Journal Entry Week 10

Tuesday

7am start for the rowers:) I got up and got to the river early in order to make sure I caught them, turns out I was a little over eager as they didn’t appear for a good 15 minutes. When they did appear I managed to get 45 minutes of footage although it was mostly from the same spot across from Menlo castle, I didn’t want to risk moving and then not catching them again. I will endeavor to get out to film them regularly and to do it from a different spot each time. I am under the impression that the editing for this film will be easier than for the sports documentary as it is one club, the river flows in one direction. How I edit the footage together will depend upon the interview, I will attempt to create a narrative arc depending on the quality of the interview and the corresponding footage. The footage could follow the arc of a training session, in the sense that the order of the footage would be from pre training (getting the boats out) to upriver to downriver to end training (putting the boats away). A little simple maybe but once the narrative arc is in place I could experiment with the timing of events, scenes and shots. I am also thinking to use no soundtrack for this documentary; to just record some wild tracks and put them in place around the natural sound. That would mean I use a prerecorded song for the sports film, make a recording for the boat film and then just use natural sounds for the rowing film. Each one will be a different learning experience. After filming the rowing club I collected the laptop and spent the day editing in the sports office. This once again proved fruitful as I managed to set up some more meetings to film and also collected footage from off campus clubs (eg snowsports)

Friday 15^th March

Today I had arranged to meet with the golf club at the Galway Golf Club, we were to meet as they were passing the clubhouse during a round. When I rang the vice captain he informed me they were not out but he could swing by to do a bit of filming. When he arrived I quickly realized he (Damien) had the run of the place. We tried to take a shot or two down near the water but there was too much glare from the sea and the way the tee was pointing meant that I would have to film into the sun. We then tried from the top of the golf course and this worked because there was not so much glare but there was still a nice backdrop to frame. This is where Damiens knowledge of the club and its workings came in handy, he was able to borrow a golf buggy for free to take us to the top of the hill. Bumpy ride but still better than walking. Damien proved to be very willing to participate in the filming process, taking as many shots as was required and allowing me time to ensure that I had the camera focus properly tuned. Having taken the footage home and viewed it since it still appears that there is some blurring but this could be to do with the iso. The footage collected will add to the films visual diversity as the landscape is completely different from anything else in the film. Having said this it is still the case that I need to check the settings on the camera and see what they do in relation to the footage that I have captured thus far.

Friday 15^th March

I tried to film the rowing club for a while in order to check the focus, I have been having trouble with getting the camera to focus. It looks focused on the screen but when I get it off the camera onto the computer its hazy at best. I took some footage and brought it back to the laptop only to find that it was once again blurry. I will take Aimee’s advice and henceforth use the automatic focus before switching to manual focus, just to be sure.

Saturday 16^th March

Today was the rowing event named the Head of the River. It is a large rowing event that rowers from all over the country come to compete in. I started filming on the riverside and just as I was leaving I ran into the club captain who said he could get me a ride upriver in a launch for the second race, of course I accepted. On the way up I wanted to film everything but I had to balance it with the need to conserve the battery life, I had only two batteries with me. Having so many rowers on the river gave me lots to film and moving alongside them allowed me to illustrate the flow of the boats. Once parked on a rock island I was let off and began filming immediately, the framing was nice but I was worried that the shots would all look the same as I could not move from the rock island I was filming from. Once the last boat of this race (there was three races) had passed we followed them downstream, in fact all the launch boats (ten or more) followed them downstream. I was actually filming it on my mobile phone, it has good footage and I had no battery worries but it films everything in widescreen. For the last part of the race (I had not intended to stay this long) I set up on the Quincentennial Bridge to get a different angle of the rowers. I have footage from the start, near the end and the end of the race. I captured it in different order but I am intending to edit as if I captured them in sequence of how they occur in real time. Having edited to footage into a short film that needs an interview to describe what is occurring and perhaps some music although I am beginning to like the pared down version. When looking in the camera viewfinder everything looked in focus and today everything just about was. I had followed the advice of using the automatic focus and then switching to the manual focus and this seemed to work.

Early edit;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sIocoCIdRk&feature=youtu.be

Journal entry week 9

4th to 10th March

This week was slow on the production front as I had neglected my role as producer and had not arranged any filming for the week. Due to this I decided to sit at the phone in the sports office and to organize as much as possible for next week. This resulted in setting up two events for that same day, there was a rugby match on later in the day and table tennis were having a training session that I hadn’t been aware of until I started making inquiries.

The rugby game was on just as soon as I got off the phone and I was glad I went as the participants weren’t affected by my presence, I could film in peace. They were also all wearing the University shirts and so aesthetically it worked well, it is after all a film about the University sports clubs. It was also a learning experience in capturing live action events, I had to set up where I wanted to catch the action as the camera wasn’t powerful enough to film anything on the other side of the pitch. I was also having trouble with the tripod in that I was unable to get it to pan properly from side to side. I also had to be ready when the action came to my side of the pitch as I could not ask for a redo, I had stayed in position in order to catch Nuigs’ scores which I hopefully did. I wont know until I transfer the footage onto the computer.

The other meeting I set up when working the phones was with the table tennis club which I hadn’t been able to film thus far. The club members had brought their club jerseys with them, which was good for the film. Having Nuig jerseys in front of the camera would give the film an aesthetic tone throughout, as it is it will look a bit jumbled and it may end up looking like lots of random unrecognizable people exercising. The only thing they will have in common is that they are chasing some ball or another. I am going to have to find a way of making the participants of the film seem part of a coherent whole and to this end I am considering titles. Anyway the table tennis groups were amicable and more than happy to participate and I (hopefully) got some good footage.

I have to make the responsibilities of producer part of my weekly schedule and not get too caught up in the filming aspect. I also need to prune down the footage by regularly editing what I have filmed.

Week 9 Screening 2

                           

Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan’s Hope. 2011. Murgan Spurlock.

Comic-Con is a documentary that follows several personal narratives as they prepare for and then attend the American national comic book convention. Because it primarily follows personal narratives the documentary primarily consists of interviews, and these interviews are used to progress the films narrative. An interview is a type of reconstruction, a condensing of information. In Comic-Con they are set up to interweave with the documentary and they all riff on a subject or a theme. The ‘geeks’ interviewed are comic con attendees and all seem to have an overdeveloped capacity to believe in a world of fantasy, unlike in the case of Marwencol which was created with the express purpose of cathersis, the world of comics were created by someone else. They escape into a shared world of fantasy.

Escapism is a recurrent theme throughout the film, computer games “make you feel as if your in another world”, and interviewees refer to how comfortable they feel at comic con as opposed to the rest of the year when they are in the real world. The producers shyed away from exploring this theme in any real depth; the connection between the escapist aspect of comic con and the individuals incompatiblility to social norms is only touched upon. Instead the film takes a lighter more populist tone and this tone is reflected in the visual integration of the comics template into the narrative of the film.

The lions share of the work for this film was done in the pre production stage, the researchers found several potential individuals for narrative strands that were all going to comic con and interwove these narratives with each other and reinforced them with interviews. The fact that the interviews all hit certain points indicates that they were guided and as mentioned, constructed. These interviews give the documentary a very specific focus while giving the events onscreen another layer of meaning. The film is edited in such a way as to give events a specific context by having it narrated by interviewees, the meaning of the footage is consequently altered.

With regards the interviews some of the behavior of the participants convey the impression of reconstruction, as if characters took direction from someone behind the camera. this is most evident when an event is required for the narrative to progress. Likewise many of the conversations in front of the camera feel staged, as if in order to fulfil the necessary pieces of the narrative. All considered Comic-Con is an interesting an entertaining slice of American culture, is does not dwell on any larger questions raised but getting to the truth was never its aim.

Week 9 Screening 1

Pulling John. 2009. Vassiliki Khonsari, Sevan Matossian.

Pulling John is the unfortunately named documentary about the American world champion arm-wrestler John Brzenk. Opening with a real life introduction by a competition announcement it then segues into a futuristic multimedia introduction by way of newsreels and headlines. Although slick this digital montage has little relevance to the documentary itself or the world of arm wrestling for that matter. It has no relevance to the narrative and is thus out of place, when a piece of the narrative such as this is out of place it interrupts the flow of the documentary. This is mainly because the section is noticeably out of place and this makes you consider the format of the film, thus interrupting the processing of information. This use of digital animation for exposition is repeated throughout the film as if marking chapters, although incongruous it does gives the film a lighter tone.

As with many narcissistic endeavors there is much potential humor in the scenarios observed, but this film does not explore the potential of the inbuilt humorous scenarios, this film could have had a completely different slant if the producer had wanted to send up its protagonists (see below for unfortunate quotes). This film illustrates that people can and will compete in just about anything as long as there is recognition.

The documentary introduces us to Brzenks competition in the world of arm wrestling and in doing so reveals the slanted perspective of the documentary somewhat. Before introducing us to his Russian competitor we are informed that in Russia arm wrestlers receive state help while in America they receive none. This seems like an attempt to pitch a scenario to the viewer (Brzenk as underdog) and illustrates bias on behalf of the filmmaker. Imparting this piece of information before we meet his Russian opponent prejudices us towards the subject. It is designed to inform the viewer whose side they are on in the upcoming battle.

The film often strays from the narrative in that certain elements of the participating subjects lives are overly documented. Instead of being another strand to run alongside the main story they instead wander and diverge away from the stories core. This may be to do with the documentary subjects eagerness to impart information on their lives. People like attention, they may not crave it but it enlivens them, this is evident in some of the interviews in Pulling John when some of the past masters of arm wrestling are enlivened in the presence of the camera. This aspect of the documentary underlines the necessity of having a good editor as it would have benefitted from a tighter narrative.

Unfortunate quote num 1 “I’ve pulled Yoshi three other times”

Unfortunate quote num 2 “When I pull Brzenk I will get a big rush ”

Journal entry week 8.

Monday the 25th February

This week I had arranged to film three clubs; boxing, lifesaving and basketball. All three were accommodating but boxing were especially so. It once again brings up the subject of how to treat the subjects of documentaries; the boxing club perhaps felt that they were in need of promotion, grateful for any attention. They were willing to do whatever I might have wanted in order to promote the club and as such they may be expecting results from participation. At the end of filming I tried to explain that I may only use a little of an extended interview I was given to try to dampen expectations somewhat but it has since occurred to me that this might only be my perspective of events. Another filmmaker might not have felt the need to balance the equation between those filming and those filmed. Another filmmaker would have created a different dynamic between himself and the subjects of the film and would perhaps not have felt the onus to create “realistic” expectations (ie expectations in line with my own perspective).

I filmed the club for its entire training session but noticed after sometime that I once again felt an obligation to stay for the duration of the training. I perhaps need to be more clinical and to take what I require. Having said this is I had not stayed until the end I would not have gotten the extended interview, something that may be a saving grace in the editing stage.

Friday the 1st March

I had arranged to film the basketball club having spoken with the club captain, they had agree to wear their home and away jerseys both for my filming (it would look better) and for their own ends (to use the footage in their upcoming presentation). When I arrived to film the club captain wasn’t there and they were not wearing their club jerseys (they all were wearing different training attire). In a way it informed me as to where I stood with the club, they could take or leave my presence. This impression also informed my further interactions with the club for the rest of the training session. For example I tried not to interfere at all with their training, just letting them get on with it. The footage I got might not be as good as if I had asked them to partake in certain activities that would suit the tone of the film I am making but I got the impression that it was the best I could do. Asking the participants to turn up wearing certain uniforms could be called off camera directing in any case. After filming the practice game they were playing for a while I was caught tinkering with the camera when one of the players performed a spectacular slam dunk, all the players on the court then turned to me to see if I had caught it on film (I hadn’t). This scenario made me aware that they were aware of the presence of the camera and if only in this instance it was altering their behavior.

Friday 1st March

The last club I had arranged to film was the lifesaving club, I had originally wanted to film the water polo club as it is vibrant and filmic but they are finished training for the year and club captain offered me the chance to film lifesaving practice so I said I might. When the time came I was free and since I had the camera I decided to go down to the sports hall and film. It was an after hours training session and so it was quite late but I found myself unable to capture the mood I experienced watching these athletes train at such a late hour on a Friday night. They were getting ready for a lifesaving intervarsity (who knew?) and so there wasn’t much dynamic activity as I had hoped there would be. I was finding it hard to frame shots where there wasn’t anyone chatting in the background and thus ruining the dynamism of the shot. Not knowing what activities they were going to practice I had to ask before I began to shoot, this was the extent of my interaction with the participants. I filmed each activity in turn but realized halfway through training that I would not have enough space on my memory card for filming the rowing club on the weekend if I were to keep on filming. Upon realizing this I said my thanks and left. The importance of filming the rowing club (even though I could not film them in the end) meant that any onus I would have felt to remain and film the whole session went out the window.

Week 8 Screening 2

Fire on the Track. The Steve Prefontaine Story. 1995. Erich Lyttle.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0WMzYGhCgw

This tribute documentary opens with a poetic introduction to the deceased subject of the documentary, athlete Steve Prefontaine. At first the introduction uses a montage of images and a professional voiceover but it quickly switches to a talking head interview. This sudden switch to a completely different type of content is jarring, although documentaries are often made up of differing source material the footage is so different it appears to have not been graded. The tone change is also abrupt, going from poetic retrospective to a casual contemporary interview in the space of a few seconds. Although this is only one particular sequence the slapdash feeling of the edit continues throughout the documentary. In a sense the ungainly editing of the opening sequence sets the tone for the documentary as such changes of tone occur regularly throughout. Although it was released in 1995 it appears to be from the 1980’s in style and content.

The film has many other unprofessional aspects that ruin the flow of the film, aspects such the titles covering the mouth of the person speaking, or the interview subjects being badly framed and badly lit (and sometimes both). Worst of all was the sound not being mixed well, the interviewees having to compete with the score. The filmmaker had limited footage of Prefontaine to work with and this aspect becomes comparatively repetitive and visually tiring. The documentary has a regulated structure switching between romantic observation and interview mode, all of which pay tribute to someone who was undoubtedly a great sportsman but the message of the documentary is the same throughout. This repetitious singing of Prefontaines praises becomes a little indulgent and tiresome. There were other aspects of Prefontaines life that could have been explored to give the narrative of the film some depth or texture. Aspects such as his battles with the athletic association, or his use of food stamps to survive but instead it recurrently plays the same note for the entire film.

Week 8 Screening 1.

The Four Year Plan (2011) Mat Hodgson.

Tracking the story of English football club QPR’s attempt to climb back into the premier league, this documentary film opens with expository text to bring the viewer up to speed with the story. Although a useful method to impart information quickly it also quickly creates a specific perspective of events as there is no other information to go on. The images that follow this text introduction embellish further a perspective of the club and its financial position. Montages are used prolifically to illustrate the changes that occur at the club, considering that the documentary is filmed over a four year period there was always going to be some instances where a synopsis would be required.

The editing is used very effectively to give insight to events and to reinforce what the filmmaker would like the viewer to focus on, this gives the film a strong narrative. An example of such reinforcement is when a comment is made by Flavio Briatore in the stands and then unbeknownst to Briatore a reposite is filmed from the dugout. The viewer can observe the two sides to the debate, while neither party would have been aware of the other comments they are edited in such a way as to give the viewer a sense of omniscience. As a viewer you are privy to more information than the participants.

The documentary is able to thread togheter the storyline as it sees fit due to the lenghty period of time that they were filming for. This results in a very strong narrative and a satisfyingly speedy development of the story. The editing of the film is done in such a way as to make explicit any developments in the story. The editor had a lot of footage to choose from (from four years of filming), but he manages to stick tightly to a central narrative. Adhering to a specific narrative excludes everything extraneous to that narrative, to the benefit of the story but to the detriment of the truth. This documentary was made in the editing suite.