#repthereal

27/4/22

12/4/22

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 the 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, Saoirse, 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. Saoirse spoke with Darren about filming and only having a couple people in the room if that made everyone more comfortable. Because of this I waited outside trying to get the sound equipment to work and talking with other members of the group about more ideas for filming. Since 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. Saoirse was then able to set up a time with Darren later in the week for us to meet and film a second interview.

15/4/22

We had the second interview at Saoirse’s flat in Dalkeith since there was no other location available because of the time constraints we were under. Her living room is full of punk memorabilia so she thought it would be a good place to film the interview and the rest of the group agreed. Her flat really matched the feel of the rest of the film so far and even though it wasn’t Darren’s house it still represented him quite well.

Myself, Saoirse and Ben were the only ones available for this interview, this again was due to time constraints. I was the sound recordist for this shoot while saoirse directed and interviewed Darren and Ben was DoP. Ben and I immediately started rolling as Darren came in and we spent some time chatting with him as usual in an effort to make him feel more comfortable in front of the camera again but we also wanted to make sure we would catch anything important that he said. We were able to achieve some great interview footage due to our prior planning with questions, and it was quite easy for Saoirse to add onto questions to get extended answers from Darren. We ended up getting everything we needed and were really satisfied with how the shoot went.

6/4/22

Saoirse, Ben and Fionntan and I met up to plan the rest of our documentary that we had yet to film and focus on some small details to make sure everything would go smoothly. We were having some trouble confirming dates with Darren as he was quite busy, so we thought it would be best to have a solid plan in place for when he was available 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 to ask Darren in the interview. We made sure we wouldn’t repeat questions or ask questions that might have similar answers to what we already had. We 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 made sure to think of some ideas for what we could film to use as cutaways, to make sure we could also be efficient in filming these without wasting too much time during the interview. We also came up with a basic structure for editing the documentary together once we had all of our footage.

14/3/22

Ben, Euan and myself met up in the Jack Kilby Centre at Merchiston to write out our proposal and research summary. We also had some help from Saoirse who was at home with covid but sent us any information we needed.

Our Pitch:

Our Research Summary:

2/3/22

I created the powerpoint to act as a visual aid during our pitch with lots of help from Sairose who helped with layout and provided pictures. Unfortunately the only members of our group who showed up for the pitch were myself, Saoirse and Fionntan which added some stress on to us on the day as we had to rearrange who was speaking and when about which topic of our film. 

We introduced our idea with a quick trailer for our film, I then introduced the film and our general idea for its direction. Saoirse 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.

Overall, despite our set backs on the day which caused some anxiety within the group, I think we did a pretty good job at getting across what we are going to do with the film. We were able to answer any questions directed with Saoirse taking the main responsibility for this.

The slides from our pitch:

Our interview which we used as our trailer:

28.03.22

We met up before meeting with Tommy as we knew because we had lost contact with our original character, we would need to come up with a plan B (time was getting on). 

We spoke about ideas we had in our first brainstorming session, thinking of people we already knew or that would be easy and quick to contact. Thats when i brought up my friend from home - Jack Logan.

Jack makes youtube videos as well as going to film school in Glasgow. About 6 years ago one of Jacks videos went viral, gaining 12,000 views in the time its been up. He takes the viewers a tour around our town (Whitburn, West Lothian) and with his jolly, positive attitude brings light to the deprived area, particularly the not so well kept community centre and old shop.

He agreed straight away and so we made plans for a zoom call to see what storyline and conflict we would follow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jec0lzGksE

30.03.22

We did a small interview with Jack over Zoom and it went really well. We agreed to film that Sunday and agreed on out plan which he was chuffed with.

03.04.22

The four of us met up early while Jack was at church to start gathering equipment and make a solid plan for the day.

We headed up to Jack’s house and got a tour of his home cinema (which is incredible) and then set up cameras and mics for the interview. We all chipped in with questions, wanting it to feel more like a friendly conversation which Jack happily helped us out with. After that, we got some sots of jack in his room and headed out into our town for some cutaway shots. We went to the community centre, which is now boarded up because of vandals but we managed to catch a glimpse, the old supermarket, which is now Aldis ,and when heading home jack suggested we went to visit his gran which we loved.

It was a very spontaneous and fun day. We got good footage and good content.

Today I got a (very rough) rough cut on the timeline! Avid still frustrates me a bit but it's getting easier to use - learned how to use the razor tool today, so, here's to small victories. There's still a lot to possibly add/change, and sound needs a massive workthrough, but I feel good about having something solid to work with now, going into April.

Documentary editing is completely different than Fiction editing even though I do think they share the same basic tenants (in terms of organizing, working through a narrative structure). It's good to get a feel of the slightly different creative workflow for each.