Documentary initial planning

Initial planning

We arrange ourselves into groups of five and began talking about possible ideas and general layout the documentary will form. We discussed our strengths technically when it comes to filmmaking and bounced off that.

Connor Elliott (myself) – Cinematography.

Ben Wilson – Editor.

Ben Brown – Director.

Katie Watts – Producer.

Lucy Smith-Jones – Sound Design.

I put myself forward as camera due to owning a dSLR and having vast experience working with it at film making level. We also as a group wanted to create a piece that holds a quite soft tone / focus – and after recently purchasing a new 50mm 1.7f lens for my dSLR with deep depth of field possibilities it would be a wasted opportunity not to use it.

In terms of the documentary style / narrative it will take, we wanted something different in terms of format – at this point we are still unsure of precise details but feel that James Lee’s 3 minute documentary called ‘Pockets’ could be a strong influence.

I also put forward the idea of producing this project as I am from the Liverpool area and therefore would be able to sort location ideas and possible people that we could interview. However Katie has much more experience with producing and the possibility of using my dSLR we decided to keep to the original set roles and instead will work closely with Katie and advise and provide help where required

Liverpool Documentary film project | Feb/March 2012

Today we received our brief on our next assignment which is documentary.
I undertook the role of cinematography and oppose to my usual director/edit role.
We have been placed into groups of 5 and will shoot the documentary in Liverpool 5/6th of March

From here I will research into Liverpool related stories, dslr documentary and interesting camera angles that i can get from our location.

Evaluation of editing process.

The editing process was set over 3 days however I didn't anticipate it taking as long as it did, so left the majority to the day before it was due in. However this lead to the some aspects of the editing being rushed such as scene 16.
From this I have learnt the importance of time management and how it can effect the production. I have also learnt that Editing within Experimental film takes a much bigger more important role than other film genres and therefore should have allocated more time to the post production. I am happy with the outcome but can see how it can be better plus two scenes I enjoyed had to be removed due to the 5 minute time constraint.

Editing process

Today I began the editing process, ordered and placed roughly the shots together in conjunction with the script.

Finished shooting.

Just finished the 5 day shoot and pleased with the outcome. All desired shots were achieved except one outdoor scene that is scene 15. We originally scheduled the shoot for the 4pm on Friday, however when arriving on location we found the shots to be too dark (as wrote in the script) however we discussed on location and felt an AM shoot would be more appropriate for a "calm" scene.
This has been rescheduled to Saturday AM now.

Script - location hunting?

Due to our script currently being quite advanced in terms of location.

I have took it upon myself to arrange some of the locations.

The bar scene, after scouting around 8-12 bars, The Rutland arms pub said that it would be OK to film a 3 hour shoot on monday morning before they officially open. I have therefore also contacted the actor who will be playing Tom to come meet us for this shoot.

Office scene, the office location is suitable to be shot in the university library. I have contacted the library and booked two rooms for a Sunday when its more quiet. These will form both Richard's and Steve's corrosponding office rooms

Shot list

I have done a shot list for each day of the shoot, this will help keep us organise and will prevent us missing any shots 

MONDAY

Scene 4

SHOT NO	DESCRIPTION – JACKS BATHROOM. NIGHT
1	CU Jack/Steve raises his head.
2	POV washing in bathtub and looking around
3	POV following “blink” Blood filled bathtub
4	Mid shot from behind. Jack jumps out of bath
5	Close up jack facing away from bath. Slowly turns around
6	OTS Jack sees water is fine and splashes in anger
7	Long shot panning away – Jack panting and staring at bath
8

Scene 5

SHOT NO	DESCRIPTION – IN. EMPTY ROOM NIGHT
1	Mid shot pan – Jack sat in the middle of a room on the floor
2	Close up – Jack is calm fiddling with something i.e. tv, ipod
3	Hallucination 1 starts – mid shot. Jack running around fast (multiple cut and sped up in post)
4	Close up with steady cam or similar. Jack rushing around room.
5	Close up – Jack lying on floor again panting and looking quite on edge
6
7
8

Scene 6

SHOT NO	DESCRIPTION – INT. JACKS BEDROOM. NIGHT.
1	CU Jack jumps out of his sleep to a womans voice
2	Side angle mid shot – Jack slowy wakes and climbs onto bed
3	POV Jack lying on bed looking for remote
4	POV blink effect – Jack falling asleep
5
6
7
8

 TUESDAY 

TUESDAY

Scene 11

SHOT NO	DESCRIPTION – EXT. High street. DAY
1	POV – Jack looking around and panting almost running down a busy high street
2	CU frontal with steady cam – weaving through people passing by and looking lost.
3	POV – (same POV long take) weaving through passing people They glare at him
4	Long shot – Across road Jack weaving through and heading towards alley.
5	POV – Jack turns into alley where he then kneels down – stares at his knees

Scene 12

SHOT NO	DESCRIPTION – INT. JACKS KITCHEN. NIGHT
1	POV still staring at knees looks up to find kitchen location
2	Mid shot – Jack stands up looking confused
3	OTS pan – Jack sorting through dirty washing
4	CU from inside washing machine as parts of clothing are put in one at a time
5	Side angle mid shot – putting in stuff into the washing machine
6	POV pulls out clean towel and looks and at.
7	POV (after blink) towel is covered in blood but doesn’t notice due to sorting through other washing / checking phone
8	POV (after second blink) towel is normal and Jack shoves the rest into washing machine
9	CU from inside washing machine.. remaining washing placed in and door is closed.

Scene 13

SHOT NO	DESCRIPTION – INT BATHROOM. NIGHT
1	LONG – mid shot pan across outside bathroom door. Jack brushing teeth / washing face
2	CU/ Macro of water in sink
3	CU frontal using steady cam equipment – Jack drying face with towel still facing down at sink.
4	OTS looks up at reflection... Standing still
5	OTS reflection covered in blood and screaming at him.
6	Mid shot – Jack falls to floow with hands over head. Punching the floor in anger.
7	Long take – 15 seconds ? Jack lying on floor crying with anger.
8	POV Jack is looking around after hearing a clicking sound. Fast pans left and right (transition purposes)