Alright, it is that time of the semester again for the final blog post. Honestly, I do not want to write this post due to the reason that this project ended in a really ugly manner, and no, I am not referring to the documentary.
Not a stickler to rules, I usually do not want to set up rules for people to follow, but this project has shown me the result of having a big production group with more people than what is initially stated. I feel that the idea to consolidate in groups of two was a wise one and might have been from past experience. When there is too many cooks, the broth is spoilt, in our case, some cooks even threw knives at others.
Looking back at my first and second blog post, all seemed so peaceful, until the apocalyptic outburst that took place during the thirteenth hour, it seemed to be a stalemate for me and hardly anything could be remedied. Why the Leonard and Clare did not choose to say anything face to face during the early stages of the project, I will never know.
But still, I shall attempt to analyse as much as I can using my primitive brain that failed to catch on to what the others were really thinking when they always said, "NOTHING MUCH". It is similar to a relationship between a boy and a girl. Whenever the boyfriend asks the girl what is wrong, she replies with the classic word, "NOTHING", when there really is something bothering her and she simply expects the guy to figure out what is wrong.
The guy might or might not get it at a later point in time, and his girlfriend will then quarrel with him, saying that famous phrase, "BUT YOU SHOULD HAVE KNOWN...". But how was he to know when she told him straight in the face, "NOTHING". The poor guy does not have ESP to sense out what the female is really thinking and will most likely take the girl's word for it that there is really "NOTHING". Until of course the female cannot take it anymore and all hell breaks loose.
Individual Objectives:
Looking at how a legal binding email came from Clare, I guess that means she really does not want us to use the short film, there goes my hopes for submitting this in film festivals. However, as she has made the film solely her property, I feel that it is not my loss as I have gained much knowledge and experience from this situation.
One important lesson I have learnt before is, "WHY MAKE A DOCUMENTARY THAT HAS ALREADY BEEN DOCUMENTED?" I have learnt that making a documentary is not simply just finding a story and making a documentary out of it. It is always better to search for new angles or things that have not been covered before as they have a sense of novelty in them, as compared to filming something that has already been documented, TWICE.
I am still very interested in making the documentary with the storyboard that I came up with about the printing press as I really think that it will make a good story for a documentary as she is the first person that I have ever come across still doing the ancient profession of the printing press. I can only hope that I will get the chance to do a documentary on the idea.
As for editing skills, I have picked up some basic editing skills along the way, but more still needs to be learnt, I will have to get a copy of the Final Cut Pro folder that Leonard has so that I can learn from it as well, but I am not sure where to get it. Might have to go to the library and see if they have a book on FCP.
When it comes to camera handling, I have definitely honed my skills to a new level and can now say confidently that filming is a piece of cake for me. I even taught Leonard how to do the white balance before filming as white colour looks different under different light conditions. I also taught him how to control the iris effectively, not sure if he remembers any of that though.
During the interview with Ruth Cullen, I had to hold the boom microphone and pole for about 30 minutes continuously and that was really excruciating. From that experience, I really respect the boom operators as they have to constantly get good sound as well as gauge where to place the microphone in such a way that the camera will not get it in shot.
Therefore, I feel that I have learnt much from the course, even from the drama that took place towards the end of it all. There is a lesson to learn from everything.
Things I have learnt:
Throughout the course, many guest lecturers came to talk on the different aspects of what it is like to make a documentary. I learnt many new terms and techniques from David regarding camera handling and the difference between the various models. What I remember the most is Steve Thomas' lesson with the PowerPoint slides and the fact that documentaries are powerful for the simple fact that IT IS REAL! Drama scripts and real life are very different because what usually happens in real life differs from how television shows and films portray it to be.
I needed to get a shot known as the "magic moment" for the documentary but was not successful as the sky did not turn significantly enough and hence wasted an hour just standing out in the cold. Many times after that, it was raining during the time where the sky was about to turn dark. I was quite disappointed but Leonard said that it was alright as it was not important. It is really hard to get a good 'magic moment' here as I need to grab hold of a good day as well as the exact timing when the sky turns dark.
Conclusion:
All in all, I just think that it is really unfortunate that things turned out this way, but I am happy with the way the documentary turned out. However, I noticed that ours was the only group with footage used from a past source and this actually seemed like a good idea at the time, but looking from hindsight, we should have simply did an interview and make do with whatever we had.
One problem with our project was that we had TOO MUCH footage to work on and it did not seem to be focused enough as we were jumping all over from person to person. I just pray that the next semester will be better and I have learnt that I may have to take a stronger stance and say NO to others when they approach me to join my group if there are too many people.
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