Carla Castagnetti: Documentary

The Filming Process We had previously met a few days before the filming date to ensure that we all had a good understanding of how to use the Sony X70 camera, tripod, and microphone equipment. Therefore once we had this knowledge we met up a few hours before the time slot for filming the real project in order to ensure we knew how to set up the equipment as quickly as we could to not waste the time we have in the shooting location and also not to waste the time we have with the participant. We did not face any issues with filming because of this preparation and each had our roles to play when it came to filming. Sara mainly filmed the interview, I asked the questions to the participant, Ewan filmed other shots of the museum after, the shots we plan to overlay with the interview, and Valerie had the headphones checking that the sound worked well. Here are some images of the group working together on the day of filming:

Editing the Final Project -In terms of editing, each member of the group took time to edit in pairs to ensure that we all had our fair share of time and responsibility. It also allowed for different modes of creative input as opposed to having one editor and one mode of creative input. - We began by creating a transcript which is written in another blog post you can find on here, this enabled us to understand the narrative and piece together different sections to ensure that the narrative flowed and made the most sense, seeing as the questions we asked the participant were in no particular order. - We then named each clip so that they were easy to identify, this allowed us to place them onto the Premiere Pro timeline in order. - We then began to crop and slice the clips to ensure that there was not any unwanted sections or awkward pauses as the aim is to make the documentary 4-5 minutes. - After having done this we began to overlay shots and place transitions in between the ...

Roles in the Group In general, there have been little issues amongst our group in terms of delivering a well-thought-out and edited project with a clear aesthetic and narration. The main issue we encountered in terms of members of the group was originally that Sara did not attend lessons in the first few weeks of the term which we then had to ensure upon her return that she was up-to-date with the idea we had chosen and also meant that she missed the creation of the presentation. Moreover, the only other issue I personally found amongst the group was a language barrier, which meant that Valerie found it harder to follow the ideas we would come up with and in terms of editing the project, she found it hard to understand what the participant was saying to then be able to piece together the clips into the correct order. Despite this, in terms of meeting up to organise and prepare and edit as well as film, we did not encounter any problems and worked very well together.  I would...

Final Idea The final idea we have chosen out of all of the potential ideas we came up with is to film at the Old Police Cells Museum situated below Brighton's Town Hall.  This Police Cell acted as a detaining center for prisoners in the 18th and 19th century, it was in use until recently when it became a file storage unit for the council. In the past ten years, ex-policeman and police enthusiasts act as tour guides for this free-to-visit facility, where they speak of their own experiences working in the Cells themselves as officers during the final years of it being open for police use as well as local stories and historical information. We have contacted Phil Meeson who is in charge of events and filming and he has given us the date of April 1st to commence filming and we have all day to film with ex-policeman Philip Armstrong. Mr Armstrong used to work in the cells just before it closed and therefore as a group we believed it would be most interesting to hear from someon...

Transcript 1 st Video (Duration: 00:48) I’m Phil Armstrong, I have been a serving police officer for 30 years. Been retired nearly 22 years now, but err although I have worked in Brighton it wasn’t when this was an active police station. I joined the same year activities moved from here. 2 nd Video (Duration: 01:21) 00:15 – Yes, having been retired for quite a long time, it was err somewhat refreshing in a way to come back to see everything that’s in the museum here and to think in many cases ‘Oh my goodness I use to use one of those’ and then I’d find it in a museum. So, it also gave me another opportunity to meet friends who I had worked with and I am now sharing my interest in the museum and what it represents and telling people about how things were when we were in service. One important thing to say about it is a lot of people come down to visit thinking they’re going to look at prison cells, but that’s not the case. These are simply police detention...

Final Project Evaluation The overall nature of this documentary is heart-warming and simplistic. This was not the original idea for the piece however I am happy with how it turned out. We had arranged a set of potential questions to ask the participant and we used his answers to chose a new basis for the documentary. We originally were going to go for a dark aesthetic, with eerie jump shots of the cells and Erroll Morris inspired sound effects of glasses dropping for example. The final product we created no longer suits this and the intended reading is more of a story-telling nature. Whilst we kept to the idea of having corresponding shots overlayed to the topics the participant is speaking about, we chose not to change the tones and aesthetic of these shots to ensure that they kept true to the narration.

Nichols 1991: Documentary Modes of Representation Reading Notes:  Observational Mode - Attempts to observe aspects of the historical world as they happen typically have no voice-over commentary, no supplementary music or sound, no intertitles, no historical reenactments, no behaviour repeated for the camera and no interviews. social actors behave as if no filmmakers were there. -'Window on the World' The Interactive Mode -It arose from the availability of some mobile equipment and desire to make filmmakers perspective more evident  -This mode wants to engage with individuals more directly while not reverting to classic exposition interview styles -It allows the filmmaker to account for past events via witnesses and experts that the viewers can also see -Archival footage becomes appended o these commentaries to avoid hazards of reenactment and monolithic claims of Voice of God commentary.  Expository Mode -Nichols refers to this mode as the '...

Notes based on Week 1 Reading:  Documentary is one of the three basic creative modes in film the other two being narrative fiction and experimental avant-garde. (avant-garde are shorts shown in nontheatrical film societies on campuses or art museums for example- the work of individual filmmakers)                                                                                                                                                                                                ...

Aesthetic: Initial Ideas It is important that our documentary follows a specific aesthetic that meets the genre of our documentary. Therefore the image above is a compilation of photographs I took from visiting the cells, and gave them a sepia tone by adjusting the contrast and brightness. I also chose to give bottom left image a black circled edge to make it appear as though the "inmate" is being looked at through a hole in the door.  Considering this is a documentary about police cells and we are discussing eerie stories with corresponding images, I think its important to have a dark aesthetic for the overlaid images. Recently with the rise of documentaries, specifically on Netflix, they seem to overlay these kinds of images and its the likes of 'Making a Murderer' and 'Abducted in Plain Sight' that in terms of viewings have done amazingly well, that follow this kind of aesthetic. 

Planning & Preparation: Timetable 25th March-  As a group we plan to visit the Museum to experience a tour as members of the public, taking notes and evaluating the sound projection and lighting with the camera. After, at around 3pm we will have a group discussion about the specifics for example where we will film and shot ideas etc. 26th March-  On this date after emailing Philip Meeson, the events manager, we have planned to visit the museum and discuss and sign the appropriate paperwork with Philip Meeson and discuss how we plan to shoot, timings and access to props. It is a final run through to ensure that the day runs smoothly. 28th March-  As a group at 13:00pm we will meet up and practise using the camera and finalise shot types and essential interview questions. It is also important that we know how to all use the microphone and camera to avoid any issues on the day. 1st April - This is the date of our filming at the Cells, we have to arrive for 1pm an...

15/01/2019 Types of Documentary  Observational documentaries attempt to simply and spontaneously observe lived life with a minimum of intervention.   The first observational documentaries date back to the 1960s; technology developments made them possible such as mobile lightweight cameras and portable sound recording equipment for synchronised sound.  Often, this mode of film includes voice-over commentary, synchronised dialogue and music, or re-enactments. This type of documentary is to be viewed as real life situations that do not have major editing or abstract styles. 4 Main Types:  Participatory documentaries  believe that it is impossible for the act of filmmaking to not influence or alter the events being filmed. Not only is the filmmaker part of the film, we also get a sense of how situations in the film are affected or altered by their presence. The encounter between filmmaker and subject becomes a critical element of the film. Ref...