Evaluation

Evaluation

For my A2 media project I decided to make a documentary based around my Granddad. When looking at his life from a glance you would assume that it’s not the most interesting but I wanted to show the audience that every life is a special and unique one if you look at it from a different angle. I needed to do it in a particular way so that it was not like an obituary to my granddad’s life but a look into what he does day in and day out as a butcher in the local market.
As I had always opted in the past to do the print option I decided I wanted to explore a different form of media. Although at first this was a disadvantage to me as getting to grips with the equipment was a bit daunting, it soon turned to an advantage allowing me to learn new skills and produce a short documentary. Problems that I stumbled across were my lack of experience with the equipment. My documentary was going to be based around my granddad’s 70th birthday where I filmed at his party, interviewing a number of different party members as well as himself. This went well until I when to edit the tape, which I hadn’t actually inserted into the camera. From this I learnt how to correctly load the tape as well as always making sure I check all of these things before filming! Before embarking on the project I did some research into what a documentary actually was and tried to transport my knowledge into my final piece and the anisinaraly tasks.
Having researched into different types of documentaries I could categorise mine as a bio documentary, which specifically looks and one person’s life. Codes and conventions played a major role in the development of my piece showing me how to make it look and feel like a documentary to the audience. As the audience is not formally introduced to the characters audio ally I wanted to visually so that it wasn’t distracting the audience too much from what was being said. Instead I choose to have blackout ‘s with text on introducing who was talking before you could actually see them so that the audience could associate the voice with the name. I choose to have white text on the black to make it stand out more and use the same font style throughout. I didn’t give the characters names, I just gave them titles such as “the Daughter”, I felt by doing this it was including the audience, as it was a very personal film specific to my family I wanted to reassure the audience that’s its ok for them to be watching and enjoying it. By having just titles rather than names they could relate to who theses people are which could be a catalyst for them thinking about there own family members.
Interviewing techniques where something that took a bit of getting uses too. Due to the fact that I wanted to make the documentary an almost fly on the wall one, I didn’t want the questions being asked to seem too forceful. By the time I was actually filming the final piece my family where pretty use to me having a camera in there face and sometimes the awkwardness added to the effect that I wanted such as when my mum doesn’t know what to say and asks “you’ll have to ask me some questions”, I liked this because it added intimacy as if the audience where actually in the room watching what was going on giving them a greater understanding as too who these people are. I decided not to have a voice over, I think this would have taken away from the sentimental part of the documentary. By having a voice over it may have seemed too superficial but by having my voice over if I am not seen all the way through was almost like a substitute for a voice over guiding the audience through the narrative.
When watching other documentaries I soon realised that where the interview and what was being filmed was important in setting the scene and telling the audience a bit more about the characters. For my granddad the perfect place seemed to be the market at his stall, this is where he is most of the time and where he feels most comfortable. Problems I faced with this was that the fridges where noisy which interfered with the sounds and I was unable to film while there where customers in as it was too busy. The market on the documentary almost looks deserted but this was it due to it being closed, this may make the audience rethink where they shop and realise that locally run places like the Carlisle indoor market will soon be a thing of the past if people don’t continue to support them. This is also represented in the documentary when Donald (my granddad) is discussing the fact he retired but then now works for the new owners. Although Donald was of retirement age he had no other choice and had to sell the business due to lack of money. I wanted to film in my granddad’s house but he felt uncomfortable and because he did, I did so it just didn’t really work. This was maybe due to him living alone it was a bit intrusive having a camera which he is not use too being there. I felt it was inappropriate to include this footage.
For the interview with my sister and me I decided it would be right to do it in my room where the walls are pink and there are lots of things on the wall. This is a complete contrast to the market or the dining room table and the lamp in the background that I choose for my mum. This was to show the generation differences.
Throughout my documentary the opening scene and cutaways are of old photographs of my Granddad and important people in his life. I decided to only view my mum with the photos. She is the middle generation, she has not only seen me and my sister grow up but she’s also seen her dad turn into an old man and to be honest she’s struggling with this. By having her the only one look at the images, its as if she is the only one who can truly reminisce and relate this too the audience. Granddad finds it hard to see people in photo’s he has lost and if I had given him some photo’s to look at I think it would have got too emotional. There is a line in the documentary where he is asked “you like the market don’t you?” he replies, while welling up “people ask me do I like the market, ……. It’s alright” this is showing the audience that maybe its not the life he wanted and this puts a very sad feeling to the end which I felt was needed to be included to show that there is more to this man that just his butchers stall.
By calling it “the butcher” I wanted to shock the audience making it seem as though it would be about some kind of serial killer. Instead it is about something that is very personal and about someone whose profession in our society is dying out and from my experience many people my age turn their noses up at a butcher. They find it quite “sick” yet these people eat meat. Often gore and uncensored TV shows and films attract a larger audience such as the Saw films. I thought by having it called the butcher it would attract a larger audience, in a way I was trying to fool the audience so as if it where called “my granddad” am not sure it would attract as many people as they may dismiss it as boring before giving it a chance.
From the audience’s feedback I received, I found that most people who watched it wanted to see more of him and felt like they got to know about something they wouldn’t have given a second glance at such as the indoor market. By having the equipment such as the small hand held camera I was able to make it as personal as possible allowing my family to be as comfortable as possible in front of the camera allowing them to speak naturally allowing my documentary to flow and be as interesting as it could be.
I decided that I wanted music to make it more comic if you like and keep the audience intrigued. It also added a certain style to the documentary as the repetition in certain area’s signified to the audience that what that person was saying was coming to an end so it was a smooth transaction. I found the music on sound track pro where I was able to transport the piece of music over to final cut where I was editing my documentary. On final cut I was able to manipulate my shots such as changing the way it looked and adding sound effects. For my anisinary tasks I used Adobe Photoshop to create a double page spread of a listings magazine based on my documentary and a newspaper advertisement. I scanned old photo’s that I used in my documentary and imported them onto Photoshop and the other images where taken on set while I was filming with my own personal digital camera.
I choose a specific style for my documentary of holding my camera so that the audience showed that it wasn’t filmed in the best way but if it had been artificially set up in surroundings that my characters didn’t feel comfortable then I don’t think the story would have been strongly portrayed through my documentary. Theses people would have not taken the role of them selves but in fact would have been actors. I also think if anyone else would have tried to make this then it wouldn’t have been effected as know one knows there family as well enough as someone who is apart of it.

Preliminary Task - Newspaper advertisment