CPDR progress evaluation

I feel I’ve made great progress with filmmaking throughout the module. The sound piece and films I have made in the module taught me a lot about the technical and creative side narrative and documentary filmmaking.

The first sound piece taught me a lot about creating a space through sound. I hadn’t had much experience with sound design, so this taught me a great deal. For example, using different microphones for different recordings, and layering sounds.

Then turning this into a film proved a challenge connecting the visual side. It was difficult building a narrative from what had been quite an abstract sound piece. We ended up making quite a minimalist film ‘Down’. Making the film allowed me to experiment creatively with how to visualise the sound. We blended multiple loud uncomfortable sounds from public spaces, then contrasted these with the quiet of the lift. We visualised the loud busy urban environment by using fast cutting, handheld camerawork, lens whacking and shooting through glass/reflections to create an anxious and rushed aesthetic, characterising our protagonist who appeared lost in her environment. In contrast, we used longer takes, steadier camerawork and fades in the lift to convey more stability.

Making the documentary was especially challenging. Finding a topic for a documentary was the hardest part, but we soon came up with multiple ideas. We were especially lucky when we decided to make a documentary about Thrifty store, as we did not know about the building it was situated in and their plans to grow into it. The store owner, Bally, was a good character and was happy talking and appearing on camera. We decided to use two different styles of documentary filmmaking to tackle both the shop and the abandoned areas of the building. In the shop, we conducted quite formal sat down interviews, talked to workers and filmed quite candidly. In the rest of the building however, we used a shoulder cam and camera light to film Bally walking around the building, talking to the camera about his plans for the area. This we cut with static cutaways of different details and communicating the size of the place. Shooting the documentary was a new experience for me. It taught me a lot about how to conduct interviews, asking open questions and researching the background of the place to tell its story. I also learnt a lot from tackling different challenges such as filming long interview tours around a large snaking building.

 The drama taught me a lot about working with scripts and actors. Writing the script was hard, especially the argument dialogue, which was difficult to make realistic.

Shooting the film also taught me a lot about organising shoots with actors and difficult locations. At first, shooting on a moor seemed too difficult a task to realise. Transporting Actors and equipment and keeping them fed and dry could be too difficult on no budget. However, we picked a perfect location near a pub and bus route, and watched the weather forecast for the best day to shoot.