Throughout the module in Documentary, I have learnt aspects associated with documentary filmmaking that have helped me produce my final productions. This ranges from the use of lighting interviews, to operating and arranging the camera in a manor that allowed my group and I to achieve the shots we wanted.
For this module, we were tasked with creating a two-minute ‘poetic documentary’, followed by a 5-10 minute documentary on a chosen subject. Our group decided to produce a documentary on Morris dancing, and with Alice being a Morris dancer herself, before we’d even began we had someone with first-hand experience in the area.
The first film we created entitled ‘Steel Bells’, was our poetic piece. Reflecting back on the piece generally I was quite disappointed with the outcome. There are many pros and cons to our final piece that I will now discuss.
Cons
Unfortunately the sound in our poetic piece was not as high a standard as I’d expected. The quality of sound in the film appeared muffled, too low in volume and not striking enough to leave an impact on the audience. Sound I feel was such a huge part of the poetic piece; it’s a stepping-stone to achieve emotion that I feel is key to a poetic film. Alice, our sound designer captured all the sound effects needed during the Morris festival and practice sessions. But unfortunately the final edit outcome was flat, and it almost seemed to cut out half way through the film.
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| An example of 'gold-fishing' |
The interior shots were simply not visually pleasing; the locations of the practice session shoots were pre-determined so we had no say in where we could shoot. The practice halls produced some horrible backgrounds and in some cases serious amounts of grain.
After looking through all the interior footage we’d captured, I used the most impactful shots possible in attempt to convey emotion and bring the piece to life. However the shots I chose were shots in which the subjects were talking, but the task was non-sync sound. This lead to our piece being criticised and we discovered we should never use shots of people talking if we can’t hear them. On one hand I disagreed with this, as we wanted to portray the human side to these characters: their emotions, mannerisms, characteristics and I felt that with the footage we had, the shots I chose were the best at conveying these points. However I do understand how the ‘goldfish’ shots may not have come across as we’d expected.
Pros
The exterior shots during the festival were rich and colourful, portraying an exciting atmosphere to the audience.
The sound towards the end matched the imagery. Alice synced the beats of the drums up with the cuts in my edit to create a some-what effective ‘crescendo’.
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Our second, 5 minute documentary once again entitled ‘Steel Bells’ I felt went much better than the first. We created a fun, fact full energetic, entertaining and colourfully rich piece that I hope the audience enjoyed. Our main intentions were to show Morris dancing in a non-stereotypical light… The traditional stereotype being old men waving hankies. After the disappointment of the poetic piece, we decided to not use the interior shots whatsoever, and thus decided on sticking to the exterior footage that was more visually pleasing and rich. I believe we achieved what we set out to do, however the sound at parts once again needed serious amounts of work.
Pros
Our piece overall was visually pleasing; many of the shots were framed correctly and we were fortunate enough to have wonderful weather on each of our shoots, thus creating a warm, rich and colourful piece.
Footage of the dancers was plentiful. Our main Morris dancing subject/group ‘Boggarts Breakfast’ was shown throughout the piece through a variety of their performances and interviews.
The sound in this film was better than the first; Alice managed to create a highly effective sound edit that flowed throughout the piece and felt natural. When watching back, the sound never broke up un-expectedly or faded out.
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| An interview at a pub - A setting familiar in the world of Morris dancing |
The interviews/structure we created and captured both entertained and informed the audience on the world of Morris dancing. I feel we shone a new light into Morris dancing, and subverted the traditional perceptions people have towards it by showcasing Boggarts Breakfast and other groups.
I was particularly pleased with the introduction besides the soundtrack being too loud. I think I created a fun, energetic and entertaining opening segment that captured the main highlights of Morris dancing – dancing, costumes and beer.
Overall I feel we achieved what we aimed for, but I can't say the same for our poetic piece due to its many unfortunate downfalls.
Cons
Some of the interviews appeared canned or muffled, and didn't seem natural within the environment show on-screen.
Some of the cinematography was too shaky and should have been placed on a tripod.
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When we set out to create this documentary, we had a clear vision of what we wanted to achieve. Initially, our vision for the poetic piece was to show the contrast between the Morris dancers performing in their costumes, and practising outside of their costumes; we wanted to show a more 'human side' behind the dancers. For our main documentary piece, our creative process changed after our feedback on the poetic film. We changed our idea and steered away from the idea of contrasting imagery and interviews in and out of costume. So we decided to primarily focus on Boggarts Breakfast during the festival in Sheffield. Alice being part of the group already and with the group themselves being the complete contrast to stereotypical Morris dancers, we felt it was the correct decision to make to best portray an interesting and informative film to an audience.
Our film-making process was clear and efficient. Alice organised the dates on when we were shooting, fortunately these dates were spread across the month allowing me to convert and log the footage at different intervals. We captured nearly the entirety of the film weeks before the deadline, giving me and Alice plenty of time to edit the film visually and orally (sound). Unfortunately I was ill for two weeks, which set us back considerably.
For all of the shoots (apart from one), we went for a two camera set-up. Natalie was the main cinematographer and I used a second camera to capture more footage of the dancers in action. This two camera set-up was a brilliant decision, as it gave me much more footage to work with during the edit.
Alice was with me for a lot of the edit, we collaborated with one another and threw in different ideas and structures to create the most effective piece possible.
All in all, the process of this production was clear and concise; we knew what we were doing and when, how long for, the equipment we were using, the interviews we needed and the questions we needed to ask. Alice, the producer collected all the relevant forms we needed for the production, she organised all of the shoots, Natalie the cinematographer, booked out all the correct equipment we needed for the shoots, and the footage was given to me in enough time for me to begin the edit.
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| Traditional Morris dancers. |
My individual contribution towards the production included helping Natalie with cinematography and editing the film. I would like to think I made a strong contribution towards the piece, as most editors in the past don't even turn up to shoots, whereas in this case I turned up to every shoot (bar one), and edited the piece. I was very happy with some of the shots I captured whilst filming on location (shown below).
I'm particularly happy with the introduction I created. It hits the audience with an impact, grabs their attention and creates excitement for the rest of the piece. I chose an upbeat soundtrack to play in the background and matched the beats with cuts in the edit.
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| I particularly enjoy the chiaroscuro lighting in this shot between the shadows and light background. |
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| 'Boggarts Breakfast', our main subject in the film. |
There were however some problems during the edit associated with the footage we had captured. On the last day of the shoot (that I didn't attend), Natalie captured plenty of footage of 'Boggarts' performing, however every single shot was hand-held and the camera was nearly always moving from person to person, making it (at times) near-impossible to edit. I had to make cuts every 1-2 seconds otherwise the camera would judder. The interviews were also a challenge to edit as the camera often zoomed in and out for reasons I do not know. I was informed at a later date that a tripod was taken out on the day but wasn't used at all, this was unfortunate as the shots would have been much more powerful and visually pleasing. Despite all this, Natalie had captured plenty of footage of the group performing for me to work with.
Overall, we didn't encounter any problems when it came to working within a team. We all knew our roles and helped each other out when needed.
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http://www.4docs.org.uk/wiki/index.php/Editing
I have researched articles on how to create documentaries to the best of your ability, all which are shown in my blog. However there was one short but useful article I found online (link above) that helped me with the process of editing our production.
- Don't spend hours getting caught up in minutiae. Assemble a rough cut before you start polishing. - This was one of the first things I did during the edit. Me and Alice sat down and created a rough assembly by dragging in interviews and performances.
- You shouldn't be frightened about breaking up sequences and scenes, re-shuffling and then putting back together. Sometimes you need to do this many times before it feels absolutely right. - Throughout the whole edit, I broke up sequences and moved them around to position them where they were best suited.
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| Editing the interviews along with the performances. |
- Stay open to change. - At points in the film, I wanted to include a segment of film that was quite 'daring', for example one of the group members saying something about another group, however Alice didn't want to upset any of the member's in her group, she herself is a member of 'Boggarts Breakfast'. At times with Alice being so closely connected to them, it was definitely a hinderance and it didn't allow me to be as a free as I wanted to be during the edit process.
- Getting other people to watch your film fairly early on can really useful - if a little scary. Besides their fresh thoughts and input it makes you watch your film in a different way. - We often asked people to watch our piece and tell us what worked and what didn't. It definitely helped as some people offered suggestions that I hadn't thought of.
- If you get stuck in a rut - have some fresh air! - Breaks are a key part of editing; spending too long sat down in front the computer screen clogs up your thought process. Taking a break definitely helped me gain a fresh perspective on the edit.
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| Colour correction was added to some of the shots that appeared washed out. |
- Play with your music and sound. They should tell a story in their own right. However, silence can be important and powerful too. - Something else we strongly stuck with. We incorporated many different soundtracks into the piece that blended together effectively.
- Watch lots of documentaries - it really does help to see how others before you have structured narratives and told stories. - I have watched many documentaries in the past and I love how there are so many different styles of documenting. I took inspiration from many documentaries (discussed earlier in the blog that I have researched) that have helped us edit and create our documentary.
In conclusion, I am happy with the film our group has produced. Despite our problems along the way and the disappointment of the poetic piece, I feel we have created a film that provides a new perspective on the Morris dancing tradition by showcasing a group that contradicts the traditional stereotypes associated with Morris dancing. The film is both informative, energetic, visually rich and at times comedic. Our piece is far from perfect, the interviews sound canned and some of the cinematography is far too shaky, but despite these problems overall I am happy with the final outcome.
I have learnt many techniques throughout the last year and I will take them forward into my final year.
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