Reflecting on production of a documentary

Although I found the process of making this documentary very rewarding and enjoyable, there are certainly some changes I would make in the preproduction process if I decided to make a second documentary. I would definitely spend more time with my subjects and interviewees to develop the best possible rapport before shooting. I would also endeavour to undertake much more research because I feel that if I had been more informed during the process of shooting this documentary then I would have had a better footing to tell the best possible story.


Originally I had planned to shoot in the Oddessy cinema, the Queens Film Theatre, The Tudor Cinema and in college but, due to time constraints, communication problems and a few other factors, I was only able to get footage in one of these four locations. At the last minute, however, I was able to find another subject. A colleague of my mother's, as it turns out, used to be a projectionist at the Curzon Cinema in Belfast – before it was demolished. Which leads me to the third change I would make to the preproduction process; I would tell everyone I know that I am making the documentary. Particularly because Belfast is such a small community, I should have known that there would be someone close to me who would know someone related to the topic. I suppose that business cards or flyers would be the most effective way to get the word out, and social media of course.


Another change I would make in the preproduction process would be to confirm shooting permission with all locations in writing well in advance of going to shoot, because on the day we were due to shoot at the Oddessy Cinema, our permission was revoked by management. This in turn set the project back in terms of time.


The post-production process was not without it's own hiccups. Having recorded the footage on my Sony a37 and recorded the audio on a zoom h4n, I obviously had to sync the data in the editing software. The problem is that the build of Premiere Pro CS6 which I have seems to have a bug which prevents it from opening sequences which contain merged clips. Although, after much scouring of Adobe forums, I did stumble across a work-around; for two or three hours it looked like I had lost quite a lot of progress. In future I think the best prevention for this issue will be to merge clips in a separate project and export them each separately before importing the new merged clips into my main project.


I definitely would consider making another documentary, or even expanding on this topic further as I feel that, due to time and permission issues, it has come out quite light on information. My subject, Jim McKeown is confident that he can secure shooting permission for me in the Tudor Cinema, Comber and I would love to explore that opportunity. I would also make contact with the QFT and Oddessy cinemas again in the hope of coming to better agreements and getting them involved.

Documentary Viewing and references

In our documentary unit classes we have had screenings of notable and influential documentaries; from Robert J. Flaherty's "Nanook Of The North" (a pioneering docudrama from the early 20th century) to the polar opposite, quite literally, in Werner Herzog's  stunning, cinematic investigation of the people of Antarctica's Camp McMurdo "Encounters At The End Of The World".

My initial perception of documentary filmmaking, going into this module, was that it dealt purely with the factual. The thing that struck me about "Nanook..." was how Flaherty, in the 1920s had already begun to manipulate and influence the subjects in his film to give it a narrative. It then became clear that almost all documentary subjects, particularly human subjects, must be manipulated and influenced by the filmmaker. A documentary maker is no less a storyteller than a filmmaker who deals in fiction.

Since watching "Encounters..." I have watched a few other Herzog documentaries (Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Grizzly Man) and it seems to me that his greatest gift as a storyteller is his unique perspective. The pattern in the residents of McMurdo of having always been outsiders, loners or separatists of one kind or another is one that few others would have spotted, and the comparison between these people and the rogue penguin was quite moving.

Another stand-out documentary to me was Sarah Polley's "Stories We Tell". This film covers the challenging story of her upbringing, her parents' problems within their marriage, her search for her biological father and her mother's death. Although the subject of Polley's film is predominantly herself, the story is told in such a way that we are invited to share the experiences of all of the family that surrounded her parents throughout their marriage and during her search for her father. The use of very convincing re-enactments and recreations also brings the viewer much closer to the story.

The documentaries we have viewed in class have been very informative and useful to help me gain a better understanding of the role of a documentary filmmaker.

Treatment

Treatment


Working Title - Projection

Estimated running time - 5-6 Minutes

Plot Summary – To investigate the difference in the day to day work of a cinema projectionist in the time when film projectors have been retired in favour of digital systems. Are the skills of a projectionist now obselete? Would there be an argument for returning to film, in the same was that (in recorded music), vinyl has made a comeback in the last few years?

Themes adressed – Technology, nostalgia, film, skills and hands.

Pre-production and production methods – As pre-production, Eamon and I have been viewing a number of cinematic short documentaries to get a feel for what styles of photography are most effective in this kind of production, as well as to get an idea of what kind of pacing we should aim for. We have confirmed access to the Odessy Cinema projection room and are now seeking permission to shoot in the QFT and Tudor cinemas. The Odessy is going to be our example of a digital facility. The QFT have both film and digital projectors, and since it is a historic venue for film in belfast we are very hopeful that we will be able get footage of their projectors and screens in operation. The Tudor is one of very few cinemas which are still using film exclusively.

Setting/Location – Our film is set in and around the three cinemas mentioned above, with some shot also to be acquired in BMC millfield where we have enlisted the help of our head of course, Joe McKinney, who is himself a trained projectionist.

Intended Audience – Our intended audience is, first of all, our classmates and tutors and extends to Film and cinema enthusiasts and short documentary enthusiasts.

Research – Many internet forums feature entries from projectionists and cinema-goers who all have differing opinions on which medium is the more beneficial. Many, saying that the whirr of the 35mm projector is a sound that should be added to digital projectors and various other romantic/nostalgic ideas. The main upside of digital, it seems, is that it has the potential to make cinema much more democratic – giving filmmakers who cannot afford film reproduction for projection the chance to display their work in high resolution, to a cinema audience.

Budget – Since this is a very small production (only two crew members) the only required budget is for transport for the crew.

Equipment – As it stands, we plan to use my Sony a37 camera for the bulk of the footage, and possibly one of BMC's Sony Z5 camcorders for dolly shots and establishing shots of the exterior of the cinemas. For Audio we will be using BMC's sound kits and mics as well as my own zoom H4N and shotgun mic.


Crew – Matt McQuillan and Eamon O'Neill. Sharing all pre-production roles. Eamon will direct the production and Matt will operate the camera. A sound recordist will be recruited from our class.

Shooting Schedule – We plan to shoot all Odessy and BMC footage in the week commencing 25/11/12 and QFT and Tudor footage as soon as possible afterwards, subject to confirming permission from these facilities.

Film Projectors in and around belfast

We have been doing some research into which cinemas (if any) still run film projectors and we were surprised to find that there are several projectors still being advertised for use.

A cinema in comber runs 16mm film projections

http://www.anotherfinesite.com/Directions%20to%20the%20Tudor.htm

The Waterfront Hall actually have two top-end Kinoton projectors advertised

http://www.waterfront.co.uk/conferenceandmeetings/avprovision.aspx

And the QFT are known for running archive footage and advertise that they run a 35mm projector.

http://www.queensfilmtheatre.com/booknow/donate/

So we have plenty of contacts to make.

What do we need to show/ask?

The premise of this film is to show the difference in the day to day work of a cinema projectionist through the transition from film projectors to digital projectors. We therefore need to show our projectionist's hands operating a film projector -

Loading film

Checking film

light leaving the projector

projection on the screen

light leaving the arrow loop from the projection room

Reels turning

Changing reels

Winding film

And a digital projector-

Getting the files from the storage device into the projector

Running through menus

Hitting play

Show light leaving projection room

Hitting screen

What the projectionist does in the downtime between changes

Changing bulbs

Is it more or less demanding now, in the digital age? 

What training did he undertake which is now null?

What skills does he have which are now obsolete? 

Is there a downside to digital media over analog i.e. does film look better? 

Has he heard of any other projectionists losing work now that cinemas are switching to digital?

Is there any argument for returning to film?

A classmate, Eamon O'Neill, and I are pre-producing a short cinematic documentary on the theme of "Hands". We chose to show the day-to-day operations of a cinema projectionist in modern times compared with what the job entailed in the past, when working with film projectors.

We are making steady progress in lining up all of the permission we require to make this documentary.  The cinema management have given us the green light, and we are awaiting confirmation from the projectionist, Davey. Davey is very enthusiatic about his job and keeps select pieces of disused promotional film roll from the cinema's history in his personal collection.

We have also discovered that BMC has film projectors that we can use to obtain stock footage for cutaways etc. which will be very useful, particularly if we have limited time in the projection room.