Production Materials

Consent Forms

Location Release letter for interview in house

Contributor consent forms

Production Stills

Here are some stills taken whilst filming in our various locations.

Filming exteriors on the Monday 4th Nov - Location scout day.

Filming cut-aways of Hannah's room on the first shooting weekend - Friday 6th

Setting up the interview of Hannah's family - Saturday 7th

Filming more exteriors - Sunday 8th

Filming more exteriors - Sunday 8th

Final Film : Screening and Feedback

Today we showed our final finished documentary to the rest of the group and Debbie for assessing and peer feedback.
Film Update
Since our last tutorial we decided to change one or two things with the narrative order but kept most things the same. Our main piece of advise was to cut down bulky bits of interview and either be very selective with what content we should keep in, or space it out more specifically. We all decided to be more selective about what we though should go in so we started trimming down the more wordy parts of the interview, to keep the information in a steady, but not overwhelming, pace. As cinematographer, I captured a large and good amount of exterior shots that could potentially be used as cut aways in the interview. However, later on in the project, on our 2nd shoot, I brought it to attention that we want the story to be personal to Hannah, so we should try and keep it as personal as possible. The rest of the group agreed and so we decided to re-shoot exterior interviews which we had filmed, and instead replace it all with a close-up, tightly framed shot of Hannah's face in her room. This meant scrapping almost all of our exterior shots due to them not being relevant to the film any more, and even though this was a shame, I believe it was a necessary and positive decision to enforce the themes in the film. Finally, due to cutting down and spacing out parts of the interview, we focused the narrative more on Hannah's brain tumour and the effect on her and her family, than we originally thought we would, as we wanted to have more focus on the charity work. However this played in our advantage somewhat, as we could make the film more intense and personal by not having Hannah talk about her achievements and instead use overlaying text to show the audience at the end of the film.

Feedback
The feedback we were given for the film was mostly positive. The main thing that people like was the use of just the talking heads for the majority of the interview sections. Thankfully, they agreed with our group that it made the film more personal and allowed the audience to connect with Hannah more by looking directly at her when she spoke. They also liked the use of archive pictures as transitions throughout the film due to the impact they had as being shown on their own with just the soundscape over them. Finally, the use of the poetic footage at the beginning of the film was praised highly, especially because everyone seemed to like it when we presented it in our poetic documentary screening, as it gives the audience a contrast of the innocence shown in the home video with the seriousness of the subject that is being talked about e.g. "We joked about what our funeral songs would be".
The main issue that Debbie found with the film was the soundtrack we used underneath the content that Hannah was saying. She said that it wasn't necessary to tell the audience how to feel (as we used a very harmonic, orchestral and emotional piece of music, and that it felt as thought it was just thrown on to make the audience feel upset or emotional for Hannah. However, although I agree partly with Debbie, the rest of the group thought it worked very effectively at adding to the themes and tone of the film and helping the audience sympathise with Hannah. Finally there were a few technical issues with the sound levels and a few of the cuts in the edit, but apart from that it was a solid film that all our group are extremely happy with.

Re-shoot

After discussions with Debbie and in our group we decided the best direction for a film now would be to re-shoot the interview we conducted on the Friday of the last shoot where we asked questions about where she grew up and her childhood, her own feelings on her diagnosis and the 'brain tumor story' and finally about her charity work, what she has done and plans to do. The reason we decided to re-shoot this section of the film is because the eyeline throughout isn't as good as it should be due to it being slightly off centre and the framing of the shot being to wide and 'impersonal' for the subject matter that was being dealt with in the interview. We also had a small issue with the sound where the radio mic we were using dropped off its clip and onto Hannah's lap which caused a large rustling noise for the duration of the interview. We set the date for the shoot with Hannah to be Friday 6th and we began preparing for it by writing up schedules, equipment list, shot list and interview questions. Here is the shot list I drew up:
Shot list
Hannah at locations:
• Bridge (already done)
• Park – wide shots + cinematic
• Walls – Depth of field
• Shopping center – crowd shots
• Town center – Clock area, walking around with hoody on.
• University/school – walking in/out, with friends
• Amphitheater - walking through
Charity collecting in town – clock area and around town (if possible) 
Interview – Hannahs room, tight close up with soft lighting, eyeline to right of camera.

Equipment List for Friday Shoot

:-Canon 6d and 600d
:-2×50mm and 28-128mm canon lenses
:-Tripod
:-Dolly
:-Marantz + Boom
:-Wireless Mic
:-Lighting Equipment DEDO Lights
:-Macbook Pro for playback of shots
:- 2 × 32GB SD cards Class 10
:-1 × UV Lense Filter (72mm)
:-1 × polarizing filter (52mm)
:-Extra double AA Batteries for Audio Equipment
:-Extra Battery Packs for DSLR cameras.

List of questions for Re-shoot:

Brain Tumour
- How did you first become aware of the brain tumour?
- How did this make you feel?
- What were the signs/symptoms?
- What was going through your mind while you were waiting for the results?
- Did you find it hard telling people/did they treat you differently?
- Were they supportive?
- How did the experience effect your family?

Charity
- How did you find out about The Brain Tumour Charity?
- What inspired you to get involved?
- How did you go about raising the money?
- Did your family and friends get involved?
- Can you give examples of people that it has helped?
- How much money have you raised so far?
- What was your biggest event?
- What does the money raised go towards?
- How does it make you feel?
- What are the plans for the future of the charity?

- When you do your speeches, do you improvise them or script them?

The main objective was to re-shoot the whole of the first interview we recorded on the Friday the shoot before, so I re-did the floor plan we followed last time ever so slightly, so we all knew exactly what to do when we arrived for filming. 

As all we wanted to do was re-shoot a 10 minute interview, we already were quite confident with the things that went right last shoot we did, so all I had to focus on was the framing of the shot we used for the interview and only have to do a few exteriors/cinematic shots outside depending on the weather.

The Day Itself
We arrived at 12 and instantly went to Hannah's house to set up for the interview. We set up the lighting quickly, briefed Hannah on what we wanted to re-film and some of the content we wanted to ask her about, then we set up the camera and started filming. We asked almost the exact same questions as last time, with a few variations and additions here and there, which hearing it again, lost some of the spontaneity and original charm that the first interview was full of, which could affect the genuineness and quality of the final film. However everything else in the interview sequence was well done, lighting, framing and sound and done to a professional standard.

Comparison of framing on the first (top) interview and the second (bottom).

The exteriors and cinematic shots that we had planned didn't go as well as we hoped as we couldn't complete a lot of them due to the weather and resources available (no permit or hoodies for charity shots). We obtained a few of Hannah making tea and walking her dog, but not really enough for many, if any at all, to be used in the final film.  

Overall, as the cinematographer I am happy with the shots we already had, plus the addition of the newly framed interview, that we will make a solid film that is both interesting in content and visual aesthetics.

Poetic Documentary Final

Yesterday we showed our final finished film for the poetic documentary. We have changed a lot since the tutorial last week in most areas of our film. The advice we were given was to not make it too much like a short, conventional documentary by using more conventions of a poetic piece, to focus less on making a narrative and more on developing a theme using these poetic conventions and finally to consider the soundscape more and what to include in it to help portray these themes. As I've said previously, the group decided to focus on the theme of Hannah's personality in the final film.

The first thing we did to change and improve the film, was to think of the ways we could show Hannah's personality in an unconventional way. We decided after a long discussion, that we would use her fathers voice as a voice-over, taking individual words and phrases from an interview we recorded on the Saturday shoot, that described Hannah. We decided that we wouldn't have the fathers face or any talking heads in this film, to draw away from the conventional documentary style that this suggests. We believed the use of voice-over in small snippets and spaced out, gives the audience a chance to reflect on each word and really pay attention to what they are being told instead of just spoon feeding them the information about Hannah. We also wanted the theme to not be instantly obvious to the audience and make them decide for themselves who is being described to them and ultimately getting to know the person quite well, without seeing them speak on screen.
After finalising the idea of the voice over, we discussed what visuals we would have over the top of it. We all agreed we liked the idea of using old home video footage to show Hannah growing up so we decided to use that and select what part to use. Eventually we decided to use a section of home video of Hannah on a roller-coaster. We chose this because it was the most interesting visually of all the home video, as well as the fact it served as a visual metaphor for the journey Hannah has gone through in her life, contrasting the innocence of her youth with the seriousness of her condition later in her life.

We also agreed to make the film more visually interesting, we would cut away to archive pictures of Hannah when she was growing up in sync with when the voice over came in. This was to allow the audience to see Hannah more clearly and to start piecing together who the voice over was relating to, whilst still giving of an enigma as to why we are being told about this.

Although it isn't directly mentioned till the very end of the film, we wanted to slightly introduce the theme of the brain tumour in this piece, so it actually directly links to our main film and the way we did this was to create a small imitation brain scan through animation in AVID which we would use at the very start of the film, and overlay it throughout with reference to the voice over.

The sound-scape highlights when the brain scan effect comes in by fading out the roller-coaster sounds and screaming, with just a increasingly loud rumbling sound that is slightly distorted to give the impression of building pressure/tension in the film.

Final Feedback + Reflections
After presenting, we were given feedback from the group and Debbie on the poetic documentary. Everyone praised the use of the brain scan animation we included, specifically when it overlay on Hannah, as it made them question what it was and what its relevance was in the film and to Hannah, which was eventually explained by the voice over at the end. They also liked the sound scape used throughout as it added tension where necessary whilst also capturing the signs of the brain tumour and contrasting it with the innocence of youth. The roller-coaster was also praised as everyone also saw it as a metaphor of a journey through Hannah's life and the different stages she's gone through (dark tunnels and bright lights). A few criticisms were that the use of the reverb effect on the voice over seemed unnecessary and just thrown on, as well as the final montage of images of Hannah, which also seemed a bit out of place and out of sync with the sound.
If we were to improve the film I would taken out the reverb on most of the voice over to make the sound more clear to make it impact harder. I would also change the final montage to have the brain scan animation overlaying it and also sync it with the sound.

Poetic Documentary Planning + Tutorial Feedback

Poetic Documentary Planning
Our original idea for the poetic documentary was that we wanted it centred around Hannah but as a child. This was so we could introduce the audience to Hannah, but only by giving a brief background view of her through the eyes of her family and their memories of her. The reason we wanted to do this is because the subject matter still relates to our main documentary because it is about Hannah and obviously her childhood would affect how she is as a person now, but also we didn't want to introduce the fact that she has had a brain tumour and has beaten cancer at her young age. The reason we didn't want to do this is to give an enigma effect to the poetic piece so the audience question who this is they are hearing about and what are they like, as well as not directly addressing the main points that the final film will (the cancer and the charity). When we filmed last weekend in Chester, we decided to begin to create a sequence for the poetic film, including some of the sound from the family we had just got.

This is the detailed sequence we came up with which focuses on the childhood stories the family told us in interviews which we believe reflect Hannah's personality and childhood well. For this we wanted to mainly use (if not entirely use) old family photos and old home video which we were allowed to use a large quantity of. We began putting it into a sequence in preparation to show Debbie in the group tutorial today.

Tutorial Feedback and Next Steps
The main pointers we were given in the tutorial today were:

• The sequence we had come up with was too much like a conventional documentary and not a poetic piece.
• Some stories were inappropriate for what we were trying to convey.
• We focused to hard on narrative in the sequence when we should be looking to explore and elaborate on themes.
• Not much consideration into the sound-scape we could use and the sound we had was too much voice over dialogue.

We met as a group after and started to consider ways in which we could address these points. In the end we decided to scrap our original sequence and explore some potential themes instead of focusing on creating a narrative to make the film less conventional and more poetic. We eventually decided after a lengthy Skype discussion, that we focus on Hannah's personality as a theme by using a small selection of voice overs obtained through interviews, combined with still images and sections of interviews recorded last weekend.

 

We will combine these things with a carefully considered sound-scape which we will discuss tomorrow which will magnify the different parts of her personality with relation to the images shown on screen.

Shooting Weekend

This weekend we when to Chester for 4 days (Friday till Monday) to film the main documentary interviews, along with things we needed for the poetic piece. Our producer, Ellen, got in contact with the contributors, Hannah and her family, and arranged this weekend to meet up, conduct interviews and get the necessary footage for both our films. We met as a group before we went and started doing a detailed plan of what we needed to accomplish when we were there. The schedule we came up with is as follows:

Schedule
FRIDAY

Hannah available from 12 -3.
- 9:42 train - arrives 11:42
- Taxi to Hannah's with all equipment.
- Set up lighting for room interview.
- Part 2 + 4 of plan and questions in Hannah's room.
- Review (plan more cutaways if needed).
- (emphasis on childhood stories).
SATURDAY

Hannah available from 3 onwards.

- Time lapse of city.
- Wide shot of Chester - shopping centre.
- River and bridge establishers.
- Meet Hannah at 3.
- Part 1 + 3 of plan and questions in living room.

SUNDAY

Hannah not available all day.

- Review previous days footage- look for potential re-shoots.

- Cut aways of High school.

- Obtain more cut-aways if necessary.

- Begin to put together poetic documentary sequence.

MONDAY

Hannah available from 12-4.

 - Hannah's living room, part 5 of plan and questions.
- Walking and talking interview on walls or bridge.

- Cut aways of location of interview and University.

Here is a sample of the sections of questions we were working off:

Questions

PART 1

(Hannah's family)

- How would you describe Hannah?

- How did she cope with the experience/how did you cope?

- What was Hannah like growing up? For example: Hobbies?

- Do you have any memorable stories from her childhood? (light-hearted/getting into mischief)

 PART 2

(Hannah)

- Where did you grow up?

- What did you do when you were younger? i.e. Hobbies

- Do you have any funny memories from this?

 PART 3

(Hannah)

- How did you first become aware of the brain tumour?

- How did this make you feel?

- What were the signs/symptoms?

- What was going through your mind while you were waiting for the results?

- Did you find it hard telling people/did they treat you differently?

- Were they supportive?

 PART 4

(Hannah)

- How did you find out about The Brain Tumour Charity?

- What inspired you to get involved?

- How did you go about raising the money?

- Did your family and friends get involved?

- Can you give examples of people that it has helped?

- How much money have you raised so far?

- What was your biggest event?

- What does the money raised go towards?

- How does it make you feel?

- What are the plans for the future of the charity?

 PART 5

(Parents/Hannah)

- Talk about achievements:

- Carrying the Olympic Torch

- Ellen MacArthur

- Awards

- Houses of Parliament speech

Although these weren't the final questions we used in the interviews, they give a rough idea of our narrative structure and the sorts of things we were asking Hannah and her family.

When planning we also constructed a equipment list together, making sure we had all the necessary equipment to complete four days of shooting with.

Equipment List

EQUIPMENT LIST:

- 2 Cameras (cannon 6D and 600D)

- Shoulder rig

- Radio mic

- Boom mic and pole

- XLR lead
- Marantz

- Reflector

- 2x dedo

- Track/dolly

- Tripod

- Batteries

- Extension lead

- View finder

- Avid Editing Software

My role in the as the cinematographer, was to consider what shots to get, where to get them from and what techniques and types of shots we should get in which parts of the film. To do this effectively, I created a rough shot list for the weekend and did some rough floor plans of the different interviews we wanted and knew how we wanted them to look. The only reason these are rough plans and not extremely detailed, is because we wanted some spontaneity for the film so it didn't appear to be heavily scripted/staged and ultimately to increase its authenticity.

Shot list

Friday Floor Plan

Saturday Floor Plan

Weekend Shoot and Reflections
On Friday we follow the schedule very closely and well and got some very nice content and shots from it. We also added in doing some interior shots of her house and room to serve as cutaways in the film. Here is a sample of some of the footage we got.

 

 This is a still we got from the interview on Saturday.

This is a still from the final set of interviews on Monday.

In my opinion the weekend of shooting was a big success, we got to meet Hannah and her family and find out a great deal about her as a person. We followed the schedule very precisely and because of that we managed to effectively use the time we had with Hannah and get quality footage from it.
In terms of cinematography, I think that the variety of shots we got over the weekend were very positive as not only were they well considered and composed, I also did a number of takes with each one with different pieces of equipment. I did this because when we use certain shots for cutaways or establisher's, we can cut between the different types of shot (from tracking to static) for a more aesthetic and less boring film. I also think the different locations for the interviews will work very well for the final cut as the audience won't be bored by just seeing the one background again and again when seeing Hannah. The reason we did this was, as well as to not make it boring, to make the locations reflect the flow of the narrative e.g. when Hannah talks about her brain tumour (a very personal thing) we have her sat on her bed in her room behind an inspirational quote she admires.
Things that I would like to improve on would be that in the interviews, the eye-line isn't where we were advised to have it in the workshop session the previous week. When we showed this to Debbie she pointed it out and said that it may be that we have to re-shoot some of the interviews. However my personal opinion is that we won't have to re-shoot very much (maybe around half the questions for the Friday interview) as the framing of the shot and location still does the same thing the eye-line would do if it were changed. I am also worried about the quality of the content Hannah would give if we did re-shoot as it could sound more scripted and less spontaneous. Finally I would like to film more shots of Hannah doing a daily routine chore as it would give us more footage to use as cut-aways that still engage the audience with the narrative and what Hannah is saying.