Our first meeting was on 23/09/13, where each member wrote a statement detailing the reason for us being where we are today; why we choose the course at UWE. We then read out our statements to one another, enabling us to understand why each other are here, and partly what we’re hoping to achieve through being here. After hearing each other’s stories, the group collectively decided mine was different and had the biggest impact on them as an audience, and so we decided we would incorporate it into our documentary. My statement was focussed on the decision I made to come to Bristol, rather than my plans through being here. Below is my statement.
Original Statement
I don’t know why I originally choose to be here, but I know why I want to be here now. Three months ago o was laid in a hospital bed; in too much pain to move, or even talk. All I could do was watch as the guy in the bed next to mine violently passed away. In that moment, all I could think was that I wanted the pain to end, I didn’t care how, I just wanted it to end. After spending a month in a vascular ward, with people giving up on life, I realised that you have to make the most of the opportunities you get. This is an opportunity, and so I want to make the most of it.
The group decided we would focus primarily on my story as they thought it would make a big impact and be different, making the project completely about me. Although I argued that it was not appropriate or what the brief was asking, I was democratically overruled. I wrote an interview, detailing my experience leading me to being here, based on my first statement. Below is my primary interview script.
Primary Interview Script
Back in may I spent a month in hospital with Proximal DVT. I had experiences I never want again; I watched a man die in the bed next to mine, and could do nothing to help as I was in too much pain to even make a sound. I met many people over the month, most of who were giving up on a normal life, after having various medical problems. But there was one man who stayed positive, and always tried to cheer everyone up. Bob was an amputee who had spent 6 months on the ward a few years previous, and now was back, with infection spreading through his remaining leg. There was a high chance he would have to have his only leg removed. Bob’s dream was to compete as an archer in the Paralympics. While everyone else was giving up, Bob was trying to make the most out of his situation and stay positive. After being discharged, I realised how lucky I am compared to all the people I met, I still have the ability to live a normal life, and so I feel I need to make the most of it. I have the opportunity to do something many people can only dream of doing, and I will make the most of this opportunity.
After our first meeting, we met up again to share some ideas, and organise job roles in the forthcoming project. A rough treatment was written, detailing our plans. (Below)
Treatment
Opening up our documentary we will be introducing the tragic story about what happened to Jack, where he was laying in a hospital bed with his whole life ahead of him. Including a dramatic interview where he opens up to the audience about his experience before coming to University.
This will then carry on as our documentary will be orientated around Jack as its quite an eye opening story.
The purpose of the story is to connect with the audience and inspire them to realise their more fortunate than they think.
Prospective locations
– TV studio
– Watershed
– Broad mead
– Stokes Croft
– Gloucester Rd
– Bear pit
– Drake and Nelson House (near)
– City Scape
– BBC
– Park street
– Cabot tower
Production Roles
Director – Jess
Producer – Tom
Sound – Jack and Lawrence
Lighting – Jack and Lawrence
Camera – Jessica
Editing – Lily and Niall
Interview Questions
1. Why have you come to Bristol?
2. Who and what have inspired you since or to be here?
3. Whats your aspirations?
Following our first meeting, I booked out a camera and began collecting ‘filler shots’ of the city centre, to help set the scene.
Using the Bristol media website, I compiled a database of media companies around bristol, noting who they are, what they do, examples of work and contact details. This can be used to aid my research report, as well as being a useful resource for contacting companies for this media futures project, as well as future projects yet to be started.
We created a Facebook page, where our production group would be able to easily communicate, share ideas, set up meetings and show our progress so far.
Here is the link to our group page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/252097698270769/
We had a tutorial meeting with Alison, where we explained our idea so far. Alison suggested we try and incorporate more of our research on the media spaces and companies around the city into our documentary, and focus on ‘the journey’ (post, present and future)’ rather than just the reasons behind our choice to study in the city on the course.
After this tutorial, the group started to head in a direction I was more satisfied with. We changed our idea dramatically, from being focussed on my story of how I came to be here, we started to focus on Bristols media landscape. We also decided that, instead of just my interview, we would instead feature 3 – 4 interviews, with members of our group, and 2 – 3 interviews with media related people. We decided that the interviewees would be Niall, Tom and I.
Our interviews were about why we choose to come to Bristol, where we planned to go and what opportunities there were for us here. We wrote our interviews as pre-scripted monologues, rather than a conventional interview. Below is the first draft of my interview.
Interview Rewritten
Hi, my names Jack, I’m studying Filmmaking and Creative Media at the University of the West of England. I chose the course after doing A-level Media at college, and realising how much I enjoyed the Filmmaking module. Bristol as a city has a very cultural reputation, and a high quality of life. It is very accommodating to students, with two universities. Bristol is famously a very arty city, with strong media connections and art in almost every part of the city; from elaborate graffiti, most notably Banksy, to the exhibition spaces such as Spike Island and the Watershed. Everyone I knew who had studied at Bristol, or even visited the city, would rave about how nice a place it is, and that compelled me to visit, to see for myself. Sure enough I was immediately captivated by the cities vibrant and homely feel. There are many media related companies in Bristol, from the well known BBC, through to the scarcely known free lancers and small time companies. One such company which has grabbed my attention is ‘Aspect Film and Video’, the UK’s first dedicated video and social content marketing agency. They work with companies all over the world, helping them to produce effective video content and campaigns. It is staffed by a team of 24, most with prior experience in filmmaking or media, and a few straight out of university. The amount of small successful companies in Bristol is a true representation of how media related the city is, and fills me with a lot of confidence that there is a lot out there for me when I finish university.
We decided that we would film the interviews of our group members in the TV studio, as that way we would have more control, and make the shots look more professional. We had to fill out a risk assessment form for the studio detailing what we planned to do. (Below)
During a group meeting, which I could not attend, our producer and director had some kind of dispute over creative control, ending with the producer renouncing his role, wanting no further input to the production. Although this was not an ideal thing to happen, as we then had to share the producers duties as well as continuing our own roles, it did enable us to complete work faster as there were no longer arguments between the director and producer.
We took out a camera and sound equipment for a number of days, to collect shots of Bristol, interviews with companies or media individuals and to shoot our interviews in the TV studio. I filled out the Equipment Risk Assessment form. (Below)
We also made a filming schedule for the 3 days of filming, so that we collect the footage swiftly.
Wednesday 23rd 13:00 – Film shots of…
~ Cabot Tower and surrounding park
Thursday 24th 10:00 – Film shots of…
~ The Cube Independant Cinema
~The Watershed
~ Stokes Croft
~ Gloucester Road
~ The Bearpit
~ Head Record Shop
~ Street Performers around Broadmead
~ Cabot Circus Shopping Centre
Thursday 24th 16:00 – Interviews in Studio
– Interviewees ~ Jack Davis
~ Tom Fawcus
~ Niall Corish
~ Jess Dalgic
On the 23rd October, Jess, Lily, Jess and I met at Cabot Tower to collect shots of the park and surrounding area to accompany Nialls interview. Unfortunately Niall couldn’t make it meaning we had to choose the shots, rather than shoot the ones he may have envisaged to go with his interview.
On the second day, the 24th, Jess, Lily, Jess, Niall met up again to collect more shots, and conduct interviews with media individuals. A few day before, we had given each member of our group the task of contacting a media company, and asking them if we could interview or film on their premises. Unfortunately, the few of us who had bothered to seek permission, had only been met with declines. One place we were keen to film in was the Cube independent cinema, but the group member tasked with organising this, had not done so, nor had he turned up to help film. Fortunately, I was able to contact them on the day, and organise our group to film inside the building. Unfortunately we were unable to obtain an interview with the owners.
We carried on gathering shots, seeking permission in several private locations, such as Cabot Circus shopping centre, and Head music store. (Below)
I was unable to make it to film the next day (25th), as I had a matter of importance to deal with. Jess, Lily, Jess and Niall conducted two interviews in the centre with a couple of street performers. The first group were dancers, the second a singer. Although I felt these were not appropriate as they did not touch on media in Bristol, it was the directors choice what she wanted to film. Although they may help set the scene of Bristol, I think the interviews were somewhat irrelevant and time wasting. During the interviews, the sound was very over exposed, as they hadn’t set up the Tascam appropriately.
On the 24th, as well as filming shots described above, we booked out the TV Studio, to conduct our interviews. Rod helped by setting up the lighting to our specification, and placing a studio camera in the background as an interesting prop. We choose to use this prop, to add more depth to the interview, and show us as having a relation to filmmaking.
We had previously attended workshops, teaching us how to successfully conduct interviews, which was very beneficial to us. It helped us to speed up the process, whilst making it appear very professional.
We used to cameras to conduct the interviews, a Panasonic 101 as the primary camera, directly in front of the interviewees, and a DSLR off to the right. Unfortunately the DSLR shots did not work very well, but the Panasonic 101 shots looked fantastic.
We decided to record the sound onto a Tascam using a shotgun mic, rather than straight onto the camera. This meant we could have more control over the sound, with higher quality.
We used a clapper so that syncing the clips and audio would be easier for the editors.
We all took individual roles whilst filming, making the whole process easier. Unfortunately, Some were better in front of a camera than others, meaning it took a while to get right without mistakes. The main problem with the interview, was that as the interviewee’s read their scripts, their eyes could be seen darting across the page hidden behind the camera, making the whole thing seem less fluent.
We decided to add an extra interview, so Jess improvised on the spot, without a script.
Below are the three scripts we used, excluding Jess’s as hers was improvised.
My Script
Hi my name is Jack and I have come to Bristol for a number of reasons but my main drive has come from a past experience. Back in May I spent a month in hospital and met many people whose lives had been dramatically changed and would never be able to live a normal life. The experience made me more aware of the opportunities that I have. After visiting Bristol I realised this was the place for me. Bristol as a city has a very cultural reputation and a high quality of life. It is very accommodating to students and especially for someone like me who has chosen a media related course. It is a breath of fresh air to be surrounded by a city full of iconic sights and inspiring people.
Niall’s Script
Hi, I’m Niall, I’m 19 and I’ve lived in Bristol my whole life. When it came to making the decision about where I wanted to go to university I thought long and hard about the cities and places id always wanted to live in. It wasn’t until I looked a little closer at the opportunity on my own doorstep that I realised Bristol was the place to be. I love the city so much and being at Cabot Tower, one of my favourite places in the city, I looked out at everything and realised I had no desire to leave. Part of my decision was boosted by the incredible opportunity and market for media in Bristol, it has a huge basis for media in all forms. Icon, who specialise in documentary and wildlife based filmmaking have been a huge interest of mine alongside Watershed and The Cube. Two independent cinemas that both have a unique style.
Tom’s Script
Hi I’m Tom, I’m 20 years old and I’m studying filmmaking at UWE Bristol. I always wanted to study in Bristol and only Bristol as its got more urban culture than any city I’ve been to – especially my hometown of Milton Keynes, which hasn’t existed long enough to develop and real sense of culture. What drew me to Bristol mostly was the opportunities available here in the different sectors of media. Although I’, studying film, at first I was most interested in the music scene as its very divers and has a big reggae influence. Since coming here I’ve enjoyed the first few weeks of my course and have learnt a lot of interesting things about filmmaking. I’ve been impressed with the range of opportunities for filmmakers in Bristol. There are a lot of inspiring local success stories including some of ex-students from the same course who have achieved lots through putting in the work and networking well in the city. There are also many success stories of local independent companies doing cool things inside and outside of the media sector.
The last thing to do was edit, which was the role taken by Lily and Niall. Due to the problems we underwent throughout the project, the editors were given less time than we would have liked, meaning the project was quite rushed, and we were not able to view the finished product until the day it was due for screening.
Jack Davis Filmmaking 