Final Cut Production

Production Update

Today I continued to edit my production at this stage the majority of the editing had been done and I just had to spend time perfecting each clip. This included adjusting the sound levels making sure that the non-diegetic and diegetic sound was balanced and all speech was clear and easy to understand. I done this by adjusting the sound levels on each individual clip. At this point it was evident that my 'Voice of God' voiceover was too quiet as it failed to sound loud enough even when the volume was maximised. To solve this I re-recorded my voiceover. When I previously went to record my voiceover I was certain I was certain a males voice would suit better than a females however when re filming I made the decision to use a females voice. This appeared to be more enthusiastic making the documentary appear as more authentic. Once this was edited I exported my production ready to present on Friday.

Below is my newly recording voiceover:

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.

 

In-depth Documentary Analysis: Justin Bieber Never Say Never

Justin Bieber: Never Say Never is a documentary directed by Jon M. Chu. It was released in cinemas in the United States and Canada on February 11^th 2011. Many production companies were involved in the creation of the documentary including MTV Films, Scoot Braun Films and Insurge Pictures and it was eventually distributed by Paramount Pictures. The budget of the film was $13 million and at the film broke even and at the box office made a total of $99,036,827. The film follows the young pop star Justin Bieber during 10 days in the count down to his biggest performance, that of August 31, 2010 in Madison Square Gardens, which completely sold out in 22 minutes. We see footage of past performances, interviews with family members and good friends.

 

The documentary opens with various shots of a computer browsing through emails and YouTube videos, we are then shown the original home footage of Justin Bieber performing ‘Chris Brown’ with you the song which made him famous. A sound bridge is then created as the vocals from the YouTube video are played as a non-diegetic soundtrack over footage of Justin Bieber where he is today. This technique is very powerful as it creates a contrast of what Justin once aspired to be and now what he has become. By switching between old and new footage makes it very clear to the audience that is the same person. From the new footage which we are provided with we can see that Bieber has become a success and has in fact achieved his dreams; through the use of Bathes action and Enigma codes this is emphasises. Showing the original clip of the home footage of Justin (archive footage) tells the audience this has been a passion of his from a very young age.

I have chosen to replicate the narrative structure of this particular documentary not only through generic documentary conventions, but also through the addition of narrative theorists. Todorov’s narrative theory includes 5 clear stages which focus on the equilibrium and disequilibrium. The equilibrium of this documentary shows Justin at the very beginning of his aspiring career, the documentary then develops and shows Justin’s journey which he had to undergo in order to get signed, and the issues he faced within the music industry. Following Todorov’s theory the documentary then looks at Justin as he prepares to perform at Madison Square Gardens. The final new equilibrium shows Justin performing at the most famous arena in the world and has in fact fought to the top.

In addition to Todorov’s theory there is also clear indication of Propps character types which drive the narrative ahead. In this documentary Justin appears to be the hero in this situation as he is the character that the fans love and fantasise. The villain in this case would the media and production companies who aren’t followers of his music and him himself; however this documentary doesn’t necessarily focus on the negative aspects of Justin’s careers. There are a number of donors and helpers within this documentary who have contributed to the success of his career including Usher and Scooter Braun. The blend of a strong narrative, narrative theories and generic documentary techniques is what contribute to the success of the film as well as the visual footage
 

 

Production Update

Today I began to edit the interviews of Emma which I previously filmed this included cutting each individual clip and editing them together. At particular points of the interview I overlapped the  'talking heads' with the overlay of images and videos which related to the subject matter of Emma's speech. Once I was happy with my editing and believed it was to a good standard I done some research on YouTube to find a non-diegetic soundtrack which I believe would correspond well with the on screen interview. I felt it was important that the soundtrack didn't take away the viewers attention from the interview itself as this was evidently the essential bit to clip. I looked at a variety of songs from different artists and genres and narrowed down my choices to two songs.  

Two songs which I was keen on adding to my documentary as the non-diegetic soundtrack to Emma's Interviews are below:

Title: Halo
Artist: Beyonce
Duration: 3.45 minutes
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnVUHWCynig


Title: Say Something
Artist: A Great Big World (ft. Christina Aguilera)
Duration: 3.52 minutes
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2U0Ivkn2Ds

 

Production Update

Today I was initially planned to edit however I felt I was up to date with where I needed to be at this particular time; therefore I made the decision to choose the titles which would appear in my production.  When choosing the opening titles for my documentary I already had a clear idea what I wanted to produce from previous research. Documentary ‘JLS Revealed’ uses hand written inspired font to break up scenes which was an idea I was keen to use from the start. Once I chose this font I edited it on Adobe Premiere. I placed this text onto a paper background so the font appeared to be handwritten.

Once the opening titles font was decided I had to choose on what font to use throughout the rest of my documentary for nametags etc. After experimenting with a variety of different types of font including both serif and san serif which appeared in bold and italic I made the final decision to use font ‘pencilPete’ which I had previously downloaded from the internet.  The colours I focused on were monotone as I didn’t want to distract the viewers’ attention away from the visual footage for too long and for it to overpower it.  In my opinion the titles I have selected follow the documentary stereotypes as it can be associated with the content e.g. my documentary focuses on a young girl who is chasing her ambition in the world. This font can provide a deeper meaning saying how Emma herself isn’t a perfected artist yet.   

Production Update

I recorded my Voice of God voiceover for my documentary. When casting the role of this voiceover I had a vivid idea in my head that I wanted the voice to be of a males. Male voiceovers are a common convention of real life documentaries and this was one I wished to follow. A member of my family was happy to do this as they were provided with a script on what needed to be said.

Below is my Voice of God voiceover which I will be using in my documentary 

Production Update

Today I made the decision to re-film the interviews which I filmed on 26th September as once uploading them on the computer and watching the footage in depth, I didn't feel the footage was strong enough for a number of reasons. When previously interviewing Emma I didn't write a script for her to follow. I provided her with subjects areas e.g. how you became famous etc. however I feel some subjects enough detail wasn't provided by Emma so this was considered to be an issue. Another problem I felt was the quality of footage didn't appear as high as it should have been. These are the reasons alone why I felt the need to re-film these particular interviews. When filming this time not only did I provide Emma with subject titles but I gave her a few points to include, this made her response appear as more in-depth and increased the realism of the answer.

Production Update

Today I took the opportunity to film interviews with Emma's fans. I went to an open location and planned to ask random members of the public; however when we went there there wasn't many people about and people we approached refused to be filmed or didnt have the time to stop. This meant I was only able to film my friends who were with me at the current time. When I returned home I also filmed members of my family which meant I got a range of different type of people including both males and females of different ages. My question to the audience was 'Describe Emma in one word'. Once edited it will create a montage of postive describing words about Emma as a performer. Today I didn't collect enough footage as there wasn't a wide rang of people who were approachable. This means I will have to film more interviews, I am considering visiting the location I previously did at a different time or moving to a different location which is considerd to be busier. I was initally planned to edit footage today but I had previously done so, therefore this is why I took the opportunity to do some extra filming. This puts me in a strong position as I am slightly ahead of schedule.

Production Update

Today I was initially planning to edit footage I had filmed over the weekend, however both me and Emma weren't able to film therefore this wasn't able to happen. Therefore today I made the decision to write a rough script for my non-diegetic (Voice of God) soundtrack. This script was greatly inspired by the opening scene of 2010 film 'Street Dance' starring Nichola Burley. I felt the opening sequence came across very powerful. The genre and concept of this film can be associated with mine as both are about performers chasing their dreams. Below is an example of the script which will be given by my main character Emma Custis describing as opposed to a narrator. 

Production Update

Example of home videos 

Today I was planning to film short snippets of Emma performing, including swimming, acting and singing, however at this stage I didn't feel this was essential. Instead I watched a series of Emma's home videos and selected ones which I felt portrayed my character in the correct way. Finding the correct videos to use took a long period of time as in total there were 10 DVDs which were all approximately 1 hour long. Once I found the correct video clips to use I had to save the DVD footage as an MP4 file so I was able to edit them accordingly in Adobe Premiere. I used several programs which weren't successful including 'Format Factory' and 'Lifehacker'  this wasted a lot of effort and time; however in the end 'Handbrake'. I was planning to do this task on 12th October, however I felt it was important to do it at this stage as I needed this footage in order to complete my opening scene of my sequence.
I was successful converting the videos using

 

Production Update

Today I was scheduled to add a non-diegetic soundtrack to my production, however I had enough time to do this on Wednesday. This meant I was in a position where I was ahead of my practical production schedule; therefore today I made the decison to film. I had originally planned to film an interview with Emma on 5th October however as I am slightly ahead of schedule I made the decision to do so today. The interview intailed Emma telling the audience/viewers what inspired her to perform and how she got into the position where she was. This is only one of the interviews I plan to record, others include her thanking her fans and her thoughts/feelings about her new single release. I continue to be ahead of schedule which puts me at an advantage as I now have more time to perfect editing. As well as filming I also converted my files to MP4 via Format Factory. 

Production Update

Example of zoomed image

Today I edited the images I collected of Emma together. I have them featuring on the screen for approximately half a second and then switching to the next. These images I feel represent Emma as a performing very clearly as the images are all associated with her ambitious career. Some images I have edited some that they zoom in, these are mainly on group images so that they zoom in and focus solely on Emma’s face. I got this task done a lot quicker than planning to so I was able to add a non-diegetic soundtrack today instead of when I was planning too. I made the decision to add the soundtrack of ‘Chrystal Fighters- Plage’ as I believed it worked well with the images. This means I am ahead of schedule; this puts me at an advantage as I now have more of an opportunity to edit. 

Below is a sample of the song I am using in my documentary: 

 

 

Production Update

Today I collected a variety of images for my opening scene of my documentary, this involved looking through old photo albums and social networking sites including Twitter and Facebook. The images featured Emma at different ages performing. All images are associated with either acting, swimming or singing which is the focus of my documentary therefore are all valid to feature. From showing images of Emma at different ages emphasises how this has been a long ambition of hers, which is a technique similar documentaries use for example, JLS Revealed and 1D One Direction: This Is Us. This means I am on schedule which is a positive.