Production Reflection

1. Production Diary
Sam Williams

2. Process
• week 1 – week 3:
– Scoped out my idea, looked at interview styles
and watched documentary's (Bitter lake and once
upon a time in Iraq), I also looked at for archival
footage but struggled to find something that fitted
my idea. I also did audience research which is
something that I struggle with because I have a
hard time defying who I am making something for
I tend to just say it's for anyone who wants to
watch it.

3. Process
• Week 5 – Week 7:
– This was planning production, again something I
struggle with because I don’t want to plan
something out, I just want to make it and say I
planned it out like that from the start. I tend to be
obsessed with an idea for a short amount of time
so once I've done the planning, I have lost
motivation for the actual production. I need to
work on improving this.

4. Process
• Week 8:
– For production to be a success I need to get
the right candidates to interview so I made a
mental list about who I need. Originally, I was
going to go for 4 military interviews, but I decided
that this would be to one dimensional, so I
decided to go for 2 military and 2 civilian
interviews. I drafted up emails to send to them.

5. Process
• Week 9:
– As I wated for a reply from my interviewees I
continued looking for archival footage. I started to
work out what equipment I needed but then realised
any equipment I could need I already had so I never
bothered to make a list. At the end of the week, I got
an email from one of the interviewees to tell me that
they are unavailable due to their role in the British
army and the war in Ukraine. This was a let-down but
wasn’t a surprise, so I had a rethink and I decided to
only interview 2 people one military and one
civilian.

6. Process
• Week 10:
– I finally heard back from the other 2 interviewees the
military interviewee said that I could interview him at
the end of the week so I made a list of the questions I
would want to ask him and watched more
documentaries to see how they used their questions
and what type of questions they asked. I sent them
over to him so he could review them and get an idea
of what I wanted to ask him this was also so he could
tell me what I could ask him and what I couldn't as he
is still a serving in the British army. I did the interview,
and it all went just as well as I wanted it to.

7. Process
• Week 11:
– I had scheduled my 2nd interview for mid-way for this week as I was
waiting for the interviewee day to come, I received the photos I asked
for from my first interviewee admittedly I was hoping for more than a
couple of photos but in he explained that due to the nature of what he
did in Afghanistan he wasn’t allowed any form of camara or phone on
base. So, I again tried to find more archive footage online. However,
there was light at the end of the tunnel as I had my 2nd and last
interview. Like before I had sent the questions to the interviewee for
them to look over. The interview went just as good as the first
interview and a couple of days after I got sent photos of their time in
the country's we spoke about.
– There was one problem and that was with the mic's I had used the
sound was over saturated it doesn't really mean anything it just
annoys me because the audio isn't perfect but it isn't that bad.

8. Process
• Week 12 – week 13:
– This was evaluation week, but I used it as a week to edit
and finalise my production and make it the way I wanted it
to look. I did also do my evaluation and hand everything
in!