This document discusses problem solving and experiments for a documentary film project. It identifies potential practical problems like equipment issues, technical limits, and locations/transportation. It also discusses theoretical problems such as lighting, noise interruptions, crew/finances. The document then outlines experiments conducted to test camera shots/angles, editing techniques, sound/lighting quality, and interviewing skills. The experiments helped determine what worked well and what should be improved upon for the documentary project.

1. Problem Solving
and
Experiments

2. Types of problems
During filming and production, there can be a multitude of problems that I may
encounter, these can range from practical to technical problems, then you must
think of the theoretical problems that possibly could be encountered. It's
important to plan and be prepared for these issues as these could potentially delay
production which means that I will lose time. I must identify the different types of
issues I could encounter and then determine how I will prevent them or how I will
overcome them if they do happen. Some of the practical and technical problems I
may encounter could be, equipment, software, ability, storage, etc. and then the
more theoretical problems could be lighting, unwanted noise, transport, time, etc.

3. Practical- Equipment
One of the main problems could be equipment, whether it be running out of battery, not having
the correct equipment or equipment breaking. The equipment is one of the most important
parts of production as this is how I’m going to capture, record and edit all my footage and
content. The first piece of equipment that I will be using will be the camera to film the interviews
and shots of cars, making this a vital piece of equipment. The main two things that could go
wrong with the camera will be battery and storage. I will have to make sure that when I got to
film the footage needed, the camera is equipped with a full battery and also a spare full charged
battery is brought as well. I will also clear the current storage card of all photos and videos to
make sure that I have the maximum amount of storage available to me. Mobile phones will be
brought as a last resort backup in extreme cases if the camera breaks. The other main piece of
equipment is the PC I will be using to edit and present my work. The PC used is College property
so if there is a physical problem with the PC it will have to be fixed by the college but with the
College, I have access to a student Microsoft OneDrive account which grants me unlimited
storage so that wont be a problem I have to worry about. I will have to make sure that everything
is constantly being saved and updated to the cloud so that I don’t lose anything and backups are
made in case files get corrupted.

4. Practical- Ability
When production rolls around, I will need to know my technical and physical limits so that I’m
not trying to do something too extreme to the point I waste all my time on one editing
technique. The best way to find out my limits and learn new skills before production is to do
experiments. By doing experiments, I can test my limits to see what I’m unable to do so I don’t
waste loads of time during production, where time is limited, trying to work out how to do
things. Experiments also give me the opportunity to play around with different software and
watch tutorials and videos to learn new tools and tips to help me improve and take my project to
the next level. I also need to know my recording skills as well as editing so that I’m not
attempting to do something that could put me, the people around me or the equipment in
danger.

5. Theoretical- Location, Finance and Transport
Location and transport is one of the main issues as most of the locations I have been looking at
are mainly accessible by car which I am currently unable to access myself so to solve this I will
have to ask some friends if they would be willing to possibly take me to these locations and to
help me out whilst we are there. I’m only looking at locations that aren’t too far away and I plan
on compensating my friends for the petrol costs. In terms of interviews, if there is an ideal
interviewee for my documentary that is quite far away then I will solve this by conducting the
interview over a video call service such as Zoom or Skype. Hopefully, I will be able to conduct
most of my interviews in my local area, so I am able to access them easily without relying on
friends as if I must do that then my timetable becomes stricter as I must work around my friend's
commitments as well. When it comes to finance, there is nothing off the top of my head that will
cost me a significant amount of money to help record and edit my documentary. The main cost I
can potentially think of is petrol (as currently at the time of typing, petrol prices are extremely
high) so that will have to come into consideration when looking at car meets and business
locations for interviews and shots of cars.

6. Theoretical- Interruptions and lighting
When it comes to interruptions during filming, I feel like with the nature of the atmosphere I plan
on being in, there will be a lot of noise pollution around me with people showing off speaker
systems and revving engines. This wont be an issue for when I’m just recording shots as the
sound from the clip will be removed anyway and replaced with music, but if I’m asking people to
show me round their cars and asking them a couple of questions then that may be an issue as it
will be important that people can hear what they are saying. In terms of lighting, I plan on filming
most of the content outside, so I plan on just using natural lighting however, if the natural
lighting makes the shot look scrappy, I will solve that by editing it on Photoshop to make it look
more appealing but if possible I want to keep everything as natural as possible to make it more of
a serious documentary rather than a montage type video.

7. Theoretical- Crew
When it comes to crew, there won't be many other people involved in the making of this project
other than myself. There will be one person that comes with me to the event as I do need a
mode of transport and, I need someone to help me film the interviews. The event itself costs £16
per adult ticket so I have paid for both of our tickets which in turn has compensated the cost of
petrol for the journey there and back. There will also be the people who have short roles in the
documentary answering short questions. We will also have to buy lunch whilst we are out there
as the event lasts most of the day, there is food available at the event so we will be catered to in
that sense. The other person that will be used in my documentary is the main interviewee, Ted
Welford. For the interview, I will travel to his valeting business and will record a few clips and ask
him a few pre-prepared questions, the time will be around mid-afternoon so food will not need
to be provided however I may have to rely on my parents or friends for travel arrangements.

8. Experiments

9. Camera Shots and Angles
I started my experiments by testing and trying
different camera angles and shots, we started
by testing our camera and phone lenses in
different natural lighting and at different
distances from the main subject. We did
tracking shots, panoramic shots, over the
shoulder shots, etc. We did this to test the
capabilities of our cameras and to see what
would actually look effective in a documentary
and what would look too tacky. We found for
interview angles that the close up shot is quite
good as this way you can see the persons facial
expressions clearly so you can tell if they have
passion for what they are talking about or if
they don’t seem to care.

10. Editing Techniques
I decided it would be useful if I tested my
editing skills to see what I can and can’t do as
well as what I could learn. I tested multiple
different effects, transitions, overlays, etc. to
try and find some that were effective but also
suitable to the type of product I’m making
which I plan on being a fairly serious
documentary. Some of the effects looked really
poor and like PowerPoint transitions and didn’t
work well with my theme or primary target
audience so I experimented further to find the
more professional ones. I found the dip to black
and white were quite useful for cuts and
transitions and also that the blur effect is quite
effective on certain scenes.

11. Sound and Lighting
We also decided to test the sound that the
camera could pick up, how clear it was and the
distance where you could pick it up from. On
almost all the clips, the sound came out crisp
and clear as well as also being able to clearly
hear my voice from fairly long distances. The
one shot where we had an issue was, was
where I was stood near a decently busy road
and the camera picked up a lot of the
background noise of cars whizzing past, which I
did struggle to filter out whilst editing. When it
came to lighting, the camera handled it really
well, it was quite a sunny day but the camera
didn’t have streaks of light beaming onto it and
interrupting the shots which was good, and I
also did some colour correction on the shots to
make it more vibrant.

12. Interview Techniques
One more thing I wanted to experiment with
was interview techniques from both sides, the
interviewer and the interviewee. We tested
different things like camera angles, question
types and shot types, we found the best
combination was to ask not too tricky questions
but detailed enough to get some good
information out of them but also so they don’t
stutter too much which could ruin the
interview. and also to have them sat still with a
mid to close up angle so you can see facial
expressions and they aren’t too focused on
walking and more on the question you have
asked. I know its much better to get a video
recording of the interview rather than to write
it down as if they are speaking too fast, you
may miss crucial information.