Starting to Film Properly

Today we were able to begin filming properly. We got various sixth formers and some that had recently left to give us their thoughts on stereotypes.

We came up with a proper list of questions first thing and printed the pictures ready.

We used the studio to film three interviews. After the first one, we watched it back and analysed how we could improve it.

More documentary planning

Don was in again this morning so we split up into the two groups. Don's group are focusing on those that challenge stereotypes and mine are looking at what the stereotypes are to begin with.

We came up with some ideas for what to film:

1. A montage of key words associated with those stereotypes to begin the documentary, such as 'black, asian, white' for the basics and then groups such as 'chavs, goths, geeks' and derogatory words for some such as 'hoodrat' and 'bimbo'.
2. We discussed doing vox pops but having people grouped with their friends in an environment they are comfortable in so they are more likely to be relaxed and honest and bounce off each other's comments. We thought it would be good to have boys together, then girls separately. Also in different racial or religious groups.
3. We came up with a plan to print off pictures of different types of people and ask the groups to comment on them. For example, have pictures of black boys in hoodies or a girl with skimpy clothes or another who dresses like a boy.

We watched some other documentaries made by amateurs on YouTube for more ideas. One we saw that was quite effective was made by primary school children including a boy who liked to wear pink and a girl who liked to dress like a boy and play sport. This we thought was interesting, to show how gender stereotyping starts very early on. Another one we saw included toys targeted at girls and boys, such as dolls and cooking things. It also featured young children being interviewed about gender roles which was very interesting. We have decided to try and approach a primary school to see if we can film the children.

We noticed that those that included presenters often had them trying to read a script which looked awkward. We have decided a voice-over would be better, as we will have different people filming each segment anyway, so can't have one presenter throughout.

Othert things that were achieved included producing the storyboard, devising questions for interviews, finding the pictures of different types of people and emailing people to see if they will be willing to be filmed.

Don's First Day

Today Don came in to help us start the planning for our documentary.

We discussed what we had learned so far about stereotypes, particularly in relation to race. We also talked about our role models, which were noticably all women for the students present.

Then we started to research different areas - statistics about race in the country, black, female and gay icons, contacts at magazines to ask them about their model policies, positive discrimination policies etc.

Starting to use the cameras

At the start of the day students finished writing about the documentaries we saw last week.

Then, the class learned about vox pops. These represent the 'voice of the people' and are short clips of members of the public, where they are required to give their opinion about an issue. They are often shown on the news to help gauge public opinion about a particular matter.

We looked at clips online to see examples. Then, students had to devise their own questions about stereotypes to ask people, before going off to ask around school and out of school during break time.

When students returned, they learned how to edit the footage on imovie on the Mac laptops. Some will now know how to import the footage from the camera, put it on the timeline, edit clips, adjust the volume and add text etc.

Starting Documentary

Today we began preparation work for our documentary. We started with an exercise designed to expose our own assumptions. Students were asked to draw a doctor and a nurse, without showing each other. They were then asked how many of them drew a male doctor and a female nurse. As expected, most drew a male doctor and a female nurse. After this, we moved onto defining what a documentary is, starting by listing key words we associate with the genre, such as truth, facts, statistics and educational.

We learned a little about different types of documentaries by looking at four different types. They were Mad Hot Ballroom, Africa's Last Taboo, Bowling for Columbine and Peckham Finishing School for Girls. We divided into groups of three and different members of the groups made notes on the documentary techniques, film language, and sound in each one. We learned to identify things such as ambient and non-diegetic sound, amateur and archive footage.

As well as discussing the different techniques used by the documentary makers, we talked about how the subjects of the different shows have been represented. This was particularly interesting with the last one, as students had real life experience of the location and people to contextualise what they saw. Most felt that the worst side of Peckham was being shown, but that they also included positive elements such as young business people, the church and the martial arts community. This has given us great food for thought with our documentary, and we intend to represent an even broader range of people in this part of South London.

Girls in the Peckham Finishing School were Sarah & Cat, Alisha & Serena, Kerri & Steph and Lashan & Claire, plus Peaches who was co-ordinating the events. We will be writing this analysis up in more detail next week, and the instructions for this are on the shared area, 'Creative and Media Diploma', 'Stereotypes and documentary' folder.

Good Hair

Today we went to the Ritzy to watch Good Hair. The film is a documentary made by Chris Rock in response to a statement made by his young daughter about how she didn't have 'good hair'.

The main narrative arc for the film surrounded a Black Hair show in Atlanta, Georgia, where millions is spent every year by mainly black women on products such as relaxer and weaves. The pinnacle of the show is the highly elaborate hair cutting competition where hair dressers compete to win a $20,000 prize. Intersecting this narrative were interviews with black stars such as Nia Long, Ice T and Reverend Al Sharpton. Rock also travelled to meet the owners of some of the hair product companies and to India to investigate precisely where 'human hair' weaves come from.

Points I think need considering:

• There was little exploration of why women feel the need to go through all this pain and pay all this money to look this way? Is it a form of internalised racism? Is it patriarchal issue?
• What about women in general being victims of the beauty industry? Aren't wearing heels, make-up, having cosmetic surgery all part of the same problem - women self harming in effect, mainly to appeal to men and compete with other women. Why do men not need to compete in the same way?
• The men were portrayed sympathetically as victims of this culture - having to pay for it, wait for women to have it done, not able to touch the weave etc. Why were the men not asked if they would be willing to date women with more natural hair? Are most of these women not doing it for their benefit in the first place?
• Also, no mention was made of what the people in India working to package the human hair were being paid. Are they victims or benefactors of the industry?

8th June - Starting to Film

Today we began to film a rough version of the films to practice using the cameras and so students could learn how to edit.

Firstly, students were reminded how to use the cameras properly and safely. They learned about opening the tripod legs and making it level and how to attach the camera so it doesn't fall off. Also they learned about how to move it from one location to the next safely so it doesn't get damaged or hit anything on its way.

They learned about how to film so that there is enough room at the start and end of a shot to edit.

When filming, they practised the acting and how to light people effectively using natural light, such as how to create a silhouette effect to disguise the person's identity.

They then began to learn how to edit using Final Cut Express on the Apple Mac computers. They learned about how to connect the camera using a fire wire cable and how to capture the footage ready for editing. They then learned about putting in and out points on a section and dragging it to the timeline. Some used a razor tool to make cuts in the footage, separate the image from the soundtrack and put a new image in, leaving the sound there so it acts as a voice over.