My Hero - 'Turning Point'

Here is the finished Documentary.

Critical Reflection

Unfortunately due to time and having only a couple of days to edit, we weren't able to complete our documentary in time for the deadline. We handed our project in without most of the commentary, however, Charlie was able to finish editing the commentary and we now have our completed documentary on YouTube. The main reason for not completing our project on time was due to the interview arrangements, it was hard times and dates due to their busy schedules.

On the day of our rough cut deadline, due to not being in, Sophie then had to start editing the footage from the beginning. That day we also typed up all of our other transcripts and highlighted what parts we thought would work in the documentary. While I was editing a transcript Sophie would edit the footage we needed from each interview. I feel that if me and Sophie didn't take over the editing process, that half of the documentary wouldn't have been completed.

There were quite a few disagreements within our group. I felt at times this project wasn't a team effort as individual preferences were added instead of what we had all discussed together.

In this project I was the producer and director as I contacted the charity, got a case study and contacted the church for permission for filming. I also did most of the paperwork and scheduled what days and times the interviews took place. I also offered and took out the camera equipment on multiple occasions, even though it wasn't in my job description. On the last week before handing in the project I stayed at the studios until late as well as going to the Rochester campus on the weekend before.

Overall I am quite happy with our documentary, even though there were parts that I would have changed, such as lack of cutaways that related to her story i.e. there was a man playing a guitar, when Louise was talking about a weekend away, where she went and done activities. Personally I would have liked to instead have a picture of Louise doing the activities or even pictures of the other children from the charity doing the activities.

Even though I liked the ending to our documentary I would have preferred it if the main case study Louise met up with her old mentor Holly, as I felt that would have concluded the story perfectly. Originally I tried to make this happen and contacted both Louise and Holly over periods of weeks to meet up at the same time, but due to both work schedules being busy it became very hard. At one point both Holly and Louise were free, but due to Holly's daughter being ill, the filming of the meeting was then cancelled. I did really like the music choice, that Charlie had chosen for the beginning and the ending, I feel that it went along with the tone of the story.

In the future I hope to get a more cutaways, that have a relation to the story. Also to plan and be more organised so that I am able to complete a project in time for the deadline.

Script 3 - Final

We completed our script by adding in the final commentary pieces as well as the interview that we thought worked best together.

We showed this to our tutor Helen and she said that we had to change the wording on some of the commentary. Here's the final script.

Consent Forms

Here are the consent forms signed by the people who were interviewed as well as people who have been filmed, just in case we use their footage.

Holly - Louise's Mentor from the Young Lives Foundation

Stephen - The co-founder of the Young Lives Foundation

Lucy - She was filmed being 'mentored' by Holly for an actuality shot

For music we don't need to fill out any consent forms or applications as we have decided to use royalty free music.

Stephen's Transcript - What we used

The last interview we need to incorporate in the script, was Stephen's interview. I decided that the main parts to take out and use would of hime talking about Louise's progress as well as talking about the Young Lives Foundation charity.

The parts highlighted are what I decided that should put into the script.

Holly's Transcript - What we used

After going through what parts we was gong to use from Louise's transcript, I then went through Holly's interview to see of there were any parts that I could put into the script.
The parts highlighted is what we have decided to add to the script so far.

Film Shoot 4 - Holly's Interview

One interview we wanted to include in our documentary was Holly, who was Louise's mentor when she was at the Young Lives Foundation.

We contacted Holly before the Easter holidays and didn't get a reply until a week before our deadline. What also didn't help was that Holly works only part time, due to having a child, which made it even difficult to decide on a day to interview her.

We was able to get into contact with Holly, and find a day to interview her.

When it came to the day of her interview everything became very rushed. In the morning we had to film Holly and we only had an hour to get the interview and cutaways done, due to handing in an essay between 11am and 12pm.

It didn't start off well due to Holly being stuck in traffic on the way to the YLF headquarters, however we was able to set up quickly and get on with the interview which lasted about 10 minutes.

Where Holly was positioned for the interview, the lighting became very difficult to work with as one minute the sun was out and then the next minute it was gone. So during the interview when Charlie was filming, whenever the lighting would get bright Charlie would change the exposure levels down and then back up when needed.

After filming Holly's interview, we handed our essay in and then I met up with Sophie to film some cutaway shots at Rainham. We decided to go to the Rainham high-street to get basic shots of people walking, monuments, flowers, etc.

When it came to viewing the footage of Holly's interview, the change of the lighting was very noticeable and also parts when Holly was speaking and where Charlie was changing the exposure at the same time, you could hear the sound of him turning the knob.

Also in the bigger frame shot we got of Holly, right in the corner we could see a bit of the camera wire that got in the way. Luckily as it is quite close to the edge of the screen we might be able to crop it out, if we needed to use any of those shots.

In the future I will definitely make sure no equipment is in the shot. Also to make sure we sort the lighting out, by either shutting the blinds and using the main light if needed, before we started to film.