Major Project: Production | DoP | Editor Statement

Everyone has the right to a fair trial, but just how fair is Britain's judicial system?

Assumed Guilty is an investigative documentary, exploring the flaws in Britains Judicial system, speaking to those who have suffered the most. The documentary will have a through line of experts discussing the pressing issues and detailing what the contributors talk about. The beginning will introduce each of the people, the middle will include where their trial went wrong and the psychological/mental health impact and will end at the Innovation of Justice conference where all of our contributors are brought together.

Assumed Guilty investigates why three different cases which all eventually become similar in more ways than one. Cases include errors where crucial evidence has not been investigated by the police, or even brought to the attention of the prosecution. All rape prosecutions are now being reviewed after the collapse of trials like Liam Allans. There are too many cases where disclosure has affected cases; the system simply must do better. 

The original concept for Assumed Guilty came from the Pre-Production unit when I foudn Liams story on an interview with ITV's This Morning. Since then it has been a huge journey for us and when focusing on the subject we have found mroe and more cases, adn met several interesting individuals at Liams Innovation Of Justice Conference in November which we filmed to test shoot, research and also meet individuals. From this we got in touch with two other people whos stories stood out to us and it all spiralled from there.

Me and Jack both agreed Netflix was our target and the concept behind the cases very much fit into their platform and what they usually broadcast: (https://georgewing42.blogspot.com/2018/10/pre-production-why-netflix.html). A lot of the inspiration for me came from watching their documentaries like Making A Murderer and Time: The Kalief Browder Story. The way the stories are told and the way they are shot and edited has really stood out to me and inspired my own filmmaking.

Assumed Guilty opens with an archive police press conference from Jordans case, where the police are alleged to have made an example of the boys as youth drinking alcohol was a problem in the Warrington area at the time. It then goes into introducign the background of her story from a mothers perspective. We then meet Liam and are introduced though archive where all these news reports are discussing his case on various television screens in a gallery. This is something that was specifically inspried from TIME: The Kalief Browder Story. I really highlighted this in my origional DoP/Editors statement. We then have Liam introduce the day he was arrested and how it felt before moving onto Eddies introduction and then the details of his case. Whilst this section then focuses on Eddie, we need to learn about his case and not break away from it. If you break away by bringing Liam in the audience will lose engagement. We tested other alternatives but this seemed to work the best and as editor I was satisfied with this decision. We then hear the details of Jans case discussign her son being blind and then futher into Liams with the text messages being withheld. These seemingly different cases then begin to merge together through trauma, impact mentally and stigma which is carried along by prisoner of mental health psycologist Peter Jones. We end on the Innovaiton of Justice conference where all these three individuals are put togehter in the same room to speak and stasnd together; a powerful, impactful ending. 

Shoot Style

The lighting will be natural to make it seem realistic, but also quite tense. High-key lighting is the desire for creating the cin-ematic feel. This type of lighting is often used in interviews everything is usually lit in a way to create more of a shadow on the opposite side. The natural lighting throughout the window can aid the desired look, but extra equipment might be needed in order to achieve the look in an effective way. The bright lighting will keep the show looking bright, aiding the realistic and relatable aspect of the show.

Interviews were shot with two cameras; The Blackmagic URSA mini 4k and The Blackmagic Production Cinema. This was accompanied by a three-point lighting setup. Recreations would involve two cameras: The URSA for the static shots and the Production Cinema for gimbal shtos as it was the right size to fit the DJI gimbal. This was a really nice combination.




I have taken inspiration from Jonathan Young and his style of interviews with shallow depth of field and a moving background. Even with the conference this looks effective as it seperates the subject from the background and keeps them at the point of focus which is where they should be in their part.

The styel and quality is futher maintained in the reconstructions by shooting them in film log. The gimbal really helped bring this togehter at times, especially when tracking the feet walking in the street etc for Jans reconstruction. This was also achieved with the lighting style, which was varied from 1-2 points of lighting depending on the shots. In order to give it a realistic feel I wanted to ensure there were streetlights to give this raw-natural feel.

Edit Style

The colour of the show was used to be place emphasis on the colour orange. I want the colours to have dark shades of blue or teal, against the bright orange tones that will come across from the skin tones. This was my intention from my origional pre-production statement and is something I have consistantly stuck to.

This grading technique uses a combination of adjustment layers; Hue/Saturation, Curves, Levels and Solid Color Fill. The LUT I used was Fuji XT-3 which worked effectively for most clips including interviews and reconstructions as well as the Innovation of Justice conference.  Liams interview is somethign I kept fairly blue with harsh shaddows to empasise the gallery location and to also address the idea of wanting to be 'out of the spotlight'. He has been thrown into this situation with all this media attention which is a huge responsibility and one huge one for a lad of his age to take on.

Music is used to aid the documentary, but it doesnt overpower it and this si something I was very set on when it came to watching the clips in sequence. My initial intention was to have more dramatic music with raised levels but from speaking to Beth from Margate Films and various other people I soon realised that the stories should speak for themselves. You dont want to over-dramatise as it becomes sensationalist.

To fully achieve the cinematic look I will also had to stabilise any handheld footage if any is at all shaky. Like with Liam outside the Royal Courts. I had tested all the various warp stabilisers in Premier Pro and After Effects in the Pre-Production unit and established After Effects does it best.

To Conclude
Assumed Guilty was a project produced by just me and Jack from the beginning of this academic year and has now developed into something that I am very pleased with. I feel we have stayed true to our origional aims for the documentary and kept its style and feel consistent. This embeded with the stories which are both thought provoking and enggiging has made this not only interesting ot watch but also interesting to work on and research. This has really made me ralise that documentary making is where my heart lies and is somehting I hope to take futher inindustry once graduated.