Target Audience research and analysis1

We thought that by creating a survey for a wide variety of people would help narrow down our target audience, although it may seem obvious that our charity is Teenage Cancer Trust that our target audience would mainly be teenagers, however some of the responses i received back from by survey by people a lot older, i found out that different age groups find it beneficial to see what the charity actually do. I think it is very useful for people of all different ages to see exactly what the charity do to raise money for these teenagers.

Team meeting minutes

Team Meeting Minutes.

When creating our animation, myself and rest of the team decided to arrange team meetings in which we would decide exactly what we would do for our animation step by step as we had many aspects we had to consider for part of our animation production.

28/09/2012- This was our first team meeting all together. This is where we decided exactly what charity we would base our animation on, we then began to do basic research on our chosen charity and watched other adverts and commercials the charity had previously done.
We also thought it would be a good idea to research our target audience as well, we realised that although the cancer trust is for teenagers it is also watched by all different kinds of age groups.

9/10/2012- In this meeting we gathered all our current research together to see what we had come up with. On this day we also decided to base our advert on an inspiration video(advert) wish is Mosshi Monster made for moo.com. We chose to base our idea on this advert as it looked very professional and would be easy to do. We then each took a storyboard home to feel in of one of ideas in which we could use for our animation, we would then meet up the following day to show each other our different ideas.

18/10/2012- We decided in this meeting that we would chose our final idea, so that it would be fair we would use parts of everyones storyboard to put together our final animation. We came up with the idea of an opening and closing hand, when the palm was open their would be a picture of someone who the chariety has helped, this picture would change everytime the hand opened and closed. We felt that this was a very creative idea and would be entertaining for our target audience.

4/12/2012- In this meeting we decided exactly what equipment we was going to use and how we were going to budget our animation. We also decided what sound we were going to use behind our animation which would be 'Fix You' by Coldplay. We also decided that we were going to use a Nikon D5100 camera to take the individual shots instead of using a logic camera, we chose to do this to make our animation look a lot more professional and to have high quality pictures.

After these meeting we basically began to gradually prepare for our final filming for our animation.
I felt that with the help of these meeting it made us feel a lot organized as a group and we were able to stay on top when filming our final animation.

Production Schedule

Production Schedule

Animation Title: Teenage Cancer Trust
Client: Kristie Bird Ryan O'shea Megan Harcombe
Producer: Kristie Bird Ryan O'shea Megan Harcombe
Date: September 2012


                                      Date:              Completed -->                  Date:
Planning Started:   September 2012                               June 2013

Proposal Starter:    December 2012                               March 2013

Agreement from   January 2013                                    April 2013
client:

Audience             January 2013                                     February 2013
research
started:

Audience             February 2013                                   March 2013
research 
analyzed:

Drafting            April 2013                                            June 2013
started:      

Production        May 2013                                             June 2013

started:

Final                June 2013                                              June 2013
Version:

 

Crew Roles

Crew Roles

Director: Kristie Bird, Ryan O'shea and Megan Harcombe
Definition: the director is in total control and has the task and honor or assigning where objects should be and setting the scene and location, they are responsible for the camera and all the equipment being used, they are also in charge if anything breaks or is lost, the director will also be in charge of the actors, myself, ryan and megan will jointly decide all the decisions being made for our animation we will be creating.

Producer: Kristie Bird, Ryan O'shea and Megan Harcombe
Definition: The producer supervises and organizes how the production will be budgeted and funded our job as the producers is to make sure the film is fully prepared and ready to be filmed and everything is in place. We are also in control of distributing the film; all three of us will take charge of this, and decide how much money we will be spending on our animation.

Director of photography (D.P): Kristie Bird, Ryan O'shea and Megan Harcombe
Definition: A cinematographer are responsible for achieving artists and technical discussions linked to the image. In this animation we are in control of all camera and lighting, we have to make sure that all the camera and lighting are set up and are in the correct position ready for the camera operator to use. We will all fulfill this task together.

Editor: Ryan O'shea
Definition: The editor edits the piece of filming to make the finally product, The term editing is derived from the traditional process of working with film, but now it increasingly involves the use of digital technology; this was mainly completed by Ryan however myself and megan were sat beside him helping him with decisions along the way.

Camera Operator: Kristie Bird and Megan Harcombe
Definition: The camera operator positions the camera and completes all the filming. In film making, the leading camera operator is usually called a cinematographer, while a camera operator in a video production may be known as a television camera operator. The job role of the cmera operator in our animation is to film the animation and to make sure that the footage and pictures that i am taking will be the best that we can achieve. In our case we are going to be using a webcam positioned and held by a clamp, myself and megan will be in charge of this.

Assistant Camera (A.C): Ryan O'shea
Definition: This person is responsible for setting the focus for the camera, they may also mount the camera, clean and check the camera is working well. This task will be taken up by Ryan.

Assistant Director (A.D): Kristie Bird, Ryan O'shea and Megan Harcombe 
Definition: The assistant director tracks the progress of the production, they also prepare daily task and assessment sheets they also make sure that all the cast and crew are where they are meant to be, to make sure enough process is happening each day and maintaining the set making sure its all in perfect condition, we will all take control of this task.

Art Director: Kristie Bird
Definition: In filmmaking, an art director is the person who develops the look, feel and texture of the movie. My role in this animation is to create and make sure that the set is looking perfect and the set is in the correct proportion for the animation, I also have to make sure the feel and texture of the movie meets the directors needs.

Location Scout: Kristie Bird and Ryan O'shea
Definition: Location scouting is a vital process in the pre-production stage of filmmaking and commercial photography. Once Scriptwriters, producers or directors have decided what general kind of scenery they require for the various parts of their work that is shot.

Interview questions

-How does it feel to be known as a celebrity? 

As an opening question i feel that this is a very strong question due to that fact he will open up to us right at the beginning about how he is well known for being the only blind personal trainer in the UK.

-What made you become a personal trainer?

This question allows james to not only outline but also go into depth about his past and how he became a personal trainer. this is a powerful question to ask as some people would find this question emotional as some people don't like to talk about there past, but we decided to ask this question as we know that james wouldn't take any offense to it and is comfortable to talk about his past with us.

-What do you like most about being a personal trainer?

This to me is not our most strongest question as i feel that our response will be very typical in him just explaining that he enjoys exercise and it gives him something to achieve what many people would think a man with no sight could do.

-What’s been the biggest challenge about being a personal trainer?

This is just a question we feel would be good to put into our interview as it gives James a chance to talk about his goals and struggles about being a personal trainer, although this is a chilled question it also gives James the chance to tell us a lot more about his personal training life.

-How old were you when you when you lost your sight?

This is a very powerful questions as it is a sensitive question to ask someone when they have had a serious illness like James has, but by previously meeting with james we found out that james doesn't mind talking about how he lost his sight therefore this question to james isn't a very sensitive question to ask. 

-How long did it take to you adjust to being blind?

This to me isn't a very strong question to ask, its actully a very good question to ask james as it will allow james to feel relaxed after the last question we asked him. 

-You’re very involved in the charity Save the Children, have you got any major events planned for the future? 

This isn't a powerful question to ask james its actually the complete opposite this question is a great question to show people who are watching out interview that you can do anything you want in life as long as you put your mind to it. 

-Have you set your self any goals to complete in your life? 

This question is a nice question to ask james as it gives james a chance to show people what a blind person can do and it will show people that the fact he is blind wont stop him doing anything in life. 

-Will you ever let the fact that you are blind stop you doing anything?

This again lets james show people that as long as you stay strong mentally you can achieve and do anything you want in life. Therefore this question isn't powerful at all only in the sense of the message james is putting out. 

- What inspiring advice would you give to someone who has recently lost their vision?

This again lets james show people who have recently lost there sight not to give up no matter what. the only powefull thing in this question is the message that james is sending out. 

We believe that all these questions were perfect to get a entertaining interview. We was pleased with our new questions and we are now prepared to go ahead and film our interview. The other thing we like about our new questions is that, knowing james from previous meetings we know that he can go off topic sometimes which in this case is good as we can go on and elaborate on the answer and aske questions from that,.

What is a documentary

What is a documentary?

A documentary film is a movie that attempts to document reality. Even though the scenes are wisely chosen and arranged, usually through editing after filming, they are not scripted and the people in the movie are not typically actors. A documentary can be made about near enough anything and created by anyone.

 Sometimes, a documentary film may rely on voice-over narration to describe what is happening in the footage; in other films, the images speak for themselves without commentary. A documentary often includes interviews with people in the film for additional context or information.

Documentary’s should mainly include facts and even some figures to do with what is being spoke or seen too in the documentary, a documentary can either been written in first or second person however sometimes can be written in third

In general, documentary films focus on real life and include footage of events as they happened. A movie about World War II might feature actors portraying soldiers, real or fictional, in the war, recreating certain battles or events. In contrast to this, a documentary film about World War II might primarily feature news real footage of actual fighting, with commentary from experts and veterans who were in the war. It is this focus on documenting reality above drama or a fictional narrative that typically separates these movies from summer blockbusters and other popular films.

One recent documentary that has been show on tv a lot is 9/11, I feel that this was a really touching yet interesting documentary, it told us information from the American terrorist attacks in such detail as was all given by a narrator/voice over. Throughout the documentary they show a number of interviews with people from the 9/11 attacks such as some of the people who survived the attack, fireman, police officers and family members to those who were involved. Using interviews in documentary’s I feel really makes the show, aslong you have someone with good questions to ask and be answered an interview will really make a documentary worth while.

Documentaries dont always use the official footage of an event as there may have been no footage filmed at this particular time. In some cases documentaries can often use recreational footage to show the audience Documentaries can be ranged from extremely random subjects to something we all think about every day. Most of the documentaries which seem to have rather random subjects are called ‘Experimental documentaries’ these range from all sorts of subjects but one in particular I have seen is ‘Once upon a Tram Ride’ which tells a story on the life of a protestor in The Hague.

The six types of documentary’s

1. Poetic documentaries, which first appeared in the 1920’s, were a sort of reaction against both the content and the rapidly crystallizing grammar of the early fiction film. The poetic mode moved away from continuity editing and instead organized images of the material world by means of associations and patterns, both in terms of time and space. Well-rounded characters—’life-like people’—were absent; instead, people appeared in these films as entities, just like any other, that are found in the material world. The films were fragmentary, impressionistic, lyrical. Their disruption of the coherence of time and space—a coherence favored by the fiction films of the day—can also be seen as an element of the modernist counter-model of cinematic narrative. The ‘real world’—Nichols calls it the “historical world”—was broken up into fragments and aesthetically reconstituted using film form.

2. Expository documentaries speak directly to the viewer, often in the form of an authoritative commentary employing voiceover or titles, proposing a strong argument and point of view. These films are rhetorical, and try to persuade the viewer. (They may use a rich and sonorous male voice.) The (voice-of-God) commentary often sounds ‘objective’ and omniscient. Images are often not paramount; they exist to advance the argument. The rhetoric insistently presses upon us to read the images in a certain fashion. Historical documentaries in this mode deliver an unproblematic and ‘objective’ account and interpretation of past events.

3. Observational documentaries attempt to simply and spontaneously observe lived life with a minimum of intervention. Filmmakers who worked in this sub-genre often saw the poetic mode as too abstract and the expository mode as too didactic. The first observational docs date back to the 1960’s; the technological developments which made them possible include mobile lighweight cameras and portable sound recording equipment for synchronized sound. Often, this mode of film eschewed voice-over commentary, post-synchronized dialogue and music, or re-enactments. The films aimed for immediacy, intimacy, and revelation of individual human character in ordinary life situations.

4. Participatory documentaries believe that it is impossible for the act of filmmaking to not influence or alter the events being filmed. What these films do is emulate the approach of the anthropologist: participant-observation. Not only is the filmmaker part of the film, we also get a sense of how situations in the film are affected or altered by her presence. Nichols: “The filmmaker steps out from behind the cloak of voice-over commentary, steps away from poetic meditation, steps down from a fly-on-the-wall perch, and becomes a social actor (almost) like any other. (Almost like any other because the filmmaker retains the camera, and with it, a certain degree of potential power and control over events.)” The encounter between filmmaker and subject becomes a critical element of the film. Rouch and Morin named the approach cinéma vérité, translating Dziga Vertov’s kinopravda into French; the “truth” refers to the truth of the encounter rather than some absolute truth.

5. Reflexive documentaries don’t see themselves as a transparent window on the world; instead they draw attention to their own constructedness, and the fact that they are representations. How does the world get represented by documentary films? This question is central to this sub-genre of films. They prompt us to “question the authenticity of documentary in general.” It is the most self-conscious of all the modes, and is highly skeptical of ‘realism.’ It may use Brechtian alienation strategies to jar us, in order to ‘defamiliarize’ what we are seeing and how we are seeing it.

6. Performative documentaries stress subjective experience and emotional response to the world. They are strongly personal, unconventional, perhaps poetic and/or experimental, and might include hypothetical enactments of events designed to make us experience what it might be like for us to possess a certain specific perspective on the world that is not our own, e.g. that of black, gay men in Marlon Riggs’s Tongues Untied (1989) or Jenny Livingston’s Paris Is Burning (1991). This sub-genre might also lend itself to certain groups (e.g. women, ethnic minorities, gays and lesbians, etc) to ‘speak about themselves.’ Often, a battery of techniques, many borrowed from fiction or avant-garde films, are used. Performative docs often link up personal accounts or experiences with larger political or historical realities.

http://collaborativedocumentary.wordpress.com/6-types-of-documentary/

interview attempt 2

This was our second attempt for our practice interview. This was a very successful and entertaining interview. We chose for our location to be in the media office room, we felt that this room would be best to film our interview in as our interview was based around Ryan's school and social life. As Ryan spoke about the subjects he chose, one of them including media we thought that it would be a brilliant idea to film this in a media room as the location would fit in with the concept of our interview.

I feel that our interview flowed very well this time and i think this was due to the fact before we filmed our interview we had a short rehearsal which  consisted of myself talking ryan through some of the questions in which i was going to ask him so it gave himself some prepreation time to think of some good responses. As i was the interview i had already prepared some questions however, some of the responses i recieved from ryan linked me to ask different question as well as the ones i already had which was very useful and helped for our interview to have a smooth run.
There were no long or awkward pauses throughout our interview which allowed our interview to seem more professional and consistent.
Our interview did not need much editing due to the fact we had prepared well before hand, the only editing we had was at the beginning and end where we had to stop the camera ourselves, so we just edited that our and put in the titles.

Whilst filming and taking part in the interview, it did not only teach me how to be a well presented and spoken interviewer it also gave me the chance to set up the cameras, lighting which was very useful.


-What do you study at ravenswood boys school?
This question was a great question to open our interview as it not only engaged me in the interview but made me feel comfortable. It also showed the audience that i was a student.

- Are you hoping to take any of these further to college or university?
This question was a very good question as it not only linked in with the last questions but it is a very good question to ask and it was highly likely to get a good response.

-what are you hoping to active by studying that at university? what are you future aspirations?
This was a good question as it allowed the audience to feel as though they know me, they know what i look to do in the future.

-do you know any one in tv production?

This was to me one of the worse questions in the interview as it is a question that will be hard to get a good response to its also a bit of a boring question to as, the audience dont really want to know about who i know they want to know more about me.

- so did your teacher tell you to for fill this and go and study this at university?
This question was an example of a question that kristie the interviewee mad up from the previous response that i gave to the previous question that i got asked.-do you currently work outside of school?

-did you have to train to be a lifeguard?
This was my worst question in which i recieved a bad response to. as it was my last question i was hoping for a much longer response, however if i had to chance to re-do my interview again i would make sure i ended my interview on a much stronger question.