Music

Though its early days, I still think music is worth thinking about.

I feel music is a very important aspect to any documentary that is influenced by Cinema Verite.

Often the music gives off a vibe depending on which emotion the documentary is playing on (e.g overcoming an obstacle in documentary usually means the music is upbeat).

I wish to include music that plays on this element.

In our documentary we will be tracking down individuals who have been successful in the media industry. This can be seen as a positive sign so I think the music should reflect this. Some music that I think would work well for these positive moments would include;

Morgan Van Dam http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYdpRrElMiI



Air France- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTPO6XM_IxM

Influence No.1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnKhvdiWQG8

This documentary is very similar to how I visualise ours, in terms of content. Here we see a documentary being driven by cut aways on the subject matter, with interviews and voice over driving the narrative.

I would like to include clips from films produced in Sheffield overlapping with interviews from the individuals that produced them.

Project Statement

Cinema Verite was founded by anthropologists, who wanted to delve deep into the subject matter by becoming a part of the people/lifestyle that they were documenting.

Therefore, we, as a group feel the best subject for us to document would be something we are already familiar with- Film and Media.

Our Documentary will look at the benefits of the film industry to a specific area (in this case Sheffield), and how young film-makers can struggle to become successful in a competitive industry.

From personal experiences of meeting individuals who grew up in past generations, where the U.K was not a spearhead for an industry in Film, it would be interesting to look into the negative connotations associated with media courses by gauging public opinion and wronging the prejudice against the 'lazy media student'.

We will attempt to get in touch with past students of Film related courses, we will look into Independent companies, including Warp Films, The Showroom Cinema, Sheffield Independent Film and local businesses associated with Media Production that contribute to the local economy in the area and how they are benefiting an area which has seen a massive decline in industrial industries (the steel industry) in the past two decades.

The style of our documentary will be essentially influenced by Cinema Verite. The narrative will be driven by voice-over. The feature will not include a presenter, and will instead feature interviews with people from the aforementioned businesses, and the general public and a look at people associated with the declined steel industries views on the matter. Cut aways of the city, will play as statistics detailing just how difficult it is to progress in the film industry, but acknowledging the positive aspects the film industry to an area, intercut with interviews from associated people.

We will aim to naturally create tension between the characters within the feature by juxtaposing interviews of people that hold negative views of the industry, and seasoned professionals disregarding these negative views.

The length of the feature will be between six and eight minutes.

Further influences of the feature will be the Maysles Brothers- who believed in involving oneself with subject matter. We will also be using the technique of minimal editing, this includes not cutting between shots but rather having one continuous shot. We think that the use of minimal editing will enable the audience to 'gain the truth', rather than us creating it for the audience. Dziga Vertov's belief of showing things how they are, will play a major part in our production.

All in all, we hope this will create good for public bad.

Deeper into out ideas

Following on from our first discussion regarding the intial ideas we had about this documentary, myself, Jonathan and Harry looked further into some of the better ideas we had.

World cup bid 2018
For this we would be taking the side of the positives that the World Cup would have on Sheffield. To start with we could talk about the negative implications such as how the Sheffield United and Sheffield Wednesday fans have been arguing about it because only Sheffield Wednesday were picked at as a host stadium. For this Harry has found a facebook group that would provide a good resource for our film. We would then counter-argue this point with all the positives that it would bring such as good business.

The documentary would have a presenter which would probably be Harry Rollin. We were also thinking that a good interview technique for this would be to not have the presenter involved in the actual interview, but to have the interviewee to say the question in the answer and use the footage together with shots that respresent what they are talking about.

Research on the subject:
The applicant host citys are: Birmingham, Bristol, Derby, Hull, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Milton Keynes, Newcastle, Nottingham, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Sheffield, Sunderland.
Sheffield is 1 of 12 cities to be chosen following an intense bidding process throughout 2009 where 16 cities battled it out to be included.
Some of the accessed criteria was: facilities at the grounds, locations for Fifa fan fests, public viewing areas, training sites, accomodation, event infrastructure etc.
Both Sheffield stadiums were behind the bid, but only Hillsborough was successful.
Sheffield is host to over 600 national & international sports events.
Sheffield Wednesdays ground - Hillsborough is to undergo a £22million redevelopment. This will expand the stadium from a capacity of 39000 to 45000 which would then allow it to be chosen as a World Cup designated ground.

Potential interviewee: Chris Gratton, Prof of sport economics and co director of the sport industry research centre at Sheffield Hallam. He reckons Sheffield could potentially make £300million to boost its economy.

My personal view on the subject is that I would love it to happen because it would allow me to be a part of the World Cup for the first time and as a football fan this would be a great experience.



Up and coming filmmakers.
The idea being that we make a documentary about what its like being an up and coming filmmaker in Sheffield and what routes can they take in order to get out there. Our main sources for information would be the Showroom Cinema as everyone in the group appreciates it as it is reknown for its independant films and filmmakers. Warp Films would also be another source of information and we could get in contact with Chris Cunningham who has worked with them before. Further soureces include the Doc Fest, general public in Sheffield, and our course i.e. graduates.

Monday 8th February 2010 – Forming the Group and Initial Ideas

When first given the brief last Friday, we were asked to form a group of four. I was pleased that we were given the opportunity to form our own groups as I feel that it allows me to work with people with similar interests and ideas to me. Last year when we were put in to groups by the tutors it often took a while to get used to each other’s interests, and there was a lot of time wasted debating about which ideas to use (e.g. somebody who hates sci-fi and loves comedy wouldn’t want to produce a sci-fi, similarly the person interested in sci-fi might not want to produce a comedy). Having said that, I have also experienced negatives when working in friendship groups. For example, when working with friends in previous projects, the whole production process was turned in to a social event and the job simply didn’t get done. However, with good organisation, motivation and management within the group, I’m confident that we can avoid this.

The brief for the project is ‘Making Trouble for the Public Good’. This didn’t straightaway trigger any ideas for me at all, however, between the group, we came up with the following:

· Waiting staff – the truth behind tipping

· Nutritional information – is it misleading?

· University food prices

· Effects of binge drinking

· The effect of students on Sheffield – asset or nuisance?

· World cup city bid 2018 – Sheffield

· Up and coming filmmakers in Sheffield – what route do the take/how do they get a big break?

I personally felt that the university food prices (although I think that they’re ridiculously high!) and effects of binge drinking are very typical topics for student filmmakers, and so would rather not use those ideas. I think that the waitress tipping idea could be interesting, although I’m not sure how much information we could get about it.

After a group meeting at the end of last week, I think we narrowed it down to the World Cup bid, filmmakers in Sheffield or any other ideas we might come up with. Harry and Dan really like the World Cup idea and, although I would be happy to go along with it, I’m not convinced just yet. I’m from Sheffield and don’t really have an opinion on it – it all seems so far away! Therefore I’m not sure that other people from Sheffield will feel that passionately about it just yet – at the moment, if anything, it seems to be a war between the Sheffield United and Sheffield Wednesday fans because it would be held at Hillsborough. Having said that, it could be interesting to look at the positive effect it could have on the economy in Sheffield, or perhaps the negative effect it might have on the residents of Hillsborough. We’ve planned to go away and research this idea further, then bring what we have to the next group meeting on Wednesday.

Since the last group meeting, Jonathan has joined our group and so we might have more ideas to consider on Wednesday from him.

Our group is now as follows:

Jonathan Alsop

Dan Lees

Harry Rollin

Harriet Middleton

Amy Tuffnell

I think it might be a good idea to each adopt a different role in the group – manager, cinematographer, picture editor, sound recorder, and possibly a separate sound editor and art director.

Does anybody have any idea which role they would like in the group if we were to do that?