they're signing into. And finally all children must have permission of parents.

We then moved onto how we mustn't twist the truth and misrepresent the contributor. This means that we must not edit them in a misleading and bias way and have to reflect their message they we they intended. Once the edit is finished contributors are allowed to watch teh documentary and if they feel they have been misrepresented they they can request the edit be changed to portray them in a truthful light.

Before our filming begins we'll set up a contract sheet for contributors and during the editing process we must make sure that no contributors are represented in a negative light. a main area that we have to focus on is that we don't twist the interviewees opinions on online dating to fit our own views. Also, we have been thinking about not promoting Suzanne in a negative light, as a crazy lonely woman.

Imagining Reality - Research

In order to get a better grasp on how we should structure our dating documentary, edit it, and film it in general, we set off to do some research on other dating documentaries and TV shows. I looked at 3 different sources, and Student film in the style of an advert promoting a campus speed dating event, a short documentary about offline dating that my group was given to look at by our lecturer, and finally a channel four series of shorts about bad dates.


First I looked at the Student film. The Documentary is called Speed Dating (Documentary) on Youtube and is a promotion of a speed dating event for an American College/University. mainly the visuals of this film is a montage of a previous speed dating event that the campus has hosted showing happy dates and pleasant conversation bring a happy mood to the film and attracting people to the promotion. It also shows a lot of hustle and bustle, I feel this was used to shows people that this is a well known event that lots of people go too reassuring the view that it's not 'lame'. Although this could also put off shyer audiences. the film also have interviews scattered throughout of female contributors saying how good the event is. Overall this film works for what it is, an advertisement but it is also a successful documentation of the event and does it justice. From this I'd like to take how they integrated the interviews through sound bridges and kept the pace using  a jazzy tune running throughout, I don't think our film with have one song throughout the documentary but I like how there's kept the pace.

Secondly, I looked at the film provided to us by our documentary tutor. Its called Offline Dating and follows a man around as hes tried to date offline. I think this film is an interesting concept as it tackles the problem that people normally meet through online dating apps and websites. I like how in the film he starts quite head strong and go's straight up to people and immediately asks for a date, this is similar to how some people act on dating apps like Tinder. Theres even a dating app called Clover (referencing the 4-leafed clover symbolizing finding that lucky someone) where you can request strangers to set up a date and then you'll meet each other for the first time on said date. I've actually used this app in the past and its how I met my second boyfriend, although that relationship didn't end that great.

As the film progressed he slowly started to get to know the women he was asking out before asking out the girl. This is after he receives direction from some of the girls he asks out as they say that a man coming up to you and immediately requesting a date can be a bit jarring. Eventually in the film a girl invites him to a barbeque she's having and the film ends on a shot of them kissing. The music that this has in the background is a very uplifting guitar song that slowly progresses and gets more intense. the editing of this film is very heavy with lots of straight cuts to keep pace and only shows information that progresses the narrative. Its also littered with montage and because of this the film almost feels like a trailer and seems very rushed. Overall I like the concept and idea of this film more than the style that its portrayed in but would like to work with this idea around dating for out documentary.

Lastly, I Looked at the Channel 4 series of shorts called Bad Dates. This show simply follows the story of one contributor's tale of a bad (and often ridiculous) date. The documentary is in a Performative style (a theory by Bill Nichols), and personally I really love this style of documentary as it often has a very clean and cinematic look. This is best shown in the Feature Length 1988 film The Thin Blue Line. But the show (Bad Dates), has less of a cinematic style and personally I feel this is because its a British production and this fits the culture of English TV and media more. Although I still really like this shows style of performative documentary and it uses the recreations of the contributors story to bring a funnier side to the show. I also think this light hearted nature fits how this series is a series of shorts as its lets the joke of the story stay funny and not be dragged out. I feel My group and I could use this as our film has to be around 5 - 10 minutes and we could use this to our advantage by making the film funnier.


Overall I think I have some strong research and it has help me and my group refine our idea in to more of a solid concept that we can now plan easier in our Pre Production.

Imagining Reality - Initial Points

Finally we've been given our task for Imagining reality and its a group filming task to create a documentary around the theme of Community. and we were also given out groups, My group is a 5 person group consisting of myself, Ciara Goldfinch, Suzanne Bellisio, Gareth Loughlin, and Adelaide Sommers. To start our project we got together as a group and brainstormed ideas on what community could mean and what we could make a documentary on.

Notes Suzanne made during our idea development talks

Our first step was to think of different communities that could be in the surrounding area and as well as places that you could group communities in for example: the employees of a workplaces are their own community. The main ones that stuck out to us was the speed dating idea, a university society, and maybe something with a dog shelter.

Another one of our ideas was to set up our own  society within the uni, I personally really liked this idea as it would be a really interesting experience. we threw around a few ideas like maybe an acapella community, but our first problem with this idea is we couldn't all agree on one idea, and because i wanted this to be something we all enjoyed and were interested in so it would be a fun experience i got put off this idea a bit. Additionally, we all agreed that we wouldnt have enough time to set up our society in the time frame we had.

In the end we all decided that dating would be the best one to go for as it is relevant and sort of a hot topic currently.

Initially the dating idea was to set up our own speed dating and at first this seemed like a great idea as it would be really interesting to film and document the actual process of a date. we decided to develop the idea of dating to see what we could come up with and eventually suzanne said it would be funny if we just followed her around with a  camera asking people for dates. I immediately liked the idea as it has more of a fun vibe to it. I personally like to work with lighter subjects as i have fun and enjoy making films so I want this to be reflected in what I make. Everyone else agreed that making a funner film we be a nicer process as this is our first film as it's more of a learning experience, and it's something more to get us use to the process of making a documentary rather than something super serious.

Next we started to plan the documentary. We knew we were going to follow Suzi around and asking people out, as well as interviews with people from the university campus, but we needed to fill out some finer details. We felt the story arc should be simple, start with an introduction defining documentary and introducing Suzi, then have the on campus footage of following Suzi around, and finally end with either, Suzi back in her room alone, or Suzi going off on her first date. all this would be scattered with the interviews to break up to footage of Suzanne and help direct the progression of the story. We also want to include some footage of Suzi using Online dating techniques such as apps and matching websites so we can show a contrast of online and offline. I think dating is a very strong topic and would make an interesting but still light hearted documentary.