Evaluation

Final Cut: https://vimeo.com/157285009

My main role in this production was as producer and director. This was the first time I had really undertaken either of these roles to a significant degree and felt that I both enjoyed and executed the role successfully. 

The role required me to organise the production and ensure that everyone knew where they were supposed to be and when, as well as providing a bridge between our contributors (in this case 2Fly Studios) and our team. I also was in charge of release forms (both contributor and location) as well as liaising with the band that provided our music and Exposed magazine. 

I feel that our teamwork on this project was strong, we worked well as a unit and I feel we have made significant advancements as a production team. Everyone adopted their roles with ease and executed to a near professional level. However, we did also help out in other areas. For example, I did a lot of shooting and assisted with editing, Sam and Kane took turns working with the sound recording, and Brendan shot and did the majority of the editing. I also feel that we were equally excited about the project and all wanted the outcome to be of a high standard, which I think is definitely a large contributing factor to how well we worked as a team.

A problem that became apparent almost immediately was in the correspondence between us and 2Fly. As they are a working, full-time studio, I experienced problems with getting our schedules to match up, as well as on occasion having difficulty even getting a response. I think that the mistake I made here was leaving the ball too much in the court of the contributors and not initially emphasising that we were working to a tight schedule, In future, if I reprise my role as producer, I will be sure to outline the time scale we are working to immediately and ensure that a date has been agreed early on in the pre-production stage.  

As a huge influence for us with this documentary was The Archive (2009) we wanted a really good story, but most importantly an interesting character with a lot of passion. I really believe we found this in Alan, as his craft means a lot to him, and his interest is certainly palpable. 

I believe that the main strengths of our documentary were the good subject, the interesting character, and the fact that we created a comfortable story arc. We opened with a little history of Alan himself and his time in bands, before moving on the the start of 2Fly, some anecdotes from the studios early years, before finally closing with what he is working on at the moment and his plans for the future of the studio. The were definitely issues with pacing, however. Because our documentary was almost entirely interview based, it felt slow and cumbersome in parts. The cutaways, although nicely shot, were repetitive and became boring quickly, as well as not building the pace of the overall piece. Also, in future I would definitely aim for more contributors and more music, although this was admittedly hard to do in the short 5 minute timeframe.       

Editing Process and Initial Feedback

We gathered quite a lot of footage on the day of the shoot, primarily consisting of interviews. We had previously outlines a series of interview questions, but these were mainly as a guideline, allowing Alan to expand on what he needed to and omit what was unnecessary or uninteresting. This meant that our two interviews (Alan and his wife Donna) were around 30 minutes and 10 minutes, respectively. We had also previously shot cutaways out and about in Sheffield of iconic venues, as well and cutaways inside the actual studio itself. Brendan was mainly in charge of editing and set up Avid to work with the multi-camera option, before syncing the sound with the video. I joined at this stage to oversee the edit process from a director/producer standpoint. We cut Alan's interview extensively, condensing the 30 minutes into a tight story arc which we felt held a beginning - middle - end structure. We decided to completely omit Donna's interview as she mainly discussed the couples relationship and how they met, and we found it extremely difficult to fit this into the narrative we were attempting to structure. We also abandoned the cutaways from outside in Sheffield, as without being mentioned by Alan they felt a little out of place. Our initial feedback was that the documentary was too heavily reliant on in the interview and that it was in need of another direction. We discussed this as a group and got back in touch with 2Fly, who were unfortunately unable to help do to a full schedule. As the time frame was so short, we deemed it best to use existing footage and gain permission to use that instead. This, we believed, would break up the interview a little more visually, and contextualise the bands mentioned to a greater degree.

First draft:

https://vimeo.com/156731330

Production Planning, Stills and Documentation

Confirming Our Idea

As per my role as producer, I approached our subject to make initial enquiries as to their willingness to participate, availability and scheduling etc. We were fairly certain even before we pitched our ideas that this was the one we wanted to go for, as it was the one we felt most interested in and by extension, most passionate about. I wanted to go to pitch at least knowing that our idea was a real possibility, so looked into the best way to contact the studio, which seemed to be via Facebook.

  

Due to 2Fly being a working studio, we had some scheduling issues, but eventually managed to nail down a date.

Before we went into production on the arranged date with 2Fly, we decided to meet up and get some cut away shots of iconic music/art venues around Sheffield, anticipating that we may be able to use them as cutaways.

Before filming with 2Fly, we ensured that all documentation was filled and signed correctly. I personally was in charge of artist and location release forms, as I had organised and liaised with Alan and Donna (of 2Fly). Each of us had an area of documentation to ensure was present and correct. 

  

Next, after coming up with some interview questions, we arrived at 2Fly to shoot. As producer, I greeted Alan and Donna, before explaining what we were aiming for and how we were going to go about shooting, After making sure everyone was on the same page, I set up the static camera to film Alan's interview and interviewed him. This lasted around half an hour. We used a multi-camera set up, and after the interviews, I took one of the cameras around the studio, shooting cutaways. 

While filming, Alan played us a song that he was currently working on, by a band called I Set the Sea On Fire. I enquired as to the possibility of us using the song, and Alan said he would get in touch. He then got back to be confirming this, subsequently emailing me the track. Out of courtesy, I sent ISTSOF a message double checking they were okay with us using the song, as well as asking permission to use their Exposed magazine set. They agreed, but gave me the email of Joe Food, who works for Exposed, explaining that I should also check with him. I did this, and he was more than happy for us to use the footage. 

  

  

After filming was done, I assisted with the editing process, which was an extremely lengthy procedure. We used Avid Media Composed, Adobe Audition and Adobe Premiere Pro in the editing process. Avid for the bulk of the cutting and sequencing, Audition to edit the background music, and Pro to add the music and titles (as we felt more comfortable doing this on Pro).