PRODUCTION: SCRIPT V5

Our newest script has now been done and this will be the one we go into Production with. This has been the biggest change with what's happening story wise. There is now another event that we will be filming at which is a Drag Queen pageant in Folkstone that Conor is taking part in so we now have 2 live events that we will be filming at.

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Jemma spoke to me in regards to the first page of the script and explained that although we are now filming actual events rather than making one, we'll still be filming at the Tom Thumb Theatre but using it to film the title sequence for the documentary which Jemma is currently planning out. (Separate post to be made about that). There is now a montage at the beginning of the script which after speaking to Jemma she's explained that the footage for this montage will be from the live events, for Amy however we don't yet have an event so Jemma and Victoria are looking into one that we can go to. 

The opening with Tanya has her doing a live stream which hasn't changed from the original however, Jemma now wants footage both from our cameras and also the live stream directly from Tanya's phone as it can be recorded while she streams live. For the remaining sections for Tanya the script hasn't changed so it will be general GV's. One of the biggest differences with Tanya though is the preparation for the live stream changed from preparation for a photoshoot, the change here is that the live stream allows us to film more and gives us extra footage with Tanya recording the stream through her phone. 

With Conor, now I've been told we'll be filming his interview at his house with his husband. We'll also be filming him prepare for the pageant. This would likely be handheld footage following Conor through his preparation, handheld would be the best option as it allows us to follow Conor while he prepares, although tripod would be more stable, it takes a lot more time to set up and also takes up a lot more space. 

PRODUCTION: EDITOR RESEARCH (ONLINE)

As we get closer to the production process I need to research more into being an Editor. Although I'm not finished being a DOP I feel confident with the prep and research I've done for this role.

I annoyingly can't contact any Editors as they appear to be harder to contact that DOP's or camera operators. However, there is plenty of online research from actual Editors and Online Masterclass's which I can use to research into this role. The first that I found was from an online film maker called Phil Ebiner who is the creator of Video School Online which was set up back in 2012 to allow people to learn how to create professional videos via YouTube without a fee. One of his quick videos shows the process of Editing a documentary:

The beginning of this video Phil explains the way he chooses to edit a documentary. His way to edit is: Import - Organise - Select - Combine - Cut - Colour & Grade - Music + Graphics - Level Audio

Phil does say that he may sometimes add music and graphics and then do the grade which I feel would be more likely my style of editing as I feel grading should be kept right until the end. As the video goes on, Phil talks more about how detailed his organising is and this is something I know I'll need to do during the edit. However, I haven't considered how I'm going to organise this yet as Phil says it needs to be in a way that the Editor (me) can easily find the footage. For me, I think the most likely option will be for me will be organising the footage by days as we will be with different people or events so it would help me break it all up. Within those folders though I'll likely separate the footage between the cameras, so for blackburn I'd have 3 folders; Sony A7S, Panasonic 1 & Panasonic 2 and then with those I'd separate the performance videos and the interviews so they're easier to find during the edit.

Phil also uses new sequences every time he's making new changes to an edit. This is something I hadn't considered doing perviously. I usually would edit everything on one sequence but Phil explains that by doing this you can easily go back to a previous sequence is something messes but or you don't like the changes you made to a new sequence. This has also given me the idea to edit separate sections of the documentary in their own sequences such as the title sequence, the performances, etc. sections which would be better edited separately and then brought into the edit.

PRODUCTION ROOM: MANBROS PRODUCTIONS (KIT HIRE)

Due to budget restrictions, we aren't able to rent out the Canon C100. However, I asked Victoria is she could allow me to try and find a way to get the camera for the production as I felt it was best for me to shoot on and it would benefit the production more. From Creative Skillset I found A Director of Photography will also be in charge of choosing the equipment used for the production and work closely with the Producer to ensure the choice of kit fits within their allotted budget.
(Information gained from: http://creativeskillset.org/creative_industries/film/job_roles/759_director_of_photography)

I contacted a few rental houses to see if there was a cheaper option than what I found from Fatlama.com but unfortunately nothing was cheaper than around £100 per day which we don't have the budget for. I tried contacting the Film Production course at UCA Farnham to see if we were able to borrow one from their technical store but I had no luck here either. I've met DOP's and film makers such as Farren Blackburn, Lee Thomas, George Burt and Sam Creamer who all go to certain kit hire houses but also who borrow kit from friends and companies. Sam Creamer borrows UCA kit as he's also a Graduate Technical Assistant and has a good relationship with the course. Lee has often borrowed lighting from friends and Lighting Directors that he's worked with before and George Burt has a friend who he borrows an Arri Alexa Mini from. DOP's having good relationships isn't unheard off in fact I would argue it's expected with the job as well.

I year or so ago I worked with a Creative Director called Ben Mann who has his own production company 'Mann Bros Productions'. Ben and I worked on a short film a while ago and have kept in contact since. I've spoken to Ben previously about filming and asked some advice myself on getting work so contacted him to discuss whether or not we could arrange a kit hire with his company.

After some discussions with Ben I arranged that we could borrow a Canon C100. We spoke a few times and arranged a deal which wouldn't effect our budget, more of a favour on my half which will come back up later but he explained that we're welcome to use the camera for all our shoots as long as enough time is given. A contact was also written up for this deal which I signed and handed back over to Victoria.

PRODUCTION: NEW SHOOT: TANYA'S LIVE PERFORMANCE

A new change to the shoot and the script is the performance with Tanya. Now rather than filming a performance we've organised we're going to be able to film an actual event that she is going with some other Drag Queens.

Speaking to Victoria and Jemma, the shoot is taking place up in Blackburn and it'll be a good few hours of filming. Jemma and me sat together and I asked her what she wanted in terms of coverage. Jemma explained that she wanted to film both Tanya's performances (there's 2) and also wanted to get footage of the performers getting ready and interviews with Tanya before and after her performance. Speaking with Jemma and using my researching into the filming style of Ru Paul's Drag Race in the terms of a 2 camera set up going from a wide to a mid shot. I explained that I could adapt the camera plan I made for the Tom Thumb Theatre. Jemma said she wanted the actuality of everyone getting ready and she didn't see how 2 cameras set up on stage could help us get that.

After some discussion I explained that I could set up 2 Panasonic DVX200's on tripods in front of the stage filming in 4K to ensure we have high quality footage of the performance and Jemma explained she wanted to film the other queens as well as we may want to show them in the edit but all of Tanya's performances need to be filmed as a must. I'm also going to bring my Sony A7S camera with my shoulder rig and Rode VidMic Pro to film the vox pop style interviews (interviews won't be more than 2 minutes long apparently) and also to use this to grab some actuality of the queens getting ready as it's a lot smaller and easy to operate on a rig than the Panasonics.

I need to write up a shot list for myself and our other camera operator who will be Simon Lawrence and then make up the kit list as well.
The communication here with Jemma is exactly what I need to be doing as a DOP which I found from talking to Lee Thomas, Lee explained "You're their right hand man. No communication means no film, or at least no good film" (Lee Thomas) when talking about Directors and DOP's working together and this is clearly true. After talking with Jemma I'm fully aware of what she wants from this event and we'll still be communicating through the event when it comes to filming performances and then the actuality.

PRODUCTION: BISEXUAL LIGHTING RESEARCH

After the Tech run at the Tom Thumb Theatre, I wanted to look into the lighting which Jemma had talked about 'Bisexual Lighting'. Before researching into the lighting I searched on Instagram to see what would come up and found this photo:

The lighting looks to be a mixture of Blue, Pink and Purple, with potentially a fill light using a dimmed white light, this I could be wrong about though. However, I do really like the colours that this lighting brings out. It's very colourful and gives an almost club feel in this photo and for a performance I think I would work really nicely.

I researched into the lighting more and found this video online:

This helped me learn a little bit more about this type of lighting. Firstly I was right about the mixture of colours, the lighting is made up of Purple, Pink and Blue which are the three colours of the bisexual flag hence the name of the lighting. The lighting is becoming hugely popular for films, music videos and commercials due to its unique look. However this sort of lighting has been around for many years and in the video we see blue and pink lighting are often the choices for the '80s' look that we often get in films.

One film which is used as an example from the modern days is the film Atomic Blonde (2017) which has the main character bisexual and from this the films DOP Jonathan Sela chose to use bisexual lighting for the club scenes where the character would be flirting with other characters or kissing them. Examples of this are below:

 As well as this, the video talks about why this type of lighting could be so popular as currently it is being used a lot. One of the suggestions is that it's to show the support to the LGBT community and that it's becoming a trend, which would make sense as this does happen a lot, a few years ago Drag Queen performances weren't as mainstream but now we're getting more and more on TV both with reality shows like Ru Pauls Drag Race and documentaries such as Jamie at 16. The fact that the lighting is connected to the LGBT community, I can see why Jemma would want to use this lighting and it would work really nicely for the performance at the theatre. Likely to get this sort of lighting I would go with a simple set up with having either 1 or 2 key lights with blue gels on the performer, them a fill light to the left with purple and to the right with Pink to get the mixture of colours.

This is definitely lighting I could use for the performance with Tanya and I think would work really well with the performance. The fact we have the lights available at the theatre as well means I just need to get the gels to make the colours.

PRODUCTION: SCRIPT V4

With the newest version of the Script, Jemma informed me that we'll likely have another version coming prior to Production. So, for this reason I chose not to do a script breakdown but rather analysis it and the changes that've been made.

One of the biggest differences with this version is that Tanya isn't the main focus of the documentary anymore, now the screen time is split between 3 Drag Queens, Tanya, Conor and Oliver. Main points I've noted here is that with the interview set up I'll need to work closely with Jemma to ensure what we see in the interview helps tell each of their stories. On a technical note, likely we still won't be using the straight forward interview style and just keeping with the classic rule of third for the interviews (see example imagine on the right).

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A lot of the footage from page one which I wrote up in the previous shot list hasn't changed, however after speaking to Jemma and Victoria they explained they'd likely want to film Conor either at his work (a hair salon) or at his home rather than him and Oliver at the Tom Thumb Theatre. One of the main parts of feedback Jemma and Victoria received on the script from our tutors Simon and Helen is that in a documentary we want to see more actuality than interviews, we need to see the people doing something relevant, Conor styling a wig works as in the script it's noted that he'll talk about his drag and that he's a hair dresser as well. We need to find something for Oliver to do however, as he currently is in training to be cabin crew so we won't be able to work that into it or get permission to do that.

Jemma has discussed filming interviews static and as actuality as well. Something I actually came across when reviewing Ru Paul's Drag Race. The clip below is a scene from Drag Race all stars Season 2 (Spin off series but same concept) where we see an example of this:

Through this clip we see all the Queens chatty and getting ready mixed in with their sit down interviews, the actuality pulls in the audience and the interviews give us both opinions of the Queens and the entertainment with their interactions. Jemma has said getting footage like this would be ideal, such as Tanya getting ready to go into Drag but also maybe interacting with her Dad, Conor would be styling wigs as that's something he does and then we just need something for Oliver.