Lara McEvoy - 319311
Unit 13: Final Major Project
Creative Pre-Production - 4.1
Creative pre-production is focused on the more creative areas, as the name suggests, such as scripts and storyboards. As I am producing an observational documentary the pre-production for this is more difficult to do, due to my lack of knowledge of what will be happening. I understand how the filming days will run; however, I am unable to predict the events that will unfold. From this below is me creative pre-production but it may not be 100% accurate to the final video, as explained above.
Concept Outline
(19/3/24)
With the structure of the documentary I was really struggling to picture how it would flow, so I spoke to one of my lectures about this and he suggested creating a concept outline. A concept outline is where you note down what’s going to happen with rough timestamps/scales so that I can better understand the structure of the documentary. This can be seen below.
From creating this I feel as though it has helped me to slightly understand the concept of the documentary more. Though I will say I am still unsure on whether I should use in home interviews, as I practiced within the production research stage, just because I don’t know how much I can film while at the theatre. This is something I will have to work out after I have completed the filming at the theatre over the show days.
Documentary Script
(18/3/24 - 22/3/24)
After creating the concept outline, I tried to work on the script again as it was the reason why a concept outline was created in the first place. The documentary script is shown within the section below.
When writing the script, I figured out that the script for the dress rehearsal day is the same layout as the next few days, so I made the decision to not write up 3 other scripts which would essentially just have the exact same structure. As I am unsure on the complete structure, the script may not conform to what’s actually filmed so this may not be entirely accurate to what is produced in the final product.
Storyboards
(12/3/24 - 13/3/24)
When it came to storyboards, I was unsure on whether these would be useful but as I thought this was a piece of creative pre-production that was required, I made a start on them. These are more useful in the post-production stage as I can reference them to see where certain shots go. But as I mentioned in the introduction to the page, I don’t know the exact content/footage I will be able to film so the shots in the storyboards are just rough ideas.
The completed storyboards can be seen below. In this I have drawn what I think the shot will be like and written descriptions of what’s happening in each shot. Writing the description helps those looking, and myself, better understand what the shot is and what’s happening within it.
While I was creating the storyboards, I was told by one of my lectures that with a documentary the storyboards aren’t necessarily needed but they are more focused on the shot ideas you could use. So as a result of being told this, as mentioned in my journal (13/3/24), I decided to stop the storyboards there as they weren’t helping much, and I was struggling to figure out the structure.
Questions for Interview's
(02/04/24)
Seeing as I made the decision to do the interviews, I needed to now think of the questions I could ask to help structure the documentary. Again, this is something that I was struggling with, despite having filmed the bits at the theatre, I just felt everything that I thought of didn’t make sense and would create a boring documentary. So, I had some help from a peer with what questions I could ask and I was able to work out an order of questions and to see how the documentary would flow.
Lower Thirds - Previsualization
One of the more technical elements of a documentary is the graphics, and for me specifically, the lower thirds. Lower thirds are a convention used within documentaries to give the audience and understanding of who’s talking in an interview. Typically, these will include the interviewees name, age and job role, but for mine I will be detailing their name and role in the show. Including just their name and role means that the audience can understand who and link is who they are seeing in b-roll to the voices being heard. Below I have explored a couple of different options for lower thirds that I could use.
Before being able to create the lower thirds, I needed a font to use. For this I went onto DaFonts.com and searched for calligraphy fonts because this is the style of text that I want featured in the documentary, specifically the lower thirds and potentially intro sequence. I was able to find a font called ‘Hello Valentica’ which I think will work. I feel it will work as it is readable but still looks aesthetically pleasing to the eye.
Once I had found a font, I liked I went into premier pro and started to think of ideas. When I put the writing onto the blank screen, I found just the solid colour wasn’t enough or readable/clear enough for me to read. So, I added in a background which created a while outline around the words, making it stound out more.
The first idea I had was to have the lower third go on like a sticker, because that’s how I think the lower third feels. The video on the right shows the idea in action, and to be honest, I don’t like it at all. It just doesn’t feel right, and I don’t feel that it will fit the aesthetic I am wanting to go for. So, I am going to say that this idea is now completely off the table.
Idea two was a lot simpler, just to have it fade in. While this is simple, I feel it will work a lot better than the sticker coming in idea. When it comes to post-production I may change my mind, but for now I am happy with this previsualization and think it will work best.