Week 7 Presentation [Notes/Script]

Week 7 Presentation: Project Progress

Brief: 

Each group will make a 15–20 minute presentation to your tutor outlining their research to date towards the project brief. Each team member must contribute for 5 minutes, focussing on those aspects of the production for which they have assumed responsibility.
You should research possible outlets for getting your project screened (regardless of length) e.g online, broadcast, festivals, other audiences and explain why your project is suitable for you chosen outlet.
You should talk about your project in depth covering such aspects as:

• How your project will address the brief:
  
• The suggested structure, narrative – how will the subject be revealed over time to
  sustain interest?
  
• The documentary modes to be used
  
• The aesthetic style e.g. use of static or moving camera, pace, types of footage,
  colour/black and white etc)
  
• Use of sound and music
  
• Any particular challenges major problems you foresee with it. 

You should use examples to illustrate your work and also provide visual/aural aids where necessary. The tutor will be in the role of commissioning editor/curator and must be prepared to ask searching questions about the project’s aims and realisation. The tutorial will finish with questions from the group to the tutor regarding the submission of the pre-production portfolios 

Planning:

Since my role was being the editor for our creative project I would be using an editing 'bible' I was informed about when I was working as a Film & Media technician at a London secondary state school by the head of the department to assist my work towards our project. The Book was called In the Blink of an Eye: A Perspective on Film Editing by Walter Murch and I shall be incorporating some of his methods and editorial techniques he suggests for when we get to editing stage of our production such as:

1. Rule of Six

Here’s Murch’s list of priorities when analyzing what makes a good cut:

1. Emotion:  51%
   Is it true to the emotion of the moment?
2. Story:  23%
   Does it advance the story?
3. Rhythm:  10%
   Does it occur at a moment that is rhythmically interesting and “right”?
4. Eye-Trace:  7%Does it acknowledge eye-trace (the concern with the location and movement of the audience’s focus of interest within the frame)?
5. Two-dimensional Plane of Screen:  5%
   Does it respect “planarity” (the grammar of three dimensions transposed by photography to two)?
6. Three-dimensional Space of Action:  4%
   Does it respect three-dimensional continuity of the actual space of where people are in the room and in relation to one another?

Ideally, every cut will satisfy each of these six criteria. Obviously, however, this is not always an option. So, in short, this list gives priority to the subjective over the objective—that is, it challenges the me to weigh things like emotion and story significantly more than 2D and 3D spacial considerations within our footage. Murch even assigns emotion to a value of 51%, which means that cutting based on emotion is more important than the other five criteria combined. 

Slides to Include

Research of Subject Matter
-Readings on Human & Dog Relationships, addressing the brief
-Readings on Editing Documentaries
-Interview Research

Aesthetic Considerations
-Colour
-Pace
-Rule of Six
-Stills, Archive footage
-Shot types & challenges

Sound Considerations for Edit
-Transcripts
-Certain Microphones for specific shots/locations
-No use of voice-over
-Instrumental Accompaniment 

Screening Outlets
-Local film festivals
-Student film festivals
-Online competitions

Script

Slide 1: George's Slides; Editor

Today I will be discussing with you my research on my role and theme so far for our group's documentary project on Human and Dogs, specifically those who have a close companionship to their pet. I will be presenting you this in 3 parts, analysing my subject matter research and role research for the project, I'll be informing you about our aesthetic considerations for the project and some sound related considerations that we will need to focus on during the filming of our production to help improve the efficiency of the editing process. Finally I will discuss you possible outlets that our documentary could be exhibited at.

Slide 2: Research on Role & Subject Matter

In terms of research, I have done various readings of books, online articles and surveys concerning human and dog relationships and found the most interesting and poignant piece to our documentary topic to be this article by Michael J. Dotson and Eva. M. Wyatt concerning human and dog companionship. 

It analyses how and why humans form specific relationships with their pet dogs, and explains the benefits of people keeping pet dogs and the nature and meanings of certain dog and humans relationships. 

Since our documentary was going making our audience aware of bonds people have built with their pet dogs, this journal provided a strong insight into how and why humans form specific relationships with their pet dogs, and explains the benefits of people keeping pet dogs and the nature and meanings of certain dog and humans relationships. For example, in this journal it explains that in Russell Belk in 1996 did a qualitative study with high involvement pet owners and found there to be 4 main metaphors of human-dog relationships. Pets as a means of providing pleasure and problems; an extension of ones self; a replacement family member; possession. This was very similar to another research related article I found called Interrelations between humans and pets (Fox, 1981) where he also reports that there are four categories of dog and human relationships where they are:

1. Object orientated (dog as a possession)
2. Utilitarian/Exploitative (dog provides benefits to human)
3. Need dependency (dog as companion or surrogate child)
4. Actualizing (dog is a respected significant other)

He explains that dogs also have identical emotions to humans and that is why such strong bonds can be formed between humans and their dogs. We wanted to find people who did satisfy the need dependency margin and to make our spectator more aware of how powerful this type of bond between human and dog can be.

Since I'm the editor for the project, I will be using an my editing 'bible' that I was informed about when I was working as a Film & Media technician at a London secondary state school by the head of the department to assist my work towards our project. The book is called In the Blink of an Eye: A Perspective on Film Editing by Walter Murch and I shall be incorporating some of his methods and editorial techniques he discusses for when we get to editing stage of our production which I will touch upon later in this presentation.

Slide 3: Aesthetic Considerations

By having editorial control, I'll be able to construct narrative and meaning within the documentary just by how I construct and layer the footage together. Therefore, it's important to consider and decide upon as many aesthetic considerations as possible when it comes to the editing process of the production. 

In terms of colour, we will need to make our footage more vibrant and warm to give a more natural and comforting feel to our documentary. This can be done by adding fillers to the recorded footage and we can saturate the images and play with the contrast to create our desired effect. Another reason why we will have to add colour effects is because all the footage we are going to shot will take place in the outdoors in natural light settings and there will also tend to be grass within the shots. According to Willie Fielding in his book on Film Making, he says outdoor sunlit locations will give a blue cast to the image quality when filming and if grass is in the shot, the blue cast will show even stronger."  Therefore I'll have to alter footage where this applies to the footage we shot and play with the colours and add fillers to the image.

Pace is another area of the editing process which we have considered. From watching various clips on YouTube and Vimeo on human and dog related videos, I have seen an array of different cutaways used in them. The most effective being the high frame rate shots  of dog's running around in an activity which reduces the motion blur but also captures and exaggerates the movement of the dog. Another technique employed in participatory documentaries with animals is to have close-up, observational shots of pet and owner. We will employ this technique as we want to give a balance to the amount of frame time our interviewees have as well as their pets

Besides that, I will ensure cutaways will be no less than 3 seconds but not longer than 10 seconds as frantic/over-long cuts losses the attention our spectator and detaches them from the narrative according to Murch.
From watching various animal and nature related documentaries such as BBC's Planet Earth and The Wonders of Dogs, they contain a vast array of extreme-close ups when there's poignant dialogue to be heard. This has influenced me to show emotive shots of extreme close-ups of dog's eyes. By focusing on the eyes of both the dog it will capture their emotional qualities  which agrees with Murch's rule of 6 when we analyse what makes a good cut

As we want our audience to be emotively involved with our production, I must consider what Murch calls in his book In the Blink of an Eye as the 'Rule of Six' when editing and cutting footage. As there will be so much footage to go through, the best way of selecting sequences to analyse them as seeing if they match Murch's criteria of what makes it good cut. 

[GO THROUGH SLIDE]

It's apparent that emotion is the key part to any sequences as it outweighs all the other areas of consideration in the rule of six and I aim use this technique as it limits you to having the best quality footage. Ideally, every cut will satisfy each of these six criteria. Obviously, however, this is not always an option. So, in short, this list gives priority to the subjective over the objective—that is, it challenges the me to weigh things like emotion and story significantly more than 2D and 3D spacial considerations within our footage. Murch even assigns emotion to a value of 51%, which means that cutting based on emotion is more important than the other five criteria combined. 

Stills and archive footage are cutaways in which we shall only incorporate if: the dog owners possesses such footage and if it's relevant to the dialogue. If neither fits that criteria than we shall not involve archive footage or stills. 

In terms of challenges we'll face that will effect the edit of our documentary, this will mainly be caused by weather and location conditions because practically all our footage is going to be shot outdoors in natural light. We will have to be wary of the weather in particular as rain and wind will serious impact not only the image quality of our footage but the sound too. Therefore, we aim to do all our filming in places where there is not a huge layers on sound in the sonic environment and to shoot during the prime time of the day to gain the brightest natural light.

Slide 4: Sound Considerations for the Editing Process

Sound is another important aspect of the edit that needs consideration. From all the production tasks and readings we have been set throughout the course, it's obvious that sound has just a big an impact upon the response from the spectator as the visuals do and is something that needs to be planned before filming to make the editing of the sound an easier task. 

We've encountered many problems brought on from our locations we've filmed at and the weather when it comes to the editing stage of our tasks. Therefore, we now know to use specific microphones for certain situations when filming to avoid having to reshoot/record scenes because of the audio. For example, we know that clip-on microphones are the best for picking up dialogue as the boom microphones pick up too much other ambient noises for the dialogue to be clear. 

As editor, I'll be responsible for transcribing all the interviews we record which will make the editing of filmed dialogue a less tedious task and by using Murch's technique of summarizing sequences into specific keywords mentioned in the scene, it allowed the edit to become much less time consuming process and allows the rest of the team to easily locate footage. Also when it comes to a paper edit, it become much easier to shape the narrative we want to construct by narrowing down specific shots/scenes into keywords. 

Slide 5: Possible Screening Outlets

Once our documentary has been fully produced an edited, there are a number of different ways would could exhibit our documentary. We could send it in to film festivals or competitions that are available to students to enter. I wasn't to sure about who has the rights to our documentary when made so I wasn't to sure how to go about submitting our documentary but there are many festivals on the BFI website in which students in the UK can enter. 
http://www.bfi.org.uk/education-research/bfi-film-academy-scheme/film-festivals-young-filmmakers
Since our films focuses on dogs and their owners and the relationship between them, our audience is to be aimed at potential dog owner's or people who want to know more about the close relationships people can build with their pet dogs. I do not think that our documentary is aimed at a specific age demographic and the theme is open to people of all ages and cultures.

Week 2 [Workshop Notes]

Research, Proposals & Pitching

Why Research?

• Respect the intelligence and work of others
• Provides stimulation for ideas and possibilities
• Helps develop your singular voice
• Essential to know about what is to come

How?

• Methods - media theory
• Contexts - history and today
• Work already made - previous films
• Through doing - making films
• Through observation and experience

Context, Idea, Methodology and Outcome

The Lie of the Land - Participatory mode documentary concerning fox hunting 

Lift - Mark Isaacs

Final Project Pitches

• Humans and Churches (Christians and Church)
• Drag Queens 
• Humans & Money
• Humans & Online Dating

human and fire - how fire makes them feel and the impacts its had on their life

interview people who have a close relationship with fire such a someone from the fire brigade, a pyromaniac, someone who has been in a house fire. Maybe something related to the Bonfire night in Lewes, not sure what angle to take but i like the initial idea

Ideas for Documentary Video Creative Project

The creative project theme our production group decided to go with is...

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.

Here are some of our group's ideas for possible project themes:

• Humans and Ventriloquism
• Humans and Fire
• Humans and Mental Illness
• Humans and Dogs
• Humans and Greyhound Racing

Initial Documentary Proposal: Group D

Documentary Title: (Working Progress) A Short Dogumentary? 

Documentary Theme: Humans and dogs, looking at certain relationships between people and dogs

Documentary Mode: Participatory and Observational

Target Audience: No specific target audience, but we aim to engage and inform our audience

Style: Engaging and informative. Interviews with people who have a close relationship with a dog or dogs, focusing on the personal reasons why certain people in Brighton own and what purpose they function for them. 

Research Method: 

Looking at people who spend time with dogs due to their occupation or other circumstances and will focus on looking at the history between the dog and owner and the positive effects it's had on their life and to others around them. These could be such as:

• Dog trainers/walkers in Brighton (Made contact with 2 trainers in town)
• Dog racers, people who own and race greyhounds (Made contact with Brighton & Hove Greyhound Stadium)
• Dog carers such as Vets and Kennel workers (Made contact with a local kennel)
• Guide dogs for the blind (Made contact with a guide dog service in town)
• Police dogs
• General dog owners in Brighton

We will narrow down our interviewee's to 2-3 people and revolve our narrative around their relationship with a dog(s). 

We will also need to compose interview questions once we decide on whom we are interview on camera, as the answers that we capture on film will dictate our entire documentary's narrative unless we resort to using a voice-over. 

In order to compose the right questions, each member of our group will do research into one of our interviewees occupation and the interviewees personally.

Outline of Content:

• Interview footage
• Stills of dog and owner (if needed and acquirable)
• Cutaways of dog and owner in action and of just the dog, giving balance of frame time for dog and dog owner
• Possible use of archive footage of dogs and humans (this would only be necessary if we can find something relatable to something our audience is told by our interviewees)

Cutaways & Locations

We will try to acquire at least 2 minutes of cutaway footage per interviewee and location change but we will shape our cutaways around our interview audio. A few examples that we have thought about are:

• Dog Trainer - dog school footage, performances, tricks, activities and walks with owner
• Kennel Worker - On location at Kennels, showing them caring for the dog, 
• Blind person - At their house or at a guide dog meeting/event, footage of the dog functioning as a guide for the person
• Police Dog trainer - Police kennels and shots of how they're trained
• Shot of where dogs are taken by other owners such as Wild Park, the Levels, Seafront 

Sound/Music:

We want to incorporate both diegetic and non-diegetic sounds respectively to engage the audience more into the narrative. Maybe some musical soundtrack to go in between transitions between interview clips and cutaways to add a more emotive response to some scenes of a close relationship between the dog and the owner. If needed, as a last resort we shall incorporate a voice over. Preferably a male voice with a soothing, authoritative tone. K6 Rode Microphones will be needed to record key audio sequence such as the interview. Each location we record and interview or cutaway will need 25 seconds of ambient noise recording

Resource Requirements:

• HD Video Camera with Memory Card
• Lights if interviews are going to be conduct in the evenings or inside, most shots will have natural lighting as a majority of the footage would be shot outside.
• Microphones such as K6 or Boom mics 
• Mac and Editing Software eg. Premiere Pro, Audition.
• Tripod and monopods

Week 3 [Workshop Notes]

Life Does Not Tell Stories

"Life does not tell stories. Life is chaotic, fluid, random. It leaves myriads of ends untied, untidily. The writer can extract a story from life only by strict, close selection, and this must mean falsification. Telling stories really is telling lies."
Jonathan Coe (2004:35)

Narrative Structure

• Classic Narrative structure
• Todorov cycle (1977)
• Inductive model

Equilibrium 

Disruption

Recognition

Attempt

New Equilibrium

Deductive model

The resolution of the film is presented at the start. 

All scene relate to the main question and will include and conclusion eg. Lie of the Land

Documentary occupies "a complex zone of representation in which the art of observing, responding, and listening must be combines with the art of shaping interpreting or arguing."

Bill Nichols (1997)

Sans Soleil (1983, Marker) 

• Unconventional image-sound relationship - no definite correspondence between narration "instance of post-modernism" with the video and sound out of sink
• Narration of personal memory of events, subjective views. Puts into perspective the conventional narration of documentary with a female voice over.
• Narrating human culture - Images are neither the real history or the fiction, only recording as an observer to capture every moment but narration makes it thoughtful
• Using narration to show director's thinking and respect to culture and society.
• Female voice and authority - Sans Soleil is an expository doc with a conventional narration.
• "the authoring presence of the filmmaker is represented by the commentary and voice of authority is seen as the filmmaker." (Nichols 1991:37)
• Man always decided what can be talked about, and what cannot..." (Moi 1987:78)
• Male voice = authority, female voice = unreliable and week
• The female narration is there to intentionally mislead the spectator, it leads them to misinterpret the images.

Questions

- To what extent does the narration impact our understanding of what we see?

- What elements impact our level of trust towards the narrator?

- Does a narration destroy the "pure image" as Kozloff states in the reading?

- Has sounds ever been detrimental to the image in your experience?

Vimeo Short Documentary - 50 years and a few puss kittens wiser

Week 4 [Workshop Notes]

Divorce Iranian Style

Director: Kim Longinotto (2002)

Her films focus on issues concerning women.
The film explores five cases of five different women that are seeking divorce.
It shows the reality of how the legal system affects people's lives.
Minimal voice-over that was used to state facts (female narrator)
Showed Iranian women differently
Sometimes we hear voice of the filmmakers interacting with the participant

Observational Mode:
- Created in 1960s, "the camera freely moved to record what happened as it happened"
- The filmmaker observes what happens in front of the camera
- No voice over to address the spectator

Observation Scenes in Divorce Iranian Style
- The subjects in the film interact with each other, their discussions draws the attention of the spectator away from the film makers (camera)
- The scene represents the actual situation, it creates tension with in the topic

Reading:

"We look in on life as it is lived" - Nichols (2001)

Relating to the works of the Italian neo-realists (1944-52) the characters within the documentary are caught up in "pressing demands or crisis of their own"

How wary are the people being filmed in the observational mode of documentary are aware of the camera.

Editorial control means that there is no true observation as we have selected natural scenes to exhibit to create a specific meaning or ideology.

Types of Shots

• Close or far?
• Static or moving?
• Camera subject to distance, angle, lens type and duration

Long Shot

Close Up

Wide Shot

Medium Close Up

Point of View Shot

Over the Shoulder Shot/Reverse Angle (180 degree arc)

Low-Angle Shot

High-Angle Shot

Pan Shot

Tilt Shot

Pedestal Shot - Camera moves up and down on a pedestal dolly

Zoom Shot

Dolly Shot

Tracking Shot

Crane Shot

Composition (Aspect Ratios)

4:3 (Shooting)

16:9 (Shooting)

1.85:1 (Projection)

2.39:1 (Projection)

Depth & Perspective

- Image perspective is the apparent depth of the image and the spatial position of objects in different planes.

Frame Movement

Image Qualities

Speed of Motion

- Changing by altering the film recording speed or in editing

- Long focal length often slows down the apparent motion by squashing space.

Examples of Observational Films

Grey Gardens

- People were being observed but also interacting with the camera

High School

- Non diegetic soundtrack (Sitting On the Dock of the Bay - Otis Redding)

- Lots of ECU

- No interaction with the camera

Don't Look Back

- Bob Dylan's tour

- Rockumentary

- 

Week 3 Production Task - 3 Shot Interview [Moving Camera Interview Exercise]

Practical Session Brief:

Moving Camera Interview Exercise (1-2min): 

Interviewer and interviewee are walking on campus. 
The interview topic: Is Brighton nightlife out of control? 

You are expected to shoot three different camera angles ONLY: 
1) Camera follows the pair from behind, 
2) Camera follows the pair from the side. 
3) In the last shot the pair walks towards the (static) camera, so all in all three shots. Please note you are expected to record synch sound with the K-6. Exercise will be discussed during the next practice session.

Questions/Script for Task

Before commencing the interview, the interviewer should introduce themselves and their interviewee to the spectator. They should also inform them of their location and the interview topic before questioning.

Interviewer: Hello, I'm here today with ....., a student at the University of Sussex and I'm here to find out his/her opinion on whether they believe Brighton nightlife is out of control. So....

Questions for the Interview:

• Brighton has always been known as a musical city, with many nightclubs, pubs, bars and restaurants all around town. Have you been to these in Brighton since you enrolled as a student in Brighton? 
• Have you ever had a bad experience as any of these places or heard about any?
• Are there any places you avoid in Brighton when you consider going out? Why?
• An aspects of the nightlife in Brighton's nightlife that isn't considered out of control is it's picture houses. Do you know any picture houses or have you been to any in Brighton such as Komedia or Duke of York?
• Some of Brighton's biggest clubs include Pryzm, Concorde 2, The Arch, Coalition, the list goes on. What do you know of these places? Have you been to any initiations for any Sport societies at these venues? 
• Would you say Brighton nightlife is out of control? Why? Why not

The Production:

This task seemed relatively simple on approach, by conducting an interview with three separate shot types which we we've already been given. 
Gokul suggested to use the Sony Z7 and K6 boom microphone for this task. Unfortunately, I was no present for the actual production of this task, but Gokul was holding the camera and boom pole, whilst Helen interviewed Luke outside the Silverstone building on campus. This wasn't an ideal situation that I had put the rest of my group in as there was on less set of hands when shooting, therefore it made the challenge for Gokul quite hard as he hand to be the sound grip and cameraman simultaneously. Once shot, we compiled the footage onto a Premiere Pro sequence and constructed the moving interview exercise, making sure the action and audio matched up between each shot.

Conclusion:

Overall, I don't think our group did very well on the production of this task since the other members of my group who were present during the the filming of the task didn't record all three shot types required. I didn't notice this until the edit, but there was nothing we could do since the hand-in for this task was the following day. I made sure that the edit of the task was good, but it was clear we hadn't reach the criteria of the task. It made me wary that I should be present for all parts of the production of the task if our group was to carry out the tasks ahead correctly.
Another aspect this task highlighted was the strength and weaknesses members of the group had. I seemed confident with manipulating the editing software, as did Gokul. Luke wasn't chosen to be the cameraman for the task and Gokul didn't want to be the one interviewed for the task and Helen chose to use the K6 microphone for the task which I thought was the wrong decision and that a clip-on microphone should be used instead, giving a clearer sound for the dialogue.

*Group Project Proposal [500 words]

Group Project Proposal (500 words)

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. 

Group D’s Documentary Project Proposal - Humans & Dogs

Our group’s observational documentary will explore the close relationships between humans and their pet dogs, focusing on two to three characters. The documentary will explore the nature of their relationship, looking at the history between the dog and owner and the positive effects it's had each other’s life.

We shall be interviewing a woman who lived with her dog as a companion since her husband has been living in Ireland for the past 7 years. We shall also interview someone who has an occupation who works closely with dogs whom we have access to a dog trainer and other dog owners we have met as a team in town and possibly the use of a psychologist to provide an analytical insight into human-canine relationships.

We will let our interviewees tell the story of their relationship with their our documentary and shall not use a voice-over narration as we want our audience to emotively engage with the judge our characters and relationship for themselves. From the questions we ask, we will want make our audience aware of what these bonds between humans and pets have fulfill and satisfying each others lives with providing unconditional love and affection, friendship and companionship for one another.

Each member of our group will do research into one of our interviewees’ personal lives and relationship with their pet and construct relevant questions surrounding it. We aim to acquire responses from the interviews that show the relationships between the dog and their owners is almost humanlike and satisfies the needs of each others lives.

The content of our documentary will consist of interview footage shot on the Sony Z7, which can be static mid-shots using a tripod or tracking shots, using a monopod. We shall shoot in our characters comfort zones by where they spend the most time with their pet dog as we want our responses from our interviews to be as natural and truthful as possible. We aim to give a balance to amount of frame for both the dog and the owner receive which visually connotes to our audience that the dog is just as important as the owner in their relationship for our documentary.  

An array of cutaways of our subjects engaged in affectionate activities together such as playing in local parks together, grooming, and feeding as well as using close-ups of the just the dogs, and in particular their eyes. This will provide emotively stimulating visuals for our documentary and will deliver the balance of frame time we want to convey in our inductive narrative.

In terms of sounds, we want to integrate both diegetic and non-diegetic sounds respectively to engage the audience more into the narrative. A soft piano for the musical soundtrack can be used to go in between transitions of characters and layered over certain sections of dialogue from the interviews, making certain lines more poignant and sensitive for the audience. Boom microphones will be needed to record key ambient noises and clip-on or radio microphones will be used for interviews.