Production 2
Documentary Film Techniques Research
In this section of work, I have to find a range of different short films made by different people and research how they produce their films. What techniques they use for their shots and how they edit their content.
First Film - Winning Documentary 2017 - "Nest"
The interview shots taken in this film are well done and cover all the necessities of an interview. With the frame of the shot, the quality of audio and video, and also the lighting, especially, makes the video quality a lot better and visual appealing.
There is also a lot of really good B - reel shots in this short film. It really contributes to the story that is told in the story of the video and add to the atmosphere, with the talk of the birds and nature in the film and also the name "Nest" which is most likely referring to a birds nest (as well as a metaphorical meaning).
Also the story/narrative in this film was told cleverly. With the teaser at the beginning, with how they play a piece of audio that comes later in the film, which grabs the audiences attention and gets them interested, so they want to watch the rest of the film to figure out whats at the end of the film.
The sound use in the film makes the atmosphere of the film feel a lot more subtle, alongside the images of film of country land and nature.
The interview shots taken in this short film have been split into three different sections, each one in a different location from the last. Each of these shots contributing in some way to the story/narrative of the film, an example being with the last shot taking place in the school. The first interview shot is recorded more naturally than the other two shots after, which have better lighting and are recorded in a more professional set that captures the entirety of the subject.
The is a tone of other footage used in this short film to tell the rest of the story that is being narrated with the interview shots. Shots of the children/students and of the school and its interiors. And also props including a certain, generic school stool used in multiple different locations throughout the film, to further encourage the idea of collage students (or just regular students) as the main theme of the film.
The story/narrative of the film was explained slowly throughout the film. With the narrator/interview shots explaining what he does for a living and for who. And how his work then leads to the main plot of the film and how his work benefits the to the problem in the plot, which is about teenage victims.
The interview shots taken in this short film are a lot more naturally made. As the interviews are taken outside and not in studios, they focus less on the essentials of an interview shot, the lighting, the costume design and the location.
There are tones of other footage in this film that helps improve the plot and story of the film. Showing shots of the homeless people on the streets and the current state that their in, it makes us feel sympathetic for them as the main point of the film is to make us feel for them.
The story in this film is told between the visuals and the dialogue in the interviews. With the shots of the homeless people, showing the poverty of the people and their state of condition compared to the people around them and how we treat them. And the interviews of people of their experience of being homeless and how they feel to be in this position of life. All telling the audience the point of the film and its plot, which is to make us feel for the homeless and to treat them no differently than how we treat each other.
The music in this film especially enhances the feel that this film is trying to invoke in the audience. Which is sad and sympathetic, and adds to the atmosphere of the film.
Short Film Story - Soldier in Training
For my short film, I've decided to make the story based around the army and the war in South Africa in the 1970s and 80s. It will be of interviewing my dad who trained for that conflict and asking him questions about what it was like and what he had to do, like a regular interview shot, and he will tell the story of the film, by talking about his stories.
The main story/plot of my short film will be told through the interview questions, I'll ask my dad a few questions about where he grew up and during what period it was in South Africa. The interview will cover mostly about his time in the army and who the South Africans were supposed to fight. So the main body of my short film will be the stories of what a South African must go though in the army, and the impressions that it leaves on you when military service has ended.
It will be interesting for people to listen to because it was something that not many people knew about, and in the end seemed quite pointless.
The footage in the film will consist mainly of the interview shots of my dad talking in just a plain chair in our house. And will also consist of some b - reel shots around our house and of his study. And I might also use some photos taken from the internet of some of the scene in South Africa at that time, as my dad doesn't actually have any photos of his own of that period of time in South Africa.
At the beginning of the film, I'll add a small teaser to get the audience interested. I'll edit a small section of the audio recording from the interview shots and put it at the beginning, just before the film introduction.
Proposal for Short Film Idea
When I was growing up, my dad always used to tell me and my family so many interesting stories about his life. So I thought it would be cool to make my short film about one of these stories, in particular the stories where he always told us how he was training in the army, a particular army to be exact, and all the difficult things that he had to do during that procedure in his life. The sort of the brutal training he had to endure, the certain tasks he had to carry out and just the general life style of it all.
Film Style Research Ideas
The kind of style I want for my short film is just a very basic layout with a verity of multiple different, but simple, camera shots. With loads of interview shots, at different angles and with a lot of B - reel shots and clips of the my house hold and the surrounding area in my neighbourhood. Like this one film short film I chose for research above in my Documentary Film Techniques Research, "Nest", which has a simple film structure and layout which I would like to implement into my short film. With its clean cut footage, good interview shots and angles, and good B - reel shots, all of which are simple and ordinary, which I what I want to aim for.
The camera angles for the interview shots will be like any regular interview shots seen in a documentary. It will compose of mainly a wide angle shot of the guest and a close up shot of the guests head and or shoulders.
As said before, the quest I have chosen for my short film will be my dad. He usually has some days off on random days during the week, but the one time he's usually always at home is at the weekend, this will most likely be the primely time to start shooting my short film. The interview shots will take place in the living room in my house hold, with him sitting on a couch with the rest of the living room in the background. The props I'll need for the shooting will most likely be a tripod with my phone attached to it for a stable shot for the interview shot.
Script & Shot List
Risk Assessment
Interview Lighting Research
In this task I had to do research into how to set up a good lighting set up for my interview shots in my future short film recording. I looked up videos on YouTube which taught me about certain positions of lighting and what effects they have on the subject, light settings like 3 Point and what they consist of.
How To Light Interviews Like A Boss (And On A Budget!)
I particularly liked this video tutorial out of all the other ones because it quick and it covered all the basics about lighting setting. It gave a brief description of each of the 3 point positions of lighting and how they benefit for the interview shot, I'll use this information of the positioning of the light in my interview shots but with my own set of lighting gear.
How to shoot an INTERVIEW | Industry Knowledge
Interview Lighting Test
After the research task, I then have to do a practical task of setting up and record a test interview shot to test with the certain lighting techniques that I learnt from the teachers examples and from the tutorials I had done research into, as shown above, and use the techniques that were shown in the tutorials.
First Shot - Reference Interview Shot
Second Shot - Light Set Up and Placement
After the reference shot, setting up the lights in the certain positions based on the research from before. Did a couple of test shots after rearranging the positioning of the lights.
Moved the hair light closer to the subject to try and increase its glare on the subject. It didn't turn out the way I wanted it too.
Moved the hair light back again. Moved the key light and the fill light closer to the subject to make the subjects face more visible.
My initial idea for this interview set up was to record the interview shot at night, this way the quality of the light on the subject is more intense and makes his face more visible on the set.
But my original intention of this planned recording was so that the practical light in the background of the shot comes from my intended light set up, the lamp (as shown in the shots above), instead of the light that coms from the window. I can close the window shutters to cover some of the light that comes through, but again, as shown above, light still comes through the top window. So it makes it harder for me to time the correct moments to start shooting, as the times of the day change frequently, so I find it easier to shoots at night, when the light outside stays constant.
Examples of the intended condition of the light set up (night time theme) will be shown later on.
Third Shot - Light Outside Gets Darker
Light outside gets slightly darker, making the condition of the light set up on the subject slightly more intense and visible.
Changed position of the light set up. Fill light is closer to the subjects face, making the most visible side of the subject's face more bright, while the key light is moved further away from the subject, making that side of his face darker.
Fourth Shot - Light Outside is Dark
Moved the hair light close up to the subject in attempt to make the light more visible. Didn't work, the light was too intense.
Light Used/Set Up
The lights I used for this set up were a bunch of regular lamps that were originally used in my living room. Also a lamp that was already in place in the room to act as my practical light set up. Another was a cycling light that belongs to my dad, which I placed on a tripod, as shown below, to act as my hair light, as I couldn't find any other strong, white LED lights in my house hold.
As shown in the images above, the layout for the light set up for my interview shot was pretty basic. I used the basic set up from the research I had gathered in the tutorials from before. A key lighting system just to the right of the subject, to have the full force of the light on the front of his face. A key lighting system just to the left of the subjects view to get rid of the shadows that would form on the subjects face. A hair lighting system on the exact left of the subjects view, as said above, to create a highlight on the subjects hair. And lastly, a practical lighting system placed at the back of the room, visible to the viewers.
All of the lamps were placed on a sort of make shift supporting to make them level with the subjects face.
There were a couple of things that I think worked with this set up and the lights that were used. I think the basic layout of the lighting was not too bad, for the resources that were provided to me. The lamps I used were not bad in quality and provided a decent amount of light on the set/subject.
Some things that could have been better, were maybe the hair lighting system, it didn't seem to cast much light on the subject, and when it did, the light was too invasive on the subject, it didn't match the other light colour. The only other I can think could be the angle of the camera on the subject. It seemed a bit off to me. Next time I could try and move the camera back a bit to get a wider shot of the subject for the interview shot.
Pre Interview - Further Research With Guest
For my short film plan, I had to rethink the plot and narrative behind it as as it didn't really make sense to the teacher and to the audience, it didn't have a solid story behind it that would interest viewers.
I instead changed the entire plot of the story, by having a discussion with my dad (the guest) and now instead made the theme of the short film about my dads development as a dentist in his life and his experience as one in the army instead of just the main subject being about him in the dentist.
- Introduction - where the guest grew up, where he studied to become a dentist and relating his dental experiences in the army (which all South Africans had to do)
- discuss and describe where your experiences in the army and in the training
- discuss the places that he was posted at in the army as a dentist
- discuss his experiences in the army and the places he was posted: what where the places like, what the people were like and what it was like in active duty (but didn't actually get involved in the war)
- how did he feel about the stressful part as working as a dentist, and how it compared to the risks and the anxiety as being a solider. "we all know that being a dentist is difficult, how did you manage it in the same way in the army, how did you deal with the stress.
- discuss what happened after the army ended and where he is now in terms of work and emotion.
Final Script & Shoot Plan
Sourced Music
Background audio choices for the final short film edit. The ideal background theme I want for my short film is a calm sort of tune that isn't sombre and relaxing, music that doesn't put you to sleep but isn't loud that it makes it super exiting for the viewer.
Music scored from YouTube:
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPGj459y01U
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4T-p71oqEg
Film Shooting Procedure
For this new studio, I set up the complete same lighting setup as I did for the other studio, but this time, instead having the practical light (the light in the background) coming from the light of the window behind the subject, which was also another change I decided to make to my plan instead of filming at night time to film in the day.
B-reel shots were hard to come by as there is also literally nothing around my house hold, or in the surrounding area that has relation to my dads work, so I had no choice but to take regular shots of the wild life, and also the process of my dad doing some separate work and hobbies: like how he goes cycling some times (as said in the interview shots), and a short scene of his walking the dog in the fields near here, and hope that the meaning of these shots will relate to the quiet and peaceful life style that my dad clarifies in the interview shots.
Overall, I think the interview shooting part wasn't that bad, the subject (my dad) co-operated really well and he didn't have any troubles with the whole interview in itself, and I received a lot of interview recording time which I wasn't expecting. The set up was really good, the lighting was alright, it might have been better to have had the subject seated further from the wall so his shadow didn't cast so much on it. And also I didn't mind the lighting from the window behind him as the practical light, as opposed to being against it before in my previous plan. It was actually snowing outside at that time but I'll work around that in editing the footage.
After the first interview recording I realised that the angle of the shots were a bit too plain and simple, there wasn't enough movement in them like how there would be in the other interview shots I'd researched into to. Although this was expected as I don't have another camera (iPhone) handy, I still wanted to add some more creativity to it, so I had this idea to use the previous studio set up I originally wanted to use for the interview, and re-shot some of the interview shots of the subject answering the last three questions in my script, which I would will use in editing the whole thing, in hopes of making the interview shots more interesting with the change in scenery.
Tasks/Work Timeline
Time line and checklist for all the work and tasks that need to be completed for the production and when.
Interview Scenes Complete Transcription - Interview Shot 01, 02, 03, 04/2,05/2
In this task, I had to transcribe the dialogue of all the interview shots into a document so I can then make an edit plan for what I want to be used and said in the final film edit, so when I do edit the film, I know what must be cut out and used before exporting. I've decided to used the first three interview shots of the desk studio set up, and then use the last two interview shots of the second set up, following the script in its order.
I highlighted the parts in the transcription to cut from the original footage to shorten the footage in general and also to isolate the main important parts of the interview I think relate the most to the main subject of the whole short film.
Film Rough Draft
I made this rough cut of the initial short film by using the interview footage I have and by following my edit plan, cut out the certain sections of the audio to shorten it and isolate the important parts to my best abilities.
I think it turned out ok, of course it should still be shorter. I'll wait to gather some feedback from this one to get a full understanding of what I must exactly cut from this clip and any other improvements that must be made.
Rough Draft Feedback
From the feedback I got from my teacher, the main points of the of the film that must be changed from the story stand point, is the order that the story is placed in. The story placed in chronological order didn't seem to entertain the view that well, and would be better if instead, the shots at the end of the draft were placed at the beginning of the video, to intrigue the viewers and get them interested in how the subject got to that point in his life.
Another point made was to be more aggressive with cutting out more of the interview shots in the film, to better isolate the important parts of the film and the story, that will be more interesting for the viewer.
Second Edit Plan
After I received the feedback, I went back to my original edit plan and started tweaking it and making changes based off the feedback I got and my own personal observation.
As said previously, the footage needed to be shorter and more direct, so I highlighted more parts in the other plan to cut it down even more.
Second Rough Draft
I made this second draft of the short film, this time following the new edit plan as shown above. I think this new draft is definitely better than the first one, as, of course, it's shorter. But I still think it should be shorter, but I find that this is as short as I could possibly make it otherwise the context and the plot in the film won't make any sense to the viewer.
Final Film Production Process
After I made the final rough draft of the film, I began making the final cut of the short film. I started by taking a copy of a section of some dialogue near the end of the film and placed it at the beginning of the film to act as the teaser for the audience, as planned in the film plan from before, to intrigue the viewers and giving them anticipation for the ending of the film.
After that, I implemented the all the b-reel shots I had from my footage into the certain areas of throughout the film.
After I added all the footage I had available, I realised I didn't have enough shots to justify for the amount of interview footage there is in the film. I found it really difficult to try and find any content around me that represented the theme and the plot of the story being told in the film and to use as b-reel, so I came short of those shots when I was recording. So then I had to record some more b - reel, and I also sourced some footage off of Google Maps, as the closest thing to try represent the locations that are being described by the guest in the film.
Also, I'm going to London later in the week, so I planned that that to be an opportunity for me to shoot some b-reel. As well as some shots of Cambridge, which I will pass through getting to London.
Some of the screen shots from Google of some of the locations for the short film.
Film Title Card Animation & Music
Title Cards
Before I added the other b-reel shots, I did the task of researching and implementing some title cards and lower thirds animation in certain parts in my short film.
I looked at both the tutorials that were presented on the short film brief blog.
Create & Animate Lower Third Graphics and Titles in Premiere Pro CC
How to Create Scrolling Credits with Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2018 with the new Roll Feature
I also looked up my own tutorial from a separate source from the tutorials provided to me, to greater expand my knowledge of creating a lower thirds and for any other possible tips or techniques that weren't shown in the first two videos.
Since I wasn't really planning to invest much on these title cards or animations I found that the first YouTube tutorial on lower thirds was good enough for me, it was just as good as the other tutorial above, they gave good information and clear instructions on how to operate the the program.
The second tutorial provided, on how to create credits, I found wasn't that useful, as I didn't really plan on implementing credits at the end of my film in the first place (as there wasn't much stuff working in this film to fill an entire credit scene).
I followed the procedure of making the first lower thirds card from the first tutorial, to make a text at the beginning of the film displaying the subjects name. I wanted the title card to have a pretty generic and simple look to it, so I went for a plain black look with the same kind of text as the title at the beginning of the film.
I then added the animations to it so it's able to slide on screen as shown in the tutorials above. I made it so that it fades as it comes onto the shot and the same as it goes off.
I quite liked the way my lower thirds turned out as well as the other text I added in the film.
Music
I then added background music to the film. I used one of the sourced audio files I found back in the film planning.
Home - Piano Ballad Music - Royalty Free
I particularly liked this sound track because it was calm but not to calm so it puts the viewer to sleep, it was just upbeat enough to interest the viewer but too hyped to confuse the viewer with the contrast of the actual content being said by the viewer.
Student Feedback
Halfway through assembling my short film I had to get some feedback from my other classmates on this recent edit of my film, as well as giving feedback to them for their short films.
The got good feedback from my colleagues for my short film cut. They found my story and narrative good and also the layout of my film. The only things they said were missing (which I also agree with them) is the b-reel shots.
For the b-reel shots, I took a trip to Cambridge and went around the small city taking shots of the landmarks which I will use as b-reel shots for the scenes where the subject talks about this city and surrounding town.
Some of the shots taken
I like the shots I took around Cambridge, they weren't that bad and luckily, the weather was the same as the weather in the interview shots, which I find keeps the authenticity of the whole short film.
Before taking the shots in Cambridge, I had planned to record some footage in London when I went to visit my sisters there, but I had forgotten. So I asked my sister over text to take and send me some b-reel shots of there surroundings so I can use as b-reel shots for the scene in my short film where the subject talks about the city in the interview.
After I got those shots, me and my interview subject (my dad) went around the sent and my house hold to shoot more b-reel shots to greater equalise the amount of b-reel I have to the interview shots already on my film.
I liked how these shots turned out, and just because of the sheer quantity of them, compared to what I had before, makes me happy.
After the rest of the b-reel shots were taken, I went back to the film edit and implemented all the new footage and altered any other videos/b-reel shots in the film to fit well in the scenes.
After the initial frames of the mask layers were drawn, I then went through all the frames of this specific interview set up and animated the bottom right corner of the mask layer so that when the subject moves over the window, as also shown in the rough cuts, the blur effect doesn't distort the subjects character.
Final Short Film Draft
After the final adjustments were made, the film was exported and uploaded on YouTube.
My South African Dentist Soldier Dad
Evaluation
In my personal opinion, and as an overall statement for the production of this project and the product of the film, I think the final cut of the film was terrible. To me, nor the plot of the interview story in it or the content of the footage made sense to me, it was so random and the footage and context had no correlation with each other, also, generally, they didn't make sense put together on after another.
During the production, I struggled a lot to try and find and record viable b-reel shots with my surrounding area and had to settle with these random shots of my garden and household. My progress in putting together the film was slow going and I missed the deadline.
There was only a couple of things I was proud of with the product of the final film. Like the title cards and the introduction at the beginning of the film.
In the byproduct of the failure of this film, I learnt a lot from it and the whole procedure of making it. So for next time I now know to plan more before the making he film, what the film should be about and if its possible to get viable footage and audio from my surrounding neighbourhood, or if I'm able to take transport to the location to take shots of. Also, I could have been more resourceful with the subject of the interview shots, I feel like I didn't use my dad in this film to the best of his ability and I just settled for the first interview recordings that I took instead where I should have took multiple instead.
So for another overall statement, I'd say I was inexperienced for the techniques required to make this film and the final cut of this film was pour but not the worst, and now I feel like if I were to do it all again, I would have a much better result and also a better method of making the film.
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