Evaluation

Liverpool Documentary

Documentary is one of my favourite forms of film. After receiving the brief, Myself, Alice and the team (Shelton, Luke, Chris and Jay) met for the first time are started searching the internet and looking at newspaper achieves, we originally thought of the idea to look at the food of Liverpool, we then found out/realised that this was no specific enough for a five minute film. After looking further we saw that it was Chinese new year on the coming sunday from the day we were researching, and that there was some sort of celebration in the China Town in Liverpool. After researching further, finding out that it was the largest china town outside of the capital, we genuinely wanted to know more, and we knew if we wanted to know more, an audience would too.

I would think our film is aimed at people will an interest in ethnic minorities,  or different cultures. Our film focuses a lot on how the Chinese community have integrated into Liverpool, this is a key point and is an interest for some people. From the off set, we didn't initial have a target audience, we decided to make it quite open because documentaries about different cultures could inform anyone from the age ten to one hundred, so we thought if while making decisions about the film, we wouldn't try and make it so it wouldn't appeal to a certain age range. I feel as though we have achieved that, we have fun/colourful visuals with rhythmical sounds of china in the background, then serious informative shots along side our interview with Simon Wong which at times takes a serious note when talking about war.

Visually I think we have some great shots, shots including strong colour and detail of the Chinese gate, or supermarket. One thing I would of changed if we were to do this again is the amount of techniques we used, I know we wanted the film completely stylised and artistic but I think we have too many pull focuses but this does not distract too much I don't think. I think Alice, Shelton and Chris did a great job of keeping to the treatment in terms of the style of the film. Before going to Liverpool we discussed that we wanted shallow depth of field and dramatic camera angles, I feel we achieved that in which i am very happy. One thing in the film I am a little disappointed in is the interview, Simon Wong who is the owner of the Chinese supermarket just across the road from the big gate. He is the head of business in the area, Mr Wong has a wealth of knowledge about the area, including its history. I think the interview was edited great, I just think the visuals weren't as good as I had hoped, this was partly due to technical issues, the shot is stripy, which isnt really noticeable but I know it is there.

During this project I was the producer, this was the role I wanted. I originally didn't know that much about being a producer and the role of the producer, only what had been taught in the seminar. I found that being producer improved my organisational skills, I was able to plan the visit and communicate via telephone and e-mail with possible contributors. I would really like to produce again, learning from the mistakes I made this time, which i feel were making sure we stuck to the call sheet. There were times during the shoot when we would finish early or late and this would mess my call sheet up a little bit. Next time I produce I will be sure to leave time before we begin the shoot for us over running.

During planning, shooting and editing I have learnt a lot, being producer generally I have learnt that organisation really is the key, with this you can plan your day, and leave nothing out. This way you can insure the editor get everything they need to create a great cut. I have learnt more about shooting film too, working along side Alice, Chris and Shelton closely I was able to listen to their technical issues and watch them over come them, and at times contribute to over come then.

I feel myself, Alice, Shelton, Luke, Jay and Chris worked well as a team, one reason for this was communication, we were able to meet regularly to discuss and work things out about the project even before shooting had started. Me and Alice (director) at times met on our own to discuss things she wanted from me, vice versa. This allowed us to communicate with other members of the team to bring to life the vision that Alice and I had about the project. Chris and Luke (editors) were also very keen to mould this image, one issue was getting archive footage, this is an example of when myself and chris sat down together researching, and at the end of it we were able to get some footage. I feel I can improve my team working stills by planning better and letting the team know that I want certain things a certain way, and that we cannot slack as we need to fit the deadline. In conclusion I think this project was a great success and the whole time is happy with the outcome. Overcoming some issues at times were difficult but we were able to turn the project around.

The Drama Project

For the second half of the semester the brief was to create a Short Drama film, in relation to the theme of a Journey. Being in a group with Jay, Alice, Shelton, Chris and James. Both Jay and Alice came up with some great ideas, in which we pitched during the seminar. I didn't particularly have a preference, I had a brief idea of maybe basing the film on a emotional journey, for example grief, anxiety or depression. The group and I decided it would be too performance based, and maybe too deep for a first year student film.

After getting a good response to Alice's idea of a Young boy delivering a letter to his young love, she began to write the script. Everybody kind of simply left it to her because it was here idea and she seemed to have a very clear vision of what she wanted to film to look and sound like. We later met, I think after the two week easter break, Alice read out the her script. Everyone was extremely happy with it, and personally I was very inspired due to its wittiness and how clever it was, creating a very innocent yet funny character. I then went on to thinking about how take this script and transform it into something very visual. The producer Chris told myself and Alice about locations so together we started storyboarding, this took a while and we mostly storyboarded the opening scene because during the filming stage and editing, we wanted to get it just right, because it sets the tone for the rest of the film. After watching the film 'Once' I considered changing the style in which we filmed it but I discussed this with Alice and we didn't feeling it was right, looking back I think that really was the right decision.

Unfortunately I couldn't attend the first day of shooting due to unavoidable commitments, so Chris filled in for me, I showed him some of the storyboarding so he could film in the style I wanted. After this day I looked at the footage which I was very happy with, they filmed the travelling scenes, from a car. We planned another shoot, in Selby. This shoot was for the opening scene, the end senses and some quick shots to slow the pace of the film down if we needed too. I felt this went well. I've never had to work with child actors so this was an experience, with them being Alice's cousins, they were excited, the female mainly. The male child, Max, was very professional he did what he was directed to do, at times he even suggested things to put in, which was nice. The female actor, was a little more excited, she laughed and chatted sometimes during shoot, we simply ran the camera in the hope to get the smile and flash back scenes, which we did actually get. We simply directed her to go down the stairs and smile.

During the editing stage of the project, I kind of left Jay to it, Alice was very clear about how she wanted it. At one point, several days before the deadline, I went in and had do part of the sound edit, which I didn't mind doing.

As a whole I felt we worked well as a team, there was times were people weren’t 'pulling their weight' but that was normally quite brief. On shoots everyone got involved, suggesting shots, setting up shots. The main ideas mainly came from Alice as she had a very clear vision in her head, so overall we worked great and there was real problems. Looking at the finished project, the quality of sound and picture wasn’t as good as I anticipated, which is disappointing, I like the film, I think its funny and light hearted, also I love the children’s performance, I just think some of the technical difficulties are clear.

The Semester

As for the semester overall I feel as if i've learnt a lot, more so because in this module I get the imply the techniques that I learnt in skills. With this first hand learning it became very easy to learn at my own pace, also being on a shoot with other people doing their jobs I could easily talk to them about what they're doing and how they're doing it, learning other parts such as sound too. I personally enjoyed being producer more than camera, I felt more involved with the overall project rather than just one aspect of it like on camera, or sound. I feel like I am an organised person and I enjoyed talking to people in Liverpool, organising meet ups and such a little more than having a smaller role during the drama. I also think I prefer documentary a little more than Drama, I do feel as if with drama you have a little more creative freedom, without limits you create your own idea. Overall I have enjoyed this semester, getting the opportunity to work in different creative positions, in different types of films.