book research etc

I've been reading up on producing documentaries and related topics - here are the first two books I found relavant -

1/ Technique of Documentary Film production by W.Hugh Baddeley

About the half the book wasn't relevant to what I was doing - as its a very old book, it had parts involving how to sync sound and tape etc. There were also parts involving budgeting and shooting overseas which to be fair, could have been useful but not for now.

I found this book quite useful in terms of getting my self focus so I know exactly what shots I would need to achieve the effect I'm looking for. it also contains diagrams where it was too difficult to be explained in words and be clear at the same time.

A good book full of essential fundamental. I found that stuff in the book I knew most of it in theory, however there were tips and it was useful in such a way it fills the gaps that nobody ever told you about(or that I never found out).

2/ Making Short Film by Clifford Thurlow

Comparatively this book tells you all the theory and has a LOT of history as to how the film industry started in the first place - it has sections of useful tips and bullet points, list of websites and names of organisation - useful book to gain an understanding of the industry.

documentary group meeting # 4

In this meeting we took the liberty of brainstorming - in order to create a list of questions that c ould be used for the interview.

We devided the thinking process into three key stages - past, present and future.

Seeing as we are trying to add more 'energy' into the documentary, we figured one of the two ways to achieve this would be through questions - with the other being audio.

After some discussions, I've taken all the brain-storming diagram and narrowed down to about 15 questions - we are expecting to improvise questions from answer that will be given for questions from the list.

We briefly considered the need for a shooting script - however as the nature is documentary and nothing has been planned to the detail in terms of reactions(which we cannot possible guess what they would be) we thought the storyboard was quite enough - we will however be doing a lot of cut-aways and extra filming to ensure our editor will have what he needs.

documentary meeting # 3

we took out a study room at the library at 11am...





we were all half dead, tired and worst of all, not up for any detailed discussions on anything.

the aim was to draw up the basic story board and if time allows fit in the list of shots we would like filmed. After some 15-30 minutes of settling down, we've managed to start working.



Seeing as we are actually filming in Raunds, Northampton, we cannot allow for mistakes and had to be very clear on what we were trying to achieve as we will only have one chance to get most of it right (we will probably get it all right but always leave room for errors right). It is crucial that each and every one of us in the group has a clear understanding as to what we are aiming at - we've decided to let the documentary flow as the day goes by(it will happen in the daily routine sequence)

• intro shot
• dad at home composing - what he usually do during the day, a few questions thrown in: informal interview
• montage with interview answers as audio
  
• pick kid up from school, play in the park
• 'chips on bench in park' as dinner - to show emotive caring side of fatherhood
• dad gets changed at home whilst kid gets interviewed - informal
• on the way to gig - more casual interview
• gig
• aftermath of gig

all of the above WILL be filmed however not all will be in the final edit - it's important we have more than enough clips so to allow options as to what the final edit will be.

we have a vague idea of what audios we would like but nothing has been decided and set in stone yet - we have agreed that for the final credits we will be asking Tom(our single dad) to play us a version of his songs on acoustic guitar allowing us to use music that is not only relevant, but most importantly will save us trouble with copyrights etc.
- however due to the nature of how our documentary is filmed at a travelled location we will try and concentrate on alllowing more time for the editing (hence the possibly excessive amount of footage that will be shot).







we shall conquer, watch this space

documentary group meeting # 2

31st Oct 2008

Since we will be filming at Raunds, Northampton, pre-planning means the world to us as we have no room for mistakes.

we have yet to find out the dates our interviewee will be free and his gig schedules - before that is established, there is little we can do about booking equipments and a confirm date that we will be filming.

(Adam if you're reading this, find out now...!!!)

Meanwhile, we have established the list of equipments that we shall be taking with us on the trip and the long day of doing storyboard. We have booked a room at the Boots library on the 4th Nov to start the storyboard and build the basics.

I realize a storyboard cannot be done in a day and will require adaptations constantly - so we will be building the fundamental idea first, the basic rules that we will all abide by, which will take the longest, then add to it accordingly - hopefully there wont be a lot we need to change afterwards.

Me and Kez will be deciding on the list of shots as the storyboard is built - so we know exactly what we get and this will save us time on both filming useless shots and ingesting the aftermaths.

So before the next meeting, each of us will be writing 10-15 questions we would like use in the interview - these will all then be handed to me and I will then condense and organise the list of questions and make them into doubles. I think this will help us stay focus and not easily be side-tracked as we will have a clear aim and direction.

documentary group meeting # 1

this happened back on the 20th Oct 2008 but I forgot to type it up.
(so i'm doing it now before i forget again)

In this meeting the 5 of us established the roles we would like to participate in the making of this documentary.

initially, we listed the following roles -

• director of photograhy
• producer
• director
• sound and editing(post production)
• script writing and storyboard

after some 20 mintues of discussions we found out that actually everybody on the team is up for doing anything and everything, so we each took a title - I shared mine with Kez, being the sound and editing post production team.

"4 minute wonder - daddy in a rock band"

For our second year, the first project we have to do is to make a documentary -
our documentary titled "Daddy in a rock band"

Behind the glamourous life of being a rock star whose career is starting to take off, 25 year old Tom Robin is more than the average joe who happens to be successful - he holds another identity - a single parent to a 4 year old boy.

The documentary will attempt to identify the struggle between the two contrasting aspects of his life and how he manges to juggle with the two extremes.

After initial discussions, the theme and the general feel of the outcome has been decided(and so will be steered towards that direction)

• It will fall in the categories of an observational biography
• the two persona will be emphasized (the caring parent and the rock star within)
  
• so to enable the amplification of the 'struggle'/how he manages - the conflict that exist and ways to have them co-exist
  
• it will be narrative based with mostly open questions (so to save the crucial few seconds spent when questions asked have to be put into the final outcome)
• slow beat, mellow background tunes to bring out the more emotive side - the "awww" factor
• both fly-on-wall and upfront technique will be used to show normal day-in-day-out and the attachment between father and son
• will be shot at 3 - 4 locations, with them being the park(for a bit of football perhaps), the gig venue(where the kid will also be present), the kitchen and the living room of Toms' house.

editing

A new academic year, and my internet is down again.
Good start that, but then over the summer holiday I've saved up and bought myself a little treat - a camcorder.
although it's a Mini DV with the old fashion tapes etc, I like it - in fact I do prefer tapes, it's easier!

Anyhow, I taped my cat for an hour or so, and then something hit me.
Out of so much recording, when you start editing most of the clip becomes 'throwaways' simply because when viewed by a second person they don't need the whole clip to understand what is being said.

That's why I love editing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDa_fJxz-yQ

here's the link to the cat video.


I've been asked by a friend to video a student night party in town, including the aftermath editing - so now I'm working on ideas and concepts, hopefully it'll be good fun.
(though it means no alcohol for me, and walking round a club risking being splashed at by pukes or more alcohol)