Documentary/Drama Evaluation

For the first project of semester 2, we were set the brief of creating a 5 minute documentary based on Liverpool stories; the location of our 3 day residential trip. I was excited to create a documentary piece and I went in a group with Sarah Cooper, Jake Thompson, Olivier Chevalley, Elliot Carroll-Dunn and Ryan Goff. My role in this group was the editor and I was looking forward to being this position as it is an area in film that I would like to explore in various projects.

When we had our first meeting we came up with a number of different ideas for the documentary, such as the Police force, derelict buildings and street artists. We were aware of the art scene in Liverpool and that many groups would be documenting fairly ‘arty’ themed films and we wanted to stray away from this stereotype of the city. We all had an interest in making a documentary that was based on a niche topic and eventually we decided to choose the ideas of a Bike Restoration Company and Free runners for the pitch. We also created a Facebook page in order to keep in touch with each other and discuss meeting arrangements.

For the pitch to Lee and Debbie, we were more in favour of the Bike Restoration Company, known as Re-Cycles and Ryan had managed to get in contact with Chris; a man who represented the company and was more than happy to let us film them.  In the end, everyone in the pitch seemed to be in favour of ReCycles too and we were happy with the agreement. For the residential trip, we travelled to Liverpool for 3 days and on the first evening that we were there; we went straight to Chris’ house to meet him and the others in ReCycles. Olivier and I went to the company’s yard where we would be filming the next day while everyone else in the group filmed the interviews. The next day we filmed at the yard and managed to get all of the footage in a day and were able to talk to each person in the company; getting to know them over the course of the day.

In terms of filming and editing, there were no major problems that faced us as a group. However, I feel personally that a problem that affected my enjoyment of the project was the lack of input I was able to give and felt that I was not a big part of the team. I was excited to work with the others as I had seen their previous work and thought it was amazing and was looking forward to learning from their past knowledge on film. However, Sarah and I felt that the rest of the group had created such a strong bond between each other that made us feel a little left out. We are aware that we may have seemed reserved, which we aren’t when we get to know people, but due to this strong connection the others had we felt our input wasn’t as helpful as we hoped. I understand that this won’t have been deliberate at all, but it made me feel as though I didn’t enjoy the project as I was looking forward to editing but I didn’t get to fulfil this role as much as I would have liked. While on set I felt slightly unhelpful being editor and I didn’t have much to do apart from take photos for the blog. With the editing I wish I had some more input and when I occasionally asked Olivier or Jake for a chance to help them with the edit, they did give me jobs to do for it which made me feel happier about my previous worries. However, I felt as though there were many edit sessions where the majority of the group apart from myself were sat deciding on different edit decisions and I was quite unhappy with my lack of input. I am aware that I should have been more outspoken but at the time I had already asked a number of times to help with the edit and this would work until a while later when it would be edited by others as they had more experience; especially times when I had to go to work on an evening. I was happy that the others had a lot of experience with film editing but I was desperate to get a bigger involvement with the editing side as it is an area of film I am interested in.  When we had began editing I went through the interview scenes and deleted any that were not needed, as well as trimming the clips to fit in the edit. I wish I had been more outspoken and demanding but didn’t want to cause any tension in the group.

In the presentation, Lee and Debbie gave us many positive comments and seemed to enjoy the documentary.  However, they commented on the fact that the film seemed more focussed on the images and editing effects than the storyline. As much as these comments disheartened me as I had wanted to have a bigger input with the editing, I still feel that the editing was done very well by the others. There were many effects that I had no idea how to recreate, such as the transition from one scene to another when a bicycle wheel crossed the screen; an effect put on by Olivier. I was amazed by these effects and wished I could have sat down in the edit with them to learn how to edit in this way but I was at work on the night he was creating this.

Overall, I enjoyed the concept of creating a documentary and the people that were involved in the film were very charismatic and I loved meeting them. I like the idea of creating a film to express someone’s story as it was a topic that I would not purposely go out of my way to explore but enjoyed learning about ReCycles. I would have loved to have more input in the project but I am glad I got to experience creating a documentary piece and meeting those involved. I also thought that the role as Cinematographer seemed interesting as the shots created by Jake and Ryan were amazing and I wanted to attempt this role in the next group project. Everyone in the group was very nice and I enjoyed seeing the different experiences people had from previous backgrounds but I decided for the next project to be more outspoken with ideas.

Our next project for the semester was to create a Drama piece and the brief we were set was to make a 5 minutes film focussed on the theme of a journey. Personally I was worried about this project as I felt that creating a drama would be difficult in comparison to documentary; as many student drama pieces have been known to be too dramatic and stereotypical. However, I kept an open mind and we were not allowed to work with people from previous groups. Therefore, I went into a group with Heather Kelland, Tom Noonan, Alex Kentfield, Luke McKnight and Billy Jackson. I was excited to work with these people as I had spoken quite a lot to a few of them and when we met up to decide on roles, I put forward my desire to be cinematographer; which everyone agreed to.

We decided to meet up over a few days to come up with an initial idea for the pitch and although this seemed quite difficult at first, after a while we began to put down some ideas. Heather and Tom seemed in favour of basing a Drama loosely relating to political issues in current news stories, such as Russia and Ukraine; with Russian forces taking over Ukraine. We all found this an interesting perspective and began to create a theme where one of the characters would be taking a lead role over the other. As we were deciding on character traits, I suggested we call the characters ‘Lola’ and ‘Larry’ to make it easier talking about them as we created their personas. In the end, our idea features Lola; a strong-willed character who is friends with Larry; someone who has just lost their job and is told by his friend to stand up for himself as it wasn’t his fault. Our final character was the boss that would be seen firing Larry in a silent scene during the film. In comparison with the Documentary, I immediately felt comfortable with the group and was often giving input and ideas for the film.

I also went to film with Alex at Park Hill in order to get more experience before we started filming for the Drama. I was worried about my lack of experience but everyone was aware of this and I felt at ease that they still were happy for me to be cinematographer; with the filming at Park Hill helping a lot. In the pitch, Dom and the other groups seemed to be in favour of our idea which encouraged us to get on with finishing the final touches to our idea.

In one of our seminars we met 3 actors for a ‘Blocking Session’ so that we could have parts of our scripts read out in order to create a visual before finding actors to film. This was very helpful as it meant that we could make any changes to the script and decide what the mise-en-scene would look like. We struggled to find actors for quite a while but I managed to get in touch with someone on the course in 4^th year, Helena Beeson; a family friend, who had contacts and I messaged the actors; eventually finding 2 actors to feature in our film (the actor playing the boss had to drop out so Heather took his place).This made me feel very happy as everyone was pleased I had arranged actors and I felt my actions had a big impact in progressing the film.

When we began filming I could not be present for the Park Hill or Boss scenes, due to being at work, but when we filmed the next day I was excited to get hands on. I was very nervous about taking a long time to set up but Alex was always on hand to help me as it was his camera and he has a lot of experience with filming. I enjoyed being a major role on the set, filming from a tripod as well as handheld shots to connote an actor’s point of view and I began to get used to the role, enjoying the whole day. Heather informed me of any shots she desired and I was happy when I was able to create these identical to her visions. The actors, Ryan and Coral, were also so charismatic and easy to work with and I enjoyed filming on set with them.

Overall, I have never enjoyed a project more than this one as I have greatly enjoyed working with everyone in my group and felt that being cinematographer has given me the chance to expand my filming experience. Heather has been a great director, ensuring everyone is happy with decisions and Alex was always at my side to help with any camera issues. I also enjoyed working with Billy, Tom and Luke as they are so easy to get on with and were always enthusiastic. In comparison to Documentary, I felt I have learnt a lot technically and about being more outspoken in group projects. I would love to work with any of the people in my Drama group again and enjoyed creating our initial idea into a film.