2 minute Presentation

Before we were going to present our work we made sure a few days before that Joe had every bit of footage. I wasn't available on the monday morning because of work, so I couldn't give my group the sounds I recorded from Saturday, but I was confident that we had a huge array of sounds from a previous day to suffice at the time.

When I tuned up the group seemed to be in disarray as the project wasn't complete. I was shocked by this as we had a perfect schedule from the beginning. Everyone seemed to be stressed and panicked that we wont get it completed on time but we managed to fix the project together and we were available to present.

AFTER THE PRESENTATION

We received varied comments on our project. Some of the students rather liked our project but the tutors thought that some aspects could have been changed. I agreed with every comment made. I was overly disappointed with the 2 minute project. I believe it showed nothing with the amount of research, hard work and time we put in to collecting all of the work. It was roughly edited and very sloppy. 

We received 62% for the project, I thought this wasn't good enough.

After the presentation we agreed to meet up to discuss what problems we were having as a group, that caused us to create a disappointing piece.


We were annoyed that our editor hadn't labelled all the footage and quite a considerable amount was missing or lost within all the files.
We asked the editor to sort this out or give us the footage so we could make a proper start as we knew he was getting quite bogged down with the rest of his projects.
With the two minute piece I wanted to have all the footage in order so I could fix the sound but because it was down to the last minute I had to fix what I could in the limited amount of time I had.

Overall, this meeting was beneficial and gave us the chance to air out any problems and voice our opinions and worries rather than keeping them contained. 

Location shots and re-shoots.

16/03/13

We decided that we had enough interview footage of Tango and was waiting on other interviews to get back in touch.
In the meantime we wanted to gather atmospheric shots and film any areas that we thought would be beneficial. We filmed Burger vans, Programme sellers, Merchandise sellers, Stewards, Turnstiles, Crowds and Police. All of these shots would be used for the 2 minute piece to show our audience a build up to the game starting from the early morning to it getting busier and rowdier.
As we wanted a lot of varied shots we enlisted Peter Farley to help us film as well. With Peter on board he would be able to go to a different position and film Tango in his full glory whilst Jacob would capture footage from a different angle. Hannah would then gather footage of the Band members whilst I recorded the fans singing and shouting and some of the band playing.

The shoot was very good and a lot of people respected that we were filming and didn't hinder the process. We decided to leave at half time as the light was changing and we had copious amounts of footage to chose from.

Wolverhampton Trip

Looking back on the Wolverhampton trip I was worried that we were diverting too much away from the context of football. However, after seeing and hearing what Tango man had to say and what he did away from a football match was very beneficial. It casts a new light on this character and its what we defiantly needed for the audience to understand this man.

Tango was more than welcome to allow us to film in his home and he showed us his 'games room' that was full of Wednesday memorabilia and a games machine. This was a perfect place to interview him and after a while I captured enough dialogue of him telling stories of his football fan years.

The only disadvantage's of the day was the fact that Tango wasn't willing to tell us about his past, especially when he got arrested and banned from various football clubs. We respected his wishes and understood that he didn't want to us to put him across as a bad man. To overcome this we asked as many questions as he was was willing to answer to have enough dialogue to play about with in post.

Another disadvantage was when we was filming Tango in his 'games room', the buzz coming from his games machine was picking up on the mic. We talked about what to do but Tango looked more comfortable and was delving in to past stories so we didn't want to disrupt. I thought that maybe there is something I could do to try and mask the sound when it came to editing the audio, or if it was too bad just use all the past audio recordings as we obtained quite a lot, many of which was repeated dialogue.
Through this experience however it taught me to look at the location first and decide whether it is suitable to record in or not, and if thats the case ask to record somewhere else.

Wolverhampton Trip

Monday 4th

As scheduled from the beginning of the project, we wanted to capture Tango at work and at home so it was more authentic and cast a different light from when he is at matches away from fans and friends. Tango lives in Wolverhampton and he kindly gave us his address and booked a convenient day so we could capture him at work.

We were determined to capture every detail whilst in Wolverhampton because we didn't want to miss our chance and have to bug Tango again to film in his work place.

Joe was again going to stay behind and construct/ convert all the footage to create our 2minute poetic piece. Hannah agreed to drive to Wolverhampton, whilst myself and Jacob booked out the equipment.

Paul managed to secure all the consents for us to film Tango Man at work. He also completed a Risk Assessment.

Shooting Day 2

Saturday 2nd Sheffield             Wednesday V Nottingham Forrest

Paul managed to get one of the Sheffield Wednesday Band Members to give an interview.
He also brought his trumpet along and asked us if it was okay to play it.

Because the weather was much better the interview ran along more smoothly and we made sure we collected enough footage and that all the questions were answered. I didn't encounter any problems from this interview as John was a very confident speaker and re-phrased the questions. I think because I have interviewed prior to this before the experience made me confident and I was able to record a perfect piece.

After this, we walked to the Hillsborough Club to meet with Tango Man. Instead of filming him in the function room we learnt from the last mistake and filmed him outside and took careful precision to shoot this interview with a more interesting background. Again, because the weather was much better we took time with the interview.

After a quick break we set off again to the match. This time Paul came a long and we split off in to two groups. Jacob and myself got up close with Tango Man to film him with his top off getting in to the match spirit. Hannah and Paul stayed with the Sheffield Wednesday Brass Band and filmed them playing the songs. Once the match was over we felt like the days work was very successful and we knew we had much better quality and varied footage.

Filming on these days have also helped me build my confidence with the sound equipment.

Group Thoughts and Inspiration (The Solitary Life Of Cranes)

As a group I think we are working very efficiently and professional. Paul has managed to secure permission on everything so we are available to film without interruption. Luckily Paul managed to contact Harry Gration, the presenter on Look north to help us with our project.  The project is now set and we fully understood what we want and have the contacts to achieve it.


Part of our agenda is to sit down as a group and discuss any worries or problems. We also keep the group up to date on what is happening and when we are going to film. Joe prefers to stay behind to edit any footage we collect to then evaluate whether we need to re-capture anything again or simply add something on.

Monday 25th

We organised a group meeting via Facebook to discuss with Joe (editor) what he thought of the footage  we captured on the 23rd.
Firstly he liked the walking shots of Tango man approaching the stadium but he asked us to re-film them and try to steady the cam so it didn't wobble as much.
He thought the images on the flip cams were poor and un-able to use do to the quality. We all agreed with this and decided to think of a different solution. Jacob recommended we use HD flip cams which produce better quality images and has a better zoom. Myself and Hannah thought about booking out a DSLR as this would produce much better imaging than any of the Flip cams. We all agreed that we should take both equipment.

Joe also expressed that he thought we filmed Tango man in an unattractive boring surrounding and we also agreed with this. Joe also asked us to film Tango man at a different angle to have a more professional look.

With all this on board we agreed to go and film these scenes again but correct our mistakes.
We also improved on our questions.


I listened to the sounds we captured and thought that they were remarkably clear. I was not confident to begin with and thought I would let the group down with my lack of knowledge on the devices and the professional ways to capture sound. However they were clear and the levels matched that of what they should be.
The Lapel recordings were rather muffled and Tango breathed in to it quite a few times so I couldn't hear what he was saying, next time I think I will just use the Rifle Mic to record sound as this was a lot easier and clearer.

Tango hasn't been interviewed before and we could tell this from his performance. He wouldn't rephrase the question when he began to speak and in some of the interview he was single worded. This is something that we all wanted to improve and thought it would be best to prompt him more or try to say the question in a different manner to try and coax him.

The Solitary Life Of Cranes

This short is directed by Eva Weber and was given to us by our tutor to look at.

When I viewed this documentary I was surprised as to how short it is, at first I thought that this wouldn't suffice for a documentary. However, the title basically describes the film, and in the two minutes we hear quite a few opinions from crane drivers who aren't seen, who explain what there existence is like once inside the cab of a crane. I think they chose to not show the drivers because as the documentary explains they don't really matter, everyone forgets that they are up there, I will admit that I never think about crane drivers. I think this piece will make us see cranes more and make us respect them as machinery that creates cities and structures.

The piece is well shot and the ariel shots of London are clear and go along with the drivers interview. I liked the music used but I wasn't sure as to why they used this kind of piece as I thought it was quite depressing and sombre at the beginning. I think it would have been better if they used sounds of the cranes moving, and atmospheric sounds (such as the noises from the city below) instead.

One thing that I paid homage to is the crane drivers dialogue. As I am practicing sound and recording the interviews this piece of work enlightened me and made me think that the sounds I record have to be clear and be avoided of any background noise. It also made me think that not all the piece has to be filled with dialogue, as long as we snip out the most informative parts that back up our work then that will do and then focus on the visuals more as I believe that documentaries nowadays are mostly about this.

Shooting Day 1

On Saturday the 23rd of February, Tango Man was making his way to watch the Sheffield Wednesday Match against Crystal Palace. We decided that this would be a perfect day to film him.
This is a list of what happened on the day;

• We arrived at Sheffield Wednesday and filmed Tango Man walking to the stadium then having him turn around to reveal the stadium behind him. 
• Tango Man then went to his local pub to meet family and friends so we checked all the equipment over and planned the rest of the day. 
• Jacob filmed a lot of exterior shots then we set off to the local pub to meet Tango again. 
• At the club the owner allowed us to interview Tango in a function room away from the rowdiness of the bar.
• We asked Tango a series of questions. Once this was over we decided to go to the stadium and decide on what was happening next.
• Paul set off up a hill to get an arial shot of the ground and the surrounding area (he also wanted to capture the crowds making their way to the stadium and exiting once the game had finished).
• Myself, Hannah and Jacob went in to the stadium to film footage on Flip Cams of Tango at action.
• We filmed Tango from our seats and once the match was over we met up again to discuss what we captured, with this we decided to call it a day.

Pro's and Cons of the day

I would say that even though this was our first day meeting Tango and going to a match to film, we did remarkably well, everything went to plan and we followed the schedule religiously. We captured what we wanted to capture and re-shot anything we thought wasn't suitable. However, the weather was extremely cold and this was off putting, at time we were so cold we couldn't operate some of the equipment and this was frustrating. Also, the flip cams were very poor and the footage we got wasn't brilliant, again it was that cold that the match wasn't particularly enjoyable and we left after 78minutes because we started to get ill. We agreed as a solution that because we had left ourselves plenty of time to re-capture anything we didn't get or thought wasn't suitable, we could go out and do it again.