Link to video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zs4OS-DS9tU&feature=youtu.be

Evaluation

MOVING IMAGE PRODUCTION NARRATIVE MODULE

EVALUATION PROFORMA

Leon Riley

1. CRITICALLY REFLECT ON YOUR FINISHED FILM AND IT'S STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES - ANALYSE THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WHAT YOU INTENDED TO DO AND WHAT YOU HAVE ACTUALLY ACHIEVED. (APPROX 600 WORDS)

I will start with the strengths of my film starting with perhaps the biggest strength, our main contributor Tacho Franch. He is a tattooist and has over twelve years of experience so we had lots of knowledge and genuine passion to tap into for our interview. I feel that we may have wasted this resource a little as Tacho had travelled all around the world doing Tattoos but we did not get him to go into detail about his travels and tell us stories about his experiences along the way which we could have found really interesting cutaways for in our film. My biggest disappointment in this film is not using Tacho to our full advantage and only really scratching the surface of what he had to say. Tacho did have some very interesting opinions and information to give about tattooing as a whole and his preferences or how he likes to do his job. His Passion was clear to see and the same passion was also visible in one of our interviews with Caroline Beet as she was Tacho’s apprentice and clearly had a lot of passion for what she was doing. I thought that the cinematography in the film was strong and most of it was visually very interest especially because of the interesting characters and location that was very nicely decorated with eye catching objects. The only problem with the cinematography was that one camera died on the day (not the battery it actually broke) and we had to make do with the spare camera giving us less time to get enough nice cutaways causing the variety to be a bit lacking in the final edit. The sound was a clear weakness as we struggled to get clean enough sound with all the background noise in the shop whether it be from the tattoo gun, music or just people talking over the interview. This meant that it could be difficult to hear what people were saying in the interview and this also caused a problem hearing Tacho because of his Argentinean accent. I think one strength of the film was also that it was very watchable as nobody seemed to get bored as it was full of nice aesthetic shots to keep people’s attention and the subjects of our interviews were very interesting people. Our intention was to get a very aesthetically pleasing and bright look to our film which was hindered slightly by us losing the better camera on the day but I think we managed to get a quite nice look to the final film anyway as it was still bright and clear. We intended for the sound to be a lot clearer but unfortunately the microphone we got was simply not up to the job that we intended it for so if we were to do it again we would probably have a clip on microphone. We would also have to ask everybody to be quieter in the shop although we did not want to detract from the general mood and atmosphere of the shop. Overall I think the film was very close to what we intended and for a two person group we did quite successfully shoot both the visual and sound quite well as we had taken on the roles that were supposed to be filled by five and done them as a pair. Another thing I thought was really strong was the opening scene of our film where the camera tracks down towards the shop and ends up on the sign outside with superimposed footage from the film fading in and out over the shot. This is my favourite shot from the film and I think it makes for a strong opening.

2. REVIEW THE PROCESS OF MAKING THE WORK AND WHAT YOU HAVE LEARNT FROM IT. (APPROX 400 WORDS)

During the process of making our work I have found that ensuring that you definitely have your contributor on board is important as we lost our main contributor and had to think of a new idea really quickly. During the process of filming the biggest issue for us would have been the camera breaking but luckily we had a spare and had to adapt and simply use this camera making the shots look the same using colour correction. We have learned since showing our film that during the shoot we should have been more demanding and told the contributors exactly what we wanted from them instead of being too polite and making our film a little bit pedestrian or fly on the wall style. When not having a 2^nd camera to use our two camera set up we had to adapt on the shoot and gather cutaways after interviews had been shot, we have learnt that if we were to do that again we should take notes and then be much more considered in the cutaways that we were collecting. The biggest issue came for us with the editing as we had only two people in our group and neither of us were editors so we were quite new to what we were doing. I cut the film together and then we watched what we had. We then decided to add the interviews from the other tattooists and the small bit from the person Tacho was tattooing. The general opinion on these interviews was that they detracted from what Tacho was saying rather than backing him up so in hindsight we would have just left these interviews out or maybe placed them somewhere else in the film. We also had a lot of trouble exporting so we have had to get help and have learned a lot about the exporting process. The whole editing process in its entirety has been a huge learning curve for us both. If I was to film the whole thing again I would go back and get more considered cutaways and with a bit more luck have two working cameras to get more coverage. I would also get faked shots of Tacho doing his tattoo so that we could record the sound of him speaking without the buzz of the tattoo gun or people talking in the background.   

3. DISCUSS YOUR INDIVIDUAL CONTRIBUTION TO MAKING THE WORK, YOUR APPROACH TO GROUP WORK AND ANY PROBLEMS OR CHALLENGES YOU ENCOUNTERED WORKING AS PART OF A TEAM. (APPROX 400 WORDS)

We worked as a pair to make our film meaning that we shared pretty much every role. I did the bulk of Cinematography and Hannah was doing sound at the same time then during the edit I cut the picture and Hannah edited the sound. We did not have many problems apart from having to multi task and perform so much of the work on our own. I found the Cinematography role quite easy as I have done it many times before but the editing was a problem with my limited experience I did not know how to change the footage into the right format and had to learn to use Mpeg Streamclip. I also had trouble structuring my documentary as I found the editing process quite hard to get my head around with so many different clips in front of me I had forgotten how I had planned them during filming. Hannah is currently doing the sound skills module so she took over the audio aspect of the film leaving me to concentrate purely on the structure and the aesthetics of our film. I did encounter a problem when structuring the film as I did not have a solid starting point and I was overwhelmed by the volume of shots we had and I had no idea of how to file them in a clear order. Another problem with the shooting was that if one of us was busy that meant only one person was free so we couldn’t shoot but on the other hand this also meant that we got a few more opportunities as we did not have to wait for 4/5 people to be free for a shoot. I would say that we shared the producer role as we sorted out getting contributors and equipment together and Hannah compiled short shot lists but the shooting on the day was more organic. The final problem was literally the limitations of the amount of equipment we could book out because we did not have as many people we had to carry as much as we could (tracks, tripod, microphones ect) I also think that the way in which both myself and Hannah could interact with the staff of Follow Your Dreams contributed greatly to the confidence of the interviewees on camera making for much more interesting responses and natural conversation.

4.  WITH REFERENCE TO THE TEXTS GIVEN IN SESSIONS AND THE MATERIALS ON THE READING LIST; REVIEW YOUR APPROACH TO MAKING THE WORK AND LOCATE YOUR PRACTICE WITHIN A THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK. (APPROX 600 WORDS)

My approach to making this piece of work started with simply coming up with the idea for what I wanted to make a documentary about. The initial idea was to interview a busker and find out what motivated him and how the general public perceived him. This idea could not be realised because the contributor pulled out and decided he did not want to be filmed so we had to come up with a completely new idea. To come up with this new idea I tried to think of something local that had caught my interest and stood out as something of interest that I would gladly film. The thing I settled on was a small independent Tattoo shop called Follow Your Dreams which is situated under the Common Room in a small boutique shopping centre called the forum. The work I have done does not really relate heavily theories but practices and styles of documentary film making. It sits somewhere on the line between an informative/expose documentary telling the truth with no bias and a fly on the wall style documentary where the camera is injected into the life of the subject and they are supposed to go about their lives as if it is not there. I think the conversational style of the interviews serves to create the fly on the wall illusion of this documentary but the informative and knowledgeable answers that the contributors give suggest a more serious documentary. In this documentary we have also used a style of interviewing where we ask the questions but cut the interviewer from the final edit so that the person being interviewed has to include the question in their answer as if they are having a conversation with the audience but we made them look slightly off camera as to not make them seem intimidating to the audience as people looking directly down the camera can put people off as it makes them aware that the camera is there. The main thing we wanted to do is capture the essence of this tattoo studio so the fly on the wall style conversation coupled with the bright and aesthetic shooting style was quite successful in doing so as it complements the friendly and happy atmosphere of the studio. 

Why a Tattoo Studio?

While Tattoo studios are not a new and original thing to be covered by a documentary we felt that this Tattoo studio had a unique feel to it diverse from any other Tattoo studio that we had seen before either in person or on TV/documentaries. Specifically because of the unique story behind the owner of the shop Tacho. This is due to his background and history that has led him to owning this shop in Sheffield and the long journey that he has been on. We had hoped to get a more in depth insight into his life but failed to really get enough information out of him on the day and this was due to our interviewing rather than Tacho not being willing to talk about himself or his opinions.

Major Project - Treatment

TREATMENT

Working title: Follow Your Dreams

Length: 5-10 Mins

Format: Documentary

Short synopsis:

What is the film about?

  ‘Follow your dreams’ documents the life in the day of a tattoo studio in Sheffield. It highlights the importance of getting a tattoo that is right for you, as well as focusing on main artists such as ‘Tacho’, whom has travelled the world doing this profession.

Mid-Length synopsis/outline (250 words):

What is the core subject matter of your film? How will the story unfold? What are the themes/issues/arguments you are trying to uncover? Who are the key contributors? What makes them interesting? What will we learn about them? Use visual language the aim is to bring the story alive and the characters off the page.

  The underlining subject matter of the film is the way in which a tattoo can be a piece of art, and portray something meaningful to you. Rather than focusing on why people have tattoos, the 10 minute documentary will focus more on how they are created, following the process through from conception to having one done. The story will unfold through using various interesting images and editing techniques, such as time lapses that demonstrate the day in a life of the ‘Follow Your Dreams’ tattoo studio.

  The core arguments we plan to uncover, is to represent the reasoning behind people having a tattoo, and how it can make them feel. Often, it can give a person confidence, or remind them of a loved one.  The owner of the studio, Tacho Franch, will be a main feature of the film, concentrating on his experience in the field and the way he tattoos. 

  The audience will learn about Tacho Franch’s way of tattooing, through specific interviews, planned to take place whilst he does so. This will demonstrate his method to this form of artwork, and present to the audience something that they may not have personally seen before. Franch’s background in the business is also a key subject, as his 15 years in the field is interesting and establishes his experience. 

  A relaxed and friendly atmosphere that is present from within the studio, will allow the contributors to stand out to the audience, along with the vivid colours and imagery on screen.

Analysis of approach (500 words):

How will you make this film? What will it look and sound like? What is its style? What are the techniques used? What works were inspirational to the film? What works does it resemble? What is its mood? Its ambience?  Demonstrate enthusiasm and a distinctive visual/aural voice here. Include references to TWO films that you have watched as research.

  We will be making this film in a quite close and intimate style where the artists can be closely viewed by the audience and it will give the audience a better chance of connecting with them on an emotional level. The film will look quite bright and natural so that the audience will feel as if they are seeing it from their own point of view, in a similar style to Sign Language – Anthony Gurner (http://vimeo.com/9573920).  This film has a close style and is fun and relatable. 

  As for the sound in the piece, atmos tracks of within the studio will be a predominant aspect, as well as the background music from this space. I also plan to include elements of tracks I feel fit, probably modern music that go with the design of the studio.

  The film will have a relaxed and friendly mood, combined with a fairly edgy atmosphere. Jump cuts will be used to fit with the character and tone of the piece. Vivid colours will help demonstrate the style of tattoos the studio tends to design, as well as form a visually pleasing look for the audience. 

  ‘Exit Through the Gift Shop’ by Banksy, is a good example for the relatively gritty style to the film. Hand-held footage is used a lot within this particular piece and I think that this is something that will work well in our own. It’s interesting and memorable ending shot of the wall being knocked down provides a good metaphor for Banksy’s thoughts on Mister Brainwash’s artwork. I think that the subtle humor in this film keeps it light-hearted and easy to watch - something that I think is essential for our film.

  The ‘characters’ in our film will be what entertains the audience and keep them involved in the film. Tacho Franch is an interesting character that has been through a journey as part of his career, where he has visited many countries. Interviews with him will expand on this and inform the audience on his travels.

Filmmaker biography (50-100 words) :

What kind of documentary maker or filmmaker are you? What are the themes in your work? How do you approach work? Do you have any awards?

As a film maker I want these documentaries to be quite light hearted and approachable for the audience but not pointless… they should have a serious undertone but approached in an easily digestible and un offensive manner. Themes in my work include a lot of handheld as I like the close personal feel of it as the audience can feel as if they are actually there and not just watching from a camera fixed to a tripod. Audience engagement is very important to me in every film I make, even documentaries. I approach work in quite a relaxed manner and try to make the entire cast/crew feel comfortable as being too serious can intimidate people and stifle them when we go to film.  

Influence

We have been influenced in our visual style in a small amount by documentaries such as "fifty people one question"

The shallow focus and high exposure make for a very aesthetic shot also creating a good mood that reflects the atmosphere of the tattoo studio. This idea was key for us as we wanted to visual style of our film to directly reflect the mood of the studio and knowing what the studio would be like beforehand made it easier to research ways in which we could achieve this.

Hannah also found an effect called the Ken Burns effects which she wanted to try to replicate in our film so I had a look at the pictures and figured out how to replicate this. Unfortunately the better camera died on the day and was beyond repair (some kind of internal fault) and we had to use the back-up meaning we could not do as good a job of replicating the effect but did the best we could with high exposure and shallow focus.

Filming style

We will be adoping the same style as we did for the poetic film with the black and white being used to focus the audiences attention on key details and to really allow the viewer to make a connection to what they are seeing. We will be filming in quite high exposure to relate to the bright and friendly atmosphere of the store as I believe that if we were to shoot the film and make it look too dark it would not accurately reflect the mood of the store and the people in the forum.

We want to interview the people in the forum but not just show them being interviewed, hopefully the footage we get will compliment the answers that the tattooist gives so that we can give the viewer more to look at as a lot of the tattoo designs are very interesting, especially Tacho the owner who often does full body colour tattoos that are incredibly intricate and vibrant, which should be very interesting for the audience to look at.

I watched a documentary last night (Dogging Tales) and the interviewing style in this was so tedious even though it was about a strangely engaging subject... often the interviewer would ask questions such as: "What have you got there?" about an inane object such as a deoderant spray and this has made me certain that I do not want to include the questions asked in the documentary but let the interviewer tell the audience what question they are answering by dropping it into their reply.

The sound may be an issue when filming as the needles do make a lot of noise so making sure that we use the microphones properly is very important otherwise we will not be able to hear what people are saying. We will also get a seperate recording of the atmosphere and add it to the interviews but a lot quieter that it actually is so that you can still get a feel for the store without the sound overwhelming the interviews.

10 minute documentary

After losing the person that was going to be our main focus of the ten minute film we have decided to come up with a whole new idea rather than a diluted version of the idea we already had. We had to think of something interesting or different for our documentary and decided to research the different stores in the forum underneath the common room on division street. I had visited this place before and knew that the tattoo shop had very friendly and interesting staff each with interesting stories and all very talented at what they do. We got the contact details of all of the shops in the forum and then went there to speak to the different owners to see who would be up for being filmed and the tattoo shop "Follow your dreams" said they would love to and to pop in after a few weeks when the redecorating was done. The owner of the shop is originally from South America and has travelled the world tattoo for a number of years so we thought that he would have a lot of interesting stuff to say about the subject as he would have learned about tattooing in many different cultures. We are aware that a lot of films cover this subject so we want to try to make this stand out by having these very out of the ordinary tattooists in an equally out of the ordinary location. (in a basement boutique under a pub)

All of the shops in the forum are small independant shops so the owners and staff all know each other and help each other out which makes for a friendly atmosphere and the kind of working environment that is becoming rare at present.

2 minute film: treatment

Working title: A Busks Life

Length: 5-10 Mins

Format: Documentary

Hook or tag line:

Short synopsis (25-50 words):

What is the film about?

This film is about the daily lives of Buskers in the city centre of Sheffield. We hope to find out what motivates these people to busk in Sheffield and also hopefully challenge peoples perception of what a busker does and why they do it.

Mid-Length synopsis/outline (250 words):

What is the core subject matter of your film? How will the story unfold? What are the themes/issues/arguments you are trying to uncover? Who are the key contributors? What makes them interesting? What will we learn about them? Use visual language the aim is to bring the story alive and the characters off the page.

The core subject matter of this film is finding out what it is like to be a Busker and we are also hoping to uncover ties between busking and being homeless as it seems to be a necessity to make money for some people. The main theme of the documentary will be showing the motivation for individual buskers and also challenge people’s perception of buskers as we feel they get a slightly bad press. Our Key contributor so far is one busker who we have spoken to a couple of times and are making the focus of our poetic documentary; he is very entertaining to speak to and clearly an interesting character so there is potential for him to be the focus of our ten minute documentary as well. I spoke to him on my own and asked him a few questions just to get an idea of what it would be like to interview him and his answer to “What makes you come out here and do this?” Was that he just wanted to make people happy and he that he was most confident in his ability with the tambourine. I thought this was a very heart-warming and funny response and hopefully his answers to all of my questions will be similar. Hopefully we will learn a lot about this person and how the general public perceives him as he is quite a quirky character.

Analysis of approach (500 words):

How will you make this film? What will it look and sound like? What is its style? What are the techniques used? What works were inspirational to the film? What works does it resemble? What is its mood? Its ambience?  Demonstrate enthusiasm and a distinctive visual/aural voice here. Include references to TWO films that you have watched as research.

We will be making this film in a quite close and intimate style where the buskers can be closely viewed by the audience and it will give the audience a better chance of connecting with them on an emotional level. The film will look quite bright and natural so that the audience will feel as if they are seeing it from their own point of view, in a similar style to Sign Language – Anthony Gurner (http://vimeo.com/9573920). I like the close style of this film and how fun and relatable the main focus of the film is, the style works really well to make the audience connect with the protagonist. The sound in the film will mostly be backed by the music of the Busker(s) that we are talking to and then their responses to our questions on top of that. I want to cut out the sound of us asking questions to it appears that the focus of the interviews are just talking about their lives and speaking directly to the audience, sort of breaking the fourth wall like Ferris Buellers Day Off but without it being scripted. Sort of in the style of “Fifty People One Question” – Galvea Kelly(http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=GnLiLZnnx3I#!) where the people being interviewed will repeat the question back to the camera so that the audience knows what the person is talking about and it also feels natural, flowing like a conversation. Technically this film will be quite simple, mostly handheld with lots of establishing shots and footage of the general public responding to the buskers. In the two minute film we will only be filming the pedestrians whenever the focus of the documentary is singing/playing his instruments and only cut to him when he is not speaking, perhaps just smiling in order to fit the brief and make it a bit more poetic. The inspiration for this film is just seeing one busker in the city centre and thinking that he was so entertaining that he deserved to have a film made about him. He sings happy (not very good but very joyful) songs and plays random instruments but clearly does not know how to play them but he laughs and smiles the whole time and it makes him really entertaining and fun. We have also thought that a lot of people busk for money so the documentary might uncover a more serious reason for these people to have to busk. The film should resemble the two short films that I have referenced earlier with a light hearted and cheerful mood but with the possibility of serious undertones depending on the motivation of the buskers.

Filmmaker biography (50-100 words) :

What kind of documentary maker or filmmaker are you? What are the themes in your work? How do you approach work? Do you have any awards?

As a film maker I want these documentaries to be quite light hearted and approachable for the audience but not pointless… they should have a serious undertone but approached in an easily digestible and un offensive manner. Themes in my work include a lot of handheld as I like the close personal feel of it as the audience can feel as if they are actually there and not just watching from a camera fixed to a tripod. Audience engagement is very important to me in every film I make, even documentaries. I approach work in quite a relaxed manner and try to make the entire cast/crew feel comfortable as being too serious can intimidate people and stifle them when we go to film.  

Editing the Poetic Documentary

When we had got the footage we wanted which comprised of about 5 different songs by Max and multiple angles to work with it was simply a case of picking out favorite songs and trying to mix them well with the close up angles we had. We wanted to get a few songs in so that the film did not just turn into an arty music video as well. We had plenty of footage collected even if the variety was not that much so we used the best of the close ups and our favorite songs from the filming. If I was to do it again I would have used more of the footage of people walking by, perhaps sped up as I tried to do this before but the film went all jagged and was not nice to look at, I could not work out what technical fault this was. I think more of this and less of seeing Max play music would have helped drive the point and make the film a bit more interesting to watch as there would be more to look at.

What we actually got and why

After we had spent a few weeks trying to find our busker and having no luck, either just missing him or he had not been turning up to play his music for a few weeks we finally found him outside Mothercare in Sheffield but when we went over, with all of our equipment ready to film he suddenly decided that he did not want to be filmed anymore. The busker had decided that he did not want any extra attention as people had made facebook and twitter groups about him and he did not like it so with less than a week left to film we went to find another busker and stumbled upon a singer/songwriter called Max. We decided to take the style that we had planned for our initial idea but instead use it on Max, with the slow black and white sections to focus the viewers attention and also eliminate sync sound issues. We did not interview him as in the poetic documentary we figured his songs would form the rhythm that would be required to make it poetic and the main focus of what we wanted to get across was peoples perceptions of the busker. We did this by showing wide shots of the city going by and ignoring him completely while he was busy playing his songs but at the end luckily a small child turned up and was fascinated by the busker and we managed to catch this on film. I think that scene in the film shows how not everybody just ignores buskers and the family were in fact cheered up by Max's music. The main point of interest with what we wanted to do with the buskers was document or perhaps change peoples perceptions of buskers and what they do and I believe that this film and specifically that scene did show that even if it was very rushed.

Our Documentary

We have got an idea to do a documentary about busking in Sheffield and challenge peoples perceptions of what a busker actually is and why they choose to busk. This idea came to us when we both walked past a busker in the city centre playing music quite badly but singing along happily and putting a smile on the face of every passer by. We both immediately wanted to make a documentary about this man so we began the planning. I went and found him and spoke to him about the possibility of being in a film and he was really positive about the idea, excited in fact and then I went again to find him with Hannah to finalise the discussion and find out when he would be able to make the film. After speaking with him we have noticed that he has a very friendly and likable personality so we want the interview him and then use his responses as voice over, with his music in the background as well and just film the reaction of people passing by him on the street, showing them smiling/reacting to his music. It will be fairly simple to film this documentary as we have two cameras and will be able to interview the busker using a marantz then cut the sound and footage together to make something that should come off as quite poetic. The aim for me is for this documentary to show that the busker is not just being annoying and loud but has a reason to be where he is and hopefully this will change the perceptions of the viewers and cheer them up a little.

2 Minute Poetic Documentary

There are many ways in which you can make a documentary from investigative documentaries such as Louis Theroux (in which he also takes a participatory role and does not just sit back like other investigative documentaries such as Africa where the film maker sits back and lets the events unfold) Within all these different types of documentaries are also different ways of approach meaning that you can actually be very creative with something that would normally be associated with being purely factual, a good example of this would be a documentary winning a BAFTA last year "Senna" which was sold as a film to the public as it was very entertaining. The approach we will be taking for this assignment is a poetic one which is not very common in mainstream documentaries but also not un-heard of. The British Documentary Movement had used poetic documentary but this was quite early last century meaning that Poetic documentary has seemingly phased out, saying that from the small clips we have seen it can still be a very effective way of communicating with the audience and perhaps engaging them on a higher level than just presenting them with facts as poems/lyrics can often evoke emotions in the audience.