Documentary Post-Production!

The first interview I conducted was with Dr Dacombe, this took place at her house (it wasn’t possible to be filmed in her GP practice due to not having permission from the British Medical Council to film there). At first, she looked directly at the camera (because I was stood over it) but when I moved further away she was able to relax and answer the questions more naturally. Myself and Matthew set up the tripod however after looking at the footage it seems too low; the framing was fine but the subject, Dr Dacombe, is looking too high (at where I was).  This could have been resolved if someone was physically behind the camera checking how the scene looked when filming and since I was asking the questions I could not do both; this is something I have learnt and will remember for the future. Matthew was the boom operator and sound technician – we used quite a large, well furnished room which meant there was little chance for echo or ambient distortion and the sound that was recorded was great and useable. 

I conducted the interview with the parents of Baby E in their home living room; I chose this location as it was an informal and comfortable location suited to the couple sharing details about their child's condition and dealing with it. The overall interview went really well; at first the couple were giggly and not focused because of being filmed however they calmed down and we were able to conduct the interview. Baby E was calm sitting on her mother's knee throughout, she did not disrupt the interview only making typical baby noises which added to the natural feel of the film. I used stable natural light from the window, seating the contributors so that the light source was from the side but not shining directly onto their faces, this was done so that the documentary can look professional. One unforeseen challenge was that I had to record with the camera on charge (prior to the interview I filmed some cutaways of Baby E to use and as such the camera battery was low); by filming with the camera on charge a background 'white noise' or low level electric hum can be heard and as I am unable to re film the interview I will try and fix the sound in post-production.

For this documentary I collected a range of clips and photographs, some from the parents (mainly photographs documenting Baby E’s early months) and some filmed by myself. There is an inconsistency in the quality and style of the shots as some were filmed on the college's DSLR, some were filmed with the college's Sony SD camera (those filmed in the 2 days I had use of the camera) and some were filmed on personal cameras. The main challenge was that those filmed on my personal cameras weren't as high quality, there were instances of some footage slipping in & out of focus and some of the shots were grainy. Because of this a number of them were unusable therefore limiting the range and variety of shots I had to draw on. Also, a number of ideas I had planned to film could not take place or be used as Baby E was uncooperative - being either tired or upset; this is something I took into consideration when planning which is why I had a number of days set aside for filming. (Children & babies can not always be expected to ‘act’ on cue, an experience I had learned while making my Christmas advert starring my two young cousins).

On one of the main days of planned shooting I had an issue with lighting; filming was taking place in the late afternoon on a grey, dark day therefore artificial lighting needed to be used, however the light I had available was not quite strong enough resulting in some shots on my personal camera going in and out of focus.  There was also a dull yellow/orange tint meaning many of these shots could not be mixed into the overall project. Unlike their photos, I sadly could not use any video footage the parents had collected as this was filmed on their mobile phones in portrait aspect meaning they couldn't be added to the overall film (which was to be published in 16:9) without the need for black bars to fill the space.  This would have interrupted the flow of the film cutting between portrait and landscape and would have made the documentary look less professional. I managed to record some footage of Baby E going swimming using my GoPro, I spoke to the location in advance who gave permission for footage to be recorded only of those in our party, providing I did not film anyone else – this meant I was able to use the great footage of Baby E kicking and enjoying the water. 

I sorted the footage into bins - one for interview footage, one for photos collected from the parents and took by myself on the DSLR, one for the GoPro swimming footage, one for shots of Baby E, one for shots relating to her feet and boots and bars and one bin for the shots I deemed unusable.

I started editing by importing the main interviews and cutting them into the separate questions/answers; I decided to start with Dr Dacombe introducing herself and explaining the nature and background of the condition of talipes.  I used a jump-cut to remove me asking the question, and whilst it is slightly noticeable as her head moves I tried to keep any stutter as minimal as possible. I then added the parents' introduction about themselves and Baby E so the audience would know who everyone was early in the film.  Overtop of the dialogue I used cutaways of photographs to illustrate what was being discussed - in this interview photos of Baby E in SCBU (Special Care Baby Unit).  To break up the questions I used footage and photographs timed to the background music I had chosen.

The answers to my questions all followed a similar format of including relevant footage and photographs while the contributors are talking. When conducting the interview with Dr Dacombe there was only one question I did not ask.  This was because during the prep time she had admitted to not knowing the answer in detail and, as we both wanted her contribution to be as accurate as possible we agreed that a part answer could be construed as being incorrect – I felt this was really important both to ensure Dr Dacombe felt she could trust me and to protect the integrity of the documentary – as the producer I needed to ensure the accuracy and reputation of the content was of paramount importance.

When editing the parents' interview I had some challenges in completely editing out all of my questions - some of the parents’ answers did not directly reference the question meaning their comments could be confusing to the audience. Some of the questions I had asked through passive listening were cut as they were not relevant;  some were to do with Baby E's time in SCBU and one in particular was about how physiotherapy worked (although part of her life, physiotherapy is not always suggested for babies with talipes and as I wanted to try and keep the documentary relatable to all parents of children with this condition I resolved to only include the main treatment information and details). Since some of the questions were asked to both contributors I was able to cut some of what each said so that the information could be given without it being repeated. 

When I had the skeleton framework and layout of the documentary sequence I needed to try and fix the sound from the parents' interview. I used the internet to search for a solution and found suggestions to use a noise reduction effect.  I tried to find the best sound and whilst through headphones the ‘power hum’ does not sound good, playing it out loud it is less noticeable. I will use this as a learning experience and remember for next time I'm filming.

After I had most of the questions edited I chose a song for the introduction and to sit underneath the question and answer breaks.  I found an upbeat song with a good tempo and clear beat that leant itself to edit to; it feels like footsteps, reminding me of a baby walking and is very fitting for the documentary which is all about feet. I purposefully chose royalty free music so that I could upload the video onto YouTube without any copyright or licence issues.

I asked Kelly to review the first cut of Footprints and I made changes based on her feedback.  One was to make the music fade in and out underneath the dialogue so that it doesn't immediately come in after the speaking ends.  Another change was to make the images and video cutaways fade in and out so that there wasn't a harsh/sudden cut, especially as some images had used a white border to make up the extra space around them. I fine edited the shots and checked all the photos so that they were of the best quality possible but I also accepted that part of the feel of the film was to show how the parents were recording their baby’s journey, using their own photos taken on mobile phones. 

I have permission and will upload the video to YouTube and then send to people with a questionnaire (compiled on Survey Monkey) so that I can have feedback from the target audience. I will also upload the video to a number of Facebook pages and groups about talipes which will have the biggest selection of my target audience.  After receiving the audience feedback I will write up the results and post my overall conclusion of the project.