Editing and Class feedback.

During the editing process I continued to focus on longer shots, I coupled this with a voice over from the interview with Anand and background music to add emotional undertones. I tried to keep the colour theme darker than usual which worked particularly well in certain shots but resulted in an over saturated colour in other shots. By the time I was done editing the film had begun to take shape, telling the story of how Anand first joined boxing to his experiences with the physical and emotional aspects of the sport. I chose to cut out diegetic sound for the most part as it gave more focus to Anand talking and gave the impression that we were seeing the world of boxing through his eyes.

During feedback the class commented that they liked the cinematography and editing. They liked the stylistic shots used but did notice the saturation, some people felt it would be better to have the film focus on multiple characters. We wanted the film to appeal to as many people as possible so chose to have the class vote on whether or not it should follow one person, the majority felt that the film worked better following just Anand. Another point of feedback was that there was too much audio of him speaking, I agreed with this and will probably allow more silence so that the shots can breathe and viewers pay more attention when Anand does speak rather than switching off.
Overall I feel the taster went really well, the class was impressed with the film overall but offered pointers and constructive criticism that I feel can be used to improve the overall quality of the film.

Filming process continued

After the first few weeks of filming we continued to try and get a diverse range of clips showing the training regime that Anand underwent. We had weekly meetings as well as sessions with Dafydd that helped to develop the process. The film started to take a direction towards focusing more on Anand as an individual.

To convey this we booked out the sound booth to record an interview that could later be used as a voice over within the film. Unfortunately the audio didn't record properly but I remedied this by borrowing equipment and interviewing him at home. This was a fortunate accident as he was much more relaxed in a familiar environment when it was just 1 to 1.

When it came to filming I focused on the same sort of stylistic shots id been using throughout the whole process although as advised I chose to keep the shots longer rather than having fast cuts. I also began to film him going about day to day activities such as university work, cooking, and teaching at the university boxing club. My goal was to gain as much coverage as possible so that the film could change pace and direction if it needed to. For the filming of the class we took consent forms so that we could get everyone's signatures to appear within the film.

Reading Week. Beginning Filming.

                                                               Reading Week

                During Reading week we held a meeting with the entire group to finalize role changes,
I was to undertake cinematography whilst Leila became Director and Johanne kept the roles of sound and producer. We discussed the best way to film the documentary and what to expect on the first shoot, looking up weather to gain a rough idea of the kinds of conditions we would be exposed to. we chose a cloudy and dry day as the natural lighting was more likely to remain consistent than if we had direct sun exposure, the dry weather also meant there was far less risk of the equipment being damaged by water.

We also came to the conclusion that we should try and book the boxing ring for private use, this would allow us to observe Anand training without having to worry about other people getting in the way. We would also be able to manipulate the lighting to best suite our documentary's stylistic approach, we set a film date for Thursday and i adjusted my cameras settings to best suite the cloudy conditions we where expecting to film in.

During Thursdays shoot we had to deal with high winds and a faulty Tascam, this meant we were unable to capture sound for the entire shoot. I decided to still try and get the visuals as the stormy weather created a dark cinematic look that created the sense of grueling training sessions. I knew that we could mask the absence of sound with music or re-film on a calmer day should sound be necessary for this scene.

        I opted for a low ISO to combat the over exposure from the sun and a low aperture where possible to create a shallow depth of field, this worked particularly well with low angle shots of Anand as it really brought focus and attention to his feet giving a new perspective of running.

For another shot we chose to track him running, following with a car. For this i chose a wider aperture so that he remained in focus despite the amount of movement that was occurring.

I felt that some of these shots really captured the aim of our Documentary, to depict boxing in an artistic and stylized manner through the use of imagery.

We also filmed him shadow boxing, for this shot i wanted to convey the idea that this was a way for him to escape into his own world and also to play on the word 'shadow'. I set up the lights in our kitchen and tried to illuminate him as much as possible. I then adjusted the cameras settings with a higher aperture and lower ISO to create a darker environment. The result was that everything around him was black, consumed by shadows.

Week 6 Pre-Production

                                      Week 6

During week six I held a meeting with the cinematographer of the group to storyboard the first shoot. This was a great way to convey the kind of style that I wanted to film in. We discussed location, the types of shots used, equipment needed, availability of the actor, and how the environment may effect shooting. We also looked at the time of sunset to gain an idea of how much light we would have to work with so that we could plan the shooting time accordingly. 
During our first meeting Dafydd suggested we change roles to offer a neutral perspective of the world of boxing. Having someone direct who didn't know much about the sport would offer a more unbiased perspective, whilst also focusing less on the technicality of the sport and more on the visuals.

He also suggested focusing more on stylistic images than interviews, urging us to avoid sit down interviews where possible and use visual representations to tell the story rather than rely on sound as a form of narrative.

With this meeting in mind we agreed to change roles, while I was excited primarily about being a director I also looked forward to the chance to pursue cinematography. With my own experience at boxing I already had an understanding of what shots would look visually appealing and how to go about the process of filming it all. I also had access to my own DSLR (a Nikon D5200) meaning I could experiment with the cameras settings in my own time to get used to creating different visual effects. I also had the benefit of living with the student that the story would revolve around, meaning I could follow him in depth and get a deeper insight into his life inside and outside of boxing.

                           

Week 3 and 4 Finding a group and delivering a pitch

Week 3 was the week that I decided on a group for my Documentary production project.

I chose to work with two others, one I had previous experience working on set with and another that a friend of mine had worked with and given good feedback about. We used the session to discuss ideas for our film, I already had the idea of a boxing documentary but was eager to hear what thoughts and suggestions they had on the matter. In the end we decided to run with my idea and produce a documentary on the boxing club.

Week 4 we held two meetings, the first was to decide roles.

When choosing the roles we played to our strengths. Since I was passionate about the project and had a vision in mind I took on the role of director. 

During the second meeting we planned out the pitch we would have to give to the class, I focused on the visual elements I wanted to include and we showed a clip from the movie 'Southpaw' which I had taken inspiration from. We also planned out the types of shot we would include, aiming for a very visually appealing documentary where sit down interviews would be avoided.

During the delivery of the pitch I had originally arranged for a demonstration, the groups were late starting however so we had to discard this idea. Viewing other groups’ pitches was a good way to inspire me with my own project as it allowed me to see what topics and themes interested the rest of the class.

Week 1 Documentary Production. Developing an idea.

During this week I had my first idea on the kind of documentary I wanted to make. I had joined the boxing committee at the start of the year and also helped teach twice a week, I knew that I would have open access to this club meaning it would be relatively easy to film. I had learnt from the previous year that a documentary on something local would give me room for far more filming shoots. The second thing I had learnt from the previous year was that the documentary needed to be engaging and entertaining, far too many documentaries nowadays follow a strict pattern of interviews that led to a bored audience.

I thought of ways to make it more entertaining. Me and another committee member wanted to step into the ring to experience a boxing match first hand and had agreed to fight against each other. This offered a unique insight for the documentary, I could track our training towards the fight whilst also document how we ran the club ending in an eventual climax where we fought. This was sure to offer lots of content to film whilst also providing something engaging for the audience, they would want to watch the whole documentary rather than switch off halfway through the viewing.