The Sweatbox

Just watched a documentary about the making of The Emperor's New Groove which is an enjoyable, if overlooked, Disney film from the early 2000s that I remember really enjoying at the time. Of course, I had no idea about all the issues surrounding the making of this film.

It was a really interesting watch. Feature length and directed by Sting's wife (he was supposed to do songs for the soundtrack, but only ended up doing the final song that plays over the credits) it is perhaps a little longer than it needs to be and features a too much of Sting being grumpy. I still found it extremely enjoyable and very interesting. I could definitely relate to the process of deconstruction and reconstruction that goes on throughout making a film and it's kind of crazy how many times these people had to go through that. It amazes me that they ended up with anything at all.

What's also interesting about this documentary is that it has never been approved by Disney and so the fact that I've seen it is actually quite special. It was uploaded to YouTube and quickly taken down, but I was able to catch it before it disappeared. Perhaps they thought it painted them in a bad light (plus some of the employees swear throughout the film, something that I think actually humanizes them), but I actually saw it as an extremely positive thing for Disney. You could really see the passion and dedication of all these people trying to come together and make a film. Through showing us the difficulties and intricacies of the process they went through it really shows Disney as a place full of artistic and professional people.

Because of this fact the version of the film I saw was actually incomplete and was the version shown to Disney executives (I assume) to be approved or not. It actually has a title card at the end that mentions "Vox pops" because they haven't been added yet. This is, of course, interesting to me as a film maker as you don't often get to see incomplete versions of professionally made films.

Evaluation

Overall I learnt a lot on this project. Mostly I feel like I've learnt just how much work goes into making something that you might consider to be fairly simple like a short documentary. Elements such as how to edit the sound and cut between the images I had perhaps not considered as much before taking on this project.

I really enjoyed working with most of my group. We all got on very well and executed our respective parts to, what I feel, is a high standard. Joeley was a fantastic producer and anchor to the group. I don't think we would have worked nearly as well or as effectively without her to organise us. Lewis' camera work was (aside from the gain issue) very competent and he got some very nice shots and a good variety for me to work with. Rhys' sound recording was very well done and I think he put a lot of time into writing out the transcripts and helping me edit. Natalie was wonderful as an assistant producer and editor. She helped by being present through the majority of the edit. She also (along with Joeley) did a lot of the more boring work such as taking down the edit log and I think we're all thankful to her for that.

This was the first project I've been involved in that actually felt like a real production. Everyone had an assigned role and this really helped us know what we needed to do and gave us all a sense of purpose. I think, in particular, the importance of the role of the producer in making this feel like a real production cannot be overstated. I've certainly learnt to appreciate that aspect of film making.

The Edit

Being the editor this was, of course, the part of the project I was most involved in. I feel I pulled my weight an did plenty of work in this area and very much appreciated the help I got from other members of the group all the way through the edit. While I did much of the fine tuning on the visuals (and a lot of the sound along with Rhys) I very much felt the edit was a collaborative process. Natalie was a great assistant editor, sitting in constantly and helping me see things I might have otherwise missed while Joeley assumed the role of director and pushed to see different ways of doing the edit which helped refine and improve throughout. Rhys was also extremely helpful and turned up often, as did Lewis even though his role was essentially completed in Liverpool.

The edit itself was a very involved process and we all spent a long time refining and perfecting it. The initial rough cut was done mostly without sound as we didn't have access to the sound files until a bit later, but it was useful to help us get to know the rushes and go over which parts we wanted to use. Unfortunately during capturing one of my worst fears was realized: I noticed that during filming the gain had been left on (and fairly high) giving all the shots an extremely noisy, grainy look which in some ways ruins the film.

An example of one of the unfortunately grainy shots

Ignoring this however I think we ended up with a very tight and well paced edit that is well considered and does justice to the people we interviewed.

The final look of the edit

We originally wanted to do our documentary on the busking legislation that was being brought in by Liverpool City Council. However it was difficult to fit this into the five minute limit while still being able to properly introduce the buskers and have them talk about their careers. What we eventually went with after much discussion was a film that simply looked at what it was like to be a busker in Liverpool. We took small clips from all the interviews and used them to paint a picture of a career that people perhaps don't really think about too much. We show how you might get started as a busker and the implication that it can often be an accident. We show where it might lead and how public reaction are reasons why people might choose to do this. We also show some of the negative aspects in how it can be hard to find a spot sometimes, though we look at this in quite a light hearted way as that is the way it came across in interviews.

We use a lot of cut-aways to shots that show little character moments from the buskers. My personal favourite is the way Chris (the guitar soloist) is introduced with a short clip of him examining a sandwich in a bag. It's not explained (what had actually happened is some charitable Christians had approached him and given it to him), but it's a nice little clip that introduces his character and shows something that you might not normally see of a busker. We also cut-away to each of the busker's money boxes which I think is an effective technique (similar to the one used in pockets) as it shows their livelihood in a simple and effective way.

Chris and his sandwich

An example of one of the money boxes

Sound was quite an issue during the edit. Rhys' sound recordings were actually fairly good quality. The levels were good and in most of the interviews there was not too much background noise (I did have to noise reduce Chris' interview, but it still is far too noisy really). However the team decided to record the sound and images separately and did not think to use a clapper board (or an alternative) and so syncing the sound was very difficult in some places. For example syncing the saxophonist playing with the sound was nigh on impossible as it's very hard to tell what the fingers are actually doing on a saxophone. It was a fairly laborious process, but I did manage to sync just about everything properly. Another issue was the song we wanted to use as the intro. There is a moment where Jonny goes into his solo where the notes he plays are incredibly distorted and it was ruining the feel of the intro. I imported the sound into Soundtrack Pro and carefully cut out the distorted part, making sure to leave music that still flowed and made sense by it's 4/4 time signature and chord structure. Difficult, but definitely worthwhile. Rhys (and Natalie) went through and did much of the fine tuning to the sound in the final edit using crossfades between interviews and keyframes to dip the sounds of music when people were talking etc.

Examples of using keyframes to dip the sound for certain parts of the film

There was a fair amount of touching up that needed to be done on the original shots. Some of them had the boom mic creeping into shot which needed to be cropped out (which unfortunately accentuates the grainy look) while, because it was filmed in natural light, the lighting was inconsistent and some brightness and colour correction needed to be applied in other shots. This mostly involved bringing out the yellow in some shots to make it match up to the brighter shots in which the sun was out.

Overall I am very proud of the edit and the way the film comes across. The graininess is a shame, but it was out of my control and I feel that I did my part to a fairly high standard and ended up with a well made documentary.

Transcripts and Structuring

Rhys graciously went through all the recorded sound and wrote out transcripts of the interviews. This project taught me how incredibly useful these are during the editing process. Firstly for developing a structure for the film in that we could scan through the interviews as text and find snippets that we wanted to include. Secondly it was useful for knowing what point in each clip to look for to find the right dialogue.

As you can see in our rough structure for the film we relied on these transcripts heavily:

Logs

Camera log:

Sound log:

Edit log:

Rough Shot List

Treatment

BUSKING DOCUMENTARY 

Brief Overview
To allow the audience to contemplate the social construct of how street performers are viewed using the legislation proposed on charging buskers as an issue that will affect all buskers. We are trying to capture a more human side to the busking community by recognising them as individuals. We will do this by focusing on a specific individual called Jonny Walker, a Liverpool busker who has had a certain amount of commercial success. We will further shoot an interview with a councillor called Steve Munby who will discuss the legislation and his opinions on what effect this will have on the busking community. 


Narrative development
Opening Scene: FADE IN- Publics view on buskers without disclosing subject matter of buskers immediately then introducing subject matter with 
cutaways to buskers performing and back to the public disclosing the word busker in an answer. 


Buskers view on their own community. 


Cutaways of Buskers within the Liverpool high street 


Narrator says statistics about how many buskers there are in the UK and how much income is made in a year by the busking community over the top of the buskers on the high street. 


CUT TO: high street time lapse shot with Jonny Walker walking into centre frame setting up and starting to busk. Cut to Jonny discussing 'What is in the Street Performing community?' and 'Why do people chose to busk?' 


CUT TO: Jonny Walker being interviewed about himself as a busker. Asking why he became a busker, what his favourite location is and how the legislation will affect him as a busker. 


CUT TO: Cutaways of Beatles museum- Narrator talks about how famous celebrities have busked and the opportunities that have raised for bands such as the Beatles. 


CUT TO: Steve Munby's interview about the council's legislation plans. Ending with how he thinks it will affect buskers CUT TO: Jonny Walker's interview, how he thinks it will affect him personally.

CUT TO: Jonny Walker on the street performing a song of his own toward the end of his interview. (Juxtapose)

END 


Style
The documentary will be a hybrid approach of educational/informative and investigative as we are looking at the busking community in detail but taking a journalistic approach by interviewing the local council for views and information on the legislation that poses a threat on the busking community.

We will give a sense of vibrant activity by using brightly lit shots and time lapse shots within the piece to further exaggerate the similar activity the buskers give in this area. We will also use this when focusing on Jonny Walker as he is the main individual in this piece so this technique will help to create a more interesting visual. Furthermore we will use Jonny Walkers own music to centre the documentary more around him than other issues that are raised. 

Audience
We will have a broad demographic range in this piece however it will mostly be based on middle class people of any age who have an interest in their community or political interests. As a journalistic approach we aim to please the widest range of people we can within this genre. 


MAIN ARTICLE FOR DOCUMENTARY http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news/2011/11/19/liverpool-city-council-planning-to-charge-buskers-100252-29801770/ 
JONNY WALKER 
www.jonnywalker.co.uk/ http://www.myspace.com/jonnywalkermusic 


BUSKING INFO: 
http://musicblog.merseyblogs.co.uk/2007/02/i-was-walking-through-town.html http://www.myspace.com/campaignforrealbusking/blog/485053106 


LOCATION INFO FOR BUSKING: http://www.catalystmedia.org.uk/issues/nerve7/licence_to_busk.html 

Questions

Questions drawn up by Rhys and Joeley for shooting:


(for the public)
How do you feel about street performers?
How do you think street performers contribute to your area?
There is new legislation that could put some restrictions in place for street performers, how do you think having restrictions in place will affect your community?

(buskers)
What made you become a busker?
As a street performer, do you feel like there's a sense of community?
How do you feel the new legislation will change your livelihood?
What are the public's reactions to your performing?

(Jonny Walker)
What made you become a busker?
Do you have a sense of community with other buskers or is it more competitive?
What are your favourite locations to busk in?
Do you get hecklers and if so, how do you deal with them?
How has the busking scene helped to promote your music?
How will the council's legislation affect you in the long term?
How do you think it will change the Liverpool busking scene?

Beginnings

While there for the initial meeting and genesis of our idea I was unfortunately very ill on the day of the actual trip and so was unable to go. This was extremely unfortunate as I would have really liked to get a true sense of the atmosphere and characters that I would be editing into a short film. In the end I just had to really watch and get to know the rushes in order to develop a sense of what I was editing.

Our early meetings went quite well. We decided our roles and I chose to be the editor as I had done sound on the last project (though I did a lot of the edit also and wanted to dive into more of this). When searching for ideas together I managed to find a story about buskers in Liverpool possibly having to get a license in order to play on the streets and everyone seemed to like this angle. I felt it had a lot of potential as I thought the buskers themselves (already used to attention) would most likely be happy to talk to us and it was also a good subject to discuss with general passers by. Also the potential for recording the buskers playing and using this in our soundtrack was extremely enticing.

I also unfortunately missed the meeting in which the initial treatments were devised. Joeley and Rhys ended up being the main people responsible for this.

I was very happy with how the rest of the group enthusiastically worked on the idea and what we all ended up with was something that I felt could be very effective.

I also felt that the pitch went quite well (or as well as it could have considering none of us had ever pitched anything before) and felt that we had one of the stronger ideas.

I'd like to take some time to mention how great Joeley was in her role as producer. She managed to get in touch with Jonny Walker very early on. He proved to be an enormous asset to our documentary and was the main reason that we could approach the idea with such confidence. Joeley has kept notes and been an extremely organised anchor throughout production and (through unfortunate necessity) ended up essentially taking over the Director's role also for the majority of the filming and editing.

Eric's Secrets

Eric's Secrets (2008)
4 minutes
Lucia Ashmore

"What keeps you going until you are 91? Dr Eric Frankel reflects on the last 53 years in his house with his wife, and reveals his secrets of marriage and cooking."

This is another very short documentary that I found to be quite effective. Again, it has a very simple structure, cutting from what Eric is saying to old photographs and images of his house to punctuate what is being said.

This is perhaps the most conventional of the documentaries I watched and, in a way, it suffers because of this. It really doesn't do anything particularly interesting and it's strength comes from Eric himself and the choices made about what parts of his interview to include.

I certainly have a soft spot for older people reminiscing about their lives and this was an effective little documentary in that regard.

Pockets

Pockets (2008)
3 minutes
James Lees

"What's in your pockets? Filmmaker James Lees asks Londoners to share what they're carrying in their pockets and what it means to them. Every object tells a story, revealing more than expected about its owner. From tiny treasures to the downright bizarre, the contents of Pockets provides a quick and charming social insight."

Honestly this is one of the most effective short films that I've ever watched. Such a simple idea, but executed perfectly. James Lees must have asked hundreds of people in order to get such a fantastic range of responses.

The use of focus pulls and the juxtaposition of people and images all come together to create a very focussed and poignant documentary. My personal favourite moment is the boy talking about the spider key ring his mother made and how the key he has it attached to doesn't actually open anything. It's a wonderful bit of humanity.

In a lot of ways this documentary is particularly inspirational to me in how such a simple idea with simple shots and a fairly simple edit can be so effective and emotionally resonant. Especially as it is only 3 minutes long. We employed some of the ideas from this documentary in making our own such as our focus on the buskers' money boxes.

Documentary Project - King of Laughter

King of Laughter (2008)
3 minutes
Nick Hillel

"Ethiopian's King of Laughter visits England to see it laughter is really shrinking in the western world and whether his brand of laughter therapy can cheer up the UK's unhappiest town."

I've found that I quite enjoy short form documentaries like these that focus on a relatively simple subject and tend to use interesting techniques and clever editing to be poignant and interesting.

I found this one to be pretty effective in what it set out to do. It's light hearted and the way the camera is used reflects this (such as the camera that has been fixed to Belachew Girma). There are also moments of emotion such as when Belachew talks about his fairly tragic life and how he learnt to laugh as a way to cope with it.

The film's use of close ups and often showing images that don't fit the dialogue can be quite effective though in some ways the background sound in the film can be a little distracting.