#representingthereal

GROUP UPDATE ON STYLE AND TONE

After our meeting with a master's student on Wednesday, we felt much more confident in our film and could really see it take form.

WITHIN JOURNALISM AND FICTION LIES DOCUMENTARY

This phrase started a discussion among us as to how much we can blur the lines between reality and fiction. In no way are we going to fabricate information, but it is the way in which we convey this information that we can play around with.

For example, instead of having our subject, Rachel, sit down at a table and tell us about her previous job at Dominos, we're going to either have her 'find' her old uniform in her belongings, or have her pick up a leaflet that we post through the door, or even order a dominos and have her put away the box or heat up a slice, all while mentioning her previous job. Not only is this a much more interesting and time efficient way of conveying information, but it also aids us in developing audio-visual elements of our film into metaphors that further push the narrative. For example, a stack of letters amongst a Dominos leaflet suggests Rachel has little time to go through her letters, it could suggest that work never ends for her. Ordering or heating up a Dominos pizza suggests that she has no time to cook with all the commitments that come with being a teacher.

As well as this, we reinstated that we must keep our cutaways relevant. For example, filming a random pretty view may look good but it does not convey any information about our subject. Whereas having a shot of Rachel watering a plant reinforces to the audience her caring personality, her aim to help others grow and even the fact that she is interested in nature etc as a biology teacher.

To create a shotlist, we will first write a list of questions for a sit down interview. However we will show very little, if any, footage of this. Instead, we will use the audio as voice over in cutaways. To prevent too much voice over we will write a separate list of questions for each location planned. For example, when in her car, we will ask about her journey to school everyday, how she feels about working far from home even though there are schools closer to her home etc. Then in the edit we will cut between all of our locations to create a good audio-visual flow. If we feel as though we ended up with too much voice-over , we have two ways to fix this. One, is filming cutaways in a way where we cannot see Rachel's face so it looks as though she could be talking on location. Two, is if during the interview, Rachel says something that makes us think of a good location for the question, we will go there and rephrase the question to receive a similar answer on location.

In terms of style and tone, we have decided to go for a Social-realist one. The gritty and authentic tone associated with this style often ends up feeling like a documentary even though its fiction. Two examples of this are Ramsay's Ratcatcher and Arnold's Fish Tank.

Fish tank (Andrea Arnold)

Ratcatcher (Lynne Ramsay)

A documentary maker we were recommended to check out is Gianfranco Rosi, in particular, Sacro Gra - a scripted documentary-style film.

Sacro Gra (Gianfranco Rosi)

I find it interesting that the sources we were recommended to watch are all fictional. It made me excited to further explore the line between fiction and reality.

OUR PITCH

Our pitch went very well. We got very positive feedback from our lecturer, Joe, and we were able to answer questions from both him and our classmates.

Kat and Hayley wrote our pitch which John and Hayley performed. The rest of the group stood with them and answered questions. We discussed the tone and style of our documentary, gave examples of scenes and how we will present information through audio-visual metaphors. We explained our roles, who our subject is and what the story is.

Hayley made a very helpful powerpoint to go along with the pitch.

I made a short trailer made from photos sent to us by our subject and found footage that we played at the end of our pitch to give our audience a feeling for our documentary.

Currently, John is planning on taking his car and equipment and driving to our location to scope it out with our help and Hayley is working on our written proposal.

NAME: Saoirse Gillespie

PROJECT:  Finding Punk (Group 14)

DATE OF CRITIQUE: 27th April 2022

TUTOR(S): Sana Bilgrami, Joe Li, Tomas Sheridan, Leo D'Andrea

  VERBATIM  TRANSCRIPT OF FEEDBACK:

TS: “I actually thought that, I mean jokes aside, I  thought that reduces quality was quite punk. I almost wanted to see this shot  on 16mm or something, like some grainy old film or something, yeah. One thing  that really jumps out at me is how well you understood your character in your  production, how well you researched what the story was because you… it’s  quite rare even for professionals and I feel like you delivered exactly the  film you said you were gonna make, in terms of his place inside a community, the  feeling of like these older people that can be his friends and finding punk  you know sort of… even though he doesn’t spell it out, but how punk you know,  saved his life sort of thing or made, you know, created the social circle for  him. It all comes across, so I think that’s quite a good example of show  don’t tell, even though it’s shown with other words, but it’s like without  explaining it literally, got that. So, I really like that. Yeah, I liked in  terms of the cinematography, I like that there was a variety of shots again  in terms of building scenes those close ups, when he’s like gonna play the bass  in the rehearsal space and again, I think, like doing multiple short  interviews is not only good to give you that variety of shots, to cut between  it also focuses your mind because you might not be that experienced in terms  of interviews so the fact that you had at least two interviews, maybe three where  it just felt like every I interview was getting better and better and like  you were going away and looking at what you got, understanding him better and  going back for asking questions with him for more focused, more focused  attention. I love… there’s some things he said that were just like, just good  character chat but it’s also to your credits that you didn’t make the  interview too dry and so he could go off explaining to you, you know “punk is  chocolate” or when he’s like talking about the past and the future living in  the present. It really sounds… it sounds a bit cliché, but it sounds like  he’s like developing through this music style. So, I just thought all of  these things came together nicely, and then I appreciated… so in terms of the  music, obviously it’s a film that’s centred on the music. I like that you  didn’t overdo it and that the music is sort of present when it’s useful, like  with the vinyl or with them playing. And I also appreciated what I think Leo  suggested to another group, which was like fading in and out of the music -  so not having the music when we’re talking and then having it fade in and  then fade out with the same visuals. So that… I mean these are small  technical things that if you know them you know them, and if you don’t you  don’t. But it’s just, you know, it just tied it together quite nicely. And  you know the levels were there and all. I think the last two films were proof  that it’s not the systems fault, but you know, the levels have been achieved.  Yeah, sorry, lots of padding, lots of praise. I think, I think it really  worked.”

SB: “I really enjoyed the film as well, what a great  character. Yep, great character. I’m going to give you a bit of criticism. So,  I, you know, go along with all of Tommy’s appreciative comments. But yes, so,  your opening sequence, you know you start, he puts the record on, you could  have just blasted that music and not have him speak for the first… and you  have this really nice sequence of showing us bits of just shots from his  music collection or flat or something, you know there are these close-up’s, right?  You know what I’m talking about? He should just start speaking after that. So,  if you could change that, that would be great. It would be a much more  powerful opening because punk is loud, punk can’t be soft and, in the  background, okay? And especially when you’re putting it on, you are literally  playing the record. So, I would change that whole thing. And we don’t need to  hear the names of his band members. I mean it didn’t increase my  understanding of this guy’s character or anything. So, you know that, yeah  you could remove that, then that gives you a bit of space for the music. I  really enjoyed it. Nice… I really like your transition from the inside of the  flat, you go out as if you just show us that you’re going to a different  location. So that’s nice visual storytelling. I like the guitar shots, the  close-ups when he’s tuning in. But my overall, biggest critique is we need,  again like with a lot of the other films, some space between the words. He  speaks pretty much non-stop throughout from beginning to end and it would be  really nice to let the film breath and just take in some of what he says. So  that was the other big one. And right at the, end the concert, so you show us  a tiny bit and then you fade out to speaking again and then go back with the  music high up, and I just wondered if you could just remove the speaking part  or put that bit of voiceover somewhere else so that we are actually immersed  in the concert at the end, because again, I really wanted to be immersed in  that concert. And actually, that’s where I see the relationship between him  and the older folk in his band. So, you know, I think just letting up kind of  experience him on stage would have been really good. But otherwise, yeah, I  really enjoyed it.”

JL: “My feeling is the same, really enjoyed the film,  and I think the production quality is also really good. I like particularly  the way there is no intervention from the filmmakers from you. You stay  behind the camera, and you just let your character speak, and I think that  his narration really sort of engages the audience. We get to know his  personality, his passion, his love, what he likes to do. And this film  appears to be particularly effective in this way, I don’t know what happened.  Maybe it’s not only the problem of the filmmakers, it also depends on the  interviewee, like the mural artist, just so calm, but he appeared to be so  energetic, so friendly. So sometimes it also depends on the characters in the  film. I was thinking, if there’s any other worries at all it’s more about, do  we get we get to know a little bit about his family, like does he have a  partner? Is married? Has kids? It’s only five minutes, I don’t think you need  to do any interviews or whatever, but in order to give us a more rounded  character you might also want to know that a little bit. Because he’s so much  into art, that’s his chocolate, that’s his passion, but what about his  partner, his kids? I mean just a little bit about that maybe.”

Saoirse: “No he doesn’t, he’s only 25.”

SB: “Oh, he made it sound like he’s 30 because he said  “they’re going to be 90” (when talking about being friends with people “3x  his age”)”

TS: “But I think that’s what drew you to him, that he  was 25 and hanging out with 30/40-year-old musicians – that was sort of the  crisis for you?”

JL: “I wanted to add on, I liked the cinematography,  like the editing, I like the sound – I think it’s really well done. So yeah,  maybe, Leo do you want to add anything?”

LD: “Yeah, mostly, I just echo what Sana said, it’s  well made, you definitely have a very interesting subject. Like, you  definitely want to use some of the interviews, like the bit about the cheese  and chocolate - it’s so funny. But also yeah, it would be, that final bit  when you just let the music come in and you have the archive edited to the rhythm  of the music, that’s brilliant, I just wish you had applied that thought  process to the entire film. So just having some moments when you just let the  music, you know, be really loud. I totally agree with Sana, like that opening  scene where the music starts playing and you have the title card, really  good, and then you fade it immediately to go back to the interview, like you  could have let us enjoy it for a little bit more, just get into the spirit of  the film. Yeah, mostly it’s about just hitting the right balance of  observational footage, so to speak, and interview but also understanding when  you want to intercut that and when you want to separate them, like  compartmentalise them, so that when he speaks as understand what he’s saying,  you know, all the funny stuff about chocolate and cheese, and then when we  watch him do what he loves, doing that, they we just enjoy that. But yeah,  other than that definitely good idea. Great.”

 MAIN POINTS GLEANED  FROM FEEDBACK:

Breathing space is required between words/Darren speaking

Reduced quality adds to our narrative and makes the film more ‘punk’

We made the film we said we were going to make

Music needs to be more present/we should only hear the music at certain points

Our interviews were well constructed

Could have looked to his relationship with others more (family etc.)

Our characters personality comes across well in our film

Good visual storytelling

 REFLECTION:

Upon reflection I’m really happy with the final outcome of our film. As I said during the crit, I think the film could have been improved by including more footage of Darren interacting with the older members of the punk community that he talks about and that would have strengthened our narrative. I agree that there needs to be breathing space between the dialogue, although I feel this represents how Darren speaks, I realise that this can be a bit too much for audiences and time needs to be taken to digest information. I think ultimately my relationship with Darren and the way the interviews were constructed gave us interview material that represented him well. Due to time constraints and difficulty as I was the only one communicating with Darren in the group, we were only able to get a certain amount of footage and more would have helped Euan out in the edit, as well as more time. I was part of the process from start to finish at all stages and I feel that most of responsibility was left to me in organising the film, where more of a group effort could have been made and this affected our film during production. I was in constant contact with Darren but as he had other things going on or would often cancel the day before/day of shooting, it made our shooting schedule very tight. Overall, I’m happy with how it looks and I agree with lecturers that we delivered the film we said we were going to make.

 ACTION PLAN:

THE RACHEL MILLER PROJECT

DIRECTOR: John

PRODUCER: Hayley

DOP: Oliwia (me)

SOUND RECORDIST AND DESIGNER: Kat

EDITOR AND SOUND DESIGNER: Max

We were having a bit of trouble organising filming dates with Darren as we were mainly limited to week nights after 5pm and locations were becoming a bit of a problem as well because of changing dates and times.

We eventually were able to meet Darren at the recording studio he regularly rehearses in with Jim of the punk band Threats on 12th April. Myself, Mara, Ben, Euan and Fionntan all travelled to Dalkeith for this shoot. However, once we all arrived to film around 7pm we had a few issues that came up; firstly Jim was uncomfortable with 5 of us being in his studio and secondly our sound equipment was not working. I was able to negotiate with Darren and talk to Jim about filming and keeping everything to the minimum people we needed in the room, and as the sound equipment wasn’t working we decided to just use the camera sound and film most of the footage we could use for cutaways. We asked Darren if he could mess around on his bass and with the equipment as he would usually while Fionntan filmed him from different angles, and also around the space. I then set up a time with Darren later in the week for us to meet and film a second interview.

The second interview took place in my flat due to their being no other location available because of the time constraints we were under. My living room is full of punk memorabilia so I thought this would be a good place to film the interview to match the feel of the rest of the film so far.

Myself, Mara and Ben were the only ones available for this interview, this again was due to time constraints. I directed the shoot and also interviewed Darren while Ben acted as DOP and Mara as the sound recordist. Ben immediately started rolling as Darren came in and I spent some time chatting with him as usual in an effort to make him more comfortable in front of the camera again. We were able to achieve some great interview footage due to our prior planning with questions, and I found it quite easy and natural to further and add on to my questions to get extended answers from Darren. We ended up getting everything we needed (except from set pictures, I only managed the one above) and were really satisfied with how the shoot went by the end of the day.

On Wednesday 6th April, myself, Mara, Ben and Fionntan met up to put together a plan for the rest of our documentary that we had yet to film. We were having some trouble getting a hold of Darren for filming so we thought it best to have a solid plan in place for when the time came so there was no waiting around and we could get what we needed.

We looked over our existing interview footage first to remind ourselves of what we had before coming up with more questions for myself to ask Darren in the interview, so there was no risk in asking questions that would get us similar answers. We then came up with the following questions:

What was life like before punk?

How do you feel you have changed after entering the punk community?

How does being in the punk community affect your every day life?

What has it felt like to build relationships with your heroes and to then work with them?

Where do you see yourself going in the future with your music?

We also came up with a loose structure for editing the documentary together once we had our footage and a list of ideas for B-Roll that we could use for cutaways.

March 9th 2022,

Previously, my group and I had only had meetings with Chris Rutterford (our documentary subject) via zoom calls. Finally meeting Chris face to face really let us solidify his character and personality and how we wanted to film and also edit the final piece. We decided to go for more observational shots as we just let Chris get lost in his painting, it was quite mesmerising watching him create his art. We had chats with Chris between takes, some which we recorded audio some we didn’t. For Day one of filming we all decided that our goals were to get visually pleasing footage and to simply get to know Chris more. We planned to create more in depth questions for a proper interview on our next meeting face to face. 

For this project I am in charge of recording sound. On set we tried to get some sounds of Chris painting and the rattling of his scaffolding as well as any audio of Chris talking to us. As I was setting up the sound equipment, I found that the adapter for the headphones had been left behind in the equipment room, we decided as a group that we would try and record sound anyway and hope that it came out good. I had to watch the levels very closely and make sure that although I couldn’t hear the audio physically that everything was accurate on the recorder so that the audio might have a chance. After filming for the day we transfer the audio files onto Caspar’s computer as he is editor, he immediately checked and the audio was great! I was quite proud of myself and my team that we had managed even though we couldn't hear what we were recording.

In hindsight, It would have been easier if we had done a quick sweep of the equipment room and our boxes to make sure we had absolutely everything we needed, however every equipment pick up I have done since this day I have consciously made sure we haven't left anything, so hopefully I have learned my lesson and I will continue to check in the future and save myself unnecessary hassle.  

Slides from our pitch for Representing the Real which was delivered 02/03/2022.

Mara and myself created the powerpoint to act as a visual aid during our pitch. Unfortunately the only members of our group who showed up for the pitch were myself, Mara and Fionntan which added some pressure on to us on the day as we had to rearrange who was speaking and when about which topic of our film. 

We began by showing a quick trailer for our film, Mara then introduced the film and our general idea for its direction. I spoke about access to Darren, locations and music, and why we were the best people to be making this film. Fionntan then spoke about our visual approach and how we would like to convey a relaxed, conversational atmosphere in our film.