Liverpool Post production

Coming back to Sheffield to edit, our first task was to transcribe each interview. Of the four we transcribed (Though we only used three) I took Suresh and Veejayras. Once we had the finished transcripts we went through them and highlighted the sections we felt were most interesting and relevant. We also planned what we wanted to include and made an edit plan, dividing the film up into loosely separated sections with each participant introducing themselves, talking about their organisation or giving their view on a set theme. The transcripts allowed us to look at what we wanted in the edit plan then scan the highlighted transcripts for sections that could deliver this, while also allowing us to see what was most interesting and trying, if possible, to make space for it in the interview.

It became clear from early on that Brian, the owner of an antique bookshop with a great passion for books who we had interviewed, would not el into the structure of the film as much as we would like him to, as he seemed far too much like an odd one out. While filming, one of the places we had arranged to film in, a record store, refused to let us interview them or anyone in the store, and we weren't able to find another person who would be as interesting as the others and provide some company for Brian in the film, and so with regret we had to cut his section from the film.

While editing I tried to instruct the editors on how to give a good rhythm of cutaways along with the interview. Often me and the editor (who did an amazing job) would clash with me wanting more of the footage to be cutaways while she wanted more of it to show the subjects. In the end the balance we have achieved between these two is better than what either of us would have done alone and so I am glad I sat in on all the edit sessions.

Me and the sound editor worked together on the music, as I was the only person in the group with experience of making music. Originally we had wanted music that reflected different religions, however we did not have time to record this, and weren't sure what music we could use to represent atheism, and so took to Garageband to compose the music ourselves. The process of making the music was that I would play a couple of loops, put them together and show them to the sound editor, who would then give feedback, and I would go away and change it. Although I was the one physically composing, since we were working as closely as we were on it I think both of us take equal credit for what was produced.



The edit plan we drew up was this: Editing Plan

• 5 Sections.

• 1 Intro section
• 3 Middle sections
• 1 End section

Title

• Intro: How would they describe religion?

• Annie
• Michael
• Suresh & Veejayra

Bridge with cutaways

• Section A: Who are they & Introduce organisations.

• Annie
• Michael
• Suresh & Veejayra

Bridge with cutaways

• Section B: Founding the Organisation & Why they were needed.

• Annie
• Michael
• Suresh & Veejayra

Bridge with cutaways

• Section C: Effects of Religion.

• Annie
• Michael
• Suresh & Veejayra

Bridge with cutaways

• End Section: Where is religion heading?

• Annie
• Suresh & Veejayra
• Michael

Filming in Liverpool: Interviews

As director, and the person who had made initial contact with most of the interviewees, it was decided I would interview all the participants. I was fairly comfortable with this, having had some experience of conducting interviews in the past. When meeting each participant, I made sure I spoke to them a bit while setting up the shot and equipment so that they wouldn't feel like they were being interviewed by a stranger. Also, to ease them into the process of putting the question in the answer, we asked them each a number of random practice questions, normally including their favourite film. Fortunately all of them were familiar with this as they had all done recorded interviews before.

We wrote a list of questions together which were adapted slightly for each interview, for example "What do you get out of christianity?" would be "What do you get out of Hinduism?" These questions served as great icebreakers and often after their answer I would ask one or two more questions on that topic in order to probe the subject deeper. Also, they often answered some of the questions I had written before I got the chance to ask them, meaning I would be able to cross off three questions in one sometimes.

Our interview question were:

• What is your [said faith or belief]?
• When was the first time you encountered this faith or belief?
• Did you grow up in a religious household? 
• What elements of [said faith or belief] do you particularly like and why?
• If someone came to Earth and didn’t know what faith was, how would you describe it to them?
• What does your faith or belief mean to you?
• Are there any incidents or experiences that have led you to believe in this?
• What impact do you believe faith has on someone’s life?
• What do you see in your generation in terms of faith?
• Where do you see faith in the future?

Filming In Liverpool: Sound

We faced many challenges to do with sound while filming in Liverpool, both with locations and the equipment. I chose to make sure each interview was covered with two microphones in case one cut out or didn't record properly. In Annie and Michaels interviews these were both plugged into the camera, going directly to sync up with the video, whereas Suresh and Veejayra interview was recorded straight to the camera with the shotgun mic and into a zoom with a pair of Radio mics.

The reason for recording with the boom and radio mics was that while the boom gets very good directional pick up of the sounds, we thought it important to be covered, and radio mics are much more discreet than lapels or any other kind of mic. However, in Annies interview as well as the one at the temple, the Radio mics cut out, leaving half the interviews captured only from the boom. This however was not too much of a problem as the boom didn't cut out at all.

In Annie and Michaels interview, we had a lot of background sound to deal with. In Annies, it was the constant blowing of the wind and Michaels had the sound of people in the pub. One of the solutions to this would be to use some of the cutaway footage to illustrate that the background sound is coming from somewhere, and stop it seeming distracting as the audience will understand why it is there. Also, as the mics are all pretty good quality the background noise is never intrusive, although a little annoying. In Annies interview, the better sound came from the Radio mic, as this was shielded from the wind more than the Shotgun. However, as it cut out on is halfway through we will only be able to use its sound for some of the clips.

Filming in Liverpool: Cinematography

As a director, filming presented both challenges I had anticipated, and unexpected ones. Namely, that due to cancelled interviews and not getting the permission to film in certain places we had hoped for we had to abandon the passions section of the plan and focus solely on the broad range of religions in Liverpool.

In terms of cinematography, me and the group thought it would be a good idea to film each interview with two cameras. The first, with the shot set up by our Cinematographer and then monitored by our sound editor (Who would also keep an eye on the sound levels as we were capturing directly onto this camera) would be static. The second, set up and monitored by our cinematographer, would have the freedom to move more and ideally be used for cutaways once we come to the edit. Initially we wanted the main shot of each interview to be on the same side, indicating that these different people are all on the same side really, however with Annies interview, the best view we could get was opposite to the one we had already filmed for Michael, so we chose to use the cutaway camera to place everyone on the same side at the end of the film.

For the interview we conducted at the Hindu temple, we chose to interview the couple who run the temple together. This meant that the framing of the interview had to be different, as we wanted the main shot to include both subjects. We went for a straight on shot, with me interviewing them from the side of the camera, and the couple positioned in front of one of their statues, then having the second camera moving around in order to get a good variety of cutaways.

As well as the interviews I wanted to get a range of cutaways at the location of each interview in order toile a sense of space to each location and to provide footage to help make the interviews flow better (footage to cut to in order to disguise an edit in the interview) and to flow between one another in a cleaner fashion. The cutaways in each location will help to enhance the interview by illustrating things the interviewees are discussing, such as the sculptures on the beach, pub scenery or the statues in the temple. The second type of cutaways we needer were general ones of Liverpool and so often when walking between locations I would have to be on the lookout for good cutaway material. 

Documentary research: The Runners

The runners is a short film with a similar premise to Humans of New York, but where the people who are asked are out running. By asking the people in this kind of situation, where they are not expecting it, the answers are different to what they would say in a conventional interview scenario, and arguably more genuine. As well as the variety of interesting questions posed to the runners, it uses a variety of shot types, rather than just cutaways, to keep itself visually interesting. This is one of the most influential documentaries for our idea in terms of the questions being asked and the unconventional nature of the set up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6F7T1EGSoMQ

Broadway Idiot

During pre production of our documentary I watched (Admittedly with no eye towards this being an academic exercise) the documentary Broadway Idiot. The documentary shows the process of adapting the rock album "American idiot" into a broadway musical. It is constructed mostly of intertwined interviews between the band and the producers, charting their journey to make the musical happen and how they both discovered how similar a working class punk rock band and upper class musical directors could be.

On watching it I was struck by how it was in fact quite similar in some ways to the film we planned to make. For one, it strives to show the universality of human nature, in depicting seemingly very different people and showing how that they think is actually very similar. It also focuses on the building of something, which was something we wanted to get out of our interviews as all three subjects had started or been involved in starting up projects from scratch which had become very big. Even structurally, with the intercut interviews bridged by cutaways, this mirrored my vision for our film.

Revising Ideas

As a group we decided to somewhat merge our ideas and make a film about passions across liverpool in general. We want to identify people of different faiths, namely who have started some kind of organisation relevant to their beliefs, and ask them similar questions about how they became that faith, why they practise it and what they think of other faiths in general, as well as about the place where they worship and the church/mosque/temple they are as part of. However, we also want to interview passionate Humanists, people with various obsessions (Star Wars, record collecting, etc) and ask them what they think of both their passion, wether then think it is similar to a religion and what they think of the idea of religion.

Each of us is going to try and make contact with someone who would be interesting to interview. Personally, I have been tasked with finding a representative from each of the major religions, and someone who is a passionate Humanist. A quick google search revealed an organisation called "Skeptics in the pub" who are linked to the wider "Merseyside Skeptics society" who I have emailed along with a Mosque, Synagogue, Hindu Temple, Buddhist Meditation centre and Sikh Temple. In finding a subject to talk about Christianity I have used personal contacts to find a number of people who may or may not be available.

Heres our revised treatment.

Liverpool Passions

Our Liverpool story will look into the faiths and passions of people living in Liverpool. We will tell our story through a number of interviews with people who are passionate about something, be it their faith or just something that interests them, creating comparisons between the different subjects and the things they believe in.

The narrative structure will be formed around the content of the interviews, so we will use the second half of our time to film pickups that may assist the moulding of the narrative formulae. We will then manipulate the structure of both the interviews and pickups in order to orchestrate a thoroughly encompassing piece of documentary cinema.

Quintessentially we will begin the film with two juxtaposing interviews on the subject of religion from someone with no faith and someone working for the church. This will set the tone as being a study of varying religious beliefs however as the documentary progresses we will include a wider variety of beliefs and passions mainly focusing on people of Hindu faith, Buddhism and Islam.

Then we will divert into interviews with people who are not simply passionate about faith or their lack of it but maybe passionate about their business or hobby. With this, we will explore beliefs/passions of groups such as atheists, football fans and comic book enthusiasts. The aim of this will be to compare, not only how similar people of different religions can be in their practices and the way they express their faith, but how people with no distinctive spiritual belief also practice their passions in a way that is similar to that of religious people, ultimately conveying the message that the people of Liverpool, although diverse and colourful in their nature, are all still people and all united by the universal bond of human nature.

Potential subjects will include people of different faiths, passionate humanists/atheists, owners of niche shops and various enthusiasts. We will also perform interviews with the general public and ask them about their beliefs and passions in small vox pops format in order to get a broader view of the grand spread of people across the city. We will attempt to capture locations in the city or other visual elements of Liverpool that reflect the content of the interviews.

Our primary audience would be somewhat cineliterate as it is both a short film and a documentary but our secondary audience will be mainstream audiences as it appeals to a wider variety of individuals due to the range of faiths, beliefs and passions we will be exploring in the documentary. Our target audience will have some interest in faith and/or spirituality and so the questioning nature of this film will give it the potential to be shared to friends of those people who may not have that kind of interest but this film may ignite their curiosity and make them think about their personal beliefs. In this way the film also has a tertiary audience through its potential for virality.

Documentary Research: Skateistan and Afghanistans Girl Skaters - Kabul 2012

https://vimeo.com/15841377

https://vimeo.com/46337060

The short documentary "Skateistan" which we watched in one of our seminars, is very interesting with a view towards making our own short documentary. None of the interviews are shown, instead we hear the interviews and see a series of cutaways. In this case, this is more effective than showing the interviews as the cutaways succeed in telling the story by themselves, often referencing information about Afghanistani culture and how it has been affected by violence through images while the subject is simply discussing their skateboarding in order to tell the story through a juxtaposition.

While it may be useful, especially when cutting in and out of multiple subjects as we plan to in our documentary, to show the subjects faces, Skateistan is a fantastic example of how much of a story can be told through cutaways and how they can be as much the focus as the interviews.

However, having some previous knowledge of Afghanistans skater culture, I knew that it had the highest percentage of female skateboarders of anywhere in the world, and so was surprised that this was not directly addressed in the film. However, I found another short film called "Afghanistans Girl Skaters - Kabul 2012" which was a combination of footage of girl skateboarding and text describing the boom in female skaters. I found this particularly interesting as it presented something familiar in a way that was unfamiliar, as in the west there are very few girls who skateboard as well as very few Arab skateboarders. Also, typical western ignorance and the media we consume may lead someone with little knowledge of the culture to believe that few Afghan girls have the independence and freedom to do something such as skateboard. It was interesting to see conventional views challenged in this way and so for our documentary, as we should be dealing with religious figures, I think it would be interesting to find subjects who are somewhat different to what the typical perception of these faiths would be.

Research into Documentary Filming

Having only ever co-directed and been cinematographer on a documentary, I decided it was important to do research into, not only our subject matter, but also into techniques of documentary filmmaking rather than narrative films.

One of my key sources in this was the book; "Directing the Documentary" by Michael Rabiger. Reading several sections of this book prepared me for the process of making the film, by covering such topics as interview techniques, constructing a sense of narrative, and getting good editing rhythm in interviews and montage sequences. As well as preparing me better for the Liverpool Documentary, this has prepared me more for documentary filmmaking in general and how it should be approached differently to fiction films.

RABIGER, M. (1998) Directing the Documentary. 2nd Ed. Woburn: Butterworth-Heniemann

Original Ideas

When drafting up our initial ideas, Zoe, our sound editor, presented an article on Liverpools "Jedi" population, mostly made up of Star Wars fanatics and Humanists, skeptics and atheists as a protest vote of sorts against conventional religions. We thought it would be interesting to use this as a window to examine the relationship between people and religion in modern Britain, by paralleling someone who identified as Jedi on the census with someone heavily involved in christianity. We wanted to shed light on how relevant religion is to modern culture, and if in fact pop culture is now more important than religion.

Our second idea, which generated somewhat organically between a few of our team, was "Drunk Humans of Liverpool." Inspired by articles about Liverpools drinking culture and the blog "Humans of New York" we wanted to ask profound philosophical questions to intoxicated Liverpudlians on nights out.

As we thought there was more scope for probing an interesting subject with the first idea, and also that filming nightlife may present a range of challenges, we chose to go with the Jedi idea.

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/liverpool-home-1400-jedi-knights-8552303

http://www.humansofnewyork.com