Nothin but a muffin productions brings you, our final documentary!

I think we all felt a sense of achievement watching through our final edits on thursday. We could all picture ourselves crowded round the Mac the night before, making sure everything was perfect enough to show. I am happy with our fianl doc. I feel that everything we had worried about the week before we handled very professionally and i am happy by how the group worked together to get everything polished. Even though Jess and Chris did the majority of the editing I feel like I had my input in the last week when it came to my voiceovers and how the whole thing structured out.

When we first had the documentary in mind, we wanted to have a contributor that had a bad experience with laser eye, as well as someone who had it done sucessfully. However as the weeks progressed it wasnt just me and Jess trying to find a bad story contributor who was willing to be on camera, it was all of us. It was then we realised that it would be ok to include an email we got from a certain contributor about her bad story, and then put that into a voiceover. Visually we showed Graphics throughout. I loved this idea, I thought it showed a lot of imagination and creativity.

We then used thursday to look at everyones work. The one critisism the group had for ours was the sound levels and colour correction. And how this showed up on screen. However it was only minor misstakes that didnt make a difference compared to the layout of the whole thing. A proud momento for us all. For the future there would be only one thing I would change. We well worked together as a team however we were a little too optimistic at the start of the planning. This lead to use forgetting to do minor things, such as finding locations and specific contributors. In the future I would plan our time out a bit more, it was similar to my individual project as well. However I dont have any regrets.

The longest week ever..

We used the contructive critisism from the group last week to make our project come together as quickly and efficiently as possible. We met up everyday for the past week to bang our heads together on how to make it as sucessful as possible. We had the beginning sequence, which included the close up and long shot of the text, followed by the clip from the optician who briefly described the sequence of Laser eye surgery for us beofore we went into describing it ourselves. For this we used a vice-over from myslef. One thing I would change about the progression of our work towards this would be to plan it out a bit more. Because of finalising scripts and going through what I had to say It took up some of our recording times. However we did manage to get it finished eventually and the voiceovers worked pretty well. We then went through Eleanors interview with a cut in the middle of her with her child, watching the rough cut showed us that the was excess footage on there about Eleanor that we didnt really need. So we used more information and voiceovers to go over it, as well as the ever important slice of cheese at the end.. even so, the song worked extremelly well with the end credits..

Bulimia...

After showing my individual rough cut on thursday i realised how much work I had to do myself. The interviews with both contributers went well however they were pushed back quite a lot. This gave me less time edit them together so they worked in the sequence I wanted. Within my fianl edit I had to make quite a few changes.

This was due to sound levels and positioning of interviews at uni. It kinda looked like they morphed which wasnt really the vibe I was going for.. Bulimia is and remians a serious issue amoungst young people, especially women.. I wanted to portray that in my documentary however I wanted to inform people as well. To do this I wanted to include a clip from the film "Zoolander" to put at the beginning of the doc. To change the mood and keep peoples attention! I saw many poeple started wondering what to have for dinner about halfway through mine.. After a week of consideration I have tried to turn that around.

The production!

One we had finished filming and getting the particular cutaways we needed, we began putting it all together as according to the script. Chris was happy to start this off for us in the easter break as we all decided he was the chief editor! It was sometime after that we realised we all needed to make a fair contribution to the fianl edit..

We decided not to include Marks story anymore as Eleanors went so well, she was happy to chat and great in front of the camera. This gave the documentary an overall possitive look and we could use a lot of her interview, as well as her eye surgery check ups and what not. The beginning sequence was down to the lovely Jess who put the picture in our heads of the development of the senses before we actually bring up the subject of Laser eye surgery. This worked well with Chris acting out the scene when he puts on his glasses, marvellous work. It was at this point we realised we needed more archive footage than expected. The rough cut proved that we had too many gaps that had to be filled with visuals we didnt have yet. However this gave us the oppurtunity to include more voiceovers from moi to introduce our extra footage.. I think showing the rough cut proved how many holes we had within the project, which reflected on the amount of work each person was doing individually. BUT the process of turning it into pure gold was possible, we were on the up!

Mid Production. Laser eye Surgery

Looking and researching more into laser eye surgery, we thought it might be best to give an insight into an actual demonstration of this particular procedure. It was my job to look at facts and figures of laser eye to see what people really thought of it. I compared a number of news websites and forums to get some more info.





I looked at optician and private clinic websites as well as the obvious ones such as optimax. This also gave me an insight into Lasik AND laser eye surgery. This website also had a forum i could use as reactions from the public.. possible contribuors??





Laser Eye Surgery
The procedures costs vary from around £395 per eye and provide a naturally clear vision without the use of glasses and contact lenses. "Unlike most operations to cure eye disease, laser eye surgery is only performed on healthy eyes."

Lasik eye

LASIK is used to correct a wide range of prescriptions, making it suitable for correcting mild to severe short sight, mild long sight and astigmatismm. Recovery usually takes around 24 hours.

We also want to use a voice over to describe what happens throughout a particuar procudure. Whether that will be me or not we'll have to see!

Pre production. Roles within Nothin but a muffin..

As a group, we decided to split ourselves into roles that we would work best as. The documentary was on laser eye surgery and we need someone to research the history and current news on the subject. As well as putting together all paper work including finding contributors, completing risk assesments and keeping a record of production meetings and script meetings. They would also have to produce the portfolio as well as possible and make sure everything was signed appropriately.

We also needed a production crew! We all needed to work together to film interviews and vox pops. As well as the odd cutaway. However we needed a chief cameraman who would take care of everything to do with how we shot each vox pop and interview, also finding the right cutaways and made sure everything fit to frame. The cameraman would also contribute to how each shot is edited as well. They would also help with the production and development schedule which they would have to stick to!

The next role, which would be later on in the production. Is the editor. We needed someone who could sort out the interviews, vox pops and cutaways as well as the particular information we needed in the right order. As a group we would then look at it together and finish off the documentary as a group. The editor would also contribute towards the script and the portfolio.

Finally we would need someone to keep us on our toes! The production manager/ director would keep an eye on everything and every role within the production. They would need to be good with sticking to schedules and timing. They would be the first to look at the rehearsal and make sure every role within the group is equal. They would then look and finalise the portfolio together with the researcher.

SO we decided the researcher would be myself. I thought instead of being the main editor i would work best at being the brains! however I would also contribute to the interviewing, being the interviewer myself as well as the voice over within the documentary.

Chris Arrowsmith: Editor. We all agreed that Chris has the power when it comes to his mac. So he would be our editor. He showed us his enthusiasm and interest in editing. As well as researching many a documentary before he started with ours.

Nathan Russ: Cameraman. Nathan would work best in this role as he has a passion for photography and a good eye when it comes to shots on the camera. He will also be involved with the portfolio and the finalised edit

Jessie Barstow: Producer/ Director. She was the main idea behind Laser eye surgery which we all took an immediate liking to. We feel with her bubbly personality and organisation she would be the best person to make sure every role was fair for each person.

Individual project..!

As we all know by now, i have chosen to do my individual project on Bulimia. The idea came along a few weeks ago now and i have finally got my research and portfolio sorted out. The scary part is i still have much to do! I have two main filming locations. These will be the two locations of the interviews i wish to carry out. Both taking place in week 9, a little late i know. I have nearly brushed up on the cuttaways and still need to do some more filming in the next couple of weeks. The script is being put together on the 26th of April with the help of another University student who kindly offered to help out. I am also interviewing Lance Workman on the 30th. So far so good.

Bulimia
Bulimia, also called bulimia nervosa, is a psychological eating disorder. Bulimia is characterized by episodes of binge-eating followed by inappropriate methods of weight control. Inappropriate methods of weight control include vomiting, fasting, enemas, excessive use of laxatives and diuretics, or compulsive exercising. Excessive shape and weight concerns are also characteristics of bulimia. A binge is an episode where an individual eats a much larger amount of food than most people would in a similar situation. Binge eating is not a response to intense hunger. It is usually a response to depression, stresss, or self esteem issues.

In the idividual project i want to use this information in the most effective way i can. Using information from a sufferer first hand and an interview with someone who can tell me a lot about the disorder. I also want to include ways it can be helped including where and who you can get help from.

Outside the box..?!

Whilst travelling around Washington as much as i could this week, i managed to get myself in the way of a film location on one of America's well known television shows. Luckily it came to my advantage when it gave me the opportunity to be nosy and explore the equipment and how they framed each shot. The filming location was 15th Street just outside of the White house with a small filming crew of about 10. The scene they were shooting was quite simple. The actor ran through the public on his mobile and stopped outside of a restaurant. Looked into the window, and ran off down the road. One side of the road was completely closed off- which i found out the hard way when a couple of people asked me to get out of the way.

(The Camera from behind)

The camera was put onto a track and rolled as it followed the actor. Everything was there, complete with the boom and clapper board. The scene was then broken up into different angles as the actor when through the same scene over and over again. Obviously the same went for the extras who were all staged in the right places. I managed to get next to the extras and watch the process first hand. It all took a good hour. I also managedto get some half-decent photos. One thing i do regret is not using something like this for my individual project. I am working on this though..

(Film location)

Production meeting 8!

So we're in week 8 now and things are finally coming together for this documentary. Call sheets, location agreements and risk assesments are being finalised and we also have the help of the lovely Donnie, who will start putting together some graphics for a story from one of our contributors. We have also added som more location suggestions for filmng and sorted out the script, which comes within the time limit. we are also debating whether to add the interview from Mark, as we have a lot of content already. However so far we are still going ahead with the flming. I am currently looking into budgets as well for everything, locations, crew, equipment and extras. All papers and emails have also been put into a portfolio. Nothin' but a muffin productions are all happy. Good times.

Nuthin but a muffin entertainment!

Ok so we have just finished our 7th production meeting at the Velo louge at Moorland road, Bath. Timed at 12 noon with Jessie, Chris, Nathan and myself.
Contributors we have found so far; Mark and Eleanor. They are two successful eye surgery stories and are both willing to be interviewed. The only problem is we need to travel far and wide to reach them!We also started our filming. Woop! we managed to get a good load of people to answer the question "what is your opinion on laser eye surgery?" in Moorland road. Out of about 12 people we only had one person who was camera shy. The rest had very interesting answers we can finally start putting together for our Doc. Good times.

We had;
Nathan - Camera man
Jessie - lead interviewer and sound recordist
Myself- Paper work and interviewer.

We also managed to get a good range of ages and opinions.So far our interview Schedule is;
Bath Optician interview- 14th April. Bath.Interview with Eleanor - 22nd April. LLanelli. Interview with Mark- 25th April. Bournemouth south end.

Im am currently doing the call sheet for the rest.Our next production meeting is next Tuesday. 31st March. 12 noon!

Our Documentary..

"Nothin but a muffin" productions brings you.. Many complications. I think this sentence best describes team purple's documentary on Laser eye surgery. We have split the group into what the four individual members are best at. Chris and Nathan on the technical side of the project. Jess being the production manager and myself the assistant- also doing research and what not. So far we have managed to research into private clinics around bath (and bristol if need be) However. Finding a contributor is beginning to be quite a challenge.

So far we have managed to find a guy called Mark, from Bournemouth. Who is willing to discuss his procedure in 2005, which went successfully. As for that we are still in a bit of a pickle with contributors. However as a team we've successfully got through the Pitch and have written a treatment for what we intend to include in our doc. This week is filming week so we can finally get things moving. I did also manage to find a couple of private clinics around bath, however not many that do laser eye surgery. We still think it might be a good idea to hold an interview with one of them anyway, to find out about it from a proffessional :)

Expo..!

On Thursday the 19th of Feb, we were all lucky enough to attend the broadcast video expo at earls court. I think our expectations were higher than the actual event, but dissapointment aside i did manage to find something that kept me from making my lunch spread into 3 hours, and pretending to understand many items and gadgets that i have to admit were far far over my head. It'll be no suprise when i mention the TriCaster! Even though the look on he audience faces didnt encourage me to listen to the lecture, I did and actually found some of it quite interesting..

The TriCaster is a video production system, used by many familiar names such as Fox, that can output to video, projector and the Internet. It can mix up to three live cameras with iVGA input from external computers. It can also has video and picture playback using any of the hundreds of 2D and 3D transitions. The TriCaster can also overlay graphics and text and even record the whole production to a hard-drive or stream it live.. Hard to put into words i know. Many of it is still a bit far-fetched for moi.

It is used to set up many virtual news studios. The technology allows you to change backgrounds (with registered users) and also camera angles with little movement of the equipment.

Just before the Christmas break, we all did individual presentations on one of the people we had interviewed over the first semester. I chose to do the life of a producer/director. Little was i to know it was A LOT of information to cram into a 2 minute speech. And i think we all know what im like with public speeches in general :S..
We all had to start with the same thing. So the start of my script was as follows;
Producer/director

"My name is Laura Carey and I’m going to discuss the role of a BBC producer. For my
Case study, I have chosen the BBC documentary on the Amazon, presented by Bruce
Parry and produced by Steve Robinson and Matt Brandon.

The producer for a programme like this will firstly begin to depict particular angles and
Decide what the content of the programme will be. They will then begin to research the
Particular subject, in this case the Amazon, and find out what the most interesting stories
Are."

I'll leave the rest up to the video. I'll just have to cringe and laugh at myself at this one. It wont be hard.

Soundscapes!

I spent most of this week- beginning of december i have to admit- Looking into soundscapes and finding out more about them myself. I needed to get more inspiration for my own soundscape. My initial ideas of forests and people really didnt seem to raise any eyebrows, so i delved into the unknown world of audio..
Soundscapes.
"The idea of soundscape refers to both the natural acoustic environment, consisting of natural sounds, including animals, vocalizations and, for instance, the sounds of weather and other natural elements; and environmental sounds created by humans, through musical composition, and other ordinary human activities including conversation, work, and sounds of mechanical origin resulting from use of industrial technology."

Iwanted my soundscape to take people through a journey, something that would create an image in the mind all the way through. So i looked at particular examples i found from other people and put together something simple tat ive bee doing all along. I decided to go with a morning routine. Beginning with getting up, with the sounds of the shower. The prgressing through to drying my hair and getting on the morning bus (es).