Lara McEvoy - 319311
Unit 13: Final Major Project
Practical and Technical Problems - 3.1
Practical and Technical problems typically occur during the pre-production and production stages of this project. Here I have detailed all of the problems I have encountered during these stages with timestamps/dates so that the order in which these problems occurred is clear and understandable.
Consent - Under 18's
The first problem I have ran into is consent as I am going to be working with people under the age of 18. Consent is key within any media production, however when working with children, it is even more important as you need to ensure that they understand what they are doing and that parents' consent to this. Below I have explored consent/working with children in more detail so I can understand what I need to do when working out consent.
Channel 4 rules
Channel 4 has 7 key points when it comes to filming with under 18’s. This can be seen in the image below.
Each of these points are vital and are going to be my guide for this research. This allows me to explore all areas of concern, and maybe look into the BBC guidelines as well if I don’t feel the channel 4 research is sufficient.
Care for under 18’s
Though parents may be happy for their child to take part in a programme, you must ensure that the under 18 is happy to do it so that they aren’t put at risk. It is important for me to understand that everyone has a different background and experiences so respecting these while filming is important to ensure they are comfortable. Along with this, everyone on the production needs to take ‘due care’ to protect the welfare of the under 18. There are three levels of care which need to be looked at, they are:
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1.The particular circumstances
2.The nature of the programme
3.The individual concerned
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With these points, while filming with under 18’s I need to ensure that their health, safety and wellbeing always comes first. The three points are ones which I would consider anyway when filming with anyone so I just need to make sure that I treat them with respect and ensure they are as safe as they can be.
Consent for under 18’s
When it comes to working with anyone under the age of 18, parental consent is typically needed. From Channel 4’s guidelines there are times where if the participant is 16 or over then they don’t need parental consent, but this is subject dependant. The consent for the child should be clearly displayed through a consent form which details what the child will be expected to do exactly. However, while you can write down what you expect the participant to do, as they are a child it may be necessary to think of an alternate way to word it so that it is more targeted towards them.
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As I am filming with people who are from local towns, I should follow the guidelines and only give their first name and a larger area that the under 18’s are from. This is to ensure their safety and so that anyone who watches it cannot find their exact location and where they live. With this I should be ensuring that the participants are currently okay to have their name and face shared on social media, so essentially, they are in a safe situation where participating won't put them in danger.
DBS checks
With working with children, the members of the production crew/team should be DBS checked. A DBS check (disclosure and barring service) is essentially a background check undertaken by the government to ensure that you have no past criminal convictions, meaning you are safe to work with children. In Unit 09, I ended up having to get a DBS check as I was filming with under 18’s at the same dance school that I am filming the documentary at, so this is definitely beneficial. The DBS check was done around 5 months ago so it as up to date as it could be, which for the documentary means I am okay to film.
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Also, Jon (one of my peers) is helping me with filming this, and luckily, he too has a DBS check, which Sally is aware of, meaning she is happy for him to be at the side of stage filming while there are under 18’s around.
Harvard Referencing
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www.bbc.com. (n.d.). Section 9: Children and Young People as Contributors - Guidelines. [online] Available at: https://www.bbc.com/editorialguidelines/guidelines/children-young-people/guidelines/.
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www.channel4.com. (n.d.). Filming with under-18s | Channel 4. [online] Available at: https://www.channel4.com/4compliance/compliance-guidelines/filming-under-18s#:~:text=There%20is%20an%20overriding%20duty [Accessed 5 Apr. 2024].
Seeing as I had undertaken research into consent and working with under 18’s I thought it would be a good idea to sort this out with Sally as I know she has concerns about this as well. This can be found in the next section.
Consent conversations with Sally Prout: 4/3/24 – 6/3/24
One of the main problems I had with this project so far is consent, not for the 3 pupils who are focused, but for the other pupils who are in the dances with the 3 pupils. This wasn’t a huge issue for me, but Sally was concerned about me filming everyone in the school/whoever’s involved in the show, so I had to make the decision to change my idea from filming the whole school to filming just the dances that the 3 pupils are in, so mainly the senior dances. Doing this does mean the documentary will be more focused on the pupils themselves rather than the show, but this is something I learnt from audience research. The first email I sent to Sally is me telling her who I want to focus on and what she wants to do in terms of consent.
In Sally’s reply she asked if I could produce a form/paragraph explaining why I would be filming these classes, which made sense to me because the parents need to understand why their child may potentially be in the documentary though they aren’t the main focus. I did this the next morning and sent it over to her. This can be seen in the image below.
With this Sally wasn’t 100% happy with how I worded it as it made it sound as though we needed the parents to reply by a certain date for the pupils to be filmed. Which for Sally would create a lot more admin work which she already has a lot to do because of the dance show, so she queried if I could re-word it so that it says if we don’t hear from them by a certain date then we will presume that they are happy for the student to be captured on film. With this I was unsure if I would be allowed to do this so had a chat with one of my lecturers Nigel and asked if this was okay/what should I do. He asked if parents have already given consent to be filmed by an external production company, which they have, so he explained that Sally is technically acting as Locus Parentis already so what I need to do is try and get Sally to sign a consent form saying that she is happy for them to be filmed, due to the parents already giving consent. The reworded email can be seen below.
From this Sally just asked me to let her know which groups to send it to and if it could be sent over as a word doc for her to attach. As I was unsure on which some of the main character dances are I said to Sally I would be led by her as I was so unsure. Both the message I sent and her reply can be seen below.
Sorting the consent here wasn’t the best as Sally was worried about the backlash on her if I were to film younger pupils, so I had to more so work with what she was wanting and figure out how to get consent for pupils other than the main 3 pupils. Luckily, I was able to sort some form of consent, not ideal but after speaking to the lecturer I know its okay and will work for what I am wanting to do. This problem was one which was harder to do as I wanted to make sure it was done right but ensure that it wasn’t too much hassle for Sally.
On the left is the email that Sally sent out to the parents. As you can see, she gave a brief overview of why I would be filming and that if the parent doesn’t wish for their child to be on camera, then they should let the school know no later than 22nd March. For me this is useful as if any parents have issues, I have said that they can contact me regarding questions, and Sally has asked for them to let her know if they do not want their child filmed. However, this isn’t likely to happen as parents have already given consent for another external production company to film it.
DJI Pocket 2 - 15/3/24
Typically, the DJI Pocket 2 is used by youtubers/content creators to make vlogs/travel videos with ease, however it can also be used for creating more professional work. I want to use this for my documentary as I feel it will be an easier way for me to get b-roll/actuality but there is some controversy around if it is able to create engaging videos for something so small.
I started out by searching up if the DJI Pocket 2 is good for creating documentaries and found a Reddit forum discussing its use. It started from someone posting on r/cinematography asking if ‘dji pocket 2 good because it has a gimbal and is in my budget’. From this they got a number of different responses stating that if they were going to be investing money into a camera then it would be worth buying a second-hand camera rather than the DJI Pocket 2. If I were in the position of the person who posted the question where I had no other alternative kit, then I would likely buy a second-hand camera but as I have access to both cameras and the DJI Pocket 2 I don’t feel this forum was very useful. It did inform me that this maybe isn’t the best option for the more cinematic elements, but this is something I will have to test out.
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​ I decided to test this out on Friday (15/3/24) just to see how the camera recorded and how customisable the settings really are. Initially I wasn’t sure how good the little screen was in terms of me seeing what I'm shooting so I went onto google and found a YouTube video (DJI Pocket 2 | How to use MIMO APP with DJI Pocket 2 – heliguy) of someone doing a review, in this they had an adaptor which allows you to connect your phone to it. This is something I thought would be very useful, so I went and asked the technician at college if we had an adaptor, and it turns out that we did. So, I popped this on and was able to connect my phone to the camera, giving me a better view of what the camera was capturing, and I could change the settings such as frame rate, quality etc. I then filmed a short video that can be seen below. I did this so I could see what the 1080p quality looked like, as well as hear the audio.
In the video I had to slightly alter the white balance in premier as before it looked quite yellow, but other than that quality wise, I think it looks ok. I don’t know what it is about the video, but it almost looks soft, not sure if that’s the best way to describe it, but it feels and looks soft to me. This is something I can test out next week (19/3/24), along with how good the audio recording really is. I recorded the video below when the room was fairly quiet so could the audio picked up was clear, however it is likely I would be filming in a noisy environment so I should try this out before going to the shoot.
Filming Days - 24/4/24
On Sunday I had a pretty big problem arise. I emailed Sally reminding her of the filming agreements we had made previously, and to check if this was still okay. From my end I hadn’t heard anything about this being an issue before this date (24/3/24) so sending the email for me was really just to make sure it was still okay and I could put Jon in the correct spots without him being in the way.
Shortly after I had sent the email, Sally responded but not with good news (shown in the image below).
Compared to our previous agreement, Sally responded asking me if I would be okay to just have Jon film the dress rehearsal and show 1 as she was concerned about him being in the way. I understand her concern but from my view, the wings are pretty spacious, and I had previously warned Jon to stay out of the way during scene changes. The way in which Sally has worded the email gave me the impression that there is no other option but to agree with her, also I know she is extremely stressed at the moment with the show and just wants it to run smoothly so I responded saying that this was okay.
Now this really isn’t okay for me because I was wanting to ensure I had footage from all the shows to cover a range of angles/perspectives giving me more footage to cut back to in the edit, also I was wanting Jon to be able to do side of stage interviews so that the audience could see the raw emotions there and then. However, as I would now only have one night of the show being filmed it meant that I now had to debate whether I just focused the documentary on the dress rehearsal and show 1or continue with my initial idea of following every show. Another thought that I had was that I could change the documentary to include myself, turn the camera on me.
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With the idea of turning the camera on myself, I had a lot of doubt that this would then feel too casual and more like a vlog rather than a documentary. I want this to feel like a documentary and a piece that has professional qualities in it so having myself in it would lead to it potentially feeling too much like a vlog which is what I want to avoid. I understand that this idea could be done well and still have a professional feel because the mode of documentary participatory does this. But as I discovered in my research for Unit 12, these commonly consist of a crew of more than 1 person, so for this style to work without it feeling like a YouTube vlog I would preferably have more than 1 crew. Along with this if I was doing this idea, it is something I would’ve liked to have had more than a few hours to think about it and decide if I do this or not.
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Going back to the idea of only doing the dress rehearsal and show 1, I think this is more doable, but the documentary would be very short if this was the case. To go with this, I would have to get interviews with the three people throughout the entirety of the show, when I am also in the show, which would be difficult to do. Generally, I don’t feel comfortable with shoving a camera in people faces when they are stressed so having to do this to the three people for 2 days is just something I wouldn’t be comfortable doing.
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So, because of these factors I decided to stick with my original idea but just have Jon film from the audience for the dress rehearsal and then the wings in show 1. The footage he gets would act as actuality and b-roll, and to narrate the documentary I will have to do interviews with the three in their own homes after the dance shows had taken place. This problem wasn’t something I had expected to run into as I thought Sally was okay with the agreements, we had made previously but the problem has been resolved and will hopefully allow me to still produce the documentary I originally intended to.
Not being able to present – 17/4/24
Unfortunately, a problem has arisen that didn’t think would happen, due to medical reasons there is a chance I may not be able to present my piece in person at the end of year show. This isn’t something I thought would happen however I had a call this morning where I was told the earliest date available for a procedure, I need is the 14th May, the day before the end of year show. For this procedure I am going to be going under local anaesthetic and as we don’t know the time for it there’s a chance, I will still be not with it 100% for the show. Because of this I now have the problem of do I say I'm okay to present it in person and hope for the best or I pre-record my introduction/presentation part. This isn’t something I want to do as I would much rather stand up and present it in person, almost makes it feel like there’s not much point in participating in the show, but I know I need to just means I’ll have less to do on the night.
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On the plus side, it makes my life easier and less stressful as I don’t have to worry about me feeling ill on the day, I can just take my time. As long as I am okay to put together the sweet bags for the refreshment table it will all be okay. So, while this wasn’t a problem I expected to encounter, I have been able to resolve this quite easily, my video introduction is shown below (filmed on 8/5/24).
DVD’s as archive - 23/4/24
For my documentary I am wanting to use archive footage from one of the old dance shows, but this is on a DVD. As it is on a DVD, I need a way to extract it off and onto my SSD, but I wasn’t sure how to do this as I don’t have a PC available to me with a CD port. So, in order to overcome this issue, I went and spoke to Ash (the media technician) and asked if he knew a way for me to put it on my SSD and he did. Ash said that he could use the Mac in the gallery to put the DVD in and pop it onto my SSD. From this, I gave him the DVD and he just said ‘leave it with me’ so I left him to it. While I wish he would have let me see what he was doing, I knew he was busy and preferred to be left alone while it downloaded.
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Once it had downloaded onto the Mac, Ash came and found me, and we put it onto my SSD. This meant I could then put it into premiere pro and find the footage I was looking for. Below is an image of what it looked like in the premiere pro timeline, which allowed me to then find the set areas of footage I wanted. This problem was a smaller issue and solved quite quickly with a simple solution.
Blurring the children's faces - 1/5/24
In the documentary, one of the clips I have used within the edit features some of the younger pupils at the dance school, but these pupils haven’t given me consent to be in my documentary. Now this is something I realised earlier on in the edit but because I wanted to push on with adding the b-roll I pushed past it, so now I have done that I have the time to add in the blur. Adding in a blur over their faces just means I am being safe and respecting that they didn’t give consent, so hiding their identity. While this is only the backs of their heads, at some points they do move around so the side of their faces can be seen, so this is just the safest option.
To do this I used the Gaussian Blur effect, with a circular mask rather than a drawn one. Once I had added in the initial circle, I turned the blurriness up to 37 as this was enough to hide their faces, but not too much that it distorts them completely
After establishing the blur level, I then used the play button to have Premiere Pro to generate the tracking for this. But as expected, it wasn’t 100% accurate, so I went through and changed the tracking to ensure that the faces were covered. This did include adding in a second blur as on the right side, one of the children’s faces pokes out, so I followed the same trail as before.
With the two on the left, I had to create individual masks for them as both moved up and down a lot more than the other three. This was a lot more difficult to do but because I followed the same trail it was easy enough to do, and not take up too much time.
Mask 1
Mask 2
Creating the blur was a lot easier than I thought and works as intended. As much as I love the shot without the blur, I understand that this is needed due to no consent being given for them. The blur acts as barrier for them, showing that they are there but they are unable to be identified, which is needed for this scenario. How effective this is can be seen below, the image to the left is the before and the right is after. I had worried that this bur would distract from Ella, as she is the main focus, but watching it through and looking at the images, I am confident that it doesn’t distract from Ella and keeps the audience engaged.
Before
