2. Week 1, 9th-11th February- Contextual
Day one of this project, we were tasked to research and learn about documentary film makers and other people
relevant to my project. I started by researching further into one of my favourite car documenters, Jeremy Clarkson. I
learnt a lot about people negative and positive opinions about him, this will help influence my project as Clarkson
has had a big personal influence on my passion for cars. I also looked to find out some of his opinions on certain
subjects and people by looking at his many books and tv shows he has created. I also looked at popular
documentary director and producer, Kostis Nikolas. I chose to look at Kostis as I found his work by looking through
different styles of documentaries and his caught my eye. I really liked how his website was laid out to show off all his
projects and lots of information about him. I liked his style of documentary as it was simple to understand and easy
to watch. The final person I looked at was Yianni Charambulous who is mainly a car wrapper. I have known about
him and his company ‘Yiannimize’ for a while now as he has worked on celebrity cars such as famous footballer,
Aubameyang. Yianni is the perfect type of person I want to interview for my documentary, to find out how he
became so successful and why he chose this career path. I will contact him and attempt to get a possible online
interview with him (as he lives in London). I also did a bibliography for different websites and books I used to get
information I got about these three guys so I’m not stealing their work and making sure they are getting credit for
the information I have used.
4. Week 2, 16th-18th February- Contextual
Second week of the project, I made my context statement. This is basically explaining why I chose cars to be my
main theme for my project. I explained that I have a huge passion and interest for cars, and this will fuel my
motivation and inspiration for the project as I will be interested in what I’m creating as its important I get a good
grade for this project as it is what will decide whether I go to university or not. I also wrote about my strengths and
limitations for the project, I talked about how confident I feel on certain types of media and my strongest sector. I
mentioned different types of software that I will use within my project which will be Premiere Pro, Photoshop, Wix
and possibly others for small parts of it. It was also important I talked about my limitations so I mentioned I’m not
100% skilled on all the software and there is a lot of room to improve. I also talked about my physical limitations in
terms of travel and explained why that may pose an issue. I also did my proposal this week which talked through
more in depth detail as to what I want to include in my project. I put in my details then filled out a rationale and a
project concept to clearly lay out what I was doing. At the bottom of the proposal, there was a bibliography to fill
out. There were ten slots for me to add what would be useful for me in terms of research and planning. I referenced
two books, two websites, two tv show episodes, two documentary films and two primary resources. I Harvard
referenced all of these and put them in the list as they will prove to be useful. The last section of the proposal was a
production schedule. The schedule is broken down week by week and I wrote the general task being pre-production,
production or evaluation, then went into more detail about what I would be specifically doing each week.
6. Week 3, 2nd-4th March- Research
This week I started researching into my audience and existing products, I started off by working out who my target
audience is, I came to the conclusion that the car community is predominantly males aged between 16-21. I then
proceeded to start to research my target audience by finding different articles and forums, answering questions that
petrol heads would want to know the answer to. I also found a lot of statistics that told me how many people own
cars, have a license, etc, to see how many people are involved with cars in some way shape and form. The number
came in at about 80% of all people in the uk over 17 held a full driving license. I did conduct some primary research
in the form of a survey filled out by peers and friends. This helped me find out more about my audience as most of
the people who answered fit perfectly into my target group. The survey told me a lot, such as how often people view
car related content and how they would view it but it also showed me what types of cars they were most interested
in. This is one of my most useful pieces of research that I conducted and will help massively in production. I also
learnt how people viewed most of their media, so I know which platforms are effective and what I should upload to,
to get the most attention towards my project, the most popular platform from my survey was YouTube, so I know
that in order to reach my target audience, I need to upload my content to YouTube. I did also conduct some existing
product research on existing documentaries, one that I looked at was made by Vice, a large documentary company,
and they had created a documentary about the street races and meetups in America and showed the backstories to
the people involved. The documentary gave me some good tips and helped point me in a direction so I know where I
need to start with production.
8. Week 4 9th-11th March Problem Solving and Experiments
During this week, I started a problem solving PowerPoint to analyse the possibilities of what could go wrong and
how I could potentially solve the problems or prevent them from happening in the first place. There were multiple
types of problems that I could encounter during production, from technical to physical which are both important.
The technical problems can range from file corruption, limited access to software, technical ability, etc. and the
physical could range from location, money, crew, etc. It’s important to identify all of these so if they come around, I
can be prepared to know how to deal with them. Some are more likely to happen than others, that’s why some of
the points are more detailed, as there is more of a process when solving them. However there are some things that
are out of my hands, such as lighting, if filmed outside in natural lighting, noise and lighting when filming in public.
All of those are problems that don’t really have a solution if I need to film in a certain location. There are a lot of
technical things though that do have solutions, such as making back-up copies of each document of work and having
extra back-up equipment if something breaks during filming. I also had to know my technical limits as well when it
comes to editing, so I don’t set myself a task too hard that I will be unable to complete but also no too basic so that I
can use the most of my skill set. This is where experiments came in handy as I was able test things such as, camera
angles, audio in certain places and lighting whilst also practicing technical things such as, editing techniques, colour
correction, text, etc.
10. Week 5 16th-18th March Planning
This week I began to plan for my production in the upcoming weeks. I started it off by trying to find a location and
event for my filming. My plan was to go to a car event/meetup to get some footage of cars and short clips of me
asking people short questions. The events in the area were quite limited and I managed to find a couple that suited
me. There was a problem with dates, as I had to find a time where I wasn’t at college to go to an event. I eventually
found an event at Newby Hall, called Sportscars in the Park, which was the perfect ideal event for me as it ‘1000+’
cars from all different countries and all different styles of cars as well. I found this was perfect for me, as I wanted
my site to be a home for all cars rather than just a certain genre. There will be plenty of people at this event that I
hope will be willing to talk to me, answer a couple of short questions and allow me to film and photograph their
cars. There is also an exit gate, where cars can rev their engines and speed off down which is perfect as it will allow
me to get short videos of the cars in motion as well as just sat looking pretty. The only problem with this event is the
date which is they 8th May which doesn’t allow me much time to edit the footage but the event is perfect for what I
need. I also looked and researched into companies to see if they would allow me to conduct interviews with owners
or members of staff to get an inside look into the UK car scene. I reached out to four companies and got two replies,
both replies said that it was not something they would be able to do whereas the other two never got back to me.
My sister then mentioned to me that one of her friends was a car journalist and also owned his own car valet and
servicing business for high end motors which has been successful. He agreed to do an interview and allowed me to
capture some footage of his business, the date is still yet to be decided.
12. Week 6 23rd-24th March Planning
This week I decided it would be a good plan to get some interview questions ready for when I conduct my interview
later on, I used some experience I had from prior projects with interview techniques and question styles which
helped a lot to make sure I’m asking the right questions to get the most out of the interview. I also decided a shot
list would be good to make so when I go to film the interview and the event, I know what kind of shots I would need
to take and what is effective for this style of moving image. I also had to plan out my equipment, transport and crew
as I currently can’t drive and there isn’t any public transport to the event. I have asked a friend if they would be
willing to come with me to the car event, in order to say thank you and cover petrol, I will pay for their ticket into
the event. The event itself costs £16 which is a bit pricey but will be worth it when I get all the footage for my
documentary. Lunch will also need to be factored in for that day as well as we will be there for most of the day. I
created a schedule for my production weeks so I can stick to it and make sure I am properly organised and get the
most out of each day at college. It’s important that I stick to the schedule as best as possible because that is the best
way to keep on top of work.
14. Week 7 30th- 1st April Planning
To finish off my planning, I decided to create flat plans for my website and articles. I did this for my previous factual
project where is created a fanzine and found that this was one of the most useful pieces of planning I did, so I
decided to do it again for this project, the plans allowed me to see what the website would roughly look like when it
was finished and when it comes to production, I will already know what I’m doing and where things need to be
which will save time. I don’t need to stick entirely to the flat plans, if things change and I see a design I like more
then I will choose that, but its good to have these so I have a decent idea of where to start. I also decided the topic
of my articles and wrote short bullet points of topics that I should include in each article. Each article will include
pictures taken from the event that fit the content of the article itself. I have also created a small storyboard to briefly
show what the documentary will include, its hard to depict exactly what each scene will look like as I cant control
what cars are going to be there and exactly which scene is going in at which time. The storyboard just includes the
different types of scenes I will use rather than exactly what the scene itself will include. I've planned out all the
equipment I need to use as well and most of it is software that is owned on the computers at college. The camera I
will use to film is my dads camera that he is allowing me to film with and I will have my phone available if something
goes wrong with the camera so I can grab footage with that instead.
16. Week 8 6th-8th April Production
This week was the start of production however the first half of this week, I was more just spending it finishing up
planning and polishing up work that had been missed. I reflected on some feedback from my previous project and
also my pre-proposal, proposal and contextual research. There were a few things that needed to be added to take
my project up a level so I added and improved on them documents. Once I caught up to date on my work and
feedback, I created a website to showcase all my work from research to production and through to evaluation. I
didn’t want to spend too much time making this as it wasn’t the most important thing to do, but I wanted to make
sure it was organised properly and had an easy and understandable layout so when people look at it to evaluate my
work, they don’t miss anything which could lead to me getting down graded because they think I haven’t done it.
Whilst also making it easy to navigate I did also want it to look quite professional so I tried to incorporate that into it
as well. I added tabs for each stage of the project and then added the documents that I had already finished onto
the website. Once I finished creating that website, I decided to start to make my actual website as part of the
project. I was browsing for a while, trying to find the best design for the site as I wanted it to fit the style of the
articles and the documentary whilst also appealing to the primary target audience. I eventually settled on a
template design and began to add the different pages I needed.
18. Week 9 27th-29th April
During this week, I continued on with making the website for my project. At this time I don’t have any footage as the
dates for the interview and event were later than I would have liked, but for next week I will have the interview and
a short amount of footage that I can then edit next week, and I will have the event footage for a week after. So for
this week I continued to build my site that the footage would be on, so when its all edited, I can put it straight on. I
replaced all the images already on the site with stock car images from google which I will change after the event
with pictures I have taken myself. I made titles and links to each page and decided on having three full articles on
the website, one dedicated to the Sportscars in the Park event, another for the interview with Ted and his line of
work, and the other to the JDM car scene where I hope I will be able to find some cars at the event that fit into this
category. I added my contact details to the site and made a section where readers can submit opinions, complaints,
suggestions, etc. so that I can get feedback. I filled all the article pages as well with stock images which I will also
replace with my own original images. I created a name and slogan along with a simple logo for my site so that it can
be easily recognised. I did begin to write some of the articles for the site using the bullet points I wrote down in
planning. I have left the interview article blank for the time being as that is my job next week when I have the
footage.
20. Week 10 4th-6th May
This week, I started editing my documentary and more specifically, my interview. I went to my interviewee’s (Ted’s)
house where he works from home and also does his car valet service. He lives on a farm so there is plenty of space
for his equipment and all the cars. We started by him giving a valet service to one of his new cars whilst I got
different angles of different stages of the valet from hoovering to power washing. After that, we got inside the car to
start the interview, I set up the camera in the windscreen of the car whilst he sat in the drivers seat and I began the
interview. It went well, I got some good footage and good information for my documentary and article. So I started
by uploading all my footage then trimming them down, cutting out the failed shots and the bits that were
unnecessary and also removed the audio from the valet clips as well and then I began to edit. I decided to cut out
some of the footage of him talking, but keep the audio and then play some of the valet clips over the interview
audio. I made transitions between clips and colour corrected a lot of the shots. There were a few shots that I
decided to put a black and white filter over to add some effect and also I slowed a few clips down as well as
speeding up a few. I had to do a bit of audio tuning as well on the interview clips as my voice was a little bit too quiet
due to where I was in proportion to the microphone when recording.
22. Week 11 11th-13th May
This was our last set week for production, however I did miss the Friday due to my driving test which has set me
back a little bit as I will have to use a little bit of my evaluation time to complete my production. I did manage to visit
the car show at Newby Hall on the 8th May, so I was able to collect plenty of footage to add to my documentary. I got
clips of high speed moving cars, cars revving engines and 360 degree shots of cars as well as plenty of pictures for
my gallery and articles. The whole day was amazing and I got more than enough footage so then on Wednesday the
11th when I was back at college, I was able to start editing what I captured over the weekend. I uploaded all the
images into their designated spots in the articles and the gallery then uploaded the footage onto Premiere Pro to
edit into my documentary. I cut all my clips down to size and reduced the volume of them down to minus twenty
decibels so that I would be able to have the clip playing over the sound of Ted talking. The clips looked pretty good
before editing, but I did a little bit of colour correction to make them look even better, I then started to put them all
into place. I decided to also add a little zoom in transition effect between some pictures on the documentary to
make it smooth and not choppy. I then started to look for some calm royalty free background music to play in the
background of my clips, I came across a hip-hop instrumental beat after a while of searching which suited my project
perfectly, I added this to my documentary and made cuts along the way where I wanted sound to increase and
decrease, it increased on shots with no sound the decreased when there was the sound of Ted talking. I have almost
finished production but I will need to run a little bit over into my evaluation to complete it.
