Wednesday November 10th

Unfortunately our interview with Trish Davidson had to be postponed due to her hectic schedule. So filming today proceeded at 5pm. I had managed to book out two Sony Z1's, an external mic and a Manfrotto tripod.

On the agenda today was:

• Film everybody setting up
• Introduction to "It's a Free World" by Ken Loach, with a talk from Nick Kinsella
  
• Question & Answer session with director Ken Loach
  

We decided to set up one of the cameras at the top of a staircase near the entrance of where the film was going to be shown. It had a great shot of all of the exhibitors and campaigners setting up their stands and gave a great overview of the foyer. I then took the second camera and went around on foot getting footage of everyone setting up. We managed to get some impromptu interviews with another organiser, a spokesperson for Greenpeace and also the head of the UK human trafficking centre, Nick Kinsella. These all went very well and all were given release forms to sign which they were happy to.

Unfortunately a scheduled interview with Ken Loach did not go ahead as planned. However, we did manage to grab him for a quick interview before his question and answer session. We were very pleased he was happy to help us out and he even suggested that he would like to give a lecture at our university at some point.

It was then time for him to give his question and answer session, which we filmed a portion of. We were all really pleased with how this evening went. We worked in a very professional manner and seized some great opportunities for interviews. Though a few of these were not planned it really made us realise that you need to take risks to get what you want and it is best to speak up to be heard!

Trish said that she will get in touch with us regarding an interview with her next week, so once that is shot we will have all of our footage. Great progress!

Wednesday November 3rd

Today we started filming at the Unchosen film festival in Bath. We had a scheduled interview with one of the organisers from the Keele leg of the festival, Kelly Prince at about 7pm but Edem, Harry and I decided to get to the Forum for 6pm so that we could film some cut-aways and to make sure everything was set up correctly. I had booked a Sony A1, an external, directional boom mic and a Manfrotto tripod. Esther was unable to be there during the filming but was there at the start to help us organise a room to interview in.

We were a bit worried about background noise from the room next door as musical auditions were being run at the same time. However, we decided to press on and all-in-all we felt like it was a good interview. Harry was on camera, Edem on sound, and I was interviewing.

As we decided that we did not want this to be presenter-led, I asked a series of questions but tried to make sure that Kelly gave full answers. That way it is her giving her full story. Some of the questions I asked were:

• Please give us a brief overview of the Unchosen film festival, the cause, the people involved etc.
• Why a film festival to raise awareness and not a typical fundraiser?
• How long have you been involved?
• What made you decide to get involved?
• What has your role been in the production of the festival?
• What has been the most difficult thing about organising the festival?
• How much funding do you get from sponsors, donations etc
• How much do you depend on volunteers?

Kelly answered the questions brilliantly, she admitted she felt very nervous at first but once she was settled she felt very comfortable and gave us some great answers.

While at the Forum we also met organiser, Trish Davidson and other various volunteers who help run the festival. Trish was very helpful and proposed a date for us to interview her and also said that she would try and organise an interview with director and patron of the festival, Ken Loach. This was very exciting news and would be a great opportunity for all of us.

We then decided to film some cut-away shots of posters, leaflets, the forum itself, inside and outside.

Our next proposed filming date is Wednesday 10th November, starting at 10 am at the Forum to interview Trish and then continuing from about 5pm to film the volunteers setting up.

Friday 29th October

Today we had to come up with 3 ideas for a behind the scenes documentary. I had an idea to follow an independent film-maker. I thought this would be a good idea considering most of us on the course could potentially be successful independent film-makers. However, unfortunately this was not possible due to other commitments.

We were put into our groups and had to decide the best option to film a behind the scenes documentary on. I am in a group with Esther Moore, Harry Symes and Edem King. Esther had a great idea to film at the Unchosen film festival in Bath. It had unfortunately already started by the time we decided to film but was still going on for another couple of weeks so gave us some good opportunities to film and possibly with some big name directors, Nick Broomfield and Ken Loach.

We discussed how we would like to portray the documentary and what direction to take it. A few of the things we had to consider were:

• Our target audience
• How much time we have to shoot
• whether we were going to specialise or go general?
• A production schedule
• Are we going to use graphics?
• Will we use a voice-over and commentary?
• Will it be presenter-led?

We decided that our target audience would be around 18+ as the festival itself is based on subject matters that some people may find distressing. However, that does not mean that we are ruling out anyone watching the documentary who is younger because we are trying to focus more on the actual organisation of the festival. We also decided that this would not be presenter-led and that we would rather have the organisers themselves talking through what happens, so as to have them telling their own story. We want to make this documentary something that they may be able to use online for promotional purposes and to spread awareness.

Esther then lead proceedings to try and organise permissions to film through her contact and one of the organisers Trisha Davidson. We had to act fast as we had an opportunity to film in 5 days time, so it all seemed very rushed and a little hectic but luckily we were granted permission. At such short notice I was unable to book out all of the equipment that we needed but managed to get a Sony A1, a manfrotto tripod and boom mic. An interview was confirmed with Kelly Prince, an organiser of the festival for Wednesday 3rd.

Friday 15th October

In today's session we were discussing the purpose of 'Behind the Scenes' documentaries for instance, to increase interest in the product. A recent successful behind the scenes show has been T4's movie specials. With T4's target audience being primarily teenage to early twenties they have chosen a number of film premiers that would appeal to that particular audience. While satisfying their audience with behind the scenes footage, interviews with cast and footage from the premier, they are also increasing interest and hype in to the movie.

I also had a look at behind the scenes of a music video "Skeletons" by Yeah Yeah Yeahs.



While watching the video it is clear that this is probably for people who are already fans of the band who just want something extra to keep them satisfied. However, this could also be used to generate hype to people who have never listened to their music before. I also think that there is probably a market for people who are interested in making music videos and using special effects like the use of the green screen and the images being projected on to smoke so would probably appeal to media students too.

In class, we watched behind the scenes of the movie Hunger by visual artist Steve McQueen. The documentary explains in-depth the story and the reasoning behind certain filming and editorial decisions. This made it insightful and made you aware of things you may have never known while watching just the movie itself. We also found that the cast sang high praises of the director, being his first feature-length film, it helps to build up hype for him. Having never seen the film before I was surprised that I felt compelled to watch it after viewing the documentary. This goes to show that this kind of documentary holds a great promotional purpose and people who may not have wanted to watch the film, may want to after watching the documentary. This behind the scenes film was insightful, sincere and used minimalist music that didn't detract from the seriousness of the films subject matter.

We also watched the making of Ridley Scott's Gladiator which tackled the film in a completely different manner. Rather than using subtlety or sincerity there is epic battle style music throughout and the focus seems to be more on the talent, ie Russell Crowe and Jaoquin Phoenix rather than the storyline or editorial decisions. There were lots of quick cuts and close-ups of the actors faces. All of the interviews were either on set or surrounded by appropriate images relating to the movie. They also showed raw footage of the scenes being filmed, but with their cameras and mics in shot so that the audience feel like they're on the set. This would be then be followed with the finalised edited scene. With a huge Hollywood movie like Gladiator, it is clear to see why they decided to focus on the actors because this will appear to an audience on a large scale. If they had focused more on the editorial and production side of the film they would probably lose audience numbers.