Production Update 2

During my double lesson today, my group and I started the editing process of our documentary, cutting together the interview, the first audition and some titles. We had some difficulty with our computer, as it kept freezing and not rendering properly, but by the end of the lesson, we managed to edit around two minutes of our current footage.

Production Update

During Tuesday's double lesson, we managed to film Drew's first audtion in the school hall. It has taken us a while to get it right, but we think that we have finally been successful. We also recorded the first parts of the voiceover from Tom, which we intend to play after the main title shot of our documentary. Here are the two clips of Tom recording the audio. 

Locations

The majority of our shots are going to be filmed on the school grounds, with some other shots in the town, and at Gemma's house. Below is a collection of photographs taken around the school on our first shoot (19-09-2013): 

Characters

From what we have filmed so far, here are some screenshots of our characters:

 

Drew Taylor

 The Judges

The Interviewer

Product Analysis

As part of my product planning, I researched three current documentaries in order to pinpoint the specific conventions of documentaries:

1. Taylor Swift: Journey to Fearless
2. Justin Bieber: Never Say Never 
3. Katy Perry: Part of Me 

After researching these three documentaries, I discovered that they all had a pattern and a similar structure; they all focused around the journey to fame of a successful singer, and incorporated old home videos, interviews, concert footage and music video clips.

Costume

As we started thinking about costumes for each person involved in the production, we decided to draw up a list of everyone who was going to be filmed at some stage during the documentary.

• Drew Taylor (Gemma Crane)
• Interviewer (Meg)
• Fan 
• Best friend 
• Friend 

The most important character in our production, of course is Drew Taylor. As we took our inspiration for her character from Taylor Swift, we decided to give Gemma a similar look. Despite the fact that Gemma is not tall like Taylor Swift, we decided to give her a 'pretty look' in order to fit in with her genre of soft music. 

We thought that the general style for Drew Taylor could be similar to that of Taylor Swift in these three photographs; baggy patterned shirt with jeans and a mixture of boots, flats and shoes.

Production Schedule

Below is our Production schedule for the filming and editing of our documentary. We have arranged our filming around our actress' schedule so that we can maximise productivity.

Our first deadline is on October 21st, when the first cut of our production needs to be edited and ready for viewing. 

The final deadline for our product is on the 2nd of December. At this point we need to have filmed and edited every shot, and perfected it to the best of our ability. 

We intend to start filming on Thursday 19th September during our double Media lesson. 

Script & Shot List

To ensure that our documentary looks authentic, we have started to script some of the interviews and voice-overs. (Some of these can be seen in the shot ouline below).

This is the basic shot outline of the documentary:

1. Fade from black. 
2. Montage of Gemma's old photographs. (Simple fade transition between each photo).
3. Voiceover from Tom - "Drew Taylor is one of the most influential song writers of the modern day. In little more than 3 years, she has gone from being a bullied school girl to an international pop sensation. But how did she manage this incredible achievement, and how has she settled in to her new life of fame and fortune? Join us through this remarkable story of how a small 16 year old with barely even a friend to her name, ended up with over a million fans across the globe."
4. Fade to a scene in the hall - over the shoulder shot of Gemma walking onto the stage in front of three judges. (This is her first singing audition on a singing talent competition). 
5. Shot Reverse Shot then takes place here as we see the judges giving feedback on Gemma's audition. 
6. Voice-over then cuts in - "From this moment, Drew was destined for fame, and immediately began to make her mark on the pop world. Her debut single, 'Fifteen' became a huge success, raking in at number 1 on the charts. The music video excellently highlighted the ups and downs of being a teenage girl in Secondary School." - Clip from previously filmed Fifteen music video. 
7. Cuts to a shot of the Chauncy School sign, and then to Drew and an interviewer, (Gemma and Meg), standing by the school steps. 
8. Interviewer - 'So Drew, how long has it been since you were last here'? 
9. Drew - 'I remember walking up these steps in my very first music video when I was 16 years old. As I'd been a student here for 5 years, I was given permission to film on the grounds and inside the school.'
10. Interviewer - 'Why don't you give us a tour of the place'? 
11. Drew - 'Yeah, sure'.   
12. Cuts to a shot of Drew and the interviewer walking up the steps and through the entrance doors.
13. Several clips of Drew showing the interviewer some of the places that were filmed. 
14. Interviewer - 'I know you speak fondly of this place now, but you weren't always happy here were you?'
15. Drew - 'No, I wasn't. The problem was really only because of my height. It seemed like such a trivial thing, but some of my class mates just couldn't seem to get over it'.   
16. Interviewer - 'Did you get these kind of comments on a regular basis then?'
17. Drew - 'Unfortunately yes. Even when I was in my last year here, I still remember people laughing and pointing at how short I was. Even people who were my height! But you learn to get over these things and except it.'
18. Interviewer - 'It is quite clear that your height has always made you stand out from the crowd. In fact, most of your fans would probably say that your height is the most iconic thing about your celebrity status.'
19. Drew - 'I don't know about that, but I'm so glad that I don't have to face such unpleasant comments anymore. My friends always hated how I was picked on, and it often caused conflict with the other students.'

A2 Production - Animatic

As part of the planning and research stage of my group's production, we designed a storyboard that visually represented each section of our documentary. We then took individual photographs of each drawing and made them into an Animatic in Premiere. 

Keeping with the country singer theme, we used a song by Taylor Swift to play over the shots. 

'You Belong With Me' is a good choice of music for our Animatic as it reflects the soft and tranquil music taste of our fictional singer. 

Our A2 Idea

This is our A2 Production Pitch; we have decided to do a short documentary that focuses on how a fictional pop singer rose to fame from an ordinary upbringing. During our pitch we received some positive feedback, as people thought that production seemed like a realistic venture. However, people raised concern when we mentioned that were going to use green screen, as they were unsure as to how we were going to authentically create a concert scene. 

Our advice was: 

• Film some shots in the hall, as the presence of a large space and a stage would make it look more like a music concert. 
• Maybe use the drama studio for the green screen shots - again, the drama studio has a large space and would be suitable for a performer.