Evaluation

For this project, we were asked to come up with a unique documentary idea and create it. We had a time limit of a maximum of 15 minutes. We needed to work independently, and we had to include at least one expert interview.

First off, I needed to develop two ideas in written form. My first idea was Dogs and Horses. My other idea was Riding on the Roads. I chose Dogs and Horses because I've owned a horse for years, and I've recently become a dog owner. Next, I needed to produce a production schedule, mood board, storyboard, shot list, equipment list, treatment, location recces, risk assessments, and a script for my pre-production.

My first day of shooting went very well. I'd never done anything like it before. It was the interview with India Luno at a farm in Beaconsfield. The weather was perfect, and I managed to shoot video with various camera angles and movements. While the weather was still good, we walked to a field where I got to record horses and dogs working alongside each other. Afterwards, we walked back to the farm to record the interview. I got to practise the interview with India before we started, so she knew how I wanted her to answer the questions.

My second day of filming didn't go as well, it was heavy rain, and we had to film the interview inside the haybarn. Fortunately, the acoustics were excellent, and there was no reverberation. I interviewed Nici Bartropp at Longhill Paddocks, and I had initially planned to film a video of her riding with her dog, but the weather didn't improve. So I put it off for another day that I didn't get around to doing. It turns out I didn't need to, as I cut most of her interview down in the editing process due to the time limit. Nici and her dog were brilliant in front of the camera, and she had excellent interview technique.

My third-day filming was with my expert interviewee. Debbie Chandler is a qualified dog trainer. Unfortunately, this interview didn't go as well as the others in my opinion. I found that Debbie did not understand my explanation of how I wanted her to answer the questions (In her own words); thus, I ended up cutting many of her answers out because I didn't think they flowed well. For example, the question was, "Have you ever come across horses whilst out walking dogs?". Debbie didn't answer this question right as I wanted her to use her own words, but somehow she managed to make it sound like she was still answering a question. I had to keep this answer in because it was very relevant to my topic.

My fourth interview was with a dog owner. As I wanted to make my documentary objective, I needed to have opinions from both sides. This is where Danielle Wilcox comes in. Danielle is a friend of a friend who owns two dogs. Her interview went very well, and she answered all my questions the right way. However, I'm not happy with the focus of the video. I believe my camera was not focused on her face but the leaves behind her.

My final interview was with local dog walker Mathew Richardson. I've known Matt for years, and I was very fortunate he made time for my interview in his busy schedule. I thought the interview results were brilliant. However, there are a few scenes where you could tell he'd been laughing before answering the questions. To fix this, I would pay more attention to his facial expressions and make Matt wait a couple more seconds before answering in his own words.

To edit the video, I used Adobe Premiere Pro for most of the Post-Production process. I edited and exported three versions of my video, the second version being my final edit. The first version was a skeleton version I exported to make recording my voiceover easier.

I found that editing the archive footage parts was the most challenging part of the whole process. Guessing the amount of footage I would need was hard work as I wanted to have more than less. Editing took longer than I thought. However, I'm glad I separated my primary sequences into smaller sub-sequences. This saved time and was a much more organised method.

The voiceover went well. I stuck to my script and got everything recorded. I was ecstatic that no background noise or reverb was detected on the audio track. I did not use any sound alterations or effects in my documentary because I did not feel the need. However, I did do a bit of ADR on the first archive footage clip (the Rottweiler chasing the horse). I was given feedback to delete or change the audio due to the wind noise in the clip. To fix this, I downloaded an audio tack of forest ambient sound and layered it below the original one. I cut up the original audio, only keeping the barking and woman's voice. I matched the dialogue as close as possible to the original track and moved the dog barks into the appropriate places.

I was happy with the camera angles I used in the interviews and how I compensated by using cutaways; however, next time, I would like to use a second camera and have a consistent variety of camera angles. The camera quality was sometimes filmed in 1080 or 4k. It depended on the weather and other circumstances on the day of the shoot.

The captions went through several changes before I settled on the style and font I liked. Initially, I was using the same font as in my title animation; however, the graphic titles I made for the Dogs and Horses sections of my film required a bolder font. Nevertheless, I was happy with the result in the end, as I used the Impact font throughout the rest of my documentary.

I have learned a lot during the making of this project. If I were to do it again, I would use another camera to take advantage of more camera angles while filming interviews. I would also ensure every interviewee knew how to answer a question in their own words. Perhaps even checking the footage after every question to ensure no mistakes were made.