Sound

For the sound we were going to be using music throughout this was one of the first things we decided as the images just didn't work without sound, we had found the music we were using and Charlotte had painstakingly got the copyright and it was just a case of tweaking the levels for this bit accordingly for the speech. The interviews had been cut down and the pieces of interview that are being used need to be cleaned up a little although we were very fortunate with locations and we didn't really have much background sound to cut out, We have tried to be a little experimental in places such as making the sound which was music sound like it was coming from inside in one of our establishing shots. We also cut the music at the end when the record player comes up and we brought it back in for the credits, this was a little risky and i wasn't really confident in my decision until i saw it in our assessed tutorial. 

This was Chris editing the sound to the final draft of the video.

The Edit

During the edit it became clear that it wasn't going to be as simple as i had first thought, our first stage was to transcribe all of the interviews, we did this first because the idea was that if we transcribed the interviews with time markers it should be easier to look over the script and highlight good points and then go to the time and chop them out into final cut. This proved more difficult to do as there were various bits that just went on for ages with no place for them to be cut. We eventually got 4 sections on the timeline of good quality interview to work from. We knew the cafe stuff was going to be at the beginning and the Bar and evening stuff at the end but it was proving difficult to interlink them. We struggled with the initial part of the edit as it was difficult for me to give Danni clear instruction as she was watching the footage for the first time also, so it took a little bit longer for us both to get on the same wavelength. I think that's one of the main differences between editing for documentary and drama is that an editor can have a story board to work from with drama, or can get away with being a bit more experimental but the fact that we didn't have time to do that because we only had five days really wasn't helpful. Once we had got the initial structure out of the way which took two days, we began working on fine tuning it, it went from 10 minutes 30 to 8 minutes running time, we had secured the rights to the songs so we were able to start adding them in at the final cut stage. Me and Charlotte starting editing the film to the music and moving things around so they accentuated the soundtrack better. I wanted the music to interlink with the story and interact a little more as the music is a large subject in the film. I went through the edit several times and gave Charlotte the notes, to go through adding more ideas for the sound also. The editing process was easy enough after this as i was happy with all of the footage we had captured and it was just a case of colour correcting everything, we wanted everything to be bright and vibrant, the documentary had a fast pace so this fit in really well.  I feel the amount of information we conveyed in the piece was adequate to the story, there was quite of lot of debate about that but i think as a team we managed to get it right. Looking over the finished piece now i'm extremely happy with the way it turned out. I will write a blog post on our feedback from our tutor and peers in the assessment. 

Charlotte working from my notes during the edit.

Some of my note taking during the edit for sound colour
 correction and just sharpening the edit.

Colour correction.

More colour correction.

Soundtrack Pro.

Danni editing.

Sorting the sequence out during edit.

Other Interviews;


Okeh Cafe
During the interview with the owners of Okeh cafe, he told us about how he was a second generation mod, he really looked the part and looked really good on camera. That particular day it was really sunny, so we had to spend a little while adjusting the blinds in the cafe, i also had to bear in mind that the lighting would have to fit the other shots we had got from Okeh cafe, so after we had got all the preliminary continuity things out of the way we began the interview, he was really talkative but he was quite quiet on camera, he was also talking to me as if we were holding a conversation and that i would be on camera, which was not the case so i had to answer back to him at some stages. He told a few really nice stories about how he got into the scene and one of them was about when he was in hospital and his mum brought him a magazine to read and he saw loads of pictures of 60's mods, and he got his mum to take in his levi 501 jeans and started wearing fred perry and bought himself a moped. I was on camera for this and i had composed the shot and corrected the ISO, but there were some parts of the interview where the sun got really strong through the window and it made it a little bright, also the sun would vanish completely and it would leave the shot slightly grainy.

Woody's
We managed to get an interview with the owner of Woody's cafe on eccelsall road, this was one of the suggestions from the woodseats gig that we had previously dismissed that had been told to us in passing conversation. But we rang up the cafe, and we arranged to interview the owner who had previously been an mod and as we found out was the head of the Sheffield scooter club. I am so glad that we decided to follow this interview through as he ended up being the most warming character of all of our interviews. He had a genuine passion for the scene that really came across and he gave the piece a very nostalgic feel while still being about the present. He brought his scooter along and we captured some of our best scooter shots while outside the cafe. During the interview i had cobbled together some questions about an hour before as we had arranged this on really short notice after the Okeh cafe interview. But he really listened to the questions and answered back to us, for this shoot me and Charlotte shared the role of camera and this worked really well i feel this was a really small location but we used it to our full advantage. 


The Green Room
During the green room interview we were pretty rushed for time, I found it difficult to stop Dave in his tracks when he was talking, He didn't convey the same kind of warmth as the other two cafe interviews, but he was extremely knowledgeable about music. I asked him a few questions about the staple bands of the genre hoping to cut into the interview but he spoke so fast it was near impossible. The shot of the actual interview was quite interesting, it might be worth noting that i used a 4.8 mm lens for all of the interviews so they all looked similar in style. We used the green room mostly for its location, i was already building in my head which characters were going to steal the show, so we cut the interview after 10 minutes and went and filmed around the bar, Me and Charlotte were the only two present on this shoot and we used a shoulder mount to capture the shots, I found it easier to direct with just us two as we were in a large crowd and with any more of us it would have been too hard. We captured interesting shots using mirrors and using windows with the green room logo. We had to be quite stealthy to get some of our really interesting shots, it was a case of seeing a conversation between two people in fred perry shirts and finding an angle to shoot it from quickly before it stopped. I feel that we would have had no chance with a tripod so this was good to bear in mind for any others shoots i may be present on in future. 

SOUL CASINO

Inside the radio booth.

Poster for Stevlar's Soul Casino.

Chris in charge of sound.

We interviewed a guy who ran the northern soul sector of a local Sheffield radio station,. 'Stevlor'. He met us outside the showroom, and me and Chris Aitkenhead followed him up the stairs to interview him. We watched his radio show and captured some footage from that, one of the best things we captured sound and camera wise was the opening of the radio show. Watching the radio show allowed me to write down a few more relevant questions as we talked to him between breaks. During the interview 'Stevlor' was able to talk us through his own personal journey with soul after the radio show, i was concerned about getting a more personal response as i knew we were going to struggle to back up masses of factual information with appropriate cutaways. I got him to talk about how he got into the scene, hoping he would have some interesting stories to tell, I think the main struggle with this interview is that Stevlar wasn't a mod, he was extremely knowledgeable about the genre but he wasn't a mod. He talked about various nights that happen around sheffield, and because he worked on radio he had good tone and volume in his voice which is a massive plus when making a documentary. I am thinking about using the opening of the radio show as the start of our documentary as i feel it lends a certain feeling of delving into another world. One thing that happened right at the end of the interview was the camera ran out for the last question, i think this was a good reminder to bring extra batteries as it wasn't really a problem but it made us more wary for other interviews.

Woodseat's Shoot.

During the shoot for Woodseat's social club, Myself, Charlotte and Chris were present. We weren't capturing sound for this shoot so it enabled Chris to get more involved in the camera work. We were initially a little dissapointed with the turn out for the event and had to stay a bit later than we had intended to, but i'm glad we stuck it out as we got some really good shots that i think are really going to help us make up the latter part of the documentary and incorporate the sound. We used our initiative and got up on the stage and captured some full room shots of people dancing, we also shot some really good stuff with the dj using vinyl to mix and the songs, we really exhausted this location and had to be unafraid of embarrassing ourselves as we stuck out a little bit. I asked permission from one guy in particular in a 'Quadrophenia' t'shirt who was dancing in the original mod style. There were some really interesting character's there and it was really good for us to chat to people and network as we gained some really useful contacts for the interviews in our documentary. 

The following is for group use.
I just wrote this up for everyone so we can be clear about the kind of questions we are asking each contributor so we don't just have 4 interviews with exactly the same content.

Shot List and Structure

I would like to get some medium static shots of people dressed in typical mod clothing, using a 24mm lens against an interesting background to get a nice sharp focus, possibly at least 5 shots so we can make a small montage long enough to fill a short interview question about clothing. During the interview I will ask what the specific types of clothing are, it then provides a basis for us to get these shots.

For the documentary structure I want to emphasise the fact that it is shot in Sheffield, including the directions to some of the locations in the interview will help do this. We should aim to get a minimum of three interviews but preferably five. With the interviews I will intercut each one, so it does not just focus on the life of one person. I want the piece to have a clear beginning and end, so for the first 20 seconds of the documentary, I would like to show images of Sheffield that relate to mod culture, possibly using tracking shots for the establishing shots.  I want to create the illusion of day turning into night, so the beginning of the film can feature the café and the motorbike shop talking about some of the history of Sheffield such as the music, with interviews ending in what they like to do in an evening, leading onto the radio DJ and the various nights that are held around Sheffield.

During the interviews I will introduce the characters using onscreen text along with them saying their name and place of work, so the audience knows who does what and where in Sheffield.

Sample interview questions for Oke’h café.

1.       Could you state your name and where you work.

2.       What is the purpose of this café / could you talk a little about the café

3.       Who comes in here mostly and what do you like to provide?

4.        When did you get into the mod culture. (please repeat the question back to me while you answer)

5.        What did you find aspirational about the culture, what enticed you to become a mod / where did the mod culture start?

6.        Mod fashion and music is so iconic, could you describe some of the most iconic things for us?

7.        What was the mod culture around Sheffield like in its hay day?

8.        How does that differ to now?

9.       Why have you stayed true to the culture for so long, what keeps you in it?

1.     What places do you most like to go in Sheffield, are there any nights that you could specify?

11.    Extra questions for Dee’s husband if possible, could you go into the specifics of male mod fashion.

12.   Dee extra question could you go into detail about female mod fashion?

Things to keep in mind, don’t go into music too much as this will come in later interviews, talk about scooters as this will provide a basis for second interview.

Scooter shop.

1.       Could you state your name and where you work for me (how long have you worked here)?

2.       In your place of work who generally comes in?

3.       Would you say that you cater to specifically mod’s?

4.       What is the staple of a mod motorbike? Any iconic things that would be on it?

This session is mostly for image, but any useful information can be used to echo any other interviews. I did notice when I went in to chat to the owner that a mod was working but he was busy so I was unable to speak to him, but he might be there so it might be interesting to chat to him.

Radio DJ

1.      Could you please state your name and where you work?

2.       How long have you been a radio DJ?

3.       What type of music do you specialise in and why?

4.       How do you find the reception for your music in Sheffield?

5.       What are the staple bands that define the Mod era?

6.       What kind of nights do you most enjoy about Sheffield?

7.       Could you in a few sentences describe what it is to be mod?

8.       How do you think Sheffield fares against other city’s in keeping mod culture alive?

9.      Do you think the Mod culture has a future?

Any other questions that come up while we ask is helpful; just remember big pauses between questions.

Green Room DJ

1.       Could you please state your name and occupation?

2.       What kind of music do you play when you play at bars, and why?
3.   Do you feel that Mod culture appeals to younger people or is it 'of its time'
4.   What is your favourite aspect of the culture?
5.   Could you please give us a breif history of where it all started?
5.   

I would like to interview random people at some of the events briefly also and just ask the question "what is a mod?" and to give a breif answer, depending on the variation of the answers we receive this would make for a nice ending to the piece. Its only an idea so far but i think it would round our piece off nicely so its not so interview based.

Post Poetic Documentary.

After showing our poetic documentary i was pleased with the results, we got a good reception and good feedback, people thought our shots were interesting and well composed, one of the only negative comments was about the pull focus which we were already aware of. We went away happy but wondering what else we could add into our documentary, we have arranged interviews with a local radio DJ that specialises in mod music, we have also secured an interview with a local mod that runs a night at the 'Green room' in Sheffield, the manager of 'Green room' has courteously allowed us to film inside the venue, and have said that if we should need a quieter space for the interview we can use the kitchen. As the director its up to me to decide how we should structure these interviews into the film, i had the idea to do a transition from day to night early on, our subject calls for an abundance of image as mod culture spans so many areas such as fashion and music, we only have 10 minutes for the entire documentary which could prove to be a problem, this problem can only really be tackled through the concise planning of interview questions, i will try to avoid getting the same answer twice. The only downfall is because of our limited knowledge so far of the overall mod genre it is difficult to predict an answer