Proposal/Treatment

Proposal
Train One Save Many (working title) is a short film on the Weston Super Mare division of the RNLI (Lifeboats), it will be filmed as a documentary. There is no specific target audience as I aim to make it so it inform and raise awareness to audiences of all ages, though getting specific it could be argued that those whole live nearer the coast may have more interest in watching it than those who live inner country/city as it could be deemed less relevant.
Train One Save Many will focus on the people that make up the RNLI volunteers and the stories they have to tell, to show that they aren’t just faceless people. It will remind people how much of a vital role they play and how they are just as important as other emergency services. There will be an educational input too in the opening with facts, figures and a brief history to set the scene.

Treatment
The story of my documentary will be told through a voice over and also be structured around the interviews with members of the crew and (hopefully) members of the public. I will also include contact details of how people can get involved at the end as part of the raising awareness aspect.
The staging of the interviews will be simple with uncluttered background (similar to those used on Traffic Cops) to not distract from message and add professional look. It has elements of an expository documentary in that it will combine a variety of footage, still, interviews and some archive footage to enforce the importance of the story. The tone will not be too serious as I want them to look approachable however of course subject matter is at times very serious. There will also be elements of an observational documentary as I can’t predict all that will happen when I am there.
There are 29 members of the crew and ideally I would like to get an interview with at least 4 people holding different positions or of different backgrounds. All footage will be filmed at their base at Birnbeck Pier. 

As part of tomorrows pitching session we have been asked to create a draft/brief proposal and treatment:

The Journey: The End!

Today I finished my individual project The Journey. I am ready to admit it is not my best piece of work, but considering the technical problems I have had it hasn't come out too bad and has definitely taught me a lot of lessons.

The first and most important thing I have learned is to check that the camera is set up properly at the beginning before pressing record. If I had checked that the image quality was set to high rather than standard my feelings about the whole project would have been different and the finished product would have looked far less amateur. The plus side of me not using the uni's Panasonic cameras meant I saved a lot of time not having to log and capture though. Another problem with camera set up meant my footage came in in 4:3.

The composition of sounds I think works very well and I think that the variety of landscapes I managed to capture keeps the film engaging. I did try to make the film a little bit shorter, but to keep it in time with the music it works better at the length it is. The music used really keeps the film moving and having edited the clips to the music beats they work well together.



I accept that technically my film is by far not of high quality, but I am hoping that the idea and the range of media (including animation) used will remind/help show how much work I put into it.

Individual Project: Editing Process

 

After taking a whole evening of after finishing editing the group project it is back to work on editing the individual project.

I began by bringing all my clips in chronological order from filming I began to piece together the clips to give a variety of landscapes and scenary. My first concern was at how samey and boring the piece looks, so I tried to keep the use of the animation clips I had put together equally spaced out to break it all up.

The next step was to put the music in, this gave me far more faith in my film turning out okay as there is something about the music I have chosen that just seems to work. It seems to make the whole film go by faster and keeps a pace to it. The composition of the song also allowed lots of opportunity to practice fade in/outs with the beats which also helps reinforce the passing of time on The Journey.

Individual Project: The Search for a Soundtrack

Now that I have all my footage together I am ready to start editing but need to find a music track to go with my project before I start it in order to get beats with the music etc.

Here is the criteria I have in mind:

• I am looking for something ambient and electronic so straight away I know I am looking for something without lyrics. 
• I want something with a strong pace but nothing that has overly strong bass as I still want to keep it quite light.
• Something that gives some sense of movement or travelling
• Something with a defined start and end
• Nothing that will distract too much from the images

And so the hunt begins!

After trying to find music online and not having great success, I looked a little closer to home and found music by a friend who is studying music here at uni. Toby Kaar makes electronica music and he has given me permission to use his song Bread which I think will go perfectly with the feel of my piece

Individual Project: Progress

Having been distracted by the group project, the editing for my individual project is somewhat on hold. Luckily I have completed all the filming (though may take this weekend as opportunity to get some little extras) and have all the animation bits ready to edit together.

Just before coming back to uni I filmed with my Dad who was the driver and got the sequence of him getting in and starting the car. Also in the last week at home I took 450 pictures of a toy car and managed to put them together in Fridays session to make the clips of animation.

At the weekend I am making a trip to Cornwall and may use this opportunity to get some footage of cars on the motorway from a motorway bridge (which I did not manage to get before) and also some footage of traffic lights.

So after Wednesday when all the group work will be finished it will be all good to go on the editing for my project and though I am sure it will take longer than I expect I am going into it with a clear vision of what I want so hopefully it wont be too stressful!

Individual Project: Filming/Idea Progress

Over the weekend I did the main bulk of my filming for The Journey on a drive up to Scotland to visit family. As predicted though the weather was awful and I ended up shooting the moving shots from the interior of the car through a slightly filthy windscreen/passenger window.

Having taken into consideration that my footage isnt as good quality or quite what I was expecting it to be (due to the weather which was obviously out of my control) I have been thinking of other ideas which I will carry out:

• A short stop take animation of a toy car going along the route we took on a map
• Adding the driver as a character with a quickly cut sequence at the start of the driver getting in the car and starting the engine
• More photography
• Sequence of traffic lights

The stop motion animation section is most important as not only does it encorporate another skill I have learnt this year but will also aid greatly in piecing the sections of footage together as if I just pasted them together as they are the camera position and location would jump around incredibly unnaturally and look awful!

Individual Project Time!

For the 4002 module we are required to make an individual project, it takes the same nature as the Group Projects in that it must be 5 to 8 minutes long and we pretty much have the choice to do whatever we want.

I want to go back to an idea covered earlier in the year of montage and develop this into moving image which I have not looked at before. As I like the idea of looking at traveling and taking journeys I have come up with the following proposal:

“The Journey” is a short (between 5 and 8 min) short film which will be a montage piece about a journey in car between Bristol and Scotland. It will be a majority of moving image but will also include some still photography.
The narrative of the film is already written in that the journey has a beginning and an end. The aim of the piece is to focus on aspects and scenery in our country to remind the audience of what we have in this country as the common assumption is that traveling involves going abroad.
I am as yet undecided on whether or not to include the driver as a character as nature is the main focus of my piece.
There will be no dialogue or diegetic sound and the footage will be accompanied by appropriate music to reflect the locations filmed and will be very atmospheric/ambient.
I have chosen to do this piece as this particular journey is one I have done several times and I find the changing of landscapes over the time it takes to complete the trip visually impressive. The differences in locations and also time of day over the length of the journey is something I wish to focus on.