Evaluation
Research
For the start of the project I had to search types of documentaries and build up a collection of techniques and ideas to help with the creation of my own documentary. To go into more detail this included testing out different interview methods, using Adobe After Effects to create title cards and using different camera lenses. This part of the project took place from 9th March to 13th March.
I think that the whole portion of this project went well and it helped me to be relatively confident going into the project. The only portion that I struggled with was to render all the videos as I had the worst luck with using computers that had no disk space to render the projects. This led to me rendering them at home, on my mac, without the font I wanted to use.
This part of the project was quite enjoyable as I was developing new skills for the upcoming project. My favourite part was the in person interview we filmed in groups with Lewis, Tom, Oli and Ashton as we all had different tasks when filming which split up the workload which I'm not used to. It was also very interesting to see everyone else's edits and see the differences. Looking back, I think that these have improved my final film as it helped me to practice and learn how to interview people. That was the part of the project I was most worried about as I was confident with filming, editing and all the rest in the previous projects. This research phase was able to improve my ability in interviewing, knowledge of cameras and Adobe Suit during the first month. For my next project, I would like to expand my capabilities within the Adobe Suit including Premiere Pro and After Effects.
Pre-production
The next part of my project included planning and presenting my pitch for my own documentary, contacting potential interviewees for my documentary as well as completing all the normal pre-production paperwork. This took place between 22nd March and 29th April. It took slightly longer than expected due to the Easter Holidays and I had made plans with my friends and a larger work commitment than usual.
The pitch went alright. I really like the overall design of my PowerPoint, however, I think that some of the slides could have looked slightly better than a couple of bullet points. I also felt that I was able to present my vision for my documentary to Paul. Looking back, I am happy that I was able to present it as I don't like being the focus of attention and I was quite nervous about presenting. I had written notes but I didn't use them as much as I had initially planned, I should have cut them up to keep me on topic and on the right slide. I would put most of my criticism and slip-ups down to my lack of experience when presenting.
Because Liverpool is one of the biggest teams in the world it has a large following, therefore quite a large group of fans that are vocal online. I tried to contact lots of the accounts to minimal success including James Redmond, The Anfield Road Podcast and many more. The two named are the only 2 to reply with James only seeing the initial message and not replying back and TARP not showing up to the interview on 2 occasions. As you can tell this was quite annoying as I felt so close yet so far.I persevered through this but it was demotivating at the very point where I am normally at the peak of my motivation. This part wasn't as successful as I wanted because I wasn't able to conduct an interview with anyone that I reached out to. However, it was great to get some replies. Luckily, Sam helped me to schedule an extra 2 interviews with 2 people who I wouldn't have thought to ask, Zac and Bradley. This was extremely useful to help break up the two bulky interviews I had filmed with Jordan and my dad. I knew from the start that getting interviews was going to be hard and that it was going to be one of the tougher challenges I would face during this project. I may have been too ambitious with this subject. Personally, I think that the email I wrote was good but I just didn't get it to the right people to see it.
Production
Production was when I filmed my interviews that took place on 3 days: 10th May, 11th May and 21st May. I filmed Jordan's interview on the 10th in the audio recording studio, my Dad's interview on the 11th at home and both Bradley and Zac's interviews being filmed the week after in the mac room and green-screen room respectively. A big thanks to Tom who helped me set up the equipment and help with framing (it was great to have some help from someone who understood what the task was).
This part of the project was probably the most enjoyable part of the project as I enjoy filming a lot. The interview that went the best was Jordan's as I really liked the background and the content. Jordan spoke clearly and I also liked the wireless lavalier mic. The one with my dad also went well but I don't like the framing of it. I wanted to use the signed Klopp (Liverpool's manager) shirt in the background but there was too much reflection for it to work. I like the framing of Bradley's but it took ages to film because he was struggling to concentrate and remember what to say (the countries in the Champions League). Zac was really good at talking for a long time about the subject which was really good to include with some cutaways at the end. I just wish I could have chosen the location rather than using what he set up, that's quite a minor point. What was good is that I had people who clearly are passionate about football and I believe that it shows within the documentary, I don't think that dressing Oli up as a scouser and giving him a script would work the same.
The filming went well, I didn't have any problems with audio or files being corrupted. It was also good to film in multiple locations around the campus and at home. The only problem was the lack of "professionals" that I interviewed. As mentioned earlier, I wasn't able to execute any interviews online which was a shame. I had set up twice to Interview The Anfield Road Podcast but he bailed on both occasions and had forgotten about it. If I was able to do this project again I would likely give myself more time to reach out to people to be a part of my documentary as I couldn't commit to being bailed on again when I needed to spend that time editing. Zac and Bradley's interviews were both organised by Sam and I wasn't quite sure how to include them as I had edited it to just be Jordan and my Dad. I am glad that Sam helped as it definitely made the film better as it gave more variation to it (Sam, if you are reading this, please consider me very grateful and I will mention you in my speech when I eventually get an Oscar). In all seriousness, it was a great help having Sam to get me those interviews as I didn't even think about interviewing people within the class and the PE department.
Post-production
For this final stage of the project, I had to edit my footage. This took place during the last 2 and a half weeks of the project (13th to the 28th May). I know editing takes longer than you expect but this felt like I spent ages on it.
I felt that this was my most complicated edit so far with lots of interviews and cutaways. I am proud of this edit and I think that the extra time spent on perfecting the video was worth it. After receiving feedback from Paul I had to remake my intro which took me an extra 2 days to complete. I'm not going to lie. I was stubborn at first and didn't want to remake my intro but I think that part is my best piece of work this year. It was definitely the right call to remake it.
Something that went well was piecing all the footage together. I think that I was good at cutting my footage together and adding the cutaways/archive footage to tell my story. One thing that could have gone better was the music selection. I like the music I chose for the intro however, I think that the music used in the rest of the film could have been better. I watched other sports documentaries and tried to think about what I wanted but I couldn't find any copyright free music that worked. This included The Beatles (as they are from Liverpool), Fan music (didn't fit as there's a lot of lyrics and it distracted from the interviews) and I even created my own music on GarageBand but I couldn't get something right there either.
I think I could have sped up the editing process slightly if I had created some sort of storyboard after watching the footage to give me an idea of what the film would look like when finished. I think the major problem I had with this project was the deadline being moved as I felt like I was spending every minute at college editing and that felt quite stressful. This is why I like to be ahead and I feel more relaxed. I think that this was my best-edited video of the year and I am proud that I was able to use a lot of different techniques and create a 9-minute documentary.
Final Thoughts
To recap, my documentary was about the Champions League semi-final match between Liverpool and Barcelona where we won 4-3 on aggregate. I initially wanted it to be subjective and be biased towards Liverpool and I think that I achieved that but it may have felt more authentic if all the interviews were from Liverpool fans.
Overall, I am really happy with the film and I think that I was able to tell the story that I wanted to tell. I think the interviews and cutaways work really well together with a mixture of photos and videos. If I had more time I would have liked to create some animations for the explanation of the champions league but I think the photos work decently well. I do think that it would have been great to get a Liverpool influencer in my documentary but it wasn't meant to be. As mentioned, I wish the music would have been better to suit the mood of the documentary and change at the different points.