Evaulation

EVALUATION
Research techniques are important for a project, as everything should be researched. For our FMP, as a group, we decided upon a topic which is quite diverse. This was Vintage fashion, and how the cost of fashion nowadays affects students, this is why they may perhaps buy vintage fashions.
I think the research that we used at the start of the project wasn’t 100%. This was because the whole group wasn’t completely sure on the question we were trying to answer in our documentary. I feel that the research we completed ourselves, i.e. questionnaires, (primary research) worked in our favour, as the answers we got back were ideal for what we wanted to achieve. Questionnaires are important to make sure that the product you are going to produce has a purpose, as if there was no opening in the market, it would be a pointless project and waste of time and resources. We heavily researched target audience, as the target audience is the crucial part of the project. This is because if you do not know who the documentary is aimed at, you do not have a focal point of what is being needed to achieve. An audience is the most important part, as the producer doesn’t want to confuse the audience or use irrelevant information and images.
To begin our pre-production and research we had to come up with a narrative for our production, this went quite well, as after several group meetings we could finally decide upon the question we wanted to answer, and the narrative helped us how we were going to answer it.
To create storyboards and scripts, we researched where we wanted to film and what things we wanted to include in the footage. We found and affordable vintage fashion fair in Cambridge, and contacted the owner of the fair. She was very enthusiastic about the filming and also let us interviews her. We kept in contact through emails and phone calls to make sure that the filming would go ahead. We used this as a contingency plan, to make sure that we didn’t travel for any reason. We also contacted some vintage stores in the midlands, both through email and phone calls, and managed to set up an interview with a lady from a vintage store in Birmingham. We wanted to make sure, as a group, before completing the budget, where we were filming and what we were filming and how we could pay for it. The budgets worked quite well as it was affordable from using our realistic budget.
Health and safety is another important part of research, as there are legalities that must be followed for a production. We had to critically evaluate where we would be filming, and how safe those places are, and what health and safety elements need to be put into place. Fortunately, we had no problems with health and safety within our production, as I feel we had enough research before the filming commenced. We made sure everyone around us knew that we were filming, and if they had any queries we were happy to help.
Budgeting for a production is a very important part, as finances need to be stable before thinking about creating a documentary. Travel costs and equipment costs/hire need to be taken into consideration. As three of us managed to contribute to the budget, we managed to finance our travel around the country for filming.
Copyright needs to have extra attention paid to it, as copyright is a legality of filming and productions. Producers may copyright certain images, footage or words that they have created, to stop other people from copying the work that they have created. This is because they can loose an idea that they may have spent years creating. Some copyright work can be used, but the person who copyrighted the idea must agree, and receive a payment for the work that you may be ‘borrowing’. Some material may be perfect for your production, yet be illegal to use in your own work.
To make a documentary, there must be a lot of research and pre-production conducted before actual production can be started. First of all, target audience is the main thought before anything else. The target audience is who the documentary is aimed at, and therefore soundtrack, camera shots, and where to film is dependant on whom the product is for. Our target audience was at mainly female students, but hoping to attract both males and the older generations. This was because we found an opening in the market for male vintage fashions that is shown throughout the documentary. Also, the older generation is a target, as we found most of the older people we asked, loved the vintage fashions of today, as they lived the generations that most teens wear today. We used BARB mainly to find out what kind of documentaries are watched, and whether there was a gap in the market for fashion documentaries, as we feel our documentary should be shown on channel 4, as this is the channel teenagers/students watch more than any other.
Planning is a huge part of the documentary process. First of all, we had to come up with a treatment to make sure all areas of the documentary were covered. A treatment tells a director/producer exactly what the filmmaker intends to film. After the treatment is commissioned, a script, shooting schedule, budget, health and safety, contacts, storyboards, and narrative needs to be created. The narrative tells the story of the film, and helps the creator know what the story is. A rough storyboard is created, as with a documentary, not all of the footage is predictable. A script needs to be created to make sure that the story flows to the footage that needs to be shot. On top of this script should be a shot list & EDL (edit decision list) to make sure that all of the production on screen is planned. The shooting schedule helps plan time. Filming and editing can then be planned, and therefore no time should be empty without doing anything, as this is effective time management. The budget isn’t that large for a college production, but we compared our realistic budget, with a hypothetical budget, of how much it would cost in the real industry.
Working as part of a team is not necessarily the easiest thing to do. As we were all friends, working together was quite a nice thing to do. We managed to talk amongst each other and make sure that we were all happy with the decisions that we had made. One member of the group had a lack of contribution and lack of motivation, which tried to help with, yet the team member wasn’t interested. As a group, we carried on working on the project, and did made sure we all communicated. I think, as a three, we worked well together, as we didn’t have any conflict, and made sure that all the tasks we had assigned to each other, were completed. As a producer, I had to make sure that all the correct paperwork was completed, and to make sure all work was being done. I think that I did this well, as I believe all the paperwork is completed to a high standard, such as pre-production, and on screen productions. As we had a smaller group, we had to complete more tasks, and make sure we were all coping with what we had to achieve, I believe I helped motivate others, and complete tasks and help with tasks that may be struggling. I feel working as a three was better than a larger group, as we all knew exactly what was going on at all times.

(UNIT 26 tbc)