This project has definitely been the toughest for personally so far in university. It has challenged me in all areas which have led to me learning new things about the industry.
I started this unit always wanting to do the commission because of the mix of being in a professional environment as well as having my own creative freedom. This played out well because I managed to work for a company that let me basically do everything, meaning I made all of the creative decisions in this project. While it was nice not to have someone pestering me about the project, I would honestly have loved a little more support from the club in terms of improvements for the project. This is because all of my feedback was generally "we like it" but nothing about how I could improve. This led to me asking peers for feedback instead.
I enjoyed being the presenter for the second project in a row. I feel I have become more confident in front of the camera and my presenting is becoming more and more authentic and natural. I was happy to go through the extra stress of doing this myself because I knew about the subject and also the project was created from the ground up by myself so finding another presenter that fitted the bill may have been a waste of time.
I enjoyed planning and preparation for the project. Storyboarding and scripting went smoothly but it is the part of the project I enjoy the least as it always ends up giving me anxiety about if it is going to run smoothly and also if it is ever going to actually happen. (I was worried after many obstacles in the way whether at some point it would just fall through)
Thanks to my thorough planning, however, the shooting did go pretty smoothly and I managed to get all the plans I wanted in a much shorter shooting period than I expected. The club was going through some tough times meaning shoot days had to be cancelled as well as my whole idea had to be changed around 10 days into the project. I think the filming went smoothly thereafter and after a change to the script once again we got a good amount of footage to work with.
The editing process was enjoyable. I had all of the creative freedom with this as well, I assume Watford did not have much background in media because they were happy with everything I produced. This did make feedback and improvements hard though. After a number of different versions it felt like it was getting there and with the addition of graphics and drone shots late on, it gave it a much more professional look.
Overall this unit taught me a lot of things about the industry. It taught me that no two clients are the same and some people don't really know much about filming and what you have to get a good documentary. It was a challenging process early on with the changing of ideas which did keep me worried for weeks but I kept planning and it all went smoothly from the shooting period until the end.
I am happy with the project but would have done a few things differently if I was to do it again.
I would ask a few more people if they could help me film so that I would have had an assistant on the match day to cover more angles.
I would have asked the club, even more, question about the clubs weekly activities before we started filming to get even more knowledge on what they do on certain days
I would have liked more time to edit, some of the transitions are a little "un-smooth" but in general, they are ok.
But in reality, I feel like the project was a success. I challenged myself and took on all of the roles for this project, even being the presenter. It led to me being super strict on my time management but it worked. I also managed to film a 12 min documentary from start to the end with only help on 2 shoot days which was a massive challenge but one I have completed and learned a lot from.
Before I started the last part of my editing I decided to get pick up shots to make the documentary a completed product. I had noted these shots to be completed, but they are time-dependent.
Drone shot of the London Bee's Stadium
Drone shot of Harefield (area of training sessions)
Piece to camera to end the documentary
Some scenic filling shots between the days, so it doesn't jump for me at the training ground back to me at the training ground.
I had decided to just focus on getting shots of the Harefield area and film a proper ending for the project. Picking up these shots were important to me to make this project feel complete. "In filmmaking, a pick-up is a small, relatively minor shot filmed or recorded after the fact to augment footage already shot. When entire scenes are redone, it is referred to as a re-shoot. Both types of shots usually occur after continuity, logic, or quality issues are identified during the film editing process." (Wikipedia, 2017) I wanted to get to the London Bee's stadium to pick up these shots as well but as I was short on time I decided to stick to one location and get the most important shots.
I filmed multiple some drone shots of the area which will work as a nice transition between days, they all look different so unless you knew, you probably would not know they were all shot on the same day. I also recorded an ending to the documentary. "Ending your film with a conclusion can help the audience members make up their minds about the information you’ve presented. Your conclusion summarizes the main points covered in your film and brings the story to a natural end, leaving your audience feeling informed." (Dummies, 2017) While I don't have a massive conclusion, it was important to round off the documentary with a piece to camera otherwise it would just not feel right. From my research, I have noted that most documentaries end with a piece to camera.
Once I had these shots I could finish off the edit. I placed the drone shots into the gaps at the start of the film and then between day 1 and 2 & 2 and 3. This worked as a nice transition rather than just a hard cut which just did not work and my feedback from peers suggested I change that. "Transitions can be a lot of fun but be warned: Over-using transitions is a common mistake made by amateurs. In most professional productions, almost all transitions are simple cuts or crossfades. Too many animated transitions are distracting and impact on the flow of the video." (The Video Transition, 2017)I decided to stick with crossfades in my project, with the occasional fade to black to help signify the changing of days. As the drone does not record audio I decided to add in some "atmos" that I found online. I regret not filming my own buzz track on the day as that would have made the atmos more authentic.
For the drone shots, I also added a letterbox, in hope of making it feel more cinematic as well as making the viewer pay attention to the center of the screen. I also slowly fake out the letterbox and it goes back to full screen by the end of the drone shot. I wanted to do this and it worked effectively. It may not make a massive difference to some people but my creative decision was to do it for these shots to draw the attention of the viewer.
I added in the ending that I recorded near where I had filmed the drone shots. While it wasn't in the place the viewer thinks it is, it needs to have a proper ending and I could not record an ending like this on the actual day because I was a one-man crew. This completed the edit in terms of the clips that made up the documentary but I still had a few things to edit.
One thing I kept on making sure was perfect was the audio levels. I notice a problem with a lot of student projects if the up and down audio levels. I always seem to leave the audio until the end and I think in the future it would be worthwhile planning more around audio because it is important. "You can perhaps begin with the levels and panning of the elements. This refers to the arrangement of the elements; say drums, bass, piano and vocals, in such a way that they make sense and tell a story. At this point, you can group together the same elements so that the mix won’t sound cluttered and disparate." (DCC Studios, 2015) While this is referencing music, it works with video editing as well. I spent a good amount of time making sure that the "peak" audio level throughout the project was -6db and all of the project was between -6db and -18db. I took into consideration background noise meaning some are louder than others.
I am happy with the edit, it has gone pretty smoothly and I have enjoyed editing it. If I had more time I would have probably filmed the extra clips that would have made the project more professional. I would probably also work on the transitions as some of them don't quite work as I wanted them to. It has been a fun edit and great to work on a project that I completed all the way through by myself with some help of filming days.
After finishing the filming process on Sunday, I got working on the edit on Monday. I started by separating the clip into the correct places, Day 1, Day 2 etc and in those folders I put the footage from each camera. This means it will be easy to find the files when it comes to placing them into an order. "If you’re going to call yourself a professional, you should work like a professional. An insanely disorganized project is a nightmare, and ultimately reflects poorly upon you as an editor." (Premium Beat, 2014) It was worth the time doing this because I found finding clips much easier once they were in bins. I also referenced my storyboard and script when finding clips to make this an easier process.
The pictures below show how I took the time to separate the footage up to save time in the edit.
I then set upon placing the clips in the general order with reference to my script. "The Importance of Script Writing. One of the first steps for creating a video project is the script writing. ... A script is a document that describes the video, which includes descriptions of the various shots and any dialogue/voice overs. A script also serves as a planning device for the video." (amifw, 2017)However, this did end up being a slight problem as we had to change a lot of what we filmed due to circumstances out of our control. However, I still got a rough edit together without touching colour correction etc. This was a very basic edit that I could send to the football club as well as getting feedback from my peers.
I sent this very rough cut to the club general manager Ed. He really liked it said he didn't feel that it needed any changes. This was a little frustrating in one way because I knew it was nowhere near finished and I wanted some feedback. However, in another, it was nice to know he liked what I had done so far.
"Client feedback sessions are an integral part of any creative project and are especially useful for video editors. Knowing how to make the most of the time, the questions and your answers, is an important skill to develop. Striking the right balance of being able to says ‘yes we can do that’ and ‘no – there isn’t time, budget or sense to do that’ is crucial to keeping everyone involved satisfied. Here are a few suggestions for video editors that might help keep the project on track in your next client feedback session." (Premium Beat, 2013)
I wanted some client feedback so I could drive the project in the direction that they wanted, however, I guess as the club is going through a tough time they were just happy that someone was doing something for them. At this point, I realised this would be a very tough edit in terms of client feedback, so I used my initiative and asked some of my peers about what they thought about the edit.
George gave me some feedback on my rough cut, here is what he said.
Colour correction
Title cards, Day 1, Day 2 etc
Fewer cuts when I am asking questions
Injury scene - cuts could happen quicker
Transition between injury and gym scene is fast
Less shots of Ben in hospice, more of Helen
Voice over of game is a little quick
Give Helen a few seconds to speak before cutting away
I knew peer feedback would be helpful as I have had a pretty basic response back from the club. "Students benefit from peer feedback in that they are able to teach other about the tasks and provide feedback that they would consider relevant. In seeing that their peer feedback is relevant, students will be more engaged and invested in working to complete the task successfully." (edutopia, 2015) This feedback for George was very valuable because when you edit by yourself you sometimes get into a pattern of not knowing what can be changed because you have looked at the same clips over and over. George's new perspective was very useful because it lets me see what the project was like with a new set of ideas.
I then got to work, starting with the colour correction, also known as colour grading. "Color grading is the process of altering and enhancing the color of a motion picture, video image, or still image electronically" (Wikipedia, 2017) As I have a mixture of inside and outside shots, it was tough to keep the linearity throughout the project. Below are a few examples of what I have done to enhance the colours in my project.
The DSLR raw shot is on the left and on the right is after some colour correction. I noticed throughout the edit that my DSLR did struggle to get the "true" colours. Sometimes this may mean very un-saturated and sometimes saturated too much. I decided to match the colours to my main camera, which from the outset captured more realistic colour tones. I have to admit that Colour grading is a part of video editing that I do not enjoy, but as it makes the final project look a lot more professional, it is critical that you do it.
Here is a shot from my main camera and as you can see it looks much closer to the DSLR after colour correction.
I also took George's advise on adding Day 1, Day 2 etc so that the viewer has a visual clue about what day it is. "The Role of Computer Graphics in Documentary Film Production. ... Computergraphics can be used to enhance the scenery, fill in the gaps in the missing storyline pieces, or animate between scenes. It can incorporate stereoscopic effects for higher viewer impression as well as interactivity aspects" (arxiv, 2011) After reading this I also decided that it would make sense to include name tags for each person who appeared on screen. I also sometimes put the name tag up multiple times in the socumentary if the time between the same person appearing on screen was quite long.
Here is an example of the day and name tags that I created in Photoshop to appear on the screen.
I also focussed on making the cuts between scenes less evidant as keeping a smooth feel throughout the documentary was important. "In the classical continuity style, editing techniques avoid drawing attention to themselves." (Film Analysis, 2017) As I was not doing a flashy edit, I needed to make sure that cuts didn't jump out at you. After adding some fade to black transitions and doing similar fades in the audio also helped the shots flow more seemlessly.
Something that I picked up was also matching the audio levels across the project as well as adding in the Tascam audio (which is much better than the shotgun mics) which I had not added in all areas in the Draft cut. The audio cut out the wind noise from the gusts that we had on all days of shooting, so the Tascam's audio does make the whole project sound more professional. "Paying attention to sound, both in terms of good recording and how it’s mixed and the use of sound effects and music, can make a real difference. Even if you’re only doing a simple interview with dialog only, a rich sounding human voice will make a difference." (Kino Eye, 2013) After adding the audio from the Tascam it also made the audio sound more realistic, once again making the project feel a lot more professional.
I also had some Go Pro shots that I had not used, and I actually found they worked quite well. Even though we had a lot of footage, I had a large need for these clips meaning these extra Go Pro shots helped. I added most of this by the time I rendered a fine cut. This fine cut was pretty close to the end of the project meaning not much will change between this and the final edit.
Fine Cut:
After the fine cut, I realised there were a few things I could possibly film to improve the edit. Here is a list of possible things I could film to improve the project. There is a possibility that I could shoot this on Tuesday (weather dependent)
Drone shot of the London Bee's Stadium
Drone shot of Harefield (area of training sessions)
Piece to camera to end the documentary
Some scenic filling shots between the days, so it doesn't jump for me at the training ground back to me at the training ground.
This is the majority of the editing process in this blog post, but I will include my final thoughts and edits after I have possibly filmed these extra shots on Tuesday. I will also be re-recording the voiceover after feedback from my peers that it felt rushed. References: Premium Beat, 2014 https://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/keeping-your-video-editing-project-organized/
Accessed on 11th December 2017
After changes with the documentary due to circumstances out of my control, I have rewritten the script to better represent what has been filmed. This rewrite of the script is very important for editing as it will enable me to edit faster.
After some research, I found without a good script, it will make the final piece not as strong. "What makes truly great creative video content? Alfred Hitchcock used to wind up his leading actors on the first day of filming by arriving on set a little late, slap down the final script on his chair and announce “Well ladies and gentlemen, that’s another one in the can.” Of course, what he wanted to draw everyone’s attention to was the importance of the script to the film. There are many, many films where a weak or non-existent story completely hobbles otherwise fine performances and camerawork. On the other hand, some modest films become very successful simply because the script was so good." (Chris Mugford, 2015)
I decided that writing the script through, nearly from scratch would be a worthwhile exercise. Even though I had already started editing, it would enable me to edit what I have left a lot faster. This will also be useful for the report as it will be included in that as well.
Something that was very important for my documentary we getting enough cutaways to use when it came to the edit. This became ever more apparent after the first two days of shooting in which the plans had to be significantly changed as what I have intended to plan did not go ahead.
Along with a big script rewrite, it meant that I asked whoever was helping me to get as much footage as they could because it would be helpful when it comes to the edit. Alex and George did a great job with this and the edit process was simplified thanks to the abundance of clips.
The last university unit actually really helped me in this regard, even though I was not the main editor on the project I did help and i think that as we had so many great clips that we could cut away to it meant that the editor did not struggle in terms of footage. Taking this knowledge forward will be very important and I am happy I have grasped that understanding this early on.
I also studied a few documentaries on what they do for cutaway shots and they are all similar in one way. Louis Theroux is a pioneer in the documentary world and nearly everything he creates is perfect. I learned through watching hsi documentary that the cutaways are vitally important to keep the story moving. An example in his “Dark States” (BBC, 2017) series shows that they use a clip of drug needles being deposited and then new needles being handed out to show that this is a never-ending cycle for some addicts. While what is being said is not directly corresponding to what is being shown, the use of a cutaway lets the viewer know or see something that may have not known earlier.
The use of driving shots is also interesting in a lot of Louis’ documentaries. It’s a sense that they are always going somewhere to find something, discover what the truth is. Without these shots it would not feel right, it would lack that intimacy that a lot of his documentaries thrive on. I have thought both ways about these shots for my documentary. They were in some of my plans to have something similar, but the more I thought about it the less I wanted them. This is because while in Louis’ or Alan’s documentaries for example, I am not the person going on a journey. I am more relaying information to the viewer than being an active role in the documentary.
Of course, I am voicing it over but there is a subtle difference. I am not actively partaking in what is happening more helping the viewer understand what is happening. In Alan’s and Louis’ documentaries that are the ones going on a journey and probing for answers, in my documentary I am in a way just relaying information.
The general manager of the club Ed Henderson was leaving most of the creative decisions up to me. This meant I could play around with what I thought could work. A lot of the documentaries I have watched start in a similar way, however. They start with B-ROLL and a voice over. I thought that this would be the best way for my project to go as well.
In the original edit, I had it go straight into a piece to camera which was fine but it didn’t feel very professional. For this reason, I decided to switch it to what I had researched which was this voiceover and montage-esque start.
I had been looking into football documentaries and Alan Shearer’s recent documentary “Alan Shearer: Dementia, Football and Me” (BBC, 2017) was one I drew a lot of inspiration from. As football documentaries go Alan’s is more serious but still has underlying values that any good football documentary would need.
In the opening voiceover, he talks through what is going to be explored in the documentary as well as showing clips of Alan doing exactly what they are talking about. Of course, for my project, it is a little different as I am not a player. However, in my opening section, I will be talking about women's football and Watford more specifically.
The choice of what opening shots you use is important. If the opening shots are tacky and shot in a hurry it would cause viewers to click off through the apparent lack of quality. The use of drone shots will come in useful here as they are a great way to grab the attention of the viewer. The use of drone shots is becoming more and more apparent in films and documentaries as the cost is becoming ever cheaper. Luckily I have my own drone and I have a decent amount of experience with it meaning it was not much of a worry to get the required shots.
Sunday the 3rd was my final scheduled shoot day with Watford Ladies. It was their away game vs. London Bee's held at the Hive Stadium in North London. I had intended to arrive at the ground for midday but due to severe train delays, I arrived at 1pm. This was fine but it was a little annoying that I could not show my full punctuality by being there at the time I had intended on. Ed, who has been helping me with the project from the clubs point of view was very understanding and realised London is a nightmare to work in.
My idea for the game was to get different angles from around the pitch and it would be edited into an eventual montage. I had brought four cameras (2 go pro's) with me and that would be sufficient to get all I needed.I started by getting shots of warm up as well as shots of the ground which I can introduce the game in voiceover. "Perhaps your best option (and what would a documentary be without it?), is to cover your edits with B-roll. Ideally, you can just pull from your documentary footage, but if you’re in a pinch, you can always use stock footage or images to fill in gaps" (Shutterstock, 2017) I think I did a good job even though I was rushed to get everything I wanted. A few pull focus shots as well as close-ups of the warm-up session will link well together when editing. I set a go pro up behind the goal for the first part of the game and I went and stood in the empty grandstand in which I could get a side on view of the pitch (similar to football shows like Match of the Day)
One the game started I started to move around the grandstand to get unique angles which would work well in the montage I have planned. I ended up staying at the end that Watford was attacking so if a goal did go in that I would be closest to it. This worked well and I got a mixture of close-ups, mid shots and ultra wides.
I wanted to make sure these shots looked as professional as possible, even for a one man crew. "Create a shot list: as much as possible I determine ahead of time the shots I want to get to tell the visual story I want to tell. Naturally, a big part of what I plan to shoot will be based on sound bites I get during the interviews. But the more I know up front what I will be shooting, the more shots I can plan ahead of time."(desktop documentaries, 2016) Luckily I had planned out a few shots I wanted already but research into common shots was useful on the build-up to the game. I had watched videos like these in my research to see what sort of shots I should try and recreate.
This example shows that they normally have an ultra wide filming everything and other cameras dotted around to pick up close ups. As I was the only moving camera operator I decided to film a mix over the game and cut into the close ups when needed.
These would all contrast well in the montage. I was happy with how I applied myself in the game to maximise footage opportunities. I was filming this on my Sony while a go pro was running behind the goal and then on the sideline after I changed it around halfway through the first half. When Watford scored I managed to get a good shot of it which I was pleased with. With football, it is so hard to know exactly what is going to happen so making sure I was filming throughout helped. I think that the shots I got where of good quality and will work well. This was the day I was most pleased with because everything seemed to go to plan.
I also made sure to get an ultra close up of the scoreboard because I know shots like this would be good for the club and also work well in the montage.
In reference to a Trevor McDonald documentary, The executive producer talks about the importance of getting key shots "Executive producer Ed Taylor spent months negotiating with Northumbria Police to work out how, without embedding a camera team for possibly months on end, they would be able to capture the key moments at the start of a major investigation." (Radio times, 2017) This shows that you should always go to the largest amount of effort to capture those key images. While I could have easily forgotten to capture the score board, I luckily kept reminding myself from the notes I had taken on the train to the event.
After the game we interviewed Helen. She is really great in front of the camera and as a Wales International with many games for her country, I expect she has had a lot of experience with interviews. I was the only one on this shoot so I did not have anyone to help me with the interview especially. This meant that Helen had to hold the microphone while I held the camera and listened to the sound through some headphones. I thought due to the circumstances this went well, the lighting was pretty good. I did want to film outside but they turned off the lights meaning we had to film in a cramped tunnel. I was happy with how it went and Helen gave great answers which will round of the documentary perfectly
"during the pre-production phase, I learn all I can about the story I plan to tell. Whether it’s a corporate promotional film, or a personal profile, I get as much information as I can about the people, places, and events related to the film." (desktop documentaries, 2016) Luckily I had planned a lot of what could have been said in pre-production meaning that the interviews throughout the project (possibly except the injury ones) went as planned. It made it easier to set up and film when I knew what was most likely going to be said. I was happy that I spent that time earlir on because I feel these interviews may have been a struggle otherwise.
Overall I was happy with how filming went today. I got good cutaways for the voiceover and also great shots throughout the match. I wanted to have some pieces to camera today but without any help, this was never going to be a possibility. Like with the rest of the project Ed has been really open with what is filmed. However, I have felt that possibly it has been a little too open for me personally. It has meant that I have mostly be told to get filming with no specific thing that they wanted to show. I am completely fine with it, however, I do think a little more input from the clubs side would have created a product more specific to them.
I have already started a little bit of work on the edit and the clips seem to be working well next to each other. I may decide to go back to London to get some extra cutaways if they are needed. I will also have to re-write the script because of the massive changes in the week. In hindsight, I would have asked a few more people if they could have helped me film on Sunday. It would have given me the chance to fulfill what I wrote in the script.
I happy with my performance in the shooting days and Alex and George were fantastic as well when they helped. With the situations that we encountered, I feel like we did the most that we possibly could. I will see over the next few days if I do need to re-film (I hope not) or decide to get extra footage once I have got a rough cut complete and sent to the club and received feedback from my peers.
While talking to Helen in a recent meeting, I realised my video is actually "branded content". While I had a general idea what branded content was, I wanted to research further into what it actually was.
I started off with a simple search to see what people online defined as branded content. "‘Branded content is any content that can be associated with a brand in the eye of the beholder.’" (contagious, 2014)
While this was quite a broad definition it made me think about examples of this in everyday life. One of the most famous branded content videos was created by Dove in 2013. It was a video talking about "real beauty" and how people sometimes look down upon themselves.
This is great because it is filmed like a short film, artistic shots, and soft, uplifting music. While this is not like what my video will be like, it gives you an idea of how a brand can work with people to create a video that promotes a brand while giving information away at the same time. (Dove, 2013)
The point of this video is to sell their product at the end of the day, but it does it in a way which makes people think as well as making them evaluate themselves. "While it says nothing about the qualities of the product itself, the campaign got the world talking, and Dove has been part of that conversation – boosting sales massively in the process." (Creative Bloq, 2017)
So while in reality, most people see this as a video which is about body-motivation, dove would have known from the outset that this is a marketing move. This can be related to my project as well. The idea from Watford's point of view is giving football fans some exclusive access that they may not get without the project, but at the same time, it is a marketing move because they are trying to keep the fans they already have and making a video like this will hopefully attract new fans.
Another great example of branded adverts or campaigns are Marks and Spencers Christmas adverts. This one is particularly special because it's actually an advert that people look forward to each year. This an example of something that is so successful that it actually becomes a national treasure. (Marks and Spencers, 2017)
While I doubt my project will become a national treasure, something I do hope is that people enjoy it and want a similar project like this from the club in the future. Projects like this are to create a loyalty between the club and the fans as well as trying to entice new fans into supporting the club.
While it is a business quote "The only thing that is going to enhance this type of relationship is the knowledge that your business is on the same team as them." (Helpscout, 2017) works well in this instance as with videos like the one I am creating, it is trying to create a community feel for the club. One that gives back to the fans and appreciates what they do for the club. By giving the supporters something to watch, it creates that loyalty that the club is going further than other clubs in helping keep their current supporters happy.
While, in reality, it is only really about money. Branded content is a way of making an advert, short film or documentary that people will enjoy watching. But at the same time pushing a company or a product, which sometimes isn't even related to the video shown (Dove advert for example)
On Thursday we had an earlier start with a hospice visit in High Wycombe at 1pm. The butterfly hospice was mostly funded by the community and Watford had done a bucket collection at a recent game raising money for the hospice and the visit was an opportunity for one of the players to visit the center. George was helping me film today.
I had not storyboarded for this scene in the documentary because I was not given any information about what was happening, even though I did ask. I wanted to just follow the player (Helen) around the hospice while she was being talked through the building and getting her expressions etc. George and I both got shots from around the hospice which will be used as overlay footage. "The multi-camera method used for filmmaking and video production involves two or more cameras running simultaneously from start to finish with no interruptions. This method is used to record many program formats such as talk shows, concerts, soap operas, sports events and many more." (journeytosuccess92, 2011) Using a multi-camera helped get extra angles to cut to and from. It also helped with capturing multiple audio versions.Helen and Ben (Community fundraiser for the hospice) did a piece to camera that I will lead into with voiceover and while they are doing their pieces to the camera I will use the footage from around the hospice.
We also had a few sit-down talks with Helen and a few of the staff at the hospice that I may use after the two previously mentioned PTC's. If I was to film this part of the documentary again I would definitely push for a little more info as to why we were visiting the hospice. I did ask over email, however, I guess it may have been overseen. The hospice had good lighting meaning all of the shots came out looking good and we also made sure we had enough footage that we can voiceover an opening and ending if it is needed. We had a mix of handheld and tripod shots which is good because it means that it will not be too slow paced. One thing I wish we had filmed that we did, looking at the footage was some outside shots of the hospice. We have the PTC's outside where you can see the hospice."Your audience wants to know you’re there - right where the story is happening. They want to know what it’s like to be there. A PTC - that is, talking in vision direct to camera - can add something extra to your report. It can be used, for example, to indicate scale, the passage of time or significance."( BBC, 2013) A piece to camera worked well in this instance as it made it feel more personal than voiceover. It also let the people that worked there have a voice.It would have been nice to have some cutaways of the front of the building as well as a few close-ups of the hospice Logo's etc.
After the hospice visit, we had around 5 hours before training started. After just checking all the equipment was ready for training we had thought about going to training very early to get some possible b-roll in the daytime. After some thought though, we would get stuck in rush hour traffic and mostly not make it to the location before sunset so we decided to stay in the hospice area until later.
After arriving at the training around 90 minutes early we checked the kit again and everything was good, however, we would have to be careful about the main camera's battery because as I learned from yesterday it doesn't last that long. For this reason, I decided George take the 2nd camera and focus on cutaways while we keep the better camera for the interviews.
Unfortunately, we arrived at training with good time but the clubs manager was not very accommodating in letting us film without Ed being there (Ed had to go to a meeting and was around 1 hour late to training) This was frustrating firstly because I would have expected the club to have told the manager about us being there and also because of the way we where talked to by the manager. "Being able to communicate clearly is crucial to good management, be it through the spoken word, email or reports and meetings." (academicvideostore, 2017)Because of this once again I had to overcome a hurdle and think fast. I decided to record the last pieces to the camera while we were waiting for Ed. These shots went well, the Tascam ran out of battery but luckily George had backups.
I felt like I am starting to get there with presenting, it still took a few takes to get the line feel right but I feel much more confident with the PTC's than I did at the start of the last unit where I did it for the first time. "By focusing on your look, your sound, and your expressions and gestures, you’ll not only feel more confident on camera, but project it too!"(vidyard, 2017)The last unit taught me a lot about being confident and getting back in front of the camera again was not as much of a worry.
George has been great with the camera over the last few projects I have worked with him on so I completely trusted him with the camera. The only thing I was trying to make sure is that the lighting was the same or at least very similar to the lighting we used in the same shots yesterday. After looking back at this I footage I realise that we had the light on quite a bit brighter in today's shot. This, of course, is an issue that is my fault and if I was to do it again, I would probably bring a reference shot to keep the lighting similar. Luckily these shots won't be side by side to each other so I doubt people will notice. But for me personally I am always looking to improve and that is one way I could.
After Ed had arrived we started filming, We placed a go pro at various locations around the pitch and George was walking around the pitch with the 2nd camera as we wanted to preserve the battery on the best camera. George did a great job in a tough situation with time-limited filming as well as the freezing conditions. I asked him to get a mixture of shots that I could use as cutaways and he did just that! I am not going to lie, I did envision a bit more time filming training, we only one hour out of the six that I had planned from the original schedule, but we did a great job and got pretty much everything I wanted.
With training done we only had one more thing to film which was the interview with a player. Luckily Helen remembered us from earlier and was happy for us to do an interview. Helen was also the person who originally got in contact with me about the project so it made sense to talk to her. We had two interviews with Helen, one talking about her career and one talking about what training is like. "When you’re working on small or personal projects, you’ll often find yourself in the perilous position of shooting interviews with only one camera. This can be tricky because you are limiting your angles of coverage and your ability to hide edits. Without a true second angle, if you’re going to cut the interview between talking points (and remove pauses, stutters, and “um”s), you’ll have to find creative cutaways or B-roll to cover. Here are some tips to help you out." (Shutterstock, 2017) I had planned to have a two camera set up but I had one good angle from George and I had a lot of footage to cut away too so I was not too worried. I would have liked a second angle but ut is not much of an issue thanks to the b-roll that has been filmed.
I personally thought these interviews went really well, the lighting was good, the camera work from George was good and I think my questions were interesting. I am happy that I finally was able to do these interviews I had been waiting for three days to do. There was so much worry about not doing these interviews and having a massive lack of content and Helen was great in front of the camera, especially as she has had such a successful career.
I was happy with how today went. Even though we did have hurdles to overcome to get everything filmed over the last two days, we did it and I am looking forward to editing it. I have one more shoot day on Sunday, filming the game that they have been training for. On Monday I will start editing and hopefully get a rough cut sorted by Wednesday. I have been so worried about not getting everything filmed, even though I will have to re-write most of the script we do have a lot of good content thankfully to create a good story!
Day 1 of filming for this commission was originally going to take place on Tuesday, however, due to some commitments of the general manager Ed, it had to be moved back to Wednesday.
This did mean I would have to film more footage on my final two days at the training session. Alex Hargood helped me with filming today and would be the main camera operator as I would be presenting the piece. I knew Alex would be great with the camera from the previous projects he has worked on. "Choosing the right cast and crew for your upcoming video production may not seem like a science, but there are key elements to keep in mind so the end product is successful. " (ambientskies,2016)
We arrived around two hours early and did a quick recce of the location as we could not access the training pitch before the team arrived. "Before you can start filming, it is not uncommon to visit the location to make sure it meets your production requirements from both a creative and practical point of view" (elementtwentysix, 2017)It was a very open area with no obvious trip hazard as well as being a very flat ground so everything looked very safe before we started filming. It was important to do this because I had not had the opportunity to recce before the day of shooting as the location is very far from my house.
Around 30 minutes before the team was scheduled to arrive we set up the cameras, setting white balance and ISO etc "Many photographers have been disappointed at the end of a shoot to find that they’d forgotten to check what ISO setting they’d left their camera on in their last shoot." (Digital Photography School, 2014) Alex suggested that we make the cameras look as similar as possible before shooting so that there would be less need for color correction when it comes to editing. We set up outside adjusting the cameras outside as we thought this would be where they would be used (this would not be the case) and we managed to nearly exactly match the colors, light etc on both cameras for outside conditions.
We expected to interview a few players so we would have a side view on a tripod and Alex would be filming an over the shoulder shot looking at the player, we discussed how it would be filmed and handheld seemed to make the most sense when filming an over the shoulder shot.
However nearly all of our plans where throw out the window once we met with Ed. Unfortunately, the club is going through a tough time and only a few players turned up for training. We also did not get told that today would not be an outside training session it would be more of training strength and conditioning. After we got the news we had to think on our feet to get something filmed today.
Ed suggested we talk to one of the injured players who had just got surgery, this was actually a great idea because it shows something different to what a lot of people think about when they think about football. " Sometimes the most interesting stories are hidden in the margins of other ones" (Film AV Club, 2014)This was obviously a change of plan but we did a great job of getting something filmed in a very tough situation. It actually was interesting to get to understand more about a subject that I had not planned for. In a way, this probably was actually more interesting than what I had planned. Alex and I both set up a tripod, Alex got the close up while I got the wide angle. It was a very tight area and we also had an additional 6 people in the room who were not being interviewed so it was a tough place to film.
Below are screenshots of the angles we got. We interviewed three players as well as the physiotherapist who gave us some great behind the scenes information about injuries that the general viewer would probably not know about. I think we did a very good job to adapt to the circumstances, we also acted very professional and filmed some really nice shots which will look good in the final piece. We also got some cutaway shots that will be used for then they are talking about injuries as it will make the interview more interesting.
I think we did the best job we could possibly do in this scenario. It was not planned in my original script which is most likely going to have to completely re-written due to circumstances out of my control, but I think in a way it may have made the documentary more interesting as it shows something that a lot of people do not think about. "Planning goes a long way in preparation, but, documentaries are notoriously slippery to wrangle into a schedule, since a new inspiration can lead the documentary into a direction never imagined." (ScriptMag, 2014) At first, I was worried this may hurt the documentary. But it worked out well and after the initial worry, I realised it would work.
I would obviously have loved to have stayed to my script because it would make it easier to edit, however with what is happening with the club recently it means it would be hard to have filmed everything I wanted. If I were to do this again I would probably have asked Ed exactly what was going on on each day's training so I could have planned my script and shooting schedule a little better, but that is a learning experience that I have taken already from this project. However, we must still admit with many of the players not attending training it would have been tough to plan anything for today's shoot.
We also filmed some shots of one of the players in the gym. She was one of only a couple of first teams players in today meaning it would be good to get shots of what she was doing in the gym and most likely I will overlay some voiceover. I liked that we went to the effort to get every shot possible. It was more or less 90 minutes of non-stop filming. We ran into difficulties with camera batteries though, with the "main" camera running very low on battery with a worry that it was going to run out. "If you’re shooting in the outdoors, you’d better have a least one extra battery for every camera that you own. Especially if you do any cold weather photography" (danbaileyphoto, 2014)This was important to know because it means I will most likely buy another battery to make sure we don't run into such battery related worries in the future. It seems silly but you never think it will be an issue until it actually happens. This has made me more aware that a second battery would always be handy.
Once we filmed everything we could do inside we wanted to film some of the pieces to camera. With a big script re-write ahead of me, I did have to think on my feet slightly about what. I looked at the script and talked to Alex about what he thought may be best, we decided to shoot all the possible PTC so that if I need them in the edit, I have them. We set up in three locations to make sure that it was not filmed in all the same place, this is because as we missed yesterday we had to still pretend we were there. This meant filming some parts as if they where the day before, which we hope people will not recognize. I researched into what conventions I should follow. I found this useful video which showed me a lot about being a presenter.
This is something ideally we would have not done but because of the unavailability of some of the club members, we could not attend. I was ready to record on Tuesday, but when the news came through on the Monday that we would not be filming I still wanted to make sure we got that footage as if it was Tuesday today.
We did struggle with lighting in this part of the shoot, it was pitch black anyway, but there were big lights lighting up the training pitch but they did not help us that much without the shoot. I did have a LED light on top of the camera which did help and made sure that my face did have some light on it, but we had to make sure we did not have the light on too high because then it looked unrealistic and pretty bad. We did have the training pitch as a backdrop in all three of the pieces to camera which was very good and on the theme, even though on Wednesday at least we did not actually have any outside training.
We got some last cutaway shots of me walking into the building which can be used to transition between scenes. Overall I think today we did a great job at working with what we got. We could not control the circumstances at the club meaning filming was very tough but we filmed enough to make it work in the project even though it does mean a big script re-write.
Alex was fantastic today, helping me film and also letting me know his thoughts on how certain shots should be done and we always found a shot that worked. Having two cameras helped get extra angles which will be a massive help in editing but we did have the issues with one camera om the last legs of its battery. The Tascam recorded some great audio and it was important that we used it as there was some wind and that would have been picked up if we had used the normal shotgun mic. Luckily I had done a lot of planning before shooting meaning even when a scenario like today happened, I had a lot of backup ideas and different ways of telling the story. It will be frustrating to re-do the script but it will be worth it.
