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.