It was quite a journey from where we began to our final product, we started with the idea of exploring the various dynamics of living within a shared household and how the different personalities interacted within that space which we had to move away from due to lack of interest to be involved from the house we had in mind. From there we thought about the idea of interrogating the culture of art cinema within Melbourne, this however proved to be logistically difficult as some companies were only willing to participate if we were to pay a significant amount of money to them, additionally the concept itself proved to be this enormous beast that could have been directed in various different ways and would have been far too difficult to organise and deliver a concise narrative that would have been easy to digest with the remaining time constraints that we had.
In the end we decided to take the concept Sophia previously had done with her second assignment and explore that further, which was the story of her Grandmother (Yiayia) and how she migrated from Greece, her experience negotiating the cultural differences and how she learned a foreign language by engaging with local media and entertainment sources.
Due to Sophia already having explored this previously and being so close to the subject made the production move forward very easily. We went and shot at her Grandparents house again to further investigate the ideas that she had previously touched on and we gathered a great deal of cut away footage, most of which we did not end up using though just to have all that additional footage allowed us to create a visual engagement congruent with the narrative.
As an interviewee she definitely did a great job. She was engaging and you were able to connect with her story on a personal level, she responded to prompts very well and told her story in a manner that was clear easy to understand. The way that we shot the interview I believe really captured the emotional Journey really well. I positioned the camera sightly to the left and Sophia was sitting directly next to it on the right and the passage of discussion was between the two of them. We used both mid close up and close up to ensure we had a variety of shots to use when putting it all together in post-production. For the majority off the cut away shots we used a 85mm lens with a 1.8 maximum aperture which created a beautiful bokeh in the either the background or foreground which gave the footage this great sense of depth. We captured really great audio and that was because we used a shotgun mic that was attached via an XLR cable to a device connected to the camera that had a very good preamp built into it. There was also a panel that gave us the ability to adjust the gain manually throughout the shoot. The camera that we used was one that I had only bought not long previously and even though I’m very happy how all the footage came out I still am learning how to use it most effectively so I think that with more experience I will be able to get even better results
I think our collaborative process was quite good, we established a good means of communication and regularly kept each other apprised of developments continually throughout, we successfully allocated individual tasks and completed them to a high standard which is reflected in how the final product has come together.
Personally I did have some significant personal issues that unfolded throughout the duration of the project, however I remained in continual communication with my group members, participated and completed the elements which were my responsibility to a good standard. However I feel no matter what project you do you should always look at what areas you lacked in and could improve on for the future and I feel in this instance I could have been more involved in the post-production process and assisted more with the editing.
During this process I have learnt a great deal about Documentary and Non-fiction filmmaking, I personally find it more difficult because there are more variables I believe that you can not control as well as you can in other areas of content creation, for instance a subject you may be looking to interview could be incredibly charismatic and engaging in discussion however when in front of the camera there persona changes and they become closed off. There is a great deal more leg work required in the pre-production stage when you are trying to find the story whilst at the same time reaching out to a number of different potential interviewees, locations and subject matter experts and can be quite difficult when you have trouble finding people who are willing to participate. That being said, I have thoroughly enjoyed the experience of exploring this area of content creation and definitely look forward to exploring it in the future and further developing the particular skill set required for making Documentaries. At the beginning of the studio I struggled to wrap my head around the concepts and how to execute them effectively, though as the semester went on my awareness and understanding grew considerably when it came to the nuances indicative with this style of filmmaking, and although I have a great deal still to learn in the area the process has lit a spark and desire to continue that development moving forward.