In this week’s class Chloe and I showed our work in progress for the second time round. Because we are working on one documentary together, we split all the footage into different sections in which we are completing separately, then a few days before the documentary is due we will put all of our parts together and edit it. So in today’s class we showed all of our parts that we have done so far.

The general reaction from the class was good which we were happy about. Obviously what we showed was very rough so there are a lot of improvements that need to be made.

Kim made a comment which was to pretty much eliminate all the B-roll footage that was not shot on a tri-pod because on the big screen the shakiness becomes incredibly obvious. After the class I did so and already noticed how much more professional the entire documentary looks once we removed and replaced any shaky footage. In the end, this will just make our documentary look a whole lot more sleek which also reflects the vibe and aesthetic that we are hoping to achieve. I am very glad that we did not hold back on shooting all of the art twice, as this problem was easily fixed.

Moreover, Kim also mentioned that our opening sequence should be replaced with the sequence of the curator giving a walking tour of the exhibition. She said this worked well because Ivan firstly introduces the artists and then goes on to a more in-depth explanation about the importance of political art and how these artists portray this topic.  What we initially chose as our opening sequence was “too close too soon,” and for a short documentary is a bit hard to do. Ivan’s sequence gives a good and engaging overview, so I think we will definitely make that our opening. Overall, Kim said we need to rearrange the structure and also think about structuring it in a way that does not recognise that Tony has not been interviewed, for example, including more head shots of Tony and more explanation about specifically Tony’s work.

Someone also asked if we planned on having title-cards which we are, which will also help to structure the entire video without  leaving any other the viewers confused as to who is who and how and why they relate to the exhibition.

Another comment made by one of the students was that there was a moment where the lighting changes in the interview with Mark as we moves slightly. However, when Chloe and I went down to the editing suits after class we fixed this by making the previous shot slightly longer so that the shot where the lighting changes was cut out. What I learnt from this comment was that it is very important to look at the project on a number of different screens and to watch the project a few times whilst concentrating on one thing at a time with each viewing. It is these smaller things that when fixed, sharped up the entire documentary and will get us those extra marks.

Furthermore, Jeremy made some remarks about the B-roll and said that some shots worked better than other’s and that there was a bit of repetition. He also said we need the B-roll to reflect what the artists are saying as some of the B-roll is a bit random. I definitely agreed with this after realising that Chloe and I were using similar shots, however this is easy to fix as we have more than enough footage. Obviously we do not want to have overlapping shots as we want to make our documentary dynamic and unique throughout, whilst showing off our cinematography skills. In addition, Jeremey also said our entire video is too abrupt and doesn’t look very harmonious. That is very fair to say as this stage of our process, however after balancing the audio and fixing loose ends, hopefully our video will have a cohesive structure which makes sense however is not too noticeable.

We had some very constructive feedback so this process was very helpful and hopefully after another week of editing our film will flow seamlessly, have a good structure, be punchier and generally more engaging.

On Tuesday, Chloe and I went out to South Preston to get shots from the outside of the gallery, as well as the gallery’s surroundings. The process took a shorter time than expected, and we spent about 2 hours cutting a lot of it out, putting it together, and making it flow and look visually pleasing. I was pretty happy how it turned out; however, after making the opening sequence I realised it would actually be cooler, more engaging and better fitted to our topic to have footage of “surveillance” type things around the streets of Melbourne which reflects the two artists work. I think Chloe and I will make a video which portrays “surveillance” and so on, and incorporate it somehow after filming the main subject of our documentary.

In Friday’s class, Chloe and I showed our potential ‘opening sequence’ for our documentary. When we showed our establishing sequence to the class they said that it definitely needed some background music, or just even focus and experiment with the sounds of the traffic lights, which has an interesting sound and also establishes the urban surroundings of the gallery.

Someone else also said that our sound track for this opening sequence could be sounds of hammering, and putting thing together and so on, to engage the audience and to also reflect the installation of the exhibition.

Furthermore, people said that they really like the aesthetic of the sequence which we are happy about. The camera that we are using has a very crisp visual and looks great on-screen. The footage will look even better once we start filming in the beautifully lit space of Gertrude Contemporary. All in all, I think our film will be very visually pleasing.  Some more positive feedback was that they liked it how the documentary starts with a broader subject and then delves into something every specific and I think we will keep this aspect of our documentary narrative.

In conclusion, I think Chloe and I should definitely experiment more with sounds, and make sure every shot and sequence reflects our subject matter. We only have 5 minutes so every second needs a purpose and significance.

This week Chloe and I completed our pitch which I am very pleased with. I think the whole process of creating the pitch really helped to flesh out our ideas and is something that will help us in the long run, as we will keep referring back to it, and it also something we will show our participants so that they gain a deeper understanding of what we are doing. Moreover, creating the pitch polished our ideas, centered our story, and made our whole vision a lot clearer for both of us. Last week we had all these ideas, but now we have really thought much more deeply into them and have put them down on paper so that they are official, now making our production much more approachable and easier to go on with.

Something else we decided to do this week was conduct VOX POPS interviews whilst we are filming at the opening night of Repertories of Contention. After watching a lot more Art documentaries this week, we found that the ones we found most interesting where the documentaries with lots of different types of interviews, therefore we are going to conduct both formal, informal and VOX POPS styles of interviews. The sound quality however, may not be the best in the busy and large space at the opening night, so we may not use it, but it is no trouble to conduct them anything and see what happens.

On Friday, we got really great feedback from the two documentary experts, as they said our vision was clear and we had obviously done a lot of research (which we had, so I’m glad that it reflected in our vision). Robin made an interesting comment in saying that we should perhaps take time to consider how we can reflect the ideas of the two political artists within our approach, not just through shots of their art. He said that perhaps we should consider conducting our interviews outside of Gertrude Contemporary to enhance the point that outside of a gallery space are where things like ‘political censorship and surveillance’ are where these problems occur. Chloe and I didn’t really have an opinion towards whether we should do this or not, and it is something that we will continue to talk about. I think that we should definitely ask the artists their thoughts on doing this, as they are the ones who obviously have a lot of knowledge upon these political subjects.

Overall, it was a greatly productive week and I’m so looking forward to start the filming process! If we learnt one thing from watching all the pitches this week, it was that the most important part of making a documentary is not planning, it’s actually the doing and getting to know your subject, because that’s when the truth comes out, and that’s when you know exactly what to capture and portray.

In class this week we started to think more about the different strategies and approaches we could take for our documentary films and also how to plan them.After readings all of the readings I realised just how important it is for our pitch to stand out and engage an audience.

Chloe and I really need to focus on planning a pitch that conveys our project in a concise and clear fashion, and explain our idea as if no one has ever heard about it before. In the reading How to Craft the Perfect Pitch for Project Film Supply & Make Your Dream Movie a Reality, it states that “if your vision isn’t being seen correctly, chances are your film won’t be seen either-at all.”

I really want our pitch to be engaging to the whole class, as I want our documentary to be engaging to a wide demographic. As it states in this week’s reading, Understanding Documentary Proposals, “A strong proposal will implicitly point to the wider significance and context of the story,” and therefore hopefully encapsulate a wider audience.

I think that sometimes documentaries about galleries and artists can be aimed at a very selective audience, however in Chloe’s and I’s pitch, I really want to highlight our aim to tell the story of the relationship of the two artists and what inspires them. I think that the incorporation of their story will hopefully avoid what could be just another art documentary.

Furthermore, this week Chloe and I thought that we needed to discuss the wider thematic implications of our story, as we obviously both had opinions of what it was however had never really discussed them together. I thought it was important to discuss this as it is something we have to mention in our pitch quite a bit. We agreed mostly, but because we are doing most of the pitch separately we thought that it was okay to include our separate opinions of why the film is significant to us and what we think its thematic concerns are.

As it states in the reading, What is a Synopsis? An Outline? A Treatment?¸our pitch is the “way of discovering and defining the fundamental essence of a project’s story,” and after learning that this week, I look forward to knuckling down our ideas.

http://iview.abc.net.au/programs/creative-couples/AC1621V001S00

Ideas for Chloe and I’s Documentary for Gertrude Contemporary inspired by Creative Couples Documentary:

• Including photos from when the 2 artist met at ISCP
• What inspires them- clips about what inspires them
• The documentary starts with their separate stories and then progresses with them meeting and being inspired by each other and how that allowed them to grow as artists
• Then talks about their process
• The music is really engaging and upbeat- goes with the type of art that their create
• The story of how they come up with their art
• Has a humorous side
• What is art for you? What does it make you feel?

“How to bypass the mundane and banal questions to get real stories and deeper insights from people. It’s all about reframing the questions and focusing on specific stories or experiences and feelings rather than facts.” – Kim Munro

This week in for Documentary as Action, we continued to talk and practise conducting interviews. At this time, it is very important for me to stay focused and do all of this week’s reading as Chloe and I’s documentary for Gertrude Contemporary will have a lot of Interviews in it. Chloe and I talked and we defiantly want to include an Interview with Mark, The Director of Gertrude Contemporary, and interviews with the two artists, separately and together.  After our chat about who we will be interviewing we decided to also have an interview with the director in order to gain a different perspective of the two artists. Actually, just writing this now… I think it could be also cool to perhaps do some Vox Pops interviews, maybe conducted within visitors of other non-for-profit, independent, or artist-run galleries, and ask them about what they think of the exhibition and if they think they will be visiting? – This is something I should talk to Kim about.

Furthermore, in Friday’s class we got out the big documentary cameras and microphones and practised conducting interviews with two class mates whilst they were doing an action and explaining it. So we went up to the library, picked up a book we enjoyed, and explained why we liked it. I was really happy we got to practise this type of interview as this is something me and Chloe will defiantly we including, as we will be filming the artists whilst they are installing their artwork. I felt that this was definitely harder to film as the camera was hand-held and was heavy, however looking at the footage, it felt intimate and engaging, and sometimes if the camera is still is can feel quiet locked-off. Because Chloe and I will be using a DSLR camera this will probably be easier to do, however I do think I need to keep practising these types of interviews. It is not that we have to have the camera hand-held, however I did think it had a good effect and is something we will consider doing.

In addition, we had a talk in class about how we need not only to think about our own vision, but the vision of the non-for-profit organisation. I think my vision will be pretty similar to Mark’s vision as I have been watching a lot of Gallery and Artists documentaries and they all seem pretty similar, however, next week when we meet with Mark, we defiantly need to discuss his vision as well. Something that I have always done whilst making media is showing the participants the producing process as I go along, so I get their tick of approval and in this case, hopefully have the film used as a promotional video on social media for Gertrude Contemporary!

In this week’s tutorial a lot of the conversation in class revolved around the types of interviews that we would want our documentaries to include.

I realised that in order to conduct great interviews in Chloe and my documentaries we need to:

• Find out more about them before the interview begins
• Ask myself what matters to me about them?
• Research to make a list of questions in the first place
• The order of the questions I will ask
• Needs deliberation and reflection
• Really important thing is to be listening to the answers to know the next thing to ask (it’s easy not to listen because you are as nervous as they are)
• Making formal decisions about whether me and Chloe are on or off mic (I think yes and it gives the audience an insight to the sort of relationship me and Chloe have with the artists)
• Don’t ask yes or no questions
• The type of questions we ask determines the kind of detailed answers you get
• If we want to ask the tough questions first or more simple question as first to make them relaxed
• Realise how important for the camera people to listen and the camera people to watch
• How we will manage personal or emotional material?
• Ask the crew to see if they have any other questions to add? An inclusive and fantastic thing to do
• Have everything we think we need
• Maybe we can even give the artists/curator the chance to ask us some questions!
• It’s a special thing to talk to someone while they’re working/while they’re busy (quiet special)
• We could incorporate show and tell type interviews

Moreover, we also discussed the importance of sound and I had a think about the potential of sound and how me and Chloe could use it. In Media 3 I had a bit of experience with mixing sound and using sound programs however I still do not have that much experience. I think it would be really good to experiment for with sound so I think for Project Brief 2 I will use sound in a lot of different ways and with the sound on sound programs as well. For example, I could film kitchen noises and then mix them up to make a more chaotic sound, or film outside and then heighten use it on top of an interview conducted outside so that the outside environment is emphasised. These are basic ideas but I would need to think about sound and the ways in which I could manipulate it to tell the story of these two artists.

Why do I really want to make a film about a non-for-profit art gallery?/artist?

Should it be used for marketing?

Should it be to tell an interesting story?

Should it be for both purposes?

What style would I use? Observational? Expository?