Throughout the course of this project, I have learnt so many things about the art of making a documentary. I have definitely built upon the skills that I had before the start of the project, and feel a lot more confident in my ability to make a documentary.
During the documentary, there were several things that went really well, such as the fact that I was able to interview more people than I was expecting to, due to the two days of me filming at the club, which were a month apart, were some of the busiest times that I have seen the club, so this allowed me to broaden the amount of footage that I shot, and to get more opinions on what the club means to people, which is the story that I wanted to convey to the audience. This helped me in the edit stage as well, as I then had more of a variety of personalities that I could include in my film, and could also use more that three or four people, as adding a few extra people who could add more to the story worked really well.
Another thing that went well during my project was the accessibility of the people that I wanted to interview outside of the Lunch club. As I had met them before, I already had a relationship with them, so we were able to arrange interview dates and times a lot easier than if we did not know each other. There was also the advantage that if I was unable to make an interview, then it could relatively easily be rescheduled. Because of this, I was able to relax a bit more on setting up these interviews.
I also quite enjoyed stages of the edit, such as the colour grading. After having a one-on-one with Nathan Caws, as mentioned in a previous blog, I felt a lot more confident in doing this, and enjoyed trying out different levels and filters for the clips.
On the other hand, there were a few things that went wrong while making this documentary. One of these was a slight piece of miscommunication with a customer from the Lunch club, which has been mentioned in a previous blog. I thought he got a certain train to Sittingbourne at 10:10, but that was only on the day of the Lunch club. When he goes to communion on Thursdays, he gets a train at about 8:45, so I arrived at the train station ready to interview him at 10:00, which was too late. When I tried to phone him to see if he was just getting a different train, his phone was going straight to voicemail, which was frustrating. When I managed to eventually talk to him at the Lunch club the next week, I spoke to him and then clarified the mistake that I had made.
Another thing that went wrong on my project was an interview getting cancelled, and not being able to reschedule it. I was set to interview a volunteer at her house while she cooked some food for the club, as I thought that this would be good to include in my film as it shows that the volunteers prepare a lot for the club each month. The interview was set up, and it was also convenient, as she lived about 15 minutes walk away, so was easily accessible. However, the day before I was meant to interview her, I was told that I could no longer do that, as her husband did not want a stranger filming in his house, so would not have let me film there. Because of this, I thought about how I could rectify the problem, so I had to then get a quick interview of her preparing some of the food at the Lunch club the next time I was there.
If I was to do this project again, I would make sure that I was certain about the interviews that I set up, and make sure that I contact the interviewees to make sure that they are still available for the set day. I think that doing this would make it a lot easier to have a better plan on what order my shoot days would be in. I would also make sure that I secure some crew members for more of my shoot days, as I did find it difficult at some points filming at the Lunch club by myself. I did have some help for one Lunch club shoot, however he had to leave at 11:00 as he had a shoot for his own project to go to, and the customers didn't start arriving until nearer 12:00, so wasn't able to use him much. Doing this would help with me making sure that I get all the necessary shots that I need, as there were a few times while editing that I thought 'I wish I had a shot of that for here'.
In conclusion, there are things that I would do differently looking back on how I went about approaching this project, and I feel like there were ups and downs for the duration of this project, but through it all I managed to keep my head up high and create a film that I am proud to say is mine, and it being a tribute to my nan, I hope she would be proud of it too.
During the documentary, there were several things that went really well, such as the fact that I was able to interview more people than I was expecting to, due to the two days of me filming at the club, which were a month apart, were some of the busiest times that I have seen the club, so this allowed me to broaden the amount of footage that I shot, and to get more opinions on what the club means to people, which is the story that I wanted to convey to the audience. This helped me in the edit stage as well, as I then had more of a variety of personalities that I could include in my film, and could also use more that three or four people, as adding a few extra people who could add more to the story worked really well.
Another thing that went well during my project was the accessibility of the people that I wanted to interview outside of the Lunch club. As I had met them before, I already had a relationship with them, so we were able to arrange interview dates and times a lot easier than if we did not know each other. There was also the advantage that if I was unable to make an interview, then it could relatively easily be rescheduled. Because of this, I was able to relax a bit more on setting up these interviews.
I also quite enjoyed stages of the edit, such as the colour grading. After having a one-on-one with Nathan Caws, as mentioned in a previous blog, I felt a lot more confident in doing this, and enjoyed trying out different levels and filters for the clips.
On the other hand, there were a few things that went wrong while making this documentary. One of these was a slight piece of miscommunication with a customer from the Lunch club, which has been mentioned in a previous blog. I thought he got a certain train to Sittingbourne at 10:10, but that was only on the day of the Lunch club. When he goes to communion on Thursdays, he gets a train at about 8:45, so I arrived at the train station ready to interview him at 10:00, which was too late. When I tried to phone him to see if he was just getting a different train, his phone was going straight to voicemail, which was frustrating. When I managed to eventually talk to him at the Lunch club the next week, I spoke to him and then clarified the mistake that I had made.
Another thing that went wrong on my project was an interview getting cancelled, and not being able to reschedule it. I was set to interview a volunteer at her house while she cooked some food for the club, as I thought that this would be good to include in my film as it shows that the volunteers prepare a lot for the club each month. The interview was set up, and it was also convenient, as she lived about 15 minutes walk away, so was easily accessible. However, the day before I was meant to interview her, I was told that I could no longer do that, as her husband did not want a stranger filming in his house, so would not have let me film there. Because of this, I thought about how I could rectify the problem, so I had to then get a quick interview of her preparing some of the food at the Lunch club the next time I was there.
If I was to do this project again, I would make sure that I was certain about the interviews that I set up, and make sure that I contact the interviewees to make sure that they are still available for the set day. I think that doing this would make it a lot easier to have a better plan on what order my shoot days would be in. I would also make sure that I secure some crew members for more of my shoot days, as I did find it difficult at some points filming at the Lunch club by myself. I did have some help for one Lunch club shoot, however he had to leave at 11:00 as he had a shoot for his own project to go to, and the customers didn't start arriving until nearer 12:00, so wasn't able to use him much. Doing this would help with me making sure that I get all the necessary shots that I need, as there were a few times while editing that I thought 'I wish I had a shot of that for here'.
In conclusion, there are things that I would do differently looking back on how I went about approaching this project, and I feel like there were ups and downs for the duration of this project, but through it all I managed to keep my head up high and create a film that I am proud to say is mine, and it being a tribute to my nan, I hope she would be proud of it too.
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