Fourth Day of Editing

I looked back at the footage that I had done previous and I decided that it was very disorganized and hard to work with. To make it easier for myself I decided to create a new sequence and rearrange and paste the best parts of what I had done before into it. Whilst doing this I incorporated some footage that other members of my group had shot and put this into the sequence. By doing this I created an a lot cleaner version of my edit and I was happy with the results, the new footage also linked some of the older footage together nicely, especially an interview that they had done.

Third Day of Editing

I looked over the footage that I had roughly put down in the last session and decided that it was okay, but a jumpy. However, I decided that I should carry on rather than rearrange what I had already done. This meant that I would be able to come back later and tweak the whole thing rather than focus on one part. 
Again I struggled for a while but then managed to make a few advancements before the end of the session. This may be because I was the only one working on it and there wasn't any input from the other members of my group.

Second Day of Editing

Today we had nothing to shoot so we decided to dedicate it to beginning the initial edit. To begin with I found it very hard to decide what to put first and in what order it should be in. I decided that it would probably be best to just get something down and then take it from there. I started putting the clips in in chronological order and this set me off and I managed to begin to make some progress. After this it became a lot easier and I managed to get about a minutes worth of footage together. 

Third Day of Shooting

On this day we had an on location shoot at 'The Elms' 

We went to pick up the camera and equipment and take it to location in East Dulwich, we got the train from Selhurst. Unfortunately we only had half our group and we had to carry a lot between the 2 of us.  

When we arrived at the location we made ourselves known to the staff members and explained exactly what we where doing, we also handed over some release forms to be signed.

Once we had established what we where doing we decided to start filming the exterior first, we started with a wide shot of the whole building, we then moved on to a close up of the sign and then a focus pull from some roses to a way in sign. After this we moved closer to the building and shot through a window into a corridor. 

Unfortunately there had been a miss-communication between the camera crew and the students we where meant to be filming which meant that they where going to be coming to the location on that day, so we decided that we may as well take full advantage of a bad situation and took a few more extra shots on the location. To do this we asked a staff member if we could interview them and they agreed. We set up in her office and asked questions about the care home and also about the project they are doing with the school.

Once we got back to school the footage was uploaded, and we sorted it the next time we where in school.

Second Day of Shooting

On this day again we where filming in the practice room. This was a good thing as it meant that we knew what we where dealing with and where able to work to the best of our ability. We thought that it would be the best idea to do all the shooting handheld, we opted not to do this on the first day because we thought it may be too intrusive and may distract people, but on the second day we thought that the people would be used to the camera being in the room (which they where).

Having the camera handheld meant we could get a lot closer to the action and actually get with in it. This was clear when we  watched the footage back and you could see the difference when compared to the first days shoot.

In this rehearsal the students where singing the same song a few times, this meant that we could get good footage easily. The first time they sung we took a wide shot and let it record the whole thing, we also made sure that the sound recorded the whole song. The times after that we shot close up and other interesting shots, which means that we could get a variety of shots. shooting this way means that we have have the complete sound recording and a various amount of different shots to cut to.

Once we finished shooting the footage was again uploaded and then I decided to sort it. I again created subclips from the long takes and names each piece of footage individually. 

First day of shooting

This morning we had a meeting with the head of our project, Katy, about what the project is all about and the best times to film is. We found out that the group meets on a Monday and a Friday, so we decided that we should try and attend a majority of those sessions, giving us a lot of material to choose from. 

When we got to the room the group was rehearsing in and was told to introduce ourselves, we did so and told them all about what we where doing and how we where going to be doing it. I was surprised about how quickly the students got used to our presence in the room, which made it a lot easier for us to film. This also made the 'Fly on the Wall' effect a lot easier to achieve. 

After filming our sessions we went back to the FDA room and analysed the footage we had took. 
The teachers told us that we had done well and that most of the footage was usable. However, we did have some points to improve on. One of these improvements was to make sure that we had every shot properly exposed, as in some shots the ceiling was exposed to much, and the floor was to dark. This is fixed by facing the camera at the carpet/floor and setting the exposure from there, which will then make it look right. 

Another things that we much do is to hold shots longer, as we only stayed on a shot for a short number of time. We should improve on this by simply holding shots for a longer period of time.

However for the first day of actual filming I think that it went well, and we now how to improve next time. 

The History of Documentaries

Today we learnt about the basics of a documentary, about what one is and the different types there are. The different styles of documentary all have their different conventions that are used whilst filming. 

The history of the documentary and the different styles are explained in detail in this presentation:

http://prezi.com/3acrfweve7dy/

The documentary that we are trying to make is in the fly on the wall style. This means that the film-makers stand back from the action and allow it to happen, and try and influence what happens as little as possible. Shooting a documentary in this way makes it feel a lot more natural to the viewer. This style is often referred to as a 'Fly on the Wall' documentary. 

Shooting in this style is often done by taking very long shots, with movement from one shot to another being done without cutting. Cutting is then done in post to make it looks as if it is a completely new shot.