Critical Reflection

Critical Reflection

Now the project is completed, I'm going to reflect on the project to understand what went well, and what went wrong, and why.

The Process

Preparation

We began with brainstorming ideas that we thought would be appropriate for the audience. We had some very controversial ideas that would have been very interesting, but hard to justify only addressing for 10 minutes and also would be near impossible for us to get people on board. Some of our ideas included eating disorders, celebrities, body image, and selective breeding in pets.

As we thought the selective breeding would be the easiest to find people and get them involved we decided to research down that route. Our idea developed onto dogs that are bred for dog shows as they are bred to have very particular traits, and we wanted to address if it was really ethical. We began to approach contributors who were all very helpful in passing us on to more appropriate people, however no one really wanted to be involved as they were concerned that we would challenge them.

In a meeting with Helen, we decided that it would be best to change our direction to something more lighthearted within which we could address more 'negative' topics, which would be to focus on dogs like pugs. This way we could address our main points:

• How being a fashionable breed affects them
• Their common health problems that people don't research before buying a dog
• Use them as an example of how different dogs can be from one another, which is why people need to put in the research
• Why they end up in shelters

That day of the meeting we knew we needed to kick ourselves into gear as we were running out of time. We immediately began phoning people, and managed to get 3 possible contributors, of which 2 we continued speaking to and 1 was involved in the film. Over that week we found all of our contributors. We especially struggled with vets as we wanted their professional opinion, but none of the local vets wanted to be involved or they would refer us to someone further away. This wasn't a disaster however, as the owners we spoke to were very knowledgable about their health conditions already, and it felt as though we were able to get the professional opinion from Jenni, the manager at Last Chance Rescue.

Shooting

We began shooting with The Pug Hotel in Rochester with Tasha. That morning we met up with Lynda so she could get to know us a bit and we were able to meet 2 of her dogs. This was very useful as we were able to get to know her and I could plan my questions for her a bit easier as we got an understanding of what she could talk about, and then made our way to the hotel. We filmed indoors although we were considering filming outside as we didn't take a lighting kit with us, as Tasha's living room had large windows and it meant we had natural lighting that we could work with easily. Esme had problems with the Tascam not registering any sound. We were able to get sound for the interviews fine but then when we moved onto the GVs it started to shut off on it's own and wouldn't record or play any sound through the headphones. To solve this after the shoot we drove to the Studios and met with Ferg who was able to give us different headphones which would work better with the Tascam, and also ensured that we were using the Phantom Power setting which would power the microphone.
We had planned to be shooting on the Monday at Vinters Park, in order to get Vox Pops with dog walkers and also GVs of people walking their dogs, however on the Monday it was quite stormy so we rescheduled that to Thursday, but then it also rained on Thursday and we decided to leave those shots as they weren't completely necessary.
On the Wednesday we filmed with Lynda and her dogs. Lynda was a great character to talk to and was able to give us a lot of information which was useful, and her dogs were all different kinds of personalities which was good to show. We were able to get plenty of GVs and spent time on the interviews so as not to rush Lynda or ruin any content. We did have technical issues, as the battery had said it was charged when Ebony removed it from the charger but it died after about 20 minutes of filming. As an emergency backup and for photos, I had brought my Canon 77D DSLR camera with a 50mm lens. It was frustrating to have to change as we knew the footage would look different but we didn't have enough time to travel anywhere to charge the battery and we didn't want to waste Lynda's time. For sound we plugged the clip mic into the Tascam and had it on Lynda so that her answers were clearest and also plugged the shotgun mic on the boom pole into the Tascam to record the general sound and also my questions. This did not work, but I will talk about it in the next section. After the shoot had finished we took the battery back to the flat and it took a while to figure out how to charge it but we did figure it out.
On the Friday we traveled to Last Chance Rescue to talk to Jenny and also get GVs around the rescue. The interview went well and the only technical issue we had was the clip mic running out of battery but we had spare and was able to sort this quickly. Because the sun was particularly bright that day, Ebony struggled to see the camera screen and this meant that she wasn't able to focus the image well, which means the shots are quite soft and over exposed, but this was an accident that we weren't able to see until we got home and we couldn't do pick-ups as Last Chance was an hour away. The footage was good enough but it's a shame to have to make a compromise.

Editing

The editing of the project revealed a lot of mistakes that we made. I started off with organising my footage into folders in order to make editing easier. I encountered my first problem when organising the Tascam sound, as the sound hadn't been identified in the beginning of each clip which made matching them up to the footage a lot more difficult but I guessed what each clip was and named them to give me a better idea as I work. I then ordered together all of the interviews so that I could go through them. I wrote the transcript for Tasha's interview so that was the first one I edited together, and while I waited for the other transcriptions from Esme and Ebony I edited together a small introduction to the film and the title animation. 

Using the transcriptions I was able to quickly refine down the interviews. I then moved on to changing around the order of the sequences until they fell into an order that made more sense. This took a long time and revealed that we should have gotten actuality shots, which we forgot to get. We had got some actuality shots (such as Lynda letting her dogs off the lead) but we didn't get anything of Tasha or Jenny and that would have been extremely helpful if we had have done that. Once they were all in order I exported the file as the rough cut and then continued with editing.
I moved onto dropping in GVs that were appropriate to what was being said, and that broke up the interviews a lot more as because we missed the actuality, it was extremely talk-heavy and almost entirely interview which made it 'drag', so I wanted to break it up as much as possible.
Lastly I moved onto voice overs and titles. I recorded the voice overs and dropped them in which was simple and brought the project together and made it seem like much more of a story line. 

What Worked

Preparation

Our group made quick progress on planning the documentary so that we could get on with contacting people to be involved. We were organised and were constantly contacting each other so that we knew what each person was doing and to keep the ball rolling. Once we'd settled on our final idea we had found all of our contributors within a couple of days and we all put in effort to keep the contributors interested.

Although we delayed in settling on a definite idea we were able to bring our idea together really quickly and efficiently which also benefited the contributors.

Contributors

We were able to get very relevant contributors on board and also vary the people enough that we were able to get different points of view. We especially enjoyed interviewing Lynda as she was a big character and was very knowledgeable about pugs as a breed, dogs in general and also adopting which was all subjects we wanted to address. We were able to ask general questions and they could answer with more relevant topics, and we never really needed to ask them to repeat something or elaborate on something.

Shot Types

The shot types flowed well and we all kept track during the interviews of things that we needed in GV that happened during the interview, for example, one of Lynda's pugs trying to get into her bag. We also all worked together to get the best shot that we could and worked methodically by getting all the questions on a 2 shot and a shot of me asking all the questions, and most of the questions on a single of the contributors. The only time this was difficult was during Lynda's interview as she would move a lot but Ebony did a good job of keeping her in frame when she could. Working methodically meant that we knew what to expect and were able to work quickly so as not to take up too much of the contributors time. We finished an hour to 2 hours early on every shoot, which gave more time to get plenty of GVs.

Edit

Although it was tedious with some of the other technical problems we had, I feel that I did a good job bringing the edit together and I feel it turned out better than I expected it to. I was concerned that we weren't going to get it into an appropriate order but I feel once I put it into a rough order and started the voice overs, everything fell into place. It would have largely improved if I had had some actuality shots, and it's a shame that they were missed, but without them I did the best that I could.

What Didn't

Initial Idea

Our initial idea was to challenge people who bred show dogs and did ringcraft. This didn't work as people mostly didn't reply to us, or if they answered our phone call they would stop replying. We were concerned that it was because we were asking a more controversial questions so we changed our route of topic to something more lighthearted.

Blurry Footage

We only realised this issue when we watched the footage back after getting back from the shoot and the cause was that the sun was so bright that Ebony was unable to see the screen properly in order to correctly focus it. We tried covering the screen with a jacket to create a darker area over the screen but it didn't work very well. Next time we will note that we should try and find a more shaded area to put the camera.

Some of the footage was also over exposed and this was for the same reason. 

Sound Issues with Tascam

We had issues with the sound recording extremely quietly despite the levels registering fine on the Tascam. We figured that for some of the sound clips Esme hadn't turned on the Phantom Power for the microphone, but even after speaking to Ferg we couldn't really figure out what had gone wrong. We all wan to have further practice on the Tascam so that we can try and get used to using it and make sure that this issue wasn't our fault.

No Actuality

Essentially, we forgot to get actuality of any of our contributors, except for about 3 shots. It would have largely helped our project if we had got more, and now we understand the importance of planning a shot list, which we missed out because we felt that if the project was based on real life then we wouldn't be able to predict shots, but we should have done one with basic information.

What Did I Learn

How to use After Effects

Using a tutorial on YouTube, I used After Effects to create the title animation. It was interesting to see how After Effects worked as I hadn't had much of an experience with it beforehand. Although the tutorial on YouTube might not have been a reliable source of education, it was just good to see how the application works as I do find it confusing. It would be great to get more practice on it to get a better idea of what to do without having to use a tutorial.

Confidence in front of the camera

I am not a very confident person but I really wanted the experience of being in front of the camera to build my confidence. I was really proud of myself and the outcome, and I was surprised in the post-production stage at how good I was at coming up with questions on the spot, which was a large concern for me as I wanted the interviews to look natural and not too scripted.

How to communicate in a formal way and get people on board with helping

I am not very confident on the phone so I was proud that I was able to speak to people on the phone and get them on board with the project and interested in being involved.

Networking

Through the project I have got work experience with making an advertisement for Lynda's dog training company.

What Could I Develop

Practice with the Tascam

I need more experience and practice with the Tascam as I struggled to troubleshoot onset which could have saved a lot of time, so I'll get some practice time in in a workshop or in the baseroom before the next project.

Confidence on the phone

As previously mentioned I am not very confident on the phone so getting more experience talking on the phone and being more confident in my approach could have saved some time and I could have been clearer with the people I spoke to. 

Editing in a Documentary Style

When it came to editing, I realised that the style and layout was very different to what I was used to, so it took a while to figure out how to properly sequence the story, but in the end I was happy with the layout I just feel it could have been done quicker and in a cleaner manner. I hadn't realised how different it would be so it was good experience and made me realise.