Lecture Reviews
Week 1:
In this lecture we were told what our aims and objectives of this particular module were; to create a successful documentary to present to the public during the second semester. Our other aim was to create a presentation for the end of the first semester, explaining our documentary idea and how we have researched into this and scheduled for when we aim to film.
In this lecture we got into our group of six and started to plan and create ideas, which we could document as part of our project.
We were given the module assignment as well as information on grading and how each part of the assignments will be split into percentages.
Week 2:
In this sessions we looked at photo journalists and their workbooks, and we were encouraged to research more photographers and documentary practitioners for our research on our Yola sites.
Week 3:
Camera training took place for the first group of our multimedia production class, so we took this opportunity to further our ideas and refine them, sorting them into the best possible ideas and then emailing them to our module leader, Karin. We used this lecture to communicate to staff at hospitals around Hampshire, London and Liverpool for our controversial cancer treatment idea and ask them for permission to film and document patients and staff and their views on whether they believe to keep this treatment or abandon it. We also progressed our other ideas so if our cancer treatment idea was to fall apart, we’d still have other ideas to work with.
Week 4:
The camera training workshop took place for our group this lecture, and we learnt how to take high quality raw photographs to process them for our presentation. We were also taught how to take pictures using the correct settings so we have the most control as we shoot, especially with the aperture. The workshop gave me a greater understanding in taking good photojournalistic pictures, and how to control different settings of a camera to give me my desired shots.
Week 5:
Raw processing training for first group/ FCP training for 2nd group
Week 6:
In this lecture, we learnt how to use a raw processing programme within Adobe Photoshop to edit our shots for our photo-essay. The programme allowed us to change the brightness, contrast, clarity, vibrancy and other aspects of a photograph without losing our original image. We were also told that if we were to sell our own photographs to sites such as http://www.jalbum.net/en/ we’d have to keep the original copy and then make a number of different edits to it and send these to the company, as they’d want to see how it looks with different aspects of the photograph modified.
This lecture was extremely helpful in teaching us how to give a images a more powerful look, and to give it that professional feel of a photograph.
Week 7:
In this session, we had our second Final Cut Pro training, in which we learnt how to colour grade our videos so they have perfect white balance and that they can be sent out to any producer ready for broadcast. We also learnt how to correctly chromo key using a video clip with green screen in it, and how we could apply this effect with our future projects.
Week 8:
We were given a more detailed brief about what we need to meet with our presentations and the criteria that we will be assessed on. We also watched a documentary entitled ‘Parallel Lines.’
Week 9:
This was another film screening, where we talked about several documentary practitioners, most notably Nick Broomfield and his 2002 documentary Biggie and Tupac. We also watched a short photo essay on media storm.
Week 10:
There was no lecture due to strikes. However, we used this free time efficiently to work on our presentations and Yola websites, as well as to keep in contact with our primary sources for the documentary we will be filming next year.
Week 11:
This week we had a tutorial with our lecturer about the idea of our documentary and the progress we have made so far on it. He was pleased with the work we had produced and the contacts we had made, and we used the time afterwards to continue building our websites and presentation for week 12.
Week 12:
Presentations.
