PRODUCTION LOGS

1.

Across the first week of production, I have dedicated it to further research and pre-production efforts. Due to being behind schedule on aspects of my FEP, this further allocated time has been beneficial. A large aspect I have focused on is developing the smaller areas of research that, while I previously deemed unnecessary, have proved to serve me well in terms of better conceptualising my idea. The primary one for this was market research, I spent my Thursday morning looking into documentaries with similar subject matter to mine own, that of the evolution and history of physical media in music. However, each area specifically zoomed in on vinyl records. I had originally planned to spend my Thursday out on production, specifically at Record Junkee in Sheffield, however, the need to bring my website up to date and to standard took precedence. As much as I believe B-roll to be a crucial area I need to progress onto soon, I need to be able to script write and achieve a distinction standard within my research.

In my Friday session, I encountered an issue I have yet been able to solve. Within my documentary, I have detailed that I want to include archival footage of the production process of Records and CDs. However, due to ad blockers and efforts by the college IT team, I was unable to download any footage from YouTube, which is my only source for the footage I intend to use. This proved stressful as it means I either am forced to find alternative footage to use, or an alternative way to download it – the options of which hold a high potential of a contracting a virus on my computer.

Instead of dwelling too much on this factor, I dedicated the rest of my time in college to deciding aspects of my onscreen graphics. I downloaded fifteen fonts, all of which, to an extent, encompassed the blocky and messy handwriting-esque style I wanted for my documentary. Out of the fifteen fonts, there were only nine I was particularly happy with. Out of these I went on to create draft title cards, attempting to curate the similar style shown within my inspirations research. This drafting has allowed me to understand my vision more accurately. While I am happy with the style, the colour scheme remains undecided. I had originally intended for warmer hues, red yellows, and oranges, but I, as always, am drawn to bold pink.

Going forward into the second week of production, I need to overcome the issue of downloading secondary footage, as well as begin gathering b-roll, which I intend to do on Thursday. On both the Tuesday and Friday I will remain in college as I have done this week.

2.

Across week 2 of production, I have both progressed further with my product in the equal amount I have faced mishaps.

I utilised the first half of this week to continue research, specifically areas I had deemed smaller in importance such as skills and abilities – for this research I looked in the soft skills of time management, how poor management can cause stress and the effect that can have on the body, I further looked into methods to rectify that and improve.

The week started poorly when regarding practical work. On Tuesday I was finally able to download the footage off YouTube that I had attempted to do the week before. Due to my own personal fault, multiple videos lacked audio due to me accidentally downloading them as mp3 or due to it downloading incorrectly. Due to this my Thursday was spent redownloading the videos as well as the music I intend to use within my documentary. There were some videos that proved uncooperative and had to be scrapped by the vast majority I was able to get right. After this I took the music, I had downloaded into adobe audition and began clipping and fading aspects to better envision the audio of my product. Due this I now have a clear idea of what songs will be used for definite, which will be sacrificed and for the ones I do use – which segments I will have.

Further in the week I had intended to film at Record Junkee, a vinyl store in Sheffield city centre, however after being told Thursday was an ideal day for me to come, they came back to ask whether Friday I could come instead. For this I booked out a camera, lapel mics, on camera light, a gimbal and a tripod as I also had one of the employees agree to an interview. Day of filming however my interviewee pulled out and so while on location the only footage I was able to get was b-roll, no a-roll. In total I got 142 shots, the majority were done handheld.

The worry with filming at record junkee is that it is a location I filmed at last year for my FEP, however when I did so, the footage was entirely unusable, it was dark and grainy, not even fixable in premier pro. This was the reason I booked out an on-camera light.

In terms of the actual shots, they are a stark improvement from last years, some are flickery due to the light used but beggars cannot be choosers. That is an issue I would have to do further research into equipment to understand how to solve it.

Overall, I am not in the same situation as last year where I gathered around 300 shots, with only about 20 being decent. Instead, this year I got significantly less but about 90% are usable. I now need to sort through and find which shots are worthy in entirety of being in a final cut of my product.

Going forward with production I have a list of locations I need to contact, all three are local music venues however each are unique or centre around specific genres. Unfortunately, one of the locations – Leeds Kirkgate market vinyl fair, takes place on a day I am contracted to work, and thus I need to try and swap my shift with a colleague. Due to having the b-roll I managed to get as well as the music and secondary footage I downloaded, I can now better begin formulating my script and adjusting my shot list.

3.

Across week three of production, I used the time to edit and organise aspects of my FEP.

Within the first two weeks of production, I downloaded all necessary and wanted secondary footage and audio, allowing me an unobstructed vision of the structure and music that would be used throughout my end product. With the music I downloaded, I have edited them down and made it more applicable. all I will need to do when it comes to the overall editing of my product now is to place the edited segments onto my timeline. Nirvana's Come as You has been faded in, and I have decided that it will be used to segue into/out of interviews to then transition to the next part of my documentary. T-rex's’ Get it on will be used similarly, while Like  A Rolling Stone by Bob Dylan or The Man Who Sold the World by Nirvana will be used to outro the product as a whole. The music segments I have cut have been selected to either mean the most when it comes to the lyrics within them or to whichever part feels like it would match the tempo of the footage it will be paired with.

Furthermore, the archival footage I downloaded of the production processes of vinyl records, CDs and cassettes have all been edited and better framed. I have used effects on them, such as DE-noise, to clear the image on some of the older videos. Doing this, again it has given me a better understanding now of my running order and how to make my documentary more individualistic than my previous work. IN last year’s FMP, I used all archival footage in one mass, one after another and focusing only on silent film. This year I want to deviate from that and instead only use the footage when it is brought up. I do not intend now to speak about the production process of physical media all in one go. When it comes to implementing the footage of the production of CD’s, it will likely now accompany audio of me talking about disc rot. This hopefully would create a nicer contrast, to see how this media is made, by to hear audio focused on what can be its downfall, what degrades it and destroys it.

When this portion of editing was done, I focused on the b-roll I gathered when filming the week previously at record junkee. I dedicated Tuesday of this week to organisation. I took the time to look at every individual shot, renaming and recategorizing it into two folders – final cut and baseline. Final cut was for any shots, unedited I knew were worthy or more than useable in my documentary. The baseline was for any basic shots but nothing special – useable if I need it. I also created a third folder in which I placed any completely terrible shots, not deleting them but simply getting them out of the way. When this was done, to allow for a clearer mind and cleaner workspace, I went through my USB drive and, for the first time in a while, created good file management. Previously, things were unnamed, with a large number of images titled just “PNG” or “Capture 1”. Everything now, however, has been sorted into the right locations and renamed for easy access and lack of faff going forward. The same took place with my Google Drive, to which I have also invested in the fee for additional space (200 GB) to be able to back up all work should something unfortunate happen to my USB.

Going forward into the next few weeks I have gained an understanding that I need to get myself in gear more, sort interviews and sort more locations. Otherwise, I will end up with a product that falls through and is boring.

4.

In this fourth week of production, I have dedicated it to further written work and networking as well as at-home practical.

On the Tuesday of this week, I came into college to collect equipment; however, due to miscommunication, I also thought I would have to be in from 9 am until 3 pm, my normal timetabled hours. This would have put a stop to my production plans for the day. This ended up not being the case, and I could continue the filming as planned (despite disturbance in the big red building, which stalled it further due to the fire alarm going off. Across the Tuesday afternoon, I filmed at home, using my CD collection as props to collect b-roll, counting 270 odd CD’s all of which are different genres and the majority having been owned by parents and thus being older than I am. The CD shots will make for good filler content, and when doing Pan shots across the collection, they could also be used to transition to various aspects of my documentary in the same way I will use music to do so.

The rest of this week was largely focused on building my website up and furthering research as well as pre-production. Pre-production is the most necessary.

On the Wednesday of this week, I phoned the information person for the Leeds Kirkgate vinyl record fair, taking place on the 12^th of April. I want this to be the primary location my documentary is set in; it will make for a large variation of different shots. The bloke I spoke to have no grievances with me filming and simply informed me to instead email him, in which I need to detail who I am why I want to be there and what I would be doing. The email he would then forward to the organisers of the event and the public relations team, citing it as procedure. I did this immediately after getting off the phone with him. I have received no response from him yet however, due to him having no issues with the idea, I hope to receive one soon.

After this, I also attempted to phone the Lughole music venue in Sheffield. A location more specific in their style, and that would bring again, a more unique location and touch to my product. However, I was unsuccessful over the course of easter However, I will message them over social media and see if that is more fruitful.

Due to these two potential locations, I have completed two more risk assessments and location recces. even if I am unable to film at these locations, I would rather have the necessary documents done now, rather than needing to do them last minute.
Having had my production meeting with Joe on Thursday, I have also reached out to the band “Suckle” who are playing at the Brudenell Social Club on Saturday the 13^th. I have emailed the band to try and organise interviews and filming at their gig. The production meeting also helped me to outline my main priorities going forward and nearing the end of the allocated time for filming.

5.

Across week 5 of production, the first week of the Easter holidays, no production took place on weekdays, it all fell on the weekend.

After a week’s correspondence with Leeds Kirkgate record fairs information person John, it was arranged for me to film at the fair and meet him at 11am in the food hall. From there john introduced me to two stallholders, Bill and Wilson, both in different areas of the fair.

Wilson was who I interviewed first, moving across the hall to the bottom end, where there was a better view of all the stores in the background and would see that the interviewing taking place would not hinder anyone, customers and sellers alike. Wilson sat for a 20-minute-long interview where he answered an estimated 10 questions. After this, due to bill being free to talk, unlike when I had been introduced to him, I was able to set the camera up in front of him next. He stood instead of sat and answered the same questions as I had asked his predecessor, however, he provided very opposite answers. Whereas Wilson was in the vinyl game more for the money side, selling whatever sold well, bill was far more personal. He spoke about how his stall at the fair reflects him, that’s it all an emulation of his music taste and personality. He spoke about his career change from teaching and how getting into the vinyl industry suited him far better and made him far better, a change he made in 2006. After the two interviews had taken place, I said goodbye to john and spent the next 2 hours chatting to other stall holders and filming b-roll, all of which was done handheld rather than with the tripod.

I captured close ups of the different genres sold by different stalls and tried to film as much of the variation between individuals as possible. The fair takes placed quite deep into the market, so after getting as much footage as possible from the two halls It takes place in, I wandered around the rest of the market to film what it was surrounded by, the different cultures and the obvious staples of the market. This included the food stalls, the florists and the butchers, the rug companies and the overall classic architecture of the building.

One of the downfalls of this Saturday is that despite intending to gather vox pops, it was something I left without. The combination of catching a cold and a flare up with my condition meant I didn’t feel up to it and knocked some of the confidence out of me. However, I have submitted a request to my work for Saturday the 10^th of May off, the next time the fair takes place. This is with the intention that should I be able to be off work, I can go down to the location a second time and do what I didn’t do when I went out this time: gain vox pops and any other additional shots I want/need.

One mistake I nearly made when at the fair was forgetting to ask my two interviewees to sign the release forms; however, after realising this about one hour into filming b-roll, I was able to go back to them both and get their signatures.

After filming concluded at the fair, I had time before my train home, time which I used to walk around Leeds city centre and capture footage of the architecture and public, shots which I hope can be used as filler footage for any dull parts of my documentary.

On Sunday the 15th (unfortunately for me, the day after), I was able to make good on my second mistake of the week. Despite being given the contact information for the band “Suckle,” it took me to email them until I sat in a Burger King after filming at the fair. This was in part due to my own laziness but also due to my health and not knowing whether I'd be physically able to go out and film a second day in a row.

However, my late correspondence came in clutch, and I received an email back in the evening, saying they were more than happy to do the interview for me and provided me a time to come. 7 pm at the Leeds Brudenell social club.

When I got there, I was taken into the community hall by one of the security guards, who left me to listen to the headliners soundcheck, which in turn, deafened me prematurely.

The band were running a few minutes late, however quite thankful in Sam's last email, he had provided me his phone number, I messaged him to let him know about my relocation to the community hall and was waiting about 10 minutes before the band had wrapped up eating and came to meet me. The two I met were Sam and Henry, the guitarist and bassist. We left the hall and moved into the beer garden where the two decided on an anxiety inducing dual interview. We ended up using the zoom mic, the two passing it between each other due to the fact had only booked out one lapel mic, due to my worry about audio, we clipped the single lapel mic to Sams hoodie, doe in case the audio quality on the zoom was to fail or not be up to standard.

The interview lasted approximately 25 minutes, having asked the two 10 questions, they took turns answering and bounced off each other, something I was quite grateful for, it became a very natural conversation. I was very happy with the decision to have them do it together rather than one after another.

A downside that became apparent when uploading footage was that due to the sun and the position of the camera, many shots as well as the full interview have turned out quite grainy rather than any sort of high quality. This was also an issue I had in my other locations. When booking out equipment I had gone to Darrell twice about getting an on-camera light, however both times I went to him, he had none available due to Film and TV commandeering them all. By the time I realised I would be filming at the Brudenell, the location most likely to need one, I was not within amazons next day delivery, or rather I was, but the light would arrive after the time I would have needed to leave. I set off at 5pm to Leeds and would have needed it prior to then, but amazons only time frame was “anytime before 10pm”. I didn’t want to rush buying one just for it to not arrive or arrive and be poor quality.

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