Our group has decided to create a Tattoo Documentary and this is the production diary...
My Blog - http://gbhsasnathan.blogspot.co.uk/
Ben's Blog - http://gbhsasbengriffiths.blogspot.co.uk/
Aaron's Blog - http://gbhsasaaronhunt.blogspot.co.uk/
Production Diary
11/11/2015
First Meeting - We created and discussed our initial ideas together and we all assessed certain aspects of those ideas. We did this by viewing and introducing our initial ideas to the rest our group, we explained the main aspects of our idea, how we were going to make it into a good film pitch, how we will create enigma, how we would present the credits and we explained where the filming of each of our ideas will occur. We did this because when we come to a conclusion of whose idea to go with we will be able to incorporate ideas from each of our individual pieces this will allow our final film pitch to be original and interesting, this allowed us to accurately create our film pitch. We also presented where we got our initial ideas from for example Aaron was inspired by Tree Of Life, I was inspired from the many documentaries I have watched and Ben by culture drama like Top boy and we presented scenes of our evidence of these different ideas of films and this allowed us to be able to understand what we would need to incorporate into the final product and what to include into our final film pitch.
12/11/2015
Second Meeting - After analysing each of our initial ideas for a film pitch we chose to use my Tattoo Documentary idea as a base of our film pitch because this idea was original (no one does a documentary as their film opening) and challenging. Then we worked on trying to include all of the groups ideas into the final product. Building from my initial Tattoo Documentary idea and what needs to be included in a documentary, we added the use of artsy/cinematic shots from Aarons film idea to make the documentary a much nicer thing to visually look at and then Ben's idea of culture to be a focus of the documentary. We decided on the main focuses of the Documentary would be, how culture of today is affecting people into getting tattoos? is it inked celebs? Or is it a need for individualism within conformist culture/society? Or are they just easier to get? These questions were highlighted in the film pitch.
13/11/2015
Third Meeting - After discussing our final idea for our film pitch we discussed and researched evidence to assist on how to create a good and interesting documentary. We researched tattoo documentaries, filler shots and how a professional interview should be presented. We also researched a variety of angles and shots too keep our documentary interesting. We discussed how we would present that the documentary is based around tattoos but still be able to create enigma about the subject of the film. We chose to do this by not mentioning the word tattoo and only to hint around the idea of tattoos in the first parts of the opening and then we will drop the theme/narrative fully presenting the fact that our film opening is based around tattoos.
14/11/2015
Fourth Meeting - Aaron and myself focused on presenting research and the information we had collected for the documentary on our blogs. We made sure we had an idea of how to film our film opening and we discussed necessary equipment that will be needed to make our documentary, consisting of camera's and tripods etc. Then we discussed the costumes that could be used in our film openings and what costumes will be the most appropriate to use for different scenes such as interviews. Aaron and I discussed where to film our scenes and we found several tattoo parlors that we could potentially use to film our film opening. We thought that we should use more than one tattoo parlor so we have lots of different environments and people to shoot. We will interview those thinking about having a tattoo, people with some tattoos with meaning and people that are covered in tattoos and this will allow our film opening to be interesting because there will be a range of 'characters' in our documentary opening rather than the same 'characters' repeated throughout our film opening.
16/11/2015
Fifth Meeting - This meeting we began doing our storyboard but a relaxed storyboard, with post it notes we drew and wrote down the shots we thought we would want and need within the actual
Ben worked on the Mood board, this will present our inspiration films and shots we have looke dat to inspire the creation our film and this will show the films, genre and types of shots we used from different films to think of the shots we have thought to use and where we have chosen the shots from.
Aaron began to write up reviews from our film pitch which were written by other students in our Media class and our teachers, I gave advice on the answers to the questions asked that were :
How will you make it less like a T.V program?
What is the message of our film?
(These have both been answered on the film Film Pitch)
These are the two main questions asked by the students and this was expected. Documentary films can often be interpreted as a program in the pitch process, like a reality doc mix for example 24 hours in A&E.
In this meeting we also have discussed that we have a working title which is Tatted Generation and at the end of all of our filming we will create a final film title as this will be easier to do as we can base our title around a certain scene or a certain part of our film opening. We have chosen to use the title Tatted Generation for now as our generation will be the most tatted generation history (it is thought) and we have based our film documentary around this because there are several questions that can be asked through this topic therefore we can create enigma through this topic about tattoos.
17/11/2015
Sixth Meeting - In this meeting we considered which shots will be best to use and if there are any shots that we could add if our film opening is too short or not detailed enough and the more shots we have, the more detail that will be included in our film opening. We have also chosen to include shot angles in different sections of the shots will use in our film opening, "Interview Shot", "Filler Shots" and "Montage Shots"and this will include the type of shots we will use and how we will present these including sound, Mise en Scene, location, and brightness of the shot as we will be able to change and add effects to our shots to make our scenes as interesting as possible.
Ben researched how documentaries present credits and titles and the way and how long the titles last and we will be able to estimate how long our film opening could become by estimating how long each shot will last.
18/11/2015
Seventh Meeting - In our seventh meeting myself and Aaron used the script I written for the narration of the film and we put to use the shots we had created with the "Post it note storyboard" deciding on which shots we will use and how long each shot lasts for. We described the types of shots we were going to use and we drew how we would like every shot to look like. It was something I hadn't enough of on past tasks was the detail in the description of the storyboard, I made sure to cover all the aspects of the shot in the description this time so I knew exactly what to film.
Ben focused on several jobs that were necessary for the film opening; Music Research and Title Research.
19/11/2015
Eighth Meeting - In this meeting Ben covered the Risk Assessment about us filming throughout Chelmsford and the risks we could encounter. Ben is also carrying on more with Title ideas and the most effective font to use that will work for our tattoo documentary and we discussed as a group different ideas for a suitable and original idea for a tattoo documentary and we are deciding as a group the most suitable font to use. As a group we checked one another's blog to tell each other if there are blog posts missed or not in enough detail as they should be and this allows our group to stay on task and we will be doing a blog check every so often to make sure each job is being completed and not left unfinished. Aaron and myself checked the script and shot list and we ensured that the shots we have chosen are correct and we discussed how we will perfect our camera angles.
20/11/2015
Ninth Meeting - In this meeting Ben with the aid of me, focused on writing emails for every tattoo parlour shop that could be considered to visit to our film opening scene. The initial email can be seen on a separate blog post. After this Ben researched and found a variety of available tattoo parlours that we could email and access if the parlours accepted our request.
After this task I focused on editing the storyboard voice recording and the images of the storyboard to match the voice on Adobe Premiere. Aaron recorded me talking about the storyboard and the basic idea of our film opening then I focused on editing the images and storyboard to match what shot he is talking about and the image of the correct shot. Once this was completed I uploaded it to YouTube, it can be found on another separate blog post.
23/11/2015
Tenth Meeting - In this meeting I got Aaron to research a catwalk clip that we could use in our film as we would not be able to film this ourselves. Ben and I discussed which shots would be taken after school and during the weekend and which shots we are able to without a tattoo parlour and which shots we need to record throughout school or other places to record shots. We set up a list of where we will record each shot to be able to record in our houses and other locations. We also went to an art classroom where we asked permission of a student if we would be able to record her doing art work, this would allow us to complete a shot which we will film during our next media lesson. Ben and I then called a nearby tattoo parlour to see if we could stop by during the weekend to do some interviews and get some shots, we were told that we could stop by during the week to see them.
After school we went to my house to film a short clip of the online generation scene in our film opening which consists of someone looking online on a computer and on social media.
24/11/2015
Eleventh Meeting - In this meeting we discussed about marketing and distribution and Ben began making the blog post for that and the rest of us got on with out blog work. I also filmed someone in a art classroom doing her artwork, which was a shot we needed.
25/11/2015
Twelfth Meeting - In this meeting we tested a short recording of a tracking shot of Aaron taking a image and we will most likely record this in a different location than not at school as the atmosphere and surroundings can be more interesting than the surroundings at school.
Ben emailed another tattoo parlour that responded and are allowed to record we just need to find out when we are able to film.
26/11/2015
Thirteenth Meeting - In this meeting Aaron completed the shot list and uploaded it to his blog. Ben carried on researching the organisation and layout of the titles and how titles in documentary films should be presented. As a group we decided to use 'Tatted Generation' as a title and unless we think of a different and better title we are going to keep the title. We chose this title as our generation is supposed to be the most tatted generation as it is very easy and tattoos can be seen as a fashion sense in this generation. Also we just needed something to call it.
28/11/2015
Fourteenth Meeting/ First Day Filming- In this meeting we began filming and the tattoo parlour we went into is called 'Sacred Tattoo' (http://sacredtattoos.co.uk) we interviewed a tattoo artist called Alex and we asked interesting questions which had even more interesting answers and we have recorded the interviews and this went well more than expected and this resulted in good footage which we will begin editing in our next media lesson and there was a good amount of evidence of our day, I also shot a lot of filler footage of "random" things around the tattoo parlour and people getting tattoos. We asked the customers at Sacred Tattoo if we were able to interview and record and take images of the tattoos they were currently having and we are able to interview one customer and take recordings of the other customers. Then after that we filmed other footage that we could get whilst in town, all can be viewed on the shooting schedule.
30/11/2015
Fifteenth Meeting - In this meeting I began editing the beginning of the film opening after, importing the footage and getting it onto the timeline but there were many complications to editing on a mac so I went onto a windows computer and got all the footage on an external hardrive and then began editing but I couldn't really edit until the narration was recorded so it was a very frantic lesson of getting footage onto a usb ready to use for the editing process.
1/12/2015
Sixteenth Meeting - In this meeting I went to the music studio to record the narration script with their good quality mics and in a sound proofed environment, once this was done I took the narration and went back to Media to begin editing. The other guys needed something to do so I made them start subtitling the interviews which ultimately was not necessary. Nothing could be done till the edit was complete at least for first draft.
2/12/2015
Seventeenth Meeting - In this meeting Ben covered and reduced scenes that shake and parts of scenes that are not focused and edited the scenes to see whether the issue of a part of a scene can be solved. Aaron watched an interview we did with a cutomer getting a tattoo but we both decided that it was not worth using. I edited the opening.
After school I went to my friend Poppy' house to film a few shots that I needed of someone looking in a mirror and a close up of someones eye which goes along with the narration part "a way of looking, a way of thinking, a way of life".
3/12/2015
Eighteenth Meeting - In this meeting all my editing could not be found so I had to re start, I continued to edit late after school but I got the bare bones of my first draft done. Ben began adding subtitles to the first draft for our final draft so the interview could easily be understood. Aaron worked on the film poster but of course required a lot of help from me with fonts, and images to use and the distributor logos etc.
4/12/2015
Nineteenth Meeting - I finished the titles for the first draft on the edit, we created a poster that would be used to market the film. I exported the first draft of the opening. Ben carried on adding subtitles. Aaron finished of the film poster.
7/12/2015
Twentieth Meeting - In class we watched everyone's first drafts and got to hear a little bit of feedback.
8/12/2015
Twenty-first meeting - spent the lesson writing feedback for people. No improvement on edit. Had a talk with Mrs Field about what we can do to our opening.
9/12/2015
Twenty-second meeting - Ben and I re wrote the script, according to feedback, making it simpler and more positively aimed at our point of the documentary. While Aaron did blogwork with feedback and other things etc.
10/12/2015
Twenty-third meeting - Went to record narration in music but the software was broken so we rescheduled to record it on Tuesday. Ben and Aaron did their LAP Charts.
15/12/2015
Twenty-fourth meeting - Got the narration recorded in music whilst the others did blog work, edited along with the new narration getting everything in the right timing and alignment, final checks still needed.
18/12/2015
Twenty-fifth meeting - I finished the final cut and decided I would upload it at home with faster internet and post it on my blog. Then everyone can take the embed code and post it on there blogs along with a lot of other things from my blog.
