3rd year Project: Pre-production - Directors Statement

When thinking what I wanted to make as my final project for University, I had a few ideas that differed from one another as I wasn't sure what type of film I wanted to make. I had one idea that was a thriller, which focused on a set of twins, and one of them accidentally kills the other, so has to take on the role of their live, as well as their own. This would have gone on to possibly even include things like getting married to the twin's fiancé and having to make up excuses as to why they can't be at the same events. The other Idea was a documentary on the importance of local stories, and how they are passed down through the generations. 

However, I eventually thought of the idea of doing a documentary about the Lunch Club at Holy Trinity Church in Sittingbourne, because my nan used to volunteer there before she sadly passed away before the start of this project. I wanted to make this as she often talked about volunteering at the club, and so I felt like it was a topic worth highlighting. Because there is this connection, I feel like I am going to be able to create something that she would be proud of, and hope that she guides me through the process from pre-production, to filming, and to edit. 

When Thinking about this documentary, I had a specific vision in mind of what it was going to look like, and what I wanted to show the audience. That is to highlight how a simple little club can have a big impact for the people who really need something like it in their lives. Through doing some research into the types of documentary, I decided that this topic would work best if it were shot as an observational documentary. I found the website premiumbeat.com very helpful with looking at the types of documentary, and this is what made me decide on an observational style, as I want to see the effect of the club on both the volunteers and the customers and convey these feelings to the audience. 

The use of a Church as the main setting was going to be very exciting, as there are numerous ways that this environment can affect the way that the documentary will look and sound like. There were going to be some challenges while filming, and I was looking forward to facing them. There was a big change that happened which meant that I would no longer be able to film like in my test footage. Unbeknownst to me, the Church was going under some work inside, taking out the pews and replacing them with regular seats. This was occurring during the time that I planned to shoot, so I was really worried that the club was going to be cancelled. However, the club was moved to a hall down the road, which was a relief. Because of this, I went to the club one day and did a reccy of the new location, and of course it was very different, so I had to make a new plan of where the camera was going to go, and how it could move around the environment.

The general idea of the documentary is to show that a small and seemingly useless club can have a big impact on people. I could have focused on clubs for the younger generation, such as a sport club, but I felt that the younger generation are portrayed enough, but the older generation are not, and they are arguably the ones who need to have the opportunity to be more active. So to show what effect the club has had on the people who attend it, both customer and volunteer alike, I had the idea of not only interviewing them, but also their family and friends, as they would be able to see if there was a difference in behaviour in the people who attended the club, which I thought would be interesting to see.

I had considered going down the emotional route, and making my nan and family the focus of the documentary, but I felt like this would take away from the story of the importance of the Lunch Club and the people who attend it, both volunteer and customer alike. From the other documentaries that I had watched, there was more information and story in them which I think is due to the subject that they were focusing on. There were ways that they could have been more emotional, but they didn't cross that line, and I feel like it was the better decision for them. Because of this, I stayed away from attaching too much emotion, so only had a few mentions of my nan, such as having an interview with my grandad to ask him what the club and the people that went to it meant to her. However, I did put a tribute to her at the end of the film. 

I also toyed with the idea of having a presenter, as i thought that it would be a good idea to have the presenter being a volunteer for the day, and also having a rapport with the people that they interview. However after thinking about it and how it would look, I decided to go with not having a presenter, and just have voice over narration, as I feel like it will suit the tone of the documentary. One of the documentaries that I researched, 'Found at the Deaf Club', they used the three women who were the focus of the documentary as the presenters for each of their clubs. They did this in interview form, which I thought was a good technique to use, so I decided to do this in my film. I have got a few people to interview in this way, which will definitely add to the story.

Setting up the tables and chairs

All set up

Some of the creative decisions that I made throughout this documentary were made during the pre-production stage. I had the idea of having several panoramic shots throughout the documentary at different times in order to show the club filling up with people, then people leaving. When I knew about the location change, I kept that idea in mind during the reccy, so I noted where some good camera positions would be, and when it came time to film, I did panoramic shots both moving left and moving right in more than one location in the hall. I did this so that when it came time to edit these clips together, I could see what worked and looked better. I made sure that I kept this idea with me, as the main point of getting these shots was to put them all together at the end, fading into each other with the panoramic shots going in a different direction to the one before it. I wanted to do this as I felt like it was the best way in showing what happened during the day and the amount of people that came to the club. In order to tell more of the club's story, I made sure to get some panoramic shots of the hall empty both before the tables and chairs had been put up, and during them being put up, as well as as they were being put away, and ending the pans with the hall empty again. From some of my research, namely from watching the documentary 'Found at the Deaf Club', I saw how impactful it can be to have the audience watch the person who they are currently focusing on actually doing something, such as taking an order or talking to some friends. I did plan to do this in my film, however seeing the impact that it can have made me film action from both volunteers and customers that I had interviewed more.

Club full of people

Another creative decision that I made was also during pre-production. To get a better idea of what my documentary was going to look like, I went to the club one day and shot some footage to put together a 2 - 3 minute test shoot. This allowed me to try out a few different techniques and angles that I was unsure about. One of these was the angles to use during interviews. I was not sure where the best position for the camera would be in relation to the subject, so I tried several and tried different angles when I edited them together. I found that having the camera at a slight angle to the subject worked the best, so I went with this for the real shoot. On the real shoot, I had two interviews that were in people's homes, so I was planning on having two cameras set up so that I could have a wide shot of them and also a close up. However, upon setting up the cameras, I had the idea to include a third camera to get an angle that was more side-on with the subject. I did this so that there was some variety between the shots, as sometimes only having two options can make a film feel slow.

One more creative choice that I made was during the edit of my documentary, specifically the sound. I knew that I was going to include some music in my documentary so that it felt more engaging for the audience. I had seen that documentaries with a tone that was similar to mine had quite soft music, so I decided to go with something similar. I found two pieces of music that was copyright-free, so used them, one at the beginning and one at the end. I tried each of them at the beginning and end to see what one worked better where. Doing this also helped me while editing the sound of some of the interviews and general shots, as I wanted to hear the background sounds over the music in certain shots.