Through my initial research I gained an interest
on the topics of child poverty, and youth unemployment. From here I realised
that youth unemployment was something that had more facets that I could try and
explore, along with being more relatable to my target audience as this topic is
specifically about the youth (16-24). I continued doing more specific research
on this topic, gaining as much information and facts so that I had an
understanding of it, which would mean that when I was creating my documentary I
would know what I am talking about and also know what messages I would want to
convey.
Next, I began gaining other information; this
was through doing questionnaires revolving around my topic. After this it
narrowed down the kind of questions I wanted to ask when actually filming my
documentary. I now began planning to make the documentary, this included
talking about various things including budget, timings, facilities, locations,
and health & safety. This step was crucial as it meant that when filming
would be far more planned and organised, therefore allowing me to gain the best
footage.
Once I was sure on my plan, I began the filming
process. I didn’t want my documentary to be too long and overly informative;
therefore I conducted three interviews (two students, and one adult [40+]).
Within these interviews similar questions were asked, however at times I
differed to different questions when felt appropriate. When filming I tried
different angles on each interview, so that when I begin editing it broke up
the documentary a bit, rather than having the exact same shot (but with
different people) throughout.
After I finished filming my interviews that
spread over two days, I uploaded my footage to begin the editing process. I
knew I wanted to keep it aesthetically simple, and have mainly interviews
telling my audience the information and opinions I have gathered. I ended up
using only two of my interviews (two students), as with the older adults
opinion on the topic, it didn’t really fit with the questions asked. As I
dropped one of the interviews, I felt like my documentary was a tad too short,
so this gave me the idea to use media from the Internet that related to my
topic. I added a couple news clips where youth unemployment was being spoken
about – it gave my documentary an even more informative feel which was
something I wanted. I also added a soundtrack in the background to create a
more of an interesting ambience when watching, rather than having the voices of
my interviewees.
When showing my documentary to other people, the
feedback that I gathered was that although it was short they understood the
message being sent. However, they felt like maybe that I could’ve filmed some
establishing shots (of shops, or people working for example) just to break it
up a little more, and make it more visually stimulating. I do agree with the
feedback given, I do believe that my initial intentions of wanting a clear
informative message about youth unemployment to be heard, was heard. However,
once I finished the whole documentary and watched it a few times I can
understand why there was a need for other footage to be within it, as it came
across as maybe too informative. However, due to its length I think that it isn’t
too bland – if it was 10 minutes of pure interviews then I think the message
would have been lost.
Overall, I am happy with my outcome as it conveyed
the problems of youth unemployment and other information. Along with that I
feel like it was kept to a quite professional standard, the filming isn’t shaky
or has bad framing for example. However, if I had more time to improve my
documentary I would have definitely taken on board my feedback that I now have
gathered, and filmed some more establishing shots to make my documentary more
aesthetically pleasing. However, with the time and facilities I was given, for
my first documentary I am pleased with the finished project.
No comments:
Post a Comment