Practicle Lighting and Sound Workshop

In groups we got to practice everything we had learnt this week about sound and lighting by being set the challenge of creating a poker scene. We were given a poker set each, a table and one practical light. We used the camera and sound equipment which we were expected to use for our documentary.This allowed us to experiment with the best way of using them. Here is what my group made:



I am really happy with how this came out especially in terms of sound. Even though we did capture a bit of background noise from the room we managed to get some good sound recordings of the actors. I am really happy with the first sound that you properly hear which is the tapping of the poker chip. I feel like if we can capture all sound as clear as this then it would make our piece very professional. I felt like we used our practical light well because we set it up to deliberately be very dark and moody but we could have possible used it a bit more by directing the light to be more contrasted in some of the shots. This could have made it a really dramatic styled piece. Overall though I am happy with this as it was only a practice and I feel like it did give my group time to work out the logistics of all the equipment whilst at the same time capturing something that was successful.

Lighting Workshop (Documentary's)

We looked into lighting this week and how it can effect a scene. We also looked at practice lighting as this could potentially be a really useful technique in our Documentary's. Here are my notes:

We then in our Documentary Production Groups went on to analyse this scene and the how the lighting is used through this image:

We said it was low key lighting used because there is a lot more shadows than highlights. We said however that the contrast was low because we can still see the other colours and shades in the scene and not just and black and white. We think it has been styled to look natural as its meant to be lit with natural light that is coming in through the window. This makes the window the light source and the  bold lines are created by blinds. It is a soft light because it only gently lights up the room. We think the time of day is meant to be late afternoon when the sun is quit low. There are no practical lights used in this scene just daylight. We said over all this scene conveys a very mysterious and dark mood.

This practice has helped us established how important lighting can be in a scene at creating a mood and style.

Sound Workshop

Today we spoke about the importance of sound especially in our documentary's. We also looked into why and how it works:

We then got shown how to set up the microphones and how to use them to the best of our advantage, Here's how:

1. Firstly you need to set your video camera up as normal but you must make sure that on your sound settings your set the microphone channel to external not internal. If you don't do this your camera wont know to access the exterior microphone you will use and instead you will just be using the one built on to the camera. You also need to set the power option to Mic+48V. This is know as Phantom Power. This lets the microphone draw power from the camera as the microphones don't have any battery or power source of there own.

2. Now that your camera is set up you need to set up your microphone. What you do is firstly remove the 'dead cat' which is the fluffy piece of material on the exterior of the microphone. This then lets you access what is know as the 'Riken Basket'. It is inside this basket that the microphone sits suspended so that it can pick up vibrations of sound. You remove the end of the basket and you will see this. You must connect your lead into the end of this. The other end of your lead connects to into the camera where it says channel 1. You also need to attach the microphone onto the boom pole. This simply screws on.

3. What you also need to know is that you have to be really careful with your connection cable as this is vital. If it gets broken you wont be able to use your microphone. A way to avoid this is to always gather up the lead correctly to avoid any fatal kinks or dents. You do this by straightening it all out on the floor and then loosely between finger and thumb fold it into loose loops.

4. In order for you to be able to hear the sound which you are capturing you need to plug your headphones into the camera. You can also adjust the volume of the headphones so that you can always set it to suit you. however the best number to have it on is 5 as this is in the middle so will give you the most realistic sound as to what you are actually capturing.

5. Now you are ready to shoot. You must always make sure when doing so tat you hold the boom pole with microphone firmly. Usually its best to do this on your shoulders to keep it steady. You must also make sure that the cable is wrapped around the pole securely so that it doesn't rattle and create accidental noise. It is best to get as close as possible without being in shot so you pick up the best quality. Lastly you must always make sure you are pointing the right end of the microphone towards the subject. The death end is the end which has the cable coming out of it so always check you have the other end pointing as directly as possible at the sound you want to capture.

Reviewing Documentary Ideas

In our group we arranged to have another meeting so that now we had all had time to develop our favourite ideas we could present them to each other and discuss them. This would allow us to be able to find which ideas have more potential and then we can all vote for our favourite. We also had part of this meeting as a tutorial with our tutor who was able to give us some professional insight into how each one may or may not work. Here are the notes I took:

After this we then all voted and our chosen Idea was 'The Hunt for the Campus Cat' as we were all in agreement that we could have a lot of fun with this idea but there was also a lot of potential on what we could do with it as you can see from my notes.

'Hunt for the Campus Cat' Initial Synopsis

To be able to show my group how accessible this idea is I wrote a very basic synopsis of all the ways in which we can make this documentary and I also thought realistically about who we could interview and what permissions we would need. Here is what I came up with ready to show my group:

Documentary Ideas

Me and my Documentary Group decided to have a meeting to discuss all our ideas so that we could start limiting it down and choosing one. We made a mind map with everyone's ideas on:

We then went through each idea reviewing it and thinking of good points and bad points for each. Through doing it we limited it down to our favourites. We chose one of these each to go away and research ready for another meeting/tutorial in which we can limit it down to one which will have the most potential. I chose to look into 'The hunt for the campus cat' idea because this was my favourite as it seemed really fun but also interesting and I thought it would be really accessible to us as it is based on the cat which lives at on our university campus.

Errol Morris Interview Techniques

After watching clips from 'Thin Blue Line' by Errol Morris I really liked how much information he managed to draw out of the people he interviewed because they seemed to completely open up. If they hadn't done then this documentary wouldn't have worked as successfully as it did. I looked at interviews by Morris to work out why he is such a good interviewer. Here is what I found out:

Interviews gone Wrong!

To help me gain more knowledge on how to interview successfully I looked at these examples of particularly bad interviews and then tried to work out what went wrong so that I can avoid making these easy mistakes in the future:

1. 'Beware of Mr Baker: Q&A with Ginger Baker'



In this interview it is immediately obvious that it is off to a bad start when Interviewer Micheal Hann instantly makes assumptions about Baker whilst talking to him. This then annoys Baker who reacts in a bad manner. This then establishes an awkwardness which is kept up through out the interview because Baker now has a dislike towards Hann. I feel like Hann does try to redeem himself to a certain extent but still keeps using terms that assume certain things about Baker that he still isnt happy with. I also think that Hann should allow Baker to talk for himself a bit more and allow a conversation to start because it seems to me like he is just forcing a lot of misleading questions at Baker which keep allowing very little room for development



2. Mo Farah US TV Interview

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This interview doesn't work well at all because it soon becomes obvious that the interviewer in the TV studio barely has any background knowledge on this subject or who he is. We can tell this by the lack of intelligent questions. She asks at one point 'If he has run before' which simply shows ignorance towards him. I feel like the questions aren't asked in the proper manner either because they are not giving him enough to talk about. If they asked the right questions he would have been able to talk a lot more. He even ends up correcting the interviewer on her lack of knowledge when she keeps saying he has run a marathon. I feel like she was unable to recover from her mistakes because she obviously hadn't taken the proper preparation she needed to to be able to have a more insightful interview.

Interviewing Techniques

Here I have looked through sources such as the BBC website and other journalist sites to help me find out what makes a good Interviewer and what Techniques can I use to help me get the best out of it:

I think the best piece of advice that I have taken here is to always be open minded and ask open questions which encourage the subject to talk a lot more without avoiding the question.

Further Documentary Inspiration (representations)

I began looking into more documentary's for inspirations but this time I focused on the idea of how the camera being presents effects the people who are being filmed. I looked at two which focused on community's of people:

1. 'Lift' by Marc Isaacs


I feel like in this piece you get a sense that the people are playing up for the camera in a way that they might not usually act. This is because they are really aware that the camera is recording them and are therefore thinking about the consequences of everything they are doing. They are almost trying to make themselves appear better than they are. However I think the camera man is looking to provoke a reaction from them. This is so that he can discover more about who they are.


2. Channel 4's 'Benefits Street'



I feel like with this series in general it has been made out to all the contributors that it will help show other people the state they are having to live in and they hope this in turn will get them some more help. However I think instead it is making viewers even more aware of all the bad things that get up to such as crime which even though it is only done by a few individuals is now reflecting on all of them. It is almost just re-instating the stereotype of a benefit seeker. In my opinion there are certain people on the show who are representing themselves a lot better and doing their street justice however this is brought down by those who aren't.

Ethics of Representation (Documentary's)

I looked into the ethics of representation and how we must as creators make sure we always have a fair and true representation of people. You have to avoid being biased which is easy to fall into sometimes when you have strong views or opinions about something or someone already. To help me understand this I looked at 'Titcut Follies' by Fred Wiseman as this approached a very controversial subject. These are my notes:

This has helped me to know how to approach the filming process in terms of representing people, places and subjects. I also found 'Titcut Follies' and Wiseman's approach to filming really creative and inspirational.

Creation and Evaluation of Dance Edit 3

I decided that after creating two very different styled dance edit I would try and combine the two styles together. I did this by using Dance edit 2 but altering the ending of it by using the opacity effect to layer videos on top of each other just in the way I did it in Edit 1. This meant it had a new abstract ending. Here is Dance Edit 3:



I am still happy with this piece because I think the abstract ending adds a new element of interest. However I am not entirely sure that the overall edit is long enough for it to work well enough. It seems like the drop happens so late in the piece that it now appears as if I am rushing to add that abstract affect in there. You could argue as well that it is not adding anything to the story so why is it there. I feel like this could have worked really successfully if I had longer to refine it and find ways to extend it however because I am on a limited time scale this has not been possible so I think I will stick to edit 2 as simple as it seems because this is the most refined and professional looking.

Evaluating Dance Edit 2

Here is my second attempt at making a dance edit:



I felt like this piece was much more successful because it followed the dance all the way through with a much better pace and a better sense if story. This is because I learnt from the mistakes I had made previously in the first edit and therefore instead of bombarding my audience with lots of fancy effects I instead made it more simplistic so that the main focus was on the dance and therefore this lets the audience follow the dancers story a lot more. I also chose to have a set of establishing shots before the dance actually began which allowed me to build up to it and introduce the dancers and the location first. This is what gave it the greatest sense of story because it used film techniques such as the establishing shots.

I also really think that the colour correction was a big part in making this successful. It just draws all the shots together and therefore creates a much better flow. This helps the continuity allowing me to get away with many different shots because it still looks like it was shot at the same time and place with the same settings. When colour correcting I focused on trying to achieve a good flesh tone on the dancers which I feel like I have done however it is a skill which gets better with practise so I feel like I haven't mastered it yet but I have made a drastic improvement on this edit.

I also am much happier with the music and the pace of this edit because it all works together much better. With the first edit I just put a track on at the end and tried to make it fit which meant it inevitably didn't. However with this edit I chose a song right at the beginning and I think the song choice was much more fitting anyway because it was softer and more acoustic than the last. As I edited I was conscious through out of trying to get the pace of the edit to match the pace of the song as now I knew how important this was. I also knew that there was almost what you would call a drop in this song where the pace picked up so in the edit I made this match by slowing a lot of the footage down slightly which came before this and then when the pace of the music picked up I put the footage back to real time in the edit so that the dancers seemed to speed up too. This made it all work together a lot nicer.

I feel overall this edit is a lot more successful in terms of continuity however part of me is sad that I have lost the interest which I had in edit 1 through effecting the opacity and overlaying the footage. I may try experimenting with putting some of these effects back in but instead of not having a purpose I will use them as a tool to help the drop of the music become more visual by adding these effects when the pace has picked up. If this adds to the piece I will keep it that way if not I will take it away and use this edit as my final.

Creating my Dance Edit (Attempt 2)

After realizing that my first dance edit didn't work too successfully I decided to start again and make a new edit learning from my previous mistakes.

To make my this edit I decided to make a much more continuity aware piece to the best of my ability so again I chose the footage I wanted to use and set new in and out points so that I would only have the best parts of each clip when I put it on the timeline. However when I entered a new clip onto my timeline I spent a lot more time slowly clipping it further if needed it or extending it so that it lined up exactly where the last shot had left of. This did become a challenge with some of the shots because the two dancers would be slightly out of time with each other so you could get one lined up so it flowed well but not the other dancers. This left with a limited amount of clips I could use if I wanted the continuity to work. I also on occasion had to sacrifice the continuity for a shot I really loved. These were some really hard editorial decisions to make which is why this edit took me a lot longer than the last.

I had already sourced music for my first edit however after reviewing the first edit with the musician and producer for B Rec who supplied me the music we decided something softer might work a bit better so he sent me over some more tracks on Sound Cloud for me to use. I chose one very early on in this edit process so that as I was adding things to the timeline I could see how and if they worked with the music. This also meant I could get the pace to fit much better with the rhythm of the music too. The music I chose this time was called 'Ripple' by Karenin courtesy of B Rec. This track was more acoustic based and therefore softer showing much more potential to work with the dance video.

Once I had all the footage on my timeline and was happy with the way it flowed with the music I then decided that I needed to colour correct a lot of the clips. This is because I really didn't like the blue and green tones on some of the footage as it made you loose the proper flesh tones. I went onto the colour correction options in the effects control section of each clip and clicked on colour curves to get this menu up:

This meant I could carefully adjust each tone of the clip to achieve the best most natural tones as possible like so:

On the left you can see how this clip looked before I adjusted the colour tones and on the right you can see what it looked like after I adjusted it. This made the continuity of the piece overall a lot better too because now it all looked like it had been shot the same which counteracted the problem of every group shooting with different settings. Another setting which I found really useful on Adobe Premier whilst editing was the brightness and contrast setting in the effects control. This allowed me to make it similar lighting and also add contrast to add a bit more drama. I couldn't make the lighting exactly the same in every clip though because some of them were so under or over exposed that if I tried changing them completely it actually reduced the quality of the clip which I wanted to try and avoid as much as possible. I needed it to be as higher quality as possible so that when it is played on the large cinema screen for the assessment it looks professional.

Finally I was happy with what I had produced so I exported it. I had however had problems when exporting previously because I hadn't had the right settings on. My biggest mistake was I had used interlaced when we were actually shooting in progressive. Here in the end is the setting I used to export:

Here is the finished second edit now I have exported it with the right settings to the best quality:



I am much happier with this second edit because it is a lot more refined and I feel like it has a much better sense of story to it.

Evaluation of Dance Edit 1

Here is my first Dance Edit I created:

Dance Edit One from Billie Williams on Vimeo.

It was inspired my 'Pas de deux' which using a lot of interesting techniques such as the overlaying of images/videos and the repetition of this. I then used the opacity effects and controls on Adobe Premier to edit my Dance Video to have a similar abstract style.

I was whilst editing really happy with this idea however now I have reviewed it I feel like there isn't enough substance to this piece. It  has a lot of overlays continuously which makes it really difficult to follow the dance/dancers and therefore will confuse a viewer which isn't what I want to do. Also when I showed it to people such as my the supplier of the music he said he felt like it was too messy and that the pace didn't fit the music properly. I agree with what he has said because I realised I had jumped straight into the dance instantly which almost bombards the audience without time to take enough information in. I feel like I need a steadier slower start to it maybe with some establishing shots to introduce the dancers and the location first. I also think maybe it was probably a good idea to select the music before hand so that as I edit I am going to be a lot more conscious of how to make the pace fit with the music. As much as I tried to keep some continuity to this edit by having the dance in order still I feel like this excessive use of overlays takes away from that and leaves us with no story. Also it is probably too unsettling to the audience because it breaks the 180 Degree rule at points quite obviously so this is something I need to reconsider.

I think the best way to move on from this is to create a new edit starting from scratch but this time I will be much more musically aware. Also I am going to take a different approach and see what it looks like without any overlay images. This way I can strip all the unnecessary distractions away so that the audience can focus on the dance and see if this will help me have a better story to the piece and in turn a much better sense of continuity.

Creating my Dance Edit (Attempt 1)

When it came to editing the footage I first wanted to review it all and go through selecting my favourite shots and any shots I thought would be particularly useful. I also went through whilst reviewing certain clips and gave them better in and out points which lost all the useless footage in the clip so when I put it onto the timeline it was just the useful footage and just the parts I wanted.

Before I came to putting things on my timeline I wanted to formulate a plan so I went back to my inspirational videos and decided that the style of  'Pas de deux' by Norman McLaren was the video which most interested me in terms of style (https://www.nfb.ca/film/pas_de_deux_en). I just really liked the use of overlays and opacity to blend two images together. It also repeated the same movements a lot of times to highlight the shapes created and this also added importance to certain parts as well. I decided my the plan for my edit would be to try to attempt an abstract styled piece using similar techniques to 'Pas de deux' however I will keep the dance in order to try and keep a certain sense of continuity.

I made this first edit by inserting my chosen clips in dance order onto my timeline. I kept one continuous shot of the full dance as my main shot and also a guideline then had all other shots I liked and wanted to use layered on top as well which meant using video lines 1 and 2 on the timeline. Then I had to start playing with the opacity controls to create the desired effect I wanted. If you select the clip you want to edit on your timeline and then go on to the effect control tab in the top left window you will see the opacity option shown below:

What I did is put the opacity down so that the other clip on the other video line would come through on the image too as if they were blended together. I had to do different opacity's for each clip as each had slightly different lighting but I found it was generally around the 35% area. I also experimented with the blend mode in some clips too however they looked out of place so I took this away and kept them all the same. What I could also do with this opacity option is have the clips fading in and out of one another so that there wasn't a sudden in and out for each clip and instead it was gentle. I did this by adding a key marker at the beginning put the opacity to 0% here. I then put as key marker where I wanted the clip to be fully faded up by and raised the percentage of opacity to whatever was required. If it was a straight forward fade up the opacity would just be put to 100% on the second key marker. This process is the same but reversed when doing a fade out. Overall I found this to be a really useful tool to create some really interesting effects. When I was happy with the whole edit I decided to find some music that would fit with it. I already knew a musician who works in London runs a label under the name B Rec. I contacted him and told him what the project was and he sent me some different music tracks over Sound Cloud which he thought may be appropriate. I listened to them all and found the one which I thought fitted the best and added this to my edit. The song I chose is 'Back to One' by False Idols. Once this song was synced in with my edit I exported my finished piece. Here it is:


Dance Edit One from Billie Williams on Vimeo.

I really liked the abstract effect the opacity experimentation caused but I knew after reviewing it that there was lots more room for improvement.

Schedules and Call Sheets when Filming

To gain a better understanding of what kind of paperwork and procedures we must follow through this documentary production we took an area each to research. The four areas are:
-Synopsis / Treatment / Storyboard
-Risk Assessment
-Permissions / Contributor release forms
-Schedule and Call sheets

I was researching into Schedules and Call Sheets and here is my notes of what I found out at the library:

I found this task really useful as I now have a much better understanding of what these elements are and why there important. I can now help my filming group with these elements and they can help me with the other elements that they researched.

What makes a good Documentary?

In our groups we then started thinking about what makes a good documentary and in particular what kind of documentary's we liked. We then viewed some different short documentary's and again brainstormed what we liked and what we thought was successful about them:

Firstly we looked at a short called 'As I am?' here is a link to view it:

As I Am from Alan Spearman on Vimeo.

This is the list of points me and my group came up with-

Next we looked at a more comicle peice called 'School Portraits'. Here is the link to view it:

School Portrait from Michael Berliner on Vimeo.

Here is what me and my group said about this one-

We then moved on to a MA piece of work called 'White Lining'. Here is the link to view it:

White Lining from Nor Hazlin Nor Salam on Vimeo.

Here is what my group then discussed about this documentary-

Finally we moved on to look at another Documentary this time by Martin Parr called 'Teddy Grays Sweet Factory'. Here is the link to view it:



Here is what in our groups we then discussed about this piece-

Overall I have learnt something from each of these documentary's but if I were to choose my favourite it would probably be 'As I Am' because this one felt most emotional to me and I really like the contemporary style of it.

What is a documentary?

We were set a new project brief for our Immersion unit which was to in groups create a documentary portrait of a person, a group, community or place. So instead of looking at ourselves this time we are focusing on someone/something else. We have to use documentary elements such as synch interviews and observed filming and also a mixture of diegetic and non diegetic sound. However we do not want to create something that strictly follows conventions and we are allowed to experiment and mix it up as well.

The Documentary Genre is a broad one anyway which in itself has a lot of sub genres and many different ways of doing things. This is why firstly in our groups we sat down and brainstormed a list of what we think a documentary is and can be. Here is our list:

It really made me think of all the different possibilities that we have but also what we need to be mindful of when going through the process of making it.

Dance Video Shoot

We were set the task of creating a dance video so we had a shoot day arranged for us to work with a set of dancers to capture the footage we would need. On the day of the dance video shoot we were split in to 6 groups of 5/6 people. Each group was given a time slot of 40 minuets which was all the time we would have with the dancers. Lucky the group I was in was given the second time slot for filming which gave us some time to plan out the kind of shots we wanted to capture. The problem however was that because we only got to watch the dance once briefly prior to this we didn't really know what kind of things we could capture so we were coming up with some very generalised shot ideas which turned out not to be too useful because the dancers wouldn't do certain movements which worked with this.

We had two cameras to a group which was useful as it gave us twice as much chance of capturing the shots we wanted. We began by setting this up as quickly as possible so adjusting things like the white balance and the gain so we could get enough light in the shot and have a good range of tones. The only problem we uncovered later when reviewing the footage was the everyone had set the two cameras up differently for each group so none of the shots were completely matching unless it was done by the same group on the same camera. This was slightly frustrating considering that when it came to editing everyone was meant to be sharing footage but none of it matched.

During our shoot with the dancers we tried a few different approaches. We attempted some hand held shots and others on the tripod which restricted our movement but gave a steadier look to the work. We captured a lot of long shots of the whole of the dance but soon realised that we needed close ups too so began this also. This was trickier however to pin point which exact movements we wanted close ups of. One shot that I was really keen to get was a close up of the dancers feet which I achieved by putting the camera on the floor and slowly moving it across to follow the feet as they leaped. I was really happy with this however I wish that we had more time to get some similar to this as we ran out of time and didn't end up getting all the shots we wanted. I feel like we will do a much faster job in the future now because we have had some experience of this kind of filming. For me personally this is the first time I have ever done anything quite as complex as filming dancers. I am really happy with the results though and with the experience. I think sharing each others footage is a big help as well because other people captured things that we missed so it really helps complete the edits.

Evaluation of my Self Portrait and Presentation

Last week I had to present my mounted final portrait to my peers and teachers to be assessed.

I feel like the simplistic choice to mount it on white foam board with a very small boarder worked well because it left the focus on the image which I wanted but it also looked professional. I also had my title mounted on a small piece of white foam board which I placed just under my portrait on the wall. This way the title was read by the audience but it wasn't part of the image and therefore didn't detract too much attention away. I feel however that this presentation could have been made more powerful by being printed a lot larger. This would mean you could see all the detail on the layered image too and it would have made a bigger statement about my personality. If I had more time and more money I think I would have done this.

I feel like my 10 minuet presentation went well because I talked through my process from start to finish so how I began planning my shoots and how I edited the images in Photoshop. I went very in depth about the editing process as I feel like this was the biggest factor in my piece however I feel like I should have spoken about my thought process a bit more as this may have not come across too clearly. Also I did a lot of research before starting any physical work and I don't feel like I referenced my research enough for this to be clear. If I were to do this again I would write myself note cards of everything I needed to say so that I didn't miss out on any of these vital points.

Finally I feel like the actual piece itself is strong because it has a meaning and a process behind it however I would have loved to have developed this further through editing and refining my images. Because I was working on a limited time frame my editing process became a bit rushed and very similar for each image and I feel like with more time I would have taken more risks when editing and explored even further with what I could do. Overall I am happy with what I managed to produce this time for my first project.