Others A/V Documentaries: My Feedback

After watching everybody’s differing documentaries, I have made feedback on each one:

Ghosts Of Nottingham (Ghost Hunters):
• The group were found easily on the internet, and decided to follow the group for the documentary, changing the initial idea it was now more centred on the people and the group itself.
• Good special effects and a nice simple menu.
• Nice use of sound, adds to the general eeriness.
• Last statement, too many vocals which was a bit too overbearing.
• Could have been mistaken for a piss-take due to not much real life aspect. But the context in which it was filmed made it work well.
• Technical proficiencies where it was too close to the wall, a use of bad lighting and more context in location needed.
• All in all a very good and interesting idea, and it worked well most specifically with good special effects and a good use of sound.

Urban:
• Followed around and filmed for ‘TWO months’!
• Nothing specifically unique about it.
• Good production stills and ‘police’ footage in the extras, a very nice touch.
• Nice sound and very appropriate to genre.
• Sound effects of jumping, landing and performing not prominent enough.

Music…My Language:
• Problematic youths studying music production.
• Hard hitting initial sound, possibly too powerful.
• Scene with one of the kids not synced.
• Boom seen in background of one shot.
• Extras include a great idea of displays of individual’s work.
• Contextual to current issues and affairs.
• Black and white shots look possibly out of place.

Street Life:
• Editing of fight scene works well and looks good.
• Unsure of camera movement whilst filming the subject, and the cut shots don’t particularly work well.
• Good statistics, not necessarily included well.
• Group did well considering several group members left!
• Interesting style used to film.

Mobile Phones:
• Menu was simple yet appropriate with imagery.
• Not the most interesting subject.
• Good impacting first shot with phone breaking.
• Good statistics used.
• Sound levels alter, but sound was good.
• Not a very good selection of interviewees used, some were quite unclear.
• Not sure about being able to show come of the content without consent from companies?!
• Did seem to be a lot longer than the allocated time.
• Ended rather abruptly.

Tescos:
• Menu was a bit plain.
• Good and relevant statistics used.
• Quite a subjective piece, pro-tesco balance needed to make the documentary a bit more valid.
• Not a great narrative of a documentary.
• Extras were a bit standard.
• I would like to ask, if they contacted an employee or working within tesco to comment to potentially even the argument.

Who's Robbing Hood?:
• Simple yet effective menu.
• Good research, shows in production.
• Cast of interviewees were very appropriate.
• Good visual effects - walking in the park, towards the camera.
• Sound level is good.
Very good interviewing.
Very nice setting and scenary.

Feedback From First Edit Of A/V Documentary Showing

After all but finishing the documentary now we showed Jools our edit of the documentary, and these are the notes I made from the feedback we received:

• It’s a nice story, however it started 3-4 lines in, and could of done with a bit more of an intro

We will consider the opening couple of shots and see if there is a more clear way to start the documentary.

• Good range of shots, situations and array of clothing.

This is what was intended from the shots and editing.

• Showing Ed modeling would of made the narrative a bit clearer.

Whilst making initial contact with Ed, we were told there was a possibility that he would be partaking in a photo shoot when we would be filming, but unfortunately that did not happen.

• The sound levels were reasonable, and didn’t interrupt the talking.

With only light music being played in the background it was important that the spoken words of audio would be very clear.

• The context of the first scene with Ed’s mum was good. However, the camera level was too high with the head being too high on the screen, and with the placement she was looking too wide of the screen.

Unfortunately at this late stage of the production process it would be too late to re-shoot the scene in question, however it is a good lesson to sort out the exact placement before the scene is shot. Practice shots and footage would be a good way to ensure this.

• The scene with Ed walking down the stairs was really good and worked well, the only slight issue was that there was an unflattering background.

The scene did work very well with Ed’s disappearance up the stairs and the effect of his reemergence working well.

• Jools went on to say that always pay attention to detail on the background of shots

The background of the shot did not appear to an issue when we filmed the shot, however on second thought some of the shots could have been filmed in front a less intimidating background.

• The story came across well as it was well timed.

Special attention was focused on the positioning of where each shot would be placed in the editing, so that the story would be told well in good timing.

• In the special features, within the photo section, some of the photos were very irrelevant.

We will look to remove some of the less valuable photos.

• The background music fitted well. However we explained that the music was not composed / produced by the sound producer in the group.

The music was a very good song composed by a friend of the director’s. However unfortunately Andy our sound man didn’t have any input to the documentary from a sound angle.

• In the scene where Ed’s mum was ironing, in the background the curtain hook was ‘annoying’ and the background was ‘too busy’, due to flat lighting.

Nobody in the group had noticed this.

• The personnel involved in the documentary are really good characters and add a lot to the overall film.

Ed, his mum and his selected friends who were used in the film were all superb. They were great people, and this came across fortunately over this documentary.

• The DVD menu was ‘superb’ and very exciting, the cover was interesting and presents the story.

Will did a great job on the menu, it is very professional looking and really sets the scene well for the main documentary.

• Just a reminder to always do a white balance before shooting.

Noted.

Photo Stills Exercise – Group Evaluation

The task set was to create a piece of work that shows time, by using still photograph's and three different audio tracks, one produced by the creator.

The exact requirements read:

7- Sequence of Stills with Mixed Audio Track
Requirements:
1. You will produce an audiovisual project that shows a passage of time. You can show an illusion of real time, ellipsed time, flashbacks or flash-forwards. There should be, however, a clear sense of story.

2. You need to use 10 to 12 digital still images. Images can be repeated.

3. There should be at least three separate sources of audio, at least one of which you record yourself.

4. Try to create a synthesis of sound and image, where the two do not duplicate each other, but instead complement each other - work together to create a whole that is more than the sum of its two parts.

5. Edit the stills and audio. Create a movie and include it in your portfolio.



Whilst watching 15 peoples work and commenting on their finished work, it lead me to create a general group evaluation of the task set. I have also included the individual notes I made about each of the watched work.

The most important part to get across with the work, was to create a ‘passage of time’. This was done very well on the whole with some people (including myself) choosing do to so with the use of stills of a clock, a good example of this was in Tom Oliver ’s work where a still of the clock shows that he has underestimated the time, and realises he has a seminar to attend.

Other people showed the time passing well by creating many still shots and displaying them at a quick tempo, which gives the impression off well of time moving in a direction quickly. Ed Walsh did this well, giving the motion of time moving very quickly forward throughout his work.

Having to create three separate pieces of audio could prove quite difficult, especially when adding it to only still photographs. That being said, the group used the audio very well, with the audio certainly adding another dimension to the stills. This worked well in work by Blaise , whose sound effects in particular were very good indeed, especially from being able to tell that they were created by him.

Here are the notes that I made in the seminar on other people’s finished work. The comments are on; first impressions, composition and pace and audio respectively!

Ben:
• Aesthetically pleasing
• Well worked composition of shots
• Slow tempo, yet nice steady and understandable pace

‘Garden’:
• Not too much colour
• Good definitive shots
• Slow pace
• Audio (had to guess and was spot on) Upbeat, loud and dictating

‘After Death’:
• Very unique, different and kind of crazy
• Good animation movement, very professional looking and tells a good story
• Audio (had to guess and was spot on AGAIN) ‘Interesting’, mystic and flowing

Blaise:
• Confusion was the initial reaction
• Some shots appeared to be very close to their predecessor, but works in a nice movement
• Good use of sound, and sound effects worked very well

Atif:
• Controversial title, that especially stood out initially
• Good rapid shot selection displaying a good motion of elapsed time
• Tempo of music works well and in sync with the stills

Jyoti:
• Good use of sound
• Unsure about some of the transition effects used to get from one still to the next
• Good underlying background music

Tom:
• My mistake, but my initial reaction was that it was an interesting DVD collection shown in one of the first stills
• Good ‘continualisation’ and correspondence from the shots
• Majority of the work without sound which worked very well especially when the voiceover comes in. However possibly a nice light background soundtrack might of worked well also
‘Acid Trip’:
• Nice stills
• Nice interloping of sound and stills
• Music works well contextually with the tempo used

James:
• Nice slow impact music
• Stills explained the narrative with good timing
• Sound worked well and created the intended atmosphere

Chris:
• Stills set the narrative well early on
• Nice action and intruding shots
• Music gives an uneasy feeling, which appeared to be intended

Finally, here are the notes I have made on all the individual pieces of work I have seen via the online journals:

Bindni:
- Good use of stills, works well and tells the story well. Personally whilst the music particularly works well towards the start as it builds the narrative, I think a change in music would of given it a bit more emotion.

Ed:
- Tempo of which you go through the stills works well, nice idea. Personally not a fan of the audio track used.

Emma:
- Good stuff, sound effects are really good and well timed, stills work well too, even the music seems to work.

Photo Stills Exercise

The task set was to create a piece of work that shows time, by using still photograph's and three different audio tracks, one produced by myself.

The task was done and finished, only issue was that it was 109mb which would not upload onto my MySpace account, therefore I have had to change the compression and format so that now it is under 1mb, clearly making the quality pretty poor. Early excuses out the way the link to the video is as follows...

  http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=1786894388

EDIT: The music is all out of sync and the video quality and timing is so bad on such a small quality, it is pretty much pointless watching this via the link so don't bother. I will find another way to upload it in due course.

Finally Able to Login

Once again I am able to contribute to my online journal, after some login problems, I have now changed my password and am able to post my work on here. More to follow...