The early stages of our documentary began with the designation of roles within the group. We went round the group and asked each other what we would prefer to do in the module and generally it turns out that everyone wanted the roles they got. I was chosen as Producer for this module as we have the same group for Drama where I’m Director and Zara is Producer so we decided to swap to get a taste of each role. As Producer it was my role to make sure everyone was up to date with their work and making sure everyone knew what they were doing as well as contacting primaries and arranging shooting days.

Admittedly we didn’t have the strongest first 6 weeks to our research or our production. We had all been planning documentary ideas and getting on with researching them in terms of professional practice and likelihood of contacts. We held a group meeting where some of the ideas were discussed and pitched to each other, determining which we preferred and which we’d most likely go with. Joe’s idea of Vigilantism stood out as it had so many paths we could take with it. The design for the website had been left up to Joe as he was the best web designer in the group and the logo had been created by him and Dale. We needed something symbolic that also explained the idea of our production name in a simplistic nature. The resulting lightbulb design does this perfectly. Yet we had to change the layout a few times to suit the brief which we initially interpreted incorrectly. Facebook played a pivotal role in sharing ideas, links, research, finished work and suggestions to name a few things. This was an easy, quick way to offer advice and critical opinions on how we were all getting on whilst sharing new ideas, some of which made it onto the website. Unfortunately we became a bit lacklustre with the website for a while and like many other groups we didn’t really pick up the pace until week 6 where we had our photo essay deadline. It was at this point that I tried to motivate the group, making it known how essential it was to get the photo essay done on time and so everybody concentrated fully on their own pages for a few weeks-making sure they were completed and up to scratch before the deadline. When we had to give our 3 main ideas we pitched Vigilantism as our main choice yet, to be brutally honest, not enough research had been done into it and we were as yet unable to locate and contact a primary. Shortly after we discovered another group was using the same idea as us and already had contacts so were, effectively, one step ahead. We considered going ahead with the idea regardless but quickly decided against it as we would inevitably have to go head-to-head with another group which would have made the production a tense and difficult affair. I told the group to keep coming up with more ideas that we could potentially use.
It was around this time that we took on Patrick into our group. I knew immediately the difficulty this could put on the group as he lived so far away he wouldn’t be able to make group meetings and would lose vital information gathered in those meetings. Also the original group had worked closely in the previous year and we already knew each other’s strengths and weaknesses as practitioners and would be able to compensate accordingly. But I kept Pat in the loop as best I could via email and the occasional times I saw him between lectures and other modules and to give him credit, despite a rough patch near the end, he completed all the work he was given efficiently and quickly.

We divided the group workbook up into fair amounts for everyone and we focused on getting as much information on their as possible. Reviews, analysis, opinion and original work was all considered before being placed on the different pages. Going into the last few weeks I was happy with progress as the website was beginning to get some meat on its bones and the group was working as a unit rather well. Some of the new ideas started taking shape and when I pitched my two ideas to Dale he suggested we take it to the rest of the group and run with it. One of these ideas was of Carter’s Steam Fair, a travelling fairground around the Berkshire area that I had grown up attending. What made me particularly excited about this idea was how many different styles we could use to give the best possible documentary, we had total creative licence. I immediately contacted the owner of Carter’s thus starting an email conversation with Anna Carter which led to our trailer later down the line. After a brief explanation the rest of them got on board and we chose them as two of our final ideas, along with Joe’s original Vigilante concept which we had for so long we thought it would make sense to include that on our Synopsis page. We conferred with Karin which of our new ideas he liked most and he was very sure we should take the direction of the Travelling Fairground idea. Once we got the green light on our definite idea we proceeded in developing it and adding supporting materials and research.
I asked Anna Carter about the possibility of a documentary and she made the point that she would have to finish talks with Channel 5 who wanted to do a second series of ‘Fairground Attraction’ a mini doc series aired late last year. I didn’t want to push her too much but I made it clear that we did need an answer soon and arranged to meet her where we would discuss our plans as well as shoot our trailer for the presentation. I arranged for me, Dale and Joe to go to Maidenhead where the Carter’s Fair keeps its cargo and machinery during it’s ‘off’ season. The day before the meeting was to take place she emailed me telling me she wouldn’t be able to make it as she was ill but gave me her son, Joby’s, number instead. We decided that we needed to get something on camera and I contacted him confirming our arrival. When we got there we were greeted and had a brief conversation about why we had all the equipment on us. Joby was happy to let us go around his workshop and yard shooting everything we wanted to. I wanted to give a certain voyeuristic approach to the photos, treating the subject matter exactly how it was: closed behind big metal doors in the middle of Maidenhead halfway through winter. When it came to the interview I wanted to give Joby the impression we weren’t there for a smear campaign or a ‘Big Fat Gypsy’ styled documentary. I think this blunt and forwardness made him feel relaxed because he opened up fully and answered every question we had for him without being pushed. When we left the yard we were very happy with what we had captured and knew already that it would make a great trailer.

When discussing the presentation we made the choice to follow the brief to a tee and showcase all our ideas and research in a formal and informative manner without rambling too much or talking over each other. We designated the slides based on who had been working on the similar content on the website. I wanted to open the presentation and explain all the themes and general information concerning our doc as it was my original idea and I had been in talks with the primary. When we were discussing what supporting materials we could use in the presentation we quickly ruled out things like T-Shirts as we thought most people would use them and instead we began considering how we could use innovative methods to promote our idea. Joe had the idea of wearing a morph suit and stick flyers to himself that we all agreed on but thought was probably a bit much for a formal pitch. I then had the idea of giving out free popcorn (candyfloss was quite hard to obtain) that we could put the poster on (or in). This stemmed from the knowledge that fairgrounds sold popcorn in its stalls and I wanted people to have a physical representation of the nostalgia we were hoping to get across.

Looking back on the semester there is quite a lot I would change in terms of time management. We thought we could complete the research late on in the semester and not worry about it but we were clearly proved wrong by this. I am now aware of the importance of the research in terms of reflection in our own work. Even if we don’t use the styles and genres or consider similar projects it is still essential to have a knowledge of everything. I do wish we could have spent more time earlier in the year looking through all the theory based and written work so that more time could’ve been spent making the practical bits look better and more professional.