Lara McEvoy - 319311
Unit 13: Final Major Project
week 4: 26/2/24 - 1/3/24
To start the week off I went back over, checking to see what work I had done and what was in need to be completed. From this I realised that the journal for week 3 was needing to be finished, as well as the research I had started into interview styles. With the interview styles research, I have been slightly conflicted on where I should place it within the research section as it falls into 2 categories, both content research and production research. For now, I have placed this in the content research section as I feel that looking into the interview styles is informing my content on what style I should use in my documentary. Along with this, I found that though there are a lot of different interview styles I really like one which I couldn’t find in research, but I think this is due to the setup of the interview rather than the actual style. This is the interview style/setup used in the Netflix docuseries Cheer, this research can be found by clicking here! As I mentioned, I think I’m more interested in the stylistic aspect of it rather than actual style itself. So, this is something that I would like to look into more through the practical element of research.
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When Wednesday came around, I realized that I had made little progress with any work. I feel as though at this point because its research I have little motivation to do it, so procrastinate and then the work piles up. In all honesty, on Wednesday I got literally no work done because I was just so unmotivated to work, this was mainly due to the procrastination but also looking at my peer’s work stressed me out. Through glancing at their screen and watching them work I just kept on thinking about how ahead of me they are and how organised their work is, making me doubt if my work is good enough and if I have done enough. This is something which bothers me a lot as I let it get to me even when I know for a fact that my work is enough.
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As a result of this little meltdown on Wednesday, it just meant that Thursday I needed to work as hard as I could to catch up. So, to do this, I made the decision to work from home as I find that it is a less stressful environment for me to work in and there are less distractions. Along with this I cannot look at anyone else’s work, only my own, meaning I stop comparing my work to others and getting stressed out for no reason at all. Through making this decision I found I was able to catch up with my work, completing the interview styles and looking into a second existing examples, which is mentioned above. This meant that I completed the content research section, for now, and can move onto the production practice and audience research Friday.
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On Thursday I was thinking about the structure of the documentary and realised I really have no set idea of how I want to structure this. At the moment I have come to the realisation that I need to use the dance show as a guide rather than the narrative, I should focus more on the pupils I want to work with and learn their story from starting at the dance school to where they are now, where they are going next how it has helped them etc. obviously incorporate elements of the dance show in it as it acts as a guide but if they have more to say then work around that. Now that I am writing this, once again I am unsure on how the structure of this will work overall but this is something I am conflicted about so need to figure this out.
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Friday felt a bit like Wednesday if I’m honest. I started it off by looking into three-point lighting, as there was a group of us wanting to use the studio to practice lighting and interview setup, which was really useful to do. As the studio was booked for 10:15 I didn’t have that long to get the research done, but luckily, I already knew the basics so didn’t have to look too much further into it.
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When we got into the studio, as a group, we made the decision to set up a standard two camera, 3-point lighting interview setup.
The image on the right is the original 3-point lighting, two camera interview setups that we used. This setup was for us to practice lighting, figure out how to change the mood with lighting and how to set up the shots correctly. Doing this made me realise that for my interviews I don’t want it to be such a formal style of interview, I want it to be more natural and comfortable, such as the interviews being in the subject’s bedroom/living room. Because of this realisation, I chose to book out equipment to take home to do some practice work on Sunday. Making this decision allows me to work in an environment which is similar to where the interviews will take place, giving me chance to practice working with natural light rather than just studio lights. Working with natural light will be interesting as this will either act at the key light or the fill, so working with this and using the LED lights to help assist the natural will be interesting to look into.
While we were in the studio, we also tested out the new radio mics. These new ones were interesting as rather than relying on radio frequency they use binary, meaning that there shouldn’t be any interference with the microphones.
The new radio mics were really interesting to work with as the mic quality was so clear meaning we were able to get clear sound with no interference. I have explored this in more detail in the production research section, click here to go there.
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Sunday was a useful day in terms of practical research. I was able to work with the natural light and work around eliminating shadows as best I could. To start with I tried doing a multi-cam setup which did work, as I was able to have a more mid-shot as the main shot and then a close up on a different angle, giving me a secondary shot to cut to.
While doing this, I realised that for one my room was way to small to film in I was constantly having to walk all over the tripods and two that maybe a secondary shot isn’t needed. I want the documentary interviews to feel more laid back and casual, so maybe not even conform to the typical documentary interview structures, meaning a second angle/shot isn’t necessary for me to use. As a result of this I made the choice to move to working on one camera, and with the help of Jon (one of my peers) we were able to set up a simple one camera shot, which is what I was picturing in my head but just couldn’t seem to get it to work when setting the camera up myself. The setup for this can be seen below.
From this I have been able to see what I need to do in order to both light and shoot a more casual laid-back interview. Once the practice shoot was done, I decided to message one of the pupils from the dance school who I would like to be featured in it. This conversation can be seen below.
In the message I sent I talk about the fact that I have mentioned it before, because I have had a couple of conversations with her in person about it and she mentioned she would be willing to be in it. I decided she would be a good fit for the documentary as she is currently in year 11 and its likely to be her last show at the school, also she is playing the role of Sugary Plum Fairy which is one of the more technical roles so hearing her thoughts of this will be interesting. To add the fact, she’s in year 11 means she’s balancing exams and a show at the same time so hearing about that can add interest for the audience.
Next week, as I am behind on research, I am going to have to push back the pre-production stage and make sure that research is completed but still to a high standard.