Pre Production - Starting Our Fundraiser

To help raise the much-needed funds for our project to become a reality, we created our fundraising page in late November 2018. I chose the website Kickstarter to raise funds as we wanted to give back to people who donated. Many other websites such as gofundme do not allow people to receive a gift for their kind donations. An example of how they are shown on the website is on the right and a full list of our reward tiers is below. We wanted to give gifts in return for funds as we hope this will convince people to donate. We have set aside £200 for shirts (£180) and poster printing (£20) and have a additional money set aside for the postage of each item.



Pledge £1 or more
You Just Want To Contribute

Pledge £5 or more
Your Name In Credits

Pledge £6 or more
Name In Credits w/ Social In Description

Pledge £10 or more
Behind The Scenes Photos And Videos

Pledge £20 or more
Signed Documentary Poster

Pledge £30 or more
Limited Edition T-Shirt

Pledge £45 or more
Limited Edition T-Shirt & Signed Poster

Pledge £100 or more
Join Us On A Edit Day! (Be A Producer!)

After deciding the fundraising tiers I wanted to film a promotional video which told possible donators about the story and why we are trying to tell it. I wanted to have more time planning and editing this trailer, but we had set ourselves a deadline to have our Kickstarter page online by the end of November. I was happy with the trailer and many backers have since said the trailer was what made them donate, as it clearly got the message across. I had written a script which gave George an idea about what shots I wanted to capture.

The Script & Trailer

Script (V/O):
My name is Alex Baldwin and I want to know how hard it is to follow your dreams.Since I was a child I have been a motorsport fanAnd this is a passion that has led me all over the world to watch my idols race.But one thing still burns deep, The dream of being a race car driver myself.I have tried in the past to accomplish this,but it was to no avail.This documentary is about my journey as I prepare for my first ever motor race.It will let me evaluate my passion for the sport and what stopped me from doing this sooner.There will be many challenges that I will face before I compete for real.My fitness, Money to race and a racing license to name a few.This is where your support can helpBy pledging a small donation you can us document the experience of a lifetimeAnd ensure our 3rd year University Documentary is a successYou can find various options on our kickstarter, chose one that suits youYour support is hugely appreciated, thank you for helping and see you soon.

Shot list:
Alex pulling up in car M/S
Alex sitting in car through window C/U
Alex getting out of car M/S
Alex standing on south bank looking around W/S & C/U
UCU of eyes
Alex sitting on barrier looking around (low angle) M/S
Alex walking to druids hairpin (from behind- following) M/S
Alex standing there as cars go around (Side profile of Alex @ druids) M/S
Pan of car going around while alex is watching M/S

This is the final video. You can see that I ended up changing a lot when it came to editing the trailer. I was still able to use the majority of the shots recorded, but I ended up having to use a lot of archive footage that I had captured earlier in the summer.

The reason for this was because the voice over took longer than expected, meaning the original shots did not cover the 75-second commentary. This was not an issue as it enabled me to show more shots of the car which helps show the viewer what the documentary is about.

The video went through a few versions in the editing phase. I re-recorded the voiceover on multiple occasions to ensure it was not too fast and clearly got the message across. I was happy with the overall video and it looked professional and suited our stories tone, even though it was shot in 90 minutes and planned a few days before. In the future, I would have liked to have more time for this, but under the circumstances, I was given, the video works really well.

Main Body of The Website

Kickstarter gives you the opportunity to clearly explain what your motives are for your project and we spent a long time as a group deciding how best to pitch our project. The conversations we had enabled us to create a clear and accurate description which further explained our ideas and the need for a fundraiser. This is what we collectively wrote as a group:


About Our Project

My name is Alex Baldwin, and together with my team I am going to be embarking on an ambitious 3rd Year university project. By the end of this year we are going to be putting together a 20 min documentary following my journey from a complete novice to following my dream of competing in a motorsport race. We want explore the challenges that I will have to overcome in this documentary, finding out exactly what it will take to make it in the world of motorsport. Giving viewers an insight into the intense requirements that you need to fulfill in terms of fitness, budget etc. Finding out just how hard it is to achieve your dream and reflecting on what stopped me before. In this documentary with the help of my team, we will delve deeper in to my passion for motorsport and my history with it… Our producer has identified the key tasks that will form the narrative of this documentary and if completed, will give me and the viewer a greater insight into this thrilling world.

We plan to shoot and produce a native 4K, professional short-documentary following me throughout the process as I gradually learn what it takes to be a motorsport racing driver. The documentary team consists of myself, Director of Photography Cailan Cook and Lead Producer George Nicholls - we plan to put together a 20 minute piece for our final year at University. In order to achieve the professional look we’re aiming for, we’ll be filming in multiple locations across the country, speaking to a variety of exciting contributors and making use of a variety of equipment, including:

1. Panasonic DVX200 Professional Video Camera (Industry Standard)
2. Panasonic Lumix FZ330 Camera
3. Panasonic Lumix G7 Camera 
4. Sony AX53 Video Camera 
5. Go-Pro Wide Angle Mini-Cameras (for usage inside vehicular scenes) 
6. Portable Clip-Mic’s w/ TASCAM (Industry Standard)

With your support, we can be certain that we document this truly personal story in the most effective way possible. By backing us here on Kickstarter, you will become an integral part of the production process, ensuring we’re able to execute on the vision we’ve had for this piece from the very start, perhaps you’ll even receive some goodies in exchange for your generous support!

If you cannot donate via Card, use this Paypal link: https://paypal.me/alexzafro

Please consider which reward tier you want and donate accordingly. If it includes the poster or t-shirt, please send your address along with the required tier money and £8 for Postage (Europe Only)

Risks and challenges
Our 3rd Year University project is about chasing your dreams. This, inherently, has some unique challenges which we will need to overcome.

I am a novice in the world of racing, which means I have a lot of tasks to complete before I race for the first time. Achieving a racing license, being fit to race and obtaining money to race are a few of the hurdles I will need to overcome. This will all be documented, which will help show my evolution as a person and a race driver. Afterwards, we will see if this experience was all I expected it to be and if I would have done anything differently.

I will have the personal challenge of understanding what stopped me from trying to achieve this earlier, which will delve more into me as a person and my family who got me into motorsport. This may bring out some memories and emotions I had never shared before!

-END OF DESCRIPTION-

Branding and Identity 

After clearly stating our projects intentions, I started creating some basic branding for the Kickstarter. I had done some similar for my website which enabled me to understand the style, but our aim was for our branding to be bold. I first chose this image, but quickly realised when importing it into the project, that the picture needed to be 16:9 in landscape orientation, so we had to choose a different image.

After some time in photoshop adapting some images that were taken of me when I was karting, I completed this image which we used for our Kickstarter page. The picture is dramatic and the bold text gives a clear indication of what the subject of this documentary is. The blue shadow on the text enables it to stand out and add another layer to a dramatic poster. The importance of strong branding is to show the tone of the project as well as it's professionalism. This along with the trailer I created, enabled us to have a fundraising page with a lot of information and visual material.

After our branding was complete we were ready to launch our project. We had worked effectively to have a fundraising page that had a lot of effort put into it. We know the effort put into the page will draw in possible donators as it is visually pleasing and shows our concept well. We were wary of sharing a basic fundraising campaign with little effort, as we knew it would detract from the professionalism of the project. Time spent creating a well thought out campaign will hopefully bring in more donators.

The project launched and had great support from the very first days. We received just under £200 in the first 3 days, already going through the 1/4 goal. We were very happy with this early progress and time spent creating a visually pleasing and well thought out campaign helped lead to these donations. We have until the end of January to reach our £800 goal if we do not reach that goal our project will not have succeeded. If that is the case we will not get any money as Kickstarter runs an "ALL OR NOTHING" policy to help protect donators. We are confident we can reach the goal and we believe the time spent creating this page would be worth it. 

Update - Monday 10th December

Our early success on Kickstarter continued as we have now received over £350 of our £800 goal. We are still less than 2 weeks into our 8-week fundraiser and to have made this much progression has enabled us to be very confident that we will reach our goal.

We have had contact with a number of people who said they will donate in the next few weeks and we will continually share the page to help create further backing.

We are aware there may be an influx of donations after Christmas, as people will be saving their money for that. We hope to get a boost in the new year to hit our eventual goal. Overall, progress has been fantastic and we are excited to see what further donations we receive.

Pre Production - Research Into Presenters of Autobiographical Documentaries

In this blog, I am going to further my knowledge of the presenters who create autobiographical documentaries and go on a journey of some sort. I started by looking at Stacey Dooley Investigates: Shot by my neighbour. This is an episode from a larger series in which Stacey looks into a subject, that may be somewhat taboo or obscure, and make the general public aware of this issue. Like a lot of the documentaries I have studied, it is aimed at a younger audience. It is broadcast on BBC Three which has a target demographic of 16-35. This is useful as this demographic is who I am aiming my documentary towards.

While Stacey does start the documentary with a voiceover, we quickly see her on screen doing a PTC. This helps the viewer understand the topic matter before they get to know the presenter. However, most of Stacey's documentaries are aimed at a specific audience as we mentioned, so many people would have already known her before the documentary started, hence we do not need a large introduction for the presenter. This will be a little different for me as I have not made many presenter-led pieces before so I may need to introduce myself a little more than Stacey so that the audience is aware of who I am and what I am about. As I have seen in the large majority of my research, she also addresses the person behind the camera, most likely the producer, instead of talking to the camera. This feels much more authentic and less staged. I had already made my mind up, that I would address the producer rather than the camera because I feel it enables the viewer to see more of the story. When you address the camera it feels like the whole story has been manufactured and planned. On our various test shots, we have seen that addressing the camera did not work and felt like it was being forced, which would be hard to control throughout.

The use of General View shots to show the movement of time is more relevant to my understanding of the role of director rather than my role as a presenter. When talking about a topic it may be hard to find super-relevant footage to show. Showing a town centre is a common way of moving time along and allowing the presenter to do a voiceover, filling the viewer in on information that may have been missed. This is something I feel I had struggled with in previous projects, as I never seemed to have enough footage to use when a voice over was needed. Sometimes that footage does need to be relevant to the subject being spoken about, but sometimes just a GV of the relevant city can help move the story along. I have included this in my research, shared with my team, so that we make sure to capture similar footage, even if it not used.

Facial expressions seem to be something that makes interview scenes particularly powerful in presenter-led documentaries. When you see an emotion in the presenter, you are brought into the story by them and you start to understand them better. This is a way for presenters to share feelings with viewers without saying anything. It has been shown that in many circumstances, silence is more powerful than noise so a simple gesture can evoke emotional response in the viewer. This is something I may struggle with, especially right away. It may be hard to read my emotions in certain scenes and I need to be able to share my feelings with the viewer, otherwise a potentially strong element of the story will be lost. One way I may be able to overcome this issue is by doing extra test shoots and reviewing the footage to see what happens when I speak naturally. This will allow me to learn from my mistakes and improve as a presenter, and hopefully show the person I really am. 

Something I disliked in Stacey Dooley Investigates was the number of times we saw the presenter walking on screen. A lot of the shots used to transition scenes were done by the presenter aimlessly walking around. I personally do not think this is a very good way to transition and it got very repetitive after the first couple of times. While walking between scenes can be a great way of moving the story along, it happened far too often in this documentary. It also wasted time we may have been able to spend bonding with the characters she was meeting. They could have used an L Cut here and instead of her walking, we could see her meeting up with the next group of people, giving them more time on screen. Once again, as a presenter, you are told where to walk and what to do, but as a director, I see this approach as slightly lazy. They are clearly planned shots trying to fill a gap, but they happen too frequently and it becomes apparent that this is their main, possibly only, way of moving the story along outside interviews. The voiceover on scenes like this do work well, as it gives the viewer information they may not have, but I personally feel they should have tried to be a little more creative when transitioning between scenes.

I feel Stacey always handles the interviews she does really well. She always tries to find common ground with the interviewee, even if they are on the opposing side. This enables her to speak her mind and ask the questions that she really wants to. By trying to have an emotional connection between herself and the interviewee, it allows them to open up and show their side of the story. This is a slightly different tactic to Louis Theroux for example, as he goes in with a very blunt question and almost tries to trigger a response from the interviewee. Both are effective, but I think I can learn more from Stacey as, in my documentary, the issue is not one of opposing or controversial views so I won't be speaking to people on differing sides of an issue. I need to have that connection with the interviewee to enable me to get the best out of them and help me relax into a role relatively new to me.

As the majority of interviews are clearly set up before the Stacey Dooley documentary starts filming, it allows her as the presenter to have prior knowledge of the subject matter and personal issues before she asks questions. This enables her to immediately connect and understand the tone for each question. For example, she speaks slightly differently towards the good people than the bad, whereas Louis Theroux speaks to everyone the same, which also has its benefits. However, having prior knowledge of your interviewee will be vital for myself as a presenter as it will allow me to be more confident when asking questions. As I am relatively new to presenting, that will be a massive boost for me, because I need to be comfortable in that role.

Something I admire about Stacey is her commitment to the story and how she puts herself into potentially risky situations to get the best and most honest version of the story possible. The whole documentary was leading up to an interview which had been cancelled multiple times throughout the film, so we started to wonder if it was ever going to happen. But she is put into the back of a van and taken to a discreet location to do the interview. This shows the big personal risk she is willing to take to share the story. This shows how important the story is to her personally. I admire that dedication to telling the story. While my documentary does not feature anything as risky as what Stacey did, it shows me that, as a presenter, you need to be emotionally connected to the issue to demonstrate its importance to the viewer. I hope this will show in my documentary as I have a massive passion for motorsport and if I conduct myself like I do in the rest of my life, I hope that passion will shine through.

The ending in Stacey Dooley Investigates is somewhat weaker than I would have expected. The Voiceover provides a strong message but the final piece to camera feels slightly out of place. It ends on a cliffhanger which does enable the documentary to have the "watercooler" effect and get people speaking about it. However, from the presenter's point of view, I feel like I would want to have a more meaningful ending than a slightly dull PTC which resulted in a slightly confusing and not very hard-hitting conclusion. This shows me that as a presenter the ending is probably one of the most important parts. I am developing some ideas about possible thought-provoking endings which I hope will trigger an emotional response from me after the race is complete. Overall, I feel the ending should be powerful and leave you either with questions or a specific conclusion. The problem with the Stacey Dooley documentary is that it didn't really do either very well.

DRIFT QUEEN
The second documentary I looked at was Episode 1 of "Drift Queen" Created by Red Bull Media House. This documentary is relevant to our subject matter of motorsport which allowed me to strike some greater similarities than in Stacey Dooley's series. The general idea of the documentary is to follow the presenter (Becky) on her journey into racing drift cars. We get shown her history of racing as a child along with chats with her father which help cement the story. I will mostly be looking at this episode from the view of learning more about presenting. However, at the same time, I want to understand more about how they structured the narrative.

The documentary starts off with a voiceover by Becky introducing the story and her history and experiences with the sport. She also highlights what the aims of the documentary are at the very start. This enables the viewers to engage with the story and allows them to understand the point of the documentary. I think this opening scene allows us to know the presenter right away. We start to form an opinion of her as she opens up about her experiences. I definitely learned that in my script I need to go further into detail about what is going to happen in my documentary. In my original draft of the script, I did not allow enough explanation which could easily lead viewers to be confused as to what the film was all about. Through understanding this I have adjusted the script to include more information in the introduction. As a presenter/contributor this will be vital in enabling the viewer to connect with me and actually care about the story I am trying to tell.

My problem with the Drift Queen opening voiceover, however, is it is delivered in a very unnatural way and seems rather forced which left me as a viewer slightly bewildered and gave me the wrong impression of her as a presenter. The voiceover was not rushed but it seemed almost like she was shouting at us. It is forced upon the viewer rather than engaging the viewer in the story. The voiceover still gives us context to help move the story along, but the delivery was off-putting, even when watching for a second and third time. This is a great lesson for me as a presenter. The tone of the documentary needs to fit the voiceover that is produced after all the filming is complete. At first, I did not feel a connection with Becky as the opening voiceover was so bad, but as the story evolves, it allows us into her life and we make that connection with her. This is an important lesson as people could form their opinion in the opening minute and get the wrong impression. I will work hard with the team to ensure the tone is consistent throughout which will enable the viewer to be emotionally invested in the story and me from the very beginning.

While the opening voiceover has a lot that could be improved on, the first piece to the camera we see is much better and allows us to start to see the real personality. She does not directly address the camera in this sequence, but I know from her previous work, as a YouTube content creator, that she normally does. However, this is understandable in this scene, as she is driving. The documentary definitely could have taken two approaches. It could have not acknowledged the camera (like we are doing) or it could directly address the camera enabling the viewer to feel like they are more involved in the creation. The reason that I feel this works well for DRIFT QUEEN is that the series omits a lot of the personal side of the story and we are not as emotionally invested in Becky as I am hoping to be in my documentary. Therefore, as we do not delve far into Becky's life, we are invited into the discussion, not through questions posed, but rather through being directly told information and then deciding if we agree or not. The reason I want to differ my route and filmic style and presentation is that our story is more about my story and my dreams rather than the event itself. DRIFT QUEEN focuses more on the action and less on the personal story and uses its direct PTC’s to try and involve us. I want to create less of a forced connection between the viewer and the presenter, and one that develops as the presenter does on screen.

I was not a fan of the consistent blatantly staged sequences. I agree that it enables the film to be more stylistic and include some more unique angles, but not letting a story play out naturally dented its authenticity. They keep trying to build up this emotional connection between the viewer and the presenter and then detract from it in other ways. The planned and overtly staged interviews meant that we did not see the real Becky. The moment with her father is probably the most natural, it does a good job at trying to pull on the heartstrings of the viewer and show a purpose of the story, but it still felt too staged. This is a great lesson for myself as the presenter because I need to be able to open up to the camera in a natural way. Although I need to stay on track with the story, the viewer should be able to connect with me and the story better if it is pieced together through memories, rather than creating artificial situations.

For me, some of the strongest moments of Becky's presenting comes when she is directing herself towards the camera, by herself. This is when we open up to her and understand her a little more. While voiceover and staged interviews show a rather PR/Robotic side, when it is just her and the camera, we see her personality. I am not sure if this is because she is a novice at presenting or whether she does not feel in her comfort zone when around others. Her personality comes alive when she is alone on screen. This scene is also relevant to our documentary, as her pieces to camera are similar to our "diary room" sequences where I open up about my past and engage the viewer with our story. While they will be presented to the viewer in a stylistically different way, they get the same point across. I think this shows me as a presenter that I need to know myself and how it is best to capture my personality and emotions on screen. Speaking directly to a camera would be something I may struggle with as I am inexperienced. However, if it is shot like a chat, it will enable me to be in my conform zone a little more, which will allow the stories to be more authentic and naturally delivered on camera.

What slightly confuses me about the Drift Queen documentary was that the simple visuals (a piece to camera on a tripod in her room) are mixed with highly cinematic clips which seem like a rather sharp contrast. As a viewer, I was left confused as it went from lots of movement and very clever cinematography to some basic shots very quickly. I know you need a mixture of both in any documentary, but the way they are placed makes it seem like they had planned for the PTC's to be shot differently, as they are very basic. If they are meant to be a "dear diary", then editing effects such as classic tape layovers and some fake grain would at least allow the viewer to distinguish between the story moving forward and the recap of micro-moments throughout. From the role of a presenter, however, this scene is well delivered and the storytelling is clear. I can learn from Becky's natural delivery to the camera (in this scene) I know I will need to practice a lot before we start filming to ensure that I am fully "out of my shell" and telling my stories in the best possible way. This does not mean rehearsing stories, but working on my delivery so that the PTC's actually have weight and improve the story. Thinking about scenarios and saying the lines to myself and understanding different ways they can be delivered will help achieve the tone we are trying to create.

When Becky is alone speaking to the camera she has a great on-screen presence. I think the whole problem with this series is it is all "over-scripted". This enables no freedom within the story and makes the story and journey of the presenter worthless when the story is decided before the event starts. I don't think the issue in this documentary lies with the presenter, rather the scriptwriter and director which puts a huge emphasis on a strict order of events. I still enjoyed this series as a motorsport fan, but looking at it analytically, I was disappointed as it made so many rookie errors. Becky as a presenter turns into someone we do connect to, but not as much I would have liked. I think this is restricted by a very tight script which was not deviated from. I think the documentary could have been shot in a similar way but I would have liked the team to have let Becky show her character through more personal subjects, such as why she stopped competing in the first place?, what was her dads feeling towards her new passion?, why is she doing this now? Even touching on these subjects would have allowed for a better performance from Becky and a more personal story. I think if I allow myself to open up to the camera and share my stories, it will give the story more meaning. This is the whole reason for us including the "diary room" sequences in our documentary, but after watching this, I feel we should do even more recounting memories scenes, possibly some on location as well. These stories are the reason why the end goal has importance, so we want as many as possible!

Researching these two documentaries has allowed me to learn a lot about how to conduct myself and also shown me how I need to ensure natural stories come out rather than through scripted moments. These documentaries have also helped me understand how my roles as director and writer will affect my performance as a presenter. This knowledge will enable me to write a better script and ensure the final production is the story it deserves to be.

Pre Production - CASE STUDY: DRIVEN - THE BILLY MONGER STORY

CASE STUDY: DRIVEN - THE BILLY MONGER STORY

A recent BBC 3 documentary came to my attention which was "DRIVEN - THE BILLY MONGER STORY". Not only was this a documentary about motorsport and someone who let nothing get in their way, but also one shot and filmed in a way very similar to what I was planning. This is perfect research going forward for my documentary.

The majority of documentaries that I have been researching, give us a flash forward to an important moment later on. Knowing this, it slightly threw me off when this one started with a background history of Billy growing up and his progression through the motorsport ladder. This was mostly formed of archive footage, of which a lot was professionally filmed by ITV4's content team. This background knowledge is very important as some viewers will not know Billy's story and this style of storytelling enables them to grasp a better understanding of him and his personality through this material. As motorsport is a niche subject they needed to try and show a more relatable side which is why they focussed on Billy. This research definitely made me think carefully about how I should start my documentary. I had been convinced that I should start with a flash-forward but after seeing this it did make me think of ways I could use flashbacks at the start. One way is me sitting in my Diary Room explaining my past, but I am not sure that this would engage the viewer enough. I also lack any high-quality material from 15 years ago, and therefore, even though this scene in the Billy Monger show is beautifully crafted, I don't think it is an idea I want to take forward and use in my project.

Something that this documentary did which was different to the majority that I have researched, is that the contributor directly addresses the camera on multiple occasions. There are similar shots for his sister, mum and dad which all recall past memories, much like my Diary Room sequences. Personally, I am not a fan of them looking directly at the camera as this breaks any sort of illusion that what is being said is spontaneous and natural. These scenes made me as a viewer feel uncomfortable because it felt they were speaking at me. I think that if you want a contributor to appear natural you should have them looking off to the side of the camera, towards a producer. Direct to camera speaking does have its positive aspects though, one of which is that it is very personal. The reason most filmmakers do not do this for interviews with contributors is that it breaks the feeling of reality and feels too scripted or pre-planned. Viewing this scene has not changed my opinion on how I could film my Diary Room sequences. Through my reference material and research, to get the directorial approach that I am going for, we want to shoot the contributors looking towards a producer, so the viewer is left "eavesdropping" on the conversation which feels much more natural. I get why they did this style in the Billy Monger documentary as they want the viewer to take note and evaluate themselves, but I personally feel these scenes would have had more of a positive impact on me if they were directed towards someone off camera.

The voiceover in this documentary really works well as it is done by Billy himself. In similar documentaries, like the Chris Hoy to Le Mans one I looked into, there is a Voice of God which creates a disconnect between the viewer and the main contributor. Even though Billy's voiceover lacks a little enthusiasm, it works much better than a VOG as we connect to him as a viewer so much more. This reinforces my choice of doing the voiceover myself in my documentary. I had contemplated a VOG, but from the reference material that I have seen, it never works as well as when the presenter/contributor does it themselves. Through my research I now know I want my documentary to be voiced over by me, but we will try and limit the amount of voiceover to avoid creating the impression that there is a presenter. The voiceover is in the script, but we know that what is actually said will change as we progress. We have also made sure to allocate time right at the end of our documentary for voiceover work.

The vast amount of actuality sequences enable us to connect with Billy in his documentary and we basically live his life throughout the film. This enables us to go deeper into his attitude to everything and we learn about his situation through things he does. Of course, some of the context is brought to us through voiceover and PTC, but a large part of it is through these sequences where he is just living his life. Watching this really helped me understand how I can bring a sense of uncertainty into my project. My script as written didn’t give the viewer the sense of "is it going to happen?" So, after watching this I have gone back to my script and changed it to create that uncertainty in actuality sequences. For example, I might get told by a trainer "You need to lift a 40kg weight otherwise you will not be strong enough to race". This scenario sets itself up for a succeed or fail moment later on. I need to have a few of these placed throughout the documentary so the viewer can engage with my challenge and see what I am doing to overcome them, rather than just simply being told.

As Billy is playing the role of the contributor, but also to an extent the presenter, it means that he floats between being very formal and very relaxed when being asked a question from the producer behind the camera. I like the fact that Billy does everything, including the voiceover, but it is clear that he was not given a lot of time to perfect the voiceovers. The PTC and actuality sequences are really well presented and Billy comes off very well in these, but in the voiceovers, he did seem to struggle. This is definitely a case of Billy not having much experience resulting in inconsistencies. I would have liked it as a viewer if the commentary engaged us as much as the rest of the show does. It is also worth noting that a lot of the PTC sequences are shot as either a CU or a UCU meaning we have a very close look at Billy's feelings. This bold shot choice leaves the viewer no choice but to connect with his emotions. This was done to great effect as it is one of the few documentaries I have ever watched that I feel like I could feel his pain along with him and his family. While our documentary is not covering an issue as deep as Billy's, the choice of shots is still very important. I will be choosing the shot that I think is right for each scene, but it will need some creativity and quick reactions from the crew to capture them correctly. If they see a moment of particular emotion I would expect them to zoom in and get a shot which gives more impact, rather than staying on a wide shot if that was planned. It is clear throughout all of my reference material that movement of the camera does not matter so much provided the right emotions are captured on screen.




Through each sequence, we are able to gain a deeper understanding of each of the 4 main contributors. (Mum, Dad, Sister and Billy) These miniature character profiles of each person allow the documentary to have further meaning than if it was just Billy by himself. I found myself particularly connected to Billy's mother as she showed a wide range of emotions through the documentary. When these are shown it heightens the drama of the project and gives the end result more meaning. This allowed me to re-think my script and decide to add more personal moments between myself and my family in my script. I want the viewer to understand why this is important to me and one of the best ways I can show that is through my parent's emotions. I have already added a scene with my Dad at Brands Hatch where we revisit the location of my first ever motor race and after watching this documentary I am tempted to add a scene where I ask my Mum questions about my challenge. These extra additions should allow the viewer to connect with my story on an even more personal level.

An interesting technique used throughout is the use of pauses after some of Billy's statements. At first, you may think this is bad editing but when you think about it, these are moments of silence for the viewer to reflect on what has been said and take in that information. As some of what Billy says is very powerful, you need those moments of silence to fully understand the situation and, without them, the effect could be lost in the rapid changes between scenes. This documentary has undoubtedly made me question my script more than any other I have watched. Its relation to mine is almost uncanny and I can learn so much from it. After realising the power that these moments of silence bring us, I know that I need to allow some time after specific scenes. As I am writing the script, I am unsure exactly what will be said, but I can have a very good guess at where these moments will occur. Once again, it requires thought from the camera operators to understand this and not cut the recording as soon as the question has been answered. As the main contributor, it also makes me realise that I need to leave gaps after each question to allow for that silence. As I am new to the world of interviewing, it would be easy for me to jump in with another question, but thankfully I have seen this which has enabled me to learn that vital piece of information.

The last big thing that I noticed about this documentary is its use of sound. They spent a lot of time in the edit to make sure that the music is appropriate and heightens the impact in each scene. I would assume they had an idea of the music for some scenes, like the triumphant moment when Billy gets a podium on his return to racing following his crash. Only in the edit can you truly visualise the video along with the music you had in mind. It is something that we have learned throughout the university, but of course, it is even more prominent now. Sound design is so important as it can turn a good film into a great one and so on. Once I am able to see the recorded footage I will be able to visualise what music I think would work. Then as a team, we can decide what we should go with. This is something that in the scripting process, I can write as simply "Music". But over time and as I get an idea of how each scene will work within the wider context of the film, I can then decide which tone of music I should use.

I am so happy the Billy Monger documentary aired while I was in the pre-production process for my project. There are so many areas of this documentary that I have learned from, it has helped me transform my script, along with great guidance from my tutors. When shooting our documentary, I will be sure to keep telling my crew about specific scenes in this documentary, which will be a great reference for what they should film and how they should do it. My only main gripe with the documentary is how the "Diary Room PTC" is shot. I think looking directly into the camera is powerful and allows the viewer no choice to look elsewhere, but I think these shots feel intrusive, and almost feel too personal which I think negatively effects the documentary. If they were looking off camera it would create a more raw or real feeling, rather than staring at the viewer which seems rather forced and different to the rest of the documentary. They are not terrible sequences, but after viewing them, I would personally change them to off-camera sequences, I think it would allow the viewer to feel less intrusive and less awkward. It was a little too intense, especially regarding the subject matter.

Pre Production - Tagline, Summary, Pitch & Overview of Events

TAGLINE: In this documentary, I will find out how hard is it to follow one of your dreams?


25 WORD PITCH: I'm on a journey to see how hard it is to follow your dreams. Experience my adventure of a lifetime on my pursuit to achieve a life's ambition.

SUMMARY: I will be going on a journey to complete a dream that I have thought about my whole life. I start as a complete novice and through professionals and application, I will gain the knowledge needed to achieve my dream of becoming a race car driver. The story will be pushed by a narrative of my childhood memories and my attempts to fulfil this dream earlier. There will be many obstacles I need to overcome to achieve my dream, without these events happening, it will not happen. 

OUTSIDE SUMMARY: This documentary will start with a flash forward to the race day of the event. The opening sequence will be quiet at first when giving some establishing shots. However soon after, the music will rise and speed and drama will be shown via a mix of shots of the car on the track. This opening scene will be designed to intrigue the viewer and give a hint at what is to come. The title sequence and explanation of my challenge will then follow.

The documentary will then go into more about my first introduction into motorsport and why it became such an important passion that has stuck since. These will be visualised in "Diary room" sequences where I will speak to the director in a staged room full of photos from my past. In these sequences placed multiple times throughout the documentary, the viewer will be able to have a greater understanding of my story and why I want to achieve this goal. The aim of these sequences is partly to challenge me as a presenter and allow me to speak about situations that led to this dream never happening at an early age and for a profession. 

I will also visit multiple significant locations throughout the documentary which are involved in my story of being a motorsport fan. Two of the most significant locations are Brands Hatch, where I went with my Dad to watch my first ever motor race. The other is Filching Manor when I went Karting at the age of 11 and it was my first time driving a vehicle. I will re-visit Brands Hatch with my Dad and we will recall our favourite memories of watching Motorsport together. At the kart track, I will explain my emotions when driving a vehicle on track and why I have always wanted to go the next step and race a car. 

This documentary will also feature some important interviews along the way. They will be filmed like an actuality sequence, myself and the interviewee will be doing something while speaking (if possible) which enable these sequences to be less staged. I will speak to professional race drivers about their struggles in finding financial funding and why that affecting their decisions when becoming a race car driver. I will speak to young karters about their journey into motorsport and let the documentary question what stopped me from doing racing as a child. I will also have a feature interview with a racing driver who suffered a horrible crash in 2017. He had to have both legs amputated and his story about "never giving up" will be inspirational as well as showing his attitude to not let anything get in the way of him achieving his dreams. These will link back to the diary room sequences and how my past decisions may have left me no choice but not to take motorsport more seriously at an earlier age.

While it is a documentary about "achieving dreams" we want to highlight some of the technical sides of motorsport. These topics include finding money to race, obtaining the fitness level to race, achieving the race license needed. These will be the sequences that will heighten the jeopardy of this documentary. There will be a sense of unrest when attempting to overcome these hurdles as they are all needed to prepare me for the final race. The importance of the final race will have been broadcast through the sequences remembering the past and visiting old locations, these are giving the context and meaning for me to push myself to overcome the hurdles set in front of me. As the viewer would have had the backstory through these old scenes, the happiness or sadness will be understandable depending on how each "hurdle" goes.

Throughout the documentary, we will also have snippets of information through voiceover or moments where I am speaking to the producer. These will not be direct pieces to camera as I will address the producer and look towards him. These scenes will enable me to transition from topic to topic and also allow the viewer into my mind and my thoughts through these opinions. The presence of the producer's voice will be heard throughout, but we will probably never see him.

This whole documentary will climax with the final race, assuming all situations beforehand go to plan. The race day will be the focal point of the documentary and my plan is to build up to the race by showing my reactions in the morning and on the way to the track. This nervous tension will then have meaning because of the narrative structure before it. We will follow me on the day of the event and get a mixture of on-track shots to be mixed in with shots of me waiting to take over the car for my half of the race. Once I am in the car we will focus on me out on the track and get some in-car audio of my reactions while going around. This scene will be visually pleasing with a mixture of speed/energy and slow-motion shots. This scene will be very cinematic but will include some shots of Sam (my teammate) in the garage as well as some of me in the car Via a Go Pro. After the race is done I want to show the raw emotions of achieving a life's ambition. After the race will mostly be about me coming to the realisation that it's complete.

The final events to take place in the documentary will be one last Diary room sequence where Geoge asks me “Now that you have finished the race, do you regret not asking your parents to race as a child?”... After my answer or non-answer, we will cut to a voiceover to quickly sum up what has happened and pose the question if we have succeeded in our task. The final voiceover will be personal and allow me to reflect on the journey and how it has changed me. The documentary will then cut to the credits and complete.

Pre Production - TIMELINE OF EVENTS

1 - SEQ Flash Forward: Start of the race, Action/Montage/Speed/Fixation on Intensity of Race

2 - V/O “My name is Alex Baldwin and I want to know how hard it is to follow your dreams. But to understand how this all started, we need to go back 3 months to where this all began.”

3 - SEQ Doorbell Rings, Walking into Cailan's House, Various Shots of Group Chatting w/ audio softened

4 - “PTC” Alex “So, I have this idea”

5 - DIARY ROOM “Since I was young, Motorsport has been a part of my life. My dad introduced me to the sport when I was in primary school and I have followed it ever since. I have always had this dream of giving it a go myself. But how hard is it to actually race a car? This documentary is going to show my journey from a complete novice, to achieving my dream of competing in a motor race”

6 - SEQ Walking down to Karting track entrance. PTC “So this is where it all started. This is where I got my first taste of driving on a track. I was…. 11 Years old I think, I came here to my local kart track with my parents to give it a go.”

7 - V/O or OOV (cutting back to be at the side of the track) with shots of me going around track: “There is something special when you’re out on track, The rush of adrenaline, The speed and the sense of freedom you don’t get from driving on the road.

8 - V/O Most top racing drivers have raced professionally since they were 5 or 6 years old. I think to fully understand what I need to do before taking part in my first race, I’m going to speak to some young karters who are at the start of their careers.

9 - INT Various Interviews with Kart drivers who talk about why they started to go karting, what are their aims and what did they find was the biggest challenge when racing for the first time?

10 - V/O It was pretty obvious that to be successful in motorsport you had to have a lot of dedication to it. I wanted to start off by seeing if my fitness was going to be an issue. So I’ve come to ….. In …… so they can tell me

11 - SEQ showing how fit I am and what I would need to work on before the main race.

12 - PTC CAR SHOT “Wow…. I didn’t realise that there would be so much work needed before starting my first motor race. I guess it’s time to take my fitness and eating habits a little more seriously before the big race”

13- DIARY ROOM/PTC MIX The first motor race that I ever saw in person was the British GT in 2004 at Brands Hatch. I must have been just 8 years old. I remember driving into the infield car park and the noise was insane. (Quick Montage cutaway clip of noise) For some reason, I distinctly remember the car that won that day, a Red Porsche. It always brings back great memories when I am here as this is where it all began.

Sequence sitting on south bank “from here you could see a lot of the track. I remember my dad parking us up and walking around peering through the catch fence….. It feels strange that in just a few months I’ll be on the other side of that fence.

14- SEQ emergency team meeting George: “So we have known for a long time that this is going to cost a lot of money and I think we should find a way to help cover the cost” (fading out) V/O “Motorsport is not a cheap sport, to race professionally for multiple seasons, it will cost millions. You simply cannot do this without the backing from companies or friends and family. To understand how we should go about finding sponsors, I spoke to some racing drivers who have managed to find backing to support their dreams”

15- INT Multiple Drivers Talking about finding sponsorship

16- SEQ/VO “It would be really tough to take if we could not maximise the opportunity to race because of the budget, but that is the reality of motorsport. No Money, No Race. Along with the production team, we have sent off a lot of emails and had many phone calls to try and secure some funding. It’s not going to be a simple process, but we can hope for the best. Hopefully, we will have some positive messages soon!

17- SEQ Fitness Update

18- SEQ “So we have recently got the schedule through for the 2019 racing season. It let’s me know that the track I will be racing at is …….. This gives me the opportunity to start learning the track via a gaming simulator.” Including shots of the game, hand movements, pedals, eyes focusing. “With enough practice, I will be able to find out my braking points as well as any areas of the track that could be good for overtaking opportunities

19- INT - Drivers speaking about what they have learned when training on a simulator

20- SEQ - Setting lap time on the game to compare just before the race

21- SEQ/INT - Chatting with friends and relatives, proving what motorsport means to ALEX

22- SEQ - Mail coming through, running upstairs. Filling out license form & explaining why its important. Explaining thoughts on it all

23- SEQ - A few weeks later…. (Exercise/Sim Work/Emailing quick cut?) Entering the circuit to do a racing license. Including scenes with medical. Shots in and around the car while the license is happening. Exterior shots proving speed and action. Scene hopefully ending with a license in hand.

24- DIARY ROOM G/C “so what does it feel like now you know you will definitely be racing in a few weeks, now that the license is confirmed” Alex Answers

25- SEQ/MONTAGE The last few months have certainly tested me both physically, mentally and financially. After some great discussions with sponsors, I have been able to receive some funding for this race. We also had an amazing amount of support by people on the Kickstarter page. I have been practising the track every single day on my simulator which has really helped me understand the track. Little PTC “Oh I have improved by… seconds”. I have also increased my training over the past months and I hope to see an improvement as I head back to the training centre.

26- SEQ Training Center Looking at how I have hopefully improved

27- SEQ Equipment coming through the door & going to Trackday

28- SEQ The importance of a trackday and why I am doing it

29- INT Final Advise From Drivers / Bruno showing what to do on the track

30- DIARY ROOM Final Thoughts before the race

31- SEQ Race Day - Getting Up, Travelling to track, meeting the team, Preparation work, looking around the car, Qualifying, Lunch, Putting kit on, ready to race (silence, heartbeat?), Montage of RACE mixed with opinions from the pitlane and also via driver who is micced up, shots of the car, team in garage, friends and family, Finally car crossing line, coming into the pits, celebrations, (podium?!), photos being taken, hugging family members, silence.

32- V/O with shots of the whole story + race “So what does it take to achieve your dreams? Hard Work Dedication, probably a lot of money, support of your peers” So what next? How can you beat it? Well, this journey starts all over again, what's the next dream, the next challenge, who knows what life will throw back at you?

33- Credits

Pre Production - 2nd Presentation and Afterthoughts

Today was a chance to update our side of the group on our projects. I compiled a list of things I needed to include and the presentation and separated them into 4 sections

1. What has changed
2. Location Scouting
3. Scripting
4. Research

I also included a final slide with my intentions for the project ahead and what I will be focusing on. The presentation went well and I think I elaborated on the points that are most important for the success of this project.

Feedback was better than expected as well. Most people thought to have my Dad (or another family member... or friend/s) as a contributor was a good idea as it adds another layer of meaning to the story was important. I also had feedback about the slight adjustment to the story and I am happy that was well received. I feel the update to a more open theme will allow a wider audience than if I decided this would be a documentary specifically about motorsport. 

Other feedback I got was about shortening my pitch, I can condense it and make it more personal if I change "The contributor" to "I" or myself. People also mentioned that a good way to transition scenes would be through the use of my "diary room" sequences. I had never really thought about them as a way to transition but it is a good point I can use to my advantage. There are still scenarios where the transition from scene to scene needs to be updated, however.

Overall, I am happy with where the project is at. I have worked hard on the script over the past weeks and it is making some strong progress. I will be starting my website soon which will allow me to visualise all of my research and tests. However, I still have some work to be completed before I can set the website Live. Something I had on my "do-to list" is contact directors/writers and presenters and get a first-person opinion on how they do their roles. I was very anxious a few weeks ago about this project but the last few sessions have allowed me to flesh out the story and adapt it into a piece that I really can connect to. There is still work to be done, but I am happy that it is going in the right direction. 

Pre Production - CASE STUDY - Joe Weller's Boxing Documentary

CASE STUDY - Joe Weller's Boxing Documentary

A documentary that inspired me from the very start was a boxing documentary by Joe Weller. When I first watched it I loved the story and how it was told. But for my research, I wanted to use it as a case study and pick the good from the bad and decide what I can really take from this documentary. The documentary is called "JOE WELLER: FIGHTER" and is based on the same boxing match featured in the True Geordie Documentary which I also looked at as a case study for this unit.

The reason why all of these documentaries inspire me and made me want to create a documentary for myself was the journey that the people went on, along with the sacrifices and lessons learned. Storytelling through a documentary is very powerful and new media (like youtube) is giving people an opportunity to share stories that would not have been possible in the past.

I found it very interesting that this documentary, like many I have watched so far, starts with a flash-forward to the day of the main event. This is the case with the majority of documentaries that follow a cinematic approach. It is a way for the documentary director to try to heighten the tension of the story and give it impact from the outset. I have seen enough of these documentaries, and how they start, to believe that the best way for my documentary to start is with a flash-forward to the race day. While this documentary includes a flash forward, it does not make much of an impact. The shots chosen to heighten the drama lack substance and the viewer is left a little confused as to where this opening scene is set in the story timeline. If you viewed this without any knowledge of what the story is about, you could be confused and think this is where the documentary starts, when it is actually showing the very ending.

I want to address the audience via the producer, rather than speaking to the camera. Joe starts off by doing this in the documentary and is clearly speaking to someone behind the camera rather than directly at it which generally creates an authentic feel, although it is somewhat staged in this particular scene. However, this ends up changing less than a minute later which is slightly confusing when the majority of the documentary is shot towards the director, not viewer. One thing I really like is the lighting in this scene, Joe is recalling what happened throughout the story and the way this scene is shot and lit creates a cinematic way of showing the person's development and enables us to see the emotion of the presenter when speaking about specific situations. I would have improved on this scene by having a handheld camera which would capture some extreme close-ups of Joe's face to highlight that emotion. We want to create a similar "Diary Room" in our documentary which will recall memories from the past as well as one after the race recalling the race, decisions and final opinions. This scene helped enable me to understand how I would like to film that diary room sequence and what I would do to improve it.

The majority of the Joe Weller documentary is shot with him speaking to the producer behind the camera. However, there is one scene near the start which breaks that rule and Joe addresses the camera directly. I did not notice this when I watched it for the first time, but after learning more about how these documentaries are typically shot, this scene threw me off as it changed the style that the rest of the documentary follows. Speaking to the camera in the manner he does gives this section the feel of a YouTube vlog in which the presenter directly addresses the audience as "fans/subscribers". When you think about Joe's audience, this scene is completely fine as it is how the majority of his normal YouTube videos are presented, but as part of a documentary, this scene feels slightly out of place, especially if you are someone who does not watch YouTube regularly. Documentaries follow a trend throughout and don't switch between directly addressing the camera and then in some scenes addressing the director behind the camera. I think this scene is slightly out of place and could have been created in the style of the rest of the documentary. It could have kept the visuals and style the same throughout which, from a filmmakers point of view, is what you are trying to do. This is a good lesson for me to learn. If we go down the route of addressing the director, we continue throughout without changing. 

I like Joe's inclusion of Drone shots, they are used sparingly and with effect, rather than being inserted regularly in the hope of creating a dramatic feel. These shots are used to set a scene or show scale, but not to create any sort of drama which I feel is the correct way to use them. Many times throughout videos I have seen online, the drone is overused which takes away the effect of it being there. It is an important lesson because we could overuse a specific shot which may take away its power. I want to mix up the shots I include, but still ensure they have a cinematic feel to create the mood needed for each scene. We will use a drone in our documentary, but not that often as I want to ensure a consistent style throughout the story.

Moments of contemplation throughout the documentary allow the viewer inside Joe's mind and give us a clear and honest view of his thoughts. I think the consistency of these scenes is important in showing the development of Joe as a presenter but also as a character in the documentary. These scenes include car scenes when he is driving, as well as some of him sitting in the gym changing room after a tough session. These are brutally raw scenes which allow us to connect to Joe. These scenes are shot handheld which I feel adds to the "rawness" of them, but other scenes throughout this documentary are too staged and distance us from Joe as a character. The disappointing thing about this documentary is lack of consistency throughout. The pacing changes so often which means the viewer is sometimes left slightly confused as to what emotion the filmmaker is trying to create. Pacing is incredibly important in a documentary, especially when you are showing the development of a character.

"Editing should mirror the story’s symmetry and also create its own. In the story arc, the downslope is kind of a mirror image of the upslope. It goes up to the climax, then comes down. That kind of symmetry should go as deep as you can take it into the finest detail in your film." (Peachpit, 2014)

This is where strong communication in our video with George as the editor will help create the end product that I want. It will be so important for the film to be consistent and any variance will drastically affect the pacing and feel of the film. To make sure George knows what style and mood I want to create, I have worked with him while in Pre-Production on helping the group come up with a cinematic style. I have shown George what I think works and what does not and he has shown the editing style he wants to use, all of which will work together and I feel the pacing and tone will be realistic, which is what I want.


The Joe Weller documentary is a large mix of shot styles which works in some places but is confusing in others. It uses handheld shots, tripod shots, stabilised handheld shots, drone shots and fixed Go Pro shots. There is nothing wrong with mixing all of these cinematic styles, but when they are cut together in the same piece it really did affect the tone of the piece in some areas. For instance, There was a lovely shot created with a DSLR being used handheld with the help of a shoulder rig. But in the edit, this was cut together with a really mediocre Go Pro shot which really killed the cinematic approach that they were building up to via an intense boxing session. To conclude this point, I realise how important shot diversity is to show the full picture of the story, but it is so important to know which cinematic style you want for each scene because some shots do not work when cut together. This means important work and planning beforehand, including camera test and location scouting will enable us to know which cameras to use for each situation. This is where teamwork and prior planning will enable us to not run into the same issues in the edit that they found with editing this documentary.

The use of photos to show snapshots of moments that happened along the journey is also important in helping the viewer get the full scope of the story. We are in an age where smartphone cameras film in 4k and take very high-quality pictures, this enables us as a group to take advantage of that and if we ever find ourselves in a situation where we need to film an important moment of the story, but we did not expect it to happen, we have the use of the Phone Camera. We do not want to rely on the phone at all, but we cannot discount the possibility that something happens out of our control and which means we need to shoot some video on the Phone. We can never forget this, as it may give us an opportunity to keep the documentary authentic, with as little staged situations as possible.

I was disappointed in some of the Joe Weller scenes, especially training in the ring, as they were overdrawn to such an extent that they became boring for the viewer. This made me skip through a few minutes of un-needed training footage to get to the next part of the story. This destroyed the pacing of the documentary, which up until these scenes was moderately fast paced. However, the inclusion of these very slow scenes meant the whole documentary was probably 5 minutes longer than it really needed to be. To keep with the cinematic style that was used from the start, he should have cut down these sequences into a montage which speeds up the story and maintains the intensity. With this, the documentary would have felt a lot more professional and I would have enjoyed it as a filmmaker a lot more. Some of the scenes also featured some terrible cinematography, it is hard to know if this was an error or was intended, but some scenes featured shots that seemingly had no planning and were filmed "off the cuff" This is another area where the documentary lacked depth. The apparent lack of scouting and test shoots meant that this documentary was not as visually pleasing and detracted from the viewing experience.

On the other hand, the documentary did have a couple of scenes which felt "behind the scenes". These are scenes that were probably not expected to be filmed and actually give the viewer an insight into the world of Joe just before the fight. These are not particularly beautifully shot scenes, but they enable us to see a side of Joe that we saw little of throughout the documentary. For 95% of the documentary, Joe would have known the camera was filming, so in essence, those scenes are staged to an extent. This scene and a couple which are similar give us the clearest and most honest version of Joe that we see throughout the documentary. I don't feel any documentary should rely on these moments to push the narrative along, but they are nice to show a little bit of humour or some seriousness on a human level, without any knowledge of the camera being on.

The scene that sticks with me the most throughout this documentary is the training scene on the exercise bike. This scene has clearly had a lot of thought put into it as the shots create an intense scene where the presenter is pushed to the breaking point. The crew had seemingly scouted the location and understood the filming conditions as the scene is definitely one of the most cinematic seen throughout this documentary. I want to have a scene like this in our documentary, where you see myself as the presenter being pushed and pushed and possibly cracking. To capture that emotion will be very powerful for us and help drive the narrative and meaning along throughout the documentary. In general, it shows the importance of pre-planning as this scene obviously had some planning before the shoot which enabled the scene to be incredibly powerful and actually affect the viewer. However, this dedication to the project was not shown throughout, as some scenes have little to no impact whatsoever.

The final scene is the other one which I think had a lot of planning go into it, as the shots and use of slow motion helped create another powerful scene. Slow motion is used very little in the build-up, but in the main fight, it is used multiple times to help create the feeling of drama and pain. The mix of slow motion and real-time gives the scene an authentic look at what happened, alongside some stunning visuals which build up both the fighters into two people who trained like crazy to achieve an end goal. The editing to music, including cuts on the beats helped set the pacing for this final scene which was actually quite slow. This could be because of the end result, which was a loss for Joe. I suspect if he won, he would have had a quick cut to this final scene which would show him as "the mighty winner". This is where planning hits a wall, as you do not know the end result, it means you cannot plan exactly how it is going to be edited in the end. If it was an upbeat tone throughout and then we saw a loss, it would leave the viewer confused and disappointed that they had been misled by the tone throughout. I think this was shot well and they did a good job to leave themselves with an open ending with the visual style that decided to approach this scene with. This meant they could go either way in the edit, depending on the final result.

Moments of reflection at the very end of the documentary give it a fulfilling conclusion. The presenter is able to clear their thoughts and show what they have learned and I think that is vital when the whole story is about a personal journey. Some documentaries forget to end with lessons learned which defeats the point of a journey like this. However, for the overall thoughts on this project, it tried to be very cinematic and powerful in areas, but in others, it was very basic. This means the documentary as a whole does lose some credibility as it is not consistent throughout, which as a viewer and documentary maker, I am disappointed by. There are a lot of scenes that could be removed or condensed which would improve the viewing experience. I think the story told is great and I am inspired to create a documentary which shows such a vast personal journey. But I hope I can learn from this documentary and spend a lot more time planning scenes, or at least understanding how it will be filmed. We need to strike the correct balance as otherwise it could end up being too scripted and look artificial or boring! Clear planning of locations and camera equipment will be key to capturing the real moments and with that prior planning, it will enable the film to look great, but also keep the feeling of being natural, honest and real!

Reference
(Peachpit, 2014) Accessed on 29 October 2018 - Importance of pacing: http://www.peachpit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=2233986