FMP Theoretical Problems Solved

FMP PROBLEM
SOLVING
Madeleine Ross

Theoretical Problems
Theoretical Problems tend to be issues that occur DURING the project.
This year, due to the coronavirus pandemic, things are going to be very
different, and shooting with people is going to be even harder than
usual.With it being uncertain when we will next be able to sit down and
film someone closely, there is a high chance I may run into a lot more
theoretical problems than usual.
Theoretical
Shooting Outdoors
A lot of my existing products had at least
some shots outside, if not all of them, so I
know when it comes to my shoot day I will
have to shoot outside also. Due to the
pandemic, it is also a lot safer to shoot
outside, so I assume the majority of shots
will be.This can come with quite a few
issues however, as you cannot monitor as
well outside as in a studio.
Lighting Issues
Weather Restrictions
Actors/Extras
Shooting with actors and extras can always be a tricky,
however with the pandemic and the governments
guidelines advising us to stay at least 2 meters away
from one and other, not travel unless necessary, and to
not meet in groups, at the best of times, of more than 6.
We want to be able to film in the safest and best way
possible, but this may mean I have to make sacrifices to
do so.
Locations
Again, due to the pandemic, it is unclear when we
will be allowed to travel properly again, so the
locations I choose must be easy to access, have
enough space to socially distance if I have crew with
me, and ideally walking distance.

Theoretical Problems- Shooting Outdoors
• Shooting outdoors and on location can be a tricky thing, as the weather is constantly changing here in the UK, causing issues with
lighting, continuity, audio issues and also issues with accessibility. If it is raining heavily on the day of the shoot, it is obviously not a
viable option to take expensive kit out and film in a comfortable and safe environment. Filming outside and on location also means
that I wont have easy access to artificial lighting, to my laptop and to chargers for devices such as my phone. Due to the covid-19
pandemic, it will be a lot safer to film outside when filming with cast and crew, as this reduces the spread of the virus through the air.
Therefore, I need to plan for if anything such as the issues above occur, and how I can fix and avoid these problems.
• Specific Lighting Issues:
• Outside lighting is pretty much uncontrollable and it is always changing during the day. Bad lighting looks bright and
makes the footage look overexposed and flat, and harsh lighting can create an unflattering contrast between the
shadows and the highlights on your subjects face.
• Solution: The best time to film outside with natural lighting is “golden hour” the hour before the sun starts
setting and the sky starts darkening.The sun is low in the sky, helping create softer lighting, in contrast to mid
day, when the sun is high in the sky, and casts harsh light that washes out the subject.
• Solution: It is unrealistic to have all your filming done within this one hour, and if you are on schedule it isn’t
convenient to film over a period of many evenings.To help counteract some of the hard lighting, I can use a
reflector board, something I looked at how to make in my research. Reflectors are used to take harsh light and
bounce it off, turning into softer light, and as we know, soft light makes subjects look more flattering. I will use a
silver reflector as this is recommended for beginners to start with, and I have never used a reflector before this
project. The farther away you hold the reflector from your subject the softer the light it will reflect back
onto them.

• Specific Audio Issues:
• The biggest audio problem I will face working outside is wind and traffic sounds. No matter where I may be filming, wind
will always be present, and as it is still winter here in the UK, meaning colder weather, the wind can pick up quite a lot
during these months. It can seriously effect the quality of your work, so it is a problem I need to overcome and work out.
• Solution: The simple way to reduce the sound of wind would be to shield your mic from the wind using your hand or
another soft object such as a blanket, foam, and it is a good idea to experiment with positions of the mic to make sure it is
out of the path of the wind. Due to the winter weather however, and the inconsistency in wind, the method of shielding
probably isn’t the best solution, but a simple solution nonetheless.
• Solution: Another idea is to test out your mic in the shooting location before the shoot, to make sure the wind and
background noise is easy to work with and around, and if it is not you have chance to change the shooting location before
the scheduled time.
• Solution:The type of kit you use can also be helpful in reducing outside noise, microphones such as dead cats, foam
covered mic’s and blimp styles. I myself don’t have this kit at home, however my college does provide RODE foam
microphones, as well as directional mics which focus’s on recording what you are pointing at reducing background noise.

• Specific Weather Restrictions:
• Due to the weather here in the UK being quite unpredictable on a day to day basis, extreme weather changes or even simple changes in the
weather have the ability to throw of your shooting day.Things such as extreme wind, rain, snow and fog are common weather in the UK, and
can reduce the amount of time you can stay out and film, risk the safety of the cast and the crew, risk expensive equipment getting damaged,
and also increases risk of audio being ruined.
• Solution: Look at the weather forecast on the day of the shoot, and a few days before the shoot.This allows you to be able to see if your
shoot needs rescheduling, and the next available days to do so. If it is unavoidable and you can’t reschedule, you and your cast and crew can
be ready and prepare for the day ahead the best way.
• Rain: The weather restrictions I am most likely to face will be rain, and as we will be filming during march and April, it is likely we will
have to face a lot of it.To make sure I can avoid serious damage to kit, and to the safety of cast and crew, I will do the following: Make
sure to bring either a large plastic bag, or a large plastic tarp, to cover the kit when not using it.This will reduce the chance of any
rainwater getting into the kit and damaging it beyond repair. If filming in the rain is completely unavoidable, I will ask a crew member to
cover an umbrella over the camera whilst filming, to avoid the risk of water damage to the kit.
• ColdWeather: If we are filming outside for multiple hours, and filming during “golden hour” when the sun is at it’s weakest, it could
result in cast and crew becoming uncomfortably cold and risk hypothermia, or more likely, difficulty working and effects on kit.To solve
this problem, I will make sure to notify the cast to bring layered clothing, as it can get warm at times, but overall it will be cold
throughout the shoot. It is also a good idea to maybe bring gloves so we can still use kit properly and not have issues adjusting focus,
clicking small buttons etc, and holding kit up for a long time.

Theoretical Problems- Cast, Crew and Covid-19
• Covid 19 has changed the way that we have to work forever, and the film and tv industry have been massively
effected by this due to the fact that filming involves such a large amount of people, people who have most likely
travelled from all over for this job. Although my project is a student one and not nearly as big as industry standard
productions, from the start of the project I have been more aware and more conscious on how I am going to get my
production done. At the current time I am writing this, the government have put in place restrictions to reduce the
spread of covid. At the moment restrictions include:
• You are only allowed to meet with one person outside of your household, at a distance, and must be outside.
• You are not allowed to travel to college campus’s unless you are a venerable person, or require help in learning.
All learning is currently online.
• You are not allowed to travel to other places unless you have a valid reason to.
• Meeting in groups is not permitted, and fines can be given where seen fit by law enforcement.
• These restrictions will have a big effect on my production, as it is unlikely I will be able to meet with more than one
person outside of my household, which will make getting help whilst shooting, as well as shooting someone else, a
difficult task. It is important that we adhere to government guidelines, and that I can film in the safest way possible.
• Due to this, and the fact that no-one really knows where we will be when it comes to time for production, I have
decided any interviews I conduct will be done over a zoom/teams call, and I will ask that person to record their
answers and send them over to me.
• As of filming, I don’t know how many people I plan on having in the film, as poetic docs tend to use lots of images to
create meaning, and having people in the film isn’t always necessary, I think I will try keep the cast to one person max,
which will be much safer than having a large group of people.

• Reduced Cast and Crew: The issues that I may have with casting and people participating in my project isn’t too much of an issue,
as from the beginning I have been thinking of ways to cope with what the pandemic throws at us. An issue that may be more
difficult to overcome may be the matter of crew and the people who are available to help me whilst I am filming. As mentioned in
previous slides, a reflector is going to be an important part of filming, and if I am outside and need audio recording, a dead cat mic
or a foam mic will need to be used. If it foes start raining whilst shooting outside, I will need someone to help shield the camera
and mic, and I can’t do all these things at once, so help will be needed 100%.To combat this, and if it is allowed by the
government, I will most likely need at least one helper during the filming process.To keep as safe as possible, I will make sure that
my helper has tracked their whereabouts over the last week before filming, and preferably I would like them to shield for an
extended time if possible. If there was something to go wrong with my crew, weather that be they are told to isolate or show
symptoms themselves, I will make sure to have at least 2 back up crew members who are available and on hand. It is however, the
crew members own choice to isolate in effort to keep me and my subject safe, and if they do not do this, I will make sure to use a
crew member that has.
• Distancing: Distancing whilst filming can be tricky, as sometimes you need to get closer to someone to get the right shots that
you need, and naturally you move closer to people as you work.To combat this and reduced the amount of time I am close to
someone, in my planning I am going to try use a variety of long and wide shots, and some medium shots that I can edit in post to
make look like close ups etc, and I can do that where I desire. As of my crew member, I will wipe down all the kit and the
components before they arrive, and keep it in a secure and preferably water proof bag until then, and once we have finished
filming, I will ask them to clean the kit and place it in a new clean water proof bag so I know there is no risk of transmission into
either of our homes, colleges, and work places.
• After the shoot day, which I will try keep to no more than 3 in hope of reducing commuting time, and times we are all interacting, I
will check in with my cast and crew to make sure that they are feeling okay and haven’t got any symptoms. If they do have
symptoms that could have possibly transmitted to us, I shall advise the rest of the cast and crew to isolate and watch how they are
feeling over the period of a week, and reschedule for a later date.

• Interviews and Participation: Due to Covid 19, and the issues I mentioned in the previous slide, it would be unsafe and
unsustainable to conduct live interviews with everyone I wanted to talk to. My plan for the project is to have small conversations
with people over generations, people who were my age in the 80’s, people from my own age group in the present, and the people
now, possibly some younger generations. Because of this I will require a broad amount of people, and I hope to interview at least 3
people from each generational group, but as I stated, this could become unsafe. Due to this, I have decide the best route forward
would be to conduct interviews and conversations over zoom or facetime, and ask participants to record their own responses, and
to then send those over to me via email, message or one drive. I think that this is the safest and easiest way to conduct interviews,
and lots of industry professionals have created whole new shows in this format, for example Grounded with LouisTheroux, who
has conducted interview this way for the last year. Of course however, this format could come with its problems.
• Problem 1: Participants could forget to record conversations on their end, meaning that the sound bites are lost and the
conversation unable to be used in the piece.
• Solution: I can use a secondary recording device and record both parts on my own device such as my phone or a family members
phone, depending on where the call is. I could also screen record the conversation if it is on an iPhone facetime call. I also am aware
that MicrosoftTeams has screen/ call recording capabilities and could use this also. If this fails, as a back up I could write their
responses down in notes, and when it comes to production could narrate the responses myself.
• Problem 2: Participants could give minimal response to questions, or answer in a way that I didn’t want, trailing off and talking
about something unrelated to the subject or theme.
• Solution: Write and plan my interview questions carefully, making sure that I write them in a way that means they have to be
answered in a specific way. Depending on the information I want, keep either questions I want broad answers to open ended and
less focussed, and answers that I want a specific answer to, keep them more literal with less option to move away from the subject.
To make sure I am doing this correctly, when constructing my questions I can look at tutorials from journalists to keep on track.
• By conducting majority of my interviews this way, means that if some of my participants do catch covid or have to self isolate, they
can still be a part of my project.

Practical/Technical Problems
UnlikeTheoretical, Practical andTechnical Problems are things that you
need to identify before production.This includes acquiring kit, protecting
your footage etc.These are important things to remember and have plans
to resolve, as it can complete throw off filming and shooting days.
Practical/Technical
Equipment
Equipment is a vital part of filming! If
something goes wrong with a piece of kit, be it
a camera, a mic, a lighting fixture, it can be an
issue that we have to adapt to and find
solutions for. Although college can supply me
with kit, the pandemic may have affected
availability and this may lead to how long I can
keep it for.
Camera battery runs
out during shoot.
Post/Editing
Post production is something a lot more
stable and simple to get down and started
with compared to issues you may have with
equipment, but due to the pandemic and
not knowing when it will be next available
to use free college software, I have to be
prepared to adapt for problems to arise.

Practical andTechnical Problems- Equipment
Equipment is sometimes the most important aspect of film production, as it’s the thing that helps capture and make a
piece, the important tools of the craft that no matter how expensive or budget they are, are vital to the creation of film.
If something goes wrong with your tools, you can sometimes be put in a tricky situation where they are real issues with
completing the shooting day, or the whole piece in general if you are focussing on editing and post.Without good
solutions and plan B’s, your production can be compromised completely.
• Problems with Battery: On past projects, I have had issues where I arrive and set up for shooting, and after a few minutes of filming, a
full battery runs out, or I find out the battery hasn’t been charged at all. This is a problem that can be avoided and fixed very easily,
however when it does arise can be irritating and inconvenient.
• Solutions: To avoid this problem all together, I will make sure to charge two batteries fully before shoot, and before I set off or begin
shooting on location, I will double check that the batteries are charged to avoid issues. By having two batteries means that if one does
happen to run out shooting, which is shouldn’t unless filming for hours at a time, I have a fully charged back up.To ensure that this can
be carried out, I will borrow a battery charger from college, and before I take it out, test it to make sure that it works properly.
• Problems with SD Card: Filming long sequences can take up lots of space on an SD card, and I don’t want it to fill up during filming and
not be able to continue with what I am doing as this halts filming and means that the schedule can be affected, extending the amount
of time production takes.
• Solutions: I currently have one SD card of my own that I bought independently from college, so if I book an SD card out that belongs to
college, I can make sure I have two cards to use on shooting day. If one becomes full, I still have another 16GB SD to use.To make sure
that I have enough storage on all of them, after and before each shoot, I will transfer the footage onto my laptop and delete the
footage off my card so I know there is plenty of free space. By doing this, I will have 32 GB of storage to use each shooting day, and
because of the type of project I am creating, using lots of B-Roll shots and less long form clips, I know this will be plenty for each day of
shooting I may have.

• Microphone becomes damaged: In my project, I plan on recording some diegetic sound to place over my footage in
attempts to help submerge my audience in the scene.To do this I want to go out to locations, as well as at home, and
use a good quality microphone to pick up quite and sometimes unnoticeable sound. If my microphone breaks, isn’t
charged up or malfunctions on shoot, I won’t be able to do this.
• Solution 1: To ensure that my microphone works in the first place, before I take it out from college, I will either check
myself or ask that it is working to the correct standard. Before shooting day, I will also do some small practice shoots
with it to familiarise myself, and again make sure that it is suitable and working.To make a final check, at the same time
I check my battery and SD cards, I will check once more that my microphone is working.
• Solution 2: If in any of these checks or on the day of shooting I find that the microphone isn’t working or isn’t charged
etc, I will use my iPhoneVoice Memos application to record sound. I have done this before on previous projects, and
thanks to my audio reflective notes I have been keeping up with, I am very familiar with how it works.To make it even
more accurate and to pick up those smaller sounds, I could use the microphone from earphones you can find anywhere,
and have that act as the main mic. I have also done this before and although it doesn’t always sound as good quality as a
proper mic, it can still work effectively. In post, I can also use adobe audacity to help improve the quality of the audio.

• Camera becomes damaged: The camera is one of, if not the main tool of film production, capturing the visual aspects
that film andTV are built from. If the camera becomes damaged on shoot and I am unable to film with it, the shoot will
most likely have to be stopped and rescheduled, and this is something that I may not have allocated time for.
• Solution 1: Like with all items of kit, battery's, chargers, mics, lighting kit, I will make multiple checks before shoot day. I
will check that the camera is in good condition and not damaged before I leave college with it, I will make checks a few
days before the shoot to ensure that it is working well and to re-familiarise myself with it, and I will check on the shoot
day before filming.This way hopefully if there are any issues with the camera itself I have plenty of time to find a new
solution before filming begins.
• Solution 2: If I do get to filming and during something happens with the camera meaning it is unusable, I will have made
sure before hand that my phone is fully charged, and use my phone instead.The camera on my iPhone is quite good,
and although I will have less control over aspects such as aperture, focus, ISO etc, it will work well enough to do the job.
It is also simple to get the footage onto my laptop by using my One Drive account.

Practical andTechnical Problems- Post/Editing
Problems can arrive any time during production, this including post production. In the past projects I think I have
sometimes neglected contingency planning as I feel as though problems in post and after filming are easier to rectify
than say a problem on a shoot day, however this is not always the case and can sometimes cause real issue to the final
steps of production.Work can be lost, reshoots are forgotten, and editing is neglected. In this section I will hopefully
come up with ways to avoid and tackle these problems.
• USB Files are lost or corrupted: If footage is lost or the external drive your footage is stored on is damaged, this can
mean you will find gaps when it comes to your editing, and you have to go back and reshoot footage which was
perfectly acceptable and took time to shoot.This can cause you to fall behind on schedule and gives you less time to
complete the editing process.The premier pro file that I use can also become corrupted or lost, which can be awful
meaning all work has to be reworked again.
• Solution: To ensure that all my footage isn’t lost, I will make sure to purchase a new USB/ external drive to transfer all
of my footage onto from the SD card, and to be extra safe, I will also upload my footage onto my one drive, so if my
USB is corrupted or lost, I forget to bring it into college etc, I can still download the files onto my computer.
• Solution: If my file that has the first draft of my documentary on, is corrupted or lost, I will make sure to have at least
two copies of it saved. I will save a version onto my desktop at college as a final resource if my previous ways don’t
work.The first thing I will do is save it to another external drive, and also save a piece onto my one drive meaning I can
access my piece from anywhere if needs be, or if the other saves fail. Having it saved in 3 different places allows me
enough insurance if anything were to go wrong with one of the files, and avoid possible disaster.

• Footage looks bad: It can be quite different sometimes looking at footage you have taken on a big screen in comparison to how the
footage looks on the small screen of the camera.You can notice that the footage is under/over exposed, you can notice that the
subject is more blurry and unfocussed than you thought. Noticing these mistakes is sometimes unavoidable, and sometimes shoot
days can be harder than others, but there are always solutions to this.
• Solution: Make a few extra days in the schedule at the end of shooting just in case I need to go back and reshoot footage. Having a
few extra days can be helpful anyways, regardless of if reshoots need to be done, as it allows you some insurance time if anything
else goes wrong during the production/post production time. In total I am going to try leave 3-4 days for initial shooting, and 2
insurance days so I can go back and pick up those shots that I have lost/ aren’t happy with.This however can bring problems of its
own. Mentioned in the theoretical problems, things such as the weather and the settings around me can change constantly, and I will
need to be aware of continuity, aspects such as costume worn that day, it wont be good if the initial shoot day was sunny, and the
reshoot day was rainy and foggy as it wont match, so making sure to think carefully about the days I choose to film is vital.
• Solution: If reshoots aren’t possible, or I come back and find that the second day of shooting still produced footage I am unhappy
with, I can always try fix things in post. Colour grading can help match the first shoots and second shoots together more naturally,
and using the tools in premier pro can help reduce issues such as destabilisation and shaky footage, and I can also use tools to edit
audio and image quality. Although it may not look as good as I had like, sometimes time is not on our side, and we have to work with
what we've got.

• Unable to access Adobe and we are still working from home: Due to COVID-19 and the place we currently are
now in February, I am unsure as to weather we will be in college regularly for the production and post production
period. College has all adobe applications easily accessible on fast and reliable computers, and if I am not able to
access this I will be forced to work from home as I am now, however I am already struggling with finding free
editing software that matches the power of adobe premier pro.
• Solution: Currently I still have time to get on with experimentation and this will involve me exploring further free
editing software and experiment with those and get aquatinted and more familiar so I understand how to work it if
needs be.
• Solution: Leave plenty of time in my schedule to account for if I need extra time to finish putting my production
together, and like with my shooting days, leave myself a few extra days to go over if I am struggling to complete my
final pieces.

Experiments- Sequences of Images to Create Meaning
The Dipper
It was winter, near freezing,
I'd walked through a forest of firs
when I saw issue out of the waterfall
a solitary bird.
It lit on a damp rock,
and, as water swept stupidly on,
wrung from its own throat
supple, undammable song.
It isn't mine to give.
I can't coax this bird to my hand
that knows the depth of the river
yet sings of it on land.
For my project, I have thought about adding some spoken word over the
top of my visual images, as an extra way to conduct meaning to my
audience. Here is a poem calledThe Dipper, about a bird in winter, and I
think would be a good place to start experimenting with meaning.The
words of the poem are quite literal, so they can help add to the images and
representations that come from it, and it is also helpful in the sense that I
live in an area where I can easily shoot footage regarding the words in the
poem. It is also quite short, which is good as this is only an experiment, but
it will provide me with enough footage to get practice and skill from it.
I think from what I take from this poem, it wants to tell the reader about
the beauty and the isolation that comes from winter at times. How small
moments in nature such as a bird can bring light to someone's day, from its
beauty and its serenity. I think this is the tone I shall try replicate in my
experiment, joyous and calming, with a slight sense of melancholy that
winter brings with it. I will also look at some royalty free music also to add
tone which is something really important to poetic docs, and I will also be
aware of how I deliver the piece narratively. I may also do some foley or
find some naturistic sound effects to emerge the watcher into the scene.

For this experiment, my main aim was to test if I understood how to make a poetic
documentary, and I wanted to look at creating tone, adding a little bit of background foley,
and using music to create tone and ambience. The piece itself is very simple, quite basic in
shot, but I think for the tone of the piece multiple angles and quick transitions wouldn’t
have created the correct feeling. I also added a filter over it, just to experiment with the
colour, to see if it could make the images look colder, and emphasise the idea of winter
further.
For this experiment, as it was quite simple and quick, I decided to use the app on my
iPhone, iMovie. It’s a very simple and quick and easy programme to use, but sadly it didn’t
have any colour grading capabilities which is something else I would have loved to
experiment with.
I first went out to the park in my town to shoot some scene that reminded me of winter,
pine/fir trees, the buds on the trees slowly emerging, there was some melting snow which I
would have filmed however I thought that would refer more to spring than to winter. I also
recorded some sound on my voice memos that I could add over the top of the piece to help
make the piece more immersive.
When I got into iMovie the task was very simple, and I simply had to select the clips I
wanted and add music and sound effects. As this programme is so basic however, I could
only add a certain amount of audio clips, and found that I couldn’t add any specific sound
effects such as the sound of water trickling, wind blowing through the trees etc, which I
think would have added more tonally to the piece.
I think if I had access to premier pro, I would have been able to experiment with the piece
more as whole, looking at colour, some more effects, maybe create a parallax effect with a
shot, however I am happy that I made a piece that I think fits well with the poetic doc style.

Experiments- Sequence of Images to Create Meaning
My first experiment was very simple, and the imagery was also very literal.The point of a poetic documentary is to use
images to create a more sophisticated meaning and allow the audience to make up there own mind. In my next
experiment using found footage and quotes from videos I looked at in my research, I am going to create meaning less
literally, using more sophisticated music choices and imagery. I am also going to look more at the themes I want to discuss,
using quotes directly from the video and also quotes I narrate myself from articles I have looked at.
Revenge Porn
Panic Attacks Hide

Shot List
Multiple shots of shower:The shower has the capability of warming
you up, providing comfort, or it can shock you with cold, you are
alone naked with yourself, can make you feel uncomfortable. The
shower represents wanting to be clean, to wash the shame away,
wash the skin that was violated away. It is also man made, cold metal
and looks unnatural and strange.
Plug Hole washes away all the dirt, all the bacteria and nasty
stuff away, but it can also clog, and all that nasty stuff can
come back to haunt us if we don’t look after it properly. Also
notable from the Alfred Hitchcock film Psycho. Metallic, cold
to touch, strange looking, spiders and creatures can emerge
from it.
Lock Key and Box represents hiding away from shame
and embarrassment. Keeping yourself behind locked
doors, being trapped in your own mind, unable to escape
from your shame and disgust. Also representative of how
much lack of privacy one has.The pictures were never
meant to be shared but the lock was broken into, the
safe was broken.
Those images, your body, has now been
reduced to 10101010, to a line of code
accessible to anyone.You are worth
nothing more than a shred of code.
Pops of red and red tint represents the
flush of red when we are embarrassed,
the feeling of panic and danger when
you find out these images have been
leaked.

In my most recent meeting with SarahYates fromYork Art Gallery, we decided that what I needed to focus on in my project now was
making it more authentic and personal to me. What do I feel like I struggle with as a young woman in 2021? What did my mum
personally struggle with in 1989, as a young woman the same age as me? How were they different? And where does Claire as a
Soldier come into this? How would she have been living in 1989? In my next experiments, I am going to answer these questions, and
use a sequence of images to create meaning, and think more deeply about how my final project is going to look.
Personal Struggles in
2021
Personal Identity
With the internet and social media manifesting so many
different cultures, music, styles and of course different
individuals to us as consumers, it is more difficult than
ever to find where you fit. Although fluidity is
encouraged, you always feel like you have to fit into a
certain box to really have an identity. It is now easier
than ever to “find your people” but if you don’t know
what you are how can you find them?
Breaking into Industry
Although women have been cemented in the work
place for more 40 years, the film andTV industry is
still dominated by men, so the idea of going into such
a male dominated industry as a woman and making
my place in the sector, is daunting. I feel privileged
however that it is much easier than it may have been
40Years ago when Claire was breaking into the
workforce, and I feel less of a weight on my shoulders
to do so.
The Future
It is a privilege for me to have to worry less about the present, and
more about the future.Things I worry about is the state of issues
such as global warming and climate change, and weather I am
doing enough to reduce it. I worry about the state of politics, the
state of the UK, weather or not in the future I will ever be able to
afford to buy my own home.These aren’t necessarily things I have
to worry about distinctly as a woman, however that is the privilege,
that is something Claire and my mother may have had to worry
about, however I do not.
Motherhood
Motherhood has always been a scary prospect for me, and I have
decided that in the future I don’t want to have kids, and this has left me
with some judgment and disapproval from family members.The fact
that the idea that women should aspire to be a mother first and
foremost before anything else is still something that is prevalent in
2021, and although more women than ever are deciding against having
children and starting families, it still is regarded as something taboo. It is
always “wait until you're older and then you will change your mind” not
“what if you have kids and decide you don’t want to be a parent?”

Motherhood
Discomfort
Responsibility
“I’m not fit to be a parent in a society where I
was raised in anger.
Kids complicate things.
They are expensive.
They hold you back from your life yet you
feel obligated to take care of them
After all,
What kind of monster deserts their child?
Their own flesh and blood?”
“We make these assumptions about women with no
children, and we frequently fail to understand that
many are child-free for a range of unique reasons
and, conversely, that many have made a choice to
remain child-free.”
“British filmmaker Maxine
Trump, new
documentary ‘To Kid or Not
To Kid' challenges the
taboo of the women who
choose to be child free
while also exploring her
own indecision about
wanting children.”
“We talk about having kids
but there’s never an easy
conversation about not
having kids. I just thought,
where am I seeing myself
reflected and what can I
point to for this, and I found
nothing.”
“It astounds me that people, mainly other
women, assume that if you haven’t, you
can’t. Choosing not to still feels very much
the outsider’s choice. People aren’t cruel, but
you can see them wondering where mother
nature went wrong with your womb and
these tend to be my fellow females.”

Motherhood Experiment
In this experiment, my aim is to convey my personal and authentic perception on motherhood and my current decision to not have children. I want to convey
through my images and the footage I choose the fear I have about being pushed into having children by society, other women, and members of my family, and
how freeing and empowering it is to finally decide no. I want to convey the judgments I have been met with and the comments given to me when I tell people
of my choice, and how shame and guilt is put upon me. I also want to make sure it links back to the idea that me deciding I don’t want to have children is a
privilege, and that maybe in the 80’s Claire and my mother were just expected to grow a family, and that they didn’t really have a choice.
“We make these assumptions about women with no children, and
we frequently fail to understand that many are child-free for a
range of unique reasons and, conversely, that many have made a
choice to remain child-free.”
“We talk about having kids but there’s never an easy
conversation about not having kids. I just thought, where am I
seeing myself reflected and what can I point to for this, and I
found nothing.”
“Analysing whether or not to have children is an increasingly
prevalent Millennial and Gen Z concern. The UK birth rate hit an
all-time low last year.”
“I think parenthood is a privilege not a right. People feel entitled
to be parents, but I think you should only be a parent if you'll be a
good one”
Representations:
• Most natural process in the world, tainted by society- Plants,
trees, vines, flowers overtaken by buildings, roads, trains etc.
• Shame and Judgment- Eyes watching you, judging you, making
you aware of their distain. Weighing scales to show judgment and
indecision. One side you feel as though you should give in to what
everyone wants, the other you trust your own feelings and make
your own decisions.
• Fear of Pregnancy: Camera moving shakily, up around, upside
down, to show disorientation, fear, sickness in pregnancy, panic
attacks/ anxiety.
• Sickness: Clammy and sweaty, green and yellow, toilet bowel, smell
of cleaning products, bright lights.
• Sacrifice: Clocks to represent time moving forward for the children,
but time taken away from the parents. Red blood/liquid to represent
the blood and time put into raising a child.
• Vessel of new life: Modes of transportation, cars, trains, bikes,
boats, planes.

In this experiment, my aim is to convey my personal and authentic perception on motherhood and my current decision to not have children. I want to convey
through my images and the footage I choose the fear I have about being pushed into having children by society, other women, and members of my family, and
how freeing and empowering it is to finally decide no. I want to convey the judgments I have been met with and the comments given to me when I tell people
of my choice, and how shame and guilt is put upon me. I also want to make sure it links back to the idea that me deciding I don’t want to have children is a
privilege, and that maybe in the 80’s Claire and my mother were just expected to grow a family, and that they didn’t really have a choice.
“I think parenthood is a privilege not a right.
People feel entitled to be parents, but I think you
should only be a parent if you'll be a good one”
Close up shot of clock ticking
forward, onto wide shot of time-
lapse of the moon changing phases.
The moon is feminine energy and
represents menstrual cycle.
“Pregnancy and becoming a mother is one of the most, if not the
most natural process in the world, but to me, its one tainted by fear,
by society and what it puts on to mothers, by childbirth etc”
Zoom- spin transition
into the clock then
zoom spin out to train
tracks with weeds
Close up shot of weeds on train tracks/poking
through fence, panning left to show more and more
pieces of nature trying to poke through.
Pan to left transitions

“We talk about having kids but there’s never an easy
conversation about not having kids. I just thought, where am
I seeing myself reflected and what can I point to for this, and
I found nothing.”
Transition from
previous
sequence: black
screen to the
eyes
Shots of lots of different peoples eyes, close up shots of both
their eyes or just a single eye- identifying with the narrator,
want to see from her perspective etc. Ends on “I found
nothing” with just a blank screen.
Shot List
Number ShotType Description
1 Wide Shot/Establishing Time-lapse of the phases of the moon in the sky.
2 Close up spinning zoom Camera zooms in closer to clock whilst spinning slightly (transition)
3 MediumClose Up Camera panning left on flowers/images where greenery is trying to take
over urban areas. Weed poking through pavement, vines taking over
building, bushes overtaking fence etc.
4 Long Shot/Worms Eye Camera panning directly upwards to the sky, a bird flying into shot.
5 Medium Shot Bright light flashing on and off whilst the camera moves in a 360 degree
circular motion.
6 Droplets/Water on skin Close up of water droplets dripping down/building up on skin.
7 Eyes Close up of eyes.

Motherhood Experiment Analysis
For this experiment, my main aim was to use a sequence of images to create a more sophisticated and less literal meaning, and I think I have done that in
areas. During the process of creating this piece, I ran into a few issues with my laptop regarding it’s running power and reliability, so it took me a while to
begin the editing process.This is a problem that I have highlighted earlier in the PowerPoint regarding weather or not I will be able to get into college to use
their systems, and I have now seen how many issues I can run into just making a simple piece.
I wanted to take on what Sarah and Scott discussed with me, and talk about topics more personal to me, so in this experiment I spoke about the topic of
motherhood and my decision to not have children in the future, and how I am viewed by society and by other women for this decision.
Overall, I think the tone of the piece I have created well, and I again, like in my first experiment, I used royalty free music to do this. If I had more time, I
would have liked to have created my own foley sounds along with the images, as I think only having the music in the background results in the piece lacking
depth, so maybe adding some sound effects for images such as the waves, the flags etc would help immerse the watcher more.
For the voice over, I wanted it to sound quite conversational to mimic how my interviews will be, and I tried to answer in a way that didn’t sound scripted
and sounded as though I was answering a question. I think this worked successfully and it felt quite natural, which is good because it matches with the
themes of nature in my piece.
As I said, my main aim was to create meaning, and my approach with this piece was to do so using images of nature, and nature taking over. I wanted to
use images of nature, because as I state in the narration, pregnancy, becoming a mother and parent is one of the most natural things, and in a sense our
duty as humans to recreate. However I wanted to counteract this with the idea that motherhood had been tainted by society and how it views women once
they become mothers, so used the footage of the ivy covering the wall, and the moss poking out of the wall to represent this. I also started the piece with
an image of the moon in the sky, and the moon can represent many feminine things such as a woman's menstrual cycle, as well as the life cycle.To
represent this cycle I also ended the piece with a glimpse of the moon, to remind the viewer that pregnancy and motherhood is something beautiful,
however it may not be something for everyone. I like this representation, and personally I love the moon and all it represents, so hopefully in my final piece
I can capture the moon again and use it as a motif. I also used the motif of waves in this piece too, and whilst walking down the beach realised that the
foam on the waves were reminiscent of the baby in the first weeks of pregnancy, and the cells we all once were.
I think overall, this experiment has been helpful as I have thought further about how to represent the topics I want to talk about and I have thought further
and know more securely how I am going to do this.

FMP Theoretical Problems Solved

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