Week 5

Editing and basics of production management


This week we learnt about the different stages of production and the basics of planning.

Below are the stages of pre-production:

Planning

•       Making sure your idea responds to the brief

•       Researching the ide a

•       Writing a proposal

•       Contact possible collaborators

•       Recce

•       What crew/equipment is needed

•       Treatment

•       Schedule

•       Budget

•       Storyboards, shotlists

•       Location agreements, risk assessment, release forms

Proposal

•       Major themes of the film

•       A brief historical background

•       Short synopsis of the film

•       Style and approach and why they’re appropriate

•       Target audience

•       Access issues and how to solve them

•       Archive footage and permissions to use

Treatment

•       Written in present tense and usually written after proposal and research

•       More detail on story and characters

•       Describe what the viewer will see on screen, also include audio, what they will hear.

Shotlist

•       Describe what shots – closeup/mid/high angle etc

•       B-roll

Storyboards

·  Rough sketches of what the shots will look like

Schedule/Budget

•       Timings

•       Who needs to be there

•       Equipment needed and who’s responsible

We then started to think of our idea and how to start the planning process. 
Our idea for the 4 min documentary - 
- A poetic study of East Slope. Interviews with current students as well as Sussex alumni. getting their opinion on living in East Slope before it gets knocked down. Touch on the importance of affordable student accommodation.

Week 4

Composition and Aesthetics

When framing an interview one must consider

1. Rule of thirds

Image divided into nine squares of equal size, with two horizontal lines intersecting two vertical lines. Aligning a subject within these guide lines. 

2. Planes

Based on our familiarity with real world space, an illusion that objects have volume and depth.

An image must have a

• foreground
• middle ground
• background

3. Focus 

• Selective focus - focusing in/out on different planes. Sharpening a particular part of the image, while blurring the rest.
• Deep focus –  camera lens and lighting used to keep both close and distant planes in focus.
• Racking focus – changing the focus within a shot

4. 180 Rule

An invisible line that the camera shouldn't cross so as to maintain spatial awareness between the people and objects in a sequence of shots. 

The 180° system ensures that relative positions and the frame remain consistent.

 

Week 3

This week we learnt about the different microphones,

• Tie Clip Mic - A very small mic, that would be clipped onto someones clothes 45cm away from their mouth. Ideally used for tv presenters. Can capture a lot of rustling if clipped on too near loose clothing. 

• Rifle Mic - Directional mics and has to be aimed directly at the performers. Can be fitted to a boom pole to give distance between the performance and then can be moved around by the boom operator. When filming one must be careful as to not create shadows. A dougal will protect the mic from capturing excess wind sound

• Conference Mic - Used for groups of speakers. Mic will be placed on a table in the centre of a group. Used for recording radio drama or discussion tv formats.

We also looked at different interviewing methods and ways of position the microphones.

The method I'd most likely use would be A) End on ground, this would be used during the interviews as it would be the most stationary and I would not move around so the sound will be crisp.

Reading - Chapman, J. (2009) Issues in Contemporary Documentary, Cambridge: Polity. 1: Definitions: Issues and Influences.

• People view documentary as truth rather than controlled by the filmmaker
• Corner suggests ‘documentary’ be used as an adjective rather than a noun
• It’s a practice not a defined criteria

‘

Rabiger, M. (2004) Directing the Documentary, London: Focal Press. Ch.22: Location Sound

• Picture gives information but sound brings emotion
• Ambience is important, silence is jarring
• You can create a soundscape to suggest things about a space

Week 2

This week we set out in our groups and started working on our 1 min documentary.

We filmed two interviews of two of the students in my group answering some broad questions about their first day at Sussex. Initially we found the interview process quite uncomfortable.
We thought we could use the b roll shots of the university that we filmed the week before. 





Reading - Bill Nichols, Documentary Modes Of Representation

Issues and Concepts
Modes of representation are basic ways of organising texts in relation to certain recurrent features or conventions. A conceptual scheme developed by American documentary theorist Bill Nichols that seeks to distinguish particular traits and conventions of various documentary film styles.

Main organisational patterns in documentary

1. Expository – def: intended to explain or describe something

Addresses the viewer directly, with titles or voices that advance an argument about the historical worlds.

Examples: Night Mail, The City, Victory of Sea.

These films use a “voice-of-God” commentary.

Network news programs that use anchor persons and reporters is another example of this. Primary mean of relaying information since the 1920s.

Raises ethical issues of voice, how the text speaks objectively or as an instrument of propaganda. Expository texts take shape around commentary that is directed toward the viewer, images serve as illustration. Knowledge in expository is usually epistemic (relating to knowledge or knowing). Each text contributes new content/ a new field of attention.

Editing in the expository method is used to establish and maintain rhetorical continuity and not special or temporal. Emphasizes the impression of objectivity and well-sustained judgement.

A topical issue can be addressed within a frame of reference that need not be questioned or established but simply taken for granted. Eg: If you love the planet

The value of the film is the new content it offers, on information about the nuclear threat to survival.

Exposition can sometimes have interviews, these tend to be subordinated to an argument offered by the film. The interviews are often used as either an unseen “voice of god” or an on-camera voice of authority who speaks on behalf of the text.

The viewer will typically expect the expository text to take shape around the solution to a problem. For example, representing the news, addressing consequences of nuclear waste, tracing the history and biography of a person.

Builds a sense of dramatic involvement around the need for solution. The viewer expects entry into the text and ways of solving the problem.

2. Observational
Erik Barnouw - direct cinema

Stephen Mamber describes it as cinema verite (jean touch filmmaking)

observation mode – non-intervention of filmmaker

instead of constructing a temporal framework, rely on editing to enhance the impression of real time. No interviews, voiceovers or external music 

direct cinema documentarist - take a camera to an area of tension and would wait for a crisis to emerge. Ability of the filmmaker to be unintrusive.  

  

3. Interactive 

The crew interacts with the subject, actively engaging in what it is the documentary is about. For instance, in 2003, Martin Bashir released a documentary called Living with Michael Jackson, where he played a huge role in shaping the footage captured.

Most of the shooting is on-location, in the field.

A large number of long shots are used, often because someone is being interviewed.

Interviews tend to be informal, often off-the-cuff, making them more of a conversation than a ‘traditional’ sit-down interview.

Oftentimes, a voiceover is used to provide context to certain scenes, e.g. when a filmmaker is driving to a location, they will describe where they are going, why they are going there, who they are going to see etc.

4. Reflexive 

Shows methods involved in the making of the documentary within the film.

Promotes the truth.

Metacommentary.

Sometimes uses actors to avoid ethical difficulties of using ‘social actors’.

Focuses on Filmmaker & Viewer, rather than Filmmaker & Subject.

Uses unexpected juxtapositions to ensure that the viewer doesn’t become too immersed in the film.

Reflexive Strategies

• Political
• Formal
• Stylistic
• Deconstructive
• Interactivity
• Irony
• Parody & Satire