Planning - Storyboards first draft

Production - Shot plan (so far)

Production - Script (so far)

Research - Ancillary Product Example

Production - learning how to take off the background noise from a video and how to create a pull focus

I wanted to see if I can find out how to take away the background sound from my videos, as I am planning to use them as cutaways in either a reduced or increased speed, to then put facts on over the top. Due to me filming a lot of cutaways in cities and on roads, I needed to work out how to get rid of the background sound, to put a voiceover and music in the background instead of the noise of cars.

I worked out after research that in order to take away the background sound I needed to first select 'reduce background noise' and put it to 100%. This then enabled me to either reduce it slightly or altogether. I could also completely mute the noise by selecting the sound symbol until it had a red line across it.


I also wanted to work out how to blur the background and create a pull focus. This is because it is a common code and convention to have a pull focus to put facts over the top of the background (as shown in previous posts).
The first image is the shot without a pull focus.
The bottom one is with a pull focus.


I worked out how to create a pull focus after research. All that is required is to drag and drop the 'pull focus' selection from the 'titles' page to above the video.
One can see that this already achieves the blurred look which will be useful when trying to follow codes and conventions of a documentary.



As you can see below, the text is clearly seen on top of the clip, meaning it will be effective and I will achieve the look I am hoping for when I make my actual documentary.

Research - Textual Analysis 4 - An Idiots Guide To Politics

Research - Textual Analysis 3 - The Worst Job In British Politics

Production - Cutaways

Here are my cutaways so far.

I will put these onto iMovie and have a look as to how I can incorporate them into my documentary.

Production - a narrative arc

Research - Goldmans Sachs target audience research

Click here to view the website which I optioned this information from in more detail.



I used Goldman Sachs website in order to obtain some information about how my target audience will obtain information and stay connected with things, as this is vital to consider when judging how to promote my products.


This above shows how older generations stay connected. Only 15% said text messaging and only 11% said through social media, compared to millennial who say 44% stay connected through text messaging and 38% social media and instant messaging.

Although this shows that text messaging and social media is vital, it may not be the way to achieve success for my products, it may just help to promote it alongside my ancillary products. This is because it is evident that word of mouth and more basic things such as a magazine is still a vital way to obtain information too. This will help with the success of my TV listings double page spread, poster and extract.

Because social media is very popular and arguably keeps people together, I will encorporate social media into my products, for example create Twitter accounts, in order to promote my products to my target audience.

Planning - Actual, Creative, Interpretive

Actual:
Something which would have happened, whether the camera was there or not.

As my interviews were asked for and I have had to get permission to film them, it is not an actual shot in some ways. It is not because I have had to ask the people who I am filming to tell me their thoughts on camera, which they may not have spoken about or broadcasted if I was not to ask them. However, it may be seen as actual as I the people who I have interviewed are voicing their own opinions on the spot with no preparation time given, so they have therefore not had any time to change their opinions or views which they are giving. They could however arguably give a more bias opinion based on the views of their party (conservative or Labour), so use the documentary as more of a platform to put down the opposition political party, rather than focus on the effects which the media may have had.

Creative:
Affected by the practical decisions made by the director/camera operator, and which had an effect of making the sequence more entertaining.

As I am both the director and camera operator, due to the much lower budget which larger documentaries who would feature on big broadcasting channels would receive, it could be argued that it is more manipulative. This is because I have to film, produce, direct and create the documentary, meaning all decisions which are made are my choices. I have however not told any of my interviewees to say anything, apart from answer the question "how has the media influenced the recent UK election". This is evident from the interviewees having some differing opinions, all with different facts and arguments.

Interpretive
Affected by the practical decisions made by the director/camera operator, and which had an effect on the audience's understanding of what they are seeing.

Again, due to me being both the director and camera operator because of a low budget, it could be seen that I am manipulating the information. This however is not the case as I have not briefed any of my participants to say anything specifically, other than to answer the question "how has the media influenced the recent UK election". Each answer is based on their own independent views, so they will present to the audience their own thoughts which I will try to evaluate throughout the documentary, however none of the information is my own view of the topic.

Production - Experimenting with video filters

Above is a screenshot of the original video, there are no adjustments or alterations.
Below is a screenshot of the video which has been edited by using iMovie. I have reduced the saturation and limited the colour palette, which as you can see from the screenshot below, shows the image to almost look greyscale/colourless.




I have seen this effect used in many documentaries and TV shows such as Location Location Location (below). When this is done, it usually is in order to show some statistics/facts/information. This is another common convention of a documentary which is factual and has a purpose of to inform.
This links with Steve Neale's theory of genre. This is because he believes that pleasures can be derived from sharing our experience of a genre with others within an 'interpretive community', which can be characterised by its familiarity with certain genres.
They also commonly tend to be still frames or slow motion videos of the outdoors or topic of the current speech, meaning there is some action and something for the viewer to watch, however it does not take their attention away from reading the information presented to them.

Research - John Grierson

"The creative interpretation of actuality"

This quote is widely referred to in filmmaking as it can be linked back to when producing products.

It refers to the way in which the filmmaker presents the real life issue to the audience, and therefore how it is interpreted.

It relates to how the filmmaker creates a relationship between art, creativity and documentary production. Consumption will rationalise and conceptualise creativity for documentary practice.

Production - Interview filming - #3 (character profile included)

This is John Jenkins, a 17 year old who attends Southend High School for Girls Sixth Form. I chose to use John as he is extremely passionate about politics and is a confident speaker, so I knew he would be suitable for my documentary. John also is in my young adult demographic, like Anna, meaning I would be able to have another point of view from the younger demographic, who most would argue are in charge of the country's future.
John is situated in the middle of Southend Girls, which I think is suitable due to it being true to her identity and situation, being a 17 year old student.
I placed him by a bench under a tree, which was a quieter location with less going on, meaning people would concentrate on what John was saying more, rather than looking at what was going on around him.
I also placed him in the left third of the shot so that I can put his name, facts and information which links to what he is saying on the right of the screen. This is something which many documentaries do, so it is a generic convention which I believe would be effective to use in my documentary.

Production - Interview filming - #2 (character profile included)

This is John Whittingdale. He is a British Conservative Party politician and former UK Government minister. He is the member of Parliament for the Maldon constituency.
Due to his experience and position within the UK Government, I thought he would be ideal to represent the thoughts behind the Tory party, as well as on behalf of the older generation. He will act as an opposite of Anna, who is in the younger generation. This will make it easier to see if their thoughts are similar or different about the election results in relation to media.
I am happy with the video, however there is some background sound which I will need to edit to ensure the viewers can easily hear what John is saying.
I also placed John in the left third of the shot so that I can put his name, facts and information which links to what he is saying on the right side of the screen. This is something which many documentaries do, so it is a generic convention which I believe will be effective to use in my documentary.

Production - Interview filming - #1 (character profile included)

This is Anna Govett, a 17 year old who attends Southend High School for Girls Sixth Form. I chose to use Anna as she is extremely passionate about politics and is a confident speaker, so I knew she would be suitable for my documentary. Anna also is in my young adult demographic, meaning I would be able to have the point of view from a younger demographic, who most would argue are in charge of the country's future.
Anna is situated in the middle of Southend Girls, which I think is suitable due to it being true to her identity and situation, being a 17 year old student.
I used a plain wall background as it gives a more minimalist style and it was also a quieter location with less going on, meaning people would concentrate on what Anna was saying more, rather than looking at what was going on around her.
I also placed her in the left third of the shot so that I can put her name, facts and information which links to what she is saying on the right of the screen. This is something which many documentaries do, so it is a generic convention which I believe would be effective to use in my documentary.