For our recent 161MC we had to develop a TV show and a website to go alongside it. The website had to both fit the feel of our show and function like any other magazine show website. Things we chose to add to our website include: a mini game, a competition for comic con tickets, articles about all things geeky and bios and pictures of our presenter team. Overall, I’m happy with the way our website presents itself, what do you think of it?
http://abbiegailhewitt.wix.com/geek-week-tv
It is imperative to any well organised documentary production team to have clear and defined production roles these can include; Director, Editor, Camera Person, Audio Technician and Interviewer. After a discussion in todays meeting we arrived at defined production roles for one another and we briefed one another on exactly what that role meant to them and the team as a whole and what was ultimately their responsibility. Our production roles currently stand as follows:
Michael Moser – Director
Karen Jensen-Clark – Audio Technician
Chris Caswell – Interviewer
Grant Snaith – Camera Person
My role as Camera Person is to operate the camera on the day of shoot, in order to do this there are a number of factors I must master beforehand. I will have looked into the storyboards in depth and prepared a visual for each shot in my mind so that when commanded to do so by the director I can assume the necessary shot without having to double check the storyboard again. I must also learn to utilise the camera and it settings and the other various equipment associated with it (Shoulder mount, Tripod etc). This is imperative as time cannot be wasted in messing around with settings, the settings should already have been pre-determined before shoot to reach the optimal appearance for our choice of visual style and then only need slight tweaking to adjust to light levels on scene. In addition to this I should take the time to hone my camera movement skills as this is an area I have previously highlighted as a trouble zone for myself. I will be doing so by booking at a camera and shoulder mount/tripod every other day and practicing tracking, zooming, panning and other styles of movements.
1) What are we trying to say about our character?
Maurice is a fascinating person to talk to who simply has so many stories to tell that we could have honestly chosen from a hundred different subjects related to him, however the most interesting aspect is his history as a war evacuee. Our documentaries ultimate goal is to tell our audience just what it was like for Maurice at this tender age to be taken away from his parents to a strangers home who’s only motivation for doing so was money from the government. It should also be made apparent just how mentally strong Maurice was during this time in his life and how he has overcome such trying times to live a happy life thereafter. In some respects we think this is relatable to modern day society and the debate about people having children to receive funding from the government without adequate means of looking after them.
2) How will you gather and order your research information?
We are currently in the stages of research into our subject Maurice and his past as an evacuee during the Second World War. We decided that the first and best place to start was a group meeting with him without cameras and just a simple mic to capture the conversation. This took place on Monday and went really well. Not only did this help to put Maurice at ease and familiarise him with the group but we also all got a better sense of our story and we each got a better visual for the story at hand. Advancing on that we have decided to further research into other stories and the historical facts behind the Second World War evacuees and will be posting our research onto our blogs. We think this is imperative to our success as a better understanding of the subject at hand can only help us to better tailor 
our questions to manipulate our interviewee into an emotionally provocative answer. Our final piece of research will be to take a day trip out to Coalville and the countryside that Maurice was evacuated to during the war. We intend to take Maurice back here during our filming and so this would be essentially location scouting better allowing us to storyboard this section of the documentary.
3) What is the editorial hook or angel on your subject?
The emotion of this story is a key factor that we have decided to really focus on during our documentary. During our meeting with Maurice off camera there were several moments picked up on by our group and on audio recording where it was apparent that the memories were close to bringing him to tears. It was these little moments that we realised we must capitalise upon to evoke an emotional connection from the audience. We would like our audience to have watched the film and ask themselves ‘What would it have been like if this had happened to me?”. In order to do this we really want to emphasis the separation from his parents at an early age and the need to learn street smarts in order to survive.
4) Decide on a visual style for your film?
When we went to visit Maurice we all took note of how the natural light from the large windows created a warm and yet soft lighting to the visuals and we all agreed that this would be an ideal visual style for our piece. We feel that the warm colouring creates a more personal feel to the story and since Maurice is quite elderly a cold colour could create a more lonely and isolated feel.
5) What is the heart of the story that can be told in three minutes?
The nucleus of our story is the separation of child and family as Maurice was taken out to Coalville, Leicestershire during the Second World War to avoid the bombing runs. We would begin our story from the moment of evacuation to his first place of residence and the difficulties he encountered here with poor heating and little food and then follow him to his second accommodation and conclude with his return to his parents. Each act of the story will take roughly a minute of the three minute long documentary.
6) How are you organised as a production team?
See Above
7) Why would this appeal to our intended audience?
Our story is a timeless tale of the hardships of youth in the trying times of the Second World War. It is an area that many British people are aware of but rarely stop to consider the effects of and as such our documentary is centred around the principal of revealing this. We would class our intended audience in the stereotype of Middle Class parents and grandparents of an age range from 50 to 90. We theorise that younger parents would tend to be disinterested in subjects such as the World War where as 50 to 90 would encompass those who were alive during the war and had similar experiences who might wish to reminisce about the past.
Presenting our early storyboards: %5bUntitled%5d (1) %5bUntitled%5d
So a few of you know i’ve been busy in my spare time working on the early concepts for a short film I intend to start producing throughout the course of 2015, the ultimate goal being to enter it into a competition or festival. Its really early stages so far yet the few people i’ve gathered around me for this have shown such amazing commitment already and all seem really eager to get involved. But now on the edge of 2014 and the start of 2015 I have decided to extend an invitation out to everyone and anyone who would like to get involved whether it be in production, post-production, acting, lighting, make up, distribution, music anything! Without giving too much away here are a few images just to wet your appetite with (the storyboard provided by Carl Packer). If you are interested and would like to get involved please feel free to comment or message me with your interest and what you could offer to the group. Please bare in mind, not everyone can get involved as a group of too many people will become difficult to control. Thankyou 🙂
My steampunk team have been hard at work in the absence of our meetings due to my other university commitments, and might I say, I am extremely proud to be working with such talented people. Yet again, i’d like to share with you some of the great work by Carl Packer. Here is a storyboard he has produced for the opening scene to our short film.
Doesn’t that just look amazing? And he’s captured exactly what I had in my head from just one short conversation. This scene features our main protagonist The Captain and his only companion the mechanical owl. The exact look of the Captain is as of yet unconfirmed, however I have took onboard Natasha and Kirsty from my short film 160MC project to go over character costumes. Next up we have some artwork of the Captains ship again and the early model.
Another member of the team has been knocking around a design for a pair of steampunk goggles as well though we are as of yet unsure where this will feature, the Captain, the Owl or simply background stuff is all open at the moment. Kyle Wood has produced this textured version of the goggles.
I’ve realised that my blog posts some to have become few and far between and I assure you, there is good reason for that. At the moment I am deep in the throws of writing my first University paper for the end of module 105MC. Me and my group are producing a collaborative book, comprised of our own individual chapters and a bibliography, I have taken it upon myself to write the introduction to this book, perhaps the most important piece as should this not capture the reader then the rest will not get to unfold. So far, i’ve covered a lot of theory and analysis in my piece, but have failed to address the very aspects of ‘introduction’, to discuss and open up the book itself and vaguely cover what our beliefs are on the key concepts.
My blog posts will be picking up once again after this Friday when this has been handed in and my Character Concepts presentation has been delivered. Its been a very long week, with sleepless nights and headache mornings, but I will get through this, and then onwards to christmas!
My documentary team for 105MC is really on a roll now with the addition of a new member who has really breathed life into the project, he seems to have a way of kick starting energy into the team whilst I organise what we each do. We had a short team meeting today to discuss our new plan of action and broke down into pairs to handle the key elements; post-production, production and the final piece, the book. We chose this based on our individual strengths and what we had done to date, this would also be our particular topic that we would cover in the book. Myself and Madeline are taking charge of production, this includes any extra filming needed as well as that taken at the actual East Winds Film Festival. Oliver and Dhani would be in charge of post-production, both are skilled film editors and have agreed that Oliver would edit whilst Dhani provides feedback and documents each step for use in their chapters of the book. Then Aiden and Ben, our two journalist members, would be taking care of planning each chapter of the book. They would write a brief for each of us telling us what our chapter needs to cover in order to be a success. All in all, I feel pretty confident now about the conviction of our group. For once I don’t feel like we are lugging dead weight in a project!
The Journey Begins 