Evaluation
Describe the process you undertook in creating your Documentary and what were your initial ideas? How did you choose your final idea?
Initially, when coming up with the concept of the documentary I thought it would be best to look towards what I personally find interesting and inspiring in my own life and what I decided to look into was music and the way it is able to make people feel emotions strongly and how it helps them connect with their favourite artists and bands of their favourite music genres. The two genres I felt would be best to compare with each other were Emo Rap and Grunge because they are both centered around feeling emotions to a point where the music is able to dictate a person’s emotions and control the way they perceive it as they are influenced by the power of the music to such a degree that their actions are often decided by it. I knew as soon as I thought of the idea and it fully developed into the idea of seeing how much music truly means to people that it was what I wanted to base the documentary on and it was a subject I wanted to inform myself and other people on further and I was very glad that the idea came to me when it did and how it did as prior to having it I had thought of no other ideas so when I thought of this idea I was very pleased with it as I feel that because it is a personal interest of mine it made the piece of work more enjoyable to work on and also better quality wise as well because of the attention to detail taken on perfecting the documentary which should reflect how passionate I am about music and this documentary too because of how it details the impact music can have on people who emotionally invest themselves in it.
What research did you undertake for this project?
Conducting research for this project was quite balanced between my group as I only had to do the target questionnaire, my six modes of documentary powerpoint, notes on the history of documentary, notes on documentaries I watched which were Is It Worth It, For One Night Only (and the movie Hasta La Vista) and Soaked in Bleach. For contextual research I researched how Emo Rap began, the artists that inspired the genre, some of the most well known Emo Rappers and how the lyrics in songs a part of the genre can reflect the mental health of the artists making the music. I made sure to give examples of songs and albums that heavily influenced the creation of the genre that would eventually become Emo Rap, such as “Heartless” by Kanye West from his album 808s and Heartbreak and “Pursuit of Happiness (Nightmare)” by Kid Cudi from his album Man on the Moon: The End of Day. I gave examples of how lyrics can show the mental state that an artist is in with the inclusion of lyrics from the song “Jocelyn Flores” by XXXTentacion and the song “Star Shopping” by Lil Peep with one song suggesting the mental health struggles very subtly and the other song outwardly stating the issues that the artist is dealing with essentially unfiltered truth and honesty which shows that being open with lyrics in songs allows you to make them aware of any problems that might exist that needed to be treated or dealt with so they don’t become a potentially bigger issue. Harry undertook the research of creating the Survey Monkey and the formative research while also doing his own six modes of documentary powerpoint, history of documentary notes and notes on the documentaries he watched which Sam did too but instead of creating a Survey Monkey and doing formative research he did the audience profiling instead covering the demographics, geodemographics, psychographic segmentation, ethnographic and audience theory.
How well did you manage the production of your Documentary from the ideas to filming/editing and uploading to your blog?
I found the production process of the documentary to be very stressful but eventually rewarding because although the pre-production was done in detail and it was all completed before the day we filmed it still felt like I had to seriously rush to get it done for then whether that was because I took it upon my shoulders to complete the majority of it myself maybe be the case however it may just be down to poor organisational skills which we will have to improve on for future projects. Also, the majority of our research was conducted after we filmed our documentary which defeats the point of research in a way but although it was mostly done after recording all the footage we required it was done in great detail in most parts to provide direction and assistance for us during the post-production process so that we could use it as guidance to add and improve to our own edits. During production everything went smoothly overall except for the focus on the main camera when we were filming with Rob being a bit soft and the lighting on the green screen being a bit dark but I feel like I was able to salvage the footage and I think made it usable in my edit so I am not too disgruntled by that issue that came up during production as it was fixed as best it could be so I am pleased about that. I also recorded a voiceover on the Friday after the week that we filmed both of our interviews during, the day being Friday 31st January that we filmed on.
The voiceover was essentially an introduction to the documentary as it explains its concept about how in the expository documentary we look at the emotional commitment people have to music and what role music plays in their lives, more specifically the role Emo Rap plays in Freya’s life and the emotional connection she has to the genre as well as the role Grunge plays in Rob’s life and how he is also emotionally connected to the emotion based genre. I found that during editing and post-production I had to alter the green screen using the Ultra Key effect in a different way that usual for Freya’s part as the green screen was too bright to properly apply the effect so I had to spend quite a bit of time changing the levels on the effect to achieve a background that looked visually acceptable but also one that matched the music playing during her section and strangely enough the clothes she was wearing coordinated with the background I created which I thought made it very engaging due to the use of the calm but also contrasting colours that are pink and green. I am also generally happy about the use of pictures in my edit to represent what the interviewee is talking about alongside the use of music too when looking at the answers to the question about their favourite song or album of their respective genres. My unit twelve section on my blog has a good amount of detail and is set out in a way I believe to be easy to navigate and observe with all of what needs to be completed and uploaded onto my blog, on there in the correct section.
What would you do differently next time and why, what have you learnt about producing a Documentary and how could you use this knowledge in the future?
When creating a documentary next time I will choose to film outside of a TV studio because I feel that there is a lot more potential in what you can film outside which I knew already but it is only after finishing this documentary that I am able to reflect and think that although I was pleased with what I was able to achieve just in the TV studio, I want to see what I can create when I am filming in various other places in Nottingham and even around the perhaps. I want to do this in order to extend my creativity and technical ability past the inside of the Adams Building more and push myself so I can make something a bit more natural and less artificial in terms of a piece of media specific to me and my repertoire.
I feel like the main thing that I have learnt about producing a documentary is the unpredictability of what footage you will end up collecting as you can’t create a shot list for a documentary except for some establishing shots and B-roll footage, most of what is captured is not determined beforehand so the shots and what they include have to be adapted in order to fit with the narrative of the edit during pre-production as there is no way to control exactly what somebody is talking about or doing in a shot. That is unless they are being asked a question in an interview and have to follow a guideline of sorts to give an answer to a question they have been asked but even then it is not possible to determine what they will say and do exactly so while making a documentary you must be prepared to have your creative vision changed at least a little bit and altered with the legitimate and sincere opinions of what the interviewees in your documentary either know or believe. I believe I will be able to use the information and knowledge I have gained while making this documentary when making other documentaries in the future, in fact I feel like what I have learnt will be even more applicable when working outside as there is the general public to think about as well as the interviewees that you have to ensure know where they are and what they have to do to a certain degree. You still need to control these things in a TV studio but it a lot easier to do so than it is on set elsewhere but I want that challenge the next time I make a documentary because I will be prepared to deal with it and I will know what to do to keep the documentary in line with what I originally envision before I start filming it.
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