Production/Post diary 22nd -27th April

Production/Post diary 22nd -27th April

22.04.14: - Tuesday and I have returned from Leeds after a very relaxing 10 day break. I left for the easter holidays feeling drained yet satisfied at the amount of work I had done. Now I feel fully refreshed ready to pick up the pieces where I left off. I am however, slightly behind my schedule for FMP. This is partly due to the fact that the homeless couple I arranged to meet up with did not show up on the 10th of April. One of my main priorities this week is to arrange a second date to start filming with Jennifer and Kev; it is imperative that I find them for they are the centre of the documentary.

23.04.14: - Wednesday and the week feels like it's slipping away from me already. I went into college early this morning to begin shifting through all my footage from before easter. This job could have easily been done over easter, in fact it would have been a lot easier since the footage would have still been fresh in my mind. Be that as it may I dedicated my 10 day easter break to catch up on PPP work, such as creating the animated logo and grading the Dialogue exhibition. Despite the fact that the end result looked great; it took me 3 days to complete the online edit for a 1 minute 30 second video. This filled me with concern in regards to the gigantic post production process I now faced for FMP. Although I feel that I have accomplished a lot in a relatively short amount of time; I still have a long way to go!
I spent the whole day till 6pm piecing together what clips I had from the interviews before easter. Re-arranging audio from the external sound recorder I used, synching it up to the image track. 

24.04.14: - Today I went into college for the 9.30 start. Continued with the rough cut of my edit

25.04.14:

26.04.14: Friday - Today I have arranged interview with Andrew Omond from St George's Crypt. Andrew is the PR manager for the Crypt. We have had an interview pre arranged before easter, unfortunately he had to re-arrange due to a previous engagement. I went into college early this morning to continue splicing up clips from the 'Left Overs' clips. At 2.40 I made my way down to the Crypt where I met Andrew. He showed me into a private conference room where we conducted the interview, which went very smoothly. However, since I was the only person there I could not look over the image display whilst interviewing Andrew. Who's body language demonstrated to me that he was shy due to him facing away from the camera more and more as the interview went. In hindsight as I look over the footage, the camera position has not captured Andrews face as well as I had hoped. The end result is a side on portrait of the interviewer that looks a little odd.
On the brighter side the audio content of the interview was good. Now it's time to spend the weekend shifting through my footage.

Production/Post Diary 28th - 2nd May

Production/Post Diary 28th - 2nd May

28.04.14: Having not be able to sort any interview with Jennifer and Kev this week, I am down to my final week to gather footage. I aimed to have all my initial footage finished before easter, now this time is eating into my week of shooting B-roll. This has created a knock on effect that has hindered my workflow. Through out this week I am going to try my hardest to find the homeless couple; for the documentary depends on it.

Today I cycled into college for 9am to hand back the equipment I rented out over the weekend. I then made my way to the Cardigan Centre on Cardigan road, where Simon on the streets is based. Upon entering the building I was told that Simon on the Streets was based on the second floor, however the floor was completely empty and I could not find anyone. I am finding it very hard to contact this organisation as my calls always go through to voicemail, as well as not being able to contact them physically. 

I decided to head into college to continue the rough cut of my edit. I finished organising and cutting the relevant information from 'The Real Junk Food Project' scenes. I can see my self making progress on the editing side but I need to be working at a much faster pace to compensate for the set backs in production. Whilst splicing the audio over the video reel I realised that the audio just wasn't good enough in the interview with Sam. I took the initiative of contacting a friend Anthony Littlewood who produces music, he told me that he could work on the audio track improving the clarity of the audio. I booked out the production suite at college for 3.30pm, working on the sound for an hour or so. I could not remove the low hum of the fans in the kitchen on the audio, however, the interview clarity was improved.

29.04.14: Tuesday - Scheduled in for a 9.30 start at college. Today I successfully finished cutting up all the footage I had into usable segments, as well as synching up all the audio from the external sound recorders I used. Finishing the day off at 6pm I made my way back home to meet Luke Terry and Kieran Livett (Kev) who make up the production due Plate Shui. They wanted to arrange a meeting in order to see the progression of the documentary, so that they knew what direction to take for the finishing touches of the music. They uploaded snippets of their work to Sound-cloud so that I could critique the work they had done so far. We parted our ways with an agreed date to have the music finished by wednesday the 7th of May. A day before the final crit, so that I can showcase the music in my final product.

Once I had finished meeting up with Luke and Kez I went to an fine art exhibition at LS6 cafe in Hyde Park. This time gave me a moment to sit out in the sun, relax and reflect on my project. I then made my way to Joshua Douglass house, a third year graphic design student. I had contacted Josh a couple of days before, enquiring weather he could help me with the logo of the film. As I showed Josh the storyboard for the project he accepted the design work, explaining that he was keen about the idea and was hungry for more design based work. Josh agreed to mocking up several ideas to the 3 stages of the animated logo, agreeing to have the work done by wednesday the7th. Once again the day before my final crit  of FMP.

30.04.14: Wednesday, once again I made my way into college to rent out equipment for a homeless scout round town. I asked a friend Anthony if he would join me in town to shoot B-roll footage. Whilst in town I took the opportunity to shoot a time-lapse of Brigate for the title sequence of the film. In addition to capturing spatial shots of the streets and town centre. As I roamed the town centre looking for homeless I came across James Hall. James has been living on the streets of Leeds for three years, he is a schizophrenic from Lancaster who upon meeting was desperately begging for a place to sleep tonight. 

James agreed to be on camera for an interview, I was ecstatic that I had finally sealed my first homeless interview on the streets. I started setting up straight away in what space I had as I recorded at the side of the street. I thought that the 22m tilt shift would look great in the interview. Tilting the depth of field away from the crowd walking down the streets, as though they were blurred. In an attempt to convey the ghostly feeling of the homeless on the street.  

31.04.14:

01.05.14:

02.05.14:

B-roll footage list

B-roll footage list

Whilst trawling through my interview footage for FMP I decided to make a B-roll footage list of metaphorical shots that I needs to overlay over the talking head of my interviews. Below is a list that will be accompanied by screenshots of the different b-roll shots I have taken in and around Leeds.

B-roll list:

• Leeds Trinity Kitchen
• Opposite cafe
• Gorilla Gardening in Todmorden 
• Incredible Edible Network
• Food not bombs

Title Sequence Animation

Title Sequence Animation

Over the last couple of weeks I have been pondering on a title sequence for my film.

CoP 3 Camera Operator

CoP3 Camera Operator

Through out the CoP3 brief I assisted fellow course mates with their work. Working as a professional camera operator in a variety of different productions.

Chris Lloyd's

Yoni Cohen's 

Creative Advertising collaboration

Creative Advertising collaboration

I have been approached by a creative advertising student in third year. He has asked if I can do some video work for him towards their FMP brief. Aidan Cranmer sent me a youtube video entitled Tokyo reverse, consisting of a man walking around Tokyo backwards for 9 hours; whilst pedestrians walked around him but in reverse. I was instantly intrigued by the video and weather or not this piece of moving image was a work of post production or not. It took less than a minute for me to scroll through the comments to discover that the video was made by a man who walked backwards through the streets of Tokyo; reversing the duration speed in post. Creating a motion of isolated movement from the rest of the busy streets.

Louise Malkinson BBC Documentary Filmmaker.

Louise Malkinson BBC Documentary Filmmaker.

Louise Malkinson a BBC documentary film maker specialises in British social realistic film. She is a producer, director, camera operator, sound recorder and editor. A documentary filmmaker who takes on a variety of different roles to bring her documentary work together in her representative style.
Louise was a member of the first Viscom class to graduate from Leeds College of Art. Postgraduate she worked as a researcher for a company ‘headtogether’ after working her way up to a assistant producer; then finally to a producer/director. It was at this position she was asked to produce and director the ITV series ‘Strangeways'.

After the lecture Louise Malkinson ran a production workshop with a handful of people.
She explained to us that your ideas and proposals are a strong route into industry. However, you must be aware that some companies will steal your intellectual property. So you need to be wary of what companies you reveal creative ideas to.
In an interview environment industry professionals will always ask you what you are watching at the moment and why.  She emphasised that it was import to convey what style of film you like, to make your opinion succinctly.  She added that knowing names of directors and videographers will reinforce your own opinions.

At the end of the workshop Louise Gave me her e-mail address. I decided to take this opportunity to ask her a couple of questions that I wanted to ask during the lecture.

"Hello Louise, my name is Tom Stephens from the Leeds college of Art workshop on wednesday. We were talking about the homeless documentary I had in production?

There was something I wanted to ask you at the lecture with regards to working abroad. I recently accepted an internship in Lima Peru filming for the charity MEDLIFE. My flights are booked for the end of May; two days after my final hand in. In this short time I have to prepare I was wondering weather or not you had any experience/advice with documenting in South America? Are there any tips or tricks in communication when documenting between a language barrier?

The documentary is coming a long well and will keep you updated with release dates. If you find a spare moment I would appreciate any guidance what so ever.

Yours Sincerely 

Thomas Stephens"

Audio correction

Audio correction 

When speaking to my tutor Annabeth with regards to entering my film into festivals such as the Royal Television Society. She stressed the importance of audio clarity in film festivals

So here are a couple of Premiere pro audio presets that will help improve the clarity of my audio.

DeHummer:

• Firstly in Premiere apply the DeHummer preset to your audio. 
• In the custom set up, set the filter to 16.
• Then set the reduction to it's highest value, around 30.
• Making sure that the preset is at 50.hz.

EQ:

• A good way to isolate the noise frequencies is applying an EQ filter on the audio clip.
• Firstly mark the 'in' and 'out' points on a section of the timeline where there is any background noise.
• Set the play mode to loop and press play. You should now hear a loop of the background noise.
• Now apply the EQ filter to the audio track and low the custom setup drop down.
• In the the custom setup turn on a mid filter (mid2) and rise the point to the top of the graph filter in-order to determine where the main peak of the background noise comes from.
• Invert the shape by dragging the point to the bottom of the graph.
• Widen the curve and adjust the position to reduce the noise.
• De select loop mode and press play.
• Now adjust the curve depth so you you reach a good level between noise reduction and a natural sounding voice.
• Increase the Output slider to maintain a similar volume after the effect is applied.
• To take out some of the sharpness in the voice drop the high end frequencies.
• As well as dropping low end frequencies to remove any rumble.

DeNoiser:

• In the effect panel in premiere go to: Audio Effects > Stereo > DeNoiser.
• Drag and drop on to the audio
• Open the Custom setup 
• Take the reduction to around - 17.dB
• Increase the Offset to around 10.dB

High-pass:

• High-pass removes LOW frequencies, such as a low hum of a fan.
• Low-pass removes HIGH frequencies, such as a screech.
• Apply the High-pass by dragging and dropping it onto the audio.
• Then in the Effect control change the Cutoff to around 200.hz

Dynamics:

• Apply the Dynamics effect to the audio timeline.
• Under the Compressor column change the Threshold to approximately -22.dB - which determines when the compression kicks in.
• Ratio is how much compression is applied. Change it to around 3.00dB
• Attack & Release deal with how fast the compression starts and how slow it releases.
• Take the Attack down to 0.10
• The last parameter MakeUp gain which is a volume control, change the value to around 12.dB 

MEDLIFE

MEDLIFE

"Dear Tom,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted to MEDLIFE's Summer Media Internship Program for 2014 in Lima, Peru.

In order to secure your place in the program, please reply to this email saying you accept. We hope that you accept our offer to join the MEDLIFE team and become part of an outstanding group of student leaders who have taken their leadership within our young organization to the next level. To plan effectively for your internship, we require a response by Monday, March 31. If we do not hear from you within this time period, we will assume you have made other plans and we will remove you from our acceptance list and place you on the waiting list. 

Again, congratulations on your acceptance to our program. We look forward to having you become part of the team.

Best,"

I am very excited to have been accepted on the MEDLIFE summer internship working with the charity in Lima Peru. I will be working as part of the media and communications team, with a fellow intern from the UK. Together we will document the work of the charity through photos, videos, articles and updating their social media.

I am spending a total of 3 months in Lima, where I will spend 70% of my time in the office planning projects and productions. The other 30% will be spent out in the rural villages in and around Ecuador and Peru, documenting the charities work as they build staircases, wells and set up pop up medical centres. At the medical centres the locals can receive free treatments, jabs and educational classes on safe sex and other diseases.

  

  

Dialogue Exhibition

Dialogue Exhibition

A graphics students that I lived with last year asked me if I was available to document her exhibition that she set up with a fellow course mate. The Dialogue exhibition aimed to showcase screen prints from Leeds College of Art students, as well being open to public entry. The night was held at the corn exchange in Leeds city centre on the 27th of April. 

The night kicked off to a busy start as I entered the exhibition. Due to a busy schedule I made it down to the exhibition for 7pm, 30 mins into the show. At 5pm I had to wait at University for the photography equipment as well as eating back at home, then making the 45 minute walk into town. As I looked back over the footage I regret not making time getting down to the exhibition earlier. I felt that I missed opportunity to capture a few establishing shots of the premises and the empty exhibition space.
For when I arrived the small space felt rather claustrophobic due to the amount of people that packed out the art space. It was also hard to navigate the shoulder mount and camera rig in such a busy environment.

Although I missed some vital establishing shots of the art space I still had to piece together an energetic and exciting video out of the footage I had. Since the exhibition was very busy and lively I thought the video should reflect the atmosphere of the night. I decided to use a stimulating rock n roll song from the British blues band 'Groundhogs'. The song is snappy with a intricate yet fluent drum pattern, perfect for cutting on beat adding that lively feeling.

I used crowd shots and establishing shots of the room in this section to give the sense of the crowded atmosphere in the exhibition. As the song came to an interlude before the chorus with a mellow guitar rift it was at this point that I showcased most of the art work. Applying the warp stabiliser pre set on these clips gave a nice panning effect of the artwork that worked fluently with the mellow rift.






 

9point88: Ultra-Short Filmmaking Challenge

9point88: Ultra-Short Filmmaking Challenge

9point88 is a 10 second film competition that has challenged filmmakers to make an interesting and compelling story in the short space of 10 seconds. Luca Flailabrese a fellow course mate introduced me to the the website, where the competition streams entries from this years candidates. Watching entry after entry we came to the conclusion that we should put our minds together in order to come up with a concept for the competition.

Me and Luca had worked briefly together on his D&AD entry, producing an end product that looked visually stunning. There for I feel very positive about our collaboration and look forward to getting underway with the project.

The Idea

Luca had a burst of inspiration from a short story known as 'Knock', also known as the shortest story ever told.
 - "The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock on the door..."

We decided that this could be a nice little concept that we could easily bring to life. Luca instantly had a location in mind, an old nuclear bunker in York. The first challenge was to establish in a matter of seconds, why this man in this room is the last man on earth. We decided that the only effective method of conveying this information to the audience was to add an audio bite of some sort of scanning mechanism. As it bleeps like a sonar device, scanning for lifeforms on the planet.

Together we storyboarded to the short 10 second sequence into a hand full of clips. Starting with temporal/spacial shots that exaggerate how empty the bunker is that this lonely human lives in. As the scanning mechanism bleeps the shots change to other spatial shots amplifying the empty space of the bunker. Metaphorically conveying a sense of emptiness both in the universe of the film and the bunker.
On approximately the 4th beep the camera will cut to a lonely figure, who is resting his eyes on a desk next to the scanning mechanism. It is at this point that the artificial intelligence  computer that is running the scan announces that there are no life forms detected on planet earth.
As the lonely sole stares bewildered into the computer he hears a knock on the large metal dor of the bunker.
The lonely man, turn round instantaneously in shock and horror as the film ends on a mid-close up reaction shot of his face.

After coming up with the storyboard we pondered on where we could source an actor who looked like they had lived in a bunker for a year or so. Unfortunately we came to no conclusion but on the other hand I managed to convince Luca that he was right for the part. That all he needed was to apply a light amount of ageing makeup. A fellow course mate Sophie Linney agreed to apply the makeup on Luca.

Logistics

The deadline for 9point88 is the 11th of April, which gives us a week or so to produce the video. Although the production only need to be 10 seconds long, a location, organisation and planning needs to be arranged.
I began by e-mailing the Nuclear Bunker in York to which I was redirected several times to different members of staff. Finally I made it through to the PR manager of English Heritage Lindsay Porter.


"Hellos LindseyMy name is Tom Stephens, a third year student at Leeds College of Art studying Digital Film, Games and Animation.I am currently looking to enter 9 point 88 film festival, showcasing 10 second films. I am looking to shoot a 10 second film at the Yorkshire bunker between the dates of the 7th -10th of April. I would like to enquire whether or not we can use the bunker to capture 10 seconds of film in the space of about half an hour? I am very excited to get underway with the project and look forward to your response.Yours Faithfully Tom Stephens"


To which I received no reply, even after calling up her office several time. I then sent out a second e-mail -
"Hello Lindsey, sorry to pester you again but would it be possible to film the 10 seconds on Tuesday the 8th of April? If not when would be a less busier time to film this short take?"

Lindsey replied stating that -

"Hello,Tom,
Really sorry, we are a very small press office and have been focusing on our season openings this week. Next week is too soon and also the site is nt one daily. What is your deadline to complete this? If can get some feedback for you early next week. 
Many thanks
Lindsey"

Today I called Lindsey up to confirm if there is no possible timeframe that we could shoot our 10 second film. She informed me that there could be a possibility that the bunker will be open on thursday but could not guarantee it.

It seems to me that there are two options that I can take in order to meet the deadline on friday the 11th of April.

   - wait till thursday and hope that we can film at the bunker in York
   - find another location to shoot the sequence

Lawnswood Government Buildings

A 10 minute drive from Leeds college of Art up Otley road is Lawnswood, a secure site that holds an old nuclear bunker known as 'Leeds War Room Region'. The area houses departments for DWP and other government agencies, which would suggest that the area is not easy to access. Local urban exploring forums confirmed that the area is monitored by CCTV and patrolled by security guards. However, Nick Catford from the Yorkshire evening post managed to capture a glimpse of what the inside of the bunker looks like.
Although getting permission to film at this bunker may take weeks to be authorised by the military. As a last attempt we could turn up to the site on thursday and ask for permission to do the take there and then.

Production

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.