We had two professional film makers come in to talk to us about making short documentaries. They showed us their films and we spoke on them.
We then pitched some of our rough ideas to them.
The feedback i got for my ideas were that it needed:
- More of a story line
- Some sort of problem
- A main issue to address and eventually resolve
- More thought into why to make the film
- More of a meaning and a message behind it
Wednesday, 10 December 2014
Wednesday, 3 December 2014
Friday, 28 November 2014
Recce Report
Name of location
Fulborn Hospital
Physical Location
Description of location
There were a few issues with sound to begin with, as I was trying to record outdoor sound there was a building site just next door so I was unable to gain a clean sounding ambience. When I was filming inside the building there wasn't much light coming through the windows as it was grey outside. I was only really able to film on wednesdays as that was when the recovered group was on. And I had to select times to film for the consent forms so i only chose wednesdays. So that limited me slightly.
Pictures of the location
A floor plan or map of the location
Fulborn Hospital
Physical Location
Description of location
There were a few issues with sound to begin with, as I was trying to record outdoor sound there was a building site just next door so I was unable to gain a clean sounding ambience. When I was filming inside the building there wasn't much light coming through the windows as it was grey outside. I was only really able to film on wednesdays as that was when the recovered group was on. And I had to select times to film for the consent forms so i only chose wednesdays. So that limited me slightly.
Pictures of the location
A floor plan or map of the location
Wednesday, 26 November 2014
Treatment
The Recovered
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Length and other technicalities
10 minutes and 57 seconds.
Synopsis
Synopsis
“The
Recovered” is a community Music Therapy project essentially consisting of a
working rock band that does everything a rock band does ie rehearse and perform
and we are also intending to record. The
band is made up of staff members and services users who collaborate together on
the general work of the band. The
therapeutic aims derive mostly from Social Therapy where group collaboration, freedom, activity
and responsibility are the key concepts.
In essence the work is designed to facilitate the transformation of
shame into confidence. Shame is an
unfortunate and powerful affect in the suffering associated with mental health
problems (including, in particular, social stigma) and working and performing
is a therapeutic way of effecting positive change. Needles to say the challenges of
collaborative working in a band are many and solving musical problems with
participants engages all members in systems of dialogue, sharing and
communication.
The themes and concept of the film
The concept of the recovered as a group is designed to facilitate the transformation from shame into confidence. The key concepts that come from social therapy are group collaboration, freedom, activity and responsibility. The concept of the film is to put these ideas across and raise the idea that there are other methods of therapy than just medication. The theme of the film is very musical. It's more no the musical side than the technical, psychological side of things.
An outline of the target audience
The film really doesn't have a specific target audience, just like most short documentaries; they are aimed at anyone who is interested in the subject. And that can range very dramatically. It can be aimed at line managers within the NHS to promote the Arts therapies.
Contact Details
email: edwynjohn@hotmail.co.uk
mobile: 07769173716
An outline of the target audience
The film really doesn't have a specific target audience, just like most short documentaries; they are aimed at anyone who is interested in the subject. And that can range very dramatically. It can be aimed at line managers within the NHS to promote the Arts therapies.
Contact Details
email: edwynjohn@hotmail.co.uk
mobile: 07769173716
Wednesday, 8 October 2014
Tuesday, 23 September 2014
Developing Ideas
Log Line: An inside look into my Dad's music therapy group, The Recovered.
Synopsis: An inside look into a practice session with the band 'The Recovered'. I will look into the reasons behind the band and what thoughts and views on the band people have. I will interview the staff and the patients to get a deeper insight into why they do it. I hope to dig up some interesting ideas surrounding the group while also conveying the band's mentality.
Monday, 22 September 2014
Narrative Structure
There are a few things that make the narrative of a film or documentary's structure. Normally it is either a classic Hollywood structure or a 3 act narrative structure.
The Hollywood structure consists of:
- Exposition
- Development
- Complication
- Climax
- Resolution
The three act structure consists of:
- Equilibrium
- Disequilibrium
- New equilibrium
The narrative throughout a story is what keeps everything flowing and links things together the events. Whereas the story are the things that actually happen. The difference between story and narrative basically is that the story tells the audience what happens but the narrative strings the events together in (most of the time) a chronological order.
When a narrative structure isn't strung together in chronological order it is called a non-linear structure.
An example of this style of work is Pulp Fiction. In pulp fiction the beginning of the film ends up being the very end of the film. Each scene is rumbled up in a random order but it all gets strung together towards the end of the film.
Diagram illustrating a classic Hollywood narrative structure:
Diagram illustrating the narrative structure of Pulp Fiction (Tarantino 1995)
The Hollywood structure consists of:
- Exposition
- Development
- Complication
- Climax
- Resolution
The three act structure consists of:
- Equilibrium
- Disequilibrium
- New equilibrium
The narrative throughout a story is what keeps everything flowing and links things together the events. Whereas the story are the things that actually happen. The difference between story and narrative basically is that the story tells the audience what happens but the narrative strings the events together in (most of the time) a chronological order.
When a narrative structure isn't strung together in chronological order it is called a non-linear structure.
An example of this style of work is Pulp Fiction. In pulp fiction the beginning of the film ends up being the very end of the film. Each scene is rumbled up in a random order but it all gets strung together towards the end of the film.
Diagram illustrating a classic Hollywood narrative structure:
Diagram illustrating the narrative structure of Pulp Fiction (Tarantino 1995)
.jpeg)
Friday, 12 September 2014
We Are Legion: The Story Of The Hacktivists (Director: Brian Knappenberger)
This is the link to the trailer for 'We Are Legion':
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0IDkzhBQMg
And the full film is available on Netflix.
-Anonymous are a group of hackers that work around publicity stunts and distributed denial of service which is basically where a large group of hackers all disturb a single domain so it is unaccessible to whoever wants to access it.
They have become very well known from all the stunts they have pulled in the past few years.
They have had a lot of mixed responses. It was a love-hate sort of thing. The government, obviously, absolutely hated them but they also had a huge following of other hackers, 'trolls', geeks and nerds that all loved what they were doing and wanted to join in on the movement.
Narrative
-The film begins with an explanation of where and how the group, Anonymous started, along with how they achieved the things they did.
It starts with a lot of background information which gives it a very informative start. This engages the viewer to find out more.
There is also a lot of history behind how they got very well known.
-Through pretty much all of the film the narrative is being driven and strung together by archive footage/ or photos and talking head interviews. There is always someone talking during whatever is being shown on screen.
There is occasionally original footage of protests and marches but they are normally focused on talking head interviews.
There is also music being played quietly in the background and it always fits the scene of whats going on so its either suspenseful and tense or its uplifting and inspiring.
The very serious and intense interviews with the very relative and strong archive footage build a feeling of exciting suspense throughout the film.
The agency is a series of previous happenings which gives the audience a feeling that there will be an ultimatum at some point towards the end of the film and they way the events are talked about and strung together give the film the narrative.
Genre
-The genre of the film is documentary but it is circled around political war against the people and the government. Anonymous are basically seen as anarchist rebels that want to bring down the government through their hacking abilities. It raises a lot of serious issues. In the UK hacking has been deemed upon as a very serious crime and no one is supporting it. It is just as serious if not more in the US but they have a following which is why it has raised such a controversial argument.
Characters
-There a lot of characters in the film that are basically taking it in turns to give information on the same subject. This is effective as you get a range of opinions and ideas from different people. It also keeps it interesting because if it was just one person talking about each event that happens you would end up growing tired of them.
There are a lot of characters but some of them appear to stand out as more important to the subject. Throughout the film we are introduced to characters that were actually heavily involved in what was going on and some have just followed them and looked into it or know a lot about the movement.
The film follows quite a serious series of events. The characters add to this idea with very serious tones however they all still seem proud and happy to have done what they did.
Editing
The majority of the film is made up of archive footage and talking head interviews. It is what strings the narrative together. In terms of editing there are various fill in shots of animated statistic diagrams giving information on the subject.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0IDkzhBQMg
And the full film is available on Netflix.
-Anonymous are a group of hackers that work around publicity stunts and distributed denial of service which is basically where a large group of hackers all disturb a single domain so it is unaccessible to whoever wants to access it.
They have become very well known from all the stunts they have pulled in the past few years.
They have had a lot of mixed responses. It was a love-hate sort of thing. The government, obviously, absolutely hated them but they also had a huge following of other hackers, 'trolls', geeks and nerds that all loved what they were doing and wanted to join in on the movement.
Narrative
-The film begins with an explanation of where and how the group, Anonymous started, along with how they achieved the things they did.
It starts with a lot of background information which gives it a very informative start. This engages the viewer to find out more.
There is also a lot of history behind how they got very well known.
-Through pretty much all of the film the narrative is being driven and strung together by archive footage/ or photos and talking head interviews. There is always someone talking during whatever is being shown on screen.
There is occasionally original footage of protests and marches but they are normally focused on talking head interviews.
There is also music being played quietly in the background and it always fits the scene of whats going on so its either suspenseful and tense or its uplifting and inspiring.
The very serious and intense interviews with the very relative and strong archive footage build a feeling of exciting suspense throughout the film.
The agency is a series of previous happenings which gives the audience a feeling that there will be an ultimatum at some point towards the end of the film and they way the events are talked about and strung together give the film the narrative.
Genre
-The genre of the film is documentary but it is circled around political war against the people and the government. Anonymous are basically seen as anarchist rebels that want to bring down the government through their hacking abilities. It raises a lot of serious issues. In the UK hacking has been deemed upon as a very serious crime and no one is supporting it. It is just as serious if not more in the US but they have a following which is why it has raised such a controversial argument.
Characters
-There a lot of characters in the film that are basically taking it in turns to give information on the same subject. This is effective as you get a range of opinions and ideas from different people. It also keeps it interesting because if it was just one person talking about each event that happens you would end up growing tired of them.
There are a lot of characters but some of them appear to stand out as more important to the subject. Throughout the film we are introduced to characters that were actually heavily involved in what was going on and some have just followed them and looked into it or know a lot about the movement.
The film follows quite a serious series of events. The characters add to this idea with very serious tones however they all still seem proud and happy to have done what they did.
Editing
The majority of the film is made up of archive footage and talking head interviews. It is what strings the narrative together. In terms of editing there are various fill in shots of animated statistic diagrams giving information on the subject.
6 Ideas For a documentary
1. A story from your local newspaper
Thirty years of hip hop culture in cambridge being celebrated in an exhibition being put on by Kilo Sin Stars.
2. A person you know
Freda Paolozzi (my next door neighbour) is the widow of famous artist, Eduardo Paolozzi. Looking into her life being married to a famous artist and the adventures she got up to.
3. Investigation into something you're interested in
History of skateboarding in Cambridge, interviewing old skaters from the scene, asking them what it was like growing up a skateboarder in Cambridge and what it compares to in London or other major cities.
4. A place
A history of Grantchester Meadows. People that look after it.
5. An issue
The punting rivalry on the river
6. Autobiographical
Skateboarding in Cambridge. The current scene.
Thirty years of hip hop culture in cambridge being celebrated in an exhibition being put on by Kilo Sin Stars.
2. A person you know
Freda Paolozzi (my next door neighbour) is the widow of famous artist, Eduardo Paolozzi. Looking into her life being married to a famous artist and the adventures she got up to.
3. Investigation into something you're interested in
History of skateboarding in Cambridge, interviewing old skaters from the scene, asking them what it was like growing up a skateboarder in Cambridge and what it compares to in London or other major cities.
4. A place
A history of Grantchester Meadows. People that look after it.
5. An issue
The punting rivalry on the river
6. Autobiographical
Skateboarding in Cambridge. The current scene.
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