Day 1 of filming 29/10/14

For our first day of filming inside Syd and Mallory, we decided that all we would film today was the interview with on of the owners Lucy. This is because we did not want to disturb the shop for too long as she was the only person downstairs to watch the till and customers, so she also didn't want to be kept for too long. After arriving she advised we film in the back room as upstairs both rooms are too small and full of too many things for us to film an interview in there, which we agreed with after already seeing both the rooms upstairs. We gave ourselves around 20 minutes to set up, Emily was sorting our the sound equipment and doing sound checks while I was setting up the camera and working with Hannah to figure out which position would be best to film Lucy in and where to have her stand. After this she came into the room and I framed her to the what I thought looked the best while she was doing a sound check. I think that the interview went well in some ways, mainly because she gave us some new information that will be really good for the documentary and that we would have never found out without conducting this interview. For example she told us that they found out about the plans via social media, the landlords of the property warned them about it or sent them anything to let them know these plans could be a possibility in the future. The only thing about the interview that I think could have gone better is that she rarely kept eye contact with Hannah, who was standing next to the camera asking the questions, so her eye line goes all over the place, mainly on the floor a lot of the time. We know this is because she was quite nervous, so from this we have learned that from now on when filming interviews it would be best if the director or producer would run through the questions with the subject while sound and camera are setting up, so the subject has a slight idea of what we will be asking them, and then do a few warm up questions with the subject in front of camera so that he/she can get more comfortable with being in front of the camera. Apart from the problem with the eye line I think that we got some really good footage for the main documentary, and she speaks really passionately about the store which will definitely help the mood of the final film.

                                                     (a still from the interview set up)

Production Meeting 28/10/14

Before filming tomorrow my group arranged a meeting for us to discuss the plan for tomorrow, book out the equipment needed and to think of some interview questions. Firstly we wrote down around 10 questions we thought would be suitable and generate the sort of information we need for both the poetic and main documentary. Some of these were:

• In 5 words describe the store
• Can you describe your favourite memory of this store?
• Why do you think independent businesses are important to Sheffield?
• What were your reasons for opening the store in Sheffield?

We decided that we will be filming on a Nikon DSLR camera as it's Hannah's and I have used this camera many times before so felt more comfortable with this. We were also unsure on whether we would need to bring lights for the interview, so after a bit of discussion we decided that since the store is so small that the dedo lights would be the best option in case we need to set up lights for the interview. We also decided that we weren't going to keep Lucy away from being able to work for too long since we're going around dinner time and there will still be a chance of customers coming in the shop to look around. Because of this we've decided to just film the interview tomorrow, and then take the zoom and get some vox pops of the publics opinion on the subject if they know anything about it. If they don't we still think we could get something from the public by asking what they think of the city, and use this sound clips for the poetic documentary. 

Syd and Mallory Location Recce

In preparation for our first filming session with the owners of Syd and Mallory next Wednesday, myself and Hannah visited to store to take some photos around the inside to get an idea of what sort of thing we want to film. This was also useful as we now know the size of the rooms around the shop and since they are quite small rooms we have to think of the best way to film around this issue, especially the interview set up. I find this store really interesting, I love all the little trinkets they have around each of the rooms, I think this really gives the store character. This is really good for our film as we have a lot of opportunity to film shots for cutaways with the sound from the interviews over the top. I like that we will be capturing what is unique about this store and what is very different to the branded stores e.g. H&M and New Look etc. During this visit we were also able to confirm a filming time for next Wednesday, which will be from 1pm - 3pm roughly. We also asked on of the owners about any regular customers that would be willing to come forward and discuss the topic from their point of view. She agreed that we could create a post on their facebook wall and twitter asking if anyone who feels strongly about the situation would like to be interviewed for this student documentary.

 

 

Pitch



This week we had to present our main documentary idea, while touching on the 2 minute poetic documentary so that Debbie would have a clear idea of the angle we want to take with it. At the moment we are working with the title 'Made in Sheffield' but this could change if one of us comes up with a better name. We also had to come up with a back-up idea in case we have any difficulties with the main one and it could no longer be filmed, which we called '2 minutes of your time?'. I feel like we described our idea as best as we could and screen grabbed some comments left on articles from angry citizens who object against the action to demolish the independent stores on division street. We also found an online petition that we showed to the class to show that this topic is important to a lot of people and that action is being taken to ensure this makes a difference to the council. We also made it clear that we are developing a working relationship with the owners of Syd and Mallory, and have them completely on board with what we are doing and are willing to be filmed for interviews. I think that our pitch for the main idea did go well and Debbie and the rest of the class understood our intentions on the sound and story side of the film, however we didn't do so well with trying to convey our intentions of what we want the film to look like visually, which we need to be clear on very soon. We also struggled with making our poetic documentary idea clear as we hadn't yet fully understood or discussed what is was we had to achieve in terms of the poetic piece of film, so I agreed with Debbie that we really need to start planning it out and think of a clear angle to take with it. After a chat with Debbie at the end of the lesson it did become a lot more clearer about what we need to think about when it comes to the poetic documentary, and we have a clearer vision of what it could look like visually as well as what we want it to sound like.

 

 

For our back up idea we decided to do a 'day in the life of' documentary about a group of genuine door to door charity workers as we see the struggles they face with going through the constant rejection of having doors being shut in their face, people ignoring them on the streets and the public generally having a annoyed opinion of them. For contributors I know someone who owns a company that has charity workers work out on the streets in Sheffield and go door to door and would be willing to let us see about filming a few of these people if we ended up needing to go with this idea. We want to show these people in a positive light, and show that they are people who's feeling can potentially be hurt everyday without the public realising, and we want to learn a bit more about this area of work.  

Documentary Inspiration

Our main inspiration for this film is the documentary 'Sound it Out' (Dir. Jeanie Finlay, 2011) about the last record store in Teesside. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47cF_7U0dos 

We like how down to earth this documentary is and want to have a similar feel with ours, even with the stressful situation of having plans to knock down their store they're still enjoying what they do and are trying their best to get everyone involved in the objection of this. Like in 'Sound it Out' we want to be able to film the owners as they work, maybe even film them making the clothes since we found out they do this with the sewing machine they have in one of the rooms upstairs. What I also like about 'Sound it Out' in particular is the diverse range of customers this record store has. With 'Syd and Mallory' being a vintage clothes shop a lot of their regular customer, or even first time customers could be quite quirky and different, and it would be good for us to be able to film them and get their opinion on the subject. I think this will give our film a lot of character and show the importance of the independent stores to it's customers.  

Poetic Documentary Inspiration

Although my group does not have a clear vision of what we want our 2 minute poetic documentary piece to look like visually, we have been thinking of some creative and rhythmic ways we could make the documentary sound. We all agree that we want no soundtrack on the 2 minute piece, and Hannah came up with the idea of just using the repetition of people's voices. To achieve this we will have to either contact regular customers of the shop and collect some sounds of them discussing why the demolition of division street independent businesses would be disappointing to them and say what it is about these shops that they enjoy. Our inspiration for this is from the poetic documentary 'Blight' (Dir. John Smith, 1996) as he uses the communities voices, in a broken up and juxtaposing way while also creating a rhythm, as they talk about a memory they have of living in a street during it's demolition to make way for the M11 motorway. 

We don't want to break up the contributors comments as much as they are in 'Blight' but we are wanting to repeat certain words a few times that really stand out to us. We want to do something a little similar to this film with the images in the way that we will show some demolition sights that are going on around the city with just a few shots, as we mainly would like to focus on the beauty of the store 'Syd and Mallory'.

Pre-interview questions for pitch

For our pitch on Thursday, we have decided that it would be a good idea to get some quotes from the owners of 'Syd and Mallory' to include into our pitch. This is going to show that we have already contacted our contributor and they are willing to be involved, and also show that we have talked with them and made sure that we have enough information on their thoughts and feelings prior to the pitch. Here is the list of questions that we are going to email to them today and hopefully get a response before the pitch on Thursday:

1. Can you tell us a bit about the store and why you think Sheffield is a great location for it?

2. What are your views on independent stores and what do you feel that they bring to a city like Sheffield?

3. We’ve read the news recently about redevelopment plans to demolish the row of independent businesses along Division Street, in order to create bars and restaurants and apartments. Can you tell us a bit about your perspective on this please?

4. Why do you think that these plans have been proposed?

5. If our film could be shown to the people behind the plans, what would be the key message that you would want it to highlight, and is there any specific visual content that you feel would be beneficial for them to see?

5. We want our documentary to be focused on celebrating what independent businesses like yours mean to the local community and the negative change and effects that will be brought about if the redevelopment plans get the go ahead. Do you know any regular customers that may be willing to be involved with the film?

6 .Do you have any upcoming events that we may be able to film at, to form part of our documentary?

Documentary Idea - Independent Shops

For this module I am working in a group of four which includes Hannah Grencis as director/producer, Heather Hall as editor, Emily Spokes as sound designer and myself as cinematographer. The first thing we decided to do was to have a look online for any inspiration around Sheffield that would be interesting enough to create a documentary from. I looked around news websites such as the 'BBC News Sheffield and South Yorkshire' website and then on an even more local news website 'Sheffield- The Star'. It was on this website that Hannah found an article about how the drummer from The Arctic Monkeys was backing up a fight to save some of the independent shops around Sheffield, in particular Division Street, that have been told there are plans to knock these buildings down to make room for building new apartments. 
http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/arctic-monkeys-drummer-backs-fight-to-save-sheffield-shops-1-6892207 
We could tell that this would be a strong subject to make into a documentary as there were many comments from people who have gone to these shops for years, who were strongly objecting to this happening. As myself and Hannah live quite close to Division Street we have walked past these independent shops many times and have even gone into one of them a few times. We noticed that alot of people we mentioning one of the independent book shops on that street called 'Rare n Racy' and how it is a 'rare oasis of independence in the mostly soulless city centre'. Because of these comments we decided we could see if Rare n Racy would be willing to let us focus the documentary on there shop. However after going in to see if they would be fine with this, they objected as the owner felt really strongly about the topic and didn't want to say something on camera that he shouldn't. Luckily the shop next door called 'Syd and Mallory' which specialises in vintage clothing were more than happy to be involved in the film and like the sound of what we are trying to achieve, which is to look at the positives of these independent stores before they get closed down and show people why they are important to have in a city. 

Poetic Documentary

A poetic documentary is a type of documentary filmmaking that includes the use of some of these techniques and styles:

• Rhythm
• Aesthetics
• Personally stylised 
• Abstract 
• Symbolic/metaphoric
• Emotion
• Non linear narrative (playful)
• Lyrical
• Unity of form
• Memory

An example of a poetic documentary is Blight - John Smith 1994

With the use of the juxtaposition of sounds and images, and breaking up the interviews to then echo the house being turn down, it creates a really rhythmic feel to the documentary, especially with the repetition of certain words and phrases.