This section of my blog will be used to document any research gathered during this module, as well as housing all pre-production, initial ideas and the evaluation of the finished piece.
Week one
In our first session we covered a brief history of documentary, looking what documentary stands for and represents, as well as looking at some of the early and defining examples of the genre.
We also split in to small groups, each group was then given a quote, we then picked apart the quotes and discussed them in our groups, presenting to each other what we thought.
Our quote was -
'Every cut is a lie but you lie to tell the truth?'
From this i wrote - Film can be moulded to suggest and focus on realities which act out differently in real life as opposed to what viewers see on screen.
The selection of shots is completely suggestive and can be as manipulative as the editor see's fit.
The statement, whilst being obviously metaphorical i still disagree with, cutting and editing is an altercation of time and whilst it may disrupt the 'truth' of what is happening on screen, i dont believe this means the film maker is lying.
Here are some other bits and pieces we covered in the session -
What are Documentaries for?
They present facts and the truth.
They answer a question.
They interrogate and/or reflect on a subject.
They create a portrait of a subject.
They campaign on an issue.
What are Documentaries concerned with?
Truth, objectivity and reality
Definitions of documentary -
The creative interpretation of actuality - John Grierson
The art of record - John Corner
Notions of truth
The camera never lies.
Every cut is a lie but you lie to tell the truth.
Fly on the wall.
Documentary - The creative treatment of actuality.
Historical phases of documentary -
Pre 1990 'actualities'.
Flaherty (defined as Documentary)
Vertov - Kino Pravda
British Documentary movement
Cinema Verite/ Direct Cinema
Skull and Bones
Documentary Treatment
Working Title – Skull and Bones Boys Club
Length – Roughly ten minutes
Short synopsis –
The film is going to be a short documentary focusing on Sheffield local brand Skull and band bones club, well known for their clothing label and association with bands and putting on gigs in the hard core scene.
Mid-Length synopsis/outline –
The core subject matter of our piece is going to cover several areas, ranging from the history of the brand, including how it started out, what they actually do and what they wish to achieve, the design and printing process, some personal info and insight in to the guys that run the brand and the association the brand has with music.
The key contributors are the two owners of the company, Ant and Dean and the company intern, Jack.
There will also be footage from several bands used filmed at one of the skull and bones gigs.
What we believe makes them interesting is that they are a local brand that started out printing t-shirts in their basement, they became so successful they moved the operation in to a full size studio and started utilizing various pieces of equipment and different techniques to creating clothing designs.
The brand is now known worldwide and sponsors various bands, even being stocked in Chain stores such as Ark.
The brand is known for being charismatic and full of opinions and has quite a cult, anti-mainstream following.
Analysis of Approach –
We are going to shoot the film using DSLR, to obtain the maximum of visual quality available to us.
Shots them selves are going to vary, relying heavily on close ups of the interesting details in the studios as well as panning and moving shots, making use of a dolly and track, we are going to take advantage of the space of the studio and the pieces of equipment and racks of clothing dotted about.
The mood for the piece is going to be quite dark and edgy, the brand is known for causing a statement in its design and strong association with heavy metal and hard-core music, genre’s which tend to be quite dark.
We want to focus on this side of the brand and bring it to the for front of our shooting and editing style.
Research
Here are some examples of documentaries we found and looked at for research for our piece.
New Balance 'made in the UK'
New Balance 'Made in the USA'
I originally found interest in watching this pair of documentaries due to the similar subject nature to our idea, they shown the creative process of a clothing and footwear brand in its local area.
I enjoyed the composition of both pieces as they comprise of artistic shots, with changes in speed and an artistic cutting style.
One Hundred Days
One Hundred Days - Trailer from GETDELUXE Films on Vimeo.
This documentary followed the band 'The Architects' as they embarked on a three month long, world tour.
The piece is incredibly well put together, comprised of beautiful shots from locations all around the world,a voice over from members of the band and footage from the shows them selves.
I like the timing of the piece as the music begins calmly, becoming more aggressive as the pacing of the film picks up.
Stone Island Marina
This doc shows brand 'Stone Island' exploring glow in the dark techniques with in clothing.
I chose this short video purely for its visual style, its simple and shows off the garments in an effective and efficient way, i look at replicating this for when we film at the studio and observe the clothing in our piece.
Poetic Piece
Our two minute poetic piece.
For this piece we had to use footage gathered so far and create a two minute long, non-sync documentary, that would inform viewers of what our later, longer duration piece will be about.
We decided to focus on visuals of the studio for this piece, with a small amount of voice over from the creator's of the brand.
We increased the speed of many shots to fit in the time constraints and to create a visually pleasing and unnatural feel to the footage, expressing the hustle and bustle of the studio atmosphere.
Aaron created the sound using a sampler, using it to produce a loop.
Evaluation
The Concept behind this piece was to create an informative and interesting piece of documentary filmmaking about local clothing company ‘Skull and Bones Boys Club.
The brand is based and was created in Sheffield, starting from humble beginnings with t-shirt printing in the creators basement, to printing seasonal ranges incorporating t-shirts, vests, hats, jackets, jumpers etc. even custom lighters now in there own city based studio.
All design and printing is done by hand in the studio and features original art work, inspired by Metal and Hiphop music, as well as ancient runes, tattoo culture and anti-religious symbolism.
We intended to create a piece that would not only cover the brand as a company, but also describe the design and creative process, reveal the personality behind the brand and the culture it represents , explain the history of the brand and tell the story of a successful, self-made, local business.
Our plan for this was to create a highly stylized documentary, as informative as it is entertaining, combining the brands roots in a musical background and cutting edge design and transferring it to our shooting and cutting style, in hope of crafting a film on the dark and edgier side of documentary.
The key audience for the piece is quite varied, there are many elements of the piece that could appeal to different crowds, some of these would include artists and designers, fashion enthusiasts, entrepreneurs and those aspiring to starting their own business, as well fans of metal/tattoo culture and generally viewers looking for a quirky, short documentary.
I believe the target age group for the piece would be around 14 – 30, I would base this opinion on the brand itself, its very youthful and composed of quite fresh ideas., the art style and music scene the brand associates with tend to be composed of teens through to mid-twenties.
We hope viewers will respond to the documentary positively if they had heard of the brand previously or not, not only is the documentary stylish and informative, it is also inspiring, it tells the story of a company that started from scratch in their basement and have worked hard to gain recognition and get to where they are now.
In societies current climate its becoming more and more difficult for todays youth to become successful, especially when choosing to live an alternative life style as of such supported by the brand, we hope the documentary could help younger viewers to push their creativity that much further, dream a little bigger and try and make it in the industry, provoking them to try first hand at being self-efficient.
I am incredibly happy with the outcome of the finished piece, for me it encapsulates the soul and character of the brand perfectly, explaining the history, design and manufacturing process, as well as touching on the musical background and what inspired a selection the logos and designs.
I feel the pacing of the piece works well; the viewer never really loses interest as the piece bounces back and fourth between interview footage and shots from the studio and gig.
The sound track also fluctuates to compensate for what is happening on screen, enhancing the ambiance of the piece.
The biggest problem we experienced during production was most definitely not shooting enough footage, we found it difficult in places not to use shots that recycled the same areas, or that had too much dead space.
We also had to leave out an entire section of interview due to a problem with the sound recording that we couldn’t selvedge.
We do intend to continue with this documentary how ever, adding to this hand in and creating a full-length piece for the brand over the next few months, incorporating the launch of the summer range, several gigs and the opening of a pop shop selling purely Skull and Bones Boys Club.
I feel we all worked incredibly well as a team during this project, we connected well and shared a familiar vision for what we intended to create.
Everyone pitched in and we all shared roles, switching or swapping when one member of the team may be unable to attend or when one of just fancied a change from the current role.
This worked in our favour as opposed to having pre-set roles, as on quite a few occasions one or more members of our team were absent.
One major problem we had was with James, due to some on going problems at home he didn’t contribute to the project significantly, turning up to only around twenty per cent of our scheduled meetings.
The only other weaknesses in teamwork were beyond our own control; due to illness etc. however, we managed to obtain an extension, which helped us massively in finishing shooting for the piece.
For the most part of the project I took on the role of director/producer, this was simply down to the fact I already had the idea of shooting this documentary before we started the module and i knew the contributors quite well, so I was in charge of communicating with them.
At times the latter could be difficult, both contributors were full time students in their final year, as well running the company, one of the contributors was also touring with a band which made it even more important we managed our time strategically and made the most of the time we could get with them.
I also served the role of cinematographer on several occasions, primarily at the gig and a few shots at the studio, as well as being present during every session of editing.
Aaron took on the lead role of soundman and did a fantastic job, not only recording on location, providing us with crisp sounds to use from the interview sand gig.
He also used a midi keyboard and sampler to create original music for the piece, sampling recordings from the gig to create tracks as well as remixing music from one of the contributor’s bands.
Tom was lead cinematographer and editor, he captured some incredible shots that look great in the finished film, whilst we were editing together he carved a clear path through out, capturing the essence of the brand and what we wanted to portray, a dynamic piece full of interesting shots and cuts.
From this project I would say I have learnt how crucial time management is and the importance of having reliable contributors.
Our subjects were often busy and it was always down to them if we managed to get anything done or not, this was aggravating at times as they would cancel last minute, some times not even turning up to meetings we arranged.
From a technical point of view I learnt how to wield a a camera free hand with greater results, this came from darting around the stage at the gig and in-between moshers, much of which required unorthodox stances and improvised techniques of staying on my feet.
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