Sonia's Television Blog

Evaluation Overall i think the project turned it self around after the post-production process was finished. We had a few hiccups during this entire unit but it all turned our great in the end. We began with our pitching ideas and overall i think when we came to a conclusion of doing it about young drivers Zoe + Helen were very happy with that idea, it pitches to young audiences and even older audiences. At the beginning i was very worried about starting this unit because i had never watched a proper documentary before and i did not really know what it was about, but starting my research and watching a lot of documentaries on BBC3 really expanded my knowledge about them. I was also worried about writing the transcripts and the overall final script but when Alex and Katie started to do them it did not look to hard. I think we all worked so hard on this project and tried our best to make sure the visuals, effects and most importantly SOUND is done perfectly.I think we al...

Alex decided to really make our script fantastic, during our post-production process we were changing the script while we work. This was very efficient and a brilliant idea! We decided to follow this format and it worked out great, Alex did a fantastic job on the script overall as we were helping him on the side. I decided to also delete and add some things to the script while we were editing. We had many drafts of the script making sure that it was done to the best of our ability. Once we were shooting we highlighted the bits on the script that we needed to film since it was much easier that way. We knew what we were doing and how it needed to be done, when the interviews were too long we would cut it down and edit the script along side. When editing began we adjusted the scripts to match all the edits, Time codes are also used in this version which again makes it easier for us to edit. The script took a very long time to finish since we were editing it along the way of the p...

After we had finished all of our filming we started to work on the transcripts for all the interviews that we had done. This was a little bit difficult both Alex and Katie worked well on the Transcripts while tried to improve the script. In the end it was worth creating them because it was much easier for us to improve the overall script. We had highlighted the transcript so that we could create the Sync assembly, i then move the highlighted bits over to the finished script. We have started to edit our entire project and it has been coming along nicely. We have also had our rough cut review with Zoe and that was very helpfull, she gave us a lot of feedback that would improve our documentary. She said that we need to make the edit more upbeat and interesting by adding music tracks or funny jokes. We were planning on doing that but now we know that we should do it 100%. She also mentioned that we could maybe ask a local police officer to be in our documentary to talk about young dri...

10 Rules for a Documentary  Just like my previous project the first rule of documentaries is: Don't make a documentary make a movie. We have chosen to create a documentary not to talk and bore people but to tell a story!  Don't tell the audience things they already know! When filming a documentary you do not need to tell the audience something they already know for example, do not tell me global warming is bad they know it's bad. When filming our documentary we tried out best to make sure that we did not include things that people know already. We might have slipped up once or twice where we said that young drivers are dangerous but the audience already know that. A modern documentary sadly has been made into what looks like a college lecture, a lecture that is telling a story. This has to be done in a different way, you do not want to make a documentary boring because if it is boring who will watch it? We already know that people do not like to sit in lectures and be...

Documentaries A documentary is a non-fiction video or film that informs most viewers about a real-life topic, person or event. Some films provide us with educational information and statistics, others tell very detailed stories of specific events/topic. Still others try to persuade the audience to agree with certain viewpoints. Most documentaries have a serious undertaking which is very important. And most documentaries use real life visuals to really connect with the audience.  Being a great filmmaker for a documentary you need to be able to establish a rapport quickly You need to be able to maintain an up-to-date contact list to be able to access information quickly Have brilliant verbal and written communication skills Always pay precise attention to detail and have a methodical approach to work Always stay connected with the viewers no matter what do not bore them Do not use too many facts and figures Develop your idea many times even if it means scrapping many ...

We are planning to include some GV's in our project and also some cut aways and time-lapses, here is a few test that my group and i have done and will implements in our own project. These were filmed in Katies car with a Go-Pro. We received some great footage from these GV's as we need to add these kind of clips into our project to give it more of an interesting feel, since younger audiences get bored very quickly. It also adds a sense of location, we like the fact that we could replace establishing shots with these time-lapses and GV's instead of actually using establishing shots. Jason had filmed GV's from Alex's car, the Go-Pro which was attached to the car with a tripod. Katie also filmed a great GV that was done within the Insurance Brokers office, she managed to do a time-lapse of the A2 which looks fantastic and could be used in an intro/Outro. It is a great way to see the in depth to where the presenter is located and where the documentary is  actuall...

Our filming took less than 2 weeks, we usually met up on odd days and filmed for a few hours. When we had interviews planned we made sure that everything was going in order. I was on two filming days that suited me and the others planned other shooting days that suited them more, When we had to shoot interviews Alex and Katie filmed those due to them both living in gravesend and it was much easier for them to meet up, when it came to opening sequences and go pro footage we all pitched in and helped on those filming days. Here we were filming out introduction where Alex introduces the documentary and what it consists of. Jason was in charge of camera and sound while Alex presented and i was helping with directions. I involved myself with finding the location for this particular shot also. We got almost every shot we needed on this day, BCU, MS, MCU, etc. We were happy with the overall shoot that we had that day. This was one of out first filming days where the group interviews Ale...

In order to schedule all of our filming shoots we decided to create a google docs where we could plan our shoots and edit documents ourselves. This was a great idea since we didn't have to keep messaging and calling each-other, if something changed we could just edit it on the docs and tell the others to read it. Most of our shoot days were simple and done quickly and efficiently, Shoot day 1 was Alex presenting and Katie operating a DSLR and Jason operating the Sony EX, this consisted of Alex's grandparents. Shoot day 2 consisted of Alex presenting and me Directing along side Jason operating the Sony Ex camera. Shoot day 3 easy Alex presenting and Katie operating all the cameras, this was the interview of the Insurance Broker. They also filmed many GVs on this day and time lapses. Shoot day 4 was Alex presenting and directing while Katie and Me would be running and operating the equipment.