Reflective Essay on my Experience.

As I reflect over my documentary experience, I have had both ups and downs. Now naturally, this happens in every single production because nothing will ever run smoothly, that’s not how life works.

I feel like my partner and I didn’t connect as much as I had hoped. While this has its disadvantages, it also had its advantages. We were able to create two completely different edits; Jamie’s focused more on a montage piece of the knitting group whereas mine dove into a more personal element with my Mother along with the knitting group as well. I personally prefer working alone on the editing side of film making and with us both having two very different views on how we wanted our projects to turn out, I think the editing process was a lot easier working separately.

The disadvantages outweigh the advantages however; pre-production meetings were few and far between (despite them being regularly organized for certain days and times) and a large majority of our communication was done over Facebook. In my past experience, using Facebook as a primary source to communicate with a group hasn’t always worked out well, so I wasn’t a huge fan of using it this time around. I feel my partner and I had very different ideas from the start and it took us a few weeks longer than other groups to actually choose our subject. Both having different ideas isn’t necessarily a bad thing but when one has to compromise for the other, I feel like the other person will always have more of a passion for the subject than the other. Even when we first started speaking about knitting, it was clear that we both had different visions for what we wanted our documentary to be and because we are both inspiring editors, we both wanted to edit as well. I’m very glad that we had the opportunity to do our own edits because I didn’t want my favourite stage of the process to be dampened with questioning and debating each shot with each other.

Going into the knitting groups, I was very nervous about walking into a part of these people’s lives and having a camera sitting in front of their faces. I was worried that they wouldn’t want us to film, or we were getting too close to them or that they would be very uncomfortable in our presence, which is something I definitely didn’t want to happen. I know being a part of a documentary is that you stage reality to a certain degree but before the subject was knitting, I didn’t want to walk in and have to ask some-one to knit that again or distract them, causing them to make a mistake. We didn’t have to stage any shots in the knitting group and maybe we should have done it for one or two shots, just to have something extra but I honestly don’t think we needed it, which made me very happy.  

For me, my disappointment happened when we came to the realization that we would have to re-shoot the knitting groups again. At the time, I thought I had done something wrong but I came to learn that there aren’t many film shoots that don’t have re-shoots so that made me feel a little better. As we finished our re-shoot and looked over the footage, I was shocked at how much better the re-shoot footage was compared to the first. Our main mistake was not using a tripod and we should have used one from the start; we didn’t think we would need one because we wanted to do a lot of moving and close up shots, and using a tripod, this is a lot tougher. So the second time around, even though I wasn’t able to get as close as I wanted to the wool, especially at the knitting group, the footage came out clearer and more smoother, so I didn’t mind compromising on moving shots so much.

I have played a small part in documentary film making before but it was very unstructured and I didn’t like the end result. This was a lot more structured than my previous work but I feel like for this documentary, it could have been more structured than it was. I would have liked to work as a team more but I fear that our edit and both our visions would have been compromised if we had to do one single edit because of the different ways we wanted to go. I’m very happy with my edit and how it turned out; I gave colour correction my best shot when it came to the interview stage but that was a small problem with the lighting in the room so I don’t feel it takes away from the documentary. My music is quite quirky and could be called cheesy at times but that was the style I was going for because of the subject matters, and I think it fits the shots, the vibe and the story well.

Overall, I enjoyed the majority of the documentary experience and I would say the only large negative I have is the lack of communication at times. I find it very stressful when I don’t know where projects are headed, and meetings help me get through that struggle.

I don’t feel like my documentary is just your average short documentary; I believe it has character, as well as being insightful and entertaining about a hobby that everyone has heard of but doesn’t know much about. 

Looking back to the beginning.

As we tidy up our production folders ready for hand in, I look at our treatment from when we started this project, compared to our edits, it hasn't become the outcome we once wrote down in October. When you're making a film, I don't think that any treatment will match the film in the end, and I think that shows what I said in a few posts back about how 'life happens' and how things can change throughout the filming process.

The treatment is meant as an strong outline for our film and although our original intentions were interesting, exciting and had a lot of potential; we came together and made two totally different visions and it's for this reason I don't mind that the documentary went in a different direction completely. I'm glad we had the treatment as a structure of course, but I'm happy that we explored other areas and that the documentary turned out with surprising results.

Editing has begun!

The editing has begun! I didn't do a lot of editing today, it was more so organizing all the footage into different folders so when it came to Final Cut Pro, I could find clips a lot faster and easier.

For the piece of editing I did do, I started to think about the close ups shots of the women and how we start seeing what they are knitting and then we reveal who the person is that is knitting it. I feel for this piece of the documentary, it will be a lot slower than I would like. I wanted to have some quick shots but I don't think I'll be able to achieve the effect I want, with doing quick shots.

I was looking at one of the shots today and we started off looking at one of the woman's wool and her actually knitting out of focus, it then comes into focus and we slowly pan up and zoom out to reveal who is knitting the piece. I really liked the fact that we started off with the shot out of focus but because I don't want to sit on the same shot for forty five seconds, if I want to keep the out of focus look, I'll have to switch between shots. I'll have to look at this in more detail though, while editing, to make sure it all fits together smoothly.

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)

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.