Equipment

Equipment

In terms of equipment, I am fortunate enough to be involved with Rising Brook Film Collective thus allowing me to borrow other equipment from other members. In this case, I borrowed another camera, a Canon 650D to add different angles and variety to my film, give the audience an increased depth and thus hopefully making the film more interesting. As well as this camera, I used my own Canon DSLR, the 60D.

Canon 60D












Canon 650D

The advances within technology means that, modern day DSLR camera's are extremely capable of capturing high quality, industry standard footage even though the camera itself is relatively affordable. Therefore such technology really helped project, improving the overall image quality and feel of the film - making it appear more professional.

Lenses

Whilst shooting my film, I used various different lenses to capture the image differently and to add variety to my shots.

As you can see here, the 50mm Canon Lens beautifully captures the subject, using a shallow depth of field, blurring out the background and allowing the audience to view the subject clearly.

Another lens I used was the 24-70mm Wide lens. The Wide lens allowed me to capture moments between my Grandfather and Grandmother, keeping them both in the frame, allowing the audience to observe their connection and love. This lens allows more of the scene to be included within the shot. 

The Last Lens I used was the 18-135mm Lens, this lens is quite simply a standard to short telephoto telezoom Lens, allowing me to shoot film from a distance. 

Sound

Due to the lack of quality on the built in sound recording system within the DSLR's I used an external mic to record sound. In this case I used the Rode VideoMic. The Rode VideoMic is a directional shotgun mic, therefore perfect for recording interviews and directional sound. Thus making it ideal for documentary filmmaking.

Editing

I used Final Cut Pro 7 to edit my short documentary.  Final Cut is often regarded as industry standard editing equipment and is highly accessible for amateur filmmakers like myself due to its relatively low cost, therefore allowing me to edit my film professionally, using software like this can sometimes greatly improve the final product. 

The viewing browser in the top right corner (above) allows me to view the final, edited footage, and the viewing browser in the middle allows me to view original footage, the playback quality within Final Cut is extremely good therefore it gave me a good sense of what my final outcome would be like, allowing me to observe mistakes and successfully correct them. 

This image (above) displays the timeline, which consequently shows the sequence of my film. The timeline allows me to not only observe the length of the film, but to adjust clips, add transitions, adjust sound and add captions to various clips. When playing back the edited footage, if you observe mistakes in the viewing browser, you return to the sequence and adjust the issues. The green sequence represents the sound and the blue represents the footage, when altering footage and sound, Final Cut requests you to render the altered footage/sound in order to view it. As you can see, the bottom two sound clips represent the non diegetic sound track, and above that the diegetic sound of the surroundings and live interviews. 

Due to my previous experiences with Final Cut, when I came to editing my documentary I felt fairly confident in using it, therefore I could could concentrate more on the film's content, instead of learning how to edit throughout the process. I had initially had difficulty with colour correction, as some of my shots completely differed to others in terms of brightness and colour, making the film seem substandard, therefore in order to develop my knowledge and skills in terms of colour correction in post production I observed various online tutorials, especially made for people in my circumstance.

I also experienced issues in terms of sound quality. However in order to fully change the quality of the sound I would've had to record the original sound again, therefore meaning I would have to re-film interviews with would be time consuming and the quality of the footage might differentiate from before. Therefore I had to edit the sound in post production. Final Cut offers adequate sound editing within the program, however I felt that it was below standard therefore I used Soundtrack Pro to edit the sound. 

Within Soundtrack Pro I was able to highlight the unneeded background noise, create a "noise print" then remove the noise using a "noise reduction" application, allowing me to successfully remove most of the background noise out of the recording. Therefore giving my sound a more crisp and professional quality to it. 

"Ode To Joy" - Finished Documentary Film.

Ode To Joy

Upon receiving audience feedback, I used the feedback and criticisms to improve my film. Specific areas that I needed to improve were the voiceovers, sound quality and introducing my subjects through the use of captions, all key elements within Documentary filmmaking. 

This is the final outcome. I altered the voiceover as previous voiceover lacked direction and authority in the tone and style. I was also told to "answer the question and message I set myself" therefore I had to change the introductory voiceover in order for the rest of the film to reflect this introduction and thus answer any questions and tasks I set myself. I also included a concluding voiceover to summarise the film and also add my personal thoughts and feelings in order to connect with the audience on a more personal level.

All in all, I believe the feedback I have received has reflected the success of the film. My aim's were for the documentary to connect with audiences, to be moving and powerful and to also serve as a dedication to my Grandma, something I can look back on and reflect upon. The only negative thing I found through the production process was difficulty with the sound quality. In order to fully improve this I would have had to re-record sound again which would be too difficult and complicated. However the sound quality for the recordings is good enough for the film to still be greatly successful.  

Evaluation

Evaluation

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Before I began planning the actual film and filming it, I deeply researched the documentary genre with specific focus into the expository and observational modes of documentary. I initially figured that these two modes would reflect my film and its ideas and conventions, I planned to expose what life is like with Alzheimer's and its effects on my family through using conventions such as authoritative voice over's, titles, and my point of view, creating a more personal film. However it could be said that I challenged this form with the exclusion of one of its conventions, the nature of a strong argument being made through the use of footage. I felt that this element needed to be left out as the final footage resembled more of an observational approach thus why I combined both observational and expository modes into my film, thus developing the forms and intertwining them. The film itself allows audiences to "observe" how my Grandma lives now as well as observe and find out about the journey we have been on.

Specific research into Alzheimer's documentaries allowed me to view the techniques and ways of approaching the practical aspect of making my documentary, the techniques I observed had a great emotional impact on the viewer, which is something I wanted to capture within my film. I wanted to elicit a specific emotional and personal response, connecting with the audience on a personal level and I believe that I did achieve this as my audience feedback reflects this. Through researching Alzheimer's documentaries I studied the HBO Alzheimer's Project, which was a great example of what I wanted to create as it used extreme close up's of the subject and their family to capture their emotion as they discussed Alzheimer's disease, this is something I recreated when filming my Grandma in the care home. The use of extreme close up's allow the audience to build a relationship with the filmmaker and the subject thus eliciting an emotional response. Similar to this I used B-roll footage to create a more engaging experience for the audience. Through observing other media products that dealt with similar issues to my film, it gave me a deeper understanding of how I was to transfer my message and views onto the audience.

I knew that music would be a key focus in my documentary due to my Grandma's love of piano (hence the title) I wanted to use Ode To Joy as the backing track due to its relevance to my Grandma's name, and its relevance to my Grandma herself as the song itself was one of her personal favourites, therefore I believed that the music could play a key part in translating a message to the audience, as similarly seen in the documentary "You're Looking At Me Like I Live Here But I Don't", the quiet, gentle tone of the music sets the scene for the actual documentary. Therefore I felt that music was of vital importance in my documentary, as well as the diegetic sound of the interview as music helps to create a tone and a specific mood that can often reflect the actual film.

In terms of real media products, the most difficult aspect is the promotion and marketing of the product, therefore I believe that my product challenged those conventions due to its lack of funding and resources, yet used some conventions such as promotion through radio advertisement and magazine article. These two ancillary tasks reflect the everyday marketing of real media products. The purpose of these is to promote and advertise my product and gather audience interest in the film. Due to my lack of funding and resources my purpose was to not generate a revenue, but to connect with audiences on a broad scale, and in order to achieve this I believed that social media would play a large role. Through researching documentary film and their promotional campaign's, its clear that sites such as YouTube and Vimeo allow the filmmaker to broadcast and advertise their product on a global scale for a fee of zero, therefore I used the advances in technology to challenge and develop the conventions of real media product advertisement.

How effective is the combination of your main product and your ancillary task?

When I initially observed the ancillary tasks I saw them as a form of marketing and advertisement in a real world situation, the primary use of these ancillary tasks were to not only broaden my use of media, but through this broaden the target audience and thus gather more interest and potential viewers. Radio Advertisement can connect to a specific audience on a personal level and due to it being a film, I wanted to make sure the audience could visualise the setting and atmosphere within the film through the advert. Similarly I wanted to create this kind of tone through my magazine extract, therefore I approached it on a more personal level. Especially after observing the Sight & Sound interview with Joshua Oppenheimer, director of The Act of Killing.

This chart displays the effectiveness of advertisement through print ads (magazine extract) and radio advertisement. Although both relatively inferior to digital and television advertisement, when combining both, not only does it create a cheaper alternative but it can reach out to a broader scale of audience. The use of these tasks in order to promote the product however, is limited. Therefore I believe that if the ancillary tasks have the designated effect I attempted to create through them, then they can be a tool for creating a "buzz" around the product and thus enforce the use of word of mouth as a means of promotion, as perhaps this is the most effective method of marketing for a media product.

The radio advert itself was more of a broader and less personal promotion tool than the magazine as it had one purpose - to advertise. The use of an authoritative, commanding voice immediately attracts the audience to the subject at hand, and this is what I tried to recreate with my radio advertisement. It is difficult to successfully give the audience an insight to the film without visual representation as it is harder to understand the subject matter, but the use of additional voice recordings sampled from the documentary itself give the audience a deeper insight into the film and its topic and allows the audience to recognise the true tone and atmosphere of the documentary.

I used the radio advert primarily for promotion of the film itself, however the article allowed me to connect with the audience on a deeper and more personal level through the style of an interview with the director. My research had shown that successful film magazines often adopted this approach in order for the audience and reader to connect with the filmmaker and thus understand their aims, objectives and feelings around the film. The extract itself is a fictional interview with myself in which I give a backstory to the film, allowing the reader to understand my point of view and personalising the story as well, then talked about the creative techniques and ideas I used in order to capture emotion, so the reader can recognise how the film was made and why it was made thus adding more interest. I was able to talk about my inspirations within the film, I would like to believe that due to this personal tone, in a real world situation, the article would directly promote the film and ignite further interest in the media product.

Although not in a real world situation with real media products, I believe that combining the main product with the ancillary tasks would be highly effective in terms of marketing and promotion of my media product. The use of marketing on various other media fronts allowed me to reach a broader target audience and thus gain more viewers. I believe that the purpose of the ancillary tasks are to directly combine with the film itself and spread the media product across the market.

My Documentary ideas: Joy Phyllis Young

All the ideas I developed really stemmed from my Grandma's story. She developed Alzheimers about 15 years ago and the progression of the disease has been really aggressive over the past 6 months or so. This can be really seen throughout my family and it has affected my Grandad the most. Therefore I thought it would be interesting to document the effects and how people have seen Joy's diseas develop over the years, and what she was like prior to her diagnosis. As i dont remember a time in which her disease wasn't apparent to me as all my life I have grown up with the affects of Alzheimers on her and my whole family. I've also decided to document Alzheimers and its affects as I believe it is often portrayed incorrectly in TV and Film, or diffferently to how I have expereinced it with Joy and just how serious the affects are on my family, in particular my Grandad. Who has acted as carer for her, for as long as I can remember. As she has recently entered a home, I figured it would be an interesting idea to look at the work of the social workers and carers and how Alzheimer's affects them, as I believe this is not highlighted strongly enough and will give an interesting perspective to the documentary film.

Ode To Joy Audience Feedback

Feedback for my first Documentary edit.

Upon finishing a rough edit for my documentary, I posted the video on social media sites such as Youtube, Vimeo, Facebook and Twitter and asked for feedback, positive and constructive and I was fortunate to receive some extremely helpful feedback from many people, offering solutions to improve my film. 

I figured that the best way to attain direct feedback would be to post it on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. As you can see, I clearly requested feedback in order to improve my film. I requested constructive criticism in order to develop my project further. I was fortunate to receive some great constructive points and a lot of praise for my work. 

The constructive feedback that I received really helped me, as different perspectives allowed me to observe my project in a different light and thus improve it even further. I'm fortunate to know other film enthusiasts and industry professionals that offered some really helpful advice and solutions to my problems. 

I also received a lot of positive praise from peers and friends. Through observing this feedback its clear that I have reached my target audience successfully and also successfully achieved one of my aims of the film - to create a moving film that can connect emotionally with the audience. 

Short Documentary Planning

After researching several styles of Documentary filmmaking, I figured that the observational apporach would be most suited as it would allow the audience to observe and and take in most information at a non bias viewpoint. Therefore, in a sense, educating the audience and spectator - informing them more about the disease and its affects on others. Therefore, to enable this approach to be effective I decided to do several interviews to give it a professional outlook. I decided it would be best to interview a GP who would be able to give a medical definition of Alzheimers and a proffesional opinion on its effects. In my planning I had viewed several other A2 documentary films an dobserved that, in fact, only one interview was used. Therefore to enhance my documentary and to add extra dimensions to it to contribute to the observational and informative approach I decided to include a few other documumentaries. Preferably from social workers/ my Grandad and/or someone close to Joy. I decided to merge these interviews and use footage of Joy in the home over the top of of these interviews to give the audience an insight into how my Grandma lives.

 Equipment Used For the actual filming of the documentary I used two Canon DSLR camera, a 60D and 650D. Using two DSLR's allowed me to use multiple angles whilst filming, therefore, hopefully not boring the audience! In terms of lenses, I used an 18-135mm Canon lens, a Sigma 20mm Wide lens and a Canon 50mm Lens. These lense's allowed me to capture different types of footage adding other dimensions to the film. In terms of sound recording, I used the RODE Videomic Pro, attached to the body of the Camera. This sound recording device is a shotgun Mic, allowing me to record sound from directly in front of the camera. Therefore this is most suited for documentary filmmaking. In terms of editing software, Isued Final Cut Studio 2 which is proefsional industry standard therefore allowing me to edit the film proofessionally with the best software available. Moreover, improving the overall quality of the film and post production process.

Research into Alzheimers

Overview

Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia, affecting around 496,000 people in the UK. The term 'dementia' describes a set of symptoms which can include loss of memory, mood changes, and problems with communication and reasoning. These symptoms occur when the brain is damaged by certain diseases and conditions, including Alzheimer's disease. This fact sheet outlines the symptoms and risk factors for Alzheimer's disease, and describes what treatments are currently available.

Alzheimer's disease, first described by the German neurologist Alois Alzheimer, is a physical disease affecting the brain. During the course of the disease, protein 'plaques' and 'tangles' develop in the structure of the brain, leading to the death of brain cells. People with Alzheimer's also have a shortage of some important chemicals in their brain. These chemicals are involved with the transmission of messages within the brain.

Alzheimer's is a progressive disease, which means that gradually, over time, more parts of the brain are damaged. As this happens, the symptoms become more severe.

Symptoms

People in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease may experience lapses of memory and have problems finding the right words. As the disease progresses, they may:

• become confused and frequently forget the names of people, places, appointments and recent events
• experience mood swings, feel sad or angry, or scared and frustrated by their increasing memory loss
• become more withdrawn, due either to a loss of confidence or to communication problems
• have difficulty carrying out everyday activities - they may get muddled checking their change at the shops or become unsure how to work the TV remote.

As the disease progresses, people with Alzheimer's will need more support from those who care for them. Eventually, they will need help with all their daily activities.

While there are some common symptoms of Alzheimer's disease, it is important to remember that everyone is unique. No two people are likely to experience Alzheimer's disease in the same way.

Extract taken from Alzheimers.org

My experience with Alzheimer's disease.

I have grown up experiencing the effects of Alzheimer's for about 10 years now, although it has only been this past year in which the effects have really become apparent and have really taken their toll on us as a family. In all honesty, I don't remember a time where my Grandma has not been effected by Alzheimer's, however occasionally we get insightful glimpses into herself prior to the diagnosis. My Grandma's Alzheimer's has meant she has found it especially difficult with communication and mobility and therefore been a struggle for my Grandad who has capably cared for her since she was diagnosed. Recently however she has had to move into a home, as my documentary film shows. In terms of the film, I wanted to initially capture the struggle we have faced "taking a step" with Alzheimer's or so to speak. Therefore I would have used progressive clips of my Grandma slowly entering our house. However, the worsening of her condition meant that I couldn't capture this. Her movement into a home has really let me observe the patience and care, that care-workers truly have. They dedicate their days to looking after those who can't look after themselves which for me is completely overwhelming. I really wanted the film to be a dedication to the care my Grandad has put in over these past 10 years. If I was to continue the film into a series of episodes, I would have loved to focus on the care workers and their commitment. 

Alzheimer's Documentaries.

Often in film, Alzheimer's disease is portrayed as forgetfulness or clumsiness, when actually the reality is a lot harsher than just that. There are several documentaries that I observed when researching Alzheimer's that really opened my eyes and revealed the true nature of Alzheimer's. 

In Danville, California, Lee Gorewitz wanders on a personal odyssey through her Alzheimer's & Dementia care unit. From the moment she wakes up, Lee is on a quest -- for reminders of her past and of her identity. A total immersion into the fragmented day-to-day experience of mental illness, "You're Looking At Me Like I Live Here And I Don't" is filled with charismatic vitality and penetrating ruminations that challenge our preconceptions of illness and aging. Here is one extraordinary woman who will not let us forget her, even as she struggles to remember herself.

"You're Looking at Me Like I Live Here and I Don't" can be an invaluable and instructive tool for doctors, caregivers and family members of people living with Alzheimer's Disease, as well as for teachers and students in diverse academic fields, such as Neuroscience, Psychiatry, Biochemistry, Nursing, Gerontology, Pathophysiology, and Film Studies.

"You're looking at Me Like I Live Here" is an insightful documentary that specifically observes the effects on the sufferer, providing a truthful insight into the actual effects of the disease. Although, it is true that Alzheimer's is not all the same, it can have different effects on different people, this film still provides a deep and meaningful view into Alzheimer's disease. 

https://www.hbo.com/alzheimers/

While there is no cure for the disease, THE ALZHEIMER'S PROJECT shows there is now genuine reason to be optimistic about the future. Created by the award-winning team behind HBO's acclaimed "Addiction" project, this multi-platform series takes a close look at groundbreaking discoveries made by the country's leading scientists, as well as the effects of this debilitating and fatal disease both on those with Alzheimer's and on their families.

What I found really inspirational about this documentary series was it's focus on the effects of Alzheimer's on the sufferers families. This angle shows how deep the disease is and how it has such an overwhelming effect on everyone that surrounds the sufferer. The film itself focuses on the emotional struggles of different families and their experiences with Alzheimer's disease.