Most Successful Aspect/ Skill

Pre-Production-
I choose education as my topic because I think it is a key issue for those of the target age range.
I was successful at finding research on facts and figures about the pass rate as an overall and also
for both males and females so I could compare how well both genders are doing. Getting those facts
and figures also made it more appealing to both male and females as I am involving them in my
documentary. I also got good interviews which were inspiring for those to watch because I had both
successful when left education and successful when staying in education. This was to help show the
audience that choosing to stay or leave education is not a write or wrong choice and it just depends
on what you want to do in the future. I also found good achieve footage although I did find a bit too
much. This helped me put the documentary together and add voice over’s so it could make more
sense to those watching.

Production-
I chose to film it in more of a formal way but also not to make it that serious so it doesn’t bore the
audience. I also chose to take off my presenter when filming because it didn’t go well and I ended
up having three presenters which was not convectional. For this reason I just used voice over’s over
footages.
I was Successful at filming and getting it all done on the day I was meant to because my
contributors were reliable and never changed dates which meant I never needed extra time. Aspects
like weather never affected my filming because it never rained when I went out. Also the locations I
choose never needed permission so I was free to film. I met the production deadline although we
did get an extra week to film due to school holidays.

Post-Production-
I was successful at editing the sound levels and making it all work well together because I made
sure all the sound levels were even and making sure all the voice over’s came out clear and again all
the same level of sound. I also made it a good pace when I was editing it so it doesn’t bore my
audience. I had done this by editing my Vox-Pops and making them so much shorter and snappier
instead of just long answers of 30 second almost being like an interview.

Time - management

Pre-Production-
My time management was not as straight forward as I thought because I was late handing my script
in. This was due to me waiting for replies if people could be in my interview or not. Also because I
was waiting to see if I could film at 02 Arena because I was told you need permission to film there
so I didn’t want to go there and risk getting kicked out.
Look on my blogger under labels (Email Replies).

Production-
My time management was good when it came to production. This is because I finished my pre-
production which included who I was going to film, where I was going to film and when. This
helped because it gave me lots of time to think about other stuff that I may need to include. For
example I needed to reshoot a few shots of my presenter. Also I was very flexible with my times
and dates because I was almost free all the time to film. This meant I can get a suitable time for my
contributors when they were free and when best suited them which gave me more of a chance of
getting the interviews I wanted.

Post-Production-
My time management was good because I was able to come in at any day after school to edit my
footage which I did. For one of those days I stayed in school until 7pm editing my work. This was
important because I had to delete a lot of footages that were not needed for example my presenter as
I said before due to it not being convectional and having three presenters. This meant I had to find
more achieve footage or film more footage myself to put in my documentary so I could add a voice
over it. However my time management was not the best when it came to the actual documentary
because it was too long, so again I had to edit it down by a few minutes. I did this mainly by editing
my interviews and using what answers that was the best and also shorting the Vox-pop which
helped give it a quicker pace which also made it more appealing to the audience.

Actors and Crew

Pre-Production-
My actors where not too difficult to get because one was a teacher in my own school so I only had
to ask him and hope that he had a free when I did. The other was related to me to it wasn’t too
difficult to get in touch with him and persuade him to do it. The only difficult interview to get was
the semi pro basket ball player because I had to get his number leave him a message and hoped that
he replied which he did and was happy doing it for me. I had trouble with my presenter because I
ended up having three presenters in my documentary which at that point I only thought was one.
(As you can see on my script if you go on to my blog)

Production-
My actors and crews where a positive because during production they where also flexible with time
as I was so we could choose a good time for both of us which didn’t mean me rushing the interview.
Also they gave good positive answers which were inspiring to the viewers to watch and gave them a
good insight to the future plans of education. However the interview with Syed Abbas could have
been better if I filmed it in a basketball court because it would have gave it a better surrounding
atmosphere because it would have become more conventional and the quality of sound would have
been better. Also I should have had Syed Abbas shooting some hoops to show how good he is. This
would of gave it more surrealism and made it more enjoyable to watch instead of boring.
Also I ended up using three presenters without even knowing, this was due to me having me, and
my friend being the interviewer, and having someone presenting the show. I didn’t realise this until
it came to Post-Production.

Post-Production-
My actors and crew were good and never needed re filming because they did it good the first time
round. However some interview questions didn’t go well which meant I couldn’t use it so I deleted
it but never needed to re shot especially when my documentary was already to long. If anything it
made my documentary shorter and snappy which made it more conventional to the audience.
I used a friend to do my voice over’s but it didn’t go very well so I was told to do it my self because
I would get more marks for it. After I recorded the voice over with my own voice it sounded better
than the previous recordings.
Equipment and Booking

Pre-Production-
Booking out equipment at this stage was difficult because I did not have an exact time and date
when I will be filming. This was because my interviews where not fully confirmed on a certain
date. This then also affect my call sheet and my risk assessment because I never knew who I was
going to film which meant I never knew where I was going film. (You can find my call sheet and
my risk assessment on my blogger under the labels called (call sheet), (risk assessment)

Production-
Equipment booking went well because I was able to get the camera and film when I wanted to. This
was lucky because at some points we were short of cameras due to other classes also filming on the
same day. However I was just about able to book out a camera and use it during lesson time and
also take it home during the one week holiday off school which was helpful because it gave me a lot
of time to think about what shots I am going to do and allowed me more time when shooting an
interview because I had more free time.

Post-Production-
Booking out equipment was not difficult or time consuming because I only booked it out for 5mins
during a lesson just to upload my footage that I have previously filmed, not to take it out over night,
so this meant there were cameras free to use during lesson. Also the Mac I was using nobody from
other classes were using it so I never had to share with someone else which meant it was always
free to use when either I needed to edit, which was not the same for my colleges who some had to
share.

Budget

Pre-Production-
Doing a budget on a spread sheet helped me understand what actually has to be considered when
producing something like a documentary. The budget as an overall was simple ands straight
forward. All through the budget is not real it is what we would have spent when doing this
documentary so I had to stay under the budget.
Production-
During Production I didn’t need to use my budget because I knew I
never had to pay for anything. This is because all the contributors
were doing interviews for free and never wanted money. I never paid
for any travel cost because ever where I went was walking distance.
Also the equipment used was provided from the school and they had
everything I needed to produce my documentary. Even for the
achieve footage I may have used were also not needed to pay for.

Post-Production-
If I was to use the budget I would have hardly spent any money and have stayed in the budget and
not other spent because everything including equipment was provided. However if I was paying for
everything myself and I was alone doing this production I would have spent considerable more of
just under £3000.
If the budget was real and I was to pay for everything I would have been more careful and kept
looking back at it to make sure I was not over spending.

Less successful aspect / skill

Pre-Production-
My less success was when I was doing my script because it was continuously too short. This is
because I didn’t go into enough detail when doing so for example for an interview I wrote interview
one with Mr Priest in stead of saying what actual shots I would be doing when performing this
interview. Once I had done that my shots ended up increasing rapidly until I ended up having
around 50 shots. Also I was less successful on my call sheet because I never knew who would be
featuring on my documentary which also had an affect on my risk assessment because I didn’t know
where I was going to film due to it depending on who I was going to film. Also for my risk
assessment I was not sure if I could film at 02 Arena so I was waiting for a reply which held me up
when doing the risk assessment.

Production-
I wasn’t very good at filming my last interview because it was done outside on a windy day and we
kept moving around which made it look like it was jumping shots a bit. Also he ended up being a
long distance away and the wind was strong so I had to raise my voice a bit more which didn’t
make the interview look professional.

Post-Production-
I was less successful when I had to edit my work down from 8-9mins down to 5mins because I
didn’t really know what to shorten, whether I should cut down the interview, the Vox-Pops or just
delete some footage. I manage to over come this problem when I started to delete some unneeded
interview footage which automatically cut the time right the way down considerable. I then had to
cut down my Vox-pops to make it snappier and just quick simple answers which was difficult to do
especially when the Vox-pops were way too long.