Being Professional & Knowing The Responsibilities of a Film-maker

Throughout the film-making process I learned how to built a rapport with my subject. I also learnt how to act professional as a Director would working for a professional Television company. Throughout the filming I had to be aware of my subject. For example when I was getting Billy to punch in the ring and punch bag I had to be aware of his age and keep cutting in-between shots so that I did not leave Billy feeling tired or under pressure. I think my personal skills have been boosted due to working with people who are initially strangers to begin with and who are outside of my family circle or peer group. This is a skill that I learned I am good at.

When making the documentary I was always aware that this was a piece of work that was being made for public viewing and not just my own personal use. I had to be aware that my subject would be wanting copies made to give to family and so on. Bearing this in mind I was always being very carful about which information to take from the footage and I was constantly aware about the story I was trying to tell. When analysing my rushes I came across some footage which could have been taking the wrong way for example sequences that were almost comedy. Although I was telling a personal portrait I was aware that it can be risky and decided to leave it out of the edit.

Although I am a fan of the controversial channel 4 style documentaries I surely do not want to offend anyone whilst making my own. I started thinking about this when I seen an article in the Guardian which talks about the controversy surrounding channel fours reality series 'Benefit street' The subjects who had agreed to be filmed by channel 4 for are feeling cheated as they believe they are being shown in a bad light. I believe I performed professionally and I believe my subject will be happy with the final result.

Reflective report

When I was first given the brief for the documentary my first idea which was boxing stuck and luckily I only had to make slight adjustments to the subject although my theme stayed the same. I am very happy with the finished product and I believe I achieved what I set out to do.
The first subject I decided to focus on was a friend of mine who has recently turned professional and trains with Ricky Hatton. Throughout the process we came up with various problems that we overcame. The main problem was the fact that our initial subject Ryan agreed to shoot and we had planned a week and booked equipment and so on and at the last minute Ryan couldn't make it due to personal issues. This was a very stressful time as I had planned everything and set dates and I was left feeling let down and anxious about how I would find someone else.

Luckily enough I asked around and found out about a Boxing trainer called Billy Laverty. Billy holds various different boxing training classes and boxing aerobics classes for all different types of people, from the elderly to people who are just trying to get fit and loose the weight. Billy also teaches people to use Boxing as a therapeutic aid. I wanted to portray a personal portrait of Billy and how Boxing shaped his life and made him the person he is today. I think I was successful in doing this mainly by asking the right questions and probing the answers that I needed to tell story I had in mind. For example I asked Billy personal questions in relation to Boxing and I asked him to explain how he got introduced to boxing and what it was about Boxing in particular that he loves. I also think I got the right tone and mood across with the use of cut aways and in particular the pull focus of the boxing ropes. The editing also helped portray the personal aspect to the documentary with the use of Billy's voice narrating.

I had a lot of fun making this documentary as I mentioned before I take great pleasure in watching documentaries and they are my preference when it comes to watching television. The fact that I was given a chance to make one of my own was daunting but also very exciting. Overall I really enjoyed this experience as I am essentially documenting reality and making this documentary has given me a lot of confidence and enforced my passion for Documentary and I look forward to making more in the future.

Editing

After completing a successful second day shooting. I logged the footage and began watching it and taking notes. I was initially happy after watching the rushes. I couldn't wait to begin the process. As we filmed on the Canon XF-100 we had to edit on premiere which I had never used before. Although after a few hours I noticed it was very similar to Final Cut Pro. We just encountered a few problems with some of the footage not logging properly but with the help of out technician Steven we got it working and I really enjoyed the editing process although its time consuming I think its one of the best parts of the film making process.

Sound for my Documentary

Last year when making my end of year film, it became apparent how important sound is for a finished piece. The sound can automatically make or break the finished edit. I learnt this through trial and error. This year I would like to get it right. I am a great fan of all types of music and it is one of my main hobbies- I love going to music festivals. I love music as an art form and how it can make you feel. In making my documentary I am trying to portray a mood and tell a story and with the helping of the correct soundtrack I believe I can do this. Anyway, I came across this website called audio-network. I had used this site a few years back and I love the fact that you can search for copyrighted music and refine the results by choosing a particular mood. This is so useful as there are a lot of tracks on there. I really enjoyed listening to different tracks whilst watching the rough cut of my film.
A couple of days later I heard a song on the radio -Simon and Garfunkel - The Boxer- This song immediately made a match for the tone and feeling I wanted to portray. It is emotional, catchy and quite quirky and there is a verse that mentions a boxer. (At 3minutes 16 seconds) I really want to incorporate at least this verse somewhere within my documentary.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hqdZ4AWSaI

Stories we tell (2012) By Sarah Polley

In class we watched a film called stories we tell by Sarah Polley. This documentary film was different to any other documentaries that I had watched before as I mentioned before I am a fan of the typical television documentary.
This story documented the life of film maker Sarah polleys mother Diane who was an aspiring actress. The story is told via interviews with other members of Sarah's family, the questions are simple but Sarah often asks her Brothers and Dad to repeat themselves which was a useful technique in order to portray the areas of significance to the viewer.
This family have their 'dirty laundry' made public with the making of this documentary. I feel that is very well constructed with the use of archive footage and each other the members of the family telling their story just as they remember it so that there is no 'one and only view' this is significant as some people say there are two sides to every story but this documentary gives us the story narrated by the people who were closest to Dianna and it has a very touching and personal touch to it.
 This is also heightened with the use of the archive footage, although some of it is staged it is very hard to tell as the flow of the story runs so naturally and smoothly. The footage, some real and some constructed helps the viewer to visualise a person or place or event- like we naturally do when we are being told a story. I like that this production has kept things 'simple' but is still very gripping with the use enigma which is built up as we hear the different peoples stories. This screening helped me to think outside the 'conventional' linear story telling methods.

Day 1 of filming

After long planning and anticipation the day had finally arrived to begin shooting, I met up with my crew at college. We were due to be shooting in a boxing gym in carryduff and the plan was to get the bare bones of the documentary which is the interview on day one and this is what we done. We got the bus to carryduff were we met Billy and were taken to the leisure centre. Overall I was very pleased with the amount of nicely framed shots and information about bill's life how I probed the information about what boxing means to him. I also took it upon myself to take over the working of the camera for a lot of the cutaway shots as I had a specific vision in my mind that I wanted to try my best to capture.

initial meeting with Subject

After the mishap, I was lucky enough to get a well known boxing coach to be my subject within my documentary of 'hands' I am glad I could keep the same theme from my original idea of boxing as I had already planned and had a vision in my mind of how I wanted it to look. I was looking forward to the initial meeting with my subject Billy Laverty, I was also quite nervous and hoping to quickly build a rapport with Bill. The first meeting took place in the College and I am pleased to say it went very well and we talked for an hour and a half and I asked the questions that I wanted to ask in the documentary in order to get an idea of the kind of answers Billy would gave. I quickly built a rapport and found common ground with Bill. This set my mind at ease and made me eager for the first day of filming and I was eager to begin shooting. Meeting my subject also helped me visualise the shoots a lot better and after I had met with Billy I was able to begin thinking about my shot list and the next stage in the production.