The pre-production process for the documentary went well, as the group planned what facts and interview questions they would include. Filming the documentary presented some challenges, such as noise interference and difficulty finding interview subjects due to the controversial topic. While the documentary included a variety of locations, opinions, and time-lapse footage, weaknesses included too many transitions, low audio quality without a microphone, and poor lighting in some shots. Feedback noted both strengths like the concept and areas for improvement such as transition usage and separating facts from the narrative.

1. Critical Reflection
By Fahim Zeb

2. How helpful was your secondary research on
your chosen theme?
• Researching helped me massively on my chosen theme as it helped to further
educate me on the theme. It helped me and my group decide on how we were
going to film and what type of questions we would ask the public. We researched
many different aspects of the theme “Capital Punishment”.Their were vast amount
of content on the internet about the subject. For example their were articles from
many different people, who had divided opinions on the matter. Some complained
about the fact that it still exists and some still want it to carry on. Furthermore their
were many facts and statistics which went against the topic. Most were something
new to me and very informative.The videos I watched also helped to shape my
idea of how our documentary could potentially look.

3. • How helpful / successful was the pre-
production process?
• The pre-production was very successful.As a group we knew what we were
doing as well as individuals. It was helpful as it helped us to plan out what
were going to do. For example we have facts that we listed that would
feature in the documentary and we have questions which the interviewer
would ask. Although we didn’t use additional equipment which could helped
when filming and potentially could of improved the quality of the work , the
documentary worked out in the end.

4. How successful was your production
(filming)?
• In terms of filming the documentary. It went well. We struggled in some
parts. When recording at times people would tend to come in to shot or they
would make a lot of noise.That led to us wasting valuable time. Location
wise we more or less knew where to go. Fortunately we did find spots to
interview people. Although it was not the best of places to interview them it
was the quietist. Filming as a whole wasn’t too hard as we had some former
knowledge of how to use the camera. One big issue was trying to get people
to interview. It was very hard as most of them didn’t want to talk about the
topic due to its controversial nature.

5. Discuss strengths and weaknesses of your interview
segment
• As a group we did well. We didn’t haven any internal issues. In terms of strength we
successfully got a mixture of opinions from different types of people. We managed
to edit quite well as we put in some time lapse footage with facts to accompany it.
Furthermore we also filmed in different locations and used many shots. When it
comes to weaknesses , unfortunately we used too many transitions which almost
made the documentary look child like.The audio was very low , due to us not using
the microphone which we should of but time restrained us and of course the
lighting in some of the shots , darkened the figures that were being interviewed.

6. Audience feedback
• The feedback we got back was more or less good. Although it was our first
time I wasn’t too happy with what we had but again it was time that was an
issue and lack of software knowledge.
• Positive:
• Good Concept
• ControversialTopic
• Good Cutaway
• Time-lapse (Footage of the street)
• Filming in Multiple Locations
• Mixture of Opinions: Selected different types
of people
• Different settings
• Negative:
• Stick to cuts –Too many transitions
• Facts should be listed separately.
• A lot of two shots
• Lighting was terrible in a couple of shots.
Led to the figures having dark faces.
• Audio could be better

7. What improvements could be made?
• Audio wise we could of used a microphone.That would make the audio clear and
easier to pick up.
• In terms of lighting , next time we would try to film in areas with lighting rather
than natural lighting.
• When it comes to transition we should stick to one type for example fading to black
or white.This will help to make our documentary look more professional and less of
a home made video.
• Next time we will not jumble text together. We will cut it into different segments or
areas of the documentary.