Individual Analysis...                                                                                                                                  Back >>> 

For this project, my main role was sound engineer/technician as I had a lot of experience in this role last year, and my work came out to a very professional standard, but for the website it was mainly doing further research, helping our group to develop the documentary from aesthetic and technical aspects.

When we started to build the website, I came up with a lot of ideas for our company name and identity logo. One of my favourites was ‘Phantom’, which comes from a detective drama that I am very into. However, there was a company very similar to this already. After talking about our ideas and going through what we liked and did not like, we finally decided to use ‘Rugulent’, which we came to decide meant ‘rough but elegant’.

For the website background, I suggested to the producer to use abstract painting which fit with the company name, and Graeme suggested a painting called ‘optimism pessimism’ which within the image had shapes like the letters R and P which suited our company name perfectly.

As for the initial ideas for our project, I had to come up with main three ideas. However, I mainly focused on my first idea, which was to do with the issues of Chinese students studying in the U.K.

The reason why I decided to run with this topic was that this subject was one that was very close to me, and the issues raised within it are easily associated with my own experiences. That is my artistic identity; it allows me to show and express the personal feelings I have about this particular area of study.

In the primary research, I looked in to the representations of the subject in different media, such as- similar documentary films, news convey of the Telegraph, statistic data from Prospects etc. Thus, getting a clear perspective on which issues should be reproduced in the documentary film should we run with that idea. 

On the secondary research I did, I concentrated on deeper issues amongst the Chinese students, and my ideation enhancing processes were based on my own and others personal journals, Internet sources and friend’s stories. In my own journal, I took down notes when I realised the things that were happening to me and around me were vitally significant to my area of interest.

When I investigated the topics on the Internet, I selected the ones with sources, which I felt to be more reliable and less subjective. The Guidance article gave me a good starting point to extend my initial idea, while the documentary trailer showed me a clear structure and aesthetic style. What is more, the radio programme outlined the basic issues that I missed, and the photography inspired me to shoot images for the idea.    

At the group meeting, my group were appreciative about the idea I presented, and we had several discussions about contacting suitable primaries and filming locations. But after having tutorial with our lecturer, we were informed that it is a repetitive subject, as there were similar projects from other students, so it would make the audience feel aesthetically fatigued. As for the final idea, we attempted to run the idea of dog show and dog competition.

During the pre-production, I mainly worked on the aesthetic research and technical design, and made strategic planning, in order to get a premeditated plan for next semester. As for the aesthetic research, I focused on documentary styles and watched a variety of sample documentaries and tried to write critical reviews. ‘Man Bites Dogs’, which is a typical mockumentary film was one that I covered. The techniques that were used completely shocked me, because it made me rethink of the truth of documentary.

As well as that, I also did some theory research about direct cinema, which is a typical observational approach. Our documentary will be observational as well, so it will gives us a clear direction when we start to think about our own documentary style.

In terms of technical research, I aimed at look up audio software. As my role for the documentary sound design I aimed at enhancing my audio, even though I have little work to do during this semester. I found that the audition program would help our documentary have good quality sound. As a sound designer, I have the responsibility to know and understand how to use the audio equipment well.

During my research, I gained a better understanding of them all. I used to think that the equipment was simple to use, and that I didn’t have to learn it, but the technical research I did advanced my technical knowledge.  I found that it would be also very beneficial to the quality of our documentary project as sound is key.

Obviously, with a large sized group, there will be disagreements and miscommunications amongst the group members. 

To be honest, the time management we had was pretty terrible, and the group meetings that were taken were inefficient and unmotivated. We did not create a proper production schedule, which meant that all the work was left to the last minute and only one or two members were working solidly on it.

Our pitch presentation and trailer were a good example of that. The music of the trailer was not used properly and consistently, and the PowerPoint slide did not explain what we would be doing. This is because we did not dedicate much time on preparing the pitch as we ran out of time. To combat these issues, we had a serious meeting straight after the pitch session and discussed what we had missed. We also spoke about our problems, to obtain fresh viewpoints and make sure that each member had a fair say.

When it came to my personal duties of our pitch, I focused on defining the documentary mode, locating the style of our documentary, and talking about how our documentary will be in an observational mode. It is vitally significant that it tells our audiences what our documentary is about, and it would help our group to think carefully about how we address our subject matter at the pre-production stages of our documentary.

However, it was an unsuccessful pitch presentation, due to the poor teamwork and time management. We tended to work alone when preparing the presentation, and failed to see the importance of cooperation. This is something that we aim to solve next semester.

Overall, I feel motivated and stimulated when I contribute to website work, but I feel that everything needs to be much more motivated in our next semester. Additionally, I have learned many things from this project, especially from the Producer Jess.  

She taught me how to manipulate the technical software and gave me support on my individual works. From her job, I realised how hard it is to manage a group so that it works efficiently, and how difficult it is to address the problem between each members.