And we're done! Module 140 is over.....

Today was the hand in of module 140, well at least the DVD's anyway.

This Module has been very challenging and I have learned a great deal and I'm happy, mostly, with the outcomes. I have personally learned a new skill with directing one of the pieces and had a chance to work with some truly gifted people on the stripping documentary.

Stripping for a Living has faced problems with unreliable contributors and long days driving all over the country were great learning curves for us all and will put us in good steed for working in the Industry later this year.....
All that is left to say really is a big thank you to my Producer, Cameraman and Editor. It was a really rewarding experience. All of your dedication, drive and enthusiasm was brilliant and I am grateful for such a good team.

Beer, Brewing and the Britz gave me the chance to increase my sound skills and I'm happy with the outcome of that. Its a shame it got so far behind in the later weeks as I think the concept and original idea was a good one. Ultimately the Director/Producer struggled with the role, but thats why we are here studying the Masters.
The production sound was good and my choices of equipment (rifle Mic, boom pole and zoom recorder) proved to be the right choice and I understand fully why they are industry standard.
Post-production sound was unfortunately non existent due to the doc running way behind schedule. In fact the sound and camera operator were actually the ones editing the basic structure of the documentary.
Music choices were made by the director and editor to save time as they were unable to edit it. In the end it was a four man job to pull it, kicking and screaming, back on time and make it possible for the Director to hand it in on the Friday.
That said I have learned a lot about sound on this project, just would have liked to get a chance to use Protools to tidy it up a bit and set the levels But its all a learning curve!



Next stop final major project.......

Crit screening time again

Today was the crit screening for the two projects I'm part of

Stripping for a living looked great on the big screen and I was proud to show it as a finished article after all the let downs and frustrations of un-realiable contributors. Feedback was mostly good with a few comments about more background from the contributors which was inevitable. Given more time on this project I would have liked to have got more from the dancers. Filmed them outside of the club but this just hasn't been possible with the time constraints, not to mention problems of gaining access into clubs in the first place.

Beer, Brewing and Britz  This was a different story all together, there was only 40 seconds cut so the audience didn't really have a chance to gauge the project very well. Again the comments were positive but I'm shocked that it is so behind considering most of the footage has been hanging around on hardrives for the past three weeks.
Some of the questions seemed to throw the director as well which wasn't very comforting as we still don't have a working script and we are firmly into the edit time!

I think the coming week is going to be a hard on the editor and I'm currently wondering how she is going to edit a drama and a documentary in four days.......

Last bit of filming in the bag.....

So last night we finished the filming for Young and Pissed....


We all meet on the streets of Falmouth at around (.30pm and found, as you would expect, that they were deserted but at least the camera operator and myself had the chance to chat about shots and decide on good locations to set up the camera.

At around 11.30 the night was in full swing and we gained some good footage with a few fancy dressed  people and the obligatory drunk guy running at the camera and shouting.
I interviewed four people on camera to see what they had been drinking and ask weather they used supermarket deals to drink before they came out.
Again I was surprised by the lack of direction and I'm worried that there is no cohesion in what we are shooting for this documentary.

On the plus side we did get to interview a policeman in his car. Again we used the recce questions I wrote 5 weeks before and we didn't get a challenging interview as the questions weren't tailored to the situation. It was made harder by being left with the camera operator to do the interview! This meant that i was asking questions whilst sitting in the back of the police car so the policeman was struggling to look towards the camera as he responded to my questions.
Still this project is all filmed and its time to get these last few pieces of filming added so the editor can finish making the documentary......

Protools

I have been working with Protools this week in preparation for the sound edit on Young and Pissed. For this documentary I' m the sound engineer so once an edit is done I will have the exported sound track from AVID to work on in Protools.
For the swimming documentary, Fighting Chance, I had a brief chance to work on the sound but I feel I need to keep working with this software to be competent in using it, not to mention trying to remember where all the buttons are!

The swim Doc uploaded into Protools ready to be worked on

I reworked the old documentary because neither of the current documentaries have a timeline edited yet so it makes sense to work with what I have instead of waiting to the last minute.

On the sound there were issues with background noise, especially with the interview of Len in the swimming pool. I used the 7band equaliser to search out the frequency of the noise and remove it as much as possible. When using this technique it is remarkable how much you can take out but you need to take a lot of consideration into the person voice. It is very easy to change the sound of it it when you remove the unwanted noises.

The Docs Are Under Way....

Today we filmed the first interview for the Young and Pissed  Doc that Im working on.
I have arranged an interview with a good friend of mine who works in Hand Bar in Falmouth. The director has two projects to direct so is up against it to keep both organised and on schedule so I have decided to help out as much as possible and take up some of the slack.
Due to a studio project running throughout friday, the director was going to be tied up so I have prepared some questions and the camera operator and myself have shoot this piece on our own.

The interview went well and I was pleased with the sound, I chose to use a lapel Mic and record sound straight onto the Panasonic P2 camera. This allowed for minimal equipment on shoot as there was a skeleton crew. we shot outside the bar in the courtyard and the sound is enhanced by the slight atmos of the cafe and bar in the background.

We also gained a chance to meet the bar owner, Pete, who was very intrigued by the project and has agreed to be part of it. He had some very interesting points and spoke, at length, about supermarkets and the role they have which is a very interesting angle.

Pitching time again!

This week we started Unit 140, two productions to make this semester so its all go!
On the back of good feedback from the last module it was all to play for as we had either dramas or documentaries to make...

My aim was to gain some more camera experience and hopefully direct a piece. the competition for camera roles was high again but as luck would have it, I have been able to work on documentaries and get a sound, camera and director role! Although these roles are not going to be easy.
The first documentary is 'young and pissed'.
     Yep you guessed it, sounds of people being loud and obnoxious and of course SICK! Guess what my role is? Sound, so this will be challenging capturing the atmos of evenings out whilst being able to react to people around us.

Keep an eye out for following posts about sound recording techniques and images of set ups!

My camera role is on Kernow Curfew which was an idea I pitched, this will have great challenges with low light shooting and young contributors.
I will research the role and experiment with different cameras to see which copes best in low light and learn techniques of on camera lighting.

My last role is Director, this is the one I'm most excited about, the documentary is about stripping in the U.K! This will be the most challenging Doc yet and will take all the skills from the director and producer to make it happen and find the contributors.

Watch this space.....