Documentary: the film and a self evaluation

This is the film we made

Unfortunately I had to reduce the quality of the video, to be able to upload it here, because the size of the file was too big. 

The editing was done by Aaron, with Richard helping him, in the decision making about the structure of the film.

I proposed to decide all together which scenes to put into the movie, because we all had an equal part in the making, and then they would make the final edit, but unfortunately nobody agreed with the idea. 

So at the end unfortunately I couldn’t  have any part in the decision making about the final content of the movie and I couldn't even see the movie before the presentation in the class.

I’m happy though about the respond of the people we have interviewed. They have been very friendly with us.

It gives the idea of a community when the people talk about their positive and negative opinions about Farnham. It shows that they actually care about the place and the people where they live.

If I have to be honest I don’t like the final edited version and what they have decided to put or not put in the movie. I think it’s a bit of a mess. Even the quality of the audio and the darkness of some pictures it’s bad.

I think It’s a shame, even because I often proposed during the shooting to filming in a place with more light or to start shooting earlier in the day to have more time and more light, but no one in the group agreed with my ideas on that.

It has not been easy for me to work with my group, because our different opinions, different life background and our different personalities.

The lack of communication within the group has been the more difficult part for me.

We should have talk together more about our ideas in every part of the process, from the pre-production to the editing. 

I think that that has compromised the result of the film in particular.

Even the fact that some components in the group were mentally stuck in their roles in the film, didn’t helped I think. It kind of created a barrier from let everyone feel completly free to always share their ideas. 

Actually at the beginning I even proposed to share our roles, with everybody deciding things together, but my group mates didn’t agree.

I have to admit that the tension that I created, because of my strong disagreement with the behavior of some group mates, didn’t make it easier to work.

I knew that it would have been a challenge from the beginning. But I’m proud of having been able to go through this challenge and finishing the movie.

I consider the final result, the film, a failure, but the process of making it has been very formative.

I learned a lot about the filmmaking process and how to deal with colleagues in a film crew.

In the future I will try to not make the same mistakes again.

I even learned new technical skills, like how to use a movie camera, how to edit with the Premiere Pro software, how to use proper a microphone and I improved my interview skills.

Documentary: the shooting process

During the shooting week, our idea about the film has shifted from just asking to people in Farnham if they had something to get out of their chest, to ask them as well what makes them happy (I got the inspiration from “Chronicle of a summer” where they ask to people in the street if they are happy).

Then we even decided to put a self-reflection about our documentary and the making process in the film. 

We have done it by showing ourselves during the shooting, during our conversations about the making of the project, and by interviewing our self as well. 

To create a bigger sense of community in the film, we even decided to ask to people and to ourselves questions about Farnham, like “you like Farnham”, “what you like and what you don’t like about it”. 

We divided the shooting in five days. 

_ On the first day we went to shoot in the big car park near the Gostrey Meadow Park. We chose that place because is kind of quiet, far from the main roads but there are still people walking by. 

We then realized that the first interviews that we shoot, had no sound recorded. We then decided to put this into the movie, because was part of the process of our documentary experience.

Then we filmed in our class in the University, a conversation we had between us (our group), about the making of our film, to use it as a self-reflection.

Actually during the shooting our roles have been mixed, because we all (apart from Aaron) did some interviews and we shared to one time each, the sound engineer role.

 _ The second day we have filmed in the Gostrey Meadow park in Farnham,  to make some interviews in a more relaxed environment, like a park. We were happy about the people’s  reactions and opinions in the interviews. It has been quite easy to find people available to be interviewed.

 _ The third day was a nice sunny day, perfect for the shooting.
We have chosen a pretty street, with a nice background, like Castle street to make some interviews.

Then we even interviewed the owner of the flower shop at the corner of the same street.Then we went in the Oxfam charity shop in East street, where we interviewed a clerk lady and a customer of the shop. The interview with the clerk lady is my favorite by the way.

 _The fourth day we did some shooting near the St. Andrews church, because of the nice and calm location.

We even did some self-reflection interviews in our group. This time, we were one at the time in front of the camera.

 _And on the last day we did some more interviews in that narrow walking street, that goes from the Waitrose supermarket  to Castle street, passing in front of the “Hop Blossom” pub. The background with the old wall was quite interesting. 

Then we did some interviews in the back of the Waitrose building, which I disagreed with, because I didn’t like the background.

Documentary: pre-producton

In our first meeting as a group for this project, we did some brainstorming about our ideas and we discussed about them.

We then decided that the best idea was the one of Richard, to take inspiration from the documentary film "Chronicle of a summer".

It's a French documentary from 1961. Shot during the summer of 1960 by the sociologist Edgar Morin and the anthropologist and filmmaker Jean Rouch.

I watched the film and I really liked.

It’s made with a group of real-life people, that are led by the filmmakers to discuss topics on the themes of French society and happiness in the working class. 

It even has some pop vox interview from the streets of Paris. 

It is also widely regarded as an experimental and structurally innovative film. 

An example of cinema vérité and direct cinema.

So the first idea of Richard was to interview people in the street and ask them if they would like to get something out of their chest, by talking about something they don’t like in their life or in general.

To relate this with the topic of the community, which is the topic given from our tutor for the documentary, we decided to shoot it just in Farnham, so it will represent the community of Farnham.

We then decided our roles in the movie:

Richard as director, Jasper as producer, Aaron as editor and me as camera operator.