LOSTWORLDPOSTER

Go for it if you dare!

Remember that these marks are subject to confirmation by the external examiner. It is very important that you also collect your individual feedback sheet from the office as these contain details on your abilities as well as suggestions on how you can improve your work.

As a general feedback I want to thank the vast majority of you for engaging well on this module. The quality of the ideas, concepts and creativity was very good. At the same time you really all need to escalate your technical skills and the best way to do this would be to continue to develop or rework the documentaries, additional recording or re-editing in some cases, and submit them to Festivals and on-line broadcasters such as the ones we covered in Week 10.

Determination, creativity and commitment are essential in any area of media production so best of luck to those of you who have this!

I will also be giving some general feedback during the lecture and you will have the opportunity to give your own feedback. Do not forget to put your completed films on your blog and bring a copy in any format (DVD – USB – CD) to the lecture for the group screening. Good luck to all of you.

This is the Assessment Schedule for Friday 11th & Friday 18th December. As well as the times listed you need to be available to give group feedback on the production that follows you so you must remain in the ET building until you are called. You will be told as soon as possible after your assessment when you can leave.

This is taking place in room ETG07

12.30
Tatter, Navinder
2158857
Namazzi, Aidah Kakonge
2196022
Chauhan, Krishna Minesh
2111586

12.45
Atkinson, Shireen Louise
2499794
Kelly, Abbey Ebony Amy
2151412
Lucas, April Clareena
1869639
Din, Carsum

1.00
Agnew, Keshia Janette Ann
1839229
Horsburgh, Rebecca Charlotte
2120810
Wilson, Lucy
2292874

1.15
Beal, Christopher Michael
2116547
Gallagher, Thomas Paul
2118079
Lewis, Joshua
2391351
Farmer, Matt
2632771

1.30
Manktelow, Carly
2139753
Envis, Amy
2131126
Bond, Jennifer
2108416
Tavner, Joe
1863143

1.45
Cooper, Jessica Pamela
1717662
Jardine, Kimberley Alice
2193180
Millins, Amy
1894435

2.00
Dhillon, Ishver Singh
1823826
Khakh, Harinder Singh
1823815

2.15
Akhtar, Rihanah Bi
2297455
Chanchal, Kiren
2171074
Rhall, Jagdeesh
2242019

2.30
Mall-Kainth, Kiran
1723401
Daniels, Matthew Benjamin
1948163

2.45
Wetherall, Holly
2230463
Montague, Sally-Anne
2199768
Mason, Jessica
2119799
Vara, Nina
2257264

3.00
Billingham, Michael Oliver
2233121
Mellish, Thomas
1778478
Wilson, Andrew
2254458

3.15
Gebrehiwet, Menen
1815717

3.30
Liepins, Arturs
2444196
McDonald, Daniel 2361882
Sell, Thomas
2566155
Wu, Bo 2801056

3.45
Ardelean, Silviu Mihai
2357139
Nastasa, Brindusa-Ioana
2341493

4.00
James, Tristan
2211783
Light, Christopher James
1836675
Rowland, Daniel James
2230577

Deliverables

Group (60% of final grade)
1 x 3 min Documentary Video (3 copies – 1 DV tape, 1DVD and 1 QT CD)
1 x Production file. Including all workings i.e. sketches, drafts, schedules, scripts, storyboards and edit lists.
(Delivered in a clear plastic folder)

Individual (40% of final grade)
Research and Progress Blog
(No blog entries will be accepted after this date).

Coursework Submission

Your coursework will be submitted to Reception in the Ellen Terry Building on between 11.00am 12.00PM FRIDAY 11TH DECEMBER 2009. Your coursework should have a cover sheet (available from Reception) affixed to the front sheet. You should also make sure that you sign the sheet to confirm that you have submitted your work.

Please note: The staff in Reception have been instructed that these times should be rigidly adhered to and no-one, for whatever reason, will be allowed to submit work outside these times.

You will also deliver the finished video electronically by the end of the same day. A folder will be created on the ET basement network server for you to place the following files:

• 1 x QuickTime Movie for Web
• Text Document (.txt) containing title of your piece and a 100 word synopsis

Wild Things

Benjamin Zephaniah to attend cousins inquest

The poet and writer, Dr Benjamin Zepahaniah, will be taking time out of his hectic schedule to attend the inquest of his cousin Mikey Powell, who died whilst in the custody of West Midlands police in September 2003. Zephaniah will be attending on Wednesday 2nd December 2009, and invites the press and other interested parties to attend a press conference with himself and other members of the family and legal team.

The venue: Sutton Coldfield Town Hall
Upper Clifton Road, Sutton Coldfield
Birmingham B73 6AB. Tel: 0121 464 8990

Getting there….
The Town Hall is situated very near to Sutton Coldfield rail station. See a map here.

SECTION 2 should contain:
- Personal Critical Evaluation This must be in an essay format and include Problems/ Solutions including difficulties encountered and how you overcome them as well as your Unique contribution including details of your input to the group, ability to work within a team and quality of editorial judgement as well as Reflection including personal development, knowledge learnt and experience gained (10 images + 800 words)
All of this must be on your blog by the hand in date Friday 11th December.

Whist considering this you may want to go to the following event where veteran documentary film-maker Paul Watson who made the original ‘The Family’ in 1974 will be speaking.

The latest blog input should be your shooting script of the group production that should have been posted in Week 4 this is a minimum requirement others have posted more material which is to your benefit as long as it is relevant.

From now on you must work on the Blog as an individual and content needs to be as was outlined in the Workbook Guidelines that are available on Blackboard. In summary they are as follows:

SECTION 1 should contain:
- Experimentation and exploration. Including ideas and influences (4 images + 200 words)
- Sources. Including how and where you found information (4 images + 200 words)
- Inspiration. Including sources of motivation, stimulation and encouragement ( 4 images + 200 words)
- Process. Including an evaluation of the production and your role within it. Also proof of practical knowledge. (4 images + 200 words)

This must be completed by Friday 4th December.

SECTION 2 should contain:
- Personal Critical Evaluation This must be in an essay format and include Problems/ Solutions including difficulties encountered and how you overcome them as well as your Unique contribution including details of your input to the group, ability to work within a team and quality of editorial judgement as well as Reflection including personal development, knowledge learnt and experience gained (10 images + 800 words)

All of this must be on your blog by the hand in date Friday 11th December.

Please make sure you write up the comments that were made during the workshops onto your blog. If you are shooting more material and want feedback on rushes upload the work onto your blog and email me so that I can give you feedback. I will also be available for tutorials on Thursday 26th November between 11.30 and 12.30 if you want to make an appointment the sign up sheet is outside Room 104.

Still from 'Man with a Movie Camera' Dziga Vertov 1929 Soviet Union

Can all groups make sure that rushes of material you have shot are available for viewing at the Workshops on Friday 20th. This should be on the Avid suite in the basement or, if you are editing on your own system, bring it in in a form that can be viewed through a Macbook Pro (ie as QT file or iMovie) this could be on an external hard drive or a DVD/CD. I am looking forward to seeing the results of all your hard work! Remember to also bring in your Group Production Folder. Contents are listed below on the blog dated November 6.

Delivery: Workshop Week 7 on Friday 20th November 2009

‘The Age of Stupid’ is the new cinema documentary from the Director of ‘McLibel’ and the Producer of the Oscar-winning ‘One Day in September’. This enormously ambitious drama-documentary-animation hybrid stars Oscar-nominated Pete Postlethwaite as an old man living in the devastated world of 2055, watching ‘archive’ footage from 2008 and asking: why didn’t we stop climate change while we had the chance?

An exclusive screening of the feature film will take place on 21 November at the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum from 2pm with a very special post-show discussion. The event is the second in a series of film screenings and discussion, which has been organised by singer songwriter, Verity Pabla, founder of I’m not a machine productions. INAMP is the latest outfit to emerge from the Institute for Creative Enterprise (ICE).
Tickets for the event cost £5 each and are available from the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum. For more information see www.ageofstupid.net

We would like to invite you to participate in CHANNEL 4 NEWS Live debate on Afghanistan
Hosted by Jon Snow
At the Guildhall in Coventry between 7.00 p.m. and 7.50 p.m. on
Wednesday, 11th November 2009. Arrival Time 6.30 a.m.

Please call Alison Fuller as soon as possible to apply for your place – 01299 829299 – admission by ticket only

Pre-production
Shooting script
Interview questions
Production schedule

Production
Log
Releases
Location releases

Post-production
Transcripts of interviews
EDL (edit decision lists)
Music list – song, artist, recording label. Time used (you have to list each separate bit
you use)

Objective: To shoot your footage or/and stills for the REAL LIVES documentary as outlined in the Assignment Brief.

Make sure you plan well in advance in terms of crew, equipment and subject.

Once you have shot your material you must transfer your rushes/images to a hard drive and be ready to show and discuss these rushes at the next workshop.

Delivery: Workshop Week 7 on Friday 20th November 2009

Subject: Inquest into the death of Mikey Powell

When: 4th November 2009 for 6 weeks.

Details including background of case and venue details are here get onto the site and familiarize yourself with the event.

The idea would be for us to attend the inquest and produce a report on it, what form the report takes (blog, documentary or both) would be decided in the first week.

Research – The first step would be for some of you to go down on the first week and get to know the characters, location and learn about the case and how the inquest operates. Make notes about what you see and hear.

Information gathering – All your notes need to be typed up and we will decide on Thursday 5th what site to put up.

Filming dates – 2 confirmed filming dates are 11th and 18th November when I will be in attendance. Transport has been arranged. At any other times any of you can arrange to attend to shoot material as you get to know the case and characters.

Development – We will have regular meetings to maintain the project and decide on its direction, purpose and impact.

Contacts – I have detailed knowledge of the case and those involved so ask me any questions that you cannot find out about yourself. For a broader picture of the issue of inquests into deaths in police custody you should watch ‘INJUSTICE’ click on the link below.

Objective: Once your group has agreed on the treatment. You need to produce a shooting script. Details of how to do this were given out in todays workshop and can also be downloaded from CU Online Blackboard.

Delivery: Workshop Week 5 in Group Production File

Note: Make sure that you agree on a working title for your project and that every group member uses it on their blog. Mark the post as REAL LIVES GROUP SHOOTING SCRIPT

Objective: Once your group has agreed which proposal to develop and produce you need to work together on the treatment.

What is a Documentary Treatment?

Your treatment is a clear blueprint and plan for shooting your documentary. You can tell what the subject is. How it is structured. What it will tell the audience. Who will be interviewed and what they will have to tell. From this treatment a researcher can gather the information required for the programme and contact the correct people for interviewing. It will tell a director what they need to shoot and the running order of the programme. A treatment provides you with all that you need to organise and make your production. Your programme can be filmed and/or photographed and may use:

Interviews – sit down, on locations,
on the go/as it happens
Actuality – both public and domestic
Archive footage – moving image and stills (provided it is cleared for copyright)
Reconstruction of events
Graphics – integral to the images
Music – original only

The treatment should give some indication of what reaction you want to generate from your audience.

Summary: A scene by scene breakdown of a programme. The specifics of each scene. The purpose of the scene

Length: 500 Words

Delivery: Workshop Week 5 on individual blogs.

Note: Make sure that you agree on a working title for your project and that every group member uses it on their blog. Mark the post as REAL LIVES GROUP TREATMENT

‘The Yes Men Fix The World’ film screening & ‘Live Skype Q&A With The Yes Men’
7pm, October 30th, The Herbert, Coventry.

Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno are two guys who just can’t take “no” for an answer. They have an unusual hobby: posing as top executives of corporations they hate. Armed with nothing but thrift-store suits, the Yes Men lie their way into business conferences and parody their corporate targets in ever more extreme ways – basically doing everything that they can to wake up their audiences to the danger of letting greed run our world.

More deatils are at:
www.theyesmenfixtheworld.com
and
www.imnotamachineproductions.com

Newcomers Day, presented by DFG is Thursday 5th November at Doc/Fest
Do you want to work in documentaries? Want help making your first documentary?
Want to win a commission from Current TV? Newcomers Day is a fantastic and unique opportunity to get into the documentary world. Hear from and meet execs who are hiring, commissioners who are buying and the directors who are inspiring the next generation of doc filmmakers. There’s also a chance to pitch for a commission from Current TV.

To book Newcomers Day tickets, which are priced at a bargain £35 for the whole day Thursday, call the Showroom Box Office on 0114 275 7727

1. Content: Who is your subject and what will they do in the film.
2. Craft: What is your visual approach to the subject what will the film actually look and sound like.
3. Context: How does it relate to the brief (Victims of Capitalism or Outsiders).

Total length: 300 words

Due: Workshop 4 – Friday 30th October

Due: Workshop 4

Objective: Make a 1 minute film

This assignment should be seen as a screen test for your proposed REAL LIVES assignment as well/or as an opportunity to develop your own cinematic style.

You can choose to screen test the person you want to make your REAL LIVES story on. This is a good way to see how they sound, look and feel on film or photographs. You should also use this opportunity to experiment and practice with lighting and camera styles that may work for your subject.

Remember to focus not just on the visual element but on audio also and think about how the two work together. Test out ideas and images and be creative! This is a sketch for your bigger picture.

Duration: 60 seconds

Delivery: Upload onto your blog. (you should put it on YouTube and then embed it within you blog) + 1 x CD Quick Time file as back-up.

Delivery date: Friday 30th October at Workshops

Equipment: Use the highest grade of equipment available.

Formats: DV camera or stills camera.

Style: You can use actuality filming, still photography or a mixture of both but the end result must be a 1-minute film with a narrative structure.

What you submit will be viewed and discussed at the next workshop so be prepaqred to explain the creative decisions that you have made.

The Performing Rights Society for Music have an unusual competition that some of you may be interested in. Scene>>Heard challenges creative student and graduate filmmakers to create their own imaginative 90-second cinematic interpretation of a famous musical quote or song lyric. For example:
• “Without music, life would be a mistake” (Friedrich Nietzshe)
• “If music be the food of love, play on” (William Shakespeare)
• “Music was my first love, and it will be my last” (Songwriter: John Miles)
The deadline is 18th December.
I wanted to bring it to your attention as it highlights the importance of sound in your documentary. Whilst the majority of you will not be using music in your ‘Real Lives’ projects its still important for you to understand the process of clearing music rights for any films that you may produce in the future.

The link to the Competition is

Due: Workshop 3

Step 1. Take two cinematographers from the list below and study their work. Besides their names are some of the renowned films that they have shot and that you should look at. Even if you know the film re examine it not as a passive consumer but with a critical eye on its visual content. If you know a film that is not on the list but you feel has strong cinematography then include it.

(Task – watch at least two films one for each cinematographer)

Step 2. Once you have watched the films describe the cinematography in terms of lighting, mood, camera movement, colours, filters and so on. Write 100 words for each cinematographer to describe their style in visual and technical terms. You should use stills to illustrate each film you refer to. (Remember to describe the visual style and not the film storyline!)

(Task – write 2 x 100 word style descriptions. Use film stills/clips for illustrations)

Step 3. Next write a 100 words comparison of your response to the different styles i.e. What works and does not work? What would be the impact on the films you watched if the cinematography was exchanged?

(Task – write 100 word style comparison)

Step 4. Finally think of how the style you have watched could be applied to the film that you will make for the REAL LIVES assignment. Write 100 words about why it could work for the subject you are filming and also how you would do it in technical terms.

(Task – write 100 word visual approach)

Cinematography List

ROBBIE MULLER: Paris Texas, Alice in the Cities
VITTORIO STORARO: Apocalypse Now, The Conformist,
SVEN NYKVIST: Cries and Whispers, Persona, The Sacrifice
EDOUARD TISSE: Alexander Nevsky, Battleship Potemkin.
SACHA VIERNY: Hiroshima monAmour, Last Year Marienbad,
GREGG TOLAND: Citizen Kane, The Grapes of Wrath
JACK CARDIFF: The Red Shoes, Black Narcissus
SERGEI URUSSEVSKY: I am Cuba, The Cranes are Flying
RAOUL COUTARD: Pierrot le Fou, Breathless
NESTOR ALMENDROS: Claire’s Knee, Days of Heaven.
SLAWOWIR IDZIAK: Three Colours Blue
GORDON WILLIS: Manhattan, The Godfather trilogy
FREDDIE FRANCIS: The Innocents, The Elephant Man
CHRIS DOYLE: Chungking Express, Fallen Angels
MICHAEL BALLHAUS: Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Goodfellas
GEORGI RERBERG: Mirror
VADIM YUSOV: Andrei Rublev
SUBRATA MITRA: Pather Panchali
DINEN GUPTA: CloudCapped Star
BORIS KAUFMAN: L’Atalante
ROBERT KRASKER: The Third Man, Henry V, Brief Encounter
RUDOLF MATÉ: The Passion of Joan of Arc
FREDDIE YOUNG: Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago
ROGER DEAKINS: The Man who wasn’t there
MINORU MIKI, YOZO FUJI: Story of the Late Chrysanthemums
MICHAEL CHAPMAN: Raging Bull
JOHN ALCOTT: Barry Lyndon, The Shining
LUIS CADRADO: Spirit of the Beehive
CONRAD HALL: The Road to Perdition, American Beauty
CHRIS MENGES: The Mission, The Killing Fields, Kes.
KAZUO MIYAGAWA: Sansho the Bailiff, Rashomon.

• Watch a documentary on www.freedocumentaries.org
• Write a 100 word review of the documentary you watched and put on blog – think of it in terms of its content and style. Be critical.
• Shoot your visual storyboard and put 10 images on your blog
• Write descriptions of 100 words for a film you would make about someone you know along the lines of the assignment. Add images if you have them.

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All students must go on the trip. You must let the let the Module Leader (Ken Fero) or Course Director (Steve Dawkins) know urgently if you have any difficulties attending.

Check out the Festival site at www.sheffdocfest.com to find on what goes on there, what sessions are on and what the key issues and personalities are this year.

www.sheffdocfest.com