We prepared for the final filming day of our documentary today, by arranging the final interview and final footage. 

What remains now is the writing of the structure in order to find out what needs to be said within the voice of god, which also requires recording. I’ll create one pronto.

Hopefully the piece will be strong and informative.  

Over the weekend I am going to iron out all the problems in my crime thriller script which I wrote last year and put it forward as an idea for the final major project. 

It’s alot more possible to make this script into an actual short film, and I’m quite proud of how it’s creative and simple. 

I think the team are getting somewhere now with ideas anyway…

Yesterday I made very good progress on the final promo film. The soundtrack has been changed the new version is alot more upbeat than before which should please the client.

The amended next draft will finally be sent next week and hopefully I won’t get any more complaints. 

After that, the other group should submit their amended versions and prep an edit presentation. 

Only two weeks left to put together our documentary. The next week should involve me writing and recording the voice over (we have chosen our voice of god after six auditions) and the first draft of the documentary get edited. Just one more day of filming to go (the final interview) and it’s just a matter of getting everything together. 

I’m in the middle of creating graphics, and upon watching CBBC (our intended channel) I can see that they use arrows with the interviewees descriptions which could be handy for our documentary. I also plan to film our ident and creating an opening and ending sequence. I should be able to finish compiling the music ready for the film. 

Once the structure of the documentary is finished, I’ll use that to create the voice over. I want it to be informative (“the food is made out of…”) as well as entertaining (“Remember to hold your hand flat when feeding the animals”) ect. Hopefully the first draft will have lots of energy to appeal to our target audience. 

Today was slightly productive in that I did three paragraphs of my essay to analyse the work of Jennifer West. 

Now what remains is me to analyse other video installation work to compare it with Jennifer West’s work.

I’ll use books as well as the internet for research. 

Today we looked through the voice of god auditions and found which one was best so far. 

We also continued with editing by cutting out the irrelevant parts, and deciding which parts remain to be filmed. 

The next day for filming is Thursday, in which we will film people making the most of the park from a customers (child’s) point of view.  

I’m finalising the plans for the next draft of the Business episode. It has finally gotten completed after so long, considering I had to think about all the footage I had and put them together creatively and in line with what the client wants. 

I’ll get this draft edited together this week, but this time I will be more versatile with how the footage cuts to the beat - just in case I get another soundtrack change request it will only be a matter of changing the song and not the entire film as before.

I want to get this done quickly as the client’s website is to be “revamped” soon… 

Today I compiled the first 6 voice of god auditions and just 2 or 3 more to record before the final decision is made hopefully by next week.

I played each of them over a some clips of video and edited the sound in Soundtrack Pro to make it better. 

Hopefully one will stand out above the others - I as the sound person, doesn’t want to get this wrong.

Today we cut out the parts of the recorded two interviews and two shadows that wasn’t required, such as questions in between the answers and hesitations ect. We also made a list based on what we have so far on what remains to film for the next two days of filming we have planned, which include stock footage as cutaways for what the interviews talk about, the next and final interview, and sounds.

We began the auditions for voice of god today, gaining recordings of people reading out from a paragraph we wrote. There are two more to audition before we decide who should play the voice of god. 

I will send my interview techniques file to the director to see if we are ready before setting up an interview date with the final interviewee. 

Today we visited S1 Artspace to see a piece of video installation by Jennifer West. 

From what I could see, the work were projections on a high white wall of clips of films (like Jaws) which had been “defaced” with a heavy coloured old stock effect. 

I don’t quite get what it all means, but hopefully when I think about it more I’ll get it. 

Today we logged and transferred footage from our documentary shoot yesterday. Turned out better than expected - we gained another interview and a shadow tour without planning it beforehand. 

I am glad the sound was hearable. 

Now just the next interview and extra footage to film, then to put it all together and script/record a voiceover. 

Today was our first of three days filming at Graves Park, Sheffield for our documentary. 

We managed to gain two interviews including our expert interview and unexpectedly a volunteer’s interview. Both went well - the sound (my role) was hearable and clear during the expert one (although there were interruptions during the interview from other staff) but I’m not too sure about the sound for the 2nd interview as the outside wind constantly caught the mic…

We’ll log and capture tomorrow. The 2nd day should involve the next interview (of which I am to conduct) and the 3rd and final day for any extra footage we need. In the meantime I hope to finish my interview techniques file ready for the next filming day and hold auditions for the voice actor/actress (I am happy with how involved I am getting with sound production). 

Today I completed the “Interview Planning” section of my Interview Techniques file. For this I had to consider when to do the interview, when to do it, and any requirements of the interview including equipment. 

For this interview to be a success, the logistics should be right as well as the questioning.

What remains is Structuring and Preparation (the actual stuff influenced by the beforehand research) and then finally we can set about conducting. Tomorrow when we visit the park (to record our expert interview) I will determine where the interview will take place and how suitable it is (hopefully I won’t find a room with a humming incubator inside it).  

For the planning file I have completed the purposes of research and preparatory research part. Just the Methods of research and Interview Planning to go and then we can move onto conducting. 

I have chosen to be quite disciplined in what my interview will be focussing on, as I have used the proposal to work out my theme (The home in which the animals are cared for) and as a template for research.

I am finding out alot of things to ask my interviewee, so the final part of the file - Interview Planning - should be easy to write as long as it is informed by the other parts.  

Since the director was ready to interview the expert, we arranged an interview date with him, and this is next Monday. 

All equipment has been booked including a Sony EX1 (our previous chat with the interviewee suggested that a Canon would not have enough memory) and Tascam for me to record sound. 

In the meantime I will further move on with my production file and interview techniques file for when it is my turn to conduct an interview.