Unit 8 FMP Evaluation

I had to make a short documentary for the Rain dance film festival. Though research
into the genres of documentary’s I decided my production was going to be was an
expository documentary. To be classified as a short documentary it has to be shorter
than forty five minutes long. This documentary is going to be aimed at the target
audience of 45 – 54 due to the content. This is because this age group has
experienced the biggest change in music throughout their lives while still being in
touch with what music sounds like today. My documentary is called Money over
passion and it explores how music has changed over time due to a variety of
aspects. These include auto tune and technology and talent shows such as the X
factor. The aim of this is to gain the answer to the question of has the music industry
become focused on making money over passion for creating music. Leading up to
this I did research into several different areas of producing a documentary. Some
examples of this include the medium, genre, platform, target audience and
content. I then did the pre-production and planning every aspect of the process
leading up to the filming. The content of the production included interviews with
three different people, these were Steve Brain a member of a rock band, Tyriq
Hamilton a local sound cloud rapper and Ian Davenport a professional music
producer. I also filmed lots of B – roll footage. Lastly I edited my production using
adobe Premier pro. When making this production I worked with my friend in my class
Jordan Jenkins. We did this together as a pair leading up to after we had filmed
everything and then made our own edits with the footage and content we had
gained. We planned everything together talking and discussing each decision to
allow us to have a fair chance at hearing both our ideas and adding them both in.
My role in the process of creating this documentary was being a producer, camera
man, editor, setting up lighting. I did all the research on my own sharing the most
important information with Jordan. Then with the pre-production I worked with
Jordan planning out the story through creating things such as a story board and
script.

Genre / style

The genre / style that my production was made in is an expository documentary.

Some common conventions of this style is trying to persuade the viewer and using an
authoritative voice over for narration that the audience never sees. I have created
a survey to gain feedback on a number of sub categories within my documentary
and sent it out to my class, as well as putting it on social media. Below you can see
some screen shots of the answers to the question about what genre and style the
documentary was.
When doing the research into what style of documentary Jordan and I were going
to pick we thought that an expository type documentary is best suited for the
arguments and story we wanted to tell. We have been successful in conveying this
as in these answers you can see the audience could tell what genre it was. They did
this by noticing codes and conventions used by me when filming and editing.

The codes and conventions I found in my research for expository documentaries are
they use verbal commentary, focus on an argument, trying to persuade the
audience on a curtain viewpoint on that argument and following a linear structure
having a beginning, middle and end. It was very effective and easy to add and use
all of this into my production and in the planning I went through this list I made
making sure it was all included in my own. In my documentary I voice the verbal
commentary talking about the argument on weather auto tune and talent shows
have changed the music industry. The view point I am trying to convey and pursued
people on is that they have affected the music industry in a negative way. Also my
production follows the narrative structure with a beginning , middle and end.

Content

The content that was in my production included three interviews with a wide range
of people to show different opinions and background. It also had narration
throughout covering two sections on things that have affected the music industry
these are auto tune and talent shows. It also had B – roll and archive footage
related to the topics talked about for example music equipment, talent show
performances and old songs that have used auto tune. In the answers to the
question on what people have learnt from the documentary people have said -

5 out of 5 people have said yes when asked whether the interviews and b – roll
suited the topic along with these answers. This feedback has told me that people
have found the documentary very educational and have learnt about people’s
opinions on auto tune who have lots of knowledge and experience with the subject
matter. It also tells me people agree that the content such as the B –roll relates to
narration being seen on screen, and that the interviews were with professional
people in the music industry and in good locations for example a music studio in
Oxfordshire.

Narrative

Since my production is a documentary it does not really have a narrative but more
of a narrative structure. In my documentary I structured it so that it had a main
introduction, two sections one for auto – tune and another for talent shows both with
questions and narration and a conclusion. Before starting to edit I thought about
how I would structure the interviews so that it made sense. I went with the idea of
splitting up the interviews so that instead of just putting the whole interview into the
timeline I went question by question going through each interview and the person’s
response.

From these responses to the question on if people were interested in the topic and if
they followed the narrative. I have found that people understand and have
followed the narrative structure quite well. In the bottom question somebody picked
apart the structure which shows me it was very easy to follow. This is what I was
planning to do and so I am happy with this feedback.

Technical qualities and techniques

For the technical qualities we did research into what sort of camera work, lighting,
sound and editing we would need to use when making a documentary. For the
camera work we did research into existing documentary’s and saw that an
expository documentary normally used mid shots and had hand held camera man
filming everything. For the sound we used a attachable mic on our cameras as this is
what we found people have used. For the lighting we just used natural light unless it
we were filming an interview. Finally I did research into how professionals would edit
a documentary and organise themselves and I did the same. The main technique
that Jordan and I used was the 180 degree interview setup. This was done in two out
of the three interviews so we had two angles to choose from when editing and to
keep the interviewee looking in the right place. Behind the two cameras was an LED
light setup that we adjusted and placed depending on the light in the room at the
time.
Above is the answers to the question on the best techniques and technical qualities.
This is what people have thought is the best about my production. If I was going to
be doing this again I would go back and do more research into the editing process.
I thought that my editing was minimal compared to other documentary’s and other
editing techniques could have been added in to look better. For example I have
very plain title cards and questions that pop up on screen I would change this to
show it in a more interesting and creative way.

Aesthetic qualities

The aesthetic qualities are all about how the production looks. In the planning stages
we knew that if we could get access to good locations for our topic our production
would look right in relation to music and what we are talking about. We also knew
we had to get interviews with people in the industry. So after getting interviews in
music studios and professionals we made sure to film everything in there like the
equipment, sound boards and musical instruments. We also set up the interviews so
that the location could clearly be seen in the background of the shots.

I was most happy with how this content came out when watching it back. In the
responses above you can see that people liked our interview set up used and
thought this was one of the best aspects of the documentary. Back to the text seen
on screen though as I feel this takes away from the look of the production and
needs working on for my next project.

Creative qualities

I think that this was a creative and unique topic to cover in the FMP as I haven’t
seen this style of documentary used before to explore this. The idea of auto tune
ruining modern music is a new concept since it hasn’t been used to this extent by
artists up until quite recently. On the other creative qualities we have shown
everything we wanted to in a straight up way be just presenting it. If I was working on
this again or in my next production I want to try and think of interesting and creative
ways of visually showing something without just narration and footage to go with
what is being said.

These answers to the question on if our documentary was creative have mentioned
about how the idea and main argument is a creative take on a music
documentary. They have not said about how we could have been more creative
when conveying information to the audience which is what I want to improve on in
the near future.

What went well?

In my opinion I feel that the sections that went well were the pre-production
planning and the filming weeks of the process. This is because everything turned out
how we planned and wanted it too without any problems stopping us from getting
what we wanted. Because our planning was so detailed and well thought out it
made all of the filming much easier as we followed our production schedule. The
narration turned out good with the right sound volume, the interviews questions had
good length and knowledge in the answers and were shot correctly and the B – roll
was relating to the topic and what is being spoken about at that time.

How could it have been improved?

I feel that my production could have been improved the most in the editing section.
First of all the title card and questions that pop up onto the screen are very basic in
plain white text and it is just there to inform the audience of that is happening next.
This could have been improved to have a different font or colour to make it more
interesting too look at keeping the viewer engaged. Another way I feel it could have
been improved is if I added in more editing effects as I feel that the way I have
edited my production is very basic and I am not using the software to its full extent.

What would you do differently next time?

Next time in the planning stage I would try and think of more creative and unique
ways of visually showing information to the audience as I feel this is more memorable
and would stick in their heads. Longer than for example some narration over
footage of music equipment but this still works. The only thing is I’m not sure how I
would do that. I would also make sure to not get Jordan in the shots I film for B – roll
and others like in reflections. Do to this I would ask him to move or make sure he is
out the way. Then I should always do a test shot watch it back and adjust to this.

Comparison to existing work

In this section I am going to be comparing some existing documentaries with my

finished work. The first existing production is Hoop dreams (1994). Both my
documentary and this one fit into the genre of an expository documentary. This is a
full length movie documentary whereas mine is a short documentary for the rain
dance film festival. They are both similar as the interviews are set up in the same sort
of way.

Above on the left you can see a screen shot from Hoop Dreams interview setup and
on the right you can see a screen shot from my productions interview setup. We
both have the person speaking angled to the side behind the camera out of the
way so that they can face someone in a conversation while speaking to them. The
locations both have the things that the interviewees are passionate about in the
background to serve as a reminder to the audience that they know what they are
talking about. Lastly they both have white text and a title to introduce them to the
audience.

The ways that our productions are different is the way that they are structured and
the narrative within them. In my own production the narrative is told through the
narration and is overall the story of how the music industry has changed over time
due to aspects like auto tune and talent shows. On the other hand Hoop Dreams
narrative follows real stories about people’s lives in the world of the sport of
basketball and their journeys when playing the sport.

Hoop Dreams seen in the left screenshot above runs through multiple people’s story
arcs throughout its run time. It starts off with the introduction and then goes onto
introduce people complexly showing their story and then moving onto the next one
or showing two at the same time cut between each other. In my production though
seen in the right picture above. It starts off with the introduction then the intro to
auto tune followed by each individual questions from the interviews splitting them all
up. Then it goes onto the same thing with the talent show section and then the
conclusion.
The next documentary I am going to be comparing my own too is bowling for
Columbine (2002). My documentary fits into the genre of an expository
documentary while this production created by documentary filmmaker Michal
Moore fits into the style of a performative documentary. My production is a short
documentary while bowling for columbine is a film length documentary. The ways
the B –roll and scenes are shot are similar to each other but the interview and
narrative styles are completely different.

In the left picture you can see a screen shot from bowling for Columbine and on the
right you can see a screen shot from money over passion. As you can see the
interviews are setup differently on the left Michal Moore sets directly in the frame of
the shot next to the person he is interviewing. This shows both people’s emotions and
expressions. In the right sided picture you can see how the person being interviewed
is slightly off centre looking at an angle off to the side. They were talking to me off
camera but an expository only focuses on the story and content so it means the
audience only focus on his answers, expressions and reactions.

How each documentary is presented is also another thing that is different about
them. In the left picture above you can see Michal Moore in the shot holding a gun
and talking to them about it this is because this is his style of documenting. It’s more
about himself and his journey into exploring topics and arguments over just the
arguments being presented on their own which is seen in my documentary. Michal
Moore is always seen on camera. In money over passion I am never seen on
camera you just hear me speaking through the narration and instead of showing my
asking the questions. I have added in text that appears on screen to tell the
audience what question the interviewees will be answering next.

How suited to the media Industry am I?

Now that I have completed my first finial major project I feel like I would be much
more suited to the industry compared to before I had begun this process. First of all
before we even started hearing the brief we were given key dates for the rest of the
unit. This told us important deadlines for points when are work so far needs to be
handed in. I felt like keeping these deadlines has made be more suitable for the
industry as when you are working in media deadlines are important to meet
otherwise you can lose everything. This moved me onto be next point which is the
planning and pre-production stage of the process. Jordan and I had to go through
the weeks we had and plan every aspect of the days we had until the final hand in.
This is so everything we wanted to get for this project could be done and presented
in the way we expected. I learnt that going out and contacting people that we
never thought we would have a chance with is worth it. This is because in the
planning stage we contacted professional music producer Ian Davenport and we
responded saying he wanted to do the interview. Lastly I feel that the skills I
developed when editing the production made me more suited to the industry as it
gave me a much better idea of how to organise my footage as well as structure the
content I had gained.