Week 1+2 Production Task - Glastonbury Festival [Narration Exercise]

Week 1+2 Production Task - Glastonbury Festival [Narration Exercise]

Each production group were given the same 8 minute clip of archive material of the Glastonbury Festival. It consisted of performances of bands and crowds dancing and celebrating, setting up and constructing of tents and stages, interviews with people at the festival as well as the founder, Michael Eavis. A huge montage of footage. 

Our task was to reduce the footage down to 3-4 minutes and to construct and record our own voice-over for it.

List of clips

1. Interview with Insurance worker. (0.00 - 13.07) 
2. Essential technical items for when at a festival. (women) (13.07 - 35.02) 
3. 2 men on camp talking about wind. (35.02 - 45.11) 
4. People setting up tent (45.11 - 55.15) 
5. Old footage from previous festivals. (55.15 - 1.04) 
6. People erecting tents /poles/ gathering wood/dancing/band performance. (1.04 - 2.29) 
7. Guy in car, owner of Glasto (2.29 - 2.51) 
8. 2 old men talking about festivals. (2.51 - 3.01) 
9. Owner old day hippies (3.01 - 3.15) 
10. Hippies at Glastonbury outside their tent (3.15 - 3.30) 
11. Lovely people lovely music lovely festival Owner (3.30 - 3.46) 
12. T.Rex B&W Scene (3.46 - 4.04) 
13. shot B&W interview about Glastonbury being a euphoria (4.04 - 4.30 and 4.41) 
14. B&W hippie band performing (4.41 - 5.03) 
15. One thing that worries - gate crashed (5.03 - 5.10) 
16. Long shot of campsite (5.10 - 5.21) 
17. Another band performing (80s) (baby shot) (5.21 - ) 
18. MS of crowd (lots of heads) (6.53 -6.58) 
19. Bride "The weddings off" 
20. Cows walk in front of frame of LS of Glastonbury 
21. Wish the festival would never end B&W
22. Please don't pollute shot 

We noted down what every clip in the footage given would project. This would would make it easier to select the most relevant clips in reference to what would be said in the voice-over. 
In order to think of how we would approach what we would say in our voice-over, our group shared some ideas that we could discuss within the narration.

Ideas for Narration Script - What is Glastonbury?!
Establish what Glastonbury is:
- Where is it
- How long its been going on for
- Who goes
- What happens at the festival
- People's opinion on the festival 

We each assigned ourselves an area to research and script, then in next week's workshop we would share our script for our section and construct the main script which would be used for the voice-over. My section which I researched was the setting up of Glastonbury which you can see in the section below.

My Script Section: Setting up Glastonbury

With over 175 thousand people annually attending the festival, the Glastonbury Festival takes a huge amount of time and effort to set up and run. The 5-day long festival in June takes months of preparation to set up all the stages, the 8 km fence surrounding the festival and other attractions inside the festival which is this is mainly completed by a volunteer workforce. Michaels Eavis once said "People put heart and soul into the build and that's what keeps it going." With the exception of technical and security staff, the festival is mainly run by volunteers. Oxfam have been working with Glastonbury for years and provide stewards throughout the festival. They are probably the largest recruiter of stewards and helpers for Glastonbury. Most volunteers are paid in free entry, transport and food, while their charities receive the wages the volunteers earn over the event. 


Script Draft for Voice-Over

When it came to creating the final version of the script, it was important that each member of our groups section would lead into the next one, and that no information was repeated. Therefore, some minor adjustments were made to certain sections of people's script when we compiled all the sections into one. Below is our final version of the script in which Luke voice would be the one we used for our group's narration:

Glastonbury Festival is a five-day music festival, it is the world’s largest greenfield music and performing arts event. After the 1970s, the festival took place almost every year and grew in size. This musical event was organised by Michael Eavis at Worthy farm near near the village of Pilton, Somerset, England.

With over 175 thousand people annually attending the festival, the Glastonbury Festival takes a huge amount of time and effort to set up and run. It takes a huge workforce and months of preparation to set up all the stages, the 8 km fence surrounding the perimeter of the festival as well as attractions inside the festival. Michaels Eavis once said "People put heart and soul into the build and that's what keeps it going." In fact, with the exception of technical and security staff, the festival is mainly run by volunteers. Oxfam have been working with Glastonbury for years and provide stewards throughout the festival. They are probably the largest recruiter of stewards and helpers for Glastonbury. Most volunteers are paid in free entry, transport and food, while their charities receive the wages the volunteers earn over the event. 

Apart from contemporary music, other art forms such as dance, poetry, theatre, comedy, circus and other arts also on display. Glastonbury was greatly influenced by hippie ethics and free festival movement in the 1970s and attracted politically minded artists such as New Order and Hawkwind to play. In early 1980s, the festival was held annually. Some notable performers during this decade were Van Morrison, the Smith and Elvis Costello. The 1990 edition was the biggest festival yet with acts like Paul Oakenfold, The Cure, The Prodigy and R.E.M. Artists like Stevie Wonder, Beyonce, Lady Gaga, Bruce Springsteen and Paul McCartney also took to the stage while band like Muse, U2, Radiohead and Coldplay also performed in the festival.

All sorts of people attend the Glastonbury festival. The most common type of people are hippies. These were the main kinds of people who attended in the 70s. Nowadays hippies still go but it's more indie and alternative people. People of all ages attend Glastonbury, it's popular with older people too wanting relive the Woodstock days. Glastonbury is great for all.


Conclusion

All in all, I felt this was a good task to break the ice amongst our group since it got us working in a team. It enabled us to work on our communication and decision making skills as a group. It also gave us an idea of who was more confident with the course too. I think that the end result of the voice-over sequence we made was successful as it was informative. If there could've been improvements, I would've liked more pauses between the narration and another aspect we could've worked on is matching up the sound levels from the interviews and music in the footage to the narration we had recorded. It was a positive task for our group and a good way to start the module, although I wasn't that confident with my teams overall knowledge and input and I'm hoping to be proved wrong by them 

Week 1 [Workshop Notes]

Project Brief

Working in production teams of three to four people, you will produce a 5-6 minute documentary. The documentary should address one of the two related themes below. You will be provided with some conceptual reading, which you are encouraged to use to spark off ideas.

Human and Non-Human:
For this you might think about how you could tell a story about the following through particular characters, objects and places: our relationship to landscapes / places / environment / nature / other creatures / machines

Or

Self and other:
In what ways do people live / perform their sense of national, ethnic, religious, sexual, class or gendered identity? (e.g. explored though an ethnography of aspects of British society looking at what might seem strange to people coming from elsewhere). How is our sense of self defined in relation to what we think we are not? 


Assessment 1
Pre-production portfolio 
30% of the course
Due week 7

Each individual student must submit a folder in duplicate (one hard copy and one on USB) containing:

• The group project proposal (collaboratively produced) – 500 words.
  
• The individual pre-production research report – 2000 words
  
• The pilot material (on two USB drives as the submission has to be in duplicate) 
  

0. PLEASE NOTE: Your candidate number MUST be clearly written on the folders and the USB (the stores can provide USB labels for this).
   
1. 
   

0. Further explanation of items required for Assessment 1: 
   
1. 1. Group project proposal
   This should give a clear idea of what the film will do:
• What story will it tell?
  
• How will it be told?
  
• What is the theme?
  
• Who will be in it?
  
• Where will it be filmed?
  
• What material will be incorporated? (e.g still or moving image archive)
  
• What kind of sound is proposed? (e.g narration, such as third person, ambient
  sound, music, effects etc) .
  
• Who is the proposed audience?
  (Describing the subject matter is NOT enough – the proposal needs to show clear evidence of concrete research of contributors and/or locations and how these will be used to explore a theme. Above all what will we SEE AND HEAR rather than what we will be told.)
  You should refer to examples of proposals on the Creative Practice Virtual Learning Environment and those provided in class to get a sense of how a proposal should describe a documentary project. The proposal may originate from an idea from one member of your team but you should all contribute ideas for its realisation.
  2. Individual pre-production research report
  This should be in the form of continuous prose and should reflect your personal research for the project and on the documentary genre to date. It must contain critical references to reading undertaken and films viewed. It should include:
  
• Critical reflection on what you have learnt which may be useful for you project from viewing at least 3 documentaries such as for instance about approaches or techniques relevant to your proposed project as a whole or your own role on it. You should draw on your own responses to films viewed as well as your critical reading on the documentary genre.
  
• Reflection on your own production research to date e.g. on practice for your role, exercises undertaken, subject research. This should include reflection on your contribution to the production of the pilot material
  Some pointers on what issues you should show awareness of in relation to roles:
  
  
  

Camera – creative thinking on how visual approach will address story/subject/theme, key lighting challenges at proposed locations, framing, equipment requirements and limitations, subject research.

Sound – creative thinking on how sound recording/design will address subject/theme, key sound challenges at proposed locations, microphone selection, subject research.

Editor - creative thinking on how editing will address subject/theme, key challenges for structuring proposed project, scheduling and organizing the edit, subject research. 

Production management (all team members) – logistical issues, permissions/consents needed, scheduling required, budgetary considerations, any copyright issues and how these could be resolved;

Director – creative thinking on how story will be told,/subject/theme explored, notes on contributors/source materials, subject research,
If you are in a team of less than 4 people one person will need to double up and take the director’s role on location as well as doing either sound or camera. The director and editor should not be the same person. You are all however expected to contribute to the creative development and research for the project.

You should also attach to your individual report:
Minutes of group meetings noting who was present, (or absent) summary of points considered and action decided. Minute keeping should be delegated to someone in the team

3. Group Pilot material (collaboratively produced)

This should be up to 2-3 mins of original video footage shot by the team towards the project. It should show either some of the proposed contributors and or locations or other material shot by you exploring the intended style/approach. It CAN include material shot for the set exercises as long as this clearly relates to the proposed subject and/or approach of the final project. It should be roughly edited but you are not required to do a sound mix at this stage. The key thing is to give a clear sense of how the material/people/places you have researched will produce a compelling visual narrative so you need to select carefully what to include. You must include credits for the roles undertaken by group members on the pilot – at least on the USB label. 

Project Ideas

- Croatian living in England --> National identity
- Humans & Water -.> Fishing, Waters Sports 
- Humans & Pets --> Guide dogs, RSPCA
- Humans & Technology --> Phones & Internet


WEEK 7 WILL BE OUR PRESENTATION WEEK

This is taken from my previous blog last year from the Creative Production: Video Production blog, but it is still relevant to this module.

Modes of Documentary

American documentary theorist, Bill Nichols looked at the history of documentary and came up with 6 distinct modes of documentary. These were:

1. Observational Mode

Direct engagement with the everyday life of subjects as observed by an obtrusive camera. By maintaining the observational mode, the director allows its subject to forget the presence of the camera and behave more naturally, thereby letting the audience get a better sense of how the person really feels about the subject matter.

Examples: Pennebaker's Don't Look Back [1967]


2. Expository Mode (Voice of God)

Verbal commentary and an argumentative logic. Assumes a logical argument and a "right" and "proper" answer using direct address and offering preferred meaning. Mostly associated with Television News programming.

Examples: Herzog's Grizzly man [2005], many nature Documentaries 


3. Participatory Mode

Focuses on the interaction between filmmaker and subject. Unlike the observational mode, the participatory mode welcomes direct engagement between filmmaker and subject(s) - the filmmaker becomes part of the events being recorded. The filmmakers impact on the events being recorded is acknowledged, indeed, it is often celebrated.

Examples: Block's 51 Birch Street [2006]


4. Poetic Mode

This mode of documentary emphasises visual associations, tonal or rhythmic qualities, descriptive passages and formals organisation. The poetic mode of documentary moves away from the "objective" reality of a given situation or people to grasp at an inner "truth" that can only be grasped by poetical manipulation Codes emphasizes visual associations, tonal or rhythmic qualities, descriptive passages, and formal organization favours mood, tone and texture.

Examples: Leni Riefenstahl's and Dziga Vertov's work


5. Performative Mode

Performative modes of documentary are subjective or expressive of the aspect of the filmmakers engagement with the subject and an audiences responsiveness to this engagement. This mode of documentary emphasizes the subjective nature of the documentarian as well asacknowledging the subjective reading of the audience - notions of objectivity are replaced by "evocation and affect"
This mode emphasizes the emotional and social impact on the audience.

Examples: Spurlock's Super Size Me [2004]


6. Reflexive Mode

This mode of documentary calls attention to the assumptions and conventions that govern documentary filmmaking. The Reflexive Mode acknowledges the constructed nature of documentary and flaunts it - conveying to people that this is not necessarily "truth" but a reconstruction of it - "a" truth, not "the" truth.

Examples: Vertov's Man With A Movie Camera [1929]