Sunday, 12 February 2012

Week 3 - 07/02/2012

Class

We watched two short clips on YouTube which were all the ‘making of’ videos for two adverts.



I love the actual advert and the making of was great as well – although a little short I think.

It was good to see how the advert had been put together, with preparation starting a few weeks before the actual shoot day. When I first saw the ad I seemed to think that random people at the station just started dancing together but after watching the making of I can see how much work went into trying to make everything look polished.
Dancers had to be auditioned and even rehearsals took place. The actual advert clearly shows that all the hard work paid off as it’s absolutely amazing.

Like typical documentaries – members of the general public were interviewed when they exited the station and it good to see and hear their reaction towards what had just happened.
On the technical side – I think the interviews were well shot in regards to the situation. There was a lot of variety in terms of where the subjects were placed and the lighting and sound was really despite being hot outside.

Overall I liked the making of as it told me the background story of the advert but I felt it was a bit rushed (although this isn’t a bad thing). However I also felt that the fast pace of the ‘making of’ reflected that of the actual advert which I suppose is a good thing.



When I first saw the advert for this on tv I thought it was all fake (done with CGI) but after watching the ‘making of’ I was amazed to learn that it had all in fact been done for real and by hand. So people actually took parts of a car and spent months trying to get them to knock into each other the right or drop the right way to create the fantastic chain reaction which the advert shows.

I think the making of was very good because it showed when things went wrong and what people did to try and overcome it. Interviews were very brief but gave us a lot of information. You didn’t hear the filmmakers asking questions but rather, the interviewees included the subjects of the questions in their answers. (This is a really good way to cut down on interview times). The music set the mood, it was upbeat and kept viewers excited. The positions of the interviewees were alternated – which is also very good.

Again, I think this was another great making of as it gave us a lot of information and it was fun and easy to watch. It was short and to the point which is another reason why I enjoyed it.

Class Practical

There was also a practical exercise where we had the choice of filming an establishing shot, an interview and then a closing shot (all shots had to link together somehow) or three short interviews with different people (also had to link together).
Our group decided to go for the first choice mainly because it seemed like the easier option. We had little time to film and it seemed like it would be easier to find one interviewee rather than three.

When we got outside we all didn’t really have any ideas about what to film and ended up dawdling a bit. But then we saw our class mate Joe Langlois walking around the corner and literally forced him to become our interviewee. We made the subject the essentials shop and how different it’s prices are from normal off licenses as its supposed to be a UNI store.

The setups were really simple with the establishing shot being and pan of Joe walking into the essentials shop and the interview being shot right outside the store.

I guess this exercise was trying to teach us how important it is for all clips/footage in documentary to link together in some way in order for it to make sense?
I’m not really sure to be honest but that’s what I got from it.  I mean how weird would it be to be watching a documentary about African wildlife and then you see a cutaway of people swimming. Random I know, but it wouldn’t make any sense at all.

Documentary of the week

The documentary I watched this week was ‘Beats, Rhymes and Life: The travels of a Tribe called Quest’ – which has now become one of my favourite Hip Hop groups of all time. I’m someone who prefers the music of generations before me rather than the rubbish that comes out these days (Wouldn’t even class some of them as music). So when I heard from my classmate that there was a documentary about them I just had to and watch it.

‘Beats, Rhymes and Life: The travels of a Tribe called Quest’ by Michael Rapaport


Rotten Tomatoes : “A documentary film directed by Michael Rapaport about one of the most influential and groundbreaking musical groups in hip-hop history. Having released five gold and platinum selling albums within eight years, A Tribe Called Quest has been one of the most commercially successful and artistically significant musical groups in recent history, and regarded as iconic pioneers of hip hop. The band's sudden break-up in 1998 shocked the industry and saddened the scores of fans, whose appetite for the group's innovative musical stylings never seems to diminish. A hard-core fan himself, Rapaport sets out on tour with A Tribe Called Quest in 2008, when they reunited to perform sold-out concerts across the country, almost ten years after the release of their last album, The Love Movement. -- (C) Sony Classics”

The documentary started off being about the group’s music, but then it moved on to the personal problems (juicy bits) within the group which lead to its breakup.

I would say I liked most of the documentary rather than all of it. The opening sequence is absolutely amazing. It’s all animated with members of the group included and it just looks really fun (only word that fit) to watch. I think using this method was a brilliant move because it kind of diverted away from the typical conventions of documentary filmmaking but it worked perfectly. It fits in with the subject matter ‘A tribe called Quest’ because they are artists and therefore need to be presented in an ‘arty’ way.

The documentary gives a thorough history lesson about how the group came together and what each person brought to the group – very informative.
It has archive footage of the group’s previous concerts from the 90’s and also clips of their first few music videos. It covers every inch of the group’s lives as a whole but manages to also focus on each member and their personal conflicts from each of their perspectives – It is COMPLETELY unbiased.

The interview set ups were very casual but professional at the same time. Interviews were filmed in their homes, at the park; sometimes even on a street corner but the lighting and sound was always perfect (I really don’t understand how they did it).

The only bits I didn’t like were the handheld camera movements during the group’s tour. It was really shaky at times and made a little bit dizzy – but this was the only downside.

Overall I think it’s an amazing documentary but I doubt you will enjoy it if you’re not a Hip/Hop fan. If you are one however, prepare to be blown away as it will leave laughing and crying at the same time.

Other

This week I researched Public Service Broadcasting .(PSB) What I found out (this could be wrong) is that it refers to TV programmes that are broadcasted for the public’s benefit rather than commercial purposes. I didn’t understand how this could be possible because I always thought companies (don’t know if that’s what it is) like the BBC made money depending on the amount of viewers that tuned in to each program but apparently it’s not so. PSBs can be viewed freely almost anywhere nationwide Wikipedia says.

I went on the ofcom site and it sort of made things clearer by saying that those programmes were things like local news, arts programs and religious broadcasts. Also TV and even radio broadcasters, have to include a certain number of PSBs as a part of their licence to broadcast.

I still don’t fully understand PSB but I guess that’s something I’ll have to research more about myself.


Production Meeting

This week I met up with my partner for the ‘Making of’ assignment Luke. We didn’t do much work in terms of the assignment. It was just a meeting for us to get together and get to know each other a bit more. Discussed the kind of films we like and also the kind of documentaries we like.

Thoughts of the week




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