Project Evaluation

Out of the three practical units this year, I would say that the documentary unit has been the most challenging. In terms of the duration, this piece is the longest at 10 minutes in total. The structure of it and editing was the most challenging. This is because it is far different to anything we have done before.
When we got the brief, I was quite daunted as wildlife is incredibly broad but also very challenging. To capture some great shots of wildlife takes extensive planning and patience. Therefore, when it came to choosing an idea for the documentary we all came up with ideas that featured animals that could be easily sourced such as at a park or centre. We decided to choose Laura's original idea as we felt that it would be the most interesting. It was also very accessible as we would be filming in one location and would have easy access to the birds. The main storyline for the idea was to promote awareness of decreasing vulture numbers in the wild. Laura already knew Jo and Leigh Holmes who ran the Hawking Centre at Doddington Place Gardens and found out that they had set up a conservation charity called Vulpro in order to raise money for the cause to help to protect the vultures in the wild.
When it came to planning, we didn't assign certain roles to each team member, we just decided that all of us would contribute to every aspect in order to get the widest variety of ideas to make some creative decisions. I would say that we worked very well as a team, communicating effectively throughout and assigning small jobs for each of us to do so that we were all contributing. We wrote the script and commentary together, deciding on the general vibe for the piece which we wanted to be professional but friendly. When it came to shooting, we enlisted the help from Josh to operate the drone for our opening sequence as well as to take on a role as an assistant camera operator. The first shoot day was quite stressful and unsuccessful as weather issues meant that we had to think on our feet and shoot the interview with Jo in the Hawking Centre. This resulted in some sound interference which proved to be very difficult to eliminate in the edit. However, we have looked at the audio channels and tried hard to tone this down. The second shoot day was much more successful. We were able to film the drone footage, as well as the flying footage with one of the vultures and the bald eagle. We also filmed much more action as our previous footage had quite a yellow tint to it that was difficult to edit out. The edit itself has been quite challenging because of the sound issues but overall I would say I am pleased with the final outcome. I think we worked well as a team and communicated well so that we could solve problems effectively. The final documentary has quite an upbeat feel about it with my personal favourite sections being some of the flying shots of which we used a Go-Pro to capture. I think that sound is still proving to be a huge challenge, having issues with it in every unit so far so that is something I would like to really improve on in future units.

Recording Commentary

Today, we finalised our commentary, making any last minute changes to the writing. We added in some more description and here is the final script for it. As Darren is the only person talking, we just typed out each sentence as it is with descriptions of the shot that will be accompany them next to it in brackets. This will help us during editing so we know when to add the commentary at certain points in the edit. Like the script, we wanted the commentary to be quite formal but friendly and inviting at the same time so that the audience would engage in the documentary. Today we recorded the commentary with Darren in the studio using the Pro tools 10 software to do so. This is a piece of advanced recording equipment which was necessary to get good quality sound so that the commentary would be clear and uninterrupted. The recording went well, we took several takes to get a variety of options to choose from when editing and to get the best possible quality. We took it in turns to listen with the headphones to assess volume and interruption. 

- Welcome to Doddington Place Gardens in Kent - (Wide shot of lake)

- I’m here today to meet some fascinating birds of prey - (Darren walks into frame) 

- The picturesque landscape at Doddington is set in the grounds of a Victorian mansion, abundant with many plants and wildlife that stretches 10 acres of land (House shot)

- The Hawking Centre is the main attraction here at Doddington with the falconry experiences proving to be a hit with the public - (sign and hawking centre)

- Home to many birds including owls, falcons and vultures - (clips of birds) 

- I will be meeting Jo, the owner, to find out about what goes on here at the Hawking Centre - (action gvs)

- Here at the Hawking centre they train all of the birds to fly for the falconry experiences. I’ve been lucky enough to have been given the opportunity to be the first person to see Irena fly.  (Shot of Irena) 

- Julie is a falconer here at the Hawking Centre, she takes care of many different birds of prey. I’m about to meet the youngest vulture. (Julie’s intro) 

- I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to hold Morticia - (flying shot)

- The birds are all fed dependant on their weight. Morticia here, gets three chicks a day - (Morticia wandering around)

- The chicks come from an egg farming company that donates them to the Hawking Centre instead of disposing of them - (Morticia feeding) 

- Vultures aren’t always able to get a regular supply of food in the wild, we spoke to Julie about the common threats they are facing - (Morticia feeding) 

- Vulpro, a vulture conservation charity based in Africa are working hard to educate local farmers about these endangered creatures. - (Vulpro website) 

- In order to support the charity, people are able to purchase wristbands, t-shirts and other merchandise to raise money and spread awareness. (Wristband shot) 

- Vultures were critically endangered in the wild, however, with the good work Vulpro have been carrying out through education and captive breeding programmes, the vultures numbers that were so badly hit are now slowly turning around (gvs) 

Editing Progress (Sound Issues)

We have been editing the documentary as efficiently as possible, meeting at the studios every day to work as a group so that everyone has their own creative input in the final outcome.  However, as soon as we looked at the footage, we noticed there were some big issues with the sound. The audio at the beginning with Darren was peaking considerably. This isn't a huge problem as we are having him to come in to record commentary and so can re-record that. The audio for the interviews is very interrupted. We had some huge issues when recording Jo's interview as we had no other option but to film inside the hawking centre with the birds, causing quite a lot of interference. The sounds of the falcons are very screechy and distracting. However, this was our only option. After a meeting with Helen she suggested that we reduce this interview to its very bare bones and only use some very important points from her. In terms of the interview with Julie, the audio was better but still had issues with occasional peaking. The interviews are quite important as they provide the audience with plenty of expert information about the hawking centre and the birds. We will try our best to look at the audio channels and turn down the bird noises as well as improve the sound of the peaking. We will be recording some commentary with Darren which will be much clearer as we will be able to set up the recording equipment in the studio and assess audio levels before exporting the audio therefore we shouldn't have any problems.

The Supervet - Documentary Programme

I have watched and looked into the documentary programme - The Supervet. It airs on Wednesday on Channel 4 at 8pm with 4 series broadcasted in total. The documentary follows the work of the vet Noel Fitzpatrick who has gained a reputation for being able to cure and treat some of the hardest cases. Using modern day technology and surgery methods, Fitzpatrick is able to demonstrate his ability and bring happiness to the owners of many lucky pets. I was particularly interested in watching this documentary as it is something I am interested and feel like I can connect easily to. Like many surgery and medical related programmes, the action is dramatised to create suspense and make you believe that the worst is about to happen before resulting in a positive outcome. I think this works particularly well for this programme because the work that Fitzpatrick does is so advanced and impressive, often making the audience feel quite amazed by the improvement. He works with all kinds of pets, not just dogs and cats. We get to see rabbits and birds as well, giving the show plenty of variety and appealing to more people.
The documentary's approach takes you on a journey of emotion, pulling you in and making you care about the animals and their owners before a positive outcome. Often, they will play on the drama and emphasise a turn of events so that we see some issues develop. For example, one of the pets may go into a critical condition during surgery which will make the audience feel on edge and worried for the owners. The use of raw emotion and drama in this way really intensifies the documentary and makes you care for those involved in order to keep you gripped and feel as if you are on a journey. To end on a good note, there is usually a positive outcome for the animals and we see them being returned to their owners, therefore leaving us feeling happy.

Transcripts from Interviews

Here are some screenshots from the transcripts with Jo and Julie. From the interviews, we listened to everything they said and wrote it down as simple scripts. This is a very important process to aid our editing. From the transcripts, we can then highlight all of the important information so we can cut up the interviews and place certain dialogue to match other dialogue. This also allowed us to make sense of everything they said so that we could edit relevant clips around the audio to avoid confusion for the audience.