A2 Production Diary 1

In the past two weeks we have filmed on multiple occasions mainly during school hours. We have gotten a fair bit done. Here is a list of completed filming:

• Interview with Drew Taylor 
• Part of the school tour 
• Talent show sequence 

We had Lucy take photos of our progress whilst filming which I have supplied underneath

This is a photo of me interviewing Drew Taylor (Gemma Crane) 

This is a photo of Drew Taylor (Gemma Crane) playing the piano 

Here is a random photo 

A2 Characters

As a group we each decided on individual roles for ourselves during the production. We have also required people from outside our group to help us make our documentary. Bellow I have image of our group members and have included their description:

Lucy Lewis 

Lucy has mainly been filming the footage for our documentary. She also played one of the judges in the talent show sequence 

Me 

I have been helping a lot with acting, playing the role of the main interviewer. I will also help with editing 

This is Dan. He has been filming mostly and will play a big roll during the editing stage. He also played one of the judges in the talent show sequence. 

This is Tom. He has been helping with filming and will help with editing. He also played a judge during the talent show sequence

This is Gemma. She plays the main character 'Drew Taylor' 

A2 Production Analysis

Journey to Fearless 

• 'Journey To Fearless' is a documentary about American country singer Taylor Swift 
• It follows her as she is about to release her second album 'Fearless' 
• The DVD contains interviews from her best friend, her family and her fans as well as Taylor herself 
• There are live clips from her concerts such as 'You Belong with Me' and 'Fifteen 
• The documentary contains photos and videos of her as a child, for example, we get to see footage of her performing as a young child in her own home 
• Journey to Fearless was originally a music concert series aired as a three night special on American TV channel's including The Hub and Hasbro's. It aired from October 22nd 2010 to October 24th 2010 at 7.00pm Eastern Time and 6.00pm central 
• 'Journey to Fearless attracted approximately 106,00 viewers 
• On October 22nd 2010 it was then released on Blu-Ray and DVD through 'Shout Factory' 

Life on the Murder Scene 

• 'Life on the Murder Scene' is a 2006 Documentary following the alternative band My Chemical Romance on tour and watching the release of their second album 'Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge 
• The Video diary contains information about the formation of the band
• It is split up into different sections, for example 'Warped Tour' and 'The first My Chem Show.' 
• The video diary has interviews with the band members and other important people who make the band happen such as their ex band manager
• The video diary is part of a three part DVD pack, the other two DVDs are videos of live performances and a cd that has live track recordings 
• 'Life on the Murder Scene' has been certified as 2X platinum by the RIAA indicating shipment of over 200,000 units as it is considered a long-form video 

A2 Costume ideas

We have started coming up with costume ideas for our documentary. In order to arrange costumes we had to come up with a list of characters who were going to be in our documentary. Our characters include: 

• Drew Taylor (Gemma Crane) 
• Interviewer (Me) 
• Fan 
• Best friend 
• Friend 

Drew Taylor is the main character in our documentary. We have decided to base her style on her inspiration Taylor Swift. Taylor Swift often wears smart casual clothes with chequered t-shirts and jeans. This is often the style that other country singers have such as Carrie Underwood. Here are some photos of her wearing similar outfits.

Here is Carrie Underwood wearing a similar style 

For the rest of the characters it does not entirely matter what they wear although for the interviewer it is more appropriate to wear smart clothes. It is important that the costumes of the other characters are not as over powering as Drew Taylor's as the main focus on her. Although the other characters will probably be clothed in the smart casual style. 

A2 Production Schedule

We have two deadlines so far. Our first deadline is for the first cut which is on the 21st of October. The final deadline is on Monday 2nd December. We have created a producion schedule with these dates in mind to help us organise our filming time.

 



A2 Production pitch and Animatic

This year we were given a choice of three production to choose from, a music video, a film trailer or a documentary. I have decided to work in a group with Lucy Lewis, Daniel Faint and Tom Hurst and we have chosen to focus on a documentary. The premise for our documentary is based around a pretend star called 'Drew Taylor' and looking at her rise to fame. Our title for this production is 'Drew Taylor 'The Short Rise to Fame.'

Here are some photographs of the planning notes we made:

We were asked to produce a presentation to the class explaining our idea. Here is our presentation which explains our idea, shots we might use, potential locations, the inspiration for the idea and a potential DVD cover.

Animatic



We have now completed a storyboard for our production and completed an animatic which is shown underneath:

Feedback 

We got really positive feedback from our class and teacher. They thought that the initial idea was interesting enough and enough directions to take that we could make a five minute documentary from it. However, we did receive comments on things that could be improved. These comments were aimed towards the technical aspects of the production. 

Green screen: We proposed an idea working with green screen so it would be easier to create a back ground for the fake gigs we were thinking of setting up for our documentary. This seemed like a bad idea as it would be difficult to create a realistic background using green screen with the limited amount of resources we have. However, we do have access to a green screen at our school and Dan and Tom have had experience using green screen in the previous productions. 

We also received some positive feedback. Our teacher was impressed with our ideas. She said it looked like we seemed to understand the conventions of documentaries and were utilizing them in our own production. This includes interviews and archived footage such as old photographs and clips from her concerts. Also, our ideas for settings/filming seemed realistic to use. 

 

A2 Music video shoot

In preperation for our A2 Video Production we went to Knebworth for a film shoot. We were told to shoot a music video for a 'summer' song. I worked with Lucy and we chose 'You belong with me' by Taylor Swift. Most of the work that we produced was improvised. However, we did plan the props that we were to bring. We only decided that we needed Lucy's ukulele. We were also given a list of different camera angles to try including someone lying or sitting down. The music video task also gave us the oppurtunity to practice lip syncing which we achieved by playing the song during the shoot and as the song played I mimed the words. Editing was made slightly easier as the parts that we used lip syncing in were generally in time with the song so not much was out of sync. In conclusion I feel this was a real learning experience in terms of video production. Trying to film a music video made us really focus when filming as we had to keep in time with the song, and also we only had an afternoon to shoot so we learnt what it was like to work in a tight schedule.

Photos from the day 

Unfortunately Lucy and I found that our files were missing and could not finish editing what we had started before the summer. Therefore, I cannot unload our Preliminary task.