The document summarizes the filming process for a student documentary project over several sessions from October to November 2016. It describes the various background footage, interviews, and presenter scenes that were filmed, including technical details and locations. As filming progressed, the students' skills improved in areas like equipment operation, interviewing, and shot composition. They also began editing their collected footage in Premier Pro to construct the documentary timeline.

1. F I L M I N G D I A R Y
L E W I S , L U C Y A N D J A C

2. TUESDAY 4TH OCTOBER 2016
BACKGROUND FOOTAGE
• The first day of filming began with us learning the basics of setting up our equipment and
testing before use. In the classroom we learned how to construct the tripod, test the
earphones, learn the settings on the camera and also know the difference between the
microphones (clip/boom). We took the camera to the college entrance in-front of the
Welcome to College sign. We decided today we would only be filming background footage,
as no interviews or scripts for vox pops had been planned as of yet. We recorded a panning
shot from the college sign to the car park and reception entrance, so that we had a nice
opening for our documentary.
• Following this we took the camera to the canteen where we set up and filmed another two
panning shots, intended to be used in the opening. At this point it was year 12 lunch so
the canteen was full of students, which is supporting and conventional when making a
documentary about college students and their issues.

3. FRIDAY 7TH OCTOBER 2016
BACKGROUND FOOTAGE 2
• Again today we had more background footage to film and the first set of vox pops.
Before taking the equipment out, we had began to plan contacts with professionals
and teachers for interviews. We waited for the morning year 12 break to record the vox
pops. This was our first interview style use with the camera and overall the filming went
fairly well. We managed to get 5 out of the 6 planned vox pops filmed and moved on
to filming more background footage. We set up half way up the stairs in the kitson
during the year 13 break. We set up a low angle shot allowing students feet and lower
legs to be filmed walking up the stairs. The shot took around 15 minutes to complete
and again went very well. We are planning to use this for background footage, to be
used behind facts and figures presented by the narrator.

4. TUESDAY 11TH OCTOBER 2016
KEVIN O’DOHERTY INTERVIEW
• On Monday 10th we had planned and confirmed an interview with Student
Development Officer Kevin O’ Doherty in his office. We double tested the equipment
in the classroom and took it down to his office. All the equipment was set up well and
was working correctly. We sorted out the shot framing and the Mise-en-scene
(computer screen) and filmed a 5 minute long interview. The content we filmed was
sufficient and all relevant however once we had finished filming when speaking to
Kevin, we realized we had missed a few topic points we wanted to raise, however what
we already filmed was suitable.

5. FRIDAY 14TH OCTOBER 2016
VOX POPS
• On the previous Friday filming day we managed to film some vox pops and get them
uploaded to the macs, however when going back to review them, we realized some of
the answers were poor and dull, and the framing of the shot itself was not the best.
Although vox pops are not usually set up professionally as they are usually quick and
natural interviews, the shot itself was not straight, therefore we interviewed some new
faces and adjusted the camera so that we had a chunk of well filmed vox pop footage.
• By this point our skills were starting to develop strongly, we took time sorting out the
framing, considered the shots carefully and were clear and knowledgeable on using
the equipment.

6. TUESDAY 18TH OCTOBER 2016
EMMA HURST INTERVIEW
• We had arranged an interview with Careers Advisor Emma Hurst in the college, again in her
office. We again tested the equipment and filmed a 5 minute interview with Emma asking
the same questions as Kevin. Emma and Kevin’s interviews were to be used as formal and
professional interviews in our documentary, we therefore spent time on these shoots
carefully considering the framing and Mise-en-scene. We made sure Emma had the UCAS
page on her computer screen and that the desk presented work papers and pens showing
the profession.
• This also gave us the chance to complete some background footage which would lead into
the interview. We filmed Lewis walking towards and into Emma Hurst’s office from many
different angles in the Library.
• Now we had completed our second formal interview, we felt ready to contact Birmingham
City University for our third formal interview, which we got sorted in the days after this
shoot.

7. FRIDAY 21ST OCTOBER 2016
BIRMINGHAM CITY UNIVERSITY INTERVIEW
• Between the previous lesson and this one we had successfully arranged an interview with
BCU film graduate Rebecca Brown who now worked at Birmingham City University. We
travelled as a group early into Birmingham, signed in with our equipment and met with
Rebecca. We found a suitable lecture office room and spent a good 10 minutes setting up
the shot. We made sure Rebecca was sitting in the right of the frame with view of the
interactive board, the door and a little of the corridor outside. We were happy with this shot
so began filming. Again we collected around 5 to 6 minutes of footage with Emma which
we asked the planned questioned and some natural ones on the spot, which would be
considered and editing in the weeks to come.
• Today was our first formal interview outside of college, and we developed time managing
skills, technical skills and managed to transfer out research into natural questions for
Rebecca to answer.

8. TUESDAY 1ST NOVEMBER 2016
PRESENTER SCENES AND BACKGROUND FOOTAGE
• Now our three formal interviews had been completed, one more major chunk of
footage we needed to collect was the presenter scene. We decided on Lewis (myself)
to be the presenter. We spent 15-20 minutes writing a script for this scene, and as I
was practicing, we took the equipment down to our location (college reception
exterior) and set up. We spent time framing the shot, making sure there was room for
me to walk onto the screen with the reception doors in view, and after I had spoke we
planned for me to walk into the college. The framing allowed this to happen and after
around 25 minutes the scene was filmed. We were very happy with this as this would
be the first scene the audience would see where the documentary starts to have a
leading figure and a structure created by the presenter.

9. FRIDAY 4TH NOVEMBER 2016
FINAL BACKGROUND FOOTAGE
• Today was our final chance to collect any remaining background footage. At this point we
had a chunk of our documentary taking shape on Premier Pro and decided to completely
remove the Emma Hurst interview, and therefore the scenes filmed on Tuesday 18th
October had to be deleted. As we were keeping Kevin’s interview, we decided to film a shot
of myself walking towards Kevin’s office near the canteen. This shot took around 15
minutes to film and we asked Katherine Wilkes to co-operate by answering the door in the
scene (not visible to the audience).
• At this point all the main filming sections were complete and we were happy with our
current footage. We were moving onto the editing the following week. We knew that if
there was any more background footage to collect we would have to do this in our spare
time.

10. EDITING SESSIONS
TUESDAY 8TH NOVEMBER ONWARDS…
• We now had to learn to use Premier Pro so that week could editing our footage down and
create a timeline for our documentary. In the first few lessons we created the opening
minute of our documentary (draft). This included exporting the unwanted sound from the
scenes, as well as cutting down the filmed clips using our logging sheets to help us. The
editing sessions developed our technical skills, and all three of us became more confident
working with Premier Pro. We each learned how to export the sound, create in and our
markers on the scenes to edit them down, and how to import and export the clips from
many different files.
• What we are yet to learn is techniques such as fading, dissolving (general editing effects) as
well as thinking ahead to the music use and where we are going to place each scene for the
final four minutes of the documentary.