Production (week 2)

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In order to capture evidence about my filming process that I can use during my final evaluation, I have decided to put together a Production Diary, allowing me to note down what happened on each day of filming the project. As seen in my production logistics slideshow, I scheduled for 2 weeks of nightly filming on interview calls and two in person interview roadtrips. THIS IS THE SECOND WEEK OF MY PRODUCTION DIARY.

On the right is a timelapse video of my setting up for my virtual interviews, explaining my process and equipment.

CiK BTS Interview Setup.mp4

CiC FMP Interview Spreadsheet

Day 6: 6th May2024 – Virtual interview

Back to virtual interviews, in my opinion, I gained confidence due to the previous week and road trip at the weekend. I also recorded behind the scenes setting up my interview lighting as evidence of my practical skills. Today, I had 2 interviews with UK participants.

LUCY

First, I enjoyed my interview with Lucy as her answers were to the point and stuck to my recommended time frame. I was able to get a few extra answers out of her while sticking firmly to my list of questions. Although this interview was concise and formal, I do worry that a more formal atmosphere like this for the younger interviewees can be a little off putting and limit answers.

Tarzan

Next was Tarzan, who was part of a unit with several site issues. I should’ve completed research into each unit to find their difficulties before hand so I knew which areas to probe. However, these interviews act as that research and he was able to describe me the situations in full. I actually believe that my limited knowledge there gave me more interested in what he had to say, creating a greater environment.

Conclusion

To conclude, my confidence has increased and I am able to be more coherent with my questioning. Over the next few days, I have to maintain that level of interested and sociability and not mentally crash.

6th may log

BTS VI 5.06.mp4

7th may log

BTS VI 5.07.mp4

Day 7: 7th MAY 2024 – Virtual interviews

The plan for today was to do another two interviews. However, unfortunately, Rob had a shift change at work that he alerted me to at the start of the day. We’re looking to reschedule but not fussed if it isn’t possible. I am in a good position with these interviews that I will have ample footage to draw from no matter what happens for the rest of this week.

Ollie and Grace

I did, however, still interview Ollie and Grace. They sat together on one camera and I felt more secure as I had met Ollie before. Be that as it may, I found myself frequently stumbling my words do to external factors affecting the day. To remedy this in future interviews, I must give myself longer before the interviews to sit and zone in.

The interview lasted around 20 minutes and suck more heavily to the written questions due to a lack of further conversation. Their unit seemed to have a greater time on site with less issues they wanted to complain about which I do need to reflect in the documentary. However, there was little story uncovered in the time.

Day 8: 8th MAY 2024 – Virtual interview

Unfortunately, this day of interviews was unsuccessful but I can learn from it for the last three. One of the two had a family emergency so we’ve tried to reschedule to tomorrow. On the other hand, my second interviewee didn’t show up and hasn’t responded to messages since the original confirmation.

problem solving

From this development, I had some problem solving to do. I went back to my schedule over the last 2 days of interviews to give the first a new slot. In doing so, I realised I hadn’t made a formal update to my schedule and rebooked two for the same slot. Although I have been thorough with my interview scheme, I have had a couple instances of jumping into resolutions too quickly and not seeing how this affects the project in totality.

resolve

To remedy this, I have been back through all of my plans and collated the timetables to sort new adjusted times for the remaining interviewees, sending them the call password now in advance. I have an interview late tomorrow and late Friday but at this point I am happy with the level of content I have for this assignment and will not reschedule if they don’t happen.

8th may log

BTS VI 5.08.mp4

9th may log

BTS VI 5.09.mp4

Day 9: 9th MAY 2024 – Virtual interviews

Going into this day, I wasn’t sure how many interviews I would end up completing, as there were a potential 4. The first was supposedly a morning call with Balian in Australia but we cancelled as he has been involved in a theatre production the last two weeks and it wouldn’t work out. I already have 2 Australian accounts.

isac

Moving on, I later talked to Isac from Sweden to get another international angle. For a 15 year old, I was incredibly impressed by his fluidity in english and felt guilty for not knowing the language. Languages are a weakness of mine and generally in Britain. This isn’t a problem I can solve for this FMP but should look into learning other languages to complete larger projects in future.

rob

Following Isac, I spoke to Rob who had many good points but his internet connection wasn’t secure. This was a difficulty I expected to face and was surprised how far I’d made it before the issues. In this case, I can see myself using his audio but no video. In future, for projects like this, I’d like to travel to locations rather than completing them through call. That wouldn’t have been possible due to my timeline here.

harriet

I was supposed to end with Harriet later on but she is unfortunately ill. I won’t reschedule as I have already heard from her unit. On the whole, I got a lot of valuable information and will be able to control this more in the edit having missed a few interviews.

Day 10: 10th MAY 2024 – Virtual interview

This account will be much shorter as Molly, from Scotland, was put on an unexpected longer work shift. This may be unfortunate but, as discussed yesterday, I won’t reschedule due to project constraints and level of information I already have for this fairly short project. I have told her that I may want to extend the documentary in future and will come back for a possible redo.

virtual interview overview

Overall, with the virtual interviews wrapped, I believe my confidence improved over the two weeks as I came more familiar with my own format and questions. My costume was consistent in every interview with a variety of camera angles so I can swap out me asking questions with the video remaining seamless. My lighting setup was minimal yet effective. I believe I have captured the serious yet optimistic approach of Pilger’s interviews and the interviewees were all respectful.

Day 11: 11th MAY 2024 – In person interviews

For my final day of filming, I took Mattie and Ben with me on our second round of in person interviews. My objective for the day was to stick to timings even if it meant cutting interviews short. This was to test my time management skills and also make sure Mattie was dropped off at the right time to head elsewhere in the evening. Before leaving my house, I made sure to do an equipment audit and ran through the plan for the day.

First location – Mikey’s House

On the way to Mikey’s we picked up Jess and setup the road trip cam all in timings according to the schedule, arriving at Mikey’s on the dot. In that hour, we had planned for two individual interviews then a gogglebox. We managed to complete all three and packed up with 5 minutes to spare due to efficiency established last week. An issue we found was with one of our camera tripods which wasn’t in the best condition.

We used mostly natural lighting in an open run to keep the matter of fact Pilger style. Sadly, Mikey is stood in the background during Jess’ interview which I didn’t notice during the shoot but became hyper aware of spacing for the rest of the day. With the gogglebox interview, I learnt, due to the slide show’s length, to skip through to different points for each group. They each answered a different section of the interview questions I provided for a range of responses.

mikey's house log

BTS RT1 03 Mikey's House.mp4

zach's house log

BTS RT1 04 Zach's House.mp4

second location - Zach's house

According to the original schedule Adam H was planned to meet us there later on before us moving to Ruby’s. However, Since we got Zach’s interview done efficiently with bags of time for lunch, we invited Ruby to join, making their Gogglebox for 3 people and giving us more time in a fixed location to play with. Ruby lived so close that this could’ve been my plan from the beginning. We exercised an interesting off the cuff cross table interview setup with Zach that has given me shot diversity for the edit.

Once Adam and Ruby arrived, we completed a Gogglebox setup, with myself on the close up moving camera to prove I am capable of camera work. I went hand held for a time to get a range of close up shots to choose from. Following this, we were running low on time (Adam got there fairly late).

I made the decision to stay possibly into the next location’s time in order to get small individual interviews with Adam and Ruby. This entailed asking about news and rating the experience as these were topics I wanted everyone to answer.

I don’t believe I setup the camera facing myself well due to the time pressure and should’ve thought more about the shot I wanted. We left only a couple of minutes after the schedule recommended, although this was made up on the road. In that instant, I believe my decision making was well informed and pushed production forward, demonstrating my problem solving.

Final Location – Adam R’s House

With an hour to go, we need to get another two interviews and a Gogglebox. Matt had arrived at Adam’s ahead of us, due to us sending update messages throughout the day of our location, so we were ready to start asap. I valued the Gogglebox more than the individual interviews as I needed more group diversity for that whereas I’d already gained a wide variety of answers for the interviews.

Once again, for the Gogglebox, I completed camerawork for close ups and moved to gain a variety of behind the scenes options. Following this, against the clock, we moved to individual interviews where I asked each of them to choose between history of scouting or on site experience as these were areas I wanted more responses in. Learning from Zach’s house, we exercised the table talk format to much benefit, completing with minutes to spare. For a filming production, I was very impressed we managed to finish on time.

Below are the edited Gogglebox style interviews from the day:

adam's house log

BTS RT1 05 Adam's House.mp4

gogglebox edits

GoggleGonks S1 WSJ Adam and Matt.mp4

GoggleGonks S1 WSJ Jess and Mikey.mp4

GoggleGonks S1 WSJ Zach, Adam and Ruby.mp4

Conclusion

Over the two roadtrip days, I believe I developed my time management skills and was able to direct at ease. This was partially due to a familiar and capable crew and interviewees. This has given my the confidence to expand my creativity with similar projects in the future.

I learned to value pin pointing questions and answers rather than allowing everyone to drone on, making the editing process easier. We filmed in two different styles with Pilger and Gogglebox setups that are clearly defined. Due to this, I may split the project into two videos, one of each style to tell a different form of information, depending on the post production stage.

Mattie and Ben commended my logistics efforts and were surprised we could pull it off to time as productions rarely do. I learned to problem solve by changing locations and prioritising interview questions, tailoring to the interview due to a built up personal connection and understanding of the subject matter.

In terms of camera work, I feel I have had a flavour that demonstrates my experience over the last two years, coming on from my first attempt at a documentary in year one. I have come into my own as a director, not afraid to make choices and push production on.

For future, I still need to improve on my skills as an interviewers as I’d still spill up on words. This will come with time and exposure to the industry, increasing my confidence. Additionally, I believe I should be using artificial lighting more frequently to control the lighting. Although we’d have lights to enhance to footage, this should be at the forefront in production, factoring more time in to setup equipment, which we didn’t have here. I have set myself up well for the edit.

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Next: Post Production

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