Production paperwork

The production paperwork was something that I was responsible for completing due to being the producer of our film. It was a challenge due to us having so many contributors as well as being in lockdown, and I have definitely learnt from it.

The first part of the paperwork that I completed was the storyboards. Once we had come up with our idea and noted down a plan for the structure and type of shots that we wanted I was able to create the storyboards. Our researcher Evie had finished the poem for our contributors to read out so I needed to start thinking about who was going to read it out, how many lines each contributor would read and in which order they would read them. I broke our film down into two halves:
- The first half as interviews and context on the topic as well as GV footage and B roll.
-The second half as the poem that we created.

This enabled me to create the story boards for each section. I created a first draft of them in order to work out the order of contributors that we need for the poem section along with where to place the B roll in the interview section. Normally when creating storyboards I am happy with the order of shots and how I want shots to look within the first couple of times of planning them. However I struggled with these storyboards as it was hard to find links and connections between each section. At this point we knew who are three main contributors would be and how we were going to interview them, but we needed to find connections on how to make them all relevant to each other. We also had lots of B roll that represented how our world has changed that we also wanted to include. I created a couple of drafts of the storyboards alongside the poem for the second section which enabled me to fit together the poem alongside who we wanted to read them out. We looked through the footage that we did have and I put it onto groups in our online folder. We then selected what would be most relevant to go alongside each interview, for example for the interview with my grandparents they talked about families and hope for the future so we decided to include positive b-roll around their interview such as shots of rainbows people had created. Breaking each section down like this and choosing what was relevant really helped  to create links in the storyboards. This opened up my eyes to how storyboards can be very effective in planning structure and order when creating films and they were something that we heavily relied on. Later in the process when we had found all our contributors I was able to add their name to each shot how we wanted it written in the film.

Once we had the storyboards completed we were able to create the shot list; this was something that Matt and I were able to work on together.  As director he decided on the style each shot and the way that he wanted it shot and I was then able to format this, we wanted to stick to conventional documentary  shots such as GV footage and interviews and had already made some of these decisions. Something that the shot list really helped us with was deciding how we wanted the poem videos to be filmed. We knew how we wanted the three interviews filmed:

1) Susan and Kevin Thorne- this interview had already been filmed prior to lockdown measures for personal use. It was filmed through a doorway with me stood outside and Kevin and Susan sat in the kitchen.

2) Eden Whitlock- Edens interview had to be filmed via Skype due to lockdown measures and her not living in the same home as anybody working on the film.

3) Mark Cowan- This was the only interview that we had choice with on how to film due to him living in the same house as Matt.

All three required different set ups which created variation in how we knew they would look. The shot list enable us to decide on style for the third interview.

For the poem videos we knew they would have to be self filmed by our contributors, most probably on a phone or a laptop. While creating the first few drafts or storyboards we had a few ideas on how we wanted them filmed but when creating the shot list we had to come to a decision. I suggested that it would be good for them to be filmed as a medium shot because that way they can be easily filmed by the contributor holding the camera themselves or someone else holding the camera for them. The shot list also really helped with when deciding on audio for transitions between interviews, we were going to have a presenter but due to the amount of b-roll that we had from before lockdown that we wanted in the film we decided narration would be better to have over the top. All of this was noted this into the shot list as seen below:

After creating the shot list I then started to think about contributors for our poem that Evie had written for us. We started to note down what contributors we would need and the roles that we required. It was my job to find the contributors to read out the lines and who we think would be appropriate. First of all I reached out to people that I know, for example my grandparents, people that my parents work with if their jobs are appropriate and any friends if they were appropriate. I contacted as many people as I knew that could be a good fit. I knew that finding 28 different contributors would be a challenge however I was looking forward to it as it was going to be a new experience for me. When reaching out to different contacts these were the sort of emails that I sent out:

 Once I had started to find different contributors for the poem section I created a table to store information for each contributor such as email addresses, telephone numbers and also what lines of the poem they would be reading out. This was a great way for me to store everyones information in the same place and have everyones details together for quick access. I could also note here if I had received consent forms from contributors that I had sent out, and if I had received the clips from each contributor after the consent forms. It was very useful for me to use this form however because there were so many contributors I kept loosing track of who I had received information from and who I had not. Therefore a technique that I started using was colour coding. I would colour a row in green if I had received the consent form and clip from the contributor, or I would colour it red if I had not. This system helped me so much as it allowed me see whether I needed consent forms for anyone before I sent out what to do regarding filming their clips. It also allowed me to see what I was missing from different contributors and it is something that I used everyday throughout the pre production process. The contributor form that I created was around four pages long and here is a page from it:

The next step for the paperwork was to get all the consent forms done, in total for our video there were 28 consent forms that needed to be signed. I knew this would be a challenging job as not only were there so many to complete, but it all had to be done online due to lockdown rules. This meant I had to email the consent form to every contributor for them to fill out and email it back to me. I knew it would be a challenge to send them to everyone and also receive them by the deadline due to there being such a large amount. I wanted to make it as easy as possible for the contributors to fill in so I downloaded a copy of the form and highlighted in red everything that needs to be filled in to try and save time for the contributors. This was beneficial as it meant that everyone was clear with what to fill in and there were no issues with anyone struggling to understand what to do. One issue that did arise was getting all the forms back in time; I wanted them back before I sent out the email to ask   . The email below is what I sent to each contributor once they had agreed to take part: 

This is the consent form that I sent to each contributor to fill in: 

Once I started to receive consent forms back I started on the risk assessments. For the risk assessments I needed to take into account the lockdown rules. Two weeks before the production meeting I enquired about whether I needed to do a risk assessment for each contributor so they could film their poem clips, at the time I only needed to do one risk assessment for all contributors because all of their filming conditions were very similar; all filming in a living room or garden holding a phone out in front of them. Therefore I created one generic risk assessment that outlined all conditions and risk for the contributors. However due to the coronavirus situation changing rapidly throughout the the production process, by the time of production I was advised that it would be appropriate to do a separate risk assessment for every contributor. I also needed to complete this very quickly as our filming was due to start in four days and I also needed to allow for the two day turn around for them to be signed. Completing them all felt quite time consuming to begin with but then I was lucky I had created the generic risk assessment as most filming environments were similar, I just had to check with people whether they had pets or allergies etc. I did find completing these a very good learning experience as it meant I had to have lots of communication with contributors to find out information along with having to complete such a large amount of risk assessments in a short space of time.

Because of the amount of them I created a document where I could keep track of every assessment that I had completed as I went along, this enabled me to stay organised and keep track of which assessments I had left to do. I used a technique I had used with the Contributor form with colour coding to allow me to see whose forms I had started and if any information was missing from each one before they were completed; this also allowed me to keep organised. I took this screenshot part way through completing the forms:

Because by this point I had accumulated a lot of paperwork I needed to find a way to keep it not only secure but also all together in one place so that I was able to access it quickly. I decided to create a Google Drive folder for our group where we could store any information. As a group normally paperwork would be something we could share together in person but due to the lockdown circumstanced this was not possible so I wanted us to have somewhere in which we could place all of our work so that it was easy for everyone to find it if it was needed for any reason. Having all work online was a big adjustment to how I normally work but it has actually saved me a lot of time as well as paper so in future the process has taught me I prefer working with everything digitally. Below is an example of some of the consent forms being stored in our drive folder: 

Once I had all consent forms back and my contributor list was all green I began to send out emails informing contributors of what poem lines they had to read out. I tried to explain it as clearly as I possible could; this was a challenge because normally we would explain to the contributor in person what we need to do and they would not have to worry about any filming or anything in that respect, but in this case I had to make it very clear and precise exactly what they had to do. I also listed different ways of filming to cover all basis when it came to different circumstances in which the contributors would be filming. Below is a template I created for the email in which I sent to every contributor:

 Once I knew the dates in which contributors would be filming I could begin to make a schedule. I needed to consider our to interviews that we would be filming along with the poem sections. I decided not to make a call sheet because:

-For the interview with Evie and Eden they did not know at which time it would be filmed but they knew it would roughly take an hour therefore I thought a schedule would be a good idea because we did not know at which time they would be able to start filming on the date it just depended on when Eden was free to call.

-For the interview with Mark Cowan, his son Matt was filming it and had said the date they would film it but again did not know an exact time they would film but had said it will take roughly two hours. I listed all relevant information such as contact details and information regarding facilities and refreshments into the risk assessments in which I sent to everyone involved in each interview.

The schedule was very useful in order to keep track of when contributors were planning on filming their clips and sending them so that I knew roughly when to expect them.

Once we had received all of the poems I needed to upload them all into the drive folder so that they were accessible for the editors, I also needed to note down all of their official titles that will be captioned in our documentary underneath their names. I created a table for this so that the editor would know when a contributor had sent their video; I used colour coding again for this, if the row was green then the video was available and was ready to be put into the video,  if it was red it was not and if it was orange it meant I had the clip but had not uploaded it yet. This helped during the edit process and meant that there was no confusion on what clips we had and did not have. To help with efficiency I also numbered all of the clips and correlated the number in the table to save time on getting them into the correct order, this was very beneficial as it did make the edit stage a lot easier when ordering them. 

Once the interviews had been completed before the edit stage we completed transcripts. We all completed our own transcripts for the interviews that we had completed so I typed out the interview with my grandparents Susan and Kevin Thorne. I have never used a transcript before and never typed one out but I actually found it very beneficial as it made me realise what had been said and what the key moments were. I was then able to report to my group what I personally felt the key moments were and then the director Matt and editor Luke decided whether they would be relevant or important to leave in. I also added time stamps to help in the editing process.

During the edit process initially Matt began as the editor, but due to technical issues Luke had to take over. This meant that Luke needed to be clear on what Matt was planning on doing with the edit in terms of directing as well as I needed to inform Luke what needed to be included due to information and how to follow to list for the order of poems. Therefore I created a rough edit script that myself and Matt both added to so that it gave Luke some guidance before he started. We also added some rough times just to give Luke an idea of how long each task should roughly take.