Red Bus Productions

Week One:

• Introduction to the Multi-Media Project module.
• Within the lecture we watched some of last year's documentaries to see what we have to do to make our own documentaries successful. We found that the best documentaries gave audiences' an insight they have never seen before.
• After the lecture I started reading the yola guides and had a group meeting to discuss ideas for our documentaries as well as come up with ideas for our production name.

Week Two:

• We began to look at the beginning of photojournalism and the different documentary genres (Docufiction, Ethnofiction, Docudrama, Mockumentary and Mondo film) as well as the categories of documentary (Poetic, Expository, Observational, Participatory, Reflexive, Performative and Political Reflexivity).
• We looked at Henri-Cartier-Bresson, Capa and Rodgers who were part of the Magnum agency. Also, we discussed 'The decisive Moment', where the images were taken without any thought or reason for the meaning.
• In addition to this, we also looked at Bresson's theories: Natural (not looking at the camera), No Stagging (instant imaging) and No Agendas (no politics). 
• After the lecture, I continued researching our initial ideas.

Week Three:

• Training on the Canon 450D.
• We learnt the different visula techniques that we should use while we are taking photos: Exaggerating Reality-Emotions (imbuing images with atmosphere), Breaking Edges (keeping the image moving), Foreground Vs Background (horizon lines giving a journey feel and separating the subject from the action in the background), Depths of "Reality" Fields (breaking the subject from the event), Shuttering "Reality" (stopping the event or keeping the event going and isolating the event from the movement), Above and Below the subject or event (angles on movement and creating depth), and Minimalism Vs Clutter (filling the foreground, use centre point locations and shock tactics).

Week Four:

• I went out to take some photos in Fleet for my photo essay.
• The camera training from the previous week really helped me understand how to take good visual photographs.
• Also, as a group we started creating our yola site for our production group.

Week Five:

• We had advanced Photoshop training using RAW processing.
• RAW is currently the highest quality of digital image processing, most modern digital professional cameras contain RAW settings.
• I learnt that Photoshop has its own built-in RAW processing facility, which has many of the same image settings as controls but it is more advanced and specific to the RAW image settings.
• We also learnt the DPI's for the different mediums: Television has a standard 72 DPI, HD has a 600 DPI, Online images have a 350 DPI and Reuters have a 320 DPI.
• After the lecture, I uploaded my photos through my Flixr account.

Week Six:

• This week we had advanced camera training with the Sony PD170 which gave us a re-cap on how to work the camers profesionally.
• Plus, within the lecture we discussed how regional production companies have changed over time due to technology and society changing too.
• Afterwards, within the coming week my group and I meet up to discuss what we will be saying when we propose our documentary idea.

Week Seven:

• Within the lecture we went through what we had to include within our presentation, for example we have to give a detail of the main project and the supporting promotional material. Supporting material could include a twitter and facebook account, film poster and a film website.
• At the beginning of our presentation we need to be entertaining so that we can grab our audience's attention.
• We also went into depth our individal assessment, which has to be between 1000 and 1500 words.
• We watched a few more documentaries and discussed visual signatures and experts in more depth, as well as, breathing and fillers.
• After the lecture we carried on with the website and talking about starting to contact people who might like to be involved in our documentary.

Week Eight:

• Within this week's lecture we had training on Final Cut Pro on the Apple Macs so that we have had training on Adobe Premiere Pro as well as Final Cut Pro.
• We started with the basic training such as, putting a sequence of shots together which narrates the story.

• We looked at how to make a good interview; a talk-over interview is where the film-maker warms-up the subject for a main question which should be asked about three-quaters of the way through the interview.
• Also, when asking the subject questions you should start with their past then present and ask about their future at the end, so it is like a timeline.
• We looked at Nick Broomfield and Herzog who film documentaries in different ways. Nick Broomfield is more of the 'old school' documentary style of film-making, where he is behind the camera and lets the subject(s) talk.

Week Ten:

• Within week ten we carried on with our final cut pro training, where we learnt how to use text creatively within our film sequence.
• In addition to this, we were shown how to create a name banner which is used when you are editing an interview so that the audience can see who the film-maker is interviewing.

Week Eleven:

• In this week's lecture, my group and I presented our documentary in front of our lecture class as well as our lecturer.
• From the feedback we were given; we know where we need to go next to make our documentary gripping for the audience. For example, if we could find a family or one person who is really preparing themsleves for the end of the world, we could film the way they are orgainzing themselves and how far they are willing to go to try  and prepare themselves.

PFD files from my lectures: 

These PDF files have helped me while I have been extending my ablity  within photoshop, final cut pro and photography. They give a detail anaylsis of how to take visually and techniquically intervesting photographs as well as how to edit my photos to make them more eye grabbing.

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