COMMISSIONS UNIT: (Pre Production) Choosing Our Idea / Idea Support

Today we had our ideas support session. We all individually came up with some ideas for our documentary and shared them in this session. I shared my idea of the Mother-Daughter Clubbing documentary which seemed to go down well with Zoe suggesting a "My Embarrassing Mum" sort of angle in order to appeal to the teenage / young adult target audience.

Alex came up with a variety of ideas. His initial idea being a 'day in the life' documentary following a young person with learning difficulties. This idea was short lived as it became apparent that it wouldn't be right for the target audience, gaining parent's permissions could prove difficult and finding the right angle to approach the story with could also be challenging.

Another idea revolved around young drivers / driving lessons / driving tests. Sonia also had a similar idea to do the documentary on cars / driving due to working in a car shop herself. We all contributed to this idea as it is a current topic for our whole group as we all have passed our driving tests fairly recently. Zoe liked this idea but made it clear that we would need to have a very focused angle as there is a lot of information surrounding this topic and therefore our documentary could end up being too broad and vague - meaning that the audience wouldn't would either lose interest or wouldn't properly engage with the subject. As a group we decided that this style of documentary would work best with a presenter. And using them to drive to different places to interview the different test subjects. The segments of the presenter driving can be used to introduce the interview subjects as well as presenting facts and figures about driving. We decided to pick Alex as our presenter as he has a passion for driving - however, Zoe pointed out that he may not be best suited for the role.

Zoe also suggested including some sort of challenge in our documentary in order to make it more appealing and exciting for our target audience. This challenge could be taking away the car from someone who is heavily reliant on their car and see if it is possible to make the same journeys using other means of transport. This would provide our documentary with a fun / comical angle which would appeal to the BBC Three target audience. We decided that Alex would be suitable for this as he uses his car the most out of our group - to drive to Maidstone and Lewisham etc. This supports our idea of using him as our presenter - we will continue to discuss this idea.

We all agree on using this as our idea, we just need to focus on what our angle is going to be and finding the interview subjects for our documentary.

COMMISSIONS UNIT: (Pre Production) Coming Up With ideas

After the ideas lab with Zoe, I decided to do a couple of mind maps in order to come up with an idea.

I firstly decided to look at subjects that revolved around my personal interests and hobbies. I then looked whether any of these ideas would fit the brief and how they could be developed into a documentary.

I eventually came up with an idea that I quite liked and that had the potential to become a documentary. My mum had mentioned to me about how her friend and her daughter both go out partying / clubbing together - I instantly thought this may be a potential documentary subject due to the unique nature of this activity. A documentary about clubbing would definitely fulfil the 'BBC Three' and 'Teen Sprit' criteria - and the angle of a mother and daughter going out together would make the documentary unique and interesting. This is the idea that I will present in our ideas support meeting on Monday. Before developing this idea further, I will see what other ideas my group has come up with.

COMMISSIONS UNIT: Ideas Lab

We had an ideas lab with Zoe to help us in our search for ideas. She gave us ideas for where to look for our ideas and where to take them once we had found them.

- Follow up on things that interest you - have curiosity
- Keep all contacts in a book to have a collection of sources
- Look where mainstream media doesn't focus

Zoe showed us a documentary she was involved with:

The School That Turned Chinese

She explained how things change from the pitch to the actual production. Casting changes and also the premise of the show may change slightly - depending how it is received.


- Brainstorm ideas with energetic people
- Investigate your ideas
- Look for authentic information
- Look for archive footage
- What is in your story? What will they want to find out?
- Need to make audience want to commit their time to it
- Strong characters
- Relatable themes - mind, heart or wallet
- Strong narrative and structure
- Great characters, human emotion and beautiful pictures.

I didn't have an idea to tell Zoe so I will brainstorm some ideas in order to have something to work with for our ideas support session.

COMMISSIONS UNIT: Lecture and Screening - Dreams Of A Life

Today's lecture was an introduction to factual programming and the documentary genre. We also had a screening of the documentary Dreams Of A Life

- Factual programming is non-fiction programming and filmmaking 

- All films (factual and fictional) are constructed to some degree. (Can happen in pre, production or post production)

- BBC's repuation damaged in 2007 over revelations of fakery

- Competition winners had been faked for Blue Peter and Radio 1

- BBC were fined £400,000 by Ofcom

- Led to more revelations - which led to a complete review of the BBC's handling

A sliding scale of intervention in factual programmingNotionally, the degree of 'accepted' intervention is as follows:

Least >    >    >   >  >  >  >  >  >  > > >>>>  Most

Verite            Reality TV        Fact-Ent        Drama-DocObs-Doc       Science             Wildlife         MockumentaryNews            Docu-soap         History

Factual Genres:
- current affairs
- news
- documentaries
- reality TV
- factual entertainment

Curent affairs:
- Investigative
- Consumer
- Political
- Health
- Social affairs
- Crime
- Business and Finance 

e.g. Panorama, Dispatches, Tonight etc.

- Current affairs programmes often reporter led and deal with weighty subjects
- less observational feels to them - more obviously constructed 
- journalism and story at heart of these films

Documentaries defined:
- 'Artistic representation of actuality'
- inform us about our world and even ourselves but also entertain and engage us

Why do we make documentaries?
- Documentaries speak about or allow others to speak for themselves
- Voyeurism - inevitably documentaries have elements of voyeurism.

Documentary genres and hybrids:

- Poetic
- Expository
- Educational
- Observational
- Reflexive documentaries
- Participatory
- Performative

Hybrid forms & evolving new forms:
- Drama-doc
- Docu-soap
- Reality TV
- Fact-ent
- Structured/scripted reality
- Multi camera observational

Factual formats:
- Multi camera observational
- Presenter/reporter led
- Magazine
- Authored
- Discussion

Conventions:
- Style - shooting and editing - different conventions
- Structure
- Format - varied factual formats - e.g. studio discussion panel show like Question Time
- Shots - handheld etc.
- Commentary
- Narrator/presenter/reporter - dignified male 'voice of authority' / voice of god
- Music
- Experts - 'intellectual weight'
- Conventions are often subject of satire

Factual devices:
- Particular types of factual programme rely on particular storytelling devices
- Become established methods available to makers of factual programmes
- Engineering 'tension' is a common technique. Allows light and shade to come through the film e.g. 'Wife Swap'

Funding and truth
- How and by whom factual films are funded has an important impact upon their style, content and their viewpoint
- Who pays the bills will have an important impact upon who a film casts as villain or hero.
- Documentaries have been used for purposes of propaganda e.g. 'Triumph of the Will' (1935) - Nazi Germany.
- The impact of sponsorship and advertising; pay per view channels.
- Is a public service model essential to the preservation of impartial factual programming?
- Consider the Michael Moore film 'Bowling for Columbine' and consider how truthful
Subject/content of documentary:
- Wildlife
- Science
- History
- Health
- Social affairs
- Politics
- Finance etc.
Purpose of factual programmes:
- Revelation - revealing something new
- Entertainment - engage audience
- Storytelling - portray real life -  portray and convey this as accurately as possible
- Style and content - varied styles used but style should never be relied on over content - always content over style 

Dreams Of A Life (2011) - Screening

- Documentary about a woman who was found dead in her flat after 3 years and the investigation surrounding the case.

Narrative / Structure:
- Timeline - it starts at the end after and then works back through as the investigators try to piece it back together. Interspersed with clips of investigators at her flat and clips of 'her' when she was alive.
- Interviews / testimonies
- The doc dramatised the investigation and her life
- Motifs - had Joyce watching the documentary about herself and also sitting in a taxi with an advert on the side of it.
- Tone - dull music about her death but upbeat music when she was still alive.

Challenges:
- police investigation
- gaining permission - from relatives but also authority
- sub judice - cannot report on a live case - have to wait until case is in public domian

COMMISSIONS UNIT: Brief and Introduction

Today we were briefed on our documentary unit. This unit really excites me due to my keen interest in documentaries (my favourites being Louis Theroux's documentaries).

Our documentary has to fulfil these criteria:
- research, cast, script and edit a 10 minute long documentary
- has to fit with the theme of 'Teen Spirit'
- BBC3 brand
- serious and factual but keeping with BBC3 brand
- inspire and empower teen audience
- 'teen's eye view'

The documentary should revolve around one of these subjects:
- health & wellbeing
- family & relationships
- science & technology
- wildlife & environment
- community & social affairs
- music, arts & culture
- history

We have formed our groups - I am in a group with
- Jason Efstathiou
- Alex Hargood
- Sonia Zelenicka

Now that we have our groups we can begin brainstorming and coming up with our ideas. We will individually come up with our own ideas and then narrow them down until we have agreed on one idea. Once we have come up with our idea we will divide up our roles within the group.

DIRECTIONS UNIT: Project Evaluation

The Production Process

I always knew that this project would be a challenge, but I never realised quite how challenging. The pre production and post production aspects of the project didn't daunt me at all, however, the production side of the project (the part that involved directing actors and crew and overlooking the shoot) absolutely terrified me.

The first thing that had to be done was to choose a director, and once that had been done we needed to create a presentation surrounding that director and their key works. Although choosing a director was a little difficult due to the vast number of talented directors, I finally settled on Richard Curtis, the director of one of my favourite holiday films; Love Actually. Once I had chosen my director and film, I got straight into conducting research for the pre production side of my project. One of my key directorial decisions was to focus on colour and using this to reflect on the emotions and feeling conveyed within the narrative. I therefore carried out research into location, costume design, set design and how I could use colours within these areas. I decided to make red a key colour in my work, dressing Juliet in red costumes and having red props within the set design - this helped to reflect Mark's love and affection for Juliet. Throughout my project I carried out much more research in order to gain a clear vision of the visual style of my short film.

Another key aspect of the production process was transcribing my chosen scenes into a screenplay, breaking down and analysing the screenplay in order to understand the feelings and emotions involved within the narrative, creating a new screenplay including any alterations and finally creating a shot list and storyboard based off of the new screenplay. This process allowed me to precisely plan out how I visually wanted to tell the story and where I wanted to position the audience within the scene.

Whilst my research and pre production were still ongoing, we had directing workshops with Steve Finn. The directing workshops one and two helped with my concern over directing crew members and actors. In these workshops we learnt how to block scenes, blocking a scene helps to figure out where the actors will be positioned and where the camera will be positioned. In order to block out a scene, it is best to break down the script in order to get a better understanding of it. Once you, as the director, have blocked out the scenes, the crew then need to be directed accordingly as well as the actors. The actors and crew should be blocked separately as their roles are completely different. Initially, I was giving more attention to the crew as this is the position I am more familiar with, however, the actors need just as much (if not, more) attention in order to make their acting work with the camera.

As well as having directing workshops, we had lighting and DSLR workshops. These were particularly useful for me as I always planned to use a DSLR for my shoot. In the DSLR workshops we leant how to manually change the settings such as ISO, exposure and focus in order to achieve specific looks. Due to conducting research into production design and breaking down my script, I knew that my scene was riddled with underlying feelings of love - this would somehow need to be reflected in the camera work / lighting / production design. I decided to go with a dreamy look, therefore the exposure would need to be a little brighter than usual in order to create that look. I also wanted the colours to be more vibrant (due to colour being one of my key directorial focuses) - by making the exposure slightly brighter, the colours would be more vibrant. I used the workshops as an opportunity to figure out which camera settings produced the specific look I required in my production. I also used the workshops as an opportunity to have a go with other camera equipment / accessories that I previously hadn't used. I then decided whether any of this equipment would be useful in my shoot. The lighting workshops were also a massive help. It was amazing to see how much a lighting can change the mood and effect conveyed within a scene. Due to my film taking place in natural daylight, I wanted to experiment with the tungsten lights in order to create a natural daylight look.

I decided to try and get the actors and locations sorted quite early on, however, I found finding and keeping actors on board very difficult meaning that this process took a lot longer than I hoped and caused a lot of stress. I posted an advert on Casting Call Pro, reached out to actors individually on CCP, and contacted people involved with drama societies, however I had no luck. I then resorted to asking other classmates for suggestions as to where to find actors. A third year recommended an actor to me that she had worked with before. I decided to contact this actor and ended up securing him for the role. Finding an actress for the female lead was a lot more straight forward. I ended up casting a model that I'd worked with before due to her having the right look for the role. I decided to use my own house for the location due to having to rearrange the set. I was able to position furniture where I needed and also bring extra props in.

Once the pre production preparations were sorted and the locations and actors were secured, I was finally ready for the shoot. In order to make the shoot run as smoothly as possible, I tested my ideas prior to the shoot day and created a precise schedule. Having everything planned (such as the camera angles, set design, costume etc) meant that I could focus my attention on directing when it came to shoot day.

My shoot went according to plan with only a few minor issues. The only issue that I wasn't able to resolve was my issues with sound. Initially I found directing the actors a little difficult because personally I am not very assertive or confident. However, once I had relaxed into my role as director, I managed to find the confidence to tell people how I wanted them to act. I managed to get all the coverage I needed and much more which gave me plenty of options when it came to editing.

I then put a rough cut together to produce a rough idea of how I wanted to piece my footage together. I then showed Mike and Simon the rough cut and gained feedback from this. I implemented their feedback to produce my fine cut. Again, I showed this to Simon and Mike and they provided further feedback. Once I followed their advice and changed my film once again, I finally produced the final cut of my project.

What worked?

- Due to my research into production design, set design, colour and costume, I was able to produce a very precise and visual idea of what I wanted my film to look like. This meant that my pre production went smoothly as I was able to use this research in order to figure out what I wanted in my own production design. Completing my pre production with a clear visualisation for my piece really enabled me to focus on directing on shoot day, rather than having to worry about these aspects of the film as well.

- I managed to assemble my footage in the way I had visualised it when it came to the edit. This demonstrates that my good organisation paid off as I was able to capture the exact footage I needed in order to create a product that was as close to my visualisation as possible.

- The location was what I had hoped it would be. For Mark's flat I was able to convey the idea of a large empty space that had art supplies dotted around - this helped to reflect Mark's personality. For Juliet's doorway I was able to set the holiday season by putting a Christmas decoration on the door knocker. I also felt this helped to add a homely vibe to her house as Christmas decorations often carry this connotation.

- Once I had secured my actors, my communication was good as I was able to keep in touch with them and keep them on board for the shoot. My actors showed up ready and prepared which allowed for a very smooth shoot day.

What didn't work?

- I think sound was an issue throughout my piece. Due to not being able to pick up the Tascam Kit in the morning before my shoot, I had to settle for using a rode microphone attached to the top of the DSLR camera. This meant that some of my sound contained noise / static and wasn't as crisp and clear as I wanted it to be. I feel that the sound really decreases the quality of my product as sound makes up 50% of it. However, I tried to recover my project by really focusing on the other aspects of the sound design (e.g. the background music for the wedding video, the background music for the presentation scene, the atmos in the presentation scene etc).

- Due to using natural lighting, there were changing levels of daylight meaning there were changing levels of light within my product. In order to resolve this issue, I should have changed the settings on the camera in line with the changing light. However, this issue was easily resolved in post production where I fiddled with the exposure levels.

What did I learn?

- Scheduling is key in order to make a production run smoothly and to get the best quality product. I thought my scheduling was very accurate, however, I hadn't accounted for the complication that would result in me having to pick up my actress rather than picking up the sound equipment. Therefore, in future I will make sure I have my equipment before the day of the shoot, so that if anything does go wrong on shoot day there should be time to resolve that without having to compromise other aspects.

- Again, I have learnt about the importance of sound. The quality of the sound is much less than I hoped which is frustrating as it brings the whole quality of my project down. Although I did put more focus on the other elements of sound design, it is still very obvious that the sound quality of the dialogue is poor. In future I will ensure that I use either a boom pole or the Tascam Kit to avoid getting noise / static and echoes.

What could I develop?

- Although most areas of my communication with my actors was good, I should have ensured that my actors could provide their own transport and would not unexpectedly need to be provided for. This means I should develop my communication skills to make sure that every single detail of shoot day has been organised.

- I should also develop my scheduling as this proved to be a slight issue. In future I will ensure that nothing on my schedule is likely to clash which will allow for a smooth shoot day with minimal issues.

Conclusion:

I was happy with the preparation I did before my shoot as I feel the amount of research I did really helped me to consider all aspects of my production. I was then able to organise my shoot precisely in order to get the product that I wanted. I am as happy with my product as I can be despite the obvious sound issues. I am happy with the look of the product but I feel that I have let myself down with the sound quality. However, I will take this on board in the next project to ensure that it does not happen again. Although it has been an issue for me this time, hopefully it will mean the quality of my future projects is better as I have learnt from this mistake.

DIRECTIONS UNIT: Director's Statement

When I first chose to re direct Love Actually, I only had a few vague ideas of how I wanted to put my own creative spin on the production. However, after conducting a large amount of research, I managed to build upon these ideas and managed to create a clear visualisation of how I wanted my final product to turn out.

Casting

Initially, the only criteria I had for my cast was a 26-30 year old male and a female in her early 20s. I then decided to break down the script in order to really understand the characters. From the break down of the script I realised that my characters are very complex. Mark has a lot of underlying feelings but hardly ever allows these to show, whereas Juliet is a character who wears all her feelings on her sleeve.

From my analysis of the characters, I then formed character profiles / descriptions for them and posted them on casting call pro.

Mark:
Mark is a shy character who keeps his feeling buried deep. He feels awkward around Juliet due to his deep feelings for her that he can never reveal. This awkwardness has a tendency to come across as quite blunt and rude, leading him to be quite an isolated character. Deep down he is a hopeless romantic but feels he cannot express his feelings.

Juliet:
Juliet is an outgoing character who is keen to get along with everyone she meets. She is often bubbly, radiant and romantic. She is newly married to Peter, a man whom she deeply loves and will not allow anything to break them apart. She feels slightly uncomfortable around Mark, Peter's best friend (and best man at the wedding), as she feels that he does not like her. However, she still acts warm and friendly around him to try and break his seemingly hostile attitude towards her.

I decided to cast Dave as Mark due to him having the right look for the role and having a number of good examples of work on his showreel. In Love Actually, Mark is a very shy and awkward character  but this doesn't take away from his kind and caring nature. Therefore, it was important to cast someone who was able to convey that kind nature whilst also being able to act uncomfortable around Juliet. Dave also looked the correct age for the role. This was important as the actors needed to look old enough that they were of the age where marriages are occurring and that they own their own houses. Here is a comparison between Mark from the original and from my production:

I decided to cast Ellie as Juliet as I needed to find an actress who has that innocent yet desirable nature. Juliet is a very naive character and I felt I really needed to capture this in my casting decision, therefore I decided to go for an actress who had that young, youthful, innocent look to her. Here is a comparison between Juliet from the original and my production:

Locations

I needed 3 locations for my shoot; Mark's flat, Juliet's doorway and some outdoor spaces for Juliet's wedding video. 

For Mark's flat I wanted to create a very arty vibe similar to that in the film. I also wanted it to be quite empty to reflect the awkwardness and the uncomfortable nature of the scene. The negative space in the scene helps to resemble the space that has grown between the characters and therefore highlights the awkwardness of the situation. I discovered how to effectively use negative research by conducting research into set design and production design. I found that "negative space is an important video element for making characters stand out" [1] I decided to implement the use of negative space in order to make my characters and the distance apart from each other stand out in order to heighten the uncomfortable atmosphere.

For Juliet's doorway I wanted to create a homely feel to demonstrate that it is her's and her new husband's family home. I decided to hang a Christmas decoration on the door knocker in order to convey the idea that it is Christmas time as well as suggesting that Juliet and her new husband have spent time decorating their house together - showing their bond as a couple. 

Production Design / Costume Design 

I spent a great deal of time considering the costumes for the characters. Since I wanted to make colour a key directorial focus of mine, I decided to bring that in mainly through the costume and props. I opted to dress Juliet in red clothing (apart from the wedding scene). The red works to symbolise Mark's hidden feelings of love towards Juliet - the fact that she is wearing the colour shows her as the object of his affection. As well as love, red is often associated with danger and aggression [2] so I needed to use the right amount of red and also the right shade in order to convey the correct feeling (love rather than danger).

I also decided to use red props within the set design. This again was used to symbolise the theme of love.

My idea for using colour in the set design as well came from researching the set design of other romantic comedy films. Warm colours and fairy lights are often used in romantic settings in order to create that dreamy / fairytale atmosphere. As my scene itself is not a romantic scene I decided to just use splashes of red instead as the same feelings are there (they are just unknown and also unreciprocated). A scene that inspired me was this restaurant scene in The Fault In Our Stars. 

Sound Design

I wanted the sound design in my production to be minimal yet effective. I chose to go with a subtle, ambient soundtrack through the first half of the first scene before the wedding video. This helps to lift the mood and keep the film from feeling flat. I chose a subtle soundtrack as I still wanted to create an awkward atmosphere. I did want to keep the first half of the first scene in silence (just with the dialogue of the characters) however, this felt flat and boring. Therefore the soundtrack helps to elevate the mood slightly whilst still keeping the awkward atmosphere. A lot of consideration went into the sound design of the second scene at Juliet's doorway. I muted the actual sound recorded from the microphone, and replaced it with different sounds such as outdoor summer ambience, bird sounds, faint cars and dogs barking in the background. This made for better sound quality as this meant there was no noise / static present from the sound recorded by the mic. 

I chose the song for the wedding video as it is a love song. I felt that this would be suitable for a wedding video as a wedding is an event in which the love two people share for each other is celebrated. The song works in two ways in my production. The song symbolises the love at the wedding between Juliet and her husband, but it also works to symbolise the love Mark holds for Juliet. I added a muffled filter to this song and 'Silent Night' during the presentation scene in order to make it seem that the music is coming from the laptop speakers - making it obvious that it is diegetic sound.

Camera Approach

I wanted to include more wide shots in my production than Richard Curtis did originally as I really wanted to emphasise the space between the characters in order to suggest the awkwardness of the situation. Therefore, after the wedding video stops, the majority of the shots are shot in wide angle (whereas before the wedding video there were a lot of close ups / shot-reverse shots. I feel that this helped to change the mood of the scene and really emphasise the uncomfortable nature of the scene after the wedding video finishes.

I also decided to increase the exposure to slightly higher than normal during the wedding video in order to create an almost dream like / glowy look. This (like the love song) works in two ways. It helps to show the wedding as idealistic and dream like but also helps to convey Mark's affectionate feelings towards Juliet.

Editing

I wanted to make the editing in the first half of the first scene quicker than the editing in the last half of the first scene to really emphasise the awkwardness between the characters once the wedding video has finished. This slower pace helps to drag out the long silences which heightens the uncomfortable atmosphere. Pacing is a key part of editing, if the pacing is wrong then the whole scene will be thrown off and a completely different atmosphere could be created to that of the one you intended. [3] Therefore, the majority of my product has fairly normal paced editing to help make the slow cuts of the post-wedding video scene more noticeable and therefore have more of an effect.

Overall, my key focuses as a director were colour, mood and tone. I wanted to ensure colour was an important factor in my production and I feel that I have achieved this. This colour then has a knock on effect on the mood and the tone of the piece. The red colour helps to reflect Mark's feelings towards Juliet which helps to create a slightly romantic atmosphere. The mood and tone are also created by the pacing of the editing and the sound design of the piece. The ambient soundtrack pre wedding video and the lack of soundtrack post wedding video helps to shift the mood and tone of the piece. I am happy with my directorial decisions as I feel I was able to create my visualisation effectively.

[1] (2013) Available at: https://www.videomaker.com/article/c10/15681-how-to-effectively-use-in-negative-space-in-your-shots (Accessed: 1 March 2017).

[2] Fusco, J. (2016) Watch: The psychology of color in film. Available at: http://nofilmschool.com/2016/06/watch-psychology-color-film (Accessed: 1 March 2017).

[3] Hockrow, R. (2014) Peachpit. Available at: http://www.peachpit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=2233986 (Accessed: 1 March 2017).