George Wing Television Blog

I first dicovered Creative North AKA Jonny von Wallström. He is a self shooting documentary maker and has one numerous awards, eventually getting his documentary Pearl of Africa commissioned on Netflix. I prefer him as a DoP over and editor however. One thing I do dislike about his work is his color grading. I can't help but feel it is too overdone, especially for documentayr. Whilst I appreciate he is going for the cinematic look, I cant help but feel it is too much and it is possible to overdo it. The Pearl of Africa has been his most successful documentary so far and is a world acclaimed story about Cleopatra Kambugu, a 28 year old Ugandan transgender girl. Biologically born male, but against all odds, transitioning into the woman she always felt she was inside. I believe he has found a very origional documentary idea mixed in with some incredible cinematography. This gives another perspective on gender transformations by basing it on someone from a third world country where i...

Getting to Glasgow was the other side of the country. Lucky, staying in Yorkshire meant me and Jack wouldn't have so far to travel on shoot days. However, this was still three hours from our lodging so we still had to set off at 5:00am. We were more than use to this having traveled for morning shoots all week. Medium shot on Blackmagic URSA Mini. This can also be cropped into a close up as it was shot in UHD. Lens: 50mm ISO: 200 Shutter Speed:1/60 Kelvin: 6000 Frame Rate: 25 FPS Wide shot on Blackmagic Production Cinema. Lens: 24mm ISO: 200 Shutter Speed: 1/60 Kelvin: 2000 Frame Rate: 25 FPS Floor Plan/Interview Setuup: What Went Well  The shoot went well overall and after travelling a long way to reach Allan Jamieson we got everything we wanted. We set off very early in order to make it to Glasgow form Yorkshire which took nearly 7hours. We made it in time. The location wasn't as ncie as it could be and was the best of all the roo...

Our interview qith Jan wen't a lot better than expected. Because her son is still in prison on probation reaching the end of his sentence, it could have been difficult getting all the informaiton in an interview from her. Luckly, when we arrived Jan was more than obliging and happy to answer all our quesitons. It was especially interesting listening to her talk about a suicide pact she had with her son. Wide Shot on Blackmagic Production Cinema. Lens: 35mm ISO: 200 Shutter Speed: 1/60 Kelvin: 2000 Frame Rate: 25 FPS Close Up Shot on URSA Mini Lens: 50mm ISO: 200 Shutter Speed:1/60 Kelvin: 6000 Frame Rate: 25 FPS The shoot setup time took around 50minutes which was longer than usual. However, it was mainly due to the location we were shooting in. Unfortunately, the recce took longer than expected in finding the right room. We needed nice depth to create the look we have been aiming for. Jan had previously informed us on the phone she had a piano which ...

Today we filmed Jans interview and because we were able to arrive early morning we had completed the shoot by 1:00. In order to make the most of our shoot day we returned to Jacks grandparents in Yorkshire and I couldn't help notice in his garage he had a stepladder. It did somewhat remind me of Eddies garage and I suggested to jack we film in there. Initially we were going to source one elsewhere but because we had time to setup and all the equipment with us it made sense to make the most of what was available to us. The shoot was an overall success and really did help aid what Eddie says in his interview. Setitng up the shoot was a case of turning the garage lights off and adding additional lighting from the Rota Light to create a cinematice aesthetic. For a quick setup run-gun film shoot it turned out quite successful. We were able to supply rope and after watching some tutorials on YouTube on how to tie a noose, Jack was able to create something that at least resempled one. I...

Eddie Gilfoyls interview was fundimental to our project, and so on our second day of filming we headed to cheshire to conduct our interview. The locaiton details were strictly confidential due to Eddies disposition as he is still under probation, meaning that he is still under watch fromt eh police despite his innocence. It is an interview that needed a lot of sencetivity and we needed to be careful when dealing with Eddie. He has suffered such trauma and the last thing myself wanted to do is trigger too many flashbacks. It was importasnt to still get his story across as well as possible and in many ways the more detail the better but we didn't want to push him too far and we needed to gradually ease him in with the questions. Something we really wanted to get across was the appeal process and how it works, somehting we would be speaking to Jerry Hayes about as well for that professional insight into the police appeal process. They refused to re-appeal eddies case due to lack of ...

Today we shot in the gallery in order to produce an effective opening for our documentary. In the true Netflix style, we wanted a montage of videos and news clips projected onto many televisions. Being based in a television studio, we had a strong advantage to use the gallery facilities for free as a result of this, something which would usually cost a lot of money given they are studio facilities. The first stage was to plan how this could come across effectively to what I had initially planned in the pre-production unit. I had a clear vision of what I wanted, but it was going to be difficult to actually produce. We brainstormed some ideas of what would be best and the first was to project each individual video on the screens. However, for continuity, it would be difficult getting different shots. This is a image I photoshoped to see rougly what the title screens would look like with news reports in the pre-production unit. I did this to give myself a rough, visual idea of what...

Because me and Jack have big plans to take this documentayr futher after university, it is important to ensure we own the rights to muse interview footage and that talent/contributors are aware that we do have the right to use this in whatever way we like (provided nothing is taken out of context). This prevents issues later down the line when taking to film festivals etc. As said by Anthony Artist in his book: The Shut Up and Shoot Documentary Guide. "It's crucial ot get a signed talent release form from your subject. These forms give you legal permission to use the persons physical likeness and voice for your project. It's always a smart practice to get releases signed before the interview." (Artis, 2012). These will br brought to every shoot for contributors to sign. References: Artis, A. (2012). The shut up and shoot. Amsterdam: Elsevier/Focal Press.

Peter Jones was our first interview shoot and overall I was pleased with the way this came out. The initial setup wasn't easy as the room was difficult to work with. However, after research recceing the location myself and Jack realized that the lack of depth would be an issue. We spoke to Peter on the phone asking him about the location and he described it as a 'Blanc Canvas' which wasn't actually great news for us. For the shots, we wanted we really needed to show what his practice was. Locations can be a big giveaway. In preparation for this, Jack and I brought along a bookshelf with some props such as books and a plant to give a nice depth of field and also give a little bit away about his profession as mental health in prisoners expert. We had a long Journey there but we finally reached him on time and began setting up for his interview. Once we had the camera set up it was clear the room needed more depth of field, it was just as well we brought along the shelf an...

Today was a chance to test shoot an interview setup now we have our two cameras. It was important to ensure both cameras give off a similar look, otherwise, the footage would look very odd. It was therefore improtant to establish not only where cameras would be positioned, but how the settings differ. I noticed that with the produciton cinema the iso was limeted to 200, 400 and 800. The whitebalance was also limited whereas the URSA had customisable presets and auto whitebalance. Below is some of the test shoot footage: One of the biggest issues with one of our shoot locaitons was how it would look aesthetically on camera and how it didn't have a visual giveaway into what the person does. This was with our prisoners mental health expert Peter Jones. He is a great contributor and has a lot of valid, useful and interesting things to say, and I believe he can bring a lot to our docuementary. I did attempt several times to shoot in his office at home but had no luck and so we we...

In order to film in a court room to get some cutaway GV's we needed to contact HRMP Media team. This process was lengthy but thankfully our University had public liability forms which was required for this particular shoot. Having never actually been asked for these before I was suprised, but it had taught me that it is important to always make sure you have the liability and insirrence, something we often take for granted when filming. I contacted a few placesd to get information form the government website and it lead me to phone the Medway Courts. They told me to email South East RSU with the subject 'Diary' and give them the details of the request and they would be able to help me out. I sent the email off and recieved a responce the same day. Below is the email exchanges between myself and the RSU. After a lot of the back and forth emailing, me and jack decided to walk into Maidstone COurt to see if we could speak to anyone there. We were lucky en ough to speak to...

Another potential interview we had in mind was actually a friend of Jerry Hayes'. He is Boob Neil the  head of parliaments justice commitee and to have an interview with him would help establish what is going on with the criminal justice system and why it has recieved so much critacism. However, despite contacting via email and eventually phone we were asusred by his assistent we would hear back. Unfortunately due to current problems with Brexit, Bob was very busy with that and this wasn't the right timing for him. It was a long shot anyway and as it turned out we didn't desperately need him as we already had a fair few interviews for this documentary. It would have been a nice addition but this sort of thing doesn't always pay off. 

Interview Checklist: A checklist of equipment was fundimental plannign for this project. We needed this because we had so much equipment with us on location and we wanted to be really careful not to leave any of it behind. The checklist was a document I had to hand on the ipad and I would tick items off at the start of a shoot and again at the end to make sure we left with what we came in with.

Today I phoned around some contributors to get their full confirmaition for filming. Due to their professions, they are called to court hearings frequently and sometimes at the last minute. Whilst we had Professor Alan Jamieson on board and booked in to film an interview on 25th Feb in Glasgow. This was far away for us to travel bieng the other end of the country and we don't want to travel there on a maybe. It was therefore important to have a backup solution a bit closer to Kent. We still wanted Alan Jamieson as he is better suited to what we are talking about and has more knowlege of our proposed case studies. However, it is always worth planning a backup if unsure about anything. As it turned out we didn't need this as we got a real confirmation from Professor Jamieson.

I organised the filmign schedule in two sepeare blocks as we had a lot of filming to complete. The best way for me to configure this was to color code it and have the date and times done in blocks. For example, with the Peter Jones interview I highlighted green and had it start at 9:00am. This is the time we would set off and then when we would estimate arrival times it would be a darker shade of green. I wanted to do this so we knew exactly where we were for time as often the travel time was longer than the shoot time as we were usually travelling a long distance in the car or via train. Then with the recreations/GVs the same would apply but the color would be orange to let me know it was a GV/recreation shoot day. I also scheduled in a couple of days test shooting which allowed us to get use to the equipment, more specifically use two cameras I hadn't previously picked up before. I also thought this would be a good idea so we could pull together a rough setup plan for shooti...

Pre-Production: Project Brief Draft 1 Updated Production Brief:

Today myself and Jack have gone through our entire runnign order for thsi docuemntary and found ways to ammend and chnage the way it is put across. Origionally we wanted to have Liam as a presenter, but having spoken to Simon and evaluated what this documentary was trying to achieve, we found it may be bette rto use our three contributors to our advantage. Below are some notes made when brainstorming our ideas: Developing our ideas futher has been adventagious in refreshing our minds on this project and back our idea and reason behind making it. We read through our script again. Simon wondered why we had people like our female barrister when they aren't related to the case, however I feel keeping her on board would be useful for a new perspecitve, young eyes ont he jusdicial system and believe she has a lot to say on the matter, Liams case especially. We were previosuly told to not just have people directly linked to that case which was our initial reason for finding her ...

Today, Jack and I decided to give Jan Cunliff a call to co firm her interview date and just run over a few things. We did ask if she thought Jordan would be willing to speak in our documentary but she immediately rejected the idea as Jordan wants to remain anomalous and start again as he is near the end of his sentence and looks nothing like he did when he was a kid. This is completely understandable and we fully respect Jordans wishes to not speak. We could have potentially pushed for an anomalous blackout interview similar to what we test shot but realized that pushing so much can cause more issues and potentially even lose the contributors trust and with such a sensitive subject it wasn't fair to keep pursuing, especially when Jan was so adamant. Losing Jan as a contributor would be detrimental to our documentary. Besides from this, I believe seeing the justice system failings through a mother's eyes creates a different understanding, especially when Jan is fighting so hard ...

A lot has changed since the pre-production unit in terms of the filming. Since we have decided to not have Liam as a narrator to walk us through the documentary, we decided to have just interviews carry the documentary. As a result of this, the shot list has now changed and I wanted to have a rough plan with me on locations in case I get stuck or forget any nice shot ideas whilst shooting. The reason for this is that it is good practice to do so.

After speaking to Sam Creamer today to get a professional DoP's ingiht into how to compose a professional interview, I feel I have a greater understanging and better knowlege on how to compose a good interview, and there is definitely a skill to it. This made me refer back to previous external 'Project Walk to Talk' where I was asking Ben the questions of something that was a really sencetive topic and given he wasn't use to being interviewed he was understandably going to be nervous. Soemthing Sam said was to make sure that we stand in ourselves when setting up for an interview rather than using the actual interviewee. If they are nervous already then sitting them in front of bright lights whilst making constant adjustments means they have mroe tiem fro nervoiusness to build up and it feels more intimidating or to soemone who isn't use to televison or being interviewd it could look unprofessional. (Creamer, 2019) People who have been will understand this is standar...

In Organising this documentary, we contacted a mental health in prisones expert. Origionally we were going to interivew Tammy Walker, who sadly dropped out due to her own work commitments. However, Peter was a leading expert in his field being the founder of the CiPN (Councelling in Prisons Network). This Network was the first to actually go into prisons to give the inmates councilling and has since grown. Peter would be a great contributor to interview and after Jack discussed all the details with him on the phone, I sent a corrisponding email with the details and dates. We set on shooting him on the Monday in Dorset.