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overthewaterproductions · 6 years ago

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Job Vacancy Reviews

Upon stumbling across different ways to get job opportunities in the filming industry I came to the realisation that job sites are a great way to not only acquire jobs but to get a general idea of how budgeting and schedules function in both small and larger vacancies. In this document I am going to review several different jobs and websites, I am also going to share my approach to applying for a placement and how I would go about achieving these goals logistically.

Creative Commission

https://www.creative-commission.com/

This job a photography shoot for a musician, I would personally go for these types of placements as a lot of my main strengths lie within the musical realm due to frequent experience within this field. Before I would approach this kind of job, I would need to update my online portfolio and make my presence known a little bit more. Once I have done so I feel confident that with the right motivation I will acquire jobs of this nature on a regular basis. Placements with similar budgets would be ideal as with enough consistency you can begin to make a comfortable living without needing to hinder your independence by relying on other people e.g. Crew members and on-site staff. Overall this is a good entry level job for one who is begging to collate the necessary credentials for professional work.

Genero

https://genero.com/

This specific vacancy wouldn't be applicable to myself, but I thought it would be relevant to review this blog post on Genaro. I instantly gravitated towards this post as it is a very empowering way to encourage female filmmakers to aim higher, as I feel as though in a lot of roles women aren't always provided power as easy as males. Regardless, the way these jobs are advertised quickly take you away from the monotony of scrolling down endless lists of information. To view their list of jobs an account must be made to access the websites main features, but on the surface, this is an enticing platform that I will certainly consider using in the future.

Radar Music Videos

https://www.radarmusicvideos.com/home/about-us

Another music orientated website is Radar Music Videos. This website is another perfect culprit for those visualising the music industry. The range of options for artists is extensive for those who want to upload a brief of their own, with a diverse plethora of vacancies for many different levels of professionalism. At face value the information in each box is enough to decide on whether the specific job is something you are looking for, but more info can be accessed once signed up as a member of the websites. These 2 specific vacancies would be a bit far fetched for an individual of my professional stature but in future endeavours Radar would be a platform I would utilise.

Indeed

https://www.indeed.co.uk

If one was looking for a longer-term salary-based placement then there are plenty of vacancies for filmmakers to join an establishment in a specific role. This specific vacancy is something I would gravitate towards as the nature of the job holds more stability, even if odd jobs can be more lucrative, fickleness still can become stressful if profit margins are declining. Skills working within a team are more likely to develop within roles like this, which can be a humbling experience if you're an individual who is fixated on your own independent vision.

#reviewjobs

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overthewaterproductions · 6 years ago

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Production Company Reviews

RSA Films

http://www.rsafilms.com/

Upon opening this website I was instantly drawn to the layout and functionality of the homepage. As you scroll down the page images transition from one to another, each leading to a blog post or video when opened. This unconventional layout reinforces the artistic expression that the company are evidently trying to achieve with their work.

RSA productions have an easily accessible website that gives clear indication on where to navigate. The main colour scheme of the website has a very dark tone which is illuminated by the colourful images around the website, the contrast between dark simplicity and light complexity is a good aesthetic when trying to catch one's eye.

When a post is opened the image clicked on transforms into a video without skipping to another page, this makes the website easy to collate information without going back and forth between pages. My only criticism with this is that the post could have been more generalised so it's easier to find contact info for example.

Overall this web-page demonstrates the work of the company in an informative manner, through doing work with this company myself I have come to a thorough understanding of who this team is and who they aspire to be.

Lime Pictures

https://www.limepictures.com/

My Initial thoughts when opening this page are positive given the bright and colourful layout, this is always a good approach visually as it has consistent outcomes, but fresher originality can also be captured through more unconventional artistic decisions. Regardless of the visual aspect, the layout of information is informative, even including short biographies of their senior members of staff, which gives the consumer a better insight into the minds of the business.

Lime pictures offer several opportunities for those who want to join the industry through their establishment offering jobs and work experience. This information and sign up page are visually welcoming with many images of people of all ages working within the company's productions. If I was personally going to sign up, I would feel a sense of ease after seeing the images on the page.

This company website shows they have a clear vision and are deep rooted in the industry with many experienced professionals behind their operation.

Hurricane Films

http://www.hurricanefilms.net/

Although visually clean and tidy my initial thoughts on this website are somewhat underwhelming. The interface of the website gives indications that the site is dated and hasn't been amended for a while artistically. On the homepage a show-reel is featured and is easily accessible, the content of the video shows the level of professionalism that this company's productions possess, which redeems the underwhelming layout of the website on the homepage.

The information on the website is extensive but can be a detriment to those who may want to browse and collate information at a faster and easier pace. The pages are straight forward in terms of navigation, but once on the pages the level on writing comes across as too time consuming and would be overlooked by the average viewer.

#productioncompany #reflectivejournal

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overthewaterproductions · 6 years ago

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Website Development

The idea of creating a website from scratch was an exciting one for me although I didn’t have a clue where to start. I knew what I would like to achieve after exploring various other sites and knowing what caught my eye and what had failed to deliver.

http://www.overthewaterproductions.co.uk

I had registered my business with HMRC back in 2018 ‘Over the Water Productions Ltd’ and had purchased both the .co.uk and .com domains via GoDaddy, this is then were it stalled. I tried a couple of times to develop the concepts and ideas through a Wordpress site but found the process complicated and in my mind restrictive. I now know it was not restrictive in nature but I was restricted in my lack of knowledge and understanding. I needed to just do it, start, play around and mess up if need be to embed my learning. I know I am someone who learns by doing so why I had tried just to read a book and look at websites to discover the answers is beyond me. Actions are what move me forward.

I logged in and clicked ‘manage your wordpress site’, I was filled with excitement.

Looking at the initial interface, all the expected options were there and my mind flooded with colours, images and fonts and layout. Little did I know that this basic interface had so much depth and extensive options to explore more creative pages.

Through looking at YouTube I discovered an informative video by Tyler Moore which gave step by step instructions of how to create a site.

youtube

It became apparent quickly that the easiest way to build my site would be to delete the plugins already installed and start from scratch using ones that were relevant for my needs.

I began by creating a professional appearance of the web address by deleting part of the address via the permalinks button and redirecting the site to only show the URL and the page its on.

The next stage and probably crucial to my vision was to change the theme of the website which would give me a foundation to build on. I chose the Astra theme as it gave the option to install plugins of complete website templates. Before I started adding pages I deleted the pre-given ones. I then imported the Astra site and chose the Elementor page builder. I then decided on the ‘outdoor adventure’ plugin as although the name did not appear relevant the layout appealed to my vision. I was drawn to the transparent header that the layout had installed.

The next stage was fairly simple in changing the name of the page by clicking on appearance-layout-header-site identity. I selected my logo and uploaded it. I added my tagline. I didn’t like how it looked visually with the tagline under the logo so I decided to opt for it only been shown in search engines and not on the site itself in the current format. I chose instead to have the tagline ‘Bridging the Gap for Creativity’ to be centrally displayed so that the audience would see it and be drawn to it once they open the home page.

Next I looked at the transparent header colour and decided that although there was many options the solid colour bar at the top detracted from what I was trying to achieve and made the site look less fluid so I opted to keep it transparent. I looked at the wording colour on the site title and chose to keep it quite neutral as I knew I wanted my images in the site to have a dark background with colourful content. My wording is white and the hover colour is grey. I felt this gave a crisp finish to this area of the site.

Once these basic steps had been completed I clicked on ‘edit with elementor’ to begin the process of adjusting the layout and adding content. Once loaded this editor gave many widgets which allowed me to add sections, headings, text and video. It is easy to use and there is an inline editor. This process also gave me the option to change the style of the typography, the text colour and the size. As I wanted the website to have serious content but a fun element I chose lettering which was more funky and not rigid. The typography I chose was ‘permanent marker’.

The next challenge for me was to edit the buttons on the page and route them so that a user would be able to access the content. I did this by accessing the content section of the button area and typing into the link box were I wanted the button to lead to. On the home page I opted for the main button in the middle of the page to link to the ‘about us’ page. I changed the text within the button in indicate this. I wanted to make the button a little smaller so did this from the ‘style’ tab and adjusted the size and also the colour of the button. In keeping with my vision of neutral colouring for the letters I opted for black wording on a grey button with the hover colour being white. The final part of this section was to click on the style areas of the editing section and chose an image as my background. Again in keeping with the theme of Music - Film - Photography I chose an image which shows music equipment imagery. I ensured that the image was smaller than 500mb so that it didn’t interfere with the functionality of the website. The image once uploaded was a little dark so I changed the settings in the background overlay section and decreased the opacity. This gave a clearer overall page with the wording standing out as planned. Lastly I accessed the advanced setting and adjusted the padding which allowed my lettering to be more central on the page.

Further down this page I added a section using the widgets in elementor and added a showreel short video with a button attached. The wording here is ‘unleash the creativity’ with a button underneath which links to the services page. The button is the same as the previous button and I ensured this by right clicking on the previously designed button and clicking copy and paste style. I also added a still photograph in the image area so this would be the default if the showreel failed to play. I adjusted the placement of the button by going into the advanced tab of the edit button area and adjusted the margin by unlinking the previous values first.

I repeated the processes discussed on the rest of the pages and created a similar structure using the widgets to create columns and buttons. I ensured continuous saving and reviewing as I went along. During the review I adjusted the size of the wording and some of the layout and pictures to accommodate the changes when viewing via a mobile phone or tablet. I did this via the edit image tab and the responsive mode. I unchecked some of the content to ensure ease of use for the consumer.

Once the pages had been created I went back in and decided to add an entrance animation to the wording that is centralised on the main picture on each page, other than the home page. From the advanced tab I chose a ‘bouncing’ animation to be active.

The contact page was my next mission to ensure that it was functional and informative. I edited the contact details with the elementor editing tab. I edited the social media icons so that they linked to the relevant sites by clicking ‘edit social icons’ and typing in the relevant link. The section of the contact form that says ‘We’re Ready, Lets Talk’ was a little more tricky to do. This involved me going back into the Wordpress dashboard and ensuring that the shortcode widget was displayed in the ‘contacts’ section. I also adjusted the ‘mail’ area within this to ensure that the ‘to’ and ‘from’ areas linked with my business email address.

Next I decided to add a new page so that I could display a Q & A section of information. I did this by going back into the dashboard and clicking on ‘pages’ and then ‘add new’. I added a title and then ‘edit with elementor’. This is an easy way to add a page as I then just needed to click on the folder tab within elementor and chose a page to edit, I then clicked insert. I added layout, changed padding and added a photograph and text content. I then went into the edit page and scrolled to transparent header and ticked enabled to ensure that this was the same as the previously developed pages. In order for this new page to be visible to the consumer I went back into the dashboard and clicked the ‘menu’ tab and clicked ‘add items’. I dragged my new page from the list and dropped it into the already defined list. As I wanted it to be a ‘sub’ page under the ‘about us’ page I dragged it to the right as an indent which then allowed it to know this was not a primary page. I adjusted the colours in ‘colours and background’ and transparent header to keep inline with the colour theme for the site.

Next I wanted to ensure the button on the transparent header displayed ‘contact’ and was linked to the already developed contact page. I did this by going on customise, layout, header, primary header and then I clicked in last item in menu and typed in ‘contact’ on the text box and then added a forward slash contact into the link section. I then went into the transparent header and ensured again that this was adjusted in keeping with the rest of the theme.

Finally for the layout I went into the menu section and clicked ‘footer bar menu’ and added custom text to inform potential clients of my details.

By far the biggest challenge for me has been the last one of adding SSL to my site. I purchased the certificate and downloaded it. I can see it in my list of SSL certificates but have yet to be able to get it to work.

My website is one that I am happy with and am proud of it. I need to keep developing it, adding pages and content to show the work I do. I need a more extensive showreel and information about jobs I’ve done with additional photography displayed. I intend to develop my social media pages to also reflect this and to market my company. I would like to develop a different logo as I’m not entirely happy with the one I have so I’m exploring my creativity through learning various aspects of the adobe creative suite.

During my preparation and research into websites of a similar genre I was determined to have a site that visually showed more depth. I don’t as yet have the showreel content to display depth to the extent of Lime Pictures or RSA films but I do have an ability to use colour to draw the eye. I liked the Lime Pictures site for the depth it showed and the colour used but felt many of the other sites were quite flat and not appealing. The odd splash of colour on neutral typography gave me options for photography and showreels that added depth with tone and colour.

#websitedevelopment #wordpress #elementor #reflection

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overthewaterproductions · 6 years ago

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Marketing Research and Promotional Strategies

In the age of social media there are a vast array of tactics that can be utilised to get full optimisation out of promotional platforms, more often than not people who use strategies to beat the algorithm on the internet have more success than those who don't, regardless of talent and skill. Day by day the window for promotion is being over saturated by big corporations and adverts, so to know how to work in conjunction with the internet is almost compulsory to achieve even mere notoriety. Better tools to market mean more people using them tools, so presentation is everything and should be the first step considered when building towards a business venture or more specifically, in this case, a production empire. Below the layers of internet tomfoolery will lie your company, it's on you to break out of the confinement and stand out from the crowd.

Hashtags and keywords are big tool when looking to be found on the internet. The use of the correct and most relevant hashtags will reveal your presence within the social circles who search for these common words on search engines and social media platforms. One way to find the most searched and relevant keywords is to use a hashtag generator, there are several websites that have this purpose. In my personal experience using hashtag generators I came to find that using the hashtags given pushed my Instagram content to accounts in different parts of the world. When I haven't used hashtag generators my posts would only go as far as my following, with many of these accounts being based in the UK. The downside to using these tools is that they make posts look cluttered with many hashtags under the image, which as explained earlier, detracts from the presentation which is an integral part of attraction.

Hashtag generator examples -

https://www.all-hashtag.com/hashtag-generator.php

https://ingramer.com/tools/instagram-hashtag-generator/

Using all the main social media platforms is important as the demographic of users can be drastically different. For example, when trying to appeal to a younger audience from around 16-25 you are going to find more success when using platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat. Older audiences will mostly gravitate towards Twitter and Facebook. The use of all these platforms can be beneficial if a consistent approach is taken, with no website being maintained more than the other as each website holds equal importance in terms of promotion.

Regardless of the age of the internet, physical interactions and networking opportunities as also a big part of being seen by industry professionals and fellow creatives. Film festivals and indie film screenings are great ways to deliver and receive views and advice from peers.

#marketing #promotionalstrategies #hashtags

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overthewaterproductions · 6 years ago

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Recent Jobs - Reflections

Over the last 8 months I have begun to acquire jobs under the name Over the Water Productions Ltd. Through internet promotion and word of mouth I have been approached with multiple film, acting and studio opportunities. In this document I am going to discuss the trials and tribulations of independence and how this process affects the functionality of the business. Client interaction, pre & post production processes and the overcoming of adversity are all subjects that will be highlighted throughout the duration of this blog.

Wedding -

In July of 2018 I was approached by a couple who were due to be married in August and needed a photographer/ cinematographer to document their wedding day. The initial interaction discussing the logistics of the work consisted of a conversation between my colleague at the time and the groom. In this conversation payments and dates were discussed and an agreement was made. It is with much regret that I allowed my colleague to discuss the payment as my requirements were unable to be met or re-evaluated due to the deal already being confirmed. The agreement was that a payment of £250 will be made upon completion of the day of filming. Due to this being out of my hands I was naturally forced to accept the terms of the job without the opportunity of any amendment being made or merely considered. This taught me a lesson on client interaction and all future endeavours were handled with direct and assertive discussions with clients.

The process of pre-production was a sought-out challenge due to my lack of knowledge on wedding/ event Photography. As a result of this I began to research the work of other filmmakers working with this field. During my research I discovered that the equipment I was currently using would not be completely compatible with the style and practicality of this type of work. In terms of equipment several items were purchased to get full optimisation out of the experience. A Canon 70-200mm Lens was purchased for the candid and long-distance shots, this lens was perfect for the reception and ceremony as I was able to get the shots, I wanted without interfering with the party. For the portraits and general shots, I purchased a Canon 50mm Prime lens, this was perfect for the individual and family pictures, a substantial amount of the day was shot with this lens. Batteries, flash guns and camera grips were also purchased for myself and my mother, who was my second shooter on the day.

The day of the shoot was planned by me and the family of the groom, I visited their home to discuss times, locations and transportation. I then visited the locations with the camera to assess the lighting situation of the buildings. Subsequent to the meeting and location viewings a plan was drawn out and the necessary equipment was acquired. On the day of the wedding we began by documenting both the bridesmaids and groomsmen getting ready for the day. To achieve this, me and my second shooter split up and went to each of the bride and grooms’ houses. This part of the shoot consisted of many close ups, portraits and candid shots, shot using a 50mm lens. Once the clients had finished getting ready a family group shot in front of the wedding car was taken from a far distance with the 70-200 lens as the 50mm struggled to fit all of the subjects in frame successfully, this realisation was the blueprint to how I framed the rest of the photographs and videos for the rest of the day.

Upon completion of the first section of the day I proceeded to the bride's house were my second shooter was situated ready to transport myself, my colleague who was co-coordinating the entertainment and the camera equipment. Once I had arrived to meet my second shooter, we had a time limit to travel to the town hall and set up before the party arrive to the ceremony. To film the ceremony a Panasonic GH4 was placed by the altar on a tripod with a directional microphone, facing the bride and grooms’ position. This process was challenging as there were obstructions in the places where I originally planned to film from, this caused me to compromise and find the closest position possible without interfering with the furniture and walkways. Once set up we waited in front of the town hall to document the bride’s arrival.

The next part of the shoot consisted of the bride’s arrival, the ceremony and the group shots outside the town hall before moving on to the reception. Whilst waiting for the bride I was presented with the perfect opportunity to take candid shots of the family and guests entering the building. Upon the bride’s arrival numerous photos were taken of the car and entrance. Before the ceremony I started to record the video so the entrance of the guest would be documented. Recording early helped to prevent interference whilst the ceremony was underway. Flash guns were used to a minimal as the flashing appeared to be noticeable to the guests, which we had to avoid as our main aim was to get all necessary footage whilst still going unnoticed by the guests and family.

The final part of the day was the least challenging and most enjoyable. All the crucial parts of the footage had been filmed leaving the rest of the day to be more light-hearted and fun, joining in with the festivities with the guests. This was only my approach at the end because the clients insisted, we relax and enjoy the refreshments, in future my way of maintaining professionalism would involve me respectfully declining the clients offer to join in with food and drinks to focus on the task at hand

School -

One of the first jobs I completed under the company name was a corporate film for WKGS. The initial client interaction for this job was between my mother (who is employed at this establishment) and the head of the school. The first step of the process was the mandatory DBS check to ensure I was eligible to work in an environment with minors, upon this confirmation I was ready to start my plan which was based from a client lead brief. The preface for the idea consisted of a mock news report acted out by the year sevens, under the name of their self-made “news network” WKGS News. The brief also stated that the footage from the production would be featured on the homepage of the schools website and would be presented to the new year 7s upon their arrival in September.

No payment was directly discussed but the school vaguely stated that this would be a paid job, no cash payment was made off the back of this job but I was gifted amazon vouchers 2-3 weeks subsequent to the completion of the filming and post production. As this was a favour for my mother and her colleagues, I was less proactive in negotiating payments and more focused on creating something entertaining which slightly changed my point of view during creativity.

The filming for this production was spread over a 3-day period, each day starting at 8.30am and ending at 3.30pm. This window of time enabled me to review footage in between shoots and emend any mistakes made that may have needed tweaking in post or re filming completely. The first day of filming started with an introduction and tour of the school were I collated ideas for shoot locations, once shown round the building I was introduced to the students were we became acquainted through my explanation of how we were going to approach the film, once clarity was given to the students a teacher allocated roles to each student in which my assistant made notes of for future reference to ensure names are correctly labelled on screen in post-production.

Over the course of each day the groups of students were taken out of their classes separately to film their part of the news report. A few examples of the segments included a tour of the canteen in which I filmed a student acting as a news reporter explaining how to top up dinner cards and purchase food and a walkthrough of activities played in P.E, another example of a segment was a tour of departments such as art and the library were students were filmed participating in activities such as reading and general socialising. The purpose of these segments was to deliver an informative and entertaining instructional video, simple enough for a young person to engage with and digest successfully. The equipment used during this process are as follows; A Panasonic Gh4 as the main and only body used to film, an Olympus lens which were both used in conjunction with each other depending on the situation but mostly only one lens was used at a time. For audio a Rode directional mic was used. All static shots were filmed on a tripod and all off the tracking shots were done using a gimbal, barely any shots were done handheld. A green screen and led lighting were used for the newsroom section.

The news reported segments were completed over the course of the first 2 days leaving the final task of filming the 2 “presenters” in the newsroom, were they would introduce each segment as if they were communicating with the reporters around the school. In order to organise and coordinate this section, notes of each student and their role were kept and given to the “presenters” with a loosely written script leaving space for natural quirks and improvisation. This was my first time using a green screen for a video so my confidence was none existent leaving me with the ordeal of being blind to what the outcome will be, this uncertainty has transpired into my other productions as I now always ensure a necessary amount of research and practise is done prior to accepting challenges that force me into the unknown creative territory.

Working with younger people was surprisingly easy to navigate as the specific children I worked with were very respectful and motivated. There were no moments of exaggerated immaturity which ultimately made the filming process an enjoyable feat. Although not my proudest piece of work I can say that I have learned from the experience and the newfound knowledge has been applied to all I have done subsequent to this placement.

Upon completion of filming, the post production process included an excessive amount of reorganisation as the vast array of footage collated was overwhelmingly intimidating and taught me the lesson to organise footage with equal precision to the coordination of the filming days. As a result of this the work was avoided for a substantial chunk of the time allocated for editing. A plug in had to be purchased to make the effect for the news channel intro and the backdrop for the presenters. A few issues with sound were unavoidable and had to be used regardless of their quality. Using the green screen footage taught me that I needed to research how to correctly light a green screen situation as there were imperfections once changing the backdrop on final cut pro. Overall I enjoyed the most part of this job and what it entailed but in comparison to my other work I would say that this is would of my less proud moments of being a filmmaker. In future I would go into more depth before and after filming as these are equally as crucial as the moment when you press record on the camera.

Short Film Supporting Role -

In February of 2019 I was asked to participate in a short film acting in a supporting role. For this production I was on the other side of the camera, but I feel it is necessary to explain the creative process and the nature of being on a professional film set with a budget higher than my usual work. I am unable to disclose the specifics of the plot as I am contracted to keep this information confidential until the release. To build on my current knowledge I observed the behaviour from the members of the staff on the day. When we arrived on set a runner approached us and escorted us to a van were, we would be waiting for the director to give us our first instruction. Whilst waiting we were provided breakfast and given free trainers to wear for the film courtesy of Nike who were sponsoring this production, this was a first in my experience of film making. For the first part of filming myself and 2 other actors were asked to improvise a simple conversation about random subjects. We were placed in a bus stop which had been rented out by the crew.

I noticed that the cameraman was shooting the video horizontally as the film was for the platform Instagram TV to be watched on smart phones. The camera used was a RED cinema camera rigged up to a steady cam. Though were given lapel mics to put underneath our clothing the sound technician still recorded another track of audio using a microphone attached to a boom. We were provided drinks and hand warmers throughout this section of filming as there were many retakes, this process to about an hour and a half to complete. Throughout the course of the day we shot several scenes which were quite similar in nature. The director of the production had an approachable attitude which enabled the rest of the crew to work in a relaxed environment and prevented any intensity even though pressure was evident.

At the end of the day we were given contracts which basically stated that we keep all information on the plot confidential, terms and conditions about our faces being used publicly was also stated in the release form. Upon completion we were paid a sum of £50 in cash for our participation on the day. Being a part of this production taught me that each person's contribution is equally vital when working under pressure, from the runner to the director each role is a cog in the machine that will makes ideas become a reality.

Documentary -

I filmed a documentary for the last project of my second year of university. I decided to make a short documentary about the gas explosion that happened in 2017 in New Ferry. My reasoning for this film was that I felt as though the people of New Ferry had been misrepresented by the media, leaving me in a position that made me feel as though I should take responsibility to fix the injustice and provide clarity to the people of the area, regardless of the stature of my platform in comparison to the corporate news organisations. In preparation for this production a larger number of client interaction was required than my usual productions, I had to assess my ethical standpoint due to the severity of the subject being focused on in this documentary.

My first point of call was to contact the local businesses that had been affected as a direct result of the explosion. To achieve this, I visited each shop and asked them if they would like to participate in the documentary by doing a short interview on camera. Once I had collated the participants, I took note of their names and contact details then tailored my questions and the release forms to suit each person and their background. Due to the limited time given to make this film interviews were planned over a week ahead and regular contact was kept with the clients.

Whilst visiting new ferry I took a camera out to film cutaways and Vox pops to fill in the transitions of the film. I used a DSLR and a directional microphone without any stabilisation tools as I wanted to achieve a handheld look synonymous with the tension of the subject matter. I brought consent forms for the people I interviewed in the pub and in the street. This part of the documentary was the least challenging but had its limits due to the section were the explosion happened being cordoned off.

Two more interviews were planned which I would deem to be the more important segments of the documentary. The reason why I felt these interviews were most crucial to narrative of the story is because of the impact of the participants roles within the community of New Ferry, this brought great anticipation and contentment knowing that they were happy to support the cause.

#documentary #filmmaking #reflectivejournal

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overthewaterproductions · 6 years ago

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Up close and personal meeting Company Director Mal

Many companies are faceless corporations that do not allow you to understand the motivations of those at the helm. Creating a simple Q & A with a company director can bridge that gap.

What is your earliest memory of film?

As far back as I can remember films have been a very prevalent part of my existence. Throughout the duration of my childhood from birth my grandmother worked at blockbuster right up until the company shut down. This being the case going to rent films was a weekly activity, which in retrospect I hold very close to my heart. The feeling of going to a video shop and spending a good 30 minutes looking for a film not quite knowing what you’re going to pick up felt somewhat special as opposed to browsing the streaming services today, especially given that finding a film in this day and age is an over saturated process.. My first memory of gravitating towards a specific film was when I was around 5 years old. My mother had a rack of video tapes which I would usually take no notice of, but one day I picked up a film because I liked the look of the cover art, upon asking my mum what the video was she replied ‘That's Back to the Future’. After watching the video there was no turning back and to this day I still rate Back to The Future as my favourite and most watched film.

What made you want to become a filmmaker?

Since I was around 13 years old, I have been an avid creator of hip hop music. The main platforms to get your music heard are mainly based on YouTube and operate through the fees paid by the artists for the videos to be filmed and uploaded. After doing videos with these media platforms I realised that the cost of constantly getting somebody else to do your videos outweighs the cost of just buying a camera with some editing software and doing it yourself. So, my initial introduction to filmmaking was merely a way to cut the middleman out of the picture and rely only on myself to achieve independent success in music. Through the trials and tribulations of making my own videos I started to recognise the complexities of how videography works, which resulted in mentally collating as much research and filmmaking knowledge as I possibly could. Off the back of having this newfound interest my mother suggested to me that I go into education as the ability to create film can be good for both business and personal endeavours. I started University in 2016 and for the past 3 years I have learned a vast array of skills which have advanced my being both mentally and financially.

What are your interests?

In terms of film making my main interests lie within the realms of camera operating and sound design. These interests came only through experience which helped me to recognise my weaknesses and strong points. My reason for being so interested in camera operating is because there is a sense of reward upon completing a day of filming and watching the footage you recorded. This rewarding notion doesn't cross my thought pattern as easily when in post-production as the monotony of editing video can take away the excitement from the production process, were as the spontaneity of being on set is often an exhilarating experience especially under the pressure of a big production. My interest in sound design stems from my experience with music production, which was my first love before rapping. In the future I hope to get some opportunities to score a production or contribute to soundtracks of feature films.

Who inspires you?

Rather than specific directors or artists my main inspirations come from styles and moods. Much of my inspiration is drawn from documentaries and how emotion is portrayed in real life scenarios, emotionally I tend to resonate more with true stories and have felt the most captivating moments in my consumer experience have been whilst watching documentaries or real-life interviews. Not to say that scripted drama productions don’t have inspirational and life changing moral values however in my personal experience nothing compares to seeing the reality of our world through the eyes of those who inhabit it.

What is your vision for the future?

Personally, looking too far into the future has always made me lose sight of my current situation, so in terms of moving forward I am going to continue to pursue the independent film route through my company Over the Water Productions. Most jobs acquired using this company name have been through word of mouth, so the next step is to get online and market with the same methods as when I do my music. Having the prior marketing knowledge has been most beneficial to my confidence and certainty of progress. Success starts with your innermost feeling and the rest is acting upon these urges, without the mental aspect the physical will fail to manifest.

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