2uvafp0

[2uvafp0]

Week 15

Electronic Press Kit:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1CBnfLA2gOSnJf2xm0Bp3gaivC2o1_UTwzQXF8tLh7sk/edit?usp=sharing

Press Junket:

https://youtu.be/Djj0hG-kCtY

[2uvafp0]

Final words - documentary

I think that we succeeded in offering some insight into our topic of choice - sex workers’ labor unions and the PROUD association for sex workers - in our short documentary. We managed to gather the personal testimony of two sex workers (both of whom are, themselves, involved in associations campaigning for the greater rights of others employed within this sector) in a way that contributed to our documentary and provided content which we could build on. Although we were only able to fully utilise and include a limited amount of the content, interviews, opinions, and information that we gathered throughout the various stages of our process, I think that this was extremely beneficial to us in our own comprehension of the issues we were documenting, as well as the manner in which we should present the topic in order for this presentation to be consistent with our aims. I strongly believe that our short documentary succeeds in informing viewers about some of the most pressing issues plaguing sex workers’ unions in the Netherlands, as well as drawing attention to their existence itself - something many people may have no previous knowledge of - and does so in a way that strives to be respectful of those involved.

The process of producing our documentary made me realize how much we had all learned in terms of our individual tasks and responsibilities during the creation of our fiction film. The process was quite clearly divided based on our roles, which allowed us to work together much more efficiently and build on the work we had completed individually or in smaller groups in order to create a final product that we had all contributed to. I think that what we learned while working on both films will be extremely useful to all of us in our similar future projects.

[2uvafp0]

Week 14

This was the last week of our project, but the deadline for the documentary has been pushed to the beginning of next week. 

The entire week has been dedicated to editing, going back and forth with the transcript to make sure that we did not go over time with our documentary. This turned out to be quite the challenge as we have a lot of things we want to include in the final film. We have also been discussing the different visual elements of the documentary and which footage should go with which parts of the interview to best illustrate our the points. 

In the proces of editing we realized that we might need some sort of visuals making it clear that we have conducted an interview with persons who wish to be anonymous. Therefore we decided to stage a “fake” interview where the faces are blurred or we only film parts of the body so that it seems they are anonymous. We did this on Friday with Freja and Zein. A cafe near the campus gave us permission to film there and the setting fit quite well with the overall aesthetic of the documentary.�� 

Tom suggested that we use some of the footage from the street interviews that we did to create a break between the representatives talking. This was very difficult to do as there werent really any breaks where we could insert the street interviews and also because the quality of these interviews were not the best. Therefore we decided to not include this part in our documentary. 

[2uvafp0]

Week 13

This week we tried filming “undercover” in the red light district using the go-pro. Because of the restrictions in the netherlands the red light district has to close down at 17:00 in the afternoon which means that there aren’t as many people in district as there usually is. This made it a bit easier for us, but on the other hand it made the visuals a little less interesting. Tiron put the camera on his body and Theo was there as well to help figure out the locations we wanted to film. 

This was the last part that we needed to film this week and we have now started the editing process. 

We transcribed the entire interview and Erzsika went through it to choose the parts that she wanted to include in the documentary. Tiron and Erzsika also went through the street interviews that we did in the beginning of the documentary project to see if any of this could be used for the documentary. 

Zein and Theor started working on the elctronic press kit and although it is not easy to work on without a clear sense of what the documentary is going to contain Zein has already done a mock up of what our poster is going to look like:

We have been working on the title as well and some of the suggestions were “Red lights bright”, “United f Goed” and “PROUD”. We ended up going with the latter. 

[2uvafp0]

Week 12

Tuesday, Zein and Erzsika did the interview for IDFA with director Pim Zweir. 

Since the representatives for PROUD didn’t want to be in camera, we used this week to film some more general B-roll of the area of the red light district, so we made sure to have visuals for the background of our interview. 

We did some research on the archive that the two representatives from PROUD put us on to but although it was very interesting it was hard to find visuals that we could include into the documentary. 

At this point in the process we are figuring out how to edit the soundbites from the interview since there are no visuals and we have a lot of footage. In one of the workgroups Tom suggested that we transcribe the interview to get a better overview over which parts we want to include so we have started this now. 

This week we also started logging some of the footage from the museum and other B-roll to figure out if we need to film any more. 

[2uvafp0]

Week 11

On wednesday we did the interview with the representatives of the Red Light United. We ended up conducting the interview with two former sex workers which was even better than we had expected. Unfortunately, non of the women wanted to be on camera so we had to do the entire interview through sound recording. This means that we need even more B-roll and therefore we filmed some of that around the PIC, the sex workers memorial and the surrounding area. 

We had a very productive conversation with the two representatives who were very happy to share their struggles and the history of the union. They were very pleased with the amount of research that we had done around the topic and said that they want to reward it when people actually take the time to study their situation. They recommended a website that has archieved all the Red Thread’s old newsletters as a possible source for more information. Although we had gone into the interview thinking that our main focus would be on the union for the window sex workers of Amsterdam, our focus was quickly changed to PROUD, the umbrella union for all sex workers in Amsterdam. This was mainly because the representative was one of the founders of this union and had a lot more knowledge on this topic. 

We had scheduled 30-40 minutes for the interview with the representatives, but for every question they answered two more came up and in the end they offered us to stay for tea. When we left we had 1,5 hour of interview recorded. 

[2uvafp0]

Week 10

This week we contacted a sex worker who is a former media student at the UvA to ask her if she would be interested in taking part in our documentary. She got back to us a few days later saying that she didn’t have time, which means that we will try to contact another UvA connection, Marie-Louise Janssen, who teaches sociology at the UvA and has written several books about sex workers. She is also a councelor for the board of PROUD, the umbrella union for all sex workers in the Netherlands. 

We also contacted the PIC again to figure out the time of filming and whether or not the interviewee want to be on camera. We scheduled the interview with the representative on the 24th of November. 

During the weekend we also started working on the questionaire for the representative of PIC/Red Light United to figure out the structure of the information we need for the documentary. We have done some more research to figure out the history of the Red Thread so it is an option to include that in the interview if there is time and we have also done some research on other sex workers’ unions to get a clearer overview of the popularity of these union.

On Friday we filmed the B-roll at the Red Light Secrets museum. The staff was really friendly and we had a lot of time to film everything we needed. The red light in the windows gave just the right impression that we need for the documentary. We started to film inside the museum and waited a bit until it went dark outside before we filmed the windows. 

 Zein, Theo and Erzsika also started preparing for the IDFA press junket even though they weren’t able to watch the film as of yet they could practice the interview style and figure out how many questions there are time for in the interview. 

[2uvafp0]

Week 9

This week we had to film the camera exercises for the documentary. Theo contacted Droog a design company from Amsterdam to ask if we could do the short interview with them. Unfortunately, even though we called them and emailed them several times, they didn’t get back to us in time for us to be able to do the interview. 

Instead we decided to do a street interview with some of the people walking around in the red light district. This ended up being a better solution as it is closer connected to one of the two ideas that we are researching. We got to talk to a variety of people visiting the red light district for different reasons and we got some interesting footage we might be able to use in our documentary. 

On wednesday we did the pitch of the two ideas. We got some feedback from Tom and another group and they also helped us come up with ideas on who to contact for the documentary. The day after we decided to pursue the Red Light United idea as this was the one that we found better. Although this topic might be challenging we have the confidence that we could create something very interesing visually. 

Erzsika contacted the Prostitution Information Center (PIC) where the Red Light United has their “headquater” to ask if we could do an interview with them on the documentary. Fortunately, they answered yes and we were able to plan an interview with them in the coming weeks. 

We also contacted the Red Light Secrets museum to ask them if we were allowed to film some of our B-roll at their museum since we are aren’t able to film the actual red lights. The worker we got in contact with said that we were could film there after the opening hours if we promised not to publish the documentary so his boss would know. He let us visit the museum to find the different parts that we would want to film. We made an appointment with him for next week where we will film the B-roll in the afternoon/night. 

[2uvafp0]

Week 8

This week we started off by working on the pitch for the documentary project. We had trouble finding the right angle for the dating idea that was both interesting and possible to do with our time limit and resources. We seperated our group into two so that each subgroup could workon the pitch for the upcoming week.

Erszika and Theo took it upon themselves to research the Red Light United-idea and try to figure out some of the issues that the union is struggling with. This idea might be an issue when it comes to finding people who are willing to be part of the documentary and it is very limited information that is available online and in english. 

Tiron, Freja and Zein is researching the dating idea. We have found three possible interviewees that could be part of the documentary but we still have not gotten in contact with any of them. 

At this point we are a bit behind with the different assignment so Freja made an overview of what we need to do to catch up and how we are going to seperate the work. We had a meeting on friday to discuss the pitch and the different assignments that we need to have finished soon. 

[2uvafp0]

Week 7

This week was a sort of resting week for the group after having filmed intensely for the previous three weeks. 

We slowly started researching more and more about the documentary ideas. We started exploring the different directions that the dating idea could go into and tried reseaching a bit on dating apps and the dating culture in our friend groups. 

[2uvafp0]

Week 6

We started this week off by meeting to discuss the documentary and creating a brainstorm for the different ideas and topics that might be interesting to work with. We tried looking online and in local newspapers to get inpiration. After our meeting we devided our ideas into different sections so each member had something to research. Everyone did their research and we had a meeting on friday discussing what we liked the most. We selected the two ideas that we found most interesting after the initial research which was dating culture at UvA and the red light district union. 

Most of this week was dedicated to editing as our deadline has been moved to 28th of October. During the weekend Freja had gone through all the footage and selected the takes that she believed were the best for giving the right expression in the film. Afterwards Theo went through it as well to give his opinion on the matter. This meant that the editing process could go a bit smoother. Theo was at the media lab most of the weekdays and Freja came to help with the artistic choices. We had to cut quite one whole scene out of the final film (Sarah walking in the street towards a mass of people), since we had too much footage in the other scenes. This was a hard decision to make as this scene was part of the “three-steps of grief” that Freja had framed the story around. However, none of the other scenes were optimal for cutting. 

We decided that we wanted to add music to the background of the film to set the mood a bit more and one of Freja’s friends, Valdemar, was able to produce the soundtrack so that it matched with the different scenes. Tom advised us to use a sound effect in the moment where Sarah sees Elly in the kiosk to highlight to the viewer that this is a significant moment. We were unable to find a sound effect that really fit the scene without being a distraction, but this was resolved through the soundtrack that Valdemar made. A change in the music was enough to put attention on the moment. 

[2uvafp0]

WEEK 5

This week, Friday, we filmed the scenes in Sarah’s apartment. We filmed the opening scene in the bedroom of the apartment, we filmed the bathroom scene and Sarah walking out the door and down the stairs. We had to move the camera setup onto the balcony outside the bedroom to get the right short angle onto the bed. We also had to find some artificial lighting for the scene in the bathroom as the room was too dark.

We wanted to bedroom to show Sarah’s personality but at the same time illustrate her mental state. Therefore we changed up the room quite a bit to remove any distractions that could take the viewers attention away from Sarah. We chose to have blue bedsheets and generally very cold colors and lighting in the room.

We struggled with how to portray the picture frame with the picture of Elly because we wanted the viewers to notice it but without making it too obvious and “in-your-face”. We ended up doing multiple shots of different angles and variations so we had options in the editing room.

Lastly, we filmed one of the walking scenes for the film (the one where a bus makes the transition from day to night). We started by filming the daytime shot, then we went to he apartment to film there and then afterwards, when it became dark, we went back to the same spot and filmed the rest.  

During the weekend we filmed the walking scenes in the daytime. For some of these scenes we need extras to help and therefore we gathered a group of our friends who helped with acting. One of the shots of Sarah walking down the street we had to film from the side and we struggled with finding the right way to move the camera in the same pace as Sarah. We tested using a chair with wheels but we ended up doing it handheld and having the character walk a bit slower than planned. 

Theo and Freja have already slowly started the editing process but during the weekend all our footage was exported and the editing process could fully begin. 

[2uvafp0]

WEEK 4

This week, on Tuesday, we filmed the scenes outside with “death-place” and ghost of Elly. The night scene was very difficult to shoot. We shot it in an intersection around 21:00 in the evening to hit a time where there wouldn’t be too many cars in the streets. But despite of that the scene required a lot of takes to make sure that the sound wouldn’t be a problem in the end. To our great surprice we had made the “death-place” so believably that many people stopped to ask what had happened which also slowed down the filming process quite a bit. 

On Wednesday we met for a meeting about the documentary project. We needed to start our braistorm and we came up with a list of ideas that everyone in the group should try to research for themselves. 

[2uvafp0]

WEEK 3: 

This week we started out by aquiring more of the props and set decor that we need to film outside for the nighttime scene. We bought the candles, flowers and other smaller things that was going to make up the “death”-place of the character Elly and we made sure to place it outside in the rain so that it would look more realistic. We also made sure to pick the costumes that we needed for the kiosk scene that we filmed friday. We were struggling a bit to find buckets to put the flowers that Sarah needed buy in, but we managed last minute to rent them from a flower shop. 

This week we also finished up the work on the storyboard and the shot list so that we are prepared to film the rest of the scenes next week. Erzsika finished the production plan for the kiosk scene and we had everything prepared for shooting. 

On friday we filmed all the shots at the kiosk. We had two extras help us with the filming and we managed to get all the shots in one day. One of the extras lives in the apartment above the kiosk so we were able to go there and change costumes and touch up makeup during the filming. We had a few issues with the owner of the store during filming but luckily it was resolved before we left. 

[2uvafp0]

WEEK 2

We have selected a name for our film, “Rumination”, meaning deep thought about something. This compliments the story quite well as our protagonist faces the trauma of her friend’s death.

As the camera person, I completed the shot list and storyboard during this week, as well as received insightful feedback to improve them. Two group members were sick so we met on zoom and discussed the feedback and any updates and plans we had for the coming days.

We did test shooting in the apartment setting we have selected near Westerpark. We played around with the props and angles and found the best ways to film each shot. There was a cat clock in the apartment we have considered utilizing in order to emphasize the passing of time.

[2uvafp0]

Week 1

This week we tried to come up with several different potential adaptations for our short film - even briefly considering turning it into a musical - until deciding to stick with neo-expressionalism and settling on our final film concept. Freja wrote the script titled "Rumination" and Tiron put together a draft of the storyboard and shot list, which we'll need to tweak once we're certain about the locations we'll be using.

On Sunday we met to discuss some of the practicalities and obstacles that we will need to sort out during the pre-production phase, putting together a to-do list as well as a sort of "shopping list" containing all the props, costumes, and set design that we'll need to buy (or bring to set). We've come up with the costumes for the two main characters, and are still figuring out the exact costume for the store clerk/Elly as well as the customer/Elly. We are also trying to get extras for one of our scenes, and have discussed what we'd need to ask them to wear for the shoot, etc.

We continued location scouting using our mood board - finding several possibilities for our "kiosk" scene, different options for the apartment scene, and locations for our final intersection scene. We've encountered some difficulties due to the language barrier that we faced when trying to speak to the owner of our desired shop, so we'll need to try to figure a out a way around this issue or (if impossible) choose one of our other kiosk options. On Friday we'll all visit the locations for the apartment scene to do a costume fitting and camera-rehearsal including recording Elly's "voice mail" voice-over.

[2uvafp0]

This is our initial brainstorming of how we could adapt the script “Genesis” 

Filled with ideas of themes we could extract from the original story, and our extensions of those topics.