IF ONLY YOU KNEW from SHU Film & Media Production on Vimeo.

Creative Project Development and Realisation evaluation

In comparison to the short films I have made over this year the drama film was probably the hardest and most complex, however it was quite a good experience overall. The beginning process is always something I enjoy in terms of developing new ideas and themes we could experiment with as a team, also as it was a drama there was obviously a lot more planning on the technical and visual approach which I also enjoyed as I felt we had a lot more freedom as I prefer drama to documentary. It was really helpful getting ideas from other people outside our team as during the read through session at the beginning of the process we gathered some great ideas that helped us develop our story. Also as a team we had a few different members which brought us a lot of new ideas as some of us had never worked together before. As I felt comfortable with camera me and another team member were initially both on cinematography, however later in the process I changed to writer and co-cinematographer. Although I only helped slightly we both brainstormed together and got some great ideas for shots and styles that inspired us, for me specifically it was This Is England (2010-2015, Shane Meadows. UK: Film4 Productions.) and Luther (2010-2015, Multiple directors. UK: BBC Drama Productions) which are both its gritty british TV shows that have over the seasons always maintained their own individual camera style that compliments the narrative excellently, they are also some of my favourite shows in terms of character, narrative and style which is why I thought our drama would work well using them for inspiration. During the filming process we generally worked quite well as a team, apart from one member that did not contribute in any way and was not present for our shoots, there were no major issues that we face and minor issues we worked out very quickly and resolved fairly easily as everyone had the same goal in mind and wanted to produce the best piece of work that we could. We were also very fortunate that one of our team members had a house where we could shoot some of the scenes as a house was one of our locations and student accommodation couldn't be used, although we ended up using a kitchen space from one of our accommodations as we had to at last minute change the story around. Initially we were filming the main body of the film in the house and then some shots outside, as the house scene was very dialogue heavy we relied on the sound recordings however our sound recordist accidentally recorded the dialogue too low so it was unusable. Due to this we had very little time to change the story however we worked through it together and managed to work around the situation to finish the film. Throughout the whole process I have learnt to make a little more time for shooting and editing and to thoroughly check everything through after a shoot day to make sure we are not missing anything. Over this entire module I have learnt many things and developed my skills in areas where I work best, along with my overall filmmaking skills and the quality of work that had been produced. At the beginning of the year our first task was a 3 minute sound piece in pairs using brief topic “sense of space”, as this was the first task and I had only had experience in film studies and a little bit of editing it was quite hard knowing how to approach the subject. The end result wasn’t the best piece of work but it formed the basis of our next task which was an experimental film using only the sound piece and no other recording, so this meant we already had a ‘storyline’ to go from which did help a little. For the experimental film I did almost all of the editing and I quite enjoyed it, editing is something I would like to pick back up in year 2 as for the next two tasks I did cinematography and producing and editing is something I really enjoy. Planning for the experimental was quite hard as well as it was such an open opportunity to ‘experiment’ with different camera techniques and narrative techniques and make something really interesting; and looking back on it I feel I could have pushed myself even more and have the confidence to produce something uniques as I felt our finished product wasn’t developed enough. One reason for this was that I found it quite hard to work with my assigned partner in terms of filming as well as organising planning and ideas, also as this was only the second task I wasn't quite as comfortable with my partner as I was with other people in other tasks. The short documentary task however was something I really enjoyed as although I generally prefer doing drama I had a really good group and our idea was something new and hadn't really been done before. We had to base the documentary around Sheffield so we decided to make it about Sheffield students and how the lack of sleep effects them in their life and their work; and overall the final product was personally one of my better pieces of work. As well as the initial idea process I was producer for this project as well as helping with ideas for cinematography as that is again one of the areas I enjoy doing most. The filming process was quite straightforward, we didn't run into many problems and as a group we worked very hard to get the final product finished. There is of course a lot more I can do and hope to do to improve my skills in cinematography as well as further improving my editing skills, although having only ever doing high level photography work in the past I am happy with the progress and work I have made over this module.

If Only You Knew - final presentation

Edit progress - If Only You Knew

During the edit session in which we showed our rough cuts there were still shots that we needed to get as well as some colour correcting to the footage we had already shot. The footage from one of our scenes was very orange and need adjusting, also the recording for the scenes, when listening back to them, were extremely low causing us to change up the idea of the film as it was very dialogue heavy. Pretty much all of the dialogue from that scene was unusable so after listening to feedback we all decided it was the best idea to change around the film, luckily we hadn't shot everything we planned to at that point in time so it wasn't too much of a hassle to turn it around however we only had a few days. As a group we brainstormed ideas and eventually came up with a way to alter the film in the space of time we had, listening to feedback really helped us spark some ideas as well as keep things positive whilst looking for ways to work around a problem we had. That was one of the main things we acknowledged from our progress because as a team we worked well in that moment, on top of other work and stresses, to keep looking for ways to improve rather than give up.

Planning and shooting - If Only You Knew

If Only You Knew - script

Technical/aesthetic approach to drama short film

In the read through workshop we read through an unfinished script for our film to gather general ideas and questions from our peers. As a group we had a very minimal script consisting of some of the main pieces of dialogue in our short drama, these were to be edited and adjusted later as well. From listening to advice it gave us a lot of opportunities to change around the story to help with pacing and the time frame we had, the theme of stalking was still our main idea however after the read through some characters and areas of the plot changed. This then allowed us to start brainstorming our technical/aesthetic approach to our short drama due to the new ideas we had developed, as I was originally doing camera as well as another member of the crew we wrote down ideas on shots and styles we like and would apply to the film. For me I took inspiration from things such as This is England (TV series) and Luther (TV series) which are unite gritty british shows that have a very unique style throughout that really emphasises and compliments the narrative, so this is why I mainly focussed on those two references to see how I could apply it to our film.

About a girl - directed by Brian Percival

About a girl is a short drama that focuses on a young teenage girl, bringing in aspects of her family and friends however mainly focusing on her. The themes throughout this film including family relationships, belonging whether it be were she wants to/needs to live and loneliness as we can see from when she speeds time with her dad, although she seems fine with her friends and has two parents it seems that she is distanced from them even whilst being around them. The film consists of the girl delivering a monologue directly to the camera/audience cut together with relating scenes between her family/friends. At the beginning we get an almost lighthearted feel from film due to the comical way in which she delivers her comments, but in the shots where she isn't speaking you see the reality of her life. For example she wishes to go live with her dad, explains how the family aren’t too well off financially etc. however as she is just a kid she tells us in a way that isn't as serious and provokes the occasional laugh from the way she delivers it. The director has used the perfect amount of each to show you her perspective and the reality which is slightly different. I think the director used this approach to ease us in in order for the plot twist revealed at the end of the film.

Sleepless in Sheffield - A short documentary from Tom Le Surf-Hall on Vimeo.

Sleepless in Sheffield - final presentation

Sleepless in Sheffield - Log sheet

Log sheet:

• Time lapse – the evening sky outside of University, the daytime sky outside of University 
• Establishing Shot – Busy midday outside of City Campus, the hill and city lights at night time
• Close Ups – hands typing on keyboard, reading a library book by the shelves, writing in a notebook, Tom sipping coffee (pull focus has been used in most of these)
• Mid Shots – for each interviewee 
• Vlog Shots – taken by Tom of himself
• Extreme Close Up Shots – words in dictionary 
• ‘Jib’ Shot, high angle, panning across Tom’s body – green screen shot 

Edit progress and feedback

The feedback we received for our first rough cut was very helpful in order for us to progress with our documentary, we were at that point only half way through editing so there were a few adjustments and improvements to be made. As we wanted our documentary focused around students specifically and the effects of sleep on them, we gathered a lot of research on the subject as well as including students in the footage when we could. However Tom was our subject who we put to the test so it was suggested that we focus more on him and specifically his experience to make it that bit more personal. One specific aspect that we wanted to experiment with was green screen, specifically a shot of tom laying down with the camera at a birds eye view angle, in order to do this we needed to use a piece of equipment that we hadn't used before called the ‘jib’. We received help and guidance in order to use the equipment effectively and it worked quite well. Also we waned to get an interview with a specialist who specialised in sleep and/or student health in order for us to have professional input and to give it more authenticity, this was a little difficult however so we were given some tips on how to contact someone to help us. 

Sound recording session

Sync sound allows you to record sound simultaneously with recording video, Lavalier microphones are something that we experimented with and learnt more about in our sound session. They are especially useful and mostly used for interview purposes as they are quite small making them easier to conceal than ordinary microphones. However despite this there can sometimes be trouble with sound coming from the interference of clothing traveling up the wires, this can be avoided with a few tricks. Tieing the wire in a loop helps to help create strain relief so that noise cant travel up the wire in to the microphone, also gaffer tape is the best way to stick the wire down to clothing or the skin without it leaving a residue or causing pain when peeling off.The microphones are quite small as it is however there are some good techniques used in order to conceal them under clothes, for example behind the tie, under the collar etc., in terms of using this in our documentary it will be very useful as we are hoping to film some student interviews along with an interview with a sleep specialist to help back up the points in our interview with a professional source.

Documentary style research

My Beautiful Broken Brain (Directed by Sophie Robinson and Lotje Sodderland,2014)

• Begins with David Lynch quote
• also begins quite disorientating visually
• In and out of focus, mostly out of focus/ fuzzy
• cloud shots, city time-lapse..
• words on screen, no voices as of yet
• lots of handheld continuously (walking through park, streets, into cafe..) very point of view
• Still haven't been introduced to main ‘character’/ person of interest until about 10 minutes in 
• First introduction of main woman Lotje Sodderland (co-director) is blog footage at hospital
• close ups of medical reports/hospital records 
• First interview with Lotje starts normal, sound then distorts and echoes  
• Vlog footage dominates a lot of the documentary, mixed with family/friends interviews
• quite a few P.O.V shots 
• minimal added soundtrack throughout, quiet almost relaxing and dreamlike background sounds
• some sharp cuts from blog footage, P.O.V shots walking and interview footage with added distortion from editing (over saturation, colours heightened…)

Timelapse shot

Lotje's first appearance in vlog format

overhead shot of Lotje re-practicing spelling

one of the over saturated shots, a technique used a lot throughout

Grizzly Man (Directed by Werner Herzog 2005)

• Narration throughout entire documentary
• heavy use of Timothy Treadwell’s actual footage living amongst wild grizzly bears
• family/friends/doctor interviews
• increased immersion and sense of reality due to real footage
• no happy outcome as audience is aware of Timothy’s death prior to documentary
• Herzog likes to leave the camera rolling after finished interviews in an attempt to capture more authentic actions  
  
  Timothy Tredwell's own recorded footage
  
  
  
  Director Herzog and friend of Treadwell listen to the audio recorded from Treadwell's camera during the fatal bear attack

Gimme Shelter (Directed by the Maysles brothers, 1970)

• Handheld ‘fly the wall’ tactic (wild horses scene) in studio with band members and others, as if audience was there with them
• Stones re-watching documentary scenes with directors, allows the audience to re-watch certain events creating a further understanding (e,g Altamont stabbing scene)
• lengthy concert videos footage of the Stones
• lots of close ups
• no voiceover (reinforcing ‘fly on the wall technique, just filming them and their audiences as if the cameras aren't there 
• not a lot of interaction with the Stones and the camera
• footage of other interviews but not specific for the documentary (press interviews etc.)
• lots of stand alone footage (especially in Altamont scenes) basically letting the camera sit there and capture anything

Mick Jagger on stage performing

Press interview with the Stones

Mick Jagger in the studio listening back to their song 'Wild Horses'

Footage in the studio being watched by the Stones, directors and other crew

Sleepless in Sheffield - storyboard

Filming Process - Sleepless in Sheffield

Here is some evidence of a small portion of the filming process for our documentary. At this point we were gathering some establishing shots from our shot list before we gathered our main bits of footage, them being the vlogs from the star of our documentary Tom as well as interviews with students and a sleep specialist.

Sleepless in Sheffield - short documentary planning

Sleepless in Sheffield - short documentary

Roles

Camera - Giovanna

Director/ Star - Tom

Producer - Jodie

Sound - George

Editing - Hannah

Shot list

• Timelapse (midday, afternoon to evening)
• side on shot of science book/pictures of brain *experiment with focus*
• Walk through uni 
• walk outside uni (hallam hill, near entrance)
• Interview (students, possibly health specialist)
• Vlog (Toms bedroom, his experience, check ins throughout process)
• Green screen + text information
• Clouds (timelapsed if wanted)
• through window/ walking towards window (vlog style or handheld)
• high angle shot Tom doing brain activities/word games after no sleep
• students working (in library, cafe..) (try capture people looking tired)
• slider running past bookshelves (possibly)
• close up shot of dictionary/ online definitions of key words (sleep, brain….)

Equipment list

• XF100 camera
• tripod
• steady cam rig (possibly)
• zoom

Pockets directed by James Lee - short documentary

The short documentary Pockets directed by James Lees is an abstract piece based purely around what members of the public obtain in their pockets, the subject matter hasn't been broadcast before (in my knowledge) so therefore it is a very fresh and new concept in trams of documentary style. This documentary deals with themes of identity and personality focussing directly on each individual person and reaching into their pockets which, in ordinary circumstances, would not be allowed. Along with their possessions the director decides to show their faces, some speak, a small amount only show their hands filled with their pocketed possessions. Throughout this the director likes to experiment with varying camera angles an occasionally experimenting with going in and out of focus, a close up on the individuals hands is used continuously however he also likes to use close ups, extreme close ups and slightly off angle shots of faces in order to obtain the interest of the viewers so that the content isn't all the same. There are no introductions to these people however, we are just presented with them, what they have in their pockets and sometimes they will describe what it is and where it came from, however this is not necessarily a bad thing as it allows us to merrily focus on the basis of this story which is what do people carry in their pockets?