DOCUMENTARY LEARNING JOURNAL.
- kadeenaglendon7
- Jul 1, 2024
- 23 min read
AC1
Introduction
Currently, me and my documentary group are creating around a 20 minute documentary called ‘The death of cinema.’ This documentary will be an enticing product where we are able to research and discuss how streaming services globally may cause an impact on the usage of cinema not only in Birmingham, but also to people around the world, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, where individuals may utilize streaming services more, instead of taking a trip to the cinema with family or friends, as it is seemingly more convenient and less effort for them.
The purpose of this project is to raise awareness on how the use of cinema is changing through time, how steaming services are becoming more popular and how cinema is dying especially after the COVID-19 phenomenon, and if this will have a positive or negative impact on society. The purpose is to also raise awareness on how the death of cinema could also effect different small businesses globally negatively, and potentially in multiple years time, the complete disappearance of cinema.
Me and my documentary team decided to create this documentary as we all area passionate about cinema, film, and the elements branching off from these topics such as media. We all have deep opinions on this particular topic, and all share the same ideas, in which we can all understand each others views; we wanted to also understand the opinion of different people in different situations who also share a passion for media, cinema, or anything that resides within the art of film.
2. Client & Brief
Me and my documentary group decided that our client would be channel four. We decided this due to how channel 4 streams various different diverse types of film, whether it may be a documentary, a sitcom or a movie from different genres. This ultimately means that different audience members with different interests would be watching this channel. From this, me and my documentary understood that we had to create something enticing for a wide range of audience members, where people from different backgrounds, ages and genders would be content and hopefully interested in the documentary that we create.
The creative brief for this project was to ‘develop a compelling pitch for a documentary that explores the topics and issues relevant to teenagers and young adults in the year 2023.’ The brief for this documentary Helped me and my team members greatly, as we were able to highlight a very broad subject that the youth & young adults of today are most likely to experience and understand and empathies with, as the death/downfall of cinema and the uprising of steaming services is currently happening in this modern day and age, where teens and young adults will be affected the most due to how that specific group of people use their mobile devices and TV’s the most out of other age groups.
3. Target Audience
For our documentary project, on a demographic scale, our primary target audience included people of any gender, any class, and sexuality and any race and any belief between the age of 16 – 24, our secondary target audience being the exact same, however the age ranges between the number of 14 – 55. Overall, the audience members for our documentary is very broad, allowing almost anybody to sit, watch, and stay interested. From a psychographic perspective, we understood that the majority of the population sit, watch and enjoy movies/films both in the cinema and at home throughout streaming services.
As a group, we have decided for this to be our target audience due to how movies/film are a global experience that most of the population globally have experienced and have enjoyed, and we are able to identify that most people have different opinions to what they think about cinema and streaming services such as Netflix or amazon prime video, and are able to compare the two types of ways to watch a film either positively or negatively. Film is something that almost everybody experiences throughout their lifetimes, and as I have mentioned beforehand, almost everybody will have opinions and different interests in relation to film and media, reasoning in why our target audience is so broad, as cinema and film is a global experience, and some aspects of it has peaked almost everybody’s interest.
4. Representation
Our representation for the documentary project is very broad. We do not have a specific stereotype surrounding our product, as we want it to be as inclusive as possible, not only so that everybody feels welcomed to watch, but also to ensure that all members of the audience don’t feel excluded in any type of way. This will further be beneficial for me and my documentary group as we will be able to create something available for all members of the public to watch: this ultimately means that our documentary will be able to have a bigger impact on the public, possible reaching more and more people around Birmingham.
The representation within this documentary relates to our target audience; as mentioned before, our documentary is made for everybody and anybody in the general public, ensuring that no ‘group’ of people feels unwelcomed to watch the documentary: we ensured that within our documentary, we have a wide range of different people, whether this is shown within the interviewing process of the documentary, or general B – roll. Alongside this, as mentioned before, me and my documentary group understand that film and cinema is a global experience for most of the population; our documentary relates to our target audience members due to how we created this documentary based on a very popular and well known topic, meaning that our target audience will be able to empathise and understand the topics that we discuss within the documentary.
Idea Generation
The genre and format of our project is a documentary/informative project, in the format of MP.4, so that audience members can watch this documentary. The genre of our documentary is quite light-hearted yet serious in the correct ways – like I mentioned beforehand, the genre is documentary, meaning that the Main overlying genre is informative, where audience members will receive different information about the subject that we are working on, alongside different people’s opinions throughout the interviewing processes.
I further did some research for the codes and conventions of documentary and related it to what we had previously planned out for our own documentary. The first element from the codes and conventions for documentary is using a handheld camera. Understandably, setting up a camera on a tripod would give more optimal result, however, within documentary, it is important to catch the realism and transparency of a documentary – to convey this to audience members, we would instead hold the cameras ourselves, especially in the b – roll aspect of the documentary.
Another code and convention that id evident within documentary is narration. Narration helps the documentary become more informative for viewers, also helping them to understand exactly what is happening within the documentary if it isn’t clear enough to the audience members. Narration can include multiple different types of information, from statistics, facts and simply what is currently happening on the screen when audience members are watching.
Codes and conventions are important for any possible subject that society is exposed to – this is because codes and conventions help whatever is being made (in this case a documentary) to be made correctly and in the right format. It can be as unique and different as it can be, but it has less of a chance of being successful if it doesn’t follow the simple codes and conventions.
6. Brainstorming
Me and my documentary group discussed many different ideas for the documentary that we are creating. These ideas range from looking into problems to do with the environment and life in prison. Firstly, talking about the environment, this was our first initial idea, where we talk about how things such as climate change and littering has a big effect on the youth of today’s future, however, we decided not to proceed with this idea, as it is a very popular topic that has been previously spoken about multiple times beforehand, and audience members may not be attracted to our product as it lacks originality. The next idea that we decided not to proceed with was the topic based around life in prison. The idea That we had was to review and interview convicts that received a prison sentence during their teen years, asking them how it affected their life, especially in the modern-day era. We decided not to proceed with this idea due to the major health and safety risks involved, and the difficulty of the permission forms that we would have to submit and wait for approval.
Me and my documentary team made the final decision to choose the idea based around cinema, the uprising of streaming services, and the ultimate downfall of cinema. We decided to pick this idea due to how not only are me and my team passionate about this topic, and have obtained knowledge based around this subject, but also because our target audience can also relate to this – our target audience and the age around based around it have a lot of experience with cinema and streaming services, so well that they would be able to watch our documentary, understand, and have a strong opinion on what is discussed within this topic. - This is relevant to the brief as there have been many controversial opinions in relation to cinema + streaming services, also relating to what they show on these platforms.
7. Research
One of my main inspirations for the documentary was the Oprah Winfrey interview with Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle. Referencing back to our team’s (my individual analysis) we noticed that ‘within the interview, we see that the multiple shots that the audience members see switches from the main subjects (Harry and Meghan) back to the interviewer (Oprah Winfrey) where we are able to see both parties' reactions.
Another thing I want to pick up from this interview is the scenery in the background. As audience member, we are still able to focus on the subjects despite the background being very appealing, it isn’t overpowering: they were able to balance out the visuals throughout lighting and editing without resulting into using a blank, boring and plain background. ‘
This helped me and my documentary team plan out what different types of shots that we wanted within our documentary, especially the interviewing process, as we were able to analyse the different cinematic shots included, where we were able to apply inspiration from this interview to our own documentary.
Expanding on this, we were able to recognise the correct lighting and cinematic feel to the Oprah Winfrey interview, as it highlights all the correct scenery, alongside the candidates in the most optimum way based around the setting they were in – this helped me and my documentary team to plan out and research the different settings that we would be filming in, so that we could set up, film, and light the settings in the correct way based off the scenery, instead of completely copying the setting from a different documentary as it may not have fitted the scenery that we were working in, in comparison our inspiration.
IF YOU HAVE CREATED A PITCH, PLEASE UPLOAD HERE:
8. Feedback
After me and my documentary finished completing and presenting our pitch to the teachers, we received positive and helpful feedback, including constructive criticism in order to help elevate out pitches for the future.
Firstly, beginning with the positive feedback that we received as a group - We were able to create an appealing pitch that was visually appealing, meaning that the audience members, especially our target audience member’s attention due to how we have quite a youthful age range that our documentary is dedicated to. Another positive form of feedback that we received as a group was that for what we produced, it was very clear and easy to understand, which is crucial as we don’t want the people who we pitch our ideas for to be confused about the product that we are making.
Moving onto the ‘negative’ feedback/constructive criticism that we received, although our pitch was clear and understandable, we could have expanded more on different points, such as our initial ideas and why we had those initial ideas, alongside expanding on the purpose of our documentary; we could have explained further why we didn’t choose certain topics so that the audience ,members who we presented our pitch to were not left wondering why we didn’t choose for example a documentary based around the environment, or a documentary based around life within prison.
For future references, we will keep not only the positive feedback in check, but also the constructive criticism that we received – we have made note of all the feedback we received not only from teachers, but also from fellow peers; this will help us to improve and upgrade our future presentations and pitches to the best that it can be, in. Comparison to what it would have been if we did not receive this feedback from our documentary pitch.
AC2
Problem Solving
10. Discussion How has your planning been shaped by your client(s)? What ideas did you generate?
Discussing with our clients have made a big impact on what and how me and my documentary group decided to present our product – we discussed key elements such as where we would want to film and what set up would be ideal for the documentary we are filming. We also discussed what type of questions would not only be beneficial for the audience members of the project, but also what would really be able to help the clients express their true thoughts.
Although we already had an idea of what different questions that we wanted to ask the client
beforehand, this helped us generate different ideas, such as different questions that we would
ask. An example if this would be how we added more personal but not too intruding questions, so that the audience members are able to understand how our client got to where he is today, and what interested them the most about cinema/streaming services.
Alongside this, after discussing our different ideas with our client, we decided that we wanted to add certain lighting and effects to the scenery, adding almost a touching feel to the product, as we understood that our client is passionate about what they do; we wanted to elevate that not hat the audience members could focus on the client when they are discussing what they do, being able to understand that it means a lot to them.
In conclusion, from this process, working with the client and asking them what different elements would work, we were able to generate multiple different ideas from what we would have been able to as a group alone; although we didn’t use every single idea that was generated between us all, we were able to think of some useful ideas to apply to our project, being able to use the ideas that we didn’t use within the documentary within our learning journal to show what could have been presented within the documentary.
11. Testing & Experimentation
Me and my documentary team have conducted a lot of different technical experiments, so that
we are able to understand how the different equipment would work and how we would be able to adapt this said equipment to its optimal settings for the setting that we are shooting in, for example, test shots with the sound equipment, we discovered that shooting in a setting inside the room we were filming in for our client, although using a boom mic with a shotgun mic attached to the end would be effective, the most effective piece of sound equipment for the specific interviews we were holding would be lapel mics; this would not only help me and my documentary team capture more accurate audio that is clearer and close to the client’s voice, but it also meant that we didn’t have to worry about the accuracy and placement of where we hold the boom mic.
Alongside this, we also decided to do some test shoots with the camera, experimenting with
different settings and lighting not only within the camera, but also externally from the camera; we were able to discover what settings and lighting worked the best for different areas, and what type of setting and lighting created the optimum atmosphere for where we were filming, for example, me and my documentary team for one of our clients decided to film in one of the
screening rooms within the Mockingbird cinema within Digbeth Birmingham – typically as most of us know, screening room naturally have a dark setting with dark elements to it so that the audience members attention will be drawn majorly to the screen, and not anything else within the cinema. From this, we tested and experimented with different lighting elements that would make the scenery appear more cinematic and enticing – we found that colors such as blue, purple, and red really help capture that cinematic feel. We decided to use a purple lighting to enhance that cinematic feel, as blue can represent sadness and sorrow, and red can represent many different things such as lust, anger, or even danger – purple seemingly gives off an aura of importance, ambition and creativity. (test shoots are uploaded to preproduction assignment.) Although testing went well, one negative that we noticed when testing all of these different elements for our documentary was where to place them and what positioning we would use. We had to ensure that it didn’t get in frame, and that the audience members would only be able to see the light, and not the actual lighting source. Although this seemed like a simple thing to overcome, we had to specifically adjust for this as all camera and sound crew for the documentary were occupied doing something else, meaning that we had to work out how to set up the lighting in a way that we would prefer, the client prefer, and without it being in frame or changing the setting completely. We were able to figure this out by sticking specific small lights to the wall instead, saving us time and unnecessary effort.
12. Risks & Limitations What problems did you encounter in planning and production? How did you overcome these problems? What did you learn from these problems? What would you do differently next time?
A few risks and limitations that me and my documentary group experienced during planning and production was transport and travelling; Although most of the production took place within
Birmingham, not all of the crew members lived within Birmingham, and due to how we were
filming the majority of our documentary within our half term for Halloween, some of the crew
members were not even within the county. Alongside, some of our crew members fell sick,
meaning that the remaining crew had more of a workload to handle during this time period,
especially with equipment.
At first, this seemed like a major problem that would stump our documentary project as a whole, however, instead of panicking, we overcame this by planning out what specific things we would all do so that production would run as swiftly as possible; Each crew member listed all the dates and times that we were all available during the time period that we were filming within, highlighting the setbacks that we would have to face throughout if it could potentially have an effect on our filming dates, so that we would all be clear on what dates and times that we could all to, otherwise we would move filming and recording to the next possible date that all crew members were available for. Adding onto this, we discussed which filming dated/topics were mandatory for all crew members to attend to, also listing which dates/topics could be processed without all the crew members here.
Although equipment was physically challenging for the remaining crew members who had to carry it home/transport it, overall, it was bearable, and the only downside to it is that the weight affected our mobility to an extent.
From this problem we learn that next time, if the same situation happens, we will ensure to bring different equipment and bags FOR the filming equipment if we end up struggling to carry it, and maybe in future, we will be able to utilize somebody’s car, or save a budget for a taxi to use for our equipment. Another problem that we faced during production was battery life and equipment dying; on multiple occasions, we experienced our lighting losing its charge, and dying mid way through filming. Luckily this piece of equipment was not mandatory, and was also simple to overcome, as we were able to imitate that same light, using our phone torches. In future, we will remember to bring charging cables/extra batteries/ and extra light, despite it being such a minor thing within production.
13. Pre-Production
Within our pre production, we ensured to include all the important and even minor elements
within the document, so that we ensure we covered everything that we needed to do within
production and pot-production. Me and my documentary teams’ pre production consisted of
paperwork such as: location and permission form; This was to ensure that we had legal permission to use all equipment, and legally be able to film within the areas that we were filming within. Call sheets; This was to ensure that all crew members working on the documentary project had a clear idea of when to arrive and where to arrive. Secondary research; This was to ensure that we could show and reference back to our different inspirations, what specifically inspired our end product for the documentary project, and what elements we ‘took’/were inspired by. Test shots; This was to ensure that we had a pre-planned idea of what we wanted our shots and sound to look like and sound like, so that we could potentially elevate the look and sound of the project when filming since we already knew the visuals and sound. sound and camera equipment lists; This was to ensure that we knew what different equipment and equipment pieces that we needed to utilize on the day and what extra parts we may have had to bring. Risk assessments; This was to ensure that me and my crew members were aware of the potential risks exposed to us, no matter how major or minor it may have seems – this was especially important as we needed to keep everyone as safe as possible so we can avoid any consequences.
Within our preprod, one thing that we could have improved was our secondary research. For me personally, I could have expanded more on what inspired me and the documentary that me and my team were creating, so that the audience members had a deeper understanding of where our inspiration came from.
Another thing that could have been improved for our documentary project was recording a wider range of sound and camera test shots; although we did get the basic shots and sound recordings that we needed and were mandatory, we could have also experimented with more complex shots, such as different types of mics for the sound test instead of just the boom mic/shotgun mic, and perhaps more enhanced and moving shots instead of just stationary shots.
14. Feedback
After me and my documentary team generated our different ideas to apply our ideas, we ensured to show different people such as our teachers and our peers in order to receive negative and positive feedback, so that we were able upgrade and improve our documentary, and potentially keeping the same feedback so that we ensure that any future projects are made and conducted out to the best of our ability.
Firstly beginning with the positive feedback that we received after presenting our ideas and work was, our peers and teachers highlighted the good planning that we conducted for the different lighting and scenery techniques that we wanted to use when filming our interview process in our client’s work palace such as the Mockingbird theatre in Digbeth – They praised us on our creativity and how we were able to use certain colors to highlight the client correctly without conveying he incorrect messages through ‘show not tell’, also successfully creating a cinematic atmosphere within the scenery.
Another positive piece of feedback that me and my documentary team received from our
teachers and peers for our ideas and our work was our B-roll; we got a lot of praise highlighting how we were able to show the transparency and realism of our client’s workplace, filming all the intricate details (some of the shots hand held to further explore the transparency that documentaries usually hold) in order for audience members to be exposed to the atmosphere of each of our client’s workplace, further being positive due to how we filmed key elements of each location, for example, within The mockingbird cinema within Digbeth, we were able to highlight that any members of the public who come and view a screening within the cinema are able to relax and have a few drinks within its indoor bar before going to watch the movie, highlighting its cozy atmosphere right at the front door.
Secondly, moving onto the negative/constructive criticism that me and my documentary team
members received after presenting our ideas and work. One piece of negative feedback that we received that we need to improve on is filming more B-roll shots with our clients included within. Especially from our fellow classmates who also are working on documentary, they informed us that although we were able to capture a good amount of B-roll, capturing the realism and intricate details of the location, we could have stayed more in touch with the transparency and realism by having some B-roll shots including our client, where they could have been for example working behind the bar, or working o events that they occasionally hold; According to our peers, this could have elevated our documentary that slight bit more, due to how we would have been focusing slightly more on our client, showing our audience members how important they are for their work, their passion and the documentary that we are creating.
AC3 - Technical Skills
When filming for our documentary, me and my team ensured that the quality of our working
space when recording was to the best it can be. We did this by ensuring that all equipment was laid out neatly and not spread out all over the place, ensuring we had specific spaces for specific reasons, for example, within the mocking bird theatre (the company of one of our clients), me and my documentary team had to film within one of the screening room in order to conduct out our interview process for the client: during this process, we laid out all equipment depending on their relevancy and roles within the production process of our documentary: keeping our camera and lighting equipment in a singular row of the seating areas closest to us, to ensure that whenever we needed camera or lighting equipment to enhance our product, not only would it be ready for me an my documentary team to use, but it would also mean that all of our equipment would not get mi8xed up, or lost when we need to use them. This also applies to our sound equipment, ensuring that me and my team put it in an appropriate place when filming, separate from equipment that isn’t related top sound, to ensure we don’t mix any equipment up, or lose any equipment.
One moment in which technical consistency was difficult to maintain was after setting up: there
was a problem with keeping the cables that connected the camera to a source of power as
hazard-less as possible: at the beginning of our filming, it was a major hazard for us to walk
around due to how the cables were not attached to the ground: a group, we became complacent, forgetting to pack tape with us as we didn’t predict that we needed it within the production process of our documentary, however, we were able to overcome this situation throughout our knowledge in wrapping up and cabling wires correctly: we were able to conduct this process, resulting in less wires causing a hazardous area for me and my team to work within.
From this, me and my documentary team will ensure to pack all equipment and extra accessories to ensure that we have the correct solutions for any technical difficulty that we may face within future projects.
17. Camerawork
Within mine and my classmates’ documentary, we have been able to use creative camera
techniques throughout, to enhance and achieve the importance and the purpose of what we are talking about. An example of this would be the different camera techniques we were able to implement within filming during the production process. We experimented with different angles and certain shots, for example, test shooting with shot techniques such as a wide shot, a mid-shot
16. Competence in Technical Skills
Within mine and my documentary team’s project, I held the role of being a sound operator. This meant that I took control of the sound and most of the music that is implemented within the
documentary.
There were smoke points within the documentary in which I had to step out of my role and help out with different elements within the documentary. This meant helping on the camera aspect, lighting aspect and just in general helping all my team members with different roles that they decided to take on.
Along the way of this process, I have been able to discover and learn different skills within
production that will help me within future productions that I may partake in.
One example of this would be within my own role, sound: Within production, all crew roles need to communicate with each other in order to have a smooth production day with as little faults as possible. Throughout the process of communication with me and my team members (more specifically my team member who took up the role of camera operation) we discussing how we needed to record sound differently from using the lapel mics, as we couldn’t seem to achieve the seamless look of the mics not being within the shots. From this, I discovered and learned how to use the mic pack and the microphone within the device itself: due to how small and compact the mic pack is, and how close we could get it to our client without it being seen (unlike a boom mic) we were able to use the mic packs to record sound for the interview process instead of struggling to use the boom microphone or struggling to hide the lapel mics that we were originally going to use for the documentary. This enhanced the documentary as we were able to have a smoother production day whilst also recording high quality audio for our documentary, also allowing me to learn new skills and equipment along the way.
At first, I did find using the mic packs slightly difficult, however I was able to overcome these
problems swiftly as my more experienced team members were able to help me learn new
elements and technical skills.
or a close-up shot. From these experimentations, we were able to discover the best types of shots for our documentary: we alternated between a mid-shot and a close-up shot at a certain angle so that the subject can look off camera at the interviewer who is asking them the questions. Alongside this, we also implemented different creative camera techniques in order to show the authenticity of what a documentary is trying to convey, and how each subject within are real people who are alive and well as we speak: This differentiates from the more professional and serious side of a documentary where we want the viewers to actually listen to what the subjects who we are interviewing for our documentary have to say. We did this throughout the use of a tripod, and the use of a handheld camera/a camera being held: When a camera is attached to a tripod, it helps the camera to achieve a very still and clean shot when filming. This allows the audience to focus on the main and only moving subject when recording. In comparison to this, when using a camera hand held, it almost creates this atmosphere that shows the realness and authenticity of the documentary that we are creating, as using a hand held camera created footage that isn’t perfect, just like how most things in real life have some rough edges to it; we want to ensure that the audience members are aware of the authenticity that we are trying to create.
18. Audio & Sound
Within the production and postproduction phase of mine and my teams’ documentary, we ensure that we were able to implement creative techniques/use the right equipment to convey our intentions and achievements for our product. One example of doing this would be throughout the different usage of different equipment for certain scenes within different segments of our documentary. For example, within the interview process with our different clients, we ensured that our clients were as comfortable as possible. We also ensured to enhance this by using the correct type of mic. With a boom/shotgun mic, the client who we are interviewing may feel intimidated or a bit nervous when speaking, as they are more aware of their voice being recorded due to the size of the mic, or simply because the microphone can be seen, which makes the client more aware about what is currently happening around them. Adding onto this, when filming within exterior scenery, I ensure to use relevant sound equipment: I ensure to use the boom mic with a dead cat attached so that any wind that may be present that day doesn’t disrupt the audio that I want to capture. This also applies to when recording foley, as we want the capture the best
quality audio that we possibly can.
Another way that audio has been used creatively to achieve our wanted intentions for the
documentary is throughout the music that I was able to produce for the b-roll segment within our project. I ensured to reach our intention of a chill yet impactful atmosphere within the track that I created, imbedding elements such as jazz and lo-fi within my production to ensure the audience members are able to recognize the ‘chilled out’ atmosphere. To further enhance the intention of the music that I made, we ensured to cut and edit our footage in sync with the music, for example cutting on action on beat drops within the music to create more of an impact on what the audience members can see, hear and feel when watching our product.
FINAL PRODUCT:
19. Post-Production
Within the postproduction process of me and my documentary team members project, we ensure that we were able to convey a particular message and atmosphere to the audience members so that they understand and work with the emotions that we are trying to convey.
The first example of this would be throughout the video editing that we were able to implement
throughout the video editing, we were able to implement different techniques such as a jump cut, fade In fade out transitions, and even cutting to the music. This particular editing enables the audience members to receive a certain message, as editing skills such as cutting on music creates a dramatic impact, as a drastic change to what we see is in sync with what we hear, so it creates more of a physical impact and emotional impact to our audience members. Me and my documentary team have. Been able to achieve this throughout editing, within our b-roll and within our intro – within our intro, we have been able to cut old and dated clips together in time to fitting music. We have done this to convey a sense of nostalgia and to show to our audience members how long film and media has been around , hopefully creating some sort of nostalgic atmosphere alongside emotional impact, or even just general impact.
Linking on to the clips that we used for example within our introduction for our documentary, we ensured to really show to the audience members how cinema has changed throughout the
centuries, throughout the usage of different dated clips form each particular time frames, for
example the 1920’s to the 1980’s. We have done this to ensure that the audience members really recognize each time frame, helping the realize the depth and length of cinema.
Throughout this, pacing changes at certain points so that audience members focus on crucial
points that me and my team mention.
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