Production Diary
31.03.14 - Monday - the start to the easter holidays and the production process of my final major project. Today I contacted e-mailed Andrew Omond from St George's Crypt, Liz from St Anne's resource centre and the Nuclear bunker in York. No reply as of yet but i'm staying positive that at least Andrew Omond will contact me back as he guaranteed he would appear in my film.
01.04.14 - Tuesday - today I ventured into town to stock up on house hold supplies, as well as scouting for homeless on the street. I approached two individuals sitting outside Leeds Met, talking to them about their experience on the street. Further into the conversation I asked if they wanted to appear in my film, but both seemed rather hesitant to the idea and eventually the asked me to move on since I was hindering their opportunity to collect money from passers by.
As I walked further away from town up towards Hyde Park I bumped into an old man begging outside the business school. He seemed like a humble man but again once the conversation passed the 5 minute mark he also asked if we could move away due to presence obstructing his begging. As I walked back home I passed the Sainsbury's in Hyde Park again and still no Jennifer and JK to be seen. Today I felt damp hearted to the lack of production and progress that the week has kicked off with. However I am going to strive to make the most of the time I have left to push forward with this project.
02.04.14 - Wednesday - Today I went back into town scouting for homeless but couldn't find anyone that would appear in my film. Moping at home as I began to edit footage I recorded from the Dialogue Graphics exhibition last week.
Although today started off poorly the evening became more productive. That night I went to Luke Terry and Kieran (Kez) Livette house, the music producers who are writing the music for the documentary. We had a long discussion of what direction the documentary if going and asked if I wanted to convey any particular emotion. I told them that I wasn't looking to force any emotion on the audience, instead I wanted the music to embody a spatial and temporal feeling through out the documentary that represents the city life and the ghostly life of a homeless man. They were relieved that they didn't have to force any particular emotion out of their music. I went on to inform them that i trusted their creative ability and wanted to hear what they could come up with.
I ran through my production and post production schedule with the two, making clear that I had no storyboard for them to use as a reference; though I would have a rough cut of the edit by the 27th of April. The two of them talked amongst themselves and came to agreement to have a few sound palette's by next week so that I can give them my opinions in the direction they're heading musically.
We continued to discuss the topic of the documentary as I explained to Luke and Kez that I am struggling to find homeless people that will appear in my film. Kez informed me of a flute player that sits outside the Queens Hotel in Leeds, Kez continued explaining that this guy was homeless and was a rather interesting character. Kez also informed me of homeless project being run by a work colleague Oliver Sears where he gathers sandwiches passed their sell by date and hands them out to the homeless. These two character sounded perfect for my film and as the conversation ended Kez assured me that he would grab the contact details next time he is in work on Saturday.
03.04.14 - Thursday - Today I spent contacting my potential interviewees but received no word from any of them. Andrew Omond's phone went straight to voicemail the several time I tried him throughout the day. I text Liz on her personal mobile but still received no reply. I did however, make it through to the York nuclear bunker establishing that it was okay for me to film next week. Although this isn't FMP work it put me in good spirit that I will eventually make contact with the interviewees in my film. The rest of the day again was spent on PPP work as I continued to edit the Dialogue exhibition. I am procrastinating? Quite possibly but I feel frustrated with where I am on the project at the moment that doing something else that is productive has put my mind to ease for the foreseeable future.
04.04.14 - Friday - Today I have continued to contact
06.04.14 - Sunday - Today was preparation day for the shoot tomorrow. I charged all the batteries, formatted the SD card, tightened the tripod legs, tested the radio and rode mic and spent the day taking photos with 5Dmk3.
On the last day of term before leaving Uni I went to the photography department to source a wide angle lens for my production. Unfortunately I missed the deadline for the easter equipment rental forms to be handed in. My only choice was to wait around till the end of the day and see what equipment they had left. I did manage to get a 22mm lens that day, bet I felt that the shot needed a wide lens.
I contacted a fellow course mate Thomas Bone today to ask permission or the use of his wide angle lens for the time-lapse shot. He kindly fave consent to the use of the lens agreeing to meet just outside his flat next to the royal armouries. The 30 minute skate to the armouries was very successful not only because I picked up the lens; as I bumped into the homeless couple Kev and Jennifer who I had not seen for weeks. They informed me that they have been banned from begging by the Hyde Park Sainsbury's; which would explain why I hadn't seen them in a while. We agreed on an interview time and date, thursday 10th april 12am Parkinson's building.
07.04.14 - Monday - Today I woke up at 5am to capture a time-lapse of the cars entering Leeds via the A58. I set up the camera just above the road on the public footpath of the dual carriageway. Instead of shooting a normal time-lapse like in my test, I decided to take a 6 second exposure for every frame that I used in the time-lapse. Capturing the headlights of the cars as they entered into the city, as well as capturing a stronger light in the composition. I took 200 frames between the hours of 6am - 7am, 1 frame every 10 seconds with the shutter open for 6 seconds. The result is a spatial shot that demonstrates the rush of everyday life. Suggesting that our society speeds through life like a busy motorway, without stopping and taking a step back to reflect. Metaphorically shots like this time-lapse will reinforce the homeless perspective of being the 'ghosts' of the street as I will link this time-lapse with a second that portray a homeless individual sitting on the street corner as the speeding pedestrians work by.
Today I also contacted Oliver Sears, the man who delivers sandwiches that have past t
heir shelf life to the homeless. He agreed to appearing in the documentary and I am meeting him at La Bottega Milanese in the light, Leeds city centre at 4pm.
08.04.14 - Tuesday - I woke up feeling disheartened, at the fact that me and Luca were supposed to be shooting the footage for 9point88 today. I knew that the only remedy to this feeling was to go out and capture B-roll footage for FMP. I headed to the bottom of Royal Park Hill, where the cleanup operation for the recently demolished primary school was underway. I thought that a time-lapse of the machinery at work could make for a shot that metaphorically shows the fast passed world that we live in. I decided to take 1 frame every 6 seconds, accumulating a total of 200 frames.
I cycled down to the light later today in order to meet Oliver Sears for a meeting at 4pm. Oliver runs the charity organisation Leftovers, which finds entrepreneurial opportunities in food waste, empowering those in needs through its work. He and a team of volunteers head from coffee shops to restaurants in search for food that has surpassed its sell by date. Donating the proceeds to different charities. Although the company started this year, between the 29th of January and now the organisation has sourced 5001 portions that have been payed forward into charities in and around Leeds.
Oliver was an amazing guy to meet, who had strong hopes and aspirations to the direction that his organisation is heading in. His enthusiasm has given this project a jolt that was needed in the right direction. We settled on shooting some initial footage on tomorrow (Wednesday 9th April) and parted ways.
09.04.14 - Wednesday - After hearing no response from 'The Real Junk Food Project' I decided it would be best if I made my way up to Armley to see if I can arrange an interview. As I entered TRJFP I instantly knew that this was a setting that would fit into the groove of my documentary. I waited around in their office for 20 minutes or so waiting for the Chef's Sam and Adam to pass through the lunch time rush. It was during this period that I met Cecilia, a student a Leeds University studying journalism. She explained to me about her project, creating a radio podcast about the cafe. We agreed that she would conduct the interview, recording the sound whilst I recorded the interview in camera. The interview went smoothly, as I knew immediately that the footage shot today would go into the final product of the film.
I finished up at TRJFP capturing establishing shots of the cafe and the plot of land out the front. It was now time to head back to the house, recharge the batteries and export the footage onto my hard-drive. Once I was ready to shoot I made my way into town to meet Oliver in the Victoria quarters. We started off by filming his first pick up of the day, a sandwich bar in the Victoria quarters. I constructed the shoulder mount and set up the radio mic onto Oliver and began recording. Oliver gave me a brief summery of his daily routine, picking up food for Leftovers before heading of to the next cafe.
We then made our way to Heaven cafe to make the next pickup. We got some great footage walking up to the cafe that can be used for B-roll. Outside Heaven Oliver told me where the idea for Leftovers originated, in the Waitrose just across the street. I recorded a shot of Oliver walking into Waitrose for an establishing shot over the talking head of the back story. I was hesitant whether or not Waitrose would have a problem with us recording footage in their store. Oliver went to the front desk and asked permission to film; giving us the all clear. The footage in Waitrose looked smart, giving a great backstory to the charity and its roots. We then moved up to the opposite cafe, across the road from the Parkinson steps. Successfully shooting a large pick up from the cafe.
After a long day filming I took time to reflect on my experience today and how I can apply it to shooting with the homeless. Firstly, although the shoulder mount produces great looking results, due to its appearance the rig draws a lot of unwanted attention. I also found the wireless radio mic receiver to be awkward with adjusting the focus of the camera. I would knock the antenna of the receiver whilst trying to pull focus, which in turn would let out a deafening noise through the headphones. As well as tarnishing the audio for the clip at the time.
10.04.14 - Today is the day that I arranged to meet Jennifer and Kev. We organised to meet at the blue news agents opposite the parkinson steps at 12pm. I made my way to the Parkinson's steps 15 minutes early to make sure I wouldn't miss them. Unfortunately I waited outside the newsagents for another hour to go home empty handed.
11.04.14 - This morning I woke up early to meet Oliver Sears to conduct our final interview at college. The interview went smoothly as I recorded in detail what the charity does and how it helped the homeless community. Before heading home for easter I went up to the computer suite to go over the interview to see what it looked like. To my disappointment their seemed to be a lot of background static in the audio recording. I felt like a lot of the clips I recorded with the radio mic did not have the same clarity as the radio mic I was using last year. Every time I used the mic I could always hear the slightest hiss. This disheartened me on my own production, due to the fact that I knew audio in a documentary is more important than actual footage.
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