Major Project: Development

Major Project: Development

After having a detailed chat with Helen about our documentary and explaining/showing what we had been shooting. She was keen to help and directed me to a BBC academy article where I watched some videos and read through the notes of an established BBC documentary maker. 

The information I found on this site was really useful and will help develop our project. Here are the notes I took/things I learned from that article and my chat with Helen.

• Re-doing actuality is fine, it happens in professional documentaries and is often necessary. As long as we are not changing the story or “tricking the audience in a major way” it’s fine.

• Car shots (or PTC’s in a car) should only really be used if we’re going or about to go somewhere.

-If we need a de-brief or a PTC to close a sequence, then it should be done on location (maybe set away a bit from where we’ve been filming), or at an appropriate nearby place e.g. a cafe (this is important for the gym sequence).

• Alex’s eyeline should be wherever feels natural to him. Even if that means looking at the camera on occasion. Especially if he’s talking to Cailan who has asked him a question from directly behind the camera (by doing so we have acknowledged the camera’s existence and it would be weirder to look away from it than it would be to look at it).

• Sometimes it is necessary to treat the camera as a person (since often they are a person, Cailan is the camera, and the camera is Cailan…)

• Ideally we should do a test shoot in the car to prepare us for future sequences. She personally recommended a 2 camera set-up, Cailan holds one camera whilst a go-pro sits on the dashboard to get either a mid shot or a two shot. Maybe even try having a go-pro on the dashboard as close-up, and (if it’s appropriate) have George sitting in the front seat whilst Cailan is in the back getting a two-shot.

-This could solve Alex’s concerns about eyeline, especially if he’s talking to George while the go-pro looks on from below/the side.

• Eye contact is very important in documentary making, if Alex can make eye contact with the producer or someone else, it will help him to feel more relaxed and natural in front of the camera.

-In some scenarios Cailan should try and lower the camera to his chest (rather than his shoulder, and just glance at the viewfinder), allowing Alex to make eye contact with him and feel more natural.

• George, and Cailan to help Alex remember that he is a contributor, not a presenter. As such he should keep doing his best to think like one, not dragging out his answers longer than necessary as this will just make the edit harder.

• Make sure to get lots of cutaways in all sequences, especially driving sequences.

-Make sure to get not only signs and scenic shots, but shots of Alex driving, steering, changing gear etc.

• Always have a camera ready for B-Roll, it’ll be useful in the edit for cut-aways, additional angles etc.

• Remember (in relation to eyeline) if it’s already been acknowledged that the camera is present (usually by a camera operator speaking) then it’s ok to look at it if it feels natural (even in other scenes, since if you re-watch source material you’ll see that nobody’s perfect).