When we set out to make the film we had always planned on splitting it into sections to cover the different topics, due to poor organisation and planning on all our parts not all of these sections ended up as we had originally envisioned, chiefly the freeganism section.
The strongest aspect of the film by far is its second half, featuring the secret garden and urban foraging sections. Though the secret garden remains much the same as it did in the poetic documentary, the considered camera angles and tracking shots succeed in capturing the beauty of the garden and its rich tones of green. Although perhaps a little overused, the closeups and focus pulls bring attention to the texture and shape of the plants and tools composed in each shot, which was our intention having been inspired by the cinematography of David Altobelli. Jordan did especially well with the camerawork here and we continued to shoot the urban foraging section much in this style, albeit much later in the year so much of the greenery had diminished by this time. Having the interview conveyed in a 'voice of god' style also works effectively and meant we could make the piece more visually interesting rather than just a shot of someone talking. The music in this section works to complement the images and unlike other sections does not distract from what is being said in the interviews. The time-lapsed titles also lend a pleasing visual aesthetic which compliments the themes of food and nature we were trying to convey.
The biggest detriment to the film was the fact that the editing had been left til the last minute, and in the rush to produce a finished piece objectivity towards its cohesiveness was lost. Although we worked well together, not having clearly defined roles, especially that of a producer, resulted in very poor organisation and very sporadic shooting schedules. This impacted the film as different members of the group shot footage at different times over the two months which led to stylistically inconsistant footage as the camera man changed depending on who was available. We also lost contact with a key contributor and were not informed of a cancellation of the staff meeting at New Roots organic fruit and vegetable shop, where we had planned to obtain several interviews. With hindsight the role of producer is something we should have paid much more attention to, as I now realise its crucial importance in Documentary film-making.
Freeganism was the original core focus and the idea that drove us to make the documentary in the first place, however it proved to be the final and most difficult thing to shoot. Over the two months we tried without success to capture a bin-dip, however nearly all supermarkets now keep their bins locked away. With further research we might have saved ourselves from so many failures, including traveling to Leeds where previous successes had been found, however it became a matter of trying our luck and hoping for the best. I had wanted to shoot the dip in a more cinematic style, possibly staging shots from more dynamic angles whilst retaining the gritty hand-held aesthetic, similar to my practice film Nightcrawling, however it wasn't until a few days before the deadline that a bin was found to plunder, and the opportunity was rushed into with little thought as to how the footage would be captured, just as long as something was. We had counted on this scene being more exciting, to break up the monotony of the interviews however the footage was insufficient with little lighting and there was also no audio recorded. Owing to a full car I couldn't go to this shoot and part of the responsibility for the lack of audio is mine as this was my assigned role, which again highlights the problems of people role swapping, ending up with people making mistakes that others would not have in their own assigned roles.
As a successful bin dip was not captured until a few days before the deadline interviews of people with differing opinions were taken in an attempt to provide a more balanced argument of freeganism and show that some people are put off by the idea. I was opposed to this as it resulted in the film being cluttered with too many unestablished and unnecessary contributors. The footage is especially poor, with bad lighting resulting in grainy shots as the gain was increased to compensate for low light. An attempt to amend this with colour correction seemed to correct this in Final-Cut, however when it was projected it came out much lighter and grainier than it had appeared. We would have benefitted from getting to test the film on the equipment it would be displayed on had we given ourselves more time. Ultimately the film still feels like a very early rough-cut laced with amateur errors that we really should have overcome by this stage in the course. The first section could be reduced by half and then we wouldn't have had to use so many obvious cut-aways that punctuate what the contributor is discussing, which we heavy-handedly employed to break up the talking head aspect of the interviews which came across as too long-winded.
Freeganism is a very interesting subject and I'm disappointed we didn't do it justice with this documentary, however I think glimpses of our potential and our original vision are evident in the other sections of the piece.
Although not nearly enough preparation was done in advance I actively participated in as much of the planning stage as I could. We scouted out the secret garden location ahead of shooting to give us an idea of the kind of shots we would later capture which made for a very efficient shoot. This approach did not work so well when it came to finding bins to raid, as there are very few accessible now and they can be hard to find. We also considered including a health specialist as a contributor but ultimately never pursued this despite getting in contact. I had a hand in the camera-work although not as much as I'd have liked as shoots would often be spontaneous and I wasn't always available which also meant that I could not do all of the sound recording. I was also largely involved in the editing stage as we alternated shifts over the weekend to condense the footage as best we could, despite much of it still having the feel of a very rough-cut.
With the Picture-edit being finished so close to the deadline I was left with only an hour to do the sound. In Soundtrack Pro i frantically adjusted the levels to try and maintain consistency, again this was difficulty because of all the different sources of footage, with some marantz sound and some in-cam sound widely differing in quality. We had always intended to use some music in the piece, and I'd had the sounds by Lost From Atlas and Einhorn in mind for a while, however given more time I would have blended them in better and dropped them out in the middle section to give the piece some breathing room as it ends up detracting from the content of the interviews. The sections with minimal acoustic guitar , one of the songs recorded by myself, work much better in creating an emotive perspective between the audience and the subject matter. In the Secret Garden poetic documentary it is evident that I had a greater deal of time to spend on the sound design, such as overlaying a busy traffic buildup into a crescendo before before filtering out and introducing the secluded peaceful garden. I was also able to spend a lot more time fine-tuning the interview transcripts and deciding what would be the most relevant anecdotes that succinctly surmised the theme he was addressing which kept the piece more minimal and uncluttered, something that unfortunately can't be said for the full length.
To an extent aspects of our documentary were manipulated to compensate for a lack of footage so that we could still represent the actions of freegans to our audience. Bill Nichols notes of the audience assumption with documentary films that 'we see what was there before the camera; therefore it must be real (it really existed or really happened)'. The audience may assume that a film-makers obligation is to portray the truth within their images, however in this instance we sought to represent true actions by staging them for the camera and editing it to the advantage of what we intended to portray. Footage of several of the unsuccessful bin-dip attempts was cut in with the successful raid to give the impression of a broader success. We did this because although we weren't so lucky in our attempts, those in the know still find enough food in bins to sustain themselves and this was what we had originally set out to document in our film, and the decision was made to try and reinforce this idea through some manipulation rather than turning the films focus on the increased difficulties a freegan now faces. Although this may raise ethical questions as to the integrity of the film, a documentary will always remain an interpretation of a truth despite the number of facts it presents, and as Nichols says, 'there are no laws and few rules when it comes to creative expression'.
Our documentary draws elements from several of the defining modes. The secret garden was originally set as a poetic documentary exercise and we continued with the urban foraging section in this vain, using non sync sound favouring a voice over narration to tell the story leaving the camera free to explore the subject matter in a more interesting visual style. The narration also heavily lends itself to the expository mode, where a narrator will define the sole perspective of the film.
I really enjoyed the strand as I was already a big fan of documentaries and I enjoyed working with my group, its just a shame we let ourselves down with this final piece. The Secret Garden saw us off to a good start showcasing the potential we had in presenting interesting stories that people might not generally be aware of with an engaging visual aesthetic, but due to our poor time-keeping we were unable to surpass or even uphold this initial standard as we rushed to complete an ill planned first section.
Bibliography
Nichols, B. 2010, 2nd Ed. Introduction to Documentary, e-book, accessed 09/01/12,<http://www.dawsonera.com/depp/reader/protected/direct/AbstractView,title.$ReaderFunctions.eBookView.sdirect?state:reader/protected/AbstractView=ZH4sIAAAAAAAAAFvzloG1XJiBgYGJkYG1JLMkJ5WBNTWzOCmvhIHX0tzCwMjU2MDAxMLcsJyDAYcMAMSFRyNDAAAA>
With the Picture-edit being finished so close to the deadline I was left with only an hour to do the sound. In Soundtrack Pro i frantically adjusted the levels to try and maintain consistency, again this was difficulty because of all the different sources of footage, with some marantz sound and some in-cam sound widely differing in quality. We had always intended to use some music in the piece, and I'd had the sounds by Lost From Atlas and Einhorn in mind for a while, however given more time I would have blended them in better and dropped them out in the middle section to give the piece some breathing room as it ends up detracting from the content of the interviews. The sections with minimal acoustic guitar , one of the songs recorded by myself, work much better in creating an emotive perspective between the audience and the subject matter. In the Secret Garden poetic documentary it is evident that I had a greater deal of time to spend on the sound design, such as overlaying a busy traffic buildup into a crescendo before before filtering out and introducing the secluded peaceful garden. I was also able to spend a lot more time fine-tuning the interview transcripts and deciding what would be the most relevant anecdotes that succinctly surmised the theme he was addressing which kept the piece more minimal and uncluttered, something that unfortunately can't be said for the full length.
To an extent aspects of our documentary were manipulated to compensate for a lack of footage so that we could still represent the actions of freegans to our audience. Bill Nichols notes of the audience assumption with documentary films that 'we see what was there before the camera; therefore it must be real (it really existed or really happened)'. The audience may assume that a film-makers obligation is to portray the truth within their images, however in this instance we sought to represent true actions by staging them for the camera and editing it to the advantage of what we intended to portray. Footage of several of the unsuccessful bin-dip attempts was cut in with the successful raid to give the impression of a broader success. We did this because although we weren't so lucky in our attempts, those in the know still find enough food in bins to sustain themselves and this was what we had originally set out to document in our film, and the decision was made to try and reinforce this idea through some manipulation rather than turning the films focus on the increased difficulties a freegan now faces. Although this may raise ethical questions as to the integrity of the film, a documentary will always remain an interpretation of a truth despite the number of facts it presents, and as Nichols says, 'there are no laws and few rules when it comes to creative expression'.
Our documentary draws elements from several of the defining modes. The secret garden was originally set as a poetic documentary exercise and we continued with the urban foraging section in this vain, using non sync sound favouring a voice over narration to tell the story leaving the camera free to explore the subject matter in a more interesting visual style. The narration also heavily lends itself to the expository mode, where a narrator will define the sole perspective of the film.
I really enjoyed the strand as I was already a big fan of documentaries and I enjoyed working with my group, its just a shame we let ourselves down with this final piece. The Secret Garden saw us off to a good start showcasing the potential we had in presenting interesting stories that people might not generally be aware of with an engaging visual aesthetic, but due to our poor time-keeping we were unable to surpass or even uphold this initial standard as we rushed to complete an ill planned first section.
Bibliography
Nichols, B. 2010, 2nd Ed. Introduction to Documentary, e-book, accessed 09/01/12,<http://www.dawsonera.com/depp/reader/protected/direct/AbstractView,title.$ReaderFunctions.eBookView.sdirect?state:reader/protected/AbstractView=ZH4sIAAAAAAAAAFvzloG1XJiBgYGJkYG1JLMkJ5WBNTWzOCmvhIHX0tzCwMjU2MDAxMLcsJyDAYcMAMSFRyNDAAAA>
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