Weekly Progress (week beginning 5th Feb 07)

• This week I have made a start with the editing process.
• On Friday, I stayed after school until 5.30pm, capturing my footage in school as I do not have a firewire port at home.
• This coming week I intended to finish capturing all 2 1/2 tapes by Wednesday/Thursday, so I can start editing at home.

Weekly Progress (week beginning 26th Feb 07)

• The work planned this week was to go out and capture the sound of the dawn chorus. I took the digital video camera and tripod as always, however this time I also took the external microphone as sound would be the main feature of this expidition.
• Friday 2nd March 07- On this day I went out in miday and just captured more footage of any wildlife I could get. Also I climbed up two small tree's and got a shoot from a tree. I also tried to climb up a tree to get a look at inside a birds nest, however it was impossible for me as for one, it was way to high, two, the branches are to thin and weak to hold me and three, I would be having to carrying a camera and tripod, meaning I would only be ble to use one hand to move around with, which is an impossible situation Sunday 4th March 07- This morning I woke up at 5.45pm and left and 6.15pm and stayed until 7pm. Apart from being freezing cold, it was a wonderful atmosphere to capture. Also a pair of Geese were flying around and adding to the dawn chorus mix. I also took the chance to re-shoot the 360 degrees shot, low angle shot of the trees and sky.
• Next week I intend to start my editing and first off all, as I do not have firewire port, I will have to capture all my footage, meaning that I will have to go through two full tapes and 20 mins of a third tape. After that I can take it home and start to construct it, develop a script and choose to do my voicover etc.

Weekly Progress (week beginning 19th Feb 07)

• The work planned this week was to go out and do some filming and hope to be really lucky in capturing something spectacular. As always i took the digital video camera and the tripod.
• This was quite a bad luck for me as most of the times that i had planned to go out it was raining. Also what disappointed me about this week was that on Sunday, I intended to wake up at 5.30pm and film the dawn chorus. I woke up at 5.30pm so i could go film the dawn chorus, (which is a wildlife spectacle, but involving sound), however it was rainning. I did eventually manage to get out of the house, later that day, but again due to some drizzle and rain, I had to forfit the trek through the extremely wet and muddy park. In the time i managed to stay out for 30 mins and managed to capture the European Magpie feeding, Common Gulls flyings, and Pigeons feeding.
• My plan (this week) is to extend my filming time to just this week in a last ditch attempt to capture some amazing wildlife, but most importantly the dawn chorus.

Test Screening Feedback

1. MCCAT (Grade A-E)

Media Language- C
Conventions- B
Creativity- B
Attention to Detail- B
Technical Proficiency- B

2. Positive comments:

cinematography?- Good Variety and angles of shots
mise en scene?- Good setting, natural
lighting?- Good use of natural lighting
sound?- Good, clear sounds of birds
conventions? matching audience?- Animals for an animal documentary

3. Constructive Criticism:

cinematography?- Sometimes woobly, shaking, more angles
mise en scene?- Show the environment/setting more
lighting?- Need bettering lighting at night
sound?- Disruption in sound, dont just use internal mic, use external as well
conventions? matching audience?- Don't shoot in urban environment

4. Suggestions and Ideas:

What else would you (or the target audience) like to see in this production? (scenes? sequences?)- More varitety of animals

Suggestions for post-production/editing (music? voiceover? cutaways? montage? cross cutting? titles? slo-mo?)- Use voiceover, maybe follow a particular animal, construct a narrative, sequence

To Present or NOT to present? That is the question

Its' decision time and I have made my choice on whether to present my documentary (or have someone present it) or not. I have seen that the majority of people who have posted up a comment on my blog about presenting or not have suggested that I should present my wildlife documentary as it will make it more personal, fun, interesting and exciting. Also I personally want to present my documentary HOWEVER, my final decision is that I will NOT present my wildlife documentary 'Park Life'. So why have I chose this decision you may ask?

First of all, the main convention of a wildlife documentary is the voiceover. The voiceover is performed by an male adult and as a narrator, telling the audience the the name of the animal, facts about the animal and the behaviour of the animal. As I do not have a voice of a adult male, yet, If I were to present the show (which I want to do), I would have to do the voiceover as well as only one person ever does a voiceover for a documentary. Also It would not sound professional and one of my objectives is to have a professional documentary. In addition, this means I will have to start to open a search for someone who I believe has the voice I am looking for, to do the voiceover for my documentary.

Having someone else presenting my documentary would not be a bad option, however they would have to give up a lot of time! and commintment. Also the person who would present my documentary would also have to get a muddy, and wet as they will have to perform in the park. Its a good option, but a bit complicated and also considering time I dont not have time on my side in order to search for someone that I would find suitable for my documentary.

Earlier in my 'Research' section (Blue Planet, Autumnwatch, Wild Events), I explained about their being two different styles of doucmentaries. As I will not be presenting my documentary, the style of my documentary will follow that of the David Attenborough documentaries e.g Blue Planet, in which their is just the animals and the narrator.

To conclude in terms of my narrative, It will have to follow the aim of the documentary. Now this aim is flexiable and may change to something else due to the footage I have. Currently the aim is 'To show that you don't have to go to the ends of the Earth, just to see some SPECTACULAR wildlife'. This means that I will need some amazing footage of wildlife spectales on my footage. However that can only be decided on luck for me. Time is also not an advantage as professionals have months and years to collect all their footage, whereas I have nowhere near the sametime as a professional would have. So in the case that I do not have any/enough spectacular wildife to show , the aim of my documentary will change to 'To show WHAT wildlife inhabits the parks'. So far, I can say from my footage that I may have not captured enough sepcatular wildlife, therefore, due to the topic I am doing, I have been granted extra time for my filming and I will extend it to one week only, in a last ditch attempt to capture something spectacular.

Notice

(People who have seen testscreens of my work) It has come to my attention that some people have commented that I need to use the tripod. Just to make it clear, every single shot that I used (apart from the night-time footage) I have used the tripod. The reason it may be unsteady at times is because some times I am having to place the tripod on an uneven surface and because when I am filming the animals, I have to capture them quickly as I dont have all the time in the world to set up. I have to be quick enough to capture the animal/bird in the first place, so that is the reason why some of the shots maybe unsteady.
Thank You

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

I have two major decisions I must make:

1. Whether I should actually present the documentary mtself/ or get someone else to do it or To NOT present my wildlife documentary

The advantage of presenting my documentary will be that I can make the project more personal. However If i was to present the documentary, when it comes to the voiceover (which will be used in certain areas), I will have to perform the voiceover. The problem with this is that wildlife documentary usually have a male adult narrating, so if I was to do the voiceover, it would not sound as professional. However ever if i was to get someone else to present it and do the voiceover, then thats a solution. The drawbacks of that is it won't make it personal as if i were to do it. Also to actually find someone, and for them to give up their time just to do it, will be hard as well. (In addition this is something alot of people have talked about when analysising my work).

2. Narrative? Day to night? or even follow a particular animal e.g. Grey Squirrel, give it a name and use the Squirrel as the backbone of my documentary.

The advantage of the day/night storyline is that I can go around the park and randomly find the animals I want and then create a script from it once ALL the footage is collected. The disadvantage will be if the narrative is strong or not. On the other hand, by basising it on a particular animal, it provides a strong narrative backbone. However the disadvantages are that to have a show based on an animal e.g. Grey Squirrel, it would mean that I have to find alot of Squirrels and that most of my footage has to be a Squirrel in order to make it a character. Also I cannot track one Squirrel usless it is tagged like the professionals do, however it has been suggested to me to just find any Squirrel and pretend it is the same one, as most people would not recognise that it is different.

So what to do?? As I have a half-term holiday to do my filming (although I have actually been given an extension for my filming), I must make my decisions as soon as possible. So THIS SUNDAY ( 25th Feb 07), which will be the next day I will go out filming, I will announce my FINAL choice to theses MAJOR decisions.