SYNOPSIS
Mo, an elderly woman, looks back on her life and the people she shared it with. She recalls stories from her childhood and remembers key moments throughout her life.
MOOD BOARD
Images found on google.
I would like to have lots of sharp focus close ups of her face while she talks, I would also like some close ups of her hands and her wedding rings. I might also try to incorpourate some old photographs that she has around the house.
Subjects to cover
- Upbringing, growing up during WWII
- Mum and Dad
- Meeting Pete
- Brother Brian, new year’s eve - car accident/Brian's death
- Marrying Pete, having first child
- Mum and Dad died
- Pete has cancer/ dies x-mas day
- Life afterwards
EQUIPMENT LIST
- Canon C100
- Canon 50MM lens
- Tripod
- Canon 1100D
- Canon 18-55MM lens
- Radio Mic
- Extra C100 battery
LOCATION
I'm going down to Penzance, Cornwall to film my documentary in my Granny's house.
FIRST CUT
Having done my first cut I now need to go back over and add in the cutaways and adjust the sound. I might rearrange the order of the clips I have already used and maybe play around with different filters and colour pallets.
DOCUMENTARY FINAL CUT
EVALUation
I wanted my documentary to be slow paced and nostalgic. I decided to film my granny Mo in her own home to give the film a more authentic feel. I wanted to use a number of camera angles but I think my most successful shots were the side on close ups as the focus was sharp, I had a shallow depth of field and the lighting was perfect. There were a couple of wide shots of Mo on her sofa which were slightly out of focus and I didn’t notice this until it came to editing my footage. This was frustrating as I was using a Canon C100 and so had I known, I could have used the function which allows you to check focus before you shoot. I intentionally used a lot of close ups of her, hoping to capture any emotions that would appear on her face.
I would every now and then while filming, move the camera around slightly or shift it forwards or back to add a bit of range to the shots. There is a shot where Mo talks about her father telling jokes and I had set the camera up at an angle to her right and adjusted the focus but she moved her position while she talked and came closer to the lens meaning she became blurred and at the same time she slightly jolted the camera causing it to wobble. Although this was completely unplanned and unintentional, when I watched it back, I found that I really liked the feeling it gave the film. It showed that she was relatable, and made it slightly endearing.
I used a number of cutaways of her belongings around her house, hoping to give the film a bit of atmosphere and create a sense of homeliness. For some of these I attempted to pull into focus from a blurred screen but I found this quite tricky as it often made the camera shake. For the sound I wanted it to feel very natural so I decided to have no music, diegetic or non diegetic, I wanted the stories she told to be the sole focus, to rely only on her dialogue and any ambient sound I could capture. I used a radio mic as this was the smallest and would not invade the room and make Mo feel nervous or self conscious. I knew that her ‘performance’ would be best if she felt as though she wasn’t being recorded so the tiny mic I clipped to her was perfect as she luckily forgot it was there. Having said this, there are times when she laughs loudly or shouts and here the sound is overpowering due to how close the mic was clipped to her so this was something I had to fix in post. I used that same mic to record the ambient sounds of seagulls and the ticking of her clock, which I thought gave the film a nice steady pace.
The lighting is all natural daylight which is why some of the shots are darker than others as we filmed over two days and British weather is unpredictable meaning we had sun on the first day and then fog on the second. I think this again, adds to the realistic and natural feel of the film and I would say makes it more successful overall.
The editing was a longwinded process, partly due to my lack of experience with the software and also because I ended up with almost two hours of footage. This meant lots of sorting through clips and selecting small sections from them before putting them into a sequence. I did have to discard lot of clips due to the films time restriction however I think the footage I decided to use was some of the best and had a nice flow. Before I started the filming process I had the idea to make the film black and white to give it an old fashioned feel however when I came to edit, I found that the natural colours that I had captured were very nice and managed to get the atmosphere I was going for anyway. I had to adjust some of the sound and level out the volume throughout to create a natural flow.
Overall I am extremely happy with my final piece, although I am disappointed with the one wide, out of focus shot. I think that the rest of my cinematography was very successful as well as the sound which was clear and crisp. If I were to do this project again I would probably think about adding some tracking shots, perhaps using a few different locations but overall, I think my documentary was a success.
I would every now and then while filming, move the camera around slightly or shift it forwards or back to add a bit of range to the shots. There is a shot where Mo talks about her father telling jokes and I had set the camera up at an angle to her right and adjusted the focus but she moved her position while she talked and came closer to the lens meaning she became blurred and at the same time she slightly jolted the camera causing it to wobble. Although this was completely unplanned and unintentional, when I watched it back, I found that I really liked the feeling it gave the film. It showed that she was relatable, and made it slightly endearing.
I used a number of cutaways of her belongings around her house, hoping to give the film a bit of atmosphere and create a sense of homeliness. For some of these I attempted to pull into focus from a blurred screen but I found this quite tricky as it often made the camera shake. For the sound I wanted it to feel very natural so I decided to have no music, diegetic or non diegetic, I wanted the stories she told to be the sole focus, to rely only on her dialogue and any ambient sound I could capture. I used a radio mic as this was the smallest and would not invade the room and make Mo feel nervous or self conscious. I knew that her ‘performance’ would be best if she felt as though she wasn’t being recorded so the tiny mic I clipped to her was perfect as she luckily forgot it was there. Having said this, there are times when she laughs loudly or shouts and here the sound is overpowering due to how close the mic was clipped to her so this was something I had to fix in post. I used that same mic to record the ambient sounds of seagulls and the ticking of her clock, which I thought gave the film a nice steady pace.
The lighting is all natural daylight which is why some of the shots are darker than others as we filmed over two days and British weather is unpredictable meaning we had sun on the first day and then fog on the second. I think this again, adds to the realistic and natural feel of the film and I would say makes it more successful overall.
The editing was a longwinded process, partly due to my lack of experience with the software and also because I ended up with almost two hours of footage. This meant lots of sorting through clips and selecting small sections from them before putting them into a sequence. I did have to discard lot of clips due to the films time restriction however I think the footage I decided to use was some of the best and had a nice flow. Before I started the filming process I had the idea to make the film black and white to give it an old fashioned feel however when I came to edit, I found that the natural colours that I had captured were very nice and managed to get the atmosphere I was going for anyway. I had to adjust some of the sound and level out the volume throughout to create a natural flow.
Overall I am extremely happy with my final piece, although I am disappointed with the one wide, out of focus shot. I think that the rest of my cinematography was very successful as well as the sound which was clear and crisp. If I were to do this project again I would probably think about adding some tracking shots, perhaps using a few different locations but overall, I think my documentary was a success.