An Alternate History Evaluation

Evaluation

The brief that we were given was to make a factual or commercial piece for either a client or a short documentary, I decided to make a documentary. My documentary about urban exploring where the name was changed from Derelict Dorset to An Alternate History went well stylistically in my opinion but I feel as if there is tons of room for improvement but with the process of making this documentary there were barriers in which I wasn’t able to fulfil.

Personal positives

• The title sequence for the documentary An Alternative History I thought worked well, for example the sound effects and the panning picture in the background which has been colour corrected a fair deal worked well I think that this gave a great introduction to the documentary as a whole.

• The camera work mostly went well in the filming of the documentary I shot in one location and then used test footage for this project in the rest of the film, I used a shoulder mount and a camera stabilizer to film all of this work as well as a tripod for the interview scene, so it was all hand held camera work when walking through the derelict places I went to, I feel like this worked well because even though you can’t see the urban explorer exploring you can imagine it with these shots

• The editing of this piece worked well, the editing was great because the shots were short as well as showing some scenes of the interview, I also colour corrected the shots so that they look even more grotty and run down, I brought out the greens and the browns more as well as dimming down the white and dimming the black down. I also used after effects to blur the face of the interviewee as well as sorting out the audio so that the music track in the background is not over powering to the interviews, I did this by having the music loud with no interview audio and dimming the audio down when there was interview footage.

• I feel like the choice of music in this video was great because it added to the urban feel of the video, it is also edited to the beat in some places and doesn’t interrupt the flow of the audio from the interview.

• I only had two locations Tyneham and The abandoned swimming pool in my garden, the lack of locations isn’t a great thing but the filming I did within these locations I thought went well and really showed a grimy feel to the subject I am talking about

• The interview I did went well because I managed to get everything I wanted from the interviewee and managed to pull in a last minute interview with a local explorer, I also put some context into what the explorer is talking about, for example when he was talking about Chernobyl and Blobbyland, I put some pictures in to show this with the editing, I feel as if the interviews went well and provided a certain level of flow in my documentary.

Personal negatives/improvements

Throughout this project there has been a lot of negatives and things that have gone wrong but they have built a learning curve for me for it I ever wanted to do urban exploring again within a film

• One major thing that went wrong was the lack of locations within the documentary, I contacted the owners of all of the derelict and abandoned places throughout Dorset, I contacted City and Country housing development, the owners of the Dorchester Prison, Admiralty park, the owners of the Holton heath laboratory, Portland Port, the owners of most of the abandoned and derelict places within Portland, Comer Homes, who own the abandoned block of flats in Portland, Qinetic, the owner of the bincleaves in Weymouth and many more. I e-mailed and phoned all of these places and nearly all of them said no, except from City and country who said that it would be possible to film in Dorchester Prison but when I went to contact them again about it I didn’t get any reply and went onto a dead lead for filming there, overall this project was so hard to film and get some great locations because of this, so in future I need to start earlier to find permission because even though this project was planned well it still needed more planning in terms of location filming.

• Another major thing that went wrong throughout this production was the interviewee, the interviewee who I was supposed to be interviewing was a guy named Adam Blackwell, I was going to follow him through an urban explore and interview him about his experiences and this was going to be a face to face interview but due to lack of communication on his side this never happened but I was lucky enough to pull in an urban explorer last minute but he didn’t wasn’t to show his face in the interview, this still worked well but would have worked well if I had footage of someone doing an urban explore, but this was not possible for obvious reasons.

• Although I think the camera work went well in my favour with hand held shots some of the shots weren’t in focus, this is due to the camera really I wasn’t using a lens that would focus as much as I would want it to and to improve next time I definitely will.

• Even though I originally planned on showing the history of the derelict locations within Dorset this didn’t happen due to not being able to get enough permission for the locations, unless I was doing a documentary on the locations that I shot within the footage, I did state that it will probably not be the same as what I described in the contingency plan and again this is down to bad planning

• Even though the main idea was to feature people doing an urban explore this wasn’t possible to get into the documentary, this is due to me not being able to get permission and not being able to get urban explorers together to film them.

• Even though I used a camera stabilizer and shoulder mount some of the shots were extremely shaky and unstable, even though this kind of worked in my favour as it adds effect to the documentary as it is comparable to seeing an urban explorer walking through these abandoned places on a video.

Comparisons between an alternate history and industry examples

Urbex: Modus operandi: Urban Exploration - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUlGfuLnnLc

This is a 33 minute documentary that focuses on the urban exploring scene of Melbourne which features interviews and explores with infamous exploring group Public Enemy. The documentary is very similar to mine except from the fact that it is a lot longer, the similarities include interviews, my documentary only had one interview and the interviewee didn’t want to show their faces and this documentary is the same, it features interviews with criminal urban explorers who don’t want their identities to be shown on camera, there are also interviews with people who don’t have masks on or blurred faces which is something my documentary could have had in it for improvement but due to interviewees dropping out I only had one interview. The interviews featured in mine and this documentary are very similar in style, the interviewees talk about the risks they have to take and dangerous things they have to go through when exploring, they also talk about what urban explorers do and why they do it, so I feel as if I have successfully done a professional interview in the style that urban exploring interviews are usually done, an example of this would be when the cameras are interviewing explorer Bryce Wilson on his urban exploring and he says that he has had some dangerous experiences when doing urban exploring, he also goes over some of the same topics I go over in my documentary, there is also some footage of him doing a one handed crane video in Melbourne which compares to mine as I put context in my urban exploring documentary where I put pictures of the places my explorer is talking about when he is talking about where he has been in the UK and throughout the world. Another similarity with mine and this documentary is the use of hand held shot and heavy colour grading within the documentary, I feel as if I have done an excellent job of replicating the professional urban exploring documentary, although mine doesn’t have a variety of location like this one does, also it is a different type of colour correction, in my documentary I wanted to bring out the greens and browns where as in this documentary there is more to do with bringing out the brighter colours such as white as well as some of the more gloomier colours as well. Another similarity is the upbeat music I feel as if my documentary had some great up beat music throughout and this documentary does too. There are also a lot of differences within this documentary and mine that are also personal weaknesses, this is elements such as the lack of locations and the lack of interviewees in mine as well as even more context such as when my urban explorer was talking about breaking his ankle, I could have put a few photos in of his broken ankle to make it seem more real, the locations and interviewees was more of a personal weakness due to not planning further ahead. Another difference is the people on camera in this documentary talk about the locations they are at with thorough details where as I could have a bit more with the footage I was showing on camera as well as the interview.

Feedback -in the screening of the classes work we had to showcase every ones work and feedback was given to help analyse strengths and weaknesses of the documentary.

Positive

Negative

The song choice was really good, really gave the film a modern feel and also had me jamming along.

The interview felt a little staged, as the interviewee tripped up on his words a bit. Some of the footage was a little shaky but this wasn’t really a bad thing as it gave the piece a grittier feel which I feel is what you were aiming for.

I thought the shots you used were great. I think the interview section works well and adds to the underground, anonymous feel of the film. The grain of the film also adds to this and makes it look professional.

The shots were quite repetitive, could’ve included more places or shot types.

I really liked the idea and the shots that you used and feel that they fitted your style of editing as well

I would have liked to maybe see a wider range of locations rather than still images but I understand that this may not have been possible.

Large variation of shot and was colour graded well

I thought the piece was going to be following a guy through his endeavours in Urban Exploring whereas the last piece seemed to just focus on the man.

The shots, although heavily stylised, were effective

Could’ve been better with establishing shot showing the different locations or maybe some wide shots to show the scale and danger involved in Urban Exploring.

The camera work was a little shaky which is alright for some of it as it gives the idea of an urban explorer walking around but could of included some shots using a tripod to contrast.

Most of the footage appeared to of been in one location, presented in large chunks of the video. Perhaps mixing up the footage from different locations would make it appear as if there were alot more locations than there actually were if it was difficult to be able to film in many places.

Colour grade was really good but it could be clearer

However I feel that more smooth motion or still shots would have strengthened it for a contrast to the free hand.

Really enjoyed the audio in this film. The use of free hand filming when walking through the location gave the video a good artist feel.

But I thoroughly enjoyed this video because of the editing and style of filming that made it a more interesting and bigger than just a plain client lead.

Conclusion of feedback:

The positive feedback I got was great and brings out some agreeable personal strengths such as music choice, the editing and style of filming, colour grading, the interview section adding to the underground feel of the documentary and more. I was very happy about the positive feedback I got. I got some improvement feedback which I agree with including that the shots could’ve been smoother which I agree with, next time I would definitely review the test footage to see all errors that went wrong with the shots and then improve them in the actual footage. More pieces of negative feedback include that I could have used more locations which I agree with but it was not possible because of no filming permission from asked locations, another person pointed out that the documentary wasn’t the same as written in the treatment, it changed a lot because of not being able to film in different locations and not being able to get anymore interviews in, another person said that the interview felt a little staged and I agree with that, because we had audio issues we had to re-film the interview which was a struggle so the second time round I had written out a transcript so it sounded a lot smoother, I also heavily edited the audio and because my urban explorer didn’t want to show his face it did look a bit staged. Because of all of the feedback I have been given I have given myself some personal development points to improve on in the future such as audio, filming shakiness when doing a project like this I would also plan well in advance to hopefully get locations that I want etc.

Overall conclusion – personal development and improvements for the future

Within this documentary I feel as if I have done really well in some parts and not well in other parts, it has been a good project but not a great project in terms of personal development. Some positives I have fulfilled in this documentary are that I have excelled in editing, colour correction and cinematography of the shots within editing them, the colour correction of the shots look great bringing out greens, oranges and browns to make the scene a more grimy scene than it already is, my editing was also good because I successfully used a B-roll and a A-roll for my interview sequence as well as editing a shot to dim down exposure and brightness etc. some negatives of this project include not getting enough interviews and not enough locations to go and film at, this was due to planning and I would have done more planning if filming this in the future, I also had some audio problems so the second time recording the interview it felt a little staged because of the transcript written from the first interview, so the audio could have been a bit more prepared with things such as test audio. Another weakness identified is the stabilisation of the camera, it was very shaky when editing my footage even though I used a stabilizer and shoulder mount, in future I will make sure that I have practiced using things like a camera stabilizer to make sure I know what the best way to use it is. So in terms of personal development within this project my camera work and planning work needs to be improved by a huge amount with things such as organising interviews and practicing using camera mounts etc. also with my personal development I have improved editing again especially the improvement of a shot within colour correction mainly.