Evaluation

Evaluation 

Initially, I feel like our documentary has been obstacle after obstacle. Our first couple of ideas fell through due to issues with contributors, which lead us to move on to plan C. For me, that seems like the main weakness we have had with this project as we had prioritised a lot of our time and effort on shoots and meetings that resulted to nothing, therefore giving us less time to work on our final plan. We intended to have a well constructed, portrait documentary on the story of Sobia Walton and her moderate deafness, however, we weren’t able to pull together something that we all quite expected. We changed our documentary to the format of an experimental one, as a way to show individuality in the piece and to relate it to our poetic documentary.

  

In my opinion, I feel like our experimental documentary doesn’t seem engaging enough and the audience needs to be able to see the contributor to be able to connect with her. Although, this does give an original touch to the documentary and makes it more thought provoking. The archive essence within the piece also makes it seem quite nostalgic as Sobia reflects back on her childhood, growing up with deafness. The documentary ‘Photograph’ by Jake Richardson (2014) was our influence to include archive images.

The process of making this work has been very challenging. Our planning for the project progressed very quickly, however we began to doubt our initial treatment and kept shooting the production even when we weren’t sure what direction it was going. I have learnt a great deal whilst making this documentary because of its unpredictability, some contributors can back out at any time and the story you want to tell may never develop. I have also learnt more about how to interview your contributors and get the most information out of them as you can. I feel like this will help me in the future for creating documentaries when I need a connection with the contributor as I have gained a better understanding of producing a portrait/personal documentary. 

I have also taught myself that you need to set yourself just one role otherwise it will get too much to handle, especially in documentary because it needs a lot of direction and structure. I found myself helping other people on their roles as it seemed I knew what was best to do with the equipment and I knew the contributors personally so it felt like my responsibility to contact them. 

Overall I feel like the teamwork on this project has been positive, despite a few problems we had with a certain member of the group when it felt like not everyone had a say in how the documentary would progress, our opinions were always heard but never taken into account.  Our team always helped each other to get work done, especially if someone was struggling with their role. We showed initiative by doing an equal amount of work and attending group meetings and editing sessions.

I feel like I had a big contribution to the work as I had numerous responsibilities, contacting the contributors to organise shoots, editing and helping the sound designer with the recording and sound editing. After a while, having this many jobs was too much for me so I swapped roles with the sound designer so I could put all my concentration towards it and I knew what I was doing. I also helped edit a few times and did transcripts whilst the rest of the group were busy doing their roles.

I did a lot of cleaning up of the audio because some of the equipment we were given wasn’t working correctly, this is an example of how I solved the problem. 

                                                            Adobe Audition clean up session

I also created the soundtrack for the background of the documentary, exploring the theme of the production with the tone and mood of music.

                                                          Pro-tools soundtrack editing session

                                                        Pro-tools soundtrack editing session

Something that has informed my documentary making is, ‘The Theory of Film Practice’ by Noel Burch (1973). In the chapter called ‘Chance and it’s Functions’, I have related to the real struggle of film making and how it is the main art form that is left to chance, “while chance per se constitutes an intrusion into the world of music, the aleatory is quite at home in film and always has been.” (Noel Burch: 1973: 109). The book brings to mind films that are completely left to chance, like Lumière, which is how we mainly filmed our interviews, we started a conversation going and then left it to chance for Sobia to go into depth on the subject with the camera rolling so then it was less pressure on Sobia. This gave us a lot of great footage to work with. The general sense of this chapter has also explained to me that documentary is “a struggle against the accidental” as it usually never goes exactly how you imagined it, giving you a reason to construct a more creative piece of work.

Bill Nichols’ ‘Introduction to Documentary’ (1942) has mainly helped me understand the features of a documentary, even though Nichols believes that all films are in some way documentaries, I have grasped their concepts and meanings, giving me the ability to use these styles in my own work, “they give a sense of what we understand reality itself to have been, of what it is now, or of what it may become” (Bill Nichols: 1942: 2). I have learnt that documentaries portray a representation of their subject on a purposeful matter, so I used this to create a representation of Sobia by using a narrative structure of her power and dignity whilst being deaf to be rid of any thoughts the audience may have of her being weak or vulnerable.

A short documentary called ‘Love Takes’ by Jeanie Finlay has informed my knowledge in the sense of style and structure. The documentary contains segments of talking heads and a cutaway to text on a background. As we were moved to create an experimental documentary, this helped me understand how we could use our footage to create something similar and have the same affect that ‘Love Takes’ has on an audience. Creatively, this short documentary has informed our approach to our production because of the way it flows and doesn’t have too much visual intensity which makes it seem interesting and original. However, it doesn’t focus on one person in the portrait documentary style, so this is how we have added our own touch by only involving a main character within the piece so the audience can engage with them. 

                                                   

 Bibliography  

- Burch, N.B, 1973. Theory of Film Practice. 1st ed. London: Secker and Warburg. 

- Jeanie Finlay. (2010). Love Takes. [Online Video]. 07 March. Available from: https://vimeo.com/4668034. [Accessed: 12 January 2016.

- Nichols, B.N, 2001. Introduction To Documentary. 1st ed. United States: Indiana University Press.

- SHU Film and Media Production. (2014). Documentary- Photograph- Jake Richardson . [Online Video]. 04 November. Available from: https://vimeo.com/112501786. [Accessed: 12 January 2016].

Transcripts, sound post plan and notes and screen grabs

Transcripts 

General interview with Sobia, no camera just sound:  

S= Sobia 

T= Tazmin 

All the dialogue marked in red are the parts the Director has asked me to include in the poetic documentary and parts we may use in the long length documentary. 

T: 'Would you like to just tell us about yourself, what are you likes, dislikes, aspirations, something about yourself?'- 

S: 'Yeah, urm, I recently got a job at Whirlow Hall Farm, and urm, I've always loved animals since I was a young age and urm, my role is an outdoor education assistant. So I work with people who have got special needs or anger management problems and that's something I'm really passionate about because I'd like to work with people who have got learning difficulties or, have special needs.'

T: 'What inspired you to do that?' 

S: 'Ermm, I think it's partly because I'm deaf, I know what it's like to be deaf like how hard it can be, umm, and how good it can be as well and that, you know, just because you have a learning difficulty or.. whatever, a mental problem, it shouldn't stop you from achieving your dreams.'

T: 'That's really nice. Urmm, can you inform us a bit more about your hearing impairment? You know, was, was you born with it?'

S: 'Yeah, urmm. I was born with it and I have two hearing aids and the deafness that I have is moderately deaf so, if I took my hearing aids out I wouldn't really be able to hear anything. Um, and what's interesting actually is, er, it goes down my female generation, umm, apparently thats not scientifically, like, right? (laughs under breath). Apparently it's meant to be 50/50, there's meant to be some males in my family who are deaf, urm, but we haven't really seen anyone yet, so. That's kind of interesting and I think it's interesting that it could be literally 50/50 every time but that's just amazing because my birth mum is deaf, her grandma's deaf, her great great grandma's deaf and it just goes back and back and back. So, yeah, there's just a whole list of people who are deaf and I've always been told that if I had a female it would be deaf and if I had a boy he wouldn't be deaf.'

T: 'How does that make you feel?'

S: 'Urmmm, I think it's interesting.'

T: 'And, you know, how do you feel about you're being deaf, did it ever get you down? Or did you just get on with it?'

S: 'Yeahh, I mean, there are days where it is really really hard, 'cause it's very hard to explain to someone what it's like to be deaf and I think because it's not a.. visual thing really, like you know, if someone's disabled and they haven't got an arm I think people are more sort of like sympathetic for that, and it's not like I need sympathy or anything but a lot of people think just because you're deaf it's not a big deal. umm, and it's very hard in like social situations, urm, 'cause I can't hear like being in a really big group or being at the pub for example that can be really difficult because it's just really loud. Urmm, but it's not all bad like, you know, I've been deaf all my life so you just kind of- I don't really know anything other than being deaf so I haven't really got anything to relate it to so you just kind of.. get on with it I guess.

T: 'Er, I agree with you on a sense that because it's not a visible thing, people don't notice it or pay attention to it as much, 'cause I'm really into mental health and- '

S: 'Yeahh'

T: 'Importance of people acknowledging and supporting mental health problems, but they think well I can't see it so it, it doesn't exist but-'

S: 'Yeah, yeah definitely'

T: 'So has it ever affected your life in terms of relationships with family and friends and your social life-'

S: 'Yeah, urmm, like, I think it's always affected my family and friends in a way, urm, there have been times where I've had arguments with my friends because they've just kind of been like oh it doesn't matter anymore because they just get frustrated with me saying, "What did you say?" or you know, I'm not being able to hear you. Urmm. I think my family sometimes get a little bit frustrated but you know, it's, they know what to do in a situation where it's really loud, like say if we go to a restaurant or something we'll just try and sit somewhere more quietly. Urmm, and I think, I mean I always get stereotyped like as soon as I say I'm deaf everyone assumes that I'm stupid or I can't talk properly or, erm, I just can't hear anything you're saying, so that can be a little bit frustrating. But erm,you know I don't really blame them because they don't really-  '

T: 'Understand?'

S: 'Yeah.'

T: 'Erm, so, with making friends and things have you found that, despite everything, it's quite easy you know, people have been quite... they just don't see it, they just don't see it as an issue to be your friend?'

S: 'Urmm, I don't think I've ever had someone not be my friend because I'm deaf . Urmm. Like they've always been really supportive and just been really interested in it more than anything, urm, like Barney for example. He's just really, like supportive of me being deaf and, urm, like he's, he's amazing because I've taught him how to like sign language as well, so, when I don't have my hearing aids in at night like, we have our own sort of like little conversation so he'll tell me if he's going to the loo or something and then I won't panic. Which is really nice.'

T: 'That is really nice. One other question that I was going to ask you was do you agree that it should be like a, a universal language that everyone should learn because I think that's true, since starting this project I really feel like it's something they should teach in the school curriculum, things like that, do you, do you agree with that or?'

S: 'Urmm, I think so yeah, urm, what's interesting though is that, urm, I went to High Storrs and, ermm, the people.. we don't do sign language at High Storrs but there is a deaf unit and erm, then there's Silverdale that do the sign language and erm, the deaf community have a big sort of hatred for each other, like they don't like each other so High Storrs hate each other and Silverdale hate each other, which is really odd so High Storrs don't like you to sign, erm, but Silverdale do. And their argument is that you know, if you teach a child when they're younger, when they're deaf, to sign they will never speak which I think is ridiculous, like I think it's just... you know stupid. And I actually had like sign languaging, erm, and like a teacher that came to my home and, like, I learnt it and I do agree that like I think everyone should learn it because it's not just for deaf people I mean, just communicating with someone who can't speak English or whatever or we can't speak their language is a really good way of being able to understand someone.'

T: 'Yeah erm. And, erm, from you being deaf what support have you received from your family the government and anything like that? I know you just mentioned your school but, erm, yeah have you received any helpful support?'

S: 'Yeah well, erm, there's a thing when you're at school where you can get statemented which, ermm, it basically means that you get support from school, you get like a radio aid so you can hear the teachers better, ermm, they come into classes and help you, and so that's been really good. I think when you leave school though it can be quite a different world, erm, 'cause when you're younger, so when you're in the children's hospital they're very supportive and very sort of like, you know, they encourage you to kind of be deaf I guess but as soon as you leave school and you go to the adult hospital it's really really bad because no one sort of cares and you're very much independent so, like now, like that I'm nineteen I don't really think I get much support from government and like, you know, I think they're really shit at the minute but erm, my family and friends are amazing like they're really supportive and they do the best they can.'

T: ' Urm. And could you tell us about your family?'

S: 'Yeah urmm. Well I'm adopted so, I have two mums who are gay and two sisters who are really lovely, and urm, one of them lives in London so I don't get to see her a lot, urmm, but she's always been understanding of my deafness and like, tries to help me in anyway she can. Which is good. And then my younger sister Nala, she like, kind of, makes me happy because rather than making it into a sad thing she'll joke about it so if I've misheard something she'll make it into a joke, but then that's helpful for me because it can be really funny and nice.'

T: 'I've, I've noticed that as well 'cause obviously I'm really into mental health, you know, a lot of people who do suffer mentally they just take the mick out of themselves, they're just like I can't change it, I can't deal with it, I'm gonna make jokes about it I'm gonna get on with it. And I think that, that's a really nice thing and it's nice that you take it that way as well. Urm, so can you tell us a bit more about your like, your adopted family and you know their names and any little things?'  

S: ' Yeah urm. My sister's are called Nala and Tara and urm, they, we're actually not birth related, so erm, they have separate families as well, ermm, though what's quite funny is that everyone says we look like each other, but we don't really, I don't think we really look like each other, erm, and then I have Margaret and Janet who are my mums and we go on a lot of holidays together so, urmm, yeah, like we have a lot of fun times.'

T: 'And how would they describe you? In three words that your friends and family would use to describe you what would you think they would be?'

S: 'Urmm, friendly, err, chatty, and urmm, I guess very sociable like I love talking to people and making new friends and like getting to know new things and stuff, like that I'm not afraid to try something new.'      

Half way through this project I changed my role from editor to sound designer. Therefore, for our 5-10 minute documentary I was in charge of recording the sound and creating a soundtrack piece for the edit.
As I have explained in one of my other posts, one of the lapel mics was giving off a buzzing sound whilst we were recording an interview, so it was my role in post-production to clean up the sound and try to get rid of the buzz. I used Adobe Auditions with the noise reduction tool to do the best I could to evacuate the buzz.

After finding the right frequency at which the buzzing noise was at I then reduced part of that frequency, not too much so the voice of the contributors were distorted but just enough so the buzz was almost completely gone. This method seemed to work, with only making a slight echo on the voice recording.

When it came to making a soundtrack for the 5-10 minute documentary, I needed some inspiration or influences for what kind of mood and tone I needed to create for the spectators. So me and the group started looking for some artists/tracks that we thought had a good relevance to the film which I could work off.

Here are a few we would like to have a comparison with:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0o8JCxjjpM&list=PLdhdnrR3DmA-xLjrlKYNCq4cqsMzs4cfr

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFr9StkVwTk

http://www.jeaniefinlay.com/wordpress/love-takes/

This track was my main inspiration for the soundtrack piece:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eT9FKnB28YQ


I started the production of my soundtrack off with a simple beat that I used a grand piano tool for. This helped shape the speed and tone of my piece.

I recorded in my piece by using a midi keyboard plugged into Protools, this way it was easier than creating notes and effects on Protools manually.

I then added an ambience-like track that would run all the way through the piece as a way of layering all the notes that would be used. I used an alternative pan on this track which means it moves from left to right so then it would sound just like the one on my inspiration musical track 'Darling' by Adam Barnes.

 

I also changed the frequency a bit on the piano track so then it had a bit more bass, this would make it sound more powerful, like the theme of the documentary. I changed the frequency by using the EQ plug-in and increasing the low frequency levels. 

I also added some reverb so then each note would echo into each other and make the whole track seem more emotional and deep as that is the main theme of our documentary so we can portray Sobia's emotions from being deaf. 

For the more complex part of my piano track I used the note format to move the notes that I had recorded around so then they were all in time and sounded right.

To finish off my piece I added a few notes from the solo violin effect to add a little more background to the soundtrack so then it didn't sound so boring and plain. I have learnt from this project that it is always better to layer up your sounds to make them sound more realistic and dense.

My finished soundtrack was a little longer than 1 minute, so the director and editor could add the track into the slide cuts of the documentary. I am fairly impressed with my soundtrack as I feel it represents the theme of power and accomplishment within the documentary. This is a link to my finished, full soundtrack: 

https://soundcloud.com/kath77-1/anechoic-soundtrack

                           

Anechoic- full documentary

Anechoic- Full documentary

Anechoic Experimental Documentary Final Cut from Nadege Disasi on Vimeo.

Edited and revised Treatment

Revised Treatment

Working Title: Anechoic

Length: Poetic Documentary – 00:02:00

                 Main Documentary – 00:05:00 – 00:10:00

Format: 1080x1920 HD 16:9

Hook or tagline:  A story on a young woman who hasn't let her hearing impairment define and stop her from accomplishing her dreams. This strength and positivity about her is also a  reflection from the support and bond of her family, friends and boyfriend.

Sobia Walton, 19 year old girl, who is born moderately deaf and therefore wears two hearing aids, as she would not be able to hear well without them. She has had difficult moments in her life, she has been bullied, assaulted and targeted for her vulnerability but she strives and achieves above these small moments and does not allow them to bring her down. Her courageousness and capability to cope with everyday struggles also comes from the support of her loving mothers and step sisters, who are also adopted. Her boyfriend for nearly two years is also a major pillar in supporting her and her goals. She is an animal lover, in which she carries out in her daily job at Whirlow Hall Farm in Sheffield, as an outdoor educational assistant . With this she is involved both her passions  of working with those who have a disadvantage and with animals.

Both the Poetic and Main documentary is recommended and aimed at  an audience aged 13 and above; although this is a universal subject matter, it is not one that a younger audience may consider.The target aim is to the niche audience of deaf audience however we feel that it also aims to the mass audience of non-deaf viewers. It is predominately aimed to a non-deaf audience, as we wish to change any negative perceptions and offer more information on a subject matter that people may not know a lot about through the means of Sobia.

The poetic documentary is  inspired by the student film Photograph (Richardson 2014) and will reveal images of Sobia Walton at a younger age with her family in France and Wales during vacation in 2004. It is represented through verbal commentary of Sobia's voice as she unravels her family dynamic, memories and experiences which eventually lead to the topic of her being deaf. Before the audience hear of Sobia’s issues, they will see images of her and her family during her childhood, family vacations and photos which will be anchored by her speaking about their happy and positive memories.This information will then link to the larger documentary which will be approximately 5 minutes unravelling the depth of Sobia’s life and why she is very strong.

The main documentary Anechoic will reintroduce Sobia as we observe living her day to day life, which is inspired by observational documentaries such as Grizzly Man (Herzog, 2005) and Titicut Follies (Wieseman, 1967). The audience watch as we observe her at work, with friends, with family and with her boyfriend all the elements of her life that we will later delve into and uncover how they have helped and inspired her to be positive about her disability. Finally we will meet Margaret, Janet, Sobia's adoptive mothers and Nala and Tara - Sobia’s sisters - sitting together as a family discussing their family experiences in a natural environment in which they  feel comfortable to do so, inspired by the portrait documentary Plank (Pols, 2009).

Themes of family, support and love will uncover at this point setting up the narrative arc. As we introduce Sobia’s boyfriend Barney we see them together doing the things they enjoy; attending protests, going for coffee and walks in the countryside then finally we see them sat together where they feel comfortable to discuss their relationship together. As they discuss this Sobia reveals some difficult times in her life, one being when she was attacked in a nightclub for what she believes was being deaf. Alongside this Sobia will talk about stigma she has received and difficulties she has been given previously due to her being deaf. Finally we see her with her friends such as her best friend Molly and Barney through observational footage; seeing her happy, outgoing and bubbly the audience are able to see despite very difficult situations Sobia is a strong person due to the characters and people in her life. As the observational footage is in use we will place voiceover on it of the contributors to come. The interview setups will be in a place where the contributors feel comfortable and happy as inspired by the above mentioned Plank (2009).

The ambience of Anechoic intends to be a rise and fall to a ‘new equilibrium’ observing Sobia’s past and summarising that although it could have affected her negatively – she enjoys her life in the present moment and simply deals with being deaf.

This portrait documentary aims to express that many of us have difficulties and mental or physical setbacks but it is up to that person whether they allow it to affect them as society may insist. 

Details of sound, camera and postproduction equipment

Equipment used 

When me and Nadege (Producer) had a meet up with Sobia for the first time in a cafe we took a zoom H4N recorder, and a lapel mic to get a clear audio recording of her voice. However, once we had turned up to location and we were ready to start, the connection between the lapel mic and the zoom recorder didn't seem to work at all so we had to improvise and use the zoom's microphone to record Sobia's voice which I then cleaned up when it came to post-production. We only used this recording for the short poetic documentary.  

Then for the second time the whole group met Sobia we went into the sound recording studio in Harmer and used a zoom H4N recorder again, with a sennheiser 416 boom microphone and a lapel mic to go into more detail with our questions for Sobia. We have used most of this recording for our 5-10 minute documentary as a narration.

The third time we had a shoot was when the whole crew went to Barney's house to film a sit down interview with both Barney and Sobia in order to get some more information from them both on Sobia's condition and to get a better insight to their relationship and how it has helped Sobia. We took a lot of equipment to this shoot, we took some dedo lights, however we could only use two of them because one of the bulbs broke as we arrived. We used an XF305 camera and video camera tripod to record the visuals of Barney and Sobia. For the sound equipment we used two lapel mics, a sennheiser boom microphone, a boom pole, a H4N zoom recorder and some sennheiser headphones. I was the one to listen to the recording from the boom microphone connected to the camera and Courtney (The first sound recordist) was a boom operator and listened to the recording of the lapel mics being recorded on the H4N zoom. However, we had a bad connection again with one of the lapel mics and lead to a constant buzzing on one of the recordings, however I managed to clean this error up by using noise reduction on Protools and Adobe Auditions.

The fourth and final shoot we made was when me and Amber (camera operator) got some cutaways of Sheffield City center and then went on to interview Sobia and her friend in a cafe in town. The equipment we used was a Canon 600D DSLR, a video camera tripod, a H4N zoom recorder for the sound along with a sennheiser boom microphone and sennheiser headphones. This shoot day seemed to turn out quite well despite only having two members of the crew.  

Half way through the module me and Courtney decided to switch roles so that I would be the sound designer and Courtney would be the editor. We made this decision because I felt like I had too much work to do at this stage as I was the person to organise shooting days and be in touch with Sobia as I was the closest to her and I would be helping Courtney do the sound design as well because she wasn't certain on what she had to do with the software and what equipment to use. Therefore I thought it would be both easier for me and Courtney to swap roles. Up until that point I had used Avid Media Composer to edit together the poetic documentary as well as part of the 5-10 minute documentary. From switching roles I have managed the sound recording on every shoot set and I have already cleaned audio and created a short soundtrack for the 5-10 minute documentary. I feel like I am more comfortable being the sound designer for this project as the documentary itself hasn't had much of a direction and has been very complicated already.


Equipment in order of being mentioned:

                                                                    H4N zoom recorder

                                                            Lapel Mics

                                                         Sennheiser 416 boom microphone

                                                                  Dedo lights

                                                                 Canon XF305 camera 

                                                                 Boom pole  

                                                           Sennheiser headphones 

                                                                 Canon 600D DSLR

                                                             Avid Media Composer 

                                                                       Pro-tools 

                                                                   Adobe Audition