I created a digital storyboard with some pictures of some of the shot ideas I want in my documentary. By doing this it helped me to see what my shots would look like when it came to putting together my film.
Monthly Archives: March 2013
Questionnaire Results
After collecting the results from my questionnaire I analysed the results to see what answer was most popular. By doing this it will help to influence the production of my documentary so that it targets the right people. Below is the attached word document.
Production Companies
I did some research into companies that may distribute my film and decided to e-mail the horse and country tv channel on sky to see what companies distribute their programmes. Unfortunately they did not get back to me but by contacting them it gave me an idea of where my film could be distributed. It could be shown on the tv channel horse and country as a lot of other programmes similar to my film are shown on here which means that it fits in with my target audience on this channel.
Script
As I am making a documentary for my short film I do not think a script is needed as it is mainly questions and answers however I am going to give my actors and actresses a sheet with the questions on and a few pointers a few days before the interview so that they have time to prepare their answers. I think this is a good way to do it so that they have less pressure on them and do get chance to prepare their answers. I will stop and start the film after each question so that they have time to prepare themselves for the next question. Below is the form I will give out with the questions and a few pointers to help them to prepare their answer. There is also a space for them to write some things about what they might want to say if they feel this necessary.
Documentary Questions
Question
Pointers
Your Answer
Introduce yourself
· Your name
· Your age
· What age were you when you got into horses
Introduce your horse
· Name
· Age
· Breed
· Height
· History
When did you first get into horses/horse riding?
· Age
· How
· Where
What are the benefits of owning or having a horse?
· Care
· Riding
· Exercise
What are the negatives of owning or having a horse?
· Weather
· Time
· Money
· Life Style
Have you or the horse ever had any injuries?
· Riding
· Working with them
· Care
· Just in the field
Can you describe the bond you and your horse have?
· Your opinion on whether you have a bond
· How you feel about the horse
· How you think the horse feels about you
· Trust
By creating this table it will help my actors when it comes to interview them as they will be prepared and a lot more relaxed.
Shot Ideas
For my documentary I decided to create a list of a variety of different shots to make sure I get what I need when filming and editing my documentary. I want to use lots of different shots in this documentary and creating this list was the best way I could get all my ideas down and not forget them. I have put the shots into different categories so I that I have a step by step process.
Getting Out the Field
· Walking up to the horse
· Putting a head collar on
· Giving them a treat
· Leading them out the field
Grooming
· Brushing body
· Brushing face
· Combing mane and tail
· Picking out hooves
· Polishing hooves
Tacking Up
· Putting saddle on
· Doing up girth
· Putting bridle on
· Doing up throat lash
· Putting on boots
Getting On
· Putting hat on and doing it up
· Putting gloves on
· Climbing up mounting block
· Putting foot in stirrup
· Grabbing reins
Riding
· Walking around
· Walking away from camera
· Walking too camera
· Close up of horses hooves walking
· Trotting away from camera
· Trotting too camera
· Close up of horses hooves trotting
· Cantering up a hill
· Cantering away from camera
· Cantering too camera
· Jumping a log
· Playing in the water
· Patting when in the saddle
· Lots of clips over the chase
Close Ups
· Close up of eye
· Close up of ear twitching
· Close up of muzzle breathing
Field Clips
· Playing with the other horses
· Drinking water
· Eating hay
· Eating tea
· Walking around
These are the shots I have came up with however when it comes to filming I may have some more ideas that may work to add to my shots list.
Question Ideas for Interviews
For my documentary I have decided to interview people to find out their opinions on different things related to owning a horse and horse riding. I have decided to interview 3 people because if I interview too many my documentary will be boring due to it only containing interviews. The questions that I am going to ask the people I am interviewing are:
· Introduce yourself (brief summary of who you are, age and how long you have been into horses)
· Introduce your horse (name, age, breed, height and maybe some brief information of the horse)
· When did you first get into horses/horse riding?
· What are the benefits of owning or having a horse?
· What are the negatives of owning or having a horse?
· Have you or the horse ever had any injuries?
· Can you describe the bond you and your horse have?
When asking these questions I don’t want you to be able to hear me asking them so I am going to have to make sure that you can work out the question by the answers given.
Target Audience Questionnaire
After completing my proposal I made a questionnaire on Survey Monkey to find out what people thought of my idea for my documentary. I asked a variety of questions that related to my film and target audience so I can see whether my film appeals to them or not. The questions I asked in my questionnaire were:
· Are you male or female?
· What is your age?
· Do you like watching documentaries?
· What topic was the last documentary you watched on?
· Would you be interested in watching a documentary based on horses?
· Would you want to see interviews with people interested in horses in a documentary based on horses?
· What types of things related to horses would you like to see in a documentary based on horses?
· Can you think of any questions you would like to see answered in a documentary?
· Would you find a camera shot from the person riding a horse interesting?
· Finally, is there anything you think should be included in a documentary based on horses?
To collect the data needed I posted the link to my questionnaire on Facebook and asked people to complete it for me. Here is the link to my questionnaire:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/BL877V3
Proposal
After analyzing the two short films it has helped me to become clearer on what my final documentary film will be.
It will be set in two locations, one being the field where I keep my horse and the other being where my friend keeps her horses. This will stick with the topic of being based around horses and so relates to my short film. I will include interviews and voice overs with up to 3 possibly 4 people, myself, two of my friends who also have and ride horses and hopefully my friends dad. In my documentary I want to use many different shots related to horses and the equestrian world to go over the voice overs so that it is interesting. I need to decide on what different types of shots I want and the questions I will ask when I am interviewing people because these are still pretty brief at the minute but my idea is developing. I feel by using these locations and people it still relates to my chosen target audience and is appealing to the right people.
Short Film Analysis
I did some research on the internet to find two short films that were the same genre as mine to analyse. I found two short films I liked and that would be good to analyse but one is 7 minutes and another is 3.
The first one I found on YouTube and is called “The Long Run” which is a documentary that is based around race horses a trainer and an ex-jockey so is relatively similar to my film with it being based around horses.
In this documentary there is a variety of different camera shots which I like and have gave me some inspiration when i am going to produce my film. There are lots of different shots of the horses which I like for example when they are focusing on the horses tack, different parts of the horse’s body, the horse’s nose when breathing and the horse’s hooves when galloping. With the variety of different shots in this documentary help to keep the viewer interested and have helped me to come up with some shots to use in my film. When they are interviewing people to they also use a variety of shots and sometimes overlay shots whilst using voiceovers.
There is also use of non-diegetic and diegetic sound in this documentary as well as the use of voice overs in some shots. The non-diegetic soundtracks used also create an effect and play a part in making the film more interesting. The shots used also fit the music well and ties in well with the documentary. In my film I want to use non-diegetic soundtracks to overlay some shots and so I will have to enquire with the music department as to whether they could make me some music. I also want to try and use some diegetic sound like the sound of horse’s hooves on the pavement and the sound of horses neighing. By using a mixture of non-diegetic and diegetic sound it creates different effects and does not focus on the same thing for too long and so the viewer does not get bored as there are a lot of different transitions, effects and sounds going on.
The lightening of the shots varies depending on the shots as in some parts it appears quite dark and in others it appears very light which also ties in with the sound of the music. When I am filming I want my shots to be quite bright and light as I want my film to be happy and for the audience to become emotionally attached rather than it being dramatic.
Although the plot is different to mine, the technical aspects are similar to mine like the interviews, voice overs and the shots and these will be what I want to use in my short film. All the things used in this documentary portray different meanings and the things used are also generic conventions of a documentary. Overall I like this short documentary and it has given me a lot of inspiration and ideas to use in my one.
The second short film I found is called “Just Keep Moving” and is based around mountain biking and a male doing mountain biking so this documentary is almost like a day in the life. Although this is a different theme it is still the same genre and I have chosen to analyse this one because some of the camera shots used in this documentary I could use and relate to my one which is based on horses.
Again in this documentary there is lots of different camera shots and transitions which is a generic convention of a documentary. They use a variety of close-ups and shots for far away so it sets the scene. I also like how some of the shots are from our point of view so we get to see what he sees when mountain biking. Some of the other shots are extreme close ups of different parts of the bike, these are used in the documentary I analysed before. The variety of shots also has lots of transitions and so the camera shots in both documentaries are very similar.
This documentary also uses both diegetic and non-diegetic sound throughout and also uses voiceovers like the previous documentary. This documentary also uses a non-diegetic soundtrack which overlays over the shots and is in the background when they use voice overs. The effects used with this soundtrack help to make the documentary seem more dramatic and tense and the different shots help to build this tension. Similar to the other documentary this one also uses some diegetic sounds like the noise of the bike when it is coming down the hill. The sound plays a big part in keeping the viewer interested and if the music was dull or boring then the viewer would lose interest in my documentary.
The lighting in these clips tends to be not very bright however the colours of each shot are still very vibrant and bright. With having the clips slightly darker it helps to add to the dramatic and tense feel of this documentary. I like how the use of lightening helps to create an effect however in my short film I want the clips to be light and bright as I want to create a happy and cheerful affect so that the audience becomes emotionally attached and can be involved with my documentary.
The plot in this short film is different to mine but again the technical aspects are again very similar. With watching this documentary it has given me even more ideas for different shots as I want to use many different angles to create different shots.
With analyzing both of these short films it has helped me to compare and contrast the similarities and differences in a documentary so that I can expand on my initial idea so that it becomes more clear and detailed. By doing this analysis it has helped me to become more aware about the different aspects in a documentary film.
Target Audience Profiling
My short film will be a documentary about horses and so will be aimed at people between 16-21 year olds and will be purely aimed at females due to it being very female orientated. I also think that as most of the people in it will be female this means it will attract more towards females as males may not be interested in a documentary based on horses. Their current film taste genres would be things like romance and comedy for example films like Love Actually, A Cinderella Story and The-Break Up. This genre is very popular with both males and females but like my documentary is mainly aimed at females. I think this genre is popular because it can be realistic about relationships and with it having a touch of comedy it helps to make the situations seem funny. The audience type according to Young and Rubicam would be Reformers as their consumer preferences are that they don’t have many branded products and just tend to buy items from the high street. They do visit the cinema probably around once a month or every other month and they do tend to buy a few DVDs. Finally on their socioeconomic profile their profession is on a low to mid income which would be around the C2 to D area. I think that they would like my film because it will be produced on a relatively low income and will have point of views from people who have experienced different aspects of horses. I want my film to be very interesting and contain lots of shots so that it keeps the viewer interested and wanting to watch my film.
rebeccaguy 