Reflection

week one

Week one, 26/02/2024, was a very stressful week. Dedicated to laying down the foundation and context for my project, I have used every day to think hard of ideas to brainstorm for both topic and medium choice. The task seemed easy however it was difficult to find which one is the most suitable as I had to look in-depth for the required necessities such as research material and resources to carry out the project, also thinks such as skills difficulty and cost of time were put in the calculation to find a perfect combination of medium and topic, for this project, with a suitable production flow. 

For the medium, I have decided to go for a documentary as it had the greatest potential. This chosen medium had great opportunities for the marking of this project, because a moving image medium would really showcase complex  media skills such as in-post editing, camera operation, production skills and also pre-production skills such as topic research and topic breakdown, therefore this made me decide that is a great medium for me to use to proven my media capabilities while creating a interesting medium which hooks the audiences attention.

Also another great feature of documentary as a medium, is that is suitable for my target audiences, this is because my project aims for current and little bit older generations, therefore a visual medium would be a very good choice due to moving image medium being the dominant on all the media outlets such as TV and social media platforms.

For the topic I have decided to go for a topic in which I relate and have experience, with martial arts crossed, I have refuged to a second hobby of mine which is street photography, this topic is one of the topics which I have put down on the mind map, however what street photography outshined all of them, is the accessibility of materials such as needed to lay down a solid content for this project and the amount of research information sources that could be found. All the factors about this topic were very good for me to use a unique topic which is little bit marginalised in the media while maintaining a very smooth production flow.

Therefore in conclusion of this week, I have choose as my medium a short documentary which covers my journey in street photography and what street photography is about.

week two

Week two, 04/03/2024, was dedicated to come up with the narrative and script planning, this was a needed as before I go out and shoot anything related to the topic, I needed a plan out a suitable narrative, that my target audience would find appealing, so that I come up with creative ideas for my shots that correlate with the mood and flow of the documentary, this was important as is key that I keep such a low attention spam audience unperplexed about the visuals and the narrative.

For the narrative, I broken it down this into tone, mood and pace, as they are the 3 factors that determine how the documentary is going to be received by the audience. For the tone I went for something informative and neutral formality as I would like to preach the information in a way the audience takes it serious but in the same time they don't feel overwhelmed or thrown of by a very formal presentation, especially that the purpose of this documentary would be used for more like a entertainment rather then information. The mood is going to be relaxed as this is a medium and project aimed toward internet and social media platforms like YouTube and Instagram where people most likely go at a time of leisure plus I feel like the more relaxed the documentary is going to be, the better the information and attention sinks up into the audience. For the pace I would like to go for a moderative speed but inclining a little bit to fast speed as I won't like for the audience to stare too much at frame because it may increase a higher chance of boredom for the audience.

For the script I have planned two types, one for the shoot design and one for the context of the talking heads. The shot design was made base on the narrative above, however the shot design was heavily crafted to show a form of creative and some what of smooth transition between, this is because I want to prove my creative ability to come up with cinematic while keep it very playful construction in my visions, I also approve it to be efficient as current visual popular mediums (reels, vlogs and short documentaries) put it in practise for their audience, that is the same as mine, which shows positive result. A great example from my work related to this shot design is my attempt to use a technique called match cut, where I change the location to show progress but the main subject is in the same action showing that there is no sudden change in the narration of my documentary.

For the context of the talking heads I have decided that for a calmer approach. The structure of my testimonials as the street photographer, I chose to not write down any answers and just the questions, as I believe that if I want to have a warm narrative with the purpose to show people the real point of a practitioner of street photography I wanted to freestyle so that my answer could be really as real possible, also for my breakdown of the history of street photography was also a form of freestyle however I have planned out key points to cover so that I don't miss out information which was meant to be delivered in the content of my shot documentary

Week three and four

Week 3 and 4, 11/03/2024, had the purpose to set down a pre-production plan and recording raw material, so that I have a grip to the production of this documentary, unfortunately, although the tasks of this week where achieved, I have encountered problems that were very harmful to the production flow and inevitable.

With the aim of creating a solid production plan, the task issued were to, have a call sheet, find a location and assigned the equipment needed. For the call sheet I have used my trusted source Studio Binder for template while also learning more from their tips about production. The call sheet contained the shots that were going to be filmed, the crew and descriptions of what we have to do for each shot with clear guidance. The location for the shot was also decided to be in central London during a quite day so that we can capture great street photos and have more freedom to use our time for recording, and, the planned equipment it would've been a combination between two DSLRs (Canon 70D and Canon 2000D)

With everything set up, hell was let loose, the week and the period of recording had very poor weather conditions with very few days with convenient weather with big separation between them which was critical as we had to reshoot 3 times due to technical problems. The location was also changed to somewhere much local because the original location was too far to travel and accompanied by chaotic number of people which polluted the shot, which caused us to reshoot, however another problem that affected the shot was the equipment chose, the cameras had defects into their battery system, causing the camera to crash and kill the battery unexpectedly. The change of equipment brought many opportunities besides the production delay from video quality and in-post accessibility. 

With all the problems encountered I have tried to keep all the damage minimalistic due to rushing myself to put everything together and squeeze as much material possible in the days that were suitable. As an example of over-schedule work is, the filming of b-rolls that were planned for different times, this was important to do as I couldn't wait for another week to have a low chance to have the opportunity to shot as because it would've overdue my project.

Week five

Week 5, 25/03/2024, was much calming as it's aim was putting together the rough material and experimentation to see what it should be done before calling it a rough cut. The organisation of the clips was in the timeline showed a result of solid narrative which was appealing to the plan but also to my personal opinion about it, Unfortunately, one of the ideas which I have planned for a segment in my narrative had to change due to being entertaining enough, for example the original plan for the segment was to have a heavy editorial chapter that describes the chronological timeline of street photography, this was not fitting well with the flow and style of my narrative because it seemed very slow, therefore I have quickly changed it into a talking head of me explaining the context that was meant to be from the original idea. ( Could be found in my experimentation.)

Also before week 6, here I would start to put in my stylist touch, therefore I have researched and learned a new post- production skill which is Colour Grading, and chosen my style which its purpose is to connotate my idea. This skill was very overwhelming to learn in a short period of time however I found it easy after. 

Week six

Week six, 1/04/2024, is the final week where I aimed to complete all the practical work. I found this week very relaxed as I really enjoyed experimenting around ideas with the new skill, colour grading. Playing around with the colours, I have decided to go for my favourite colours as I thought that if this is documentary I should add a piece of my personal identity. The outcome of this week really surprised me with project as rewatching myself I can't believe that I put and crafted a short documentary. Also while the process of editing I received good feedback from my colleagues and people by who stopped and checked out the video, although not finished, still had a good smart feedback. 

Therefore in conclusion about this project, I feel very confident and happy as I liked to put in practise a much difficult skillset and medium, because not only I see it as a craftsmanship in media but also a evolution of my personal relationship and knowledge in media and film/documentary making.