Individual Self Evaluation

Liverpool Documentary Project

The concept for our Liverpool documentary project was to explore the facts that Hitler had lived in Liverpool for around 4 months in 1912, exploring both sides of the debate as evenly as possible presenting the topic openly using the information we obtained. Creating a natural response in the audience that hopefully, but depending on our findings, would be predominately unbiased. Our inspirations for this project were largely intimate interviews achieved through camerawork, we were impressed by the low key lighting and how effective the combination of static mid shots and panning close ups during the interviews seen in the documentary “Band Of Brothers” were, we intended to attempt to create a similar tone for our interviews. Emotionally engaging with integrity through diverse sources, the stylish yet incredibly intricate presentation of information in Nick Broomfields: “Biggie and Tupac”, was influential in creating a sense of mystery throughout our work. Our target audience was really anyone interested in history in general or more specifically that era or Hitler himself, we expected the audience that would find it interesting to most likely be aged between 20-60 years old, but considering it would most likely only be seen on YouTube, they would be more likely aged between 25-45.

Our final product of work I think looked very professional all things considered and stands up well. I think our interviews were strong in the sense that we had a good range of people, from locals who had heard the rumours and journalists and historians who had a decent reputation in the field. I think the interviews were let down by that fact that they are a bit rushed, we had to cut out so much information purely because of time constraints and I think that very fast pace of cuts between people combined with little bits of missing info lets it down a little in that respect but not too much. If I was to do this again I think we could have done with a few more cutaways and footage for over the interviews but in the 5 minute time limit I think we got away with it. Also I think if the time limit was longer we could have used a voiceover with a bit of clear backstory at the beginning, but apart from this I’m very proud of this piece and enjoyed working on it both for the actually project and the people I was working with.

The process was very simple and we didn’t really experience many major problems at all. Our main issues were that we didn’t have enough people in the crew or equipment to go out and get everything that we wanted, we just didn’t have the time to interview everyone that we had contacted but we got more than enough footage and sound for the 5 minute time limit. Because our producer was so efficient in his planning and we all stuck to the schedule pretty tightly, nothing really worked out differently to what we had previously planned. I was the audio editor on this project but due to our visual editor injuring himself during the post-production stage, I was left to edit a significant amount of the visuals as well. The sound aspect of this project wasn’t too demanding or time consuming, as it was pretty straight forward in that it was mainly just adjusting volumes and editing out certain things like passing cars and electrical interference. The visuals were fairly clear cut as well, apart from the odd effect that I had never done before, everything was very straight forward conventional editing for a documentary.

Over the course of this project I have learnt a few things in the editing process that I had not done before, such as panning across still photographs and inputting titles over the shots for the names of the interviewees. Apart from that, everything I did in editing I had done at least once before but I found it very useful to jog my memory and get better at it, like removing background fuzz from the audio and clean it up in places, for example, lessening the noise of passing cars and voices. I have developed what skills I have in editing in general by editing this project both on the audio and visuals. I have improved what knowledge and skills I have in using different software for editing but the audio especially, as I edited most of the audio as I was going along in Final Cut Pro and then locked the picture and bounced the audio into ProTools, tweaked it a bit and then had to remove background fuzz and electrical interference using Soundtrack Pro and then finish it off again in ProTools. I then exported all the audio for the film as one track and imported it back into Final Cut Pro alongside the video.

I think our group for the most part worked really well as a team, I think that this early on in the course the majority of people are desperate to prove themselves, which can in some cases, cross the line a little with people trying to take too much control of the project and interfere with other peoples roles, which of course causes issues. Knowing this from a previous project I decided to step back and let everyone else get on with their own roles as I had seen at least some work from everyone before trusted pretty much everyone to do a good job. Our group was made up of seven people as opposed to six so we needed another role, we decided to have an assistant director which in the end was pointless as our director was very committed and enthusiastic about the project and didn’t really need any assistance, this, along with the fact that our AD had already decided to drop out of the course and wasn’t really very committed at all. Overall I have learnt who I work well with and who I don’t as much.

Drama Project
Amber knows that her boyfriend is a successful small-time drug dealer, but with her own musical career failing to take off and provide, she is forced to stay with him and turn a blind eye to his activities. As her personal life becomes increasingly embroiled in his dangerous operations, and menaced by the growing fear of being caught with him, she can no longer distance herself from the criminal lifestyle and must search for an escape. We took inspiration from several TV programs for this short film project, one of which was an episode in the four part series ‘Run’ featured on channel 4, in which the main character decides to report her sons to the police for accidently killing someone in a random act of violence. From this we took inspiration from the shoulder rig shots, where they are stable enough to not be too uncomfortable to watch but there is a sense of unease, we also took the blue flashing light on the protagonists face idea and foreshadowed it several times throughout the film. Our intended audience was for people of both genders between the ages of 17-55, as there are references of drugs and the mistreatment of women that might make people of an older generation feel uncomfortable. 

I think that we were successful in obtaining some decent actors for our project, I think they both worked well together and felt comfortable and I think this shows in our work. I think the use of foreshadowing the blue police light was effective and was done with a decent level of subtlety and taste. I think we had a decent concept and we were effective in conveying the story efficiently within the time limit and I feel that it flows well and has a decent pace to it for something that had to be ruthlessly cut down in editing. I like the fact that we don’t really know of see Dean properly until he is caught at the end and I particularly like the shot in which he is just a shadow on the wall. I think we could have done with a more dramatic end scene in which we see Dean being arrested by the police on the bonnet of the car as he looks up at amber or something like that. I personally think that we couldn’t fit enough footage into the time limit and that we didn’t have enough time to build up the characters much or convey enough background.

The process started with some group meetings in which we brought several ideas forward developed them together and then decided on the one we used, we came up with some ideas for scenes and particular shots, sent some inspirations over Facebook and developed it until we were ready to put a shot list, script and schedule together. We then started casting for the two roles. It took 2 days to film and then a day to re shoot everything we needed. The director, sound editor and I edited the project. A few things changed from the planning stages due to people being unavailable or we didn’t have enough cars to move all the equipment, or scenes were unnecessary and we couldn’t fit into the time limit. As we had transferred the footage to hard drive before importing it straight to final cut pro, we were then unable to import it to final cut pro due to a loss of metadata, so we had to edit the projects visuals on Sony Vegas, which I had never used before. The audio was edited on Pro Tools and imported into Sony Vegas later.

Over the course of this project I have learnt that if we are using Final Cut Pro, to log and transfer the footage directly from the camera immediately otherwise we will not be able to edit on that program and that’s a problem when it’s the only one available that you know how to use. I have learnt how to edit footage and basic sound on Sony Vegas as a result of this problem though. I have learnt how to colour correct shots to a fairly decent standard now and have also developed better timing in my cuts as to improve how it flows and experiment with pace in the film. This is the first time I have really experimented with foreshadowing in a film and I personally think that it worked well in this project. This was the first time that I have taken part in blocking out scenes prior to actually filming and created pre-arranged set up points for the camera positions, this is also the first time that I have actually cast people with acting experience before which was quite interesting.

As a team I think this group worked really well together, we have had absolutely no problems at all, everyone has got stuck in and has been really enthusiastic about it and has played their part well, everybody has done their own job well and has stuck to their roles, doing everything that was required to a decent standard. I’d like to think that my strengths in teamwork are in communicating, I always make sure that everyone is happy doing what they need to do and are comfortable, I’m usually pretty to the point but not so much that it makes people feel uncomfortable. My weaknesses in teamwork are usually trusting people to do a decent job but in this case that was not an issue, I think I could improve my teamwork skills by trusting people a bit more.