Commission Documentary Post Production reflection

To view the individual work I did in post production please look at the videos below:

The latter part of the project revealed a lot to me in terms of our individual approach and working in groups. I feel we all started off fairly well. We had an Idea and were ready to implement it. From the start I played quite a strong role in our group until I noticed it caused a bit of a strain with our friendship. Everyone wants an input but it hards to put down an idea especially when it comes from your friends. I knew exactly how I wanted this to turn out and it came out far from what I had hoped which is rather unfortunate given that we all worked extremely hard on this unit. Towards the middle Colleen expressed to us that she felt left out and there was more communication between the two of them than all of us a group. It was made to seem like I was controlling everything when in actuality I was the only one looked to for the answers which I couldn't quite understand. So to lessen the tension between us, I backed down in terms of the creative aspect and let them move forward with ideas that they had. In general, this entire process has taught me not to be afraid to say what is on my mind where our work as a group is concerned because the grade will affect all of us in the end. The editing process was rather rough given that we had to edit separately to buy us time before our deadline. We were so wrapped up in work that we hardly had time to do anything extra. I had done some casting for reenactments but that went to waste due to lack of time. A lot of our issues on this project stemmed from not following our schedules for the days had we done so we would have done much better. In addition I also feel we could've done much better as a group. I am very individual minded but i can learn to work and exist with others on a group project and had little feuds and emotions been put aside we definitely would've reached our goal.

For a more detailed outline on the latter part of the editing process and closer towards our submission dates please go to my commission documentary page.

Commission Documentary - Production work and reflections

day 1 - Filming 'Mummy and me' group

Having decided with Andrea that it would be lovely to film their support group sessions we decided to film mummy and me to capture the footage required for the documentary. Over the period of filming we got a lot of lovely shots of children laughin, playing and interacting with each other, the officials, and their parents. They sang songs together and were all very jolly. Sei-Kai was the camera man on this project and I felt she got some strong and lovely close up shots that capture love warmth and happiness in them. In addition she got some varied long and mid shots as well to capture action and more characters. 

One of our major problems on that day was the fact that we couldn't get permission for all the children so we ended up having to get rid of some nice shots that had thise specific children in it. It also made it hard to film in such a confined space given that there were children all over the place. In addition, we had to keep a close eye on our equipment to avoid danger or conflict of saftey where the children were concerned. In addition, we also had plans to interview parents and get a personal opinion on the charity but we were cut short of time as we focused too much on getting shots of the children which cost us some valuable information that could have helped piece our documentary in the long run. We were also cut short for time given that we had to fill out consent forms and risk assesments. 

day 2 - Interviewing Zoey

Given that I wasn't available on this particular date, it caused a lot of issues for our group as I feel I played a strong part in project management and ensuring everything was done right. The girls were left to film the interview with Ronnie and Zoey and had a hard time figuring out lighting and sound given that Ronnie could be quite noisey and seeing as its still a part of actuality there wasn't much they could do to change that so they went on with it. In addition, Zoey was very unwell which resulted into bad footage in terms of the sound. Her voice wasn't very audible. A lot of the interview questions asked I came up with during a session we had together after hours at the studios. I decided to work on the questions because I felt I could best articulate what we were trying to say. 

The interview base of the documentary suffered a lot as a result of no creativity in the shots and lack of diversity in lighting etc. Had I been present we most likely would have done a better job. In addition, we couldn't even use noddies due to the presenter bailing out on us last minute. However, over the remainder of the project I compensated my absence through editing and doing my job as the producer. 

Day 3 - Second Interview with Zoey 

After a series of repeated obstacles such as Zoey being ill and personal things to deal with individually in our group, we were finally able to come together and shoot for a second time at the slavation army in chatham. We went over the previous interview and re-did a lot of the questions and added sones we missed to ensure clarity, better flow and a good pace. Afterwards we went down to the park to film some shots of Ronnie and Zoey together, which came out  very nicely. It was also an opportunity for our cast to take a break from hectic questions and schedules and just enjoy the day at the park. We also got more cut away shots at the salvation army centre we got shots of the food bank and workers in the building. 

Shoot day 4 - Cut-Aways

On this particular day we were hoping to get some actuality shots to help cover some of the interview. However, we had no permission to film other students at the school this making it difficult to do our part and get clear shots of Zoey dropping Ronnie in on his first day at a new school. 

Script writing for documentaries -->>

A pre-shoot or shooting script is like carrying a map along with you on a long journey. It allows you avoid strenuous routes, dead ends and minor hiccups along the way. A script is fundamental to the birth of a visual piece as its a guide to what to shoot, in what order and what will accompany each shot. It is often easy to confuse a shooting script with a shot list but it's a mistake filmmakers should try as hard as possible not to make. A shot list coincides with shot numbers, description of the shots and transitions between shots. A pre-shooting script focuses less on the aspects of production and more so on the nature in which the story is visually told/shared and it is also more detailed and descriptive in nature. Below is our first attempt at a pre shooting script. We had a lot of difficulty as we didn't fully grasp the concept of it. But with a few tutorials from Helen we learnt fast and were able to put something together in time to film and use it as a guide.

Given that you can't produce a script before the footage is captured the lack of detail is understandable. However there are steps you can take to accurately portray your footage in a script which are as follows: 

How To Write a Script for a Documentary:

After Shooting is Complete

Log your tapes – This may seem like a tedious and boring task at first, but TRUST ME, you will thank yourself in the end. This is where you begin to "log" and categorize the various "pieces" of your puzzle.

Review the BIG picture. What are the main elements (characters and plots) that have surfaced through shooting process that create the tapestry of your overall story. What are the key “moments”?

Create Scenes. Take these “moments” and divide your documentary into mini-stories (scenes) that, together, create the documentary.

Build a Roller Coaster. Take these scenes and begin creating a “Roller Coaster” ride for your audience. What kind of “ride” are you taking them on? Think about the powerful moments in your story and how to write a script to build up those moments. A fantastic book that describes this process is Writing Great Screenplays for Film and TV by Dona Cooper

Villain and Hero. Another important part of scriptwriting is determining the villain(s) and hero(s) in your story. A hero/villain can be a person, thing or event. (A tornado can be the villain).

BEGINNING, MIDDLE and an END. Of course, every story has a beginning, middle and end. If you can outline your story in these three general categories, then you can begin to fill in the details.

The Ending. If you have a lot of footage and information to work with, a simple way to clarify how to start building your script is to think about how you’re going to END your documentary. Everything else leads up to that.

Start Strong. I cannot express enough the importance of how you START your documentary. This is when you “hook” the audience and set the tone for the entire program. The beginning of your film should:

• Establish the “core message” of the documentary (this often includes a specific “incident” that is controversial or offsets the balance of forces in some way).

• Create curiosity -- set up the “problem” or “issue” in the most compelling way possible to tantalize or grab your audience’s interest. Create a situation that makes the audience ask, “Why is this happening?”

 What's in the Middle? It’s easy for scriptwriters to get “lost” in the middle (body) section of the script. Just keep asking yourself, “does this scene/story or information move the story forward and lead to the ending conclusion?” Don’t get attached to any particular footage or information. If it doesn’t fit, leave it OUT. You can always put it in the “Bonus” or “Deleted Scenes” section of your DVD. :-)

Script Template. Finally, once you have a general outline of your story, begin building your script using a 2-column script template: one column for audio, one column for video.

The very nature of the documentary is that it is “unscripted”. It is meant to capture some aspect of “real life”. Then it is up to the you (the writer) to take the messiness of real life and create some kind of story.

As the scriptwriter, you will need to examine all the “unscripted” & “raw” footage and create some sort of structure out of it.

It will seem daunting at first (you WILL feel overwhelmed at some point), but think of it as putting together a great big puzzle. It will look like a jumbled mess at first, but bit by bit, the big picture will begin to reveal itself as you mix and match the various pieces. 

Over the course of production, I was also casting for re enactments these are some of the profiles I Looked through and auditioned on the phone. I was particularly keen on Julia and Caitlin as they best fit the description i had in mind. 

Commission Documentary Pre-Production Work and reflections

Project Brief:-Conceive, develop, script, shoot and edit an original 10’ documentary which fits either

–BBC3 –  ‘My Hero’ – stories of heroism

Documentary content from the broadcaster’s point of view – what are they looking for?

–http://www.bbc.co.uk/commissioning/news/new-documentary-development-priorities-watch-the-videos.shtml

Or 

Canterbury Cathedral – film for their YouTube channel about the artists and artisans work to keep the beauty of the cathedral alive

–Cathedral film possibilities – 

–BBC - 

–http://www.canterbury-cathedral.org/2011/08/11/urine-is-best/

BBC3 – Content - http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/best-of

Initial Idea/Plan for the documentary 

Synopsis - A documentary focusing primarily on three women from the single parent demographic in the UK and how they cope with raising their children in their individual trying circumstances. 

Each character will come from a different segment in class i.e upmarket/career women, Working class female on low income, Pregnant teenagers who are perhaps in school or grew up in a broken home (as a result of Single/divorced parents). 

The diversity in character will allow us to discover the ways in which single parenting affects people from all walks of life within the UK and allow us to determine what services are available to them and how they've helped. In addition the inclusion of different social classes will allow each person in our target audience to reckon with one of the characters seeing as there is diversity in their individual situations that make them different from one another. The same way a member of the audience is different to their neighbour who could be watching the same program. 

The documentary will cover some of the following topics and more: 

- Introduction to characters

- Social class, Finances (Income support?) & Lifestyle

- Fitting in with society 

- Single mothers & relationships 

- Motherhood & relationships with the child(ren) 

- Individual reflections on their respective situations 

- Did you grow up in a single home 

- Being single, was it a choice? 

- What services/help have been available to you? 

- How do you make do with your situation? 

- Would you change your life if you could?  

Some programs I paid particular attention to were Teen Mom and 16 and pregnant.

I also watched programs like Breadline Britain an online observational series by the guardian focusing on people living in abject poverty in the slum parts of the UK. Teen Mom and 16 and pregnant were very useful in terms of the way they presented their characters and their problems. The show was interactive and introduced the characters to you on a personal level allowing you to feel close to them. The style was very observational as the filmmaker took no part in influencing the events that took place or changing them which is something I was very keen on. looking to these documentaries gave us an idea of the kind of characters we were looking for and the organisations we would find them from. One of the first charities/organisations we came across was Gingerbread a charity and online community dedicated to providing advice and practical support for single parents in the UK. Their services include expert advisers answering the helplines, useful information on the website about services available, campaigns that contribute to improving the lives of all single parent families and because it's a national charity all these services are free of charge. 

Another charity we looked at was salvation army in chatham. They're a Church and national charity that help provide for their following. They have food banks that create a reasonable supply of food for those lacking. Activities for mothers and their youths, that help to entertain their children or provide for them and general advice as to how they can better themselves and provide as much as possible for their children. Two weekly programs they run in chatham are mainly music and mummy and me. Both programs are catered for parents with young children and a majority of them are single mothers who are struggling. These programs provide a safe and happy environment for the children to play in whilst the adults seek advice or a nice chat between themselves. 

Attending Mummy and Me and meeting prospective characters: 
After a week or so of planning and brainstorming ideas, we had to start putting them into action. Before we found either of the charities and even after it was quite hard to find people willing to partake in the story we were hoping to tell but unfortunately we didn't. Not until Helen Suggested in a tutorial to Sei- Kai Leung that we perhaps attend one of the programs held for the single parents in Salvation army. She even mentioned she herself found the program beneficial and from there the plan began to take off. We looked on their online website and found a couple of useful contacts. Later that week we had arranged to attend their monday sessions. I was accompanied by Sei-kai and we had a splendid time meeting the kids and interacting with the workers and parents. We discussed the prospect of filming the children and some of the workers with major official Andrea Still who welcomed the idea warmly and then suggested a main character (Zoey) for us who we spoke with later that day. With Andrea, we told her about the documentary and how the salvation army would play a part in the documentary in terms of how they help said individuals. 

We met Zoey later that afternoon and ran a little background check on her and had a little interview. We learnt she was a single mother aged 29 with her son Ronnie and had also given her daughter up for adoption who is now living in Canada with her new family. We also learnt that she was adopted herself and never knew her birth parents. She was also subject to domestic violence and intense drug abuse. When Andrea mentioned her circumstance and what steps she'd taken to recover we knew instantly that we wanted to cast her given that we'd also had difficulty in the past casting people. 

Having decided we would cast her we then made a calendar of her available dates and also major events over the course of a month. We then allocated the days we would film and also important dates which you can see in the calendar below: 

After piecing together the foundation of our documentary we had to structure everything properly, so I took it upon myself to make a proposal style document but instead use it as a guide sheet for our project  in terms of its purpose, influences, characters etc. 

Purpose of this documentary -->> 

This documentary will increase the awareness of domestic abuse in the UK and inform, entertain and motivate our target audience to contribute to the welfare of women with children who suffer from domestic and emotional abuse. We want this documentary to represent anyone that has been a victim of domestic violence and educate him or her about the services available to them. Upon watching this documentary, we hope that men who condone violence within their homes will finally understand the effect it has on the upbringing of children in early stages as well as adolescents. With hard hitting topics, and emotionally moving imagery, we hope it’ll eat out the hearts of our viewers and rebuild the spirit of an inclusive community in the UK regardless of background and circumstance. In addition, this documentary will show young males and females the risks and consequences of making wrong decisions and educate youths about drugs and alcohol. In telling their story, we hope to put an end to domestic violence and stress the importance of relevant organisations taking action to ensure the safety of such victims and educating the youths. 

Documentary Outline -->> 
Wonder woman is the psychological journey of young mother Zoe Chambers, an extraordinary lady that was once an alcoholic and drug user and is now recovering with the help of workers, volunteers and fellow members at The Salvation Army Centre in Chatham, Kent. We will learn about the circumstances that surrounded Zoey during her childhood, adolescence and early adult life that led her to seek comfort in alcohol and drugs, the emotional and financial hardships involved in that time frame of her life and becoming a member of the Salvation Army. As a victim of domestic violence, Zoey will shed light on her experience with social organisations and their involvement with the custody of her son and their safety when her partner, with whom she shares a three-year-old son named Ronnie abused her. Alongside these emotional whirlwinds, we’ll get to see what her day consists of with her son Ronnie and the strength and beauty of their relationship. By the end of the documentary, the caterpillar has grown wings and is ready to take flight. 

Style -->> 

The method of telling the story of Zoey consists of numerous elements that will combine to form an emotionally compelling piece. A lot of the narrative will be in first person as it is a reflection on events that took place in the past. We will be casting an interviewer that will adopt an active role in her daily activities and get to know Zoey. The adoption of a presenter automatically bridges the gap between our main character and audience. Representatives of Salvation Army and a Social organisation (Unnamed) will serve as other opinions, objections and appeals on Zoey’s case study/story and other issues/topics that relate to it.The tone and Mood must match the depth of the story i.e. her personal reflections, interview answers and feelings. A poetic mood will create room for emotion with the audience and give deeper meaning to her words. Given that the subject matters being discussed are quite delicate and not overtly spoken of, we want to visually bring the words to life allowing viewers to mirror the program to them and sympathise with Zoey. 

Zoey and Ronnie Chambers: A 25-year-old and single mother of Ronnie living in Chatham Kent. A former alcoholic, cannabis smoker and victim of domestic violence, as the lead role this documentary focuses on her journey of change, her relationship with her son and membership at the Salvation Army. Zoey’s character is completely relatable and through the course of the documentary some will realize how prejudiced they can be by basing an opinion on someone off of their looks. Zoey’s character disproves discrimination against socially different people as she has raised a decent son despite her lifestyle, conditions and choices.

Lollie Olatunji: The presenter for wonder woman. She will adopt an active role in Zoey’s daily activities with Ronnie and first hand converse with Zoey about her past experiences, domestic violence, and recovering from her alcohol addiction. Her role in this documentary is to represent the viewing audience and their inquisitiveness. Questions they’d want to ask and topics they’d want more information on will be available through this role. Lollie also wants to put a stop to domestic violence in the UK in the hopes that the number of female alcoholics and drug abusers will drop.

Andrea Still (Major at Salvation Army): Andrea will serve as a general opinion on behalf of the organisation/charity. Her role in this documentary is to inform females and youths within the UK about the services available to them should they be in any circumstance in the face of domestic violence. Also, she has a close relationship with Zoey, which contributes to Zoey’s happiness and the well being of her son Ronnie.

Social Worker (Representative for social organisations in general): This character will serve as a representative to discuss the recent buzz around police and social organisations failing domestic violence victims and whether or not domestic violence is being flagged as uncritical in such organisations. Also, they will address the ways in which this problem can be resolved to avoid more cases like that of Zoey and Ronnie.
NB: Other Minor characters, and Cast for reconstructed scenes will be listed in the credits such as: friends and family of Zoey, Mummy and Me Attenders and Other Members of The Salvation Army Charity.