Production Photographs!

I believe our shoot day was a success! We had both our schedules planned out, and all our release forms ready to give out to everyone at both groups.

I was the camera operator for the group I had organized while Jamie was done the sound. We then swapped roles when we got to his group later on that night.

Both groups were lovely to work with and were very accommodating to us filming around them. They let us listen in on their conversations, record them having a chat as well as knitting their own projects; and were very welcoming to Jamie and I.

Here is just a few of the production photographs we took on the night:

(A few of the ladies in the afternoon group in the library)

(Some knitted items at the evening group in the Church)

(Extreme close up of one of the already knitted items at the evening group)

Shooting Day!

Today is shooting day!

We're heading to our first group after class this afternoon; I picked up our equipment yesterday afternoon to make sure we weren't running about like headless chickens this afternoon. All release forms are printed out and signed in the appropriate places by myself, and then the ladies in the groups will sign them themselves later on, just to give us their permission to film then and use the footage for our college project.

I haven't heard from my partner since last week (despite trying to contact him) so he isn't up to speed with exact plans; but none the less, the shoot will be going ahead as planned.

I'll try and add some production photographs on the blog tonight (:

Testing Shots.

Over the past few days, I've been going through my Mum's selection of wool and her collection of knitting pieces that she has knit herself. This is everything from dishcloths made from special cotton (especially for dishcloths) right up to jumpers that she has knit for herself.

I took a wide range of shots from very extreme close ups to medium shots; I didn't think it was necessary to do wide shots on wool and knitting projects. My favourite type of shots have definitely been the extreme close ups; I was shooting these on my camera phone so they won't be the same quality as a digital SLR, but I feel like I was able to capture the effect I was looking for. This effect was essentially looking at knitting projects and the wool; and being able to go very close to it to see every stitch, if the wool changed colour, if the stitch changed, and how it all came together to go from stitches on a needle to a completed project.

 (An ombre scarf)

 (A multi coloured cowl)

 (Balls of wool still in their package)

 (Dark ball of wool with a striking red through it)

 (A hat that I myself, am currently knitting)

 (A small number of knitting books)

 (Three knitted pillows with all different wool and
stitches used)

 (A coloured range of dishcloths)

 (An extreme close up of these dishcloths)

(Showing the different stitching used in the dishcloths) 

(A pair of socks) 

(A small number of jumpers that my Mum has knit) 

(An extreme close up of the amount of colours that she used
throughout one of the jumpers) 

(A pair of baby booties) 

(A range of baby jumpers)

While taking the photographs, I was very surprised at how much a project could bring out something so much more than just a few strands of wool. Depending on the type of stitch that was used, as well as the type of wool; if you just focus your eye very closely into any part of the project, it could almost be anything. While working on my own knitting projects and studying more about knitting, it has made me appreciate the time and the effort that goes into knitting things like these even more.

Confirming and Booking.

I went today and booked us a digital SLR camera from the Media Department in college because we have confirmed that we will be going to the Wednesday afternoon group in Dundonald and the Wednesday night group in East Belfast. I will be collecting the camera on Tuesday afternoon after another meeting then bringing it back on Thursday afternoon just before documentary class. We're also hoping to visit a wool shop to take some shots, but this is still to be confirmed. If we were to do this; it would be done on the Thursday morning.

Possible questions, stories and situations.

Now that we have our subject matter pinned down, we wanted to explore the types of stories and situations we could show in our documentary; these are listed below:

• Talk about the stereotypes (Ie. when people hear 'knitting' they think of old women usually).
• A beginner starting out.
• How it is a generational thing (Ie. passing it onto a child or grandchild).
• End results of knitting.

We knew that we wouldn't be able to have sit down interviews on screen with the owners of the shops (if we decide to visit the shops) because we aren't allowed to use that element of documentary film making; we did however just want to have a few questions written out to ask to find out if anyone had an interesting story or experience while they have been knitting and/or while working in a wool shop. These questions are listed below:

• When did you start knitting?
• How do you think the big businesses have taken over small independent shops?
• What is your customer range like? Older people, younger or a bit of both?
• Do you think the world of knitting is changing and attracting young people?

Researching older documentaries.

We watched a handful of older documentaries in class to try and get a feel of how our own documentaries may turn out because we have to use the same method of storytelling (No voice over and no interviews).

Terminus (1961)
No voice over or narrator; a couple of the scenes were clearly staged (Later research confirmed our predictions), the songs played throughout were made specifically for the documentary, voices weren't always synced up with people's mouths, graph cuts were used to edit shots together, no interview took place and there was overlayed sound.

Launch
No interviews, no dialogue, no voice over or narrator, impressionist and outside sound was used.

Drifters (1929)
Completely silent film wth no sound, music, voice over or dialogue.

We See... We Hear...

We were asked to make a general list of what type of shots we would like to see, and what sounds we would like to hear, in our documentary. The list below demonstrates that even though I wasn't exactly sure of the direction we were necessarily going with knitting idea; I had a variety of fresh visions in my head of how I wanted the documentary to look and sound.

We see a woman knitting a jumper.
We see the woman's knitting pattern.
We see the woman's knitting notes.
We hear the woman talk about how and when she started.
We see shots of the woman's wool collection.
We see the woman knit a small piece (eg. a hat, booties or a dishcloth) and possibly speed it up in post-production.
We see the inside of a wool shop.
We hear the owner of the shop talk about how they first started.
We see projects that the owner themselves have done.
We see a knitting group in action and showing each other their projects.
We hear the people in the group talking about everyday things.
We see the inside of another wool shop.
We hear the owner talk about how they first started and how they have seen the change in the attitude of knitting since then.
We hear the clatter of knitting needles.
We see the line of knitting books in the home.
We see the woman searching YouTube for help and as she watches, she knits along.
We see old knitting patterns.
We see new knitting patterns.

Learning an important lesson.

As Jamie and I discussed over the next few weeks what subject matter we were going to choose, we kept adding pieces to each idea and building them up further. Even though this led to more confusion over what idea we should go with, I believe we learnt a lesson in doing so. 

The range of ideas we had were so vast that we couldn't sit and compare them altogether; but they weren't the type of ideas to have a pros and cons list about either. While we were building up our ideas, we should have taken a step back, slept on it for a few nights and made our decision then. I personally don't like to sit in class and think of ideas right then and there; I prefer to be at home and let ideas flow then go back the next week or even a number of days later and lay my plans out on the table along with my partner's. The next time I am going through the idea or story planning process, I will be conscience of how much longer the choosing of our subject took in this project, and make sure that there is a small time frame for thinking, building upon and choosing the final project plan.

Nailing down our subject matter.

After a number of weeks of trying to decide what subject matter to choose for our documentary, we choose to go with my idea of knitting. My partner and I were both able to relate to knitting because members of both our families knit and they are in some community knitting groups held in and around East Belfast during the week. This made the suggestion of going to local knitting group easier because we knew people who were involved in these groups, and I had been to one of the groups before a handful of times, so a majority of people who attended, already know who I am.

Brainstorming Session!

On Thursday (26th September) we got placed into pairs to work on our documentary. Jamie and I got placed together, and like the rest of the class, got thinking of ideas from the get-go. I wanted to sleep on our ideas before we made a final decision, just in case we thought of anything else we would like to try out. Below are the ideas that we thought of on Thursday.

The Opposable Thumb

Our first idea was to research the opposable thumb and how we would live our lives without it. We had thought of doing a day in the life without our thumbs; we didn't necessarily know anyone who doesn't have a thumb but if we were able to tape up our thumbs for the day and pretend we didn't have one, then we could see the challenges that we would face without them. The use of archive material could be used, maybe from news stories or something very similar and a visit to the Zoo was also suggested to go and look at the monkey's specifically for the fact that they use their hands more than most zoo animals. I also threw in the idea of having a short stop motion animation, just to have a different take on the documentary. We're not exactly sure what we would have the stop motion piece be yet, but it's on the cards.

The Future of Technology

Our second idea is a mix of two ideas; not only the world of technology that seems to be growing every day but we also wanted to see the effects that this new technology seems to be having on people. Not mentally but more physically; we wanted to look at carpal tunnel syndrome in terms of video games particularly and how technology has had an impact on this condition. We also wanted to look at sensors, keypads and touch screens and how they are becoming more and more, a part of every day life for many people. Again, I suggested the idea of a stop motion piece but we hadn't decided how we would incorporate that into the documentary. 

Exploring Knitting

Our third idea was to look into the craft of knitting. Over the past decade or so, knitting has become more popular in younger people, as well as celebrities being open about taking up the craft. We wanted to know the type of people who knit, what they knit, and how they all get together; as well as some information on people who actually sell wool and yarn, to ask them if they have seen a difference in the type of customer bases over the years. I suggested we talk to a number of knitting groups to get their input of knitting and why they think it is becoming popular; but also to talk to every day people from different background and various age ranges and how knitting connects them together with the variety of skill levels too.