Documentary- Final thoughts on 'The music of the Street'

The Music of the Street was all finalised and presented today in front of our peers as well as the tutors. The comments were very helpful and mostly positive! The final piece seemed a considerable success compared to what I first expected. I couldn't keep my eyes off the grainy shots throughout yet no one really commented on it to much and looked around it as a full documentary film which was good! As a group I think we have worked very well together although Tom did not help to push the wait as the rest of the group did. I think the only other comment to make is that we were a well rounded up group who 5 of us pulled our weight and put in all the effort we could which overall gave us a successful piece that gave a positive in depth insight into the busking community within Liverpool. I enjoyed working within the team, I enjoyed my role as well as helping within other roles and apart from the visual problems and some of the audio problems we had I would say this project was successful.

Documentary- Inspiration 'Street Books' (dir Travis Shields)

This documentary is a very interesting concept. It is a short but it touches on an issue that is not recognised by the public. Not the street books company themselves, but the homeless people that they aim to help. See see a lot of cutaways throughout the film of shots of homeless people and interviews of them. This is important as it gives emotional depth to the film showing the tragedy that they are in and the way these books are an escape to reality.

Although the issue here is not the same as the one we represent in our documentary, it is the topic that has some relatability. Street books is of a issue that the public does not really recognise yet through showing cutaways we can see that the issue is all around us, on the streets. This is similar to what we have decided to do in our final piece. We use cutaways of buskers on the streets and interview them in the same place as we captured the cutaway of their performance to add this sense that buskers are not really paid a lot of attention yet they are all around us. This will hopefully show in the documentary and if so it will be a success!

Doumentary- Inspiration Pockets (dir James Lees)

http://www.4docs.org.uk/films/show/7/Pockets

I realise that I am revisiting this documentary but I am revisiting it as inspiration for the final piece of my busking documentary. I think that the inspiration cannot be ignored within ou final piece. This is because when filming myself and Lewis took the decision to film every individual buskers performance from a long shot as well as a close up shot of there busking money 'pots' looking straight down. We took this decision after watching pockets as the documentary worked well in the poetic form it took on therefore I think that our decision to use a similar technique gives us a poetical convwntion within the documentary and this has helped in improving the final piece.

Documentary- Pre-production material

The following documents are all the pre-production documents minus the proposal and treatment that we did when organising to film within Liverpool. We used careful time planning to allow us to film worry free and made sure that it accounted for any problems that would arise during the shooting day. Luckily thanks to this material and things like the location planning we all knew what we had to do and the time frame we had to stick to. Altogether this pre-production was essential in the overall outcome of our final piece and specifically to the smoothness of our shooting day.

Documentary- Equipment List

Documentary- Editing

The images above have been taken from our editing process. We have taken a lot of time editing trying to create a structure than is immersing as well as a structure than we can all agree on. After our editing session today we were able to come up and complete a structure that looked great for the final piece. We are going tomorrow to do a final run through as well as colour correct and manipulate all audio and video files to make it the best quality look that we can. A major problem that we have recognised and cannot fix in post production is the grainy, noisy look that the PD 170 has made during our shoot in Liverpool. Unfortunately the gain was switched on during filming resulting in an image that is not the maximum quality we could have got out of the final piece. However if you put that aside and look at the final piece as a whole it is good.

Documentary- Workshop assistance and first day edit comments

After our short workshop today I felt a need to comment on the assistance this has provided within the sound role of the documentary. We were told by Darryl how to 'sweeten' clips within post production, removing things such as the high frequency of the background noise and the compression of sound when trying to fix music recordings. This was very useful as Darryl specifically looked at our clips and gave us useful feedback on how we could improve problems that we couldn't help when recording. We quickly used this feedback and edited the sound improving the quality and giving a seamless feel to it.

Within the edit perspective we are starting to create a piece that we can agree on! We have created two different sequences creating two different ideas that divided the group at the beginning. We are now beginning to merge our ideas into one and create a finalised structure. James (editor) has sucessfully synced the sound to the video clips and therefore tomorrow we should be creating our finalised edit. Unfortunately we have come across some unavoidable problems in post mostly due to the PD170's self changing settings. But altogether we have a strong collection of footage that we hope will give us a good final piece!

Documentary- Parashoot Form

This is the parashoot form in reverse order. This has been checked and has all the information needed for each individual member of the group.

Documentary- Structure of story

This shows the Basic structure we are using when editing our documentary. Myself, Joeley and Natalie have been through this structure numerous times looking through the interview transcriptions and looking at the shots we have captured. This structure is not the final one and may be changed throughout the editing process however we should now be able to start deciding on the look of the final piece creating a style that we can all imagine when editing.

Documentary- Interview Questions

Interview Questions
These questions as labelled below are for each category of people we are supposed to interview on the shooting day. This is our first pre-production outline for the questions we will ask on the shooting day. We are asking these questions to evoke a certain response in the viewer. Something that I have specific expectations for to put within the final piece to add emotion. Also as Sound editor I will put an underlaying soundtrack to put more emotion within the final piece.

JONNY WALKER-Busker
What made you become a busker?
How do you feel you are perceived by the public?
Do you have a sense of community with other buskers or is it more competitive?
What are your favourite locations to busk in?
Do you get Hecklers, and if so how do you deal with them?
How has the busking scene helped to promote your music?
How will the councils legislation affect you in the long term?
How do you think it will change the Liverpool busking scene?

STEVE MUNBY-Councillor
Could you briefly outline the proposed changes introducing licensing costs for street performers?
How do you feel about the street performing community in your area?
How will the changes affect buskers, in your opinion?
When do you expect this legislation to come into effect?

VOX POPS

PUBLIC:
How do you feel about street performers?
How do you think new legislation charging street performers will change your community?
Do you think street performers are a positive contribution for your area?

STREET PERFORMERS:
As a street performer do you feel a sense of community between the street performers in your area?
How do you feel new legislation will change your livelihood as a street performer?
How do you feel about street performing?

Documentary- Filming (and sound)

We filmed on the 5th and 6th of March in Liverpool staying very content on our idea of busking and how the busking community will be affected by the new legislation affecting Liverpool. The filming went brilliantly. We ran into a few problems on the way such as buskers wanting us to pay them for their time, however we overcame this issues by moving on to the plenty of other buskers that wanted to help us. We captured similar shots for all the buskers we found as in post production we want to capture a certain poetic feature to this documentary. We filmed loads of footage and used a tape and another half just within the two days we filmed. Futhermore we still have another day of filming on Thursday as we are interviewing Jonny Walker the main busker within our documentary, and on top of that we are getting a statement for the main people in charge of the legislation that may be passed within the Liverpool area.
From the perspective of sound (my role) I captured many clips of the music most of the buskers were playing as well as the interviews for both the public and for the buskers we interviewed. Every busker was unique in what they did therefore the sound I captured had to be levelled differently for each individually captured clip. One track I especially am proud of was capturing the accoustic cover of use somebody that a band had done in the street. This is because the sound was around a busy street however although there is a large amount of background noise I was abe to block this out simply by raising the mic as high as I could reach, get closer to them and turn the levels down. I hope this has worked and we will hear how it did or didn't in post.
Altogether the shoot was very successful. Joeey was able to give her upmost effort as interviewer and did a great job in organising the day. I took a bit of a lead within the sound recordist role and became almost a sound recordist/director as I had an image that I wanted us to capture and will probably boss James around in editing as well! However the shoot was well organised and we were considerably lucky with our findings on the day, we captured more footage than we needed to and have loads to look through within post production.

Documentary- Websites to info about main Busking piece idea

This first article is the main newspaper article we are basing our documentary on. It is from the Liverpool Echo, a local newspaper for the Liverpool area:
http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news/2011/11/19/liverpool-city-council-planning-to-charge-buskers-100252-29801770/

These sites show all the information about Jonny Walker, our main focus within this piece as well as his music, something we are considering using in the background of our final piece:
www.jonnywalker.co.uk/
http://www.myspace.com/jonnywalkermusic

The sites below show both information about busking in the liverpool area as well as stating key locations around the city that are busking hot spots. We will use these sites as research into the area and where to look on the day of filming as well as the info on the threat of this legislation that will allow us to learn more information for when we interview buskers:
http://musicblog.merseyblogs.co.uk/2007/02/i-was-walking-through-town.html
http://www.myspace.com/campaignforrealbusking/blog/485053106
http://www.catalystmedia.org.uk/issues/nerve7/licence_to_busk.html

Documentary- Proposal and treatment for Busking piece (main idea)

BUSKING DOCUMENTARY

Brief Overview
To allow the audience to contemplate the
social construct of how street performers are viewed using the legislation
proposed on charging buskers as an issue that will affect all buskers. We are
trying to capture a more human side to the busking community by recognising
them as individuals. We will do this by focusing on a specific individual
called Jonny Walker, a Liverpool busker who has had a certain amount of
commercial success. We will further shoot an interview with a councillor called
Steve Munby who will discuss the legislation and his opinions on what effect
this will have on the busking community.

Narrative development
Opening Scene: FADE IN- Publics view on
buskers without disclosing subject matter of buskers immediately then
introducing subject matter with cutaways
to buskers performing and back to the public disclosing the word busker in an
answer.
Buskers view on their own community.
Cutaways of Buskers within the Liverpool high street
Narrator says statistics about how many buskers there are in the UK and how much income
is made in a year by the busking community over the top of the buskers on the
high street.

CUT TO: high street time lapse shot with
Jonny Walker walking into centre frame setting up and starting to busk.
Cut to Jonny discussing 'What is in the
Street Performing community?' and 'Why
do people chose to busk?'

CUT TO: Jonny Walker being interviewed
about himself as a busker. Asking why he became a busker, what his favourite
location is and how the legislation will affect him as a busker.

CUT TO: Cutaways of Beatles museum-
Narrator talks about how famous celebrities have busked and the opportunities
that have raised for bands such as the Beatles.

CUT TO: Steve Munby's interview about the
council's legislation plans. Ending with how he thinks it will affect buskers

CUT TO: Jonny Walker's interview, how he
thinks it will affect him personally.

CUT TO: Jonny Walker on the street
performing a song of his own toward the end of his interview. (Juxtapose)

END

Style
The documentary will be a hybrid approach
of educational/informative and investigative as we are looking at the busking
community in detail but taking a journalistic approach by interviewing the
local council for views and information on the legislation that poses a threat
on the busking community.
We will give a sense of vibrant activity
by using brightly lit shots and time lapse shots within the piece to further
exaggerate the similar activity the buskers give in this area. We will also use
this when focusing on Jonny Walker as he is the main individual in this piece
so this technique will help to create a more interesting visual. Furthermore we
will use Jonny Walkers own music to centre the documentary more around him than
other issues that are raised.

Audience
We will have a broad demographic range in
this piece however it will mostly be based on middle class people of any age
who have an interest in their community or political interests. As a
journalistic approach we aim to please the widest range of people we can within
this genre.

Documentary- Proposal and treatment info for banksy idea (not main idea)

Banksy's Controversy

Brief overview;
A look into the controversy surrounding Banksy's 'Cardinal Sin' through interviews with the general public at the Gallery and a
brief narration explaining the motive's behind the work taking quotes from Banksy directly from the news article. Centres around
the controversy Banksy has caused, the general public view of Banksy and how this art piece has affected the community.

Narrative Development;
Opening shot of the piece of work and time lapse of gallery visitors. Narration about Banky's reasoning behind creating the
piece.
Cut to: interview with curator about controversy surrounding having Banksy's 'Cardinal Sin'
Cut to: Interviews with public viewers to ask if they think they know what it's about and their reactions to the actual meaning.
Cut to: End narrations about conclusions over close up of Banksy's work.
End

Style;
Investigative approach into this issue, based all in the same room with interviews conducted in front of the work to express it's
the constant nature of the issue - the issue of priests molesting children is a constant one, always in the background of society
and so we put Banksy's piece constantly in the background of the piece.
We will use shots focusing around the catholic community such as the cathedral and other religious icons to exaggerate the
focus we are committing to Banksy's controversy rather than the artistic talent of Banksy.

Audience;
Art lovers young and old and politically involved students/adults who cover a range of demographics - mainly in the middle
class. We want the audience to understand the controversy behind Bankys's latest art piece based in Liverpool and will show
this by interviewing the involved parties.