Problems after filming...

On Wednesday 19th November I went to film the bands rehearsal in a studio in Waterloo.

Now that I have uploaded my footage onto a computer, I found several problems which I had been unaware of when I was filming.

When filming the rehearsal, I had first thought that I would film specific parts of them rehearsing songs... (beg, middle, end) but when it came to it I found that it was easier to just record everything that they did, because it meant that I could get as much footage of different things as possible, and I also got some footage of their conversations in between rehearsing songs.


A problem that I had was that after I uploaded my footage to the computer, was that the volume was quite low, even though we'd used a microphone to capture the interview.
Hopefully I will be able to sort this out, even if it's just by lowering the level of sound in the rehearsal scenes so that the sound will be equal throughout.

I also found that, although the camera viewfinder showed my interview as being well-framed, that once I had uploaded it to the computer, the frame was slightly larger... which means that the microphone is slightly visible at the top of the interview... I don't know I'll do about that yet...


FILMING-

Outside sign of rehearsal studio-





Shot of corridor outside the room-




Interview scene (with microphone at the top..)

Filming.

Last night I went to do my filming for my documentary.
I used two cameras, and two tapes so I now have 2 hours of film...

The main things which I filmed were interviews of the band, and the band rehearsing.
I also filmed some of the street outside, and an alley way leading up to the rehearsal studio which was covered in graffiti.

During filming I found out that documentaries can't be planned at all (well the plans can't be relied on) because it relies so much on the events at the time.

For example, having never met the band a as a whole before, I had planned to interview all the members seperately, and make the main focus of the documentary the interviews, with small intercutting of the rehearsing scenes.
However, when I went to film I found that the band interracting much better all together, so I ended up filming them all together... This was a good change because it allowed a bit of humour from the band members, however it also means that I might now have to change the focus of my documentary from interview- based, to an even mix of rehearsing/ interview because the same 4 people talking for 3-5 minutes almost continuously might get boring...

PLANNING

Before I began filming, I finished my planning, and made storyboards for my documentary.
I also tried to look for a song which I could use on/off throughout my documentary.
But during this planning I found out that trying to plan every single detail wasn't going to work because I didn't know what the participants of my documentary would say.


The people in my documentary are the members of my dad's band (which is called "The Bottle Brunettes") Originally I thought that there woulod be 3 members of the band, so my plans and storyboards and planning for 3 people. But then I found out that they got a new member of the band so thought I might need to re-do my plans... but then I didn't because i knew that my new plans might need to change as well.
The three members of the band who I'd planned for are- Rachel (who played a guitar) Stephen (my dad- who played the drums) and Paul (who calls himself Poncho and did singing)
There is also now a new member called Innigo who played the bass.

NEW PLAN! (again...)

Ok so basically I've changed my whole plan.

I'd planned to do a documentary on mental health. But it was really just not happening. I didn't have a subject to focus on, and then subject of mental health is really broad and I didn't have any specific ideas, I kept thinking I could come up with it later...

So I'm now going to do a documentary on my dads band.

I think this is a better choice because 1. it means that I have an actual subject, and people to focus on, 2. it's less serious, I think that mental health was maybe too serious and sensitive for me to have been successful with it, and 3. this idea isn't stressing me out like the old one was...


So now I'm redoing my audience research to include some more specific questions on my new subject (music...)
But most of my institutional research can stay the same because I did most of my research on Channel 4 and a production company called Betty TV, which is still valid with my new plan!

Institutional Research.

PRODUCTION COMPANIES

In my Institutional Research I found out about a production company called 'Betty TV' (http://www.betty.co.uk/flash.php). I think I will produce my documentary to be targetted for this company. 'Betty TV' has produced documentaries for BBC and Channel 4, as well as others. It also appears to have already been involved in a number of documentaries which are similar, either in style or themes, to what I am intending to create for my documentary- such as Freaky Eaters 2, and Spendaholics.

Through doing this part of my Institutional Research I have found that every production company has a very individual style to its creations, I also found that the style of documentaries made/ involved with 'Betty TV' is similar to what I'm aiming for.


CHANNELS

I also did some research into what TV channel I could aim to create my documentary 'for'.
I found that 4 (Channel 4, E4, More4, Film4 etc..) as a company shows the greatest number of documentaries on similar themes to my own idea (mental health awareness).
Recently, 4 has shown documentaries such as True Stories: The Bridge, as well as the Bodyshock and Dispatches series.

http://www.channel4.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channel_4

I also looked into the BBC because I had previously seen their documentary The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive, whilst doing Product Research. However I found that the BBC, whilst showing about the same amount of documentaries on relevant topics, that the style of BBC documentaries tended to be much more 'serious', and more reliant on location and presenter, and I'm not sure that this is an effect I could achieve myself...

Whereas the style of Channel 4's documetaries (in a generalised way!) seems to be, not less serious, but more of a accesible style, and seems to rely more on speaking... which, would also be difficult, but I think that it might be be easier for me to create a realistic looking documentary by following this style.

Product Research...

In my product research I watched several documentaries related somehow to mental health or other things around it...

The main documentary that I watched was The Secret Life of a Manic Depressive, which was a BBC documentary made by, and featuring Stephen Fry, about life with Bipolar Disorder.
I also watched True Stories: The Bridge, on More4 which was about suicides from the Golden Gate Bridge. And a low- budget internet film called True Sancturies.

From these I found some conventions of documentaries focusing on mental health. I found out that there is generally very little music used, or if there is, it tends to be quite quiet and slow- piano or violin-y. I also found that a general convention is that there tends to be a lot of extreme long shots over a explaining voiceover at the start and that the title doesn't come up until a couple of minutes into it.

After doing my Product Research, I found that most full-length documentaries on the subject of mental health are really really serious, and tend to have a lot of first hand accounts of people with mental health issues. So I'm thinking that I might do the whole of a short 3-5 minute documentary, rather than a section of a long one. I also won't be able to get any first hand opinions from people, except for a doctor, but not from any one with a mental health issue. So I'm going to focus on young people's opinions on it. I think by doing this then I might be able to make it more suitable for my target audience (13-21) and by doing this I might also not have to make it so formal and serious, which I might not be able to achieve properly.


NOTES ON DOCUMENTARIES.

1. THE SECRET LIFE OF A MANIC DEPRESSIVE (BBC)
SOUND-
* Music- correlates with mood being described at the time- when discussing mania- lively, upbeat, repetitive. vs. slow, quiet calm piano/violin music to represent depression.
*Voiceover- Stephen Fry- also maker (?)- recognised face/ voice + upper middle class voice.

NARRATIVE STYLE-
* Stephen Fry talks to camera and does voiceover- makes presenter and subject and voiceover.

SHOTS-
* Long shots- orientating (eg. Hollywood sign, beach, boat, private school... etc.).
* Close ups of Stephen Fry to explain importance of place/ person...
= orientation + explanation

TITLES-
* No official opening credits.
* Name of documentary comes up after about 4 minutes- over camera shots of a plain room- but not plain black background.

2. True Stories: The Bridge (More4)
SOUND-
* Little Music- slow & calm- but mostly silent (music-wise). Lot's of completely silent times.
* Voiceover to explain backstories of what interviewees didn't elaborate on- aka. where they were, when.. etc. Also voiceover says some facts about the Golden Gate Bridge- what it's made of etc. Voiceover- upper middle class male- very formal.

NARRATIVE STYLE-
* Little said by voiceover/ narrator- stories mostly led by interviewees.
* Narraot used to complete stories and make them understandable- simple but formal language.

SHOTS-
* Mid-shots, still camera on people being interviewed- simple camera shots- no distractions from what they're saying.
* Shots of Bridge- extreme long shots or moving point of view shots (often from cars) - put in perspective the setting that's being discussed- shows height of bridge etc..


OPENING TITLES-
* Black background, very long, silemt/ almost silent. Very calm and sombre.

LOCATIONS/ SET-UPS-
* Natural lonely environments in some interviews- contrasts with half- reconstructed wind-surfing, lifeboats etc... ('danger' shots) shows how dangerous/ normal the situation is- audience get to know the area by the end.

3. TRUE SANCTURIES (Un-offical- never distrubuted)
SOUND-
* No music- background noise- cars etc.- natural (but also- documentary not made by an offical production company- low budget- low production values???)
*Voice-over- woman talking- explaining what camera is showing as it goes (aka. different mental institutions). Ordinary woman- quite informal & relaxed.

NARRATIVE STYLE-
* Entirely explained by woman- documentary subject (& possibly creator???)

SHOT-
*Mid/ close ups of woman/ long shots of places she's discussing- hand held camera. Woman explains as camera shows what she's discussing.

TITLES-
* Background info at start- no credits- balc background + white text.
* Ending- balck background + white text again- simple end credits. Silence. Very few names- small production.

EDITING-
* Little editing- correlation between what woman is talking about & where she is- long shot of places she discusses- CONTEXT!!

LOCATIONS/ SET-UPS-
* Nothing staged. No reconstructions.
* Locations- valid areas to story. Where she is discussing- psychiatric hospitals.

Audience Research...

Last week I did my audience research, I did a questionnaire asking mostly about TV watching habits, and any knowledge people had on mental health issues.
The main things that I found out from my audience research was that E4 was the most commonly watched TV Channel, between 6pm and 9pm. I also found out that of my target audience (male and female, 11-19) more people have known someone, or themselves, with a mental health issue than I'd thought. (9/17 people)
Overall I mostly found out that generally, people in my target audience don't know that much about mental health (or physical health) and most people said that they would want to...

After doing my questionnaire I realised that I should have asked more in detail questions about documentary styles- voiceover/narrator, reconstructions, music etc..
So I might do a focus group later on if I find that I need to find out more in-depth documentary information...


AUDIENCE RESEARCH RESULTS

1. Age-
- 11 (1)
11-15 (3)
16-19 (8)
20-25 (1)
26-35 (1)
36+ (3)

2. Gender-
Male (3)
Female (14)

3. Which of the following TV Channels do you watch most frequently?
BBC (7)
ITV (1)
Channel 4 (8)
Five (2)
E4 (11)
Sky 1 (0)
More 4 (1)
Film 4 (5)
Sky Movies (2)
Sports Channels (1)
Child’s Channels (1)
Music Channels (2)

4. What time do you tend to watch the most TV?
7am- 9am (2)
9am- 3-pm (0)
3pm- 6pm (3)
6pm- 9pm (11)
9pm- 12am (5)
12am- 7am (0)

5. What genre(s) of TV programmes interest you the most?
Reality (1)
Soaps (9)
Drama (4)
Comedy (11)
Cartoons (2)
Documentary (4)
Sports (3)
Period Dramas (0)
Other (0)

6. How often do you watch documentaries?
Once a day + (0)
Once a week (3)
Once a month (6)
- Once a month (8)

7. Which of the following would interest you in watching a documentary?
Topic (9)
Narrator/Subjects(6)
Convenience (5)
Producer (0)
Broadcaster (1)
Part of a Series(4)
Other (0)



8. How much do you feel you know about mental health issues?

A lot (4)
A bit (7)
Nothing (6)

9. How much do you feel you know about physical health issues?

A lot (6)
A bit (7)
Nothing (4)

10. Are you interested in learning more about mental health issues?

Yes (11)
No (6)




GRAPHS-



1. AGE







2. GENDER







3. MOST FREQUENTLY WATCHED CHANNELS







4. TIME OF TV WATCHING







5. GENRE OF TV PROGRAMMES







6. HOW OFTEN DOCUMENTARIES ARE WATCHED







7. WHAT MAKES A DOCUMENTARY GET WATCHED







8. MENTAL HEALTH KNOWLEDGE







9. PHYSICAL HEALTH KNOWLEDGE







10. INTEREST IN MENTAL HEALTH MORE

New plan...!

I've been thinking that perhaps the image and the media might be 1. a bit vague, 2. a bit overdone and 3. a bit rubbish.So I'm thinking I might try and do a more serious look at mental health in general and what people do (or don't) know about it. But then I think this has lots of problems as well because 1. it might be too serious and 2. I don't know if people would talk about it. But then I'm also thinking I could focus it more on how it's represented in the media really badly and people (including me..) don't really know anything about mental health things.

Yeah so basically I have no idea what to do.

First plan!

I maybe want to do a documentary about the media and image and peoples real views on it.
Or maybe a music video.. but that might be more complex...