Production Update

Today I filmed a short interview of Emma in the car. I wanted for it to appear Emma was on the way to an appearance. Here I asked her to discuss with the audience the bane of travelling although it is an essential part to her career. I plan to edit this footage with the videos of roads which I previously filmed. I felt it was important to add this aspect into the documentary as it portrays Emma to still be a normal girl although she has a successful music career. In addition I also took this opportunity to film more establishing shots of the road from a different angle to previously; this time I filmed the shots from the side of the car opposed to straight on. This means I am slightly ahead of schedule.
       

 

Updated Practical Production Schedule

Below is my updated pracitcal production schedule. The due date of the final production was delayed by one week so this enabled me to add finishing touches to my work e.g. refilm any shots or voiceovers. I am able to now catch up as I was previously delayed due to the interferance of other subjects, and not being able to film when said.

Production Update

Today I focused my time  on finalizing the editing of my footage so far, so at this stage I was able to see if I needed to film any additional footage in order to make my documentary extract complete. This editing included the addition of titles such as 'Anais and Amy, Emma's Best friends' so the audience is aware who these characters are, as well as titles I had to chose the opening titles to use at the beginning and select a production company to use. I made the decision to use 'Vertigo Films' as this is considered to be a more urban company; I felt this was suitable to produce my documentary as Emma is currently an up and coming artist as opposed to be mainstream superstar. After editing all the footage I had by adding non-diegetic soundtracks, cutting clips and adjusting sound levels; I made the decision to film some additional establishing shots which could be used if needed.

Production Update

Today I made the decision to film some interviews both in school and at home with Emma's friends and manager. Firstly i filmed the interview with Anais and Amy two of Emma's best friends. Here I used a tripod and set up the scene to be a talking heads interview. Here both Anais and Amy discussed how long they have been friend's with Emma and how they know her. Similarly this is what I asked Liam Hurley (Emma's manager) to say; including his thoughts on her as an artist and hopes for her future. Whilst at school and had access to the music block I took close up shots of interaction with different instruments which could be used if any gaps needed filling with additional footage. Instrumentals included the piano and guitar. 

At this stage after collecting the majority of my footage I have made the choice not to focus my documentary on the swimming aspect of Emma's career as I felt it didn't fit in the genre of my footage and wasn't a crucial aspect to my film. I also felt I was too ambitious with the type of footage which I had hoped to collect e.g. I hoped to achieve under water shots however I didn't have the correct equipment to do so.

Target Audience

When creating my documentary I had to ensure I was able to understand the audience demographic; this helped me to understand who my documentary should be targeted at and what elements I should include in order to present this. After conducting research I made the final decision to produce a documentary on an up and coming performer in the industry, documentaries which inspired me to make this decision included ‘JLS Revealed’ ‘1D One Direction: This is Us’ and ‘Justin Bieber: Never Say Never’. My documentary focuses on a young teenage girl inspired by to follow her ambition of becoming a performer, therefore I feel the target audience of this documentary will be very similar to the audience of Emma herself. Theoretically I believe Emma’s audience would be teenage girls who inspire very much to be like her. A number of artists in the music industry I feel Emma’s character can be equated to is Ariana Grande, Ellie Goulding and Ella Henderson. The idea of the documentary is to inform Emma’s fan base about her past life and her journey to get to the position in which she is in today; in addition to this I hope it inspires her fans and creates a larger fan circle and makes Emma appear as a more up and coming artist. These are the reasons why I feel targeting the documentary at this demographic is crucial for the success of the film.

The main primary audience I am focusing on is teenagers both males/females aged between 12-19; however I am specifically targeting females due to the fact Emma herself is a female and I feel she would be a more influential figure to people of the same sex as her. There is no specific social group/ethnicity that the documentary will be intended for as every person has an ambition despite their status and race. I hope as well as the primary audience this documentary would attract people from other ages and gender who show an interest in performing and the music industry. The secondary audience for this documentary would be people who watch this documentary with the primary audience; therefore in this case it might be friends, boyfriends, family members who are interested in this documentary from word of the youth.  In my opinion I think this film will essentially attract the middle/higher class as opposed to the lower class. If the documentary was first aired during prime time I feel this documentary would gain more popularity/recognition as this is the most popular time television is watched and when the most prevalent programmes are shown. It would be at a time when teenagers won't be at school/college and are most likely to be at home in order to watch this documentary.    

In terms of social grades I feel I am targeting people who fall under the C1 and C2 category as teenagers don’t tend to have a substantial income and watching a television documentary at home is something all can participate in despite their possible lack of money.  Or on the other hand if this film was to be released in cinemas it is a cheap activity to do with your friends and there are many cinemas surrounding peoples local areas. At this age any money that is earnt through a part time job can be spent on leisure activities as opposed to the working class and home owners who have to deal with bills and mortgages. In my opinion C1 and C2 are appropriate categories as when Emma progresses as a performer she may release merchandise and commercial products which would increase her status in the industry, these products I feel would appeal to a younger age category opposed to the older. Overall I feel the audience would be classed as spectators as they should all are interested in her performances. Finally hypothetically I feel my target audience would all have similar common interests to each other and to Emma herself; these interests would include fashion, make up and music. By pursuing my documentary at teenagers who have collective interests would hopefully enhance the popularity of my documentary as its more likely to be enjoyable for all the demographics in this specific category.     

First Cut Prodcution and Feedback

When exporting my first cut of my production from Adobe Premiere I was faced with a number of issues. It failed to export my whole production and when it did errors occurred (which can be seen in this clip). This meant it was difficult for me to receive feedback from my teacher and other peers as there wasn't a lot of footage to show. I now believe I am at a disadvantage as due to these technical problems I am unaware how to go forward with my project and what improvements could be made. Moving forward I am going to continue to work on my production the way I had initially planned to.   

Production Update

Today I filmed a series of shots on the road. These are to be used to feature when Emma is being interviewed on the way to her song recording. It was proven difficult to get the camera to remain in a fixed position, however was done in the end. I needed to film a variety of locations so was prepared to drive to busy environments. Once these were filmed I uploaded them on the computer and converted them to MP4 files using programme 'Format Factory' I then made the decision to increase the speed duration by 1600% making the journey appear to be rapid. On the right is an example of the edited footage. Today our first cut was initially due however the date has been extended to Wednesday 22nd October. This gives me more time to edit the footage I have already obtained and make the first cut appear as successful as it could possibly be, in order for me to receive feedback from my peers and teacher.