Updated Production Schedule

After looking at how much progress we had made with our documentary, I decided to re-evaluate our Production Schedule as I wasn't entirely sure that we had stuck to its structure over the past few weeks.

Below is our first Production Schedule. As well as the First Cut deadline being incorrectly marked, (it was actually Tuesday 22nd October), we had actually done filming during lesson time as well as weekends.

In order to use our time efficiently up to the Final Cut deadline, we decided to draw up another production schedule, that included the plans for the remaining footage and also Post-Production guidelines. Below is our new and improved Production Schedule that will be used as of Half Term: 

We intend to get the rest of the filming done by the end of Half Term, so that next Term, we can focus on the Post-Production stage, knowing that we have all the footage that we need. 

Documentary Research & In-depth Analysis

A lot of the shots in our documentary have been designed to fit in with the documentary genre. We wanted to include interviews with a whole range of people, such as Drew's best friend, Drew's Manager, an audition judge, and Drew herself. We wanted to the editing to be slick and coherent in order for the audience to feel a progression of Drew's character.

When my group and I started to seriously think about the title and style of our documentary, we decided to look at current documentaries in order to develop an understanding of their conventions and editing style. After researching into several music documentaries, such as Katy Perry's 'Part of Me' and Justin Bieber's 'Never Say Never', we concluded that Taylor Swift's, 'Journey to Fearless' would be an appropriate source of inspiration. This was not only because our actress for Drew is a huge fan of Taylor Swift's music, but because we thought the country singer style would suit Drew's character. This then led us on to designing our project's title, 'my short rise to fame', which we came up with as we wanted our video to tell the story of how Drew Taylor rose to fame. 

After watching Taylor Swift's 'Journey To Fearless', my group and I highlighted key documentary conventions that we wanted to adhere to in our own production. Similarly to the opening of Taylor Swift's documentary, we wanted to create an exposition at the start of Drew Taylor's 'Short Rise to Fame' in order to create a first impression and to introduce the audience to the documentary's subject manner. As our documentary is based on a ficticious pop singer, we have only managed to accumulate one piece of achival footage of Drew Taylor as a young girl, as well as forging a shot of Drew Taylor playing at a concert (we filmed Gemma playing her guitar on the stage in the school hall).

In-depth Analysis of Taylor Swift's 'Journey To Fearless' Documentary

Taylor Swift's, 'Journey To Fearless' is a fast paced documentary that explains how she managed to secure a record deal and become so famous. It starts with a silhouette of Taylor holding her guitar, before fading to a shot of people cheering her name at a concert. Instantly, we, as the audience develop the impression that she is globally successful and immensely popular with fans of all ages. In true American style, the cheesy voice-over kicks in with, 'welcome to Taylor Swift's Journey to Fearless', and from there, the footage of adult Taylor singing at her concerts is contrasted with old home videos of young Taylor playing on her keyboard and singing nursery rhymes. The audience is immediately informed of how much music meant to her, with the concert footage portraying how determined she was to achieve her dreams.

Throughout the documentary, the editing is quick, engaging and effective in developing a sense of musical progression. Often the use of input from interviews acts as a voice-over whilst relevant images and footage play over the top, such as the shots in the High School when Taylor is speaking about her musical inspiration from her own experience of High School. The audience is constantly engaged using interviews, concert clips, and music video clips. There is a real sense of audience inclusion with Taylor, as she frequently references how she wanted her tour to be something that her fans could truly enjoy and get the most out of. 

We wanted to create a similar character to Taylor Swift, who had been on a similar musical journey to fame. Our fictional character, Drew Taylor, has come from humble beginnings, where she was bullied at school, to winning a Talent Show, and now she is becoming one of the most influential singers in the world. We wanted to portray this journey to our audience using the same narrative structure as the Taylor Swift's 'Journey to Fearless', using the typical documentary conventions, such as interviews, old pictures/videos, music video clips and voice-over. Similarly to other documentaries, we wanted to have a mixture of media content in our video, which meant that we interchanged between music videos, interviews and pictures with overlaying voice-over in order to keep our audience engaged and interested in the subject matter.

Character Update

After the introductory section, we decided that we needed to have some interviews from people connected to Drew Taylor. We scripted and filmed three interviews with Drew's best friend, (Lucy), the talent show judge, (Maya), and Drew's Music Manager, (Matt). These interviews will develop Drew's character, and portray how much she has achieved. 

Below are some screenshots of each character's interview being edited in Premiere: 

This is the interview with Drew's best friend. She explains how important music always was to Drew.

This is the interview with Drew's French Manager. He gives us an insight into how far Drew has come since the beginning of her journey to fame. 

This is he interview with one of the judges on Drew's first audition. She gives us her opinion on Drew's first on stage performance. 








In order for our actors to have a rough idea of what they saying, (they couldn't learn the script off by heart), I jotted down short scripts for each of them. The idea was that they could read over what I had written, and then improvise around it on camera. 

Below are some photographs of the scripts that we used: 

First Cut

After failing to export our documentary for the first cut deadline, I decided to edit the video again at home, and then export it ready for viewing in today's lesson. So far, the documentary is two minutes long, including voice-over, interview clips from Drew, photographs and the title shot. 

Below is our First Cut:

After we had shown our first cut to the class, we received some positive comments and also some constructive criticism. I photographed the feedback sheet that we were given: 

Target Audience

The target audience for our documentary would most likely be girls aged between 11 and 19. This is mainly because girls of this age would not only listen to an artist such as Drew Taylor, but also because they would aspire to be like her. 

Typically, their social class would range from categories B, C1, C2 and D on the demographic scale, as these cover most females within this age range. Audiences in the demographic categories, E and A would be less likely to watch a documentary of our genre, as the likelihood is that they wouldn't be in the appropriate age range. In regards to employment and ethnicity, I don't think I could specify, as our documentary aims to interest all fans of country music, and covers an area which is fairly universal in the celebrity world. 

Our lead actor, who plays Drew Taylor, is exactly the kind of person who would enjoy and appreciate our documentary, as she would also aspire to be like Drew. Below I have compiled a collection of what our target audience may be interested in: 

I chose these particular items because a lot of them reflect the character of Drew Taylor; the handbag, the 'love' jumper and the lipstick all reflect her feminine nature, whilst the American flag converse symbolise her inspiration from American country singer, Taylor Swift. I chose to include the Justin Bieber film poster because many girls in this age group like his music, and the film, 'Never Say Never' was used as part of our documentary research; the film focuses around his determination to succeed, and achieve his dreams, no matter what. The concept of our documentary is similar as it focuses on a teenage girl who also dreamed of becoming a singer, and achieved her dream through perseverance and determination. 

First Cut Trial

Today was our First Cut deadline. We were going to show our documentary to the class in order to receive feedback, but unfortunately, our video wouldn't export, meaning that we couldn't show it. As a group we decided to re-edit the production on my version of Premiere at home, and then export it ready for Thursday's lesson. 

We plan to do some more filming tomorrow of interviews to further convey Drew's fame and popularity amongst the public. 

Editing Progress

Over the weekend, I edited the first third of our documentary in my own version of Premiere. As there are four of us in the group, I thought it would be a good idea if we were each assigned a section of the video to edit, so that we made good progress, and weren't all editing the same part. 

Below is the introduction section of our documentary: 

Production Update 7

Today, Meg, Tom, Gemma and I met up to do some filming in Hertford. We planned to film some shots for Drew's third music video, 'Fearless', written by Taylor Swift. Unfortunately, we didn't manage to get any shots as it rained heavily for most of the day, meaning that Gemma would have got soaked. Here are some photographs of us taking shelter from the rain, and trying not to be too annoyed from the lack of filming progress:

Editing Plans Update

After exporting the first minute and a half of our documentary, I decided to start drawing up some more final editing plans for the rest of the video:

• 'From her first on stage audition in 2009, Drew has taken the music world by storm' - picture of Gemma at the Chauncy Oscar Night. 
• 'Her debut single, Fifteen, smashed its way to the top of the charts, and since then, she has been unstoppable' - clips from Fifteen, and a picture of Gemma smiling with her thumbs up.
• Interview with Gemma about why she wrote Fifteen. 
• 'Since Fifteen, Drew has continued to engage with her fans through heart felt songs about life, love and loss'. - pictures of CD covers. 
• Interview with Gemma about how she tries to write songs that people can relate to. 
• 'The songs, Wake Up With Me, and Fearless, were also incredible successful, with her fans nominating Fearless as her best written song'. - clips from Wake Up With Me and Fearless. 
• Interview with Shirley. 
• Interview with Gemma about who she was inspired by. 
• 'As well as the celebrity influence, Drew was also encouraged to pursue her musical career by her family and her favourite music teacher. We also managed to catch up with one of her best friends who went to secondary school with her.' 
• Interview with Lucy, with input from Tom and images of Gemma and Lucy together. 
• 'With her music career at an all-time high, Drew's next venture is just around the corner'. 
• Interview with Drew about her World Tour. 
• Poster of her World Tour. 
• Credits.   

Production Update 6

During today's lesson, my group and I managed to edit the first minute and a half of our documentary. Unfortunately, during the export, some of the shots clearly did not export properly, such as the shots of Gemma's interview. I intend to fix this problem when I export the documentary for the First Cut deadline. 

Below is the first minute and a half of our documentary: 

After the lesson, we filmed the interview with Drew's biggest fan, and the interview with Drew's best friend in the courtyard outside the Sixth Form Common Room. Over the weekend, we have planned another filming shoot for a third music video, to the song 'Fearless' by Taylor Swift. The theme of the music video is, rather obviously, about how Taylor Swift managed to overcome her fears when she fell in love with the right man. Taking this into consideration, we were thinking about having a shot of Drew looking at a picture of her lover, which then cuts to a tracking shot of her walking towards the camera down a street, pushing away everyone who tries to mug or hit her. This shot will continuously appear throughout the music video, with it cutting to shots of Drew and her lover dancing romantically with one another. 

Filming & Editing Plans

After showing my edit to the members of my group, we decided to start the editing process again from scratch during our next media lesson; we are going to record the voice-over, and then edit the shots around it in order to make the documentary clear and coherent.

We thought about what still needed to be added to the documentary:

• A voice-over.
• More music videos and corresponding voice-over. 
• More professional/studio photographs of Gemma. 
• Re-record the interviews.  

We also thought that the documentary could be used to promote Drew Taylor's World Tour. I designed a potential poster for the World Tour in Photoshop: 

A Different Edit

After another filming shoot during today's lesson, I decided to edit together all of the footage and audio that we had managed to capture so far. Unfortunately, blogger isn't able to upload my video, so I will have to try again another time. 

Filming Photos 2

After a two hour filming shoot at Gemma's house, we had captured all of the interviews with Drew Taylor, and the shot of her dancing around her room singing into a hairbrush. During filming, we were frequently interrupted by the sound of diggers which were being used just beyond Gemma's garden fence. 

Below are some photographs of us filming: 

Production Update 5

Today we are planning to do a filming shoot round Gemma's house. We intend to film an interview with her, and some shots of her dancing around her room pretending to be a singer.

New Beginning

After making a list of what needed to be incorporated in our documentary, I used the footage that we already had, downloaded a sound effect from the internet and edited together a possible first minute of our new timeline. Below is what I managed to piece together: 

Documentary Re-Think

After watching the first part of the Taylor Swift documentary again, I realised that we hadn't quite captured the essence of the documentary style. I spotted many features of Taylor Swift's documentary that we needed to incorporate in our own: 

• Not having a montage of old photos - having them appear randomly with a corresponding voice-over. 
• Maybe including archive footage of fans at a concert. 
• More interviews - but don't show an interviewer - and make a symbolic interview room. 
• Clips from music videos. 
• Photographs of Drew Taylor memorabilia. 

New Documentary Timeline

In order to make the documentary appear more professional, I have decided to make the voice-over a continuous part of the video, with it acting as an informational glue for the audience. Below is a new documentary timeline with a revised voice-over from Tom:

• Archive footage of people cheering at a concert. 
• Blurred shot of a young Drew dancing around her bedroom signing into a hairbrush. 
• Silhouette of Drew playing her guitar and shaking her head up and down.
• 'Welcome to Drew Taylor's remarkable rise to stardom.' 
• 'This is the incredible story of a young girl who dared to fight for her dreams'. 
• 'From as soon as she could lift a guitar, Drew was hooked on her music, and dreamed of a life on stage'. 
• 'Join us through this documentary as we witness how she became such a huge pop sensation, and discover what truly inspired her to be where she is today'. 
• Title shot: 'Drew Taylor: my short rise to fame'.  
• 'From her first on stage audition in 2009, Drew has taken the music world by storm'. 
• 'Her debut single, Fifteen, smashed all previous chart records, and since then, she has been unstoppable. But she wasn't always this comfortable being herself.' 
• Interview with mum and friends in interview room. They basically say how she used to be bullied for wanting to be a singer. 
• Interview with Drew in interview room on how unhappy the bullying used to make her. 
• Cut to a few shots of bullying in Fifteen. 
• Interview with Drew about how the bullying made her more determined to succeed. She also talks about how Fifteen was written to highlight the emotional struggles of secondary school.  
• 'Drew's music became very popular amongst teenagers as it guided them through many of their emotional struggles.' 
• Interview with Drew's fans in interview room. They speak about how Drew's music is easy to relate to. 
• Clips from other music videos, such as the one for the Gabrielle Aplin song. 
• Interview with Drew. She talks about how she will always try to write music that teenagers can relate to. 
• 'Drew's next big venture will be her world tour in 2014 where she will perform her favourite hits to thousands of excited fans'. 
• Interview with Drew about her world tour. She remarks how excited she is for it. 
• Fade to a poster of her world tour. 
• End.

Possible CD Covers

After identifying the best photographs from the photo shoot, I decided to edit some of them into possible CD covers in Photoshop, taking my inspiration from Taylor Swift albums:

 

Production Update 4

Yesterday my group and I decided to do a photo shoot with Gemma for potential CD covers. We took some photos in her house and then we travelled up to the forest area just outside of Fanham's Hall to take some shots of her in a natural setting. 

Below are some of the best photographs that we took: 

Open Evening Progress

During Open Evening my group and I continued with the editing process of our documentary, and drew up more filming plans according to the footage that we were still missing. We plan to do some more filming tomorrow as we have the morning off school. 

Below are some Premiere screen shots of our production in progress:

At the end of the Evening, I decided to export what we had edited, yet after watching it back, I have noticed a rendering problem; there is a clip where Gemma seems to disappear and a few of the shots do not run smoothly. As this is purely a production update, and not a first or final cut, I have decided to resolve this problem when we have to export our video for the first cut deadline. 

Production Update 3

During yesterday's double lesson, Tom and I continued with the editing of our documentary, whilst Meg and Lucy did a photo shoot with Gemma for a CD cover. We plan to make several CD covers which will be used during the early stages of the documentary, and will run over the top of Tom's voice-over about Drew. 

Below is a summary of what we still need to film and edit:

• More old photographs of Gemma for the montage. 
• Montage of images of Drew Taylor merchandise, such as CDs and posters.
• Clips from previously made music video, 'Fifteen', with corresponding voice-over from Tom. 
• Clips of more recent music videos - we will make a list of song ideas. 
• Poster for Drew Taylor's film, with signing off voice-over from Tom. (Remarking how her next venture is to release her own film).

Filming Photos

Here are some more photographs of us during the filming shoot in the school hall. We chose to film in the hall as it provided the best setting for an audition, as it had a stage and a large open space for good acoustics.