Evaluation of My Documentary

When planning and producing my Documentary, overall it went to plan and went really well. As I was doing a Documentary, I decided to include two interviews to get two differing opinions. I decided that it would be a good idea to include one interview from someone who is in authority, Tony Central Sussex College’s PCSO.
I also decided to interview someone who had used both substances, Jen a college student.

Scene one

Because I wanted to film a scene of my documentary inside Sainsbury’s, I had to get clearance from a manager that it was ok to do so. I wrote them a letter, explaining exactly what I would be filming, the time and date I wanted to do it, what the film would be used for and whether or not it would affect any of the customers. I also spoke with the manager of the shop; they allowed me to film there as long as I didn’t get in the way.

When filming scene one, I had to be really careful not to get in the way of customers, so I made sure I set my tripod and camera up at the end of the aisle out of the way. I filmed a series of close-up, medium and long shots of the alcohol all lined up on the shelf.

Scene two- Interview with Jen

Scene two is an interview with a college student Jen, filmed by Kerri Amos my assistant. She first filmed me asking the questions and then filmed Jen answering them so we didn’t have to keep pausing the camera and moving it. The shot is a high angled medium shot.

When filming scene two we did come up against some problems, when we started filming the interview and played the footage back, I noticed that there were lines through the footage. I had to go and get a new camera and re record it all.

Scene three- Interview with Tony PCSO

The interview with Tony a PCSO, went really well. Kerri Amos filmed for me because I was in the interview. It was filmed in the same way as scene two, firstly filming me asking the questions then Tony answering them.

Editing

When planning for the documentary, I thought I would be able to show the whole interview, but it turned out that the interviews were to long. As a result, I decided to pick out the most relevant questions and cut the rest.

I also had to scrap two other shots which were in my plan, because I thought that the interviews were more important. I was going to include a slide show of statistics and a shot of someone smoking what would appear to be a joint. I did film both of these but ended up just cutting them out.

I ended up also scrapping the voice of god over the top of the shots, because I didnt think there was much point when the interview makes everything very clear as I introduce the people im interviewing and the subject. I also have a title page which says Cannabis Vs Alcohol so it is quite self explantery.

Time management

I made sure that I managed my time so that I could get everything fitted in. First of all I, planned out what I was going to film, found people to interview, got clearance from Sainsbury’s, filmed and edited the footage.