Creativity & Collaboration BLOG
27/09/2023
Initial Ideas
After learning I will be making a documentary as part of the Creativity and Collaboration module for CMP at the University of Westminster, I came up with a couple of initial ideas:
- Comedic
- Cunk on Britain
- Participatory/Interactive
- To have a presenter and interviewees
- Possibly psychology students/professors
- Using theme of ‘Memory’ we came up with the idea to think about social experimentS involving memory and how we can change people’s perceptions of the norm
- One experiment was to go up the wrong side of an escalator in a tube station with a large group to see if the general public might copy us
- Utilise ‘fly on the wall’ method for the camera
- During interviews, the camera could drop a couple of times or the presenter could directly refer to it- Reflexive- Other ideas of the placebo effect and Mandela effect
Lesson Notes:
06/10/2023
Treatment and Pitching
After this week's Creativity and Collaboration lecture, I began thinking about my own treatment rather than the whole group project and how to present it. I need to write a paragraph including my ideas for next week so will use the weekend for research and development of my ideas. I am particularly fond of horror movies and like to watch and also create disturbing media which frightens the audience and causes great emotion. With this in mind, my initial ideas around the documentary involve the use of dark imagery, mould and a certain 'fright-factor'. I enjoy true crime documentaries and had the idea to perhaps talk about true crime but I became fascinated about the idea of disease as a terrifying concept and decided to do my project on cancer as I know many people who have survived and also died of this disease. I do, however, want my documentary to be respectful and so I must be careful with how I present the issue. I have taken some inspiration from American crime documentaries which take dark subjects and recreate some parts of it. I want it to be somewhat of a mind intrusion, entering the mind of a patient and recreating some real events as well as perhaps thoughts in their mind. I enjoyed the series 'Dahmer' (https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/81287562) on Netflix which went into graphic detail of what he did to others without being disrespectful to the victims and allowing the audience to truly hate what they are watching. Similarly, I want to create a sense of hatred towards cancer, despite there being much hatred already, but enough so that they may be inclined to donate to cancer charities. Again, there is a lot of work that needs to be done to refine my idea and I update with research in due course.
Here are the notes from the lecture:
Here are the notes from the lecture:
10/10/2023
Documentary Ideas
When researching for my treatment, I realised that the use of cancer as my focus would have been very difficult and decided to go for a different approach. Still wanting to usre the horror asthetic, I watched several documentaries such as 'Inside the Criminal Mind' (https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/80185065) and 'The Ripper' (https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/81006684) to understand the use of horrific imagery in documentaries. Interestingly, 'Inside the Criminal Mind', an American documentary, seemed less respectful of the victims to the murderers and used actors to re-act the events taken place. The filmmakers used bloody imagery in front of expert knowledge presented buy the interviewees which made the film seem somewhat goofy and sci-fi-esque. Despite my criticism, however, I found this more engaging than the British 'The Ripper' documentary. 'The Ripper' used silence when interviewees were speaking which made what happeded seem like a horrendous act and made me feel sorry for them. Despite this, I found the storytelling to be slow and somewhat boring since the story is spread out across many episodes and there aren't fun transitions or interesting effects to keep the viewer engaged. Overall, I hope to take inspiration from both these documentaries as they both have traits fascinating to me in the aspect of horror: I will use scary imagery but with the respect and silence of 'The Ripper'.
Here is my current treatment at this stage:
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Here is my current treatment at this stage:
Tomorrow we will be receiving feedback from our ideas and I hope to further refine them at a later date.
Over the weekend, I also went to see 'The Phantom of the Opera' at His Majesty's Theatre. During the performance, I noted the clever use of lighting to show the more darker scenes, utilising gels and covers which reflected a forrest-like setting on the graveyard scene. I hope to use this information in my own work as well and will take inspiration from some of the more gruesome aspects of the play such as when the phantom disappears or when his mask is taken off, surprising the audience with his hideous disfigurement. I think this type of makeup may be useful for my documentary and will mention these in my design choices later in the process.
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Over the weekend, I also went to see 'The Phantom of the Opera' at His Majesty's Theatre. During the performance, I noted the clever use of lighting to show the more darker scenes, utilising gels and covers which reflected a forrest-like setting on the graveyard scene. I hope to use this information in my own work as well and will take inspiration from some of the more gruesome aspects of the play such as when the phantom disappears or when his mask is taken off, surprising the audience with his hideous disfigurement. I think this type of makeup may be useful for my documentary and will mention these in my design choices later in the process.
11/10/2023
CREAM and Group Formation
Following todays lecture, we learnt about CREAM (Centre for Research in Arts and Media) where to lecture told us about her experience researching projection in North-East Thailand in relation to the spiritual world. It showed how art can come in many forms and researched in many different ways.
During the group formation, we decided upon the idea revolving around psychology of the norm and how we can manipulate people to changing what they've known due to others. We will do experiments such as walking up the wrong side of the escalator and seeing if others will follow and clapping randomly to see if there has an effect on others. Zak pointed out that it would be extremely difficult to film in an underground station and so we will workshop some other ideas which can relate to our subject or chose a different location for the experiment. The documentary will involve speaking to psychology professors and students as well as perhaps having a presenter to ask the questions and add to the more light-hearted tone of the film. This week, we will continue to communicate our ideas and create a treatment to share in our next lecture.
I didn't take many notes today but here is what I wrote:
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During the group formation, we decided upon the idea revolving around psychology of the norm and how we can manipulate people to changing what they've known due to others. We will do experiments such as walking up the wrong side of the escalator and seeing if others will follow and clapping randomly to see if there has an effect on others. Zak pointed out that it would be extremely difficult to film in an underground station and so we will workshop some other ideas which can relate to our subject or chose a different location for the experiment. The documentary will involve speaking to psychology professors and students as well as perhaps having a presenter to ask the questions and add to the more light-hearted tone of the film. This week, we will continue to communicate our ideas and create a treatment to share in our next lecture.
I didn't take many notes today but here is what I wrote:
I also wanted to mention an exhibition I saw at Tate Modern over the weekend, related to my own treatment. A film named 'Cabaret Crusades: The Horror Show Files 2010' by Wael Shawky was shown using 200-year-old marionettes to depict the story of the First Crusade from the perspective of Arab historians. The film used dark imagery which made me feel uneasy watching and utilised the marionettes as an intriguing source of story-telling in the horror genre. The way they murdered each other seemed almost silly but also brutal and terrifying since the dolls have little to no expression. I would like to take inspiration from this and use dolls or marionettes as a source of horror in my documentary treatment as it can relate to childhood fears as well as genuine fright.
https://vimeo.com/148769148
https://vimeo.com/148769148
18/10/2023
Having spoken as a group, we have decided to go in a different direction for our documentary: instead of focusing solely on the experiments which would be difficult to do, we are going to focus on the psychology of people in the city in regards to perceptions of places. It will begin with a bleak overview of London and the typical way people imagine it as a place full of crime but will explore the more beautiful side of the city, focusing on people's experiences and love. While this deviates greatly from our initial ideas, we are still able to use the design ideas from before but integrate them in a different way. After presenting our treatment, it was clear that we need to get together as a group and fully finalise our ideas which we will do tomorrow evening and finish the treatment.After the presentation, Jane went over the various aspects of planning. It is important that we stick to these rules and I have taken on the role of production manager to ensure that everything goes well and is 'by-the-book'. On Friday we will further discuss the idea and roles. We have also arranged to start shooting on Monday 23rd October so that we can get started on the project.
Notes taken:
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Current treatment:
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Production Management
Having spoken as a group, we have decided to go in a different direction for our documentary: instead of focusing solely on the experiments which would be difficult to do, we are going to focus on the psychology of people in the city in regards to perceptions of places. It will begin with a bleak overview of London and the typical way people imagine it as a place full of crime but will explore the more beautiful side of the city, focusing on people's experiences and love. While this deviates greatly from our initial ideas, we are still able to use the design ideas from before but integrate them in a different way. After presenting our treatment, it was clear that we need to get together as a group and fully finalise our ideas which we will do tomorrow evening and finish the treatment.After the presentation, Jane went over the various aspects of planning. It is important that we stick to these rules and I have taken on the role of production manager to ensure that everything goes well and is 'by-the-book'. On Friday we will further discuss the idea and roles. We have also arranged to start shooting on Monday 23rd October so that we can get started on the project.
Notes taken:
Current treatment:
20/10/2023
During today’s meeting, the group came together to discuss the specifics of our project. All members turned up and we were able to outline our themes of life and love in relation to perception of the world. On Monday, we will go on a shoot in Euston Station to capture both beautiful and terrible situations in the public. We would like to focus on things like hugging and love as well as homelessness and loneliness. The documentary will utilise a monologue and interviews centred on what love and life means to people over a montage of clips taken in London. These clips will be taken on a wide range of cameras which all come together by music to be a cinematic piece like that of the end of ’Love Actually’. As the Production Manager, I will fill out a risk assessment and call sheet for Monday in order for the shoot to go smoothly and yield great results.
Much of our inspiration is taken from the end of ‘Love Actually’ and ‘The Beauty of Her’:
Documentary Meeting
During today’s meeting, the group came together to discuss the specifics of our project. All members turned up and we were able to outline our themes of life and love in relation to perception of the world. On Monday, we will go on a shoot in Euston Station to capture both beautiful and terrible situations in the public. We would like to focus on things like hugging and love as well as homelessness and loneliness. The documentary will utilise a monologue and interviews centred on what love and life means to people over a montage of clips taken in London. These clips will be taken on a wide range of cameras which all come together by music to be a cinematic piece like that of the end of ’Love Actually’. As the Production Manager, I will fill out a risk assessment and call sheet for Monday in order for the shoot to go smoothly and yield great results.
Much of our inspiration is taken from the end of ‘Love Actually’ and ‘The Beauty of Her’:
23/10/2023
Shoot Day 1
Over the weekend, before the shoot, I created a call sheet, scene breakdown and risk assessment as below:
The shoot went very well and we were able to capture 29.66 GB of film which can be used for our documentary. It was easy to capture anything we could see and we had few problems when filming. It was important that we remain inconspicuous and in doing so were able to capture a wide range of human emotion. The shoot was, however, a little disjointed and a couple of the crew didn’t join until about 11 o’clock as Euston Station. Caitlin also had to leave early but together we still manages to collate a wide range of shots, including phone footage, DSLR footage, handheld footage and even some photographs which may be used. During the shoot, we had a security officer ask us about what we were doing but after explaining, he was happy enough for us to carry on. We also faced a couple of issues when travelling as it was difficult to carry lots of equipment around London. Despite this, I believe the trip was a success and we will continue to go on shoots and plan buy using a Google Calendar.
25/10/2023
During today’s lecture, we learnt about ways of experiementing and how it can affect the ways you can produce media. Many interesting films were shown and it was clear that a lot of effort can be put into this. We were encouraged to try attaching ourselves to strangers to half an hour to experiment what it might be like in a creatibve sense and to wonder about the ethics and risks of doing such things in the name of art. Some of my coursemates tried this and they found it difficult to do normal tasks and had to think of ways they could work together as a team. The string also got in the way of other students and so it as not a practical way to go about things.
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Experimental Collaborations and Planning
During today’s lecture, we learnt about ways of experiementing and how it can affect the ways you can produce media. Many interesting films were shown and it was clear that a lot of effort can be put into this. We were encouraged to try attaching ourselves to strangers to half an hour to experiment what it might be like in a creatibve sense and to wonder about the ethics and risks of doing such things in the name of art. Some of my coursemates tried this and they found it difficult to do normal tasks and had to think of ways they could work together as a team. The string also got in the way of other students and so it as not a practical way to go about things.
After the lecture, we thought about planning and how we should go about making sure all crew members are aware of what we are doing so we created a Google Calendar to add all members and work out what is best for all.
Yesterday, we also created a short interview which we showed to Zak. While it was good practice, Zak noted that we may want to get some music students to help with music and sound balancing during editing. We do, however, have a composer for our project and will spend a lot more time on the sound than we did for this exercise. The exercise was more to gain an idea of what it will be like to ask questions to interviewees and how we could compose this a little better.
This is our treatment so far:
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I also worked on my own treatment recently so here is my personal treatment at the moment:
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01/11/2024
During today’s lecture, we discussed our ideas with the class and gaied feedback on what we had done so far. While it was good that we had been on a shoot, it was clear that we needed to underpin our idea more strongly so that we can make a coherant piece which has something to say. The director was not available during the lecture and so it was difficult to explain our idea to the group as we are unsure of what his plan is. We attempted asking some of our classmates some of our questions and were able to get some feedback on this: our questions need to be more precise and open-ended, allowing for a strong response. We also need to make sure we are careful when going out in the public and will do a trial run in the forum before going out on a shoot. With this, we need to make sure we take release forms when going out into the public so that we get permission from interviewees to ouse the footage in our project. We were also guided to watch some love letters to cities to help underpin our idea and for inspiration on post-production.
After discussing all the documentaries in the class, giving feedback to others and realising the potential of all the projects, we discussed the ways of framing our documentaries in a way that reflects ourselves. In our shot list we must add the specifics to the shots we are taking and will do this at a group in the next week as well as finalising our treatment. The difference between close ups and wide shots are stark as it depends on the mood, amount of emotion and formality we want to depict and it was interesting to hear everyone’s ideas regarding this. For our documentary, lots of establishing wide shots will be used to show the city as well as full bosy shots to establish the whereabouts of the subject since this is particularly important for our topic. For the interviews, it is importan that we get the hustle and bustle of the background behind them by using mis shots in a busy setting, such as Trafalgar Square.
I was also prompted to make a proxy schedule which has been sent out to the group for them to analyse and ammend:
Yesterday, we also created a short interview which we showed to Zak. While it was good practice, Zak noted that we may want to get some music students to help with music and sound balancing during editing. We do, however, have a composer for our project and will spend a lot more time on the sound than we did for this exercise. The exercise was more to gain an idea of what it will be like to ask questions to interviewees and how we could compose this a little better.
This is our treatment so far:
I also worked on my own treatment recently so here is my personal treatment at the moment:
01/11/2024
Documentary Planning and Framing
During today’s lecture, we discussed our ideas with the class and gaied feedback on what we had done so far. While it was good that we had been on a shoot, it was clear that we needed to underpin our idea more strongly so that we can make a coherant piece which has something to say. The director was not available during the lecture and so it was difficult to explain our idea to the group as we are unsure of what his plan is. We attempted asking some of our classmates some of our questions and were able to get some feedback on this: our questions need to be more precise and open-ended, allowing for a strong response. We also need to make sure we are careful when going out in the public and will do a trial run in the forum before going out on a shoot. With this, we need to make sure we take release forms when going out into the public so that we get permission from interviewees to ouse the footage in our project. We were also guided to watch some love letters to cities to help underpin our idea and for inspiration on post-production.
After discussing all the documentaries in the class, giving feedback to others and realising the potential of all the projects, we discussed the ways of framing our documentaries in a way that reflects ourselves. In our shot list we must add the specifics to the shots we are taking and will do this at a group in the next week as well as finalising our treatment. The difference between close ups and wide shots are stark as it depends on the mood, amount of emotion and formality we want to depict and it was interesting to hear everyone’s ideas regarding this. For our documentary, lots of establishing wide shots will be used to show the city as well as full bosy shots to establish the whereabouts of the subject since this is particularly important for our topic. For the interviews, it is importan that we get the hustle and bustle of the background behind them by using mis shots in a busy setting, such as Trafalgar Square.
I was also prompted to make a proxy schedule which has been sent out to the group for them to analyse and ammend:
I recently watched a Netflix documentary called ‘Don’t Fuck with Cats’ which followed an internet troll who killed cats and released the videos on the internet and how a Facebook group attempted to find and aprehend this man. Unfortunately, they were unable to do so before he murdered a man whilst videoing it. Interestingly, he based his killings on movies and was very interested in becoming a well-known ‘actor’ or at least play as if he was in a movie. He longed for attention and so did these horrible things to gain the attention of others. This documentary particularly interested me and utilised a lot of techhniques I might want to use for my group project or personal treatment. Establishing shots of the neighbourhoods of the participants were used to show how distant these people were despite the connection they all had. I may want to integrate this into my own treatment as many different people would be interviewed in many different places despite them having similar experiences. I also liked the use of different camera effects, such as the old phone camera used for the home videos. For our group documentary, we want to present many different angles on the situation and so it would be useful to utilise different forms of film for this to give the effect of different experiences in a similar setting. I really enjoyed the detective aspect of the documentary as clues were given sparingly but enough to allow the viewer to decipher what was truly going on. I would like to utilise this in my personal treatment by spreading clues throughout of a more overarching story (despite the experiences being different) and for these clues to come together at the end with the psychologist who will explain the phenomenon and why some people have similar dreams.
https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/81031373
https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/81031373
08/11/2023
Documantary Production
Following today’s lecture, we were prompted to think about the importance of networking and how this can affect the output of our results and how it can help with funding and further employment. It is important to learn about other courses and join projects with a wide range of students to help further my own development and the lecture really allowed me to think about these options for future projects.
During our later lecture, we presented our ideas and was met with some constructive criticism. We need to focus on what exactly it is that we want to film and go out of our way to ask people if we are allowed to film them. The use of close-ups on hands and dirty clothes could be really poignant to our point about the current state of the world and we can even use videos of war and other parts of the world to connect our subject more broadly and globally. When editting, we will think about the different ways of showing the mundane life in fun and exciting ways such as with low exposure shots and motion blur. We are set to go on another shoot on Monday so will focus on getting these important shots and asking the public for their input. I will also continue to research this style of documentary by watching others which use a similar style and somber tone.
Here is the short example documentary from today:
This is our completed treatment:
13/11/2023
Shoot Day 2
During today’s shoot, we were unfortunately unable to take out the second camera and gimbles so we only had two cameras between the three of us. Nattan, unfortunately, was ill and so it was perhaps useful not to have another camera with us. We first went to Trafalgar Square where we got a lot of good footage of happy moments, such as a couple, the Christmas market and people putting their rubbish in the bin. We also staged a couple of shots containing littering and people looking distressed. These shots will bring a good juxtaposition in the documantary. We then went towards Downing Street and captured tourists as well as homeless people. After a lunch break, we went towards Blackfriars and captured people working through windows and took some long exposure shots which can be used in the backgound to give some depth to the piece. Overall, we captured 44GB of footage which we will go through as a group at a later date.
Below is the call sheet, scene breakdown and risk assessment (example sheets taken from Blackboard):
15/11/2023
Documentary Planning &
United Nations Sustainable
Development Goals
Following today’s lecture, I was prompted to think about the UN’s development goals and how these are not being met. While this is dissapointing, it is important to realise how I can affect the world with sustainability in my own projects and I aspire to use as little energy as possible for my projects by planning well in advance and, by being the production menager for our dicumentary project, I ensure that all members are helping to avoid pollution where we can.
Here are my notes from the lecture:
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Following the lecture, we explained to Zak that we had gone on another shoot and will go on a further two before next week’s meeting. He advised us to research optimism vs pessimism and so we have allocated Caitlin as our primary researcher for the project. Before our next meeting, we will continue to shoot and create another short insight into what the project will be, including many of the long exposure editing techniques brought up by our editor. The project seems to be in full swing at the moment and I am excited to see what we end up with. Daphne has become our ilustrator and will use her skills to help with post-production when editing to get the somewhat abstract look we are aiming for. Noah as also done a recording of his voice which we may use for the voice over and we will continue to explore the possibility of creating our own music for the project. Next week, once we have been on a few shoots, we will discuss the music aspect of the piece and whether it si possible to get someone outside the group to compose a score for the film before editing; if not, we are more than happy to book out a music studio and create the audio ourselves, mixing in some of the street sounds we’ll capture tomorrow.
Documentary Planning &
United Nations Sustainable
Development Goals
Following today’s lecture, I was prompted to think about the UN’s development goals and how these are not being met. While this is dissapointing, it is important to realise how I can affect the world with sustainability in my own projects and I aspire to use as little energy as possible for my projects by planning well in advance and, by being the production menager for our dicumentary project, I ensure that all members are helping to avoid pollution where we can.
Here are my notes from the lecture:
Following the lecture, we explained to Zak that we had gone on another shoot and will go on a further two before next week’s meeting. He advised us to research optimism vs pessimism and so we have allocated Caitlin as our primary researcher for the project. Before our next meeting, we will continue to shoot and create another short insight into what the project will be, including many of the long exposure editing techniques brought up by our editor. The project seems to be in full swing at the moment and I am excited to see what we end up with. Daphne has become our ilustrator and will use her skills to help with post-production when editing to get the somewhat abstract look we are aiming for. Noah as also done a recording of his voice which we may use for the voice over and we will continue to explore the possibility of creating our own music for the project. Next week, once we have been on a few shoots, we will discuss the music aspect of the piece and whether it si possible to get someone outside the group to compose a score for the film before editing; if not, we are more than happy to book out a music studio and create the audio ourselves, mixing in some of the street sounds we’ll capture tomorrow.
17/11/2023
Shoot Day 3
In reflection on yesterday’s shoot, we were able to capture a wide range of shots throughout the night. Unfortunately, Caitlin was unwell and unable to come and Daphne had to leave at 7:30pm but the rest of the team continues to shoot and capture a plethora of usable footage. This footage includes close-ups on hands etc, wide shots of the surroundings, moments of beauty such as a kiss or hug, low shutter speed footage and long exposure shots to be used in the background. This will help create a dynamic and interesting piece where little editing will be needed since a lot of the footage captured will be used to effectively convey our themes of love and hate. Our documentary uses a lot of juxtaposition to get across the stereoscope we hope to portray and so these juxtapositions in our footage need to relay this idea, making our documentary both beautiful and sad.
On our shoot we were greeted by lots of different people who asked for portraits, told us about their experiences with cameras and life and asked for help. These people will be given a mention as a thank you at the end of the documentary as it is heart-warming to see so many people being polite and helpful during the shoot. We also gave some money to a homeless man and bought some pictures from a pop-up store selling photographs taken by homeless people. We will also mention this at the end of our documentary to encourage others to give to charity and to show, once again, the good and bad of the city.
Before the shoot, we made sure to contact Canary Warf for a permit (despite not needing one as we are students) and printed some release forms for ny interviews we may want to take. Since it was dark, we were unable to set up the interview process but will aspire to do some during our next shoot which may be used in our final piece. These may not be used, however, as the script is already quite long and we are limited to 5 minutes but may use some of their words as text overlaying the footage.
In advance of next week’s meeting, we will have a short edited reel to show our progress.
18/11/2023
Personal Treatment
Today I worked on my personal treatment, which is almost complete. I used my knowledge of horror to help guide my ideas and have included a plethora of inspiration for the project.
22/11/2023
After showing the second iteration of our documentary, we were advised to do a proper edit which we have planned for Monday. In the edit we will focus on the mixed media aspect and include our inspirations to help produce the piece. We will also focus on refining the sound and making sure it is sufficiently mixed as well as including some videos from other outlets, including war and protests which we will experiment with ‘picture-in-picture’. In the next few weeks, we will continue to book edit suites and go on shoots to further our development.
Here is our most recent edit:
Stereoscopic Second Cut
After showing the second iteration of our documentary, we were advised to do a proper edit which we have planned for Monday. In the edit we will focus on the mixed media aspect and include our inspirations to help produce the piece. We will also focus on refining the sound and making sure it is sufficiently mixed as well as including some videos from other outlets, including war and protests which we will experiment with ‘picture-in-picture’. In the next few weeks, we will continue to book edit suites and go on shoots to further our development.
Here is our most recent edit:
27/11/2023
Edit 1
Today, myself, Noah and Daphne used J1.31A for an edit. Unfortunately, the other members of the team were unable to attend but despite their absense we managed to look at a few clips and images to put in the final cut of the project. We focused on finding the best clips to use for the project and began editting the piece. We also used photoshop to create a thumbnail for the video which will be used for the final piece. Daphne, as the artist and as part of post-production, began working on some mixed media pieces which will be used in our next edit.
This is the third cut, made by Noah before the edit:
Here is the cut made today with the thumbnail we created:
29/11/2023
Edit 2
After a comprehensive and useful chat with our lecturers this morning, the group went to Edit 6 to continue working on our piece. Some improvements to make were regarding the music and body of the documentary. While the beginning and end allowed us to make a poignant point, the middle of the film was lacking and so we began to explore this avenue through mixed media, incorporating illustration, animation, scans of book pages and photographs to help the overall mood of the piece and its message. The animations were done by myself, Daphne and Noah using Procreate and add a sense of character to the piece. These animations, however, need to be coupled with a lot of mixed media footage which we found difficult to do. Caitlin and Daphne both left early and Nattan was unavailable so myself and Noah found it difficult to come up with ideas and show them since there was only the two of us. We did, however, edit the music so that it is more ‘exciting’ and less monotone throughout the piece and the sound levels have been modified. However, despite our progress today, we feel a little lost, like we have hit a wall and need to call on our fellow filmmakers for advice yet this has been difficult to do so during the last few weeks as members have been away and don’t seem to have contributed a lot to the project. This is dissapointing, to say the least, but I am hopeful that we will make more progress with the project in the coming week and will seek advice from our tutors. We do not have an export from today’s edit as we didn’t feel it was up to a good enough standard but will have an edit on Monday where we will, hopefully, have something to share.
30/11/2023
Edit 3
Today, myself and our director, Noah, took time to edit in the afternoon where we focused on the mixed-media part our documentray. We took pictures of words which are used throughout the piece as a visual representation of the words spoken over the visuals which makes it seems more engaging and exciting. Unfortunately, the rest of the team were unavailable but most will be able to come to the edit on Monday where we will continue to do mixed-media and, hopefully, finish the piece.
Here is the edit from today:
04/12/2023
Edit 4
In today’s edit, myself, Noah and Caitlin used Edit 4 to continue with the mixed-media edit. We continued to edit typed words from text and images onto the video, as well as change some of the visuals with the help of Nattan on facetime. It seems this process is going to take a long time so Noah has been tasked to finish off this version of the edit and so on Monday we will finish the mixed-media by bringing editted pieces to the edit and we will all be there to finish the documentary.
Edit 4
In today’s edit, myself, Noah and Caitlin used Edit 4 to continue with the mixed-media edit. We continued to edit typed words from text and images onto the video, as well as change some of the visuals with the help of Nattan on facetime. It seems this process is going to take a long time so Noah has been tasked to finish off this version of the edit and so on Monday we will finish the mixed-media by bringing editted pieces to the edit and we will all be there to finish the documentary.
06/12/2023
Feedback
In today’s session, we discussed with our lecturers about the newest version of our documentary. They enjoyed the text and mixed-media additions but wanted more change in the sound and structure of the piece. They suggested to change the sound to street sounds in the middle, and to add complete darkness in some instances and an absence of the voice to add more nuance to the piece. We will also work more with stills and creating an atmosphere where the viewer is encouraged to think about the state of the world and their own place in it.
11/12/2023
Edit 5
In today’s edit in Edit Suite 12, myself, Noah and Nattan continued to work on our documentary, taking into consideration the notes from last week. We cut out a large chunk of sound and used blackness and silence to help move our narrative forward. We also added more still photographs to help with this. We continued to add the mixed-media elements to our piece so that it is ready to show on Wednesday. Nattan will work on the sound so that the levelks are right while Noah will continue to work on the subtitles. While I work on our web media project, the others will send me versions so that I can add or change things when needed. The edit will be ready and almost complete for Wednesday’s class.
13/12/2023
Final Review
Today myself, Noah and Daphne presented our project to the class for some feedback. Luckily, most of the feedback was positive and good to hear considering how much time it took to do this and the amount of work we have put into the project. Our only criticism was to keep some of the statistics on the screen a bit longer so that they can easily be read. This is easy enough to do and the next edit we do will be the final product. I think it should also be noted that neither Nattan nor Caitlin came to today’s session and seemed to be away for much of the shooting and editing. This is really disappointing but, regardless, the rest of us have tried and will continue to try to get a good final product for this module.
Here is the cut we showed today:
10/01/2024
After taking some time off during the Christmas break, Noah made the changes needed for our documentary. There was very little to do so we didn’t think meeting up was needed here as we could all explain what we liked and wanted to change over the break. It has now been uploaded to YouTube but will be uploaded to an official channel later down the line after the assessment as we are proud of this work and want to promote it to others.
While this project was both rewarding and frustrating, I have enjoyed working on this project with my peers and am proud of the work we’ve produced. Unfortunately, however, some members of the team had trouble coming to edits and shoots or having much impact. We weren’t told about the issue until about a week ago after the work had been done. Other members seemed to miss lectures and edits for no apparent reason and I am dissapointed that we were unable to have much of their input; the credits show exactly who did what. Despite this, I am very proud of this documentary, given the amount of time spent on it, and I hope you enjoy it.
Final Documentary
After taking some time off during the Christmas break, Noah made the changes needed for our documentary. There was very little to do so we didn’t think meeting up was needed here as we could all explain what we liked and wanted to change over the break. It has now been uploaded to YouTube but will be uploaded to an official channel later down the line after the assessment as we are proud of this work and want to promote it to others.
While this project was both rewarding and frustrating, I have enjoyed working on this project with my peers and am proud of the work we’ve produced. Unfortunately, however, some members of the team had trouble coming to edits and shoots or having much impact. We weren’t told about the issue until about a week ago after the work had been done. Other members seemed to miss lectures and edits for no apparent reason and I am dissapointed that we were unable to have much of their input; the credits show exactly who did what. Despite this, I am very proud of this documentary, given the amount of time spent on it, and I hope you enjoy it.