For the documentary, my main duties were the DOP (Director of Photography) and editor. For these roles, I would have to work closely with all the production crew but especially with the director. Fortunately, I am already a good friend with the director having already worked with her previously in other projects this year and last year. This means that I know what she likes and what she does not like when it comes to film and documentary. This allows me to be comfortable to suggest shots to use and bounce ideas of each other.

I did have contributions to the pre-production work of our documentary film as well as in the trailer. The first thing we had to do was come up with a number of ideas for our documentary as knew that ideas and preferences would change over time due to personal choice or primary subjects pulling out. I came up with three different ideas originally, which were student demonstrations, Jedism and the life of an adrenaline junkie. We wanted to stress was originality with our ideas. Therefore, at least two of my ideas were not applicable to what the group wanted as they lacked originality. But the Jedism idea was one that was seriously considered in the early stages of production, as it was original and unique. Eventually, the producer decided to use it as a back up as we moved with the idea of vigilantes and normal people that take the law into their own hands.

Unfortunately, this fell through as well because another group came up with the same idea. Suddenly, this idea did not have the same uniqueness as before and we did not want to do the same thing as another group and directly compete. My idea was then up for grabs with other ideas as well but the producer came up with following the steam fair folk around. We all agreed that this was the best idea of the ones we had gathered.

Throughout the whole process of having meetings or creating, I took it on board myself to organise some meetings to discuss and set tasks for work. This was usually the producer’s role but as a group, we all were willing to step in and help out. The producer kept in contact with the main primary of the ‘Carter’s Steam Fair’ and they agreed to meet us while we took photos and recorded an interview so we could create the trailer for our documentary. Unfortunately, only three of us could go to the location, which was in Maidenhead where their yard was. When on location, I helped take some of the shots myself as we went round the yard freely. I also took all the photos when the interview was being conducted with the primary subject. These photos were very important because not only does it show who was talking, it creates emotive feeling with the audience. For instance, he was drinking tea with a mug that had the caption ‘Don’t Tell me To Stay Calm’ which worked perfectly with what he was saying. In edit, I would be able to link it together.

Since I was the editor for this piece, I was given the task of editing the trailer, which will be the main tool for promoting our documentary film. Before even looking at the photos and listening to the audio, I had to decide on the structure of the trailer and how I wanted. I decided on starting it with one photo with a line of audio that sums up the trailer. The rest of it would be different issues that they have to deal with such as stereotyping and the business struggling to survive. Text would appear in between certain parts of the trailer to give small but vital information about the ‘Carter’s Steam Fair’. At the end of the trailer, it would end with a question, ‘Carter’s Steam Fair – Is The End Near?’ with hopefully a final piece of audio that would leave the audience wanting to watch the final documentary film.

Whilst the director narrowed down the photographs that we took to about twenty-five from one hundred and edited them, I listened through the twenty-minute interview to try and find individual clips that could be used in the trailer. In the end, I managed to find about 6 different clips that had something important that could be used. I wanted to a piano driven piece for the trailer to create empathy to the subject as well as the business. The person in charge of sound searched and found a royalty free track that worked perfectly. I then put all these together and really tried to link the pictures with the audio and what he was saying whilst simultaneously cutting it to the music. This way, the photos, audio and music would all work together as one to create a unique synergy that really drives emotion and empathy. I kept to the structure I originally designed as well with the text inside.

After showing the director and producer the first draft of the trailer, I asked them what suggestions they had that needed to be changed. There were a few little bits such as positions of pictures and choice of text, which I changed. The producer also thought that some of the photographs should have movement to further emphasise the emotional pull to the subject and what he is saying. I decided that I did not want movement on all of the photographs as it would be all over the place and this is not the effect we wanted with our trailer. We wanted it to be an emotional trailer where the audience relates with the subject and creates an emotional response and would then want to watch the full film. So we both looked through the trailer and decided on the photos that should have movement and what movement it would be then I applied it. This then concluded the making of the trailer.

In the presentation, considering that I had researched through the documentary modes on the website the most, I chose to be in charge of that slide. I spoke about the two modes our documentary, which was observational mode and expository mode. I talked about how observational was important because we really wanted to follow the journey they went through and gain an insight into their lives for the audience and for us from an outside perspective. I explained that participatory mode would not work because it would be too intrusive and this is not what we want to do with our documentary. We would also want to create a story arc that would deal with issues such as stereotyping, survival of the business, etc. This would be achieved with expository mode with the voice of god to drive the story.

There were a few problems with one of our members where he would not keep in contact. There was a stage where we thought that we would have to take over the roles of him but with constant persistence and emailing Karin about the issue, it was eventually resolved. All the work was completed to a high standard.

In conclusion, for next semester I am the DOP and the editor so will be shooting and editing the full documentary. But for the pre-production, I helped shoot and I edited the trailer. I get involved with the ideas and meetings (most of which was via Facebook) as well as coming up with separate promotion ideas such as printing ‘Carter’s Steam Fair’ money and throwing it out on the street to promote our documentary. I am very happy with the work myself and the group have contributed to deliver a fantastic trailer, excellent pitch and hopefully a successful documentary for U-DOC 2013.