The first thing that should be said it that overall the technical and production qualities were a huge improvement on the films we made last time round - and that applies to the whole group. It really seems that everyone learned some good lessons and their first films and have stepped up. The fiction group's films were on the whole very strong, a whole lot better than what we produced. A lot of them seemed to go down the horror route, and produced some genuinely effective atmosphere and scary concepts in their films. On our factual side, I think we all produced some informative and good looking films. Though they are all had technical and narrative problems, on the whole they were recognizable as finished films, which couldn't even be said of some of our fiction pieces last time. What I was most proud of was that in 'Life By The Landfill' we managed to include some fantastic shots. We really utilized the teleophoto lens and Prime lens which had access to really well. In particular there was one shot using the Prime in which managed to get a beautiful triple pull focus! First you see the trees out of focus, then the trees, then all of the rubbish bags which are contaminating the landscape behind them.Through the shots we did manage to convey some sense of the landfills effects on the local environment, and the film was also cut together reasonably well. What we were brought down by was the lack of content in terms of interviews and a poor narrative.
Of the two interviews that we managed to include in the documentary, which were with the directors mother and family friend, they were not substantial enough to be able to base a whole documentary around, and only gave the negative side of the story. Tutors noted that the films jumped into the interviews and out of them very quickly, each time thinking it was going to lead to a substantial amount of content, but each time it quickly went back to the cutaways. They rightly assessed that the reason for this for a limited supply of good content. We had trouble getting the residents of Stargate lane to appear, and those who had agreed prior had to back out or couldn't arrange a suitable time. Obviously communication is something we really need to improve on, but also interview technique. If we had been able to approach the interviewees in a more thoughtful and calculated manner, starting with narrow questions before moving on to more open ones, then we might have gotten some better content. There was also the issue of the mise-en-scène. We filmed both interviews in living rooms, but if we gotten out onto the streets, actually getting the interviewees to point out some of the landfill effects (such the state of the new road which is referred to but not actually seen), then visually the film would be far more successful. We also had a good music track to go underneath, but we repeated it too often and for a 5 minute documentary it was far too repetitive. We should have found at least one more. The sound issues didn't stop there, the voiceover which were recorded was poorly leveled, and we should have used headphones to see how it sounded in the mix. Overall the biggest problem with the documentary was that it didn't give a fair view of both sides of the argument, with only the negative effects of the landfill covered in the interview segments. We did try to rectify this with our voiceover which gave an overview of the benefits to the local enviroment which the landfill has, but ideally we should have had an interview with somebody of authority at the landfill.
It good that we have made these mistakes this time around and it will allow us to learn and get better on our next film, whether it be fiction or factual. Of course we now have to decision to make about whether we do fictional or factual video production next year. I am somewhat torn, considering I had a better experience this time than when I made my fiction film, but that can be put down to lessons learned. In the end, whatever I choose I have a good amount of experience now and will be able to throw myself into the project ready to make my best film yet.
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