BVA703 Research - S2 Week 6

 

14/08/2020

Film workshop with Raj Patel

Things that I learned from Raj

• Most DOPs operate, not light or are proficient in Steadicam in New Zealand
• There are two types of film stock; tungsten and daylight.
• Winter is the best time to shoot in New Zealand because the sun will be at a low angle. 
• Alexa has a Tight follow focus and you can sharpened the focus in the viewfinder to suit your eye sight
• LUT is good to people unfamiliar with Camera jargon to give them an idea of the finished look 

We spent the afternoon doing a boot camp type of filming exercise in the RAW gallery. I volunteer to AD, but with my social difficulties associated to my autism (poor read of social cues and limited communication from myself), it was very difficult for me to do my job well as an AD. Eventually, I switched to being production assistant, but I had nothing to do. The exercise was depressing in my view.

I collected a few stock footage clips and images that are related to the subject or based on what I have in mind for my documentary. They were mainly images from Pexels and Creative Commons protected footage from YouTube.

15/08/2020

I got my mind into focus properly today and did work on editing my documentary. I started by editing James Shaw talking about climate change. I cut segments where he abruptly mentions the March 2019 climate strike, a generational change in farmer's perspective on clean green practice, the effect of emissions from the past 30 years of farming in New Zealand, political reluctance in taking effective climate action.

I then started making cuts to Ashleigh's interview. It's quite long and so I only got half way of cutting the first take today, in which I got worn out by then. My aim was to cut segments that can work in telling the story and I sometimes re-arranged the order based on her answers and they fitted the narrative.

17/08/2020

ScreenSafe. (2020). Small crew COVID-19 guidelines. https://screenguild.co.nz/resources/SS%20Department%20Guide_SMALL%20CREW_Level%202_28th%20May.pdf

ScreenSafe. (2020). COVID-19 Standard for New Zealand screen sector operations. https://screenguild.co.nz/resources/ScreenSafe%20COVID-19%20Standards%20ScreenSafe_V1.5-WSNZendorsed.pdf

ScreenSafe. (2020). COVID-19 Health and safety protocols for the New Zealand screen sector. https://screenguild.co.nz/resources/ScreenSafe%20COVID-19%20Protocols_Level2_V1.3._2nd_Junepdf.pdf

I started to look into covid-19 guidelines for filming in New Zealand as a way to shoot in the event that level 2 is extended. I now plan to shoot next Wednesday, which at this stage is when level 2 ends. I have contacted both Caleb and Rhys, whom are still keen to be involved, especially on the new date of filming. I will developing a covid-19 health and safety plan for the shoot based on information that I have read from ScreenSafe today. There is even guidelines for small film crews like for my production.

I want to complete the health and safety plan before I get in contact with Nathan Gill again. The health and safety plan will also included in the call sheets

Health and safety plan (so far)

I will have face masks, rubber gloves, and sanitizer for myself and the film crew

With the PPE worn, Social distancing between the crew and interview participants will be at least one metre.

Myself and the film crew must sneeze or cough into elbow if it happens

All crew members must sign a waiver that they are in good health

Have a contact tracing form for the interview participants

Encourage film crew to download tracer app and if they have one, bring their SIT hi-vis vest.

A boom pole might be used to record sound if it's practically possible

18/08/2020

I looked back at the ScreenSafe covid-19 health and safety information and there's nothing much more to add other than the exact social distancing and the possibility of using a boom pole for recording sound like 1 News and overseas media outlets had done during the lockdown.

Bray, G. (2020, April 6). Journalists under increasing pressure to be safe amid coronavirus pandemic - 'The mouthpiece of the public like never before'. 1 News. https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/journalists-under-increasing-pressure-safe-amid-coronavirus-pandemic-mouthpiece-public-like-never-before

'Mark it wide, but shoot it tight'

I also found a contract tracing template for film productions from ScreenSafe which could be good to use. I also produced an individual covid-19 waiver based from a talent release form. The information required in the waiver is no different than that of a contact tracing form.

19/08/2020

I heard back from Stuff.

Stuff will allow me to use their footage on the condition that I pay a $125 license fee (plus GST) and sign a perceptual multimedia license agreement. I reviewed my budget and believe there is wiggle room for me to afford this piece of footage from Stuff.

I read the multimedia license agreement carefully. It consists stating that they still own the copyright, I must be careful about how I store or make copies of their content, this agreement does not also include individual release of those included in the content, I must not defame or do anything to ruin Stuff's reputation by using their content in my documentary, Stuff can terminate this agreement at any time or for any reason, If I am to use their content again for something else, then I have to pay the fee again and sign another agreement, Stuff is fully protected against liability, and there will be no refund of the license fee once it has been 48 hours after the fee has been paid.

I manage to cut Guyton's interview from seven and a half minutes to two minutes and 13 seconds.

At one point in Ashleigh's interview, she states that the movement was acknowledged widely by many MPs in the parliamentary readings of the zero carbon bill. I read through the transcripts of the reading on the Parliament and found that it was mentioned by six MPs (1 National, 3 Labour, 1 NZ First, 1 Greens) and the Prime Minister. 

I will contact Parliamentary Services about using their footage once I know for certain that it will be used in my cuts, just to be on the safe side.

I transcribed the interviews to remind myself what each cut consists of to make the editing easier and when organizing the narrative.

Ashleigh's interview

Take 1

C1 - Views on leadership in the climate strikes

C2 - Ashleigh being a performer

C3 - What Ashleigh does in her spare time

C4 - Friends and connections made from being involved

C5 - Invercargill as a city

C6 - How she joined the movement

C7 - How locals and herself view Greta Thunberg

C8 - Her views on Thunberg

C9 - Her views on climate deniers

C10 / C11 - Her views on climate change

C12 - Origins of her interests in climate change

C13 - Working as a climate strike organizer

C14 - Ditching school in order to do organizing for the climate strike

C15 - Organizing the climate strikes. Health and safety involved

C16 - Process of organising climate strikes in Invercargill. Less enthusiasm from Southlanders compared to anywhere else

C17 - No drama within the local team

C18 - Told off by H&J Smith for flooding a street

C19 - Zoom calls in communicating with other regional teams and they get along. Like-mindedness

C20 - How March strike went in Invercargill

C21 - School's response to March strike and the school's neutrality

C22 - Bright side of the school's neutrality. Demands from other schools, angry emails from local school principals and parents, and workplaces and universities were later openly supportive

C23 - Her view on Enoch

C24 - Her view on Enoch standing up to Tim Shadbolt

C25 - The youth have to ask politicians the hard questions

C26 / C27 - How she got the coordinator role

C28 - Local response to the March strike. More local support and awareness

C29 - The March strike contributed to the Zero Carbon Bill

C30 - What happened on the September strike

C31 - Her compliant from local head students about the strike

Take 2

C1 - Being interviewed and approached by masses of people being strange to her

C2 - Growing local support and awareness. Being local climate consultant and how she felt about that. Growing youth voice in local organisations

C3 - Response from rural community. Every sector is responsible

C4 - Everyone is responsible and it's not a witch hunt

C5 - Unfair to place blame on just farmers

C6 - Some farmers in Southland are trying to be eco-friendly, but have little to no access to the right technologies

C7 - New Zealand is one of the leading countries in climate action and the Zero Carbon Bill being part of that

C8 - New Zealand is not always as clean and green as the rest of the world thinks

Take 3

C1 - Climate action being advocated by the Prime Minister and how other politicians sweep the issue under the rug

C2 - Why not? There are benefits to climate action

C3 - Potential B-roll shot'

Take 4

C1 - Reaction to covid-19 lockdown in New Zealand

C2 - Observations of how the world responded to covid-19. New Zealand has a chance to be greener as a result

C3 - What the online climate strike consisted of

C4 - Chalk protest signs

C5 - Both onsite and online activism are effective, but onsite is preferable since it attracts more attention, especially form the media

C6 - Online climate strikes overseas

C7 - Belief that the government wouldn't care as much if it was done online

C8 - What happened at the online climate strike

C9 - Positive response from online strike

C10 - No need for organizing, only promotion

C11 - Youth Week helping the online strike

C12 - Action taken by the New Zealand youth towards climate activism during covid-19

C13 - Reasons not for the New Zealand economy to go green and they have an opportunity to do so

Robert Guyton's interview

C1 - Conservatism in Invercargill

C2 - Thrilled about the movement

C3 - Taking part in the September strike and limited coverage by the local media

C4 - Significance of Thunberg and its effect on Invercargill

C5 - How conservatism slows climate action

C6 - It's not a witch hunt, but everyone will need to change

C7 - America analogy

I got the FS5 booked to use for both the BTS for Oisin's shoot and shooting the sound bites next week. I was originally meant to be script supervisor on Oisin's shoot, but was switched to BTS.

20/08/2020

I heard more from Stuff. They have signed off their part in the multimedia license agreement and sent me a copy for records. They also informed me that their footage that I have purchased will be shared with me through WeTransfer.

I re-organised the transcriptions from Ashleigh and Guyton into an order that best tells the story based on my descriptions. Doing an assembly edit in the form of a document. I also added descriptions of b-roll into this assembly edit document as well. It has made me realise I'm not at a rough cut stage yet, however I do fear that it's going to be longer than 15 minutes and so constructive criticism and advice from the class and tutors will be beneficial.

I spent about an hour working on forming the assembly edit based on the document, but only the first half for now.

Loading Docs. (2020, August 19). OK Chlöe - short documentary (2020) [Video file]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KKoh_eKm5o

I watched a new New Zealand short documentary on Loading Docs that absolutely blew my mind. It's called Ok Chole, which is about the youngest MP in New Zealand's Parliament, Chloe Swarbrick. The cinematography, editing, and colour grading were perfect to the point where I felt envious, and a bit self-conscious about my work. It had the luxury of having a bigger budget, crew, and access to more of the main human subject's personal life.