The Spectrum Of Gender

Blue Balloon

Evaluation

MOVING IMAGE PROJECT

MODULE EVALUATION PROFORMA

YOUR EVALUATION MUST BE 1000 WORDS IN LENGTH –THE POINTS BELOW ARE THERE TO HELP GUIDE YOU - PLEASE NOTE THIS IS AN INDIVIDUAL PIECE OF WORK.

1. CRITICALLY REFLECT ON YOUR FINISHED FILM AND IT'S STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES – FOCUS ON ANALYSING THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WHAT YOU INTENDED TO DO AND WHAT YOU HAVE ACTUALLY ACHIEVED. DISCUSS HOW YOUR RESEARCH INTO DOCUMENTARY FILM PRACTICE AND THEORY INFORMED THE DEVELOPMENT OF YOUR WORK (APPROX 250 WORDS)

I think both of our Documentaries turned out really well given the difficulties we experienced. In our second documentary our contributor dropped out last minute, leaving us 4 days to shoot and edit our film. Despite the time limitations I think we were still able to make executive decisions. For example after our contributor dropped out we were going to use many different contributors and their stories and do a film on depression. However when we came to making this we quickly realised that this documentary wouldn’t have been as interesting as if we just used one engaging contributor. This is how we came about our idea to film just Richard, as his story was interesting, unique and engaging for the audience. If I was to do this film again I think we should have used more footage of Richard outside of the interview, like the footage of him with friends and the footage of him out and about.  The footage of him outside of the interview allows the audience to get to know Richards personality better and allows them to engage with Richard. I think if we were to develop this I definitely think this would be a good starting point.

2. REVIEW EACH STAGE OF THE PROCESS OF MAKING THE WORK, AND DISCUSS WHAT YOU HAVE LEARNT FROM IT BOTH TECHNICALLY AND CREATIVELY. DISCUSS YOUR FEEDBACK FROM YOUR TUTORS AND PEERS AND HOW YOU RESPONDED TO THIS WHEN MAKING THE WORK. (APPROX 250 WORDS)

In pre production I have learnt how to effectively gather contributors who have an interesting story. From this I have learnt about the unreliability of contributors and how to come back from the rejection. We have had to work quickly during this process due to our original contributor dropping out. Despite not being cinematographer, through this process I have learnt a lot about using a camera and lighting. I now know how to light an interview to get the most satisfying and pleasing shots. This was learnt both through working with the cinematographer on the first project as I was directing, and through workshops within the module. Through the same workshop, we learnt more about interviewing technique. In this session, Saskia taught us what questions would get the answers we hoped for out of our contributors. I think this definitely helped us when it came to filming, as footage from out first interviews has a lot of answers that were unusable in the film as they wouldn’t have made sense to the viewers.  Editing is where I think my skills developed the most. I am now a lot more familiar with the program Avid. I feel like I can now do a lot more in terms of editing to make a better quality film. For example, some of the  interview footage from Blue Balloon was a bit too bright, or it looked a bit flat. Therefore I learnt how to successfully use coloiur correction on avid, so that all the shots fit into the same colour palette to create a more flowing piece of work. I also learnt about cutting footage. After the shoots for both films we had over an hours worth of footage. As editor, I learnt about cutting information and making executive decisions. I found this challenging at first as all the interview footage was really good, but I learnt how to pick out the best parts of the interview to create a more interesting doc that was more engaging for the audience.

3. DISCUSS YOUR INDIVIDUAL CONTRIBUTION TO MAKING THE WORK, YOUR APPROACH TO GROUP WORK AND ANY PROBLEMS OR CHALLENGES YOU ENCOUNTERED WORKING AS PART OF A TEAM. USE IMAGES, ANNOTATED SCREENGRABS ETC TO ILLUSTRATE IF APPROPRIATE. (APPROX 250 WORDS)

In the first film I directed the film. This meant I was there on all the shoots, made sure our contributor was comfortable, and made sure she understood the questions being asked. I also was co editor, as Sophie was also the contributor, so I over saw the editing process, to give her an objective view. For Blue Balloon I was the Editor as I really enjoyed helping edit the first film and I was studying postproduction so I had a wider knowledge of the editing process. I also was there on shoots to help make the contributor feel comfortable, as I know the contributor on a more personal level than the rest of the group. Group work was really difficult for this project as we had such little time to film, so it was hard to get everyone there for the last minute shoots. This meant me and Sophie took lead in creating this film as we were the ones more available for the shoot. I also think our communication, as a group was poor as people had other commitments such as work and other projects. I feel as though if our communication was better as a group we may have been able to create a more high quality product.

4. IDENTIFY HOW THIS PROJECT HAS AIDED THE DEVELOPMENT OF YOUR PROFESSIONAL SKILLS AND EMPLOYABILITY (APPROX 250 WORDS)

I think is project has helped me develop as a filmmaker, especially as an editor. I have learnt a lot about the time pressures that come with the job, and I hope to overcome these in future projects by communicating better with other group members. I think my skills as an editor have improved greatly as I now am able to understand Avid better. I think my organization as an editor has improved, as my bins and timeline are so much better now. I also know a lot more about the interviewing process that is involved in creating a documentary. In Blue Balloon I think the questions we used were better as we were able to get more information out of our contributor whilst still making sure they were comfortable with the questions being asked. I also believe this has made me a lot more employable as I am now more aware of the documentary process, as I know more about the narrative arc which should be followed as well as features of an interesting documentary. I think we successfully created two interesting and thought provoking documentaries and from the feedback given I know how to develop these documentaries to make them even better.  I think from this module I have learnt a lot about working as a group and working with different contributors and their needs.

Edit Plan - Blue Balloon

Completed by Lydia Dawson

Sound list (Blue Balloon)

Music / Sounds	Description	Source / Credits
1. Main interview Audio of Richard	Discussing his past/present/future	Recorded with a zoom h5 recorder
2. Music sets in, emphasizing emotive content	Slow, emotive piece	Ben Sound
3. Fire crackling sound	Recording of fire	Freesound.com

Completed b Jack Brown

Sound list (The Spectrum of Gender)

Completed by Jack Brown

Music / Sounds	Description	Source / Credits
1. Voice over audio of Sophie	Discussing gender	Recorded with a zoom h5 recorder
2. Music sets in, emphasizing emotive content	Slow, emotive piece	Stock Music.net
3. Various background sound	Traffic, wind etc	Recorded with a zoom H5 recorder

Stills (The Spectrum of Gender)

Contributor consent form (for both films)

Film analysis - Boy interrupted

Boy interrupted is a film based around a young boy and his struggle with depression and his eventual suicide. I chose to analysis this film as this film explores the same subject area as our second film and is a really interesting take on documentary film making.

 Boy interrupted follows the life of Evan Perry, a 15 year old boy who committed suicide. His parents Dana and Hart use this film to examine his extraordinary life and how it was affected by his dipolar depression. Through a lot of archive footage we follow Evan from being a baby up to his untimely death. In the film there is a lot of interview footage with the people who were involved in Evans life, this includes his family, friends, teachers and psychologist. The interview footage is rely nicely shot. The shots are all well lit, and in all the interviews we learn so much about the interviewers views. I think this says a lot about the interviewers and the technique they have used. In our documentary I would like to get similar responses, as the interviewee's are all extremely open and their answers are so descriptive.

 Another aspect of this film I enjoyed was the use of so much archive footage. Whilst I don't think we will have time to gather enough archive to achieve this, if we were to develop our film further this is definitely something I would like to explore. I think the cutting together of both archive and interview footage allows the audience to empathise more with the character, and I feel like I got to know Evan on a more personal level. This allows the audience to feel more involved in the documentary, and provides a more immersive experience.

 The majority of the film is spent trying to understand Evan, rather than his illness. I think this is brilliantly done, as it means the audience gets to see Evan from a relatives point of view, meaning we as an audience are more emotionally invested.

Overall the film is brilliantly shot and edited. Through their style, they have created a documentary that allows the audience to understand the contributor better, and it had interested me to learn more about the subject area.

Poetic Style Notes

For our first film we were given the brief to create a 2 minute short poetic documentary. In seminars we watched several different poetic documentaries, allowing us to see how to create a successful poetic doc. We then knew how we would want our film to look and could come up with a plan in terms of cinematography, editing and sound.

 Poetic documentary follows several different conventions.

• A subject view can be given by the documentary maker
• it doesn't follow a typical narrative structure
• mood and tone is enhanced by music
• may have light rhetoric
• can be seen as experimental

Given these conventions we decided to use little sync sound, and use more archive footage of our subject. We also have decided we will use 2 different types of music to reinforce the mood we are trying to create with our voice over. 

Shot list - Blue Balloon

Shot No	Shot	Angle	Movement	Notes
1	1-15 Mid close up [Interview]	Low angle/mid close up	Stationary	Set in bedroom
2	1-5 Close up	Low angle	Mid close up / close up / zoom/focus pull	Outside
3	1-3 Medium shot to long shot	Eye angle	Pan/track	Outside
4	1-5 Close up	Eye angle	Stationary	Outside
5	1-3 Medium shot	Eye angle	Tracking	Outside
6	1-20 Medium shot [interview 2]	Eye angle	Stationary	Set in Kitchen
7	1-5 Close up	Eye angle	Stationary	Outside
8	1-5 Long shot to medium shot	Low angle	Stationary zoom	Inside living room
9	1-8 Medium shots	Eye level to bed	Stationary pans	Bedroom
10	1-3 Medium shots	Low angle	Stationary	Living room