Pre-Production: Unit Evaluation

To conclude this proejct I would say it has been a success overall. The Pre-Production stages to this project have had its fair share of highs and lows but overall has come together nicely. This has definitely been the most challenging project for me given the sheer amount of work that has gone into the planning. I feel I have really excelled my potential in this unit and have pushed so hard to plan a documentary as professional as possible. I have tried lookign into the legalities behind the subject and tried to apply a lot of the planning towards our targeted channel. For test shooting we went the extra mile in traveling all the way to Manchester to film for the entire day; this was completely worth it for the outcome. Care and thought has gone into every element of the pre-production package and I hope this reflects well in the package.

Our idea has evolved massively since September and even the early plannign stages over the summer. We pitched the idea of making a documentary and decided on the idea of 'the snowflake genertation' which is this lable put on young people today about them melting under the heat, and being so easily offended. This is an idea we liked and Simon liked it too. It was what we pitched for our green light pitch and we got through. However, after having a meeting with Simon the following week we realsied that we were stuck on what we were visually seeing. This whole process has lead to our final idea 'Evidence Withheld'. Given our idea chmaged and evolved so much, time for this project was really against us, but after a lot of persiverence and hard work, I feel I have caught up and tried to go above and beyond the requirements in making this a professional project. I really did believe in this idea and the platform we are targetiing it towards. It has allowed my love of documentary making/storytelling to merge with my passion for cinematography and clever editing. From this Pre-Production Unit, I can see just how far my work has come since the first year, the one thing that has remained is my love of the course and ambition to overcome obstacles.

I have learned to take inspiration from all kinds of places, not just my chosen format/genre. Researching into different practitioners, photographers, Dop's and editors have all evolved together into my plan and statement. I have pushed ot collavborate with other courses form the university in producing professional looking posters. Jack and I worked really well as a team and he was very good at keeping those people on board and getitng hold of them. The idiea of working as a pair did make me worry at the start as most people in the class are in groups of four where the work is evenly distributed. Being a two meant we had to plan so much, and the amount of research, detail and even just getting contributors has proven to be really challenging. 

What Worked?
I think what worked really well was mine and Jacks effort to work as a team. Wilst it isn't always easy to mathc up schedules, we both made plenty of time to work together from plannign the ideas, both produciing the documentary and what it was going to be about to the test shoots, especially travelliing to Manchester to film. We knew we work well together from the previous project and I am glad this one is the same.

The package came out really well and despite some initial struggles, I believe the effort is visible, and even the package is fitting with the branding of Netflix. I spent a lot of time designing the book on Adobe InDesign, and in doing so I was able to master the Adobe Suite even more. Previously, I would have done work like this on Pages or Microsoft Word, but I really wanted to push myself and create a package that was not only nice to read but also fit in with the branding 'Netflix'. It is a genuine ambition to get this documentary commissioned on this platform and to be able to take it to film festivals once we have graduated. Whilst this seems overly ambitious, it is the thought that kept me going and kept pushing me to work even harder.

I am really pleased I was able to incorporate skills and things I have learned from this course and in industry practice, to try and develop this idea and pre-production package.


What Didn’t Work?

I feel that I became too bogged down with the thought that whatever idea I chose, it wouldn't be good enough. As soon as we hit obstacles, we would end up with 'writer's block' and get stuck on the angle, how it was going to work and what the purpose with the documentary was in the first place.

The script was really difficult to plan and write because a lot of this documentary was so contributor heavy. There is very little information online and in books about this subject and case studies like Eddies are really difficult to come across. We struggled for ages in finding people and stitching our story and structure together. Though we managed in the end, it slowed a lot of the Pre-Production process down.

Access is something that didn't always work. We tried really hard in getting the police on board and sadly all attempts failed as they didn't take the fact that it was a student project seriously. We have instead offered a 'Right Of Reply' and if they chose to decline or ignore, we will mention that in the documentary. Because of how complex and long-winded stages like this are, it was difficult to reach a result before this hand in. The right of reply is not yet confirmed due to the amount of time it takes which is frustrating but also just a part of the process we have to go through in order to produce a documentary as technical and serious as this.

What Did I learn?
I learned a lot about the marketing process, and everything it takes to promote content. I really wanted to try and get a feel for the programme to not only visually show what is in my head, but to also inspire myself what I am visually seeing from this documentary.

Everything from making a marketing poster to setting up a facebook page. I really did learn a lot and this has been shown through my blog and its development. Fitting our documentary in with the brand to market was also a struggle, especially when we haven't started filming properly yet with test shoot footage and archive footage I was able to create a trailer and title sequence fitting to both the story and the brand.

I also learned a tremendous amount about the importance of test shooting. Had I not had any test shoots I wouldn't know what cameras to use, the ideal interview framing, the impact and different variations of colour correcting, what equipment I do and don't need. Test shooting has played a vital part in our pre-production process and I am glad we were given the opportunity to practice with such fantastic equipment both hired and from the university. We did overprepare for our Manchester Test Shoot but it was better to do so. We just learned what we do and don't need so we don't carry aroudn so much equipment for our final shoot.

This project taught me I really need to focus on time management. As previously mentioned, we were stuck with ideas up until about halfway through this unit and it really held us back. That meant we weren't able to get a properly printed book from Blurb as it takes two-three weeks to print and if anything is wrong we would struggle to change it.  Whilst I had a schedule at the start of the unit for pre-production it was very difficult to stick to this.


What could I develop?

I feel I could develop my storyboard more. I would have liked to have gone the extra mile in taking my sketches and digitally remastering them in photoshop. I am investing in a tablet in order to do this. I wasn't very pleased with my drawings and although it doesn't necessarily matter how skilled I am in this department, I feel it could bring the pre-production value up a bit more.

I would ideally get the book printed more professionally from a website like Blurb, but due to time and financial restrictions, this was beyond my means. I wanted to use this to my advantage by adding tracing paper with printouts between some pages.

In my opinion, the completed package also looks very professional and well put together. I think we made the right decision to spend longer making the package so we were not limited by how much time it would take to print a book. Whilst I would have preferred a professionally printed version, printing and then comb-binding the package still looks professional and we had plenty of time to get everything polished before then.


To conclude I have found this pre-production both beneficial and really enlightening. It has been a massive learning curve, but I feel confident going into the production phases with this prep and planning behind me, alongside a passion for the documentary. I now have a vision of where it is going.