Personal Development Portfolio

From the initial stages of this project there have been many skills I have had to work on and develop to allow me to gain the best possible outcome for my documentary. There were many areas that were new to me, and it was important to identify and construct appropriate methods of enhancing my knowledge in these areas.

The key areas identified involved investigating cinematography, narrative and the editing process as these would be the three main tasks involved in compiling the documentary. Through this research it became apparent there were many avenues for investigation with each of the identified areas.

The area of cinematography was crucial in gathering footage for the film.

I feel in the first semester my understanding of the subject was at a beginner level, though I dabble in photography and feel this gave me a better insight into composition and lighting.

There are elements of filming that were new to me and in semester one I had to get a better understanding of how to express meaning and emotions through the camera.

On my initial trip up to Lotte’s I had practiced and researched shots required, though once I returned and was looking through the footage, I realised I had not stayed on shots for long enough.

From this, to enhance my filming skills, at the end of semester one I arranged to film a short video on another artist, Tom Carlisle. This went on until March and helped me get a better understanding of camera angles and investigate various lenses. It also allowed me to get more comfortable in an interview set up and adapt to being more discreet with the camera while getting the shots I wanted.

I also worked with various media to see what effects I could achieve and how they could aid the final outcome.

I read up on theory to get a better idea of what shots would work best and why. Books I found related to the subject helped me understand the process of shooting were:

Cinematography- theory and practice. Blain Brown.

Master Shots. Christopher Kenworthy.

Making the Documentary. Michael Rabiger

Directing- Film Techniques and Aesthetics. Michael Rabiger

Though I found using my camera and doing practice based research was a much more productive method of learning for me, as it is a practical skill. Making short videos and studying other documentaries was key in providing a basis for the practice based studies.

I used three cameras through the filming process. All three cameras were new to me, and adjusting the settings and using various lenses to enhance the shots was a learning curve. I learned most of this through practice based research and various online tutorials from Lynda and Vimeo for the technical camera issues, such as aperture and f-stop settings. I then applied this to all videos I shot, gradually becoming more fluent and aware of what works throughout the year. I have demonstrated these skills through my media tests.

I feel I have come to understand a lot about the process of filming and I am more confident in what I can achieve. Although I am still learning, I feel I have a much better understanding of what is required and how to enhance my skills in this area.

While writing for a documentary, various plots and structures were investigated to allow for the best possible outcome.

When writing for documentary I was uncertain of how to begin. After semester one, I found I had footage and a message I wanted to communicate though I was still unsure of how to express it through documentary. I had limiting control over the narrative due to relying on the interview and from this I found it difficult to construct a story. I had to refine my screenwriting skills to allow for the  story to be developed.

At the end of the first semester I came across Tarkovsky and was hoping to investigate his work more thoroughly.  It was apparent philosophy and psychology came under this category, and the relevant books were read with notes taken to allow me to understand how these areas related to myown working. As I researched, I found masses of books to aid the process of writing for a films that could all be applied to documentary. The main books I found useful were:

The writer’s journey. Christopher Bogler

Story. Robert McKee

Sculpting in Time. Tarkovsky

Aesthetics in Philosophy. Daniel Herwitz

The books were useful, though I came to realise I learn more from a practical approach so I attended various workshops to help find out more about structure.

In the first semester I travelled to FACT, Liverpool for a 3 day screenwiting workshop hosted by First Light. I felt it helped me understand a lot in a small space of time and arranged for other workshops on narrative. I visited the SDI (Scottish Documentary Institute) for a masterclass with Arash T Riahi. He discussed the process of making a documentary which I found beneficial.  I found could relate to the issues he raised, and have managed to apply the theory to my own project.

I also attended a seminar for the Director Guild held by Simon Phillips and the GMAC Media Day where the writers for Shameless, Still Game and Donkeys, all discussed their process of making a story for the screen.

Through all of this I planned my story through mindmaps and storybeats and photography to lay out my thoughts. I used the mindmaps and photographic storyboards to enhance my media tests.

In hindsight there are a lot of things I would have done differently. One being the questions asked in the interview. I started too early on and did not have a clear enough idea of the final outcome. I feel I am now equipped to construct an interesting narrative from what I have learned throughout semester one and refined in semester two.

Editing has been one of my main issues throughout the whole process.

I have created a wide range of media tests throughout both semesters and especially in the second I focused on editing. The editing process was difficult as I am new to Premiere pro and After Effects, though I used After Effects on a project last year.

I found various tutorials on Lynda and Vimeo that I used as guides and learned a lot from them. I done various practice based experiments to allow me to investigate how to clip various videos together and how to create an emotion using a series of footage. I felt more confident in my ability to edit the work. When editing my final film, it appears the short cuts and experiments I had been working on were not as relevant to extended pieces of footage.

I feel applying the short clips I have been working on within such a long piece does not work for an extended period and now realise I should have worked on longer pieces from the start.

I have however worked on various experiments and feel the final piece is edited to a good standard, though I am constantly learning new techniques that I could apply.

This will be an ongoing piece of work and I feel I have identified the areas that need to be polished and worked upon.

From my initial stage in editing I feel I have come a long way and have identified way to combine the camera angles with editing to convey emotion on screen.

Throughout the process of making the documentary, I have gained a wide range of skills that will enable me to produce better work in the future.

In semester two, I feel I achieved a good balance of practice based and theory research that suits my method of learning. Although all of my findings could not be implemented into the final documentary, I plan to continue with my project and carry on improving the skills I have developed through the year.