Week One

For the beginning of my production, I planned to utilise the first week to allow me to finalise and perfect my pre-production elements of my project, especially as I was still waiting for response from my interviewee's and locations.
On Tuesday, I came into college to work on my script for my documentary. Using a mixture of both emotionally impactful segments and factual segments to create a lasting impact on my audience. Doing this early on allows me to work on which B-roll clips I will need to collect further along within my production when as specific locations and allow me to collect my piece to cameras.
On Thursday, I stayed home as I had my interviewee Liam Rothery was visiting to film the interview for my product. We chose to do the interview in a home environment to showcase the "home" connection from a first-responder and I was very appreciative that on his day off he made the trip down for my documentary. I believe the interview went well as he was able to answer all of my questions but one thing I’d like to try and work on in the future is helping my interviewee's through camera shyness. Prior to filming Liam had warned me he was camera shy and when it came to filming, he was very relaxed beforehand as I was setting up but as soon as he heard the record sound on my camera his answers sounded rehearsed. To overcome this I tried a few techniques such as making casual conversation in between the interview questions and also keeping my camera recording after the interview whilst we chatted to hopefully capture him in a more comfortable state but unfortunately my attempts were unsuccessful and when he heard the camera shut off he began telling in depth stories about his experience saving children which would have suited well for my project. So going forth I'd like to work on more techniques to help ease my interviewees to get the most out of my opportunities. But overall I was happy with my experience with Liam and appreciative of his time and his connections he gave me to allow me to work within the fire and rescue HQ.

A Photo of my interview with Liam Rothery

On Friday, I decided to come into college again to further develop my script with a more clear head and some new ideas I had gained from other products and from peers around me, out of college. I feel I was able to overcome a small creative mental block I had on Tuesday when it came to the next 'act' of my documentary which helped me progress my plans on further. In the afternoon, I also devoted time to finishing my risk assessment and location recce for Birkenshaw Fire and Rescue HQ in preparation for the following week. This required more time as the risk assessment was quite a bit longer and more detailed as I will be around fires and doing ride-along with the fire crew. This helped out as I feel I was able to fully prepare myself for my filming dates at this location and assess what equipment I would need and what would be best for different situations such as my DJI Action camera over the Canon DSLR camera.
Overall, this week has allowed me to experiment and assess where I am within my product and production to allow me to go further in more depth in the coming weeks.

Week Two

This week was my biggest week in production. Thanks to my interviewee Liam Rothery, he managed to get me access to join Spen Valley Fire and Rescue Station all week to join them for drills, ride-alongs, and even meal times to become of them and really see what it is like to be a fireman. On Monday, I spent the day organising and testing all my equipment to ensure everything is working and nothing could go wrong. I had no clue what to expect at first about filming at the station and what I had access to, so I was very nervous if I’d actually get useable footage at all as I didn’t have a backup plan available to put in place. On Tuesday, I was reported to be at the fire station at 9:30 so that Tom (the crew commander) had time to brief the crew.

When I arrived, I had my suitcase full of equipment and bag full of buns and treats (as advised to bring by Liam) and I was welcomed and introduced to the team – who were all sat around together having a cooked breakfast – and as soon as I learnt everyone’s names, the fire alarms went off and everyone began running to the truck and I was just yelled to follow. I didn’t even have time to get out my camera equipment, I just had my phone. We got into the truck and started racing down through Huddersfield, I was so in shock and awe but the firemen who were sat on either side of me were so calm and just asking me about my favourite movies and it really hit me what I was in for this week.

Coming back to the station after the call out, we stopped at the fire kit warehouse where I was whisked away to get my own fire kit – the trousers, the jacket and the helmet but I opted out of the boots as they were very heavy. When we got back to our station I was given some time to organise my camera equipment and also have a tour of the fire station. Later on we did a drill in the training yard, here the firemen used the water pump out of the truck and set up a fake dam to practice pumping water from them to put out fires, I had my DSLR camera set up on the tripod, my osmo in my hand and Matt the fireman volunteered to wear the chest mount for my action camera (which he was very excited about and got really into it) I got loads of incredible footage and B-roll to use. After this, it was dinner time and the crew had cooked a full homemade dinner with homemade chorizo chicken and fresh cooked vegetables which was a shock for me as you wouldn’t think, from movie portrayal, they’d have the time. I sat around the table with them and ate and we all got to know each other and I felt very welcomed. After food I gave them their buns and treats which they were more than grateful about. Then suddenly, one of them leapt up and yelled “it’s the chase time” and they all suddenly ran up to the chill out room with massive sofas and yelled for me to join them and put on the chase and that’s how we spent our evening before I had to leave before the final round which was a big let down to us all.

Thursday was similar but with no call outs, and no treats this time as there was still leftovers from last time. The drill we did on that day was a simulation of someone stuck under a heavy object to which they used pressure inflatables to life the heavy container and pull the dummy out. Today was the day I chose to interview the firemen as I knew them more now and they were familiar with me, so whilst dinner was cooking, I interviewed Matt and Steven, I asked them similar questions as I wanted to hear the differences they had on the same topics to get a better understanding of each individual first-responder and not just them categorised as a whole.

After dinner we played darts and watched bargain hunt, it was nice to see the firemen relaxed and having fun.

Thursday was similar but with no call outs, and no treats this time as there was still leftovers from last time. The drill we did on that day was a simulation of someone stuck under a heavy object to which they used pressure inflatables to life the heavy container and pull the dummy out. Today was the day I chose to interview the firemen as I knew them more now and they were familiar with me, so whilst dinner was cooking, I interviewed Matt and Steven, I asked them similar questions as I wanted to hear the differences they had on the same topics to get a better understanding of each individual first-responder and not just them categorised as a whole.

After dinner we played darts and watched bargain hunt, it was nice to see the firemen relaxed and having fun.

On Friday, it was more intense. We were joining paramedic students who were being examined on how they handle different scenarios. I was initially asked if I wanted to be a casualty for the drill but I decided against it as I wanted to be the one to get the best close-up footage,

The first simulation drill they did was someone who had fallen from a height on top of a car. The examiner had the scenario and the “patients” injuries listed in his book so he could instruct on what is going on. Matt was wearing my body camera again and got some great POV footage of him doing chest compressions.

The next drill was simulating a building on fire and someone had collapsed at the top of some stairs at the side of the smokehouse. This one was harder to film as we were all on a tight platform trying to do our best and I didn’t want to get in the way of the paramedics examination. Unfortunately I forgot my backup batteries and my body camera battery died after the first drill but I had my DSLR with me and my Osmo Pocket, which I mainly used as I could get up close but wasn’t in the way with my tripod.

The following drill was a car crash that had end up on its side with a person stook inside. Carl, one of our firemen played the casualty which the other firefighters had a lot of fun with making jokes such as when they carried him out on the stretcher saying “oh god you’ve put on weight” and when the paramedic student asked the examiner if he had any visual injuries, the other firefighter said “oh we definitely need a plastic surgeon” which made it a really nice fun atmosphere to be in.

The last drill was the most intense for me. The simulation was that the building was on fire and burning down and there was someone trapped under a collapsed bit inside. So for this drill, I had to go into a crawl space – the width of my shoulders – in pitch blackness with my Osmo and find the casualty. It was the scariest for me but also the best feeling, having the chance to get in the action.

After the drills we went back for tea and biscuits and then later went to watch Bargain Hunt and play some more darts.

It was one of the best experiences of my life and I am very fortunate that I had this opportunity as it doesn’t come to everyone at all. In addition, the interviews I got were what helped shape my entire documentary.

Week Three

On  Monday I had arranged with my dad the days I wanted to go to Marsden Moor. I planned to go multiple days as we are still learning about how to use the drone and I wanted to ensure we didn’t compromise the filming on the first day. This ended up being lucky as when reviewing our footage we learnt that the zoom capability on the drone severely lowers the resolution of the footage so we learnt never to touch zoom and just physically get more up close to the subject with the drone. We also accidentally left the second half of the filming in Slow Motion Mode, which wasn’t too bad as I could edit the playback speed in Premiere Pro and we weren’t planning on utilising that footage anyway. So on Monday I thought it best to ensure I had my location recce and risk assessment for Marsden Moor completed.

On Tuesday, I came into college to have my one on one meeting with my tutor Lee to discuss my filming at the fire station and showcase the footage I got and discuss next steps. I also used this time to work more on my script now that I had an idea of the visuals I would be using throughout.

Then following on Thursday, I did my first draft of voiceovers using my second draft of my script to get an early idea of how long my documentary would be and how many acts I would break it down into, to align with my documentary research.

On Friday, as mentioned, it was the day to experiment with our equipment and where we would film.

But when we arrived in Marsden Moor, after a few wrong turns and diversions, we found an open place with a car park which was great for footage as it overlooked the full moors but there were signs for no-drones allowed so we knew this wouldn’t be our long term filming location.

We followed along the road where we found a layby next to a reservoir where a man was fishing and saw an open field with burnt grass from the wildfires opposite and decided to film there. As I hadn’t got my piece to cameras figured out yet, there was no plans to get any audio footage, it was mainly for testing out the different modes that the drone has and seeing which ones would look best for my project. We also experimented with the ND filters which are applied to the lenses of DJI products as there is no exposure dial on them unlike DSLR cameras. The before and after shots using the filters were incredible and really emphasise the glow of the sun setting.

I was due to go back to the Fire Station again on Saturday but unfortunately Tom texted me on Friday night saying that they had been called into an emergency meeting on Saturday so I wouldn't be able to come which is a shame but those are the pros and cons of working as a first responder, your schedule is never set in stone, which is something I am hoping to discuss in my documentary for occasions such as when you have to miss birthdays or Christmas's - which I know from personal experience having grown up with my dad being a first responder.

Week Four & Five

For week four, I started on Tuesday organising my footage as my bins in Premiere Pro and Folders in my hard drive were getting a bit chaotic with all the new content and spent time editing my interviews with Matt and Steve and piecing together a part of my documentary I temporarily named ‘montage time’, I was initially thinking fast paced music and lots of action shots of training, but having found the shots I want to use, I found that more emotional music fits better after the interview question they follow.

On Thursday I went over the emails I had sent to different first responder’s mental health charities and organisations that I had messaged in February and having not had a response from any, I decided to take a different approach and went to speak to the wellbeing centre within Barnsley College and managed to set up a meeting that lunch with the head co-ordinator to discuss my project and help find the perfect person to interview. We found that Laura Barnard from Barnsley Talking Therapies would be best and I sent her an email to arrange a meeting either online or in person. This was great because it meant I could focus less on where I would get that professional input from for my documentary and I had a week to wait until she got back from leave to arrange the interview. So I spent the day analysing the footage I’ve already got and the interviews and where I could input Laura and what I could ask her to best benefit my project and complied my questions ready to send to her in advanced so she could practice.

For my last day on on-location filming on Friday, I went to Marsden Moor with my dad and my drone, Osmo Pocket, Action Cam and Mics. We went to Marsden again following our trial day down there to get more B-roll and correct our mistake from the first time and also get piece to cameras. When we arrived we found a good location amongst the burnt grass – due to wildfire – to attempt the walking piece to camera with the drone. It took around 5 attempts but came out well.

After watching the footage I do wish I had spoken more slowly but my teachers at college think its amazing regardless, so I have more confidence in it now.

Following on from the piece to camera, me and my dad had the idea to get a shot of me sat on the grass with the burnt areas surrounding me and have the drone zooming out to show the size comparison. I decided to walk down to the area through the grass whilst my dad set up the drone but unfortunately I didn’t see one of the pot holes in the overgrown grass and went over on my ankle. Luckily having only just recovered from a fractured ankle on my other foot a couple of weeks prior, I could tell I hadn’t broke it but I was in a lot of pain and the shock my body went through made me sick. To protect myself, I lied down in the field and let my foot rest and to ensure we didn’t lose daylight for filming, I instructed my dad on some shots he could get with the drone. After resting for a while I decided to try and walk as I didn’t want my foot to swell that I couldn’t place it flat down and I took incredibly cautious steps back through the grass over the fence to get back to my dad and camera equipment. For the rest of the filming day we mainly used the drone as it meant I could stand in one point but still get a wide variety of camera angles and movements and we did the rest of my piece to cameras stationary in one spot. On the drive home I utilised my action camera and camera stick and had the camera outside of the window as we drove through the moors which was able to get some great fast moving footage.

During week five, as it was Easter break, I had a lot of family plans during this week and I also had a lot of university meetings setting up things for when I will start their course in September, so I didn't have a great deal of time to work on my project.

Week Six

For week six, this was my last proper week of production, I began on Tuesday with updating my script and doing my second draft in more detail now that I had my different locations of shots that I can adapt around to ensure I feature the best parts, I struggled with writing my script last year as it just felt like I needed to write a load of words and fill a full page, but this year I utilised a method my friend Charlotte used in her FEP last year to have a table and make bullet points on what you want to say, how it will be said and what audio will be alongside it. So then I can go into deeper depth on each of my bullet points to slowly form the full audio structure of my project. This method worked really well for me and allowed me to feel motivated to complete my script.

On the following Thursday, now that I had my piece to cameras on location and my script planned, I went out and filmed my home piece to cameras. Living in the countryside gives me a lot of opportunities for a beautiful background for piece to cameras – but also a lot of open, powerful wind for the cons of the countryside – which all fit well for my topic, so I went for a walk with my mother to the top of my street and filmed a walking piece to camera and a stationary one with my Osmo Pocket camera as it has a gimble so my mother can film me and ensure the camera remains steady without the need for a tripod.

Photo of a pigeon I saw when going to collect my piece to cameras

Then on Friday, I did some trial and error with my voiceovers, trying to find the best location to film them in as my household can be very loud and also the quietest room has a lot of echo from the walls. I eventually decided it was best to do it in my bedroom once my family had gone out for the evening, so it was nice and quiet. I filmed my voiceover using my DJI Mic 2’s as it is what I had used for my piece to cameras and interviews, so I wanted to ensure I stayed consistent with the sound levels and quality. I am very fortunate to have this equipment as it meant I didn’t come across any issues recording and I know it has good clarity and quality.

Week Seven

For the start of week seven, I spent the Tuesday working on, and updating my research page. Starting with content of product as I always find it is a tab that can be best completed when you have a majority of your product sorted as you can understand where you have factual elements and where you have personal and emotional elements, then you can make any adaptions to your project if needed to. Last year I found content of product research difficult to put into words but for this year, I found that if I pictured it as a written storyboard it would read well and present nicely.

The day after on Wednesday, during work I got a text from my family that there was another wildfire up in Marsden Moor and if it was out by the time I finished work, we would take a trip up there to get some more raw footage straight after a wildfire. And we did so, when arriving we stopped by the place that when I had previously been, the grass was a beautiful green but now it was black and it was truly jaw dropping that I had fully witnessed and filmed the before and after shots of a wildfire by chance. We then went to where I had previously filmed my piece to camera which was all black grass that had burnt in a wildfire a couple of weeks ago but I found it was already growing back green and I could see the regeneration before myself and I found it amazing how within this trip, I had managed to really get up close and see how much damage a fire can do in a few hours and how incredible our ecosystem is to regrow.

A photo from my filming day at Marsden Moor showing burnt next to Green

Following on to the Thursday, I had my second to last interview for this project with Laura Barnard from Barnsley Talking therapies. I got this interview quite late as I initially wanted to work with a mental health organisation that specialises in first responders but unfortunately never received a reply. Despite this I managed to get this interview from Laura through my college’s connections which really helped me out. Thanks to Laura, we were able to organise the interview in just a few days’ time so it wouldn’t put any pressure on me for my projects deadline. I believe the interview went well and although the visuals aren’t amazing, it shows the process of making a documentary comes with hurdles to my audience.

A photo from filming my interview with Laura

On Friday, I was reviewing my product and realised that despite discussing Marsden Moor and filming there, I didn’t really talk much about the natural disasters that happen in that area. So because of this, I decided to write a short segment to add within my project so I can utilise more of the Marsden Moor footage I gained and at the same time add more facts within my documentary as it is more emotional story lead.

Week Eight

On Monday of this week I wasn’t able to focus on my project as I had meetings with different departments of the university I have chosen to go to dependant on this project. But getting everything in place for me to start the Journalism course makes me very motivated for this project.

On the Tuesday, I spent the day messaging my cousin, Olivia, in Australia who was helping set up this interview connection she had got me, Dave Ramsey. We discussed where she will meet Dave and what time we would do the interview as it was a little awkward with the time zone differences, in hindsight we should have tested if teams would work but as struggled to find time to contact, we never got to trial it.

In addition, during the day in class we went to an exhibition in Barnsley to get further research and inspiration for our own exhibition for our product. I found it good to see some demonstrations of different styles of exhibitions but I do have an idea already planned out for my own exhibition. 

Photos from the exhibition in Barnsley Town Hall

On the following morning on the Thursday, I set up my space/desk for the interview over teams – despite the time change suddenly and having only 5 minutes to prepare early morning – but we had struggles setting up the meeting as emails would not go between me and Olivia which I soon realised it was because it was on her work email that was blocking my communication. Once we got set up, I also found it would not allow me to record the meeting due to Olivia’s work company’s regulations which added another layer of difficulty. In the end I decided to abandon the teams call and switch to phone call which I could record. Unfortunately due to this the audio wasn’t the best so I spent the afternoon researching editing techniques to give it better clarification and planned to add subtitles once I edited the interview and got the segment I wanted for my documentary. Despite all this the interview went well, Dave is a voluntary fireman in Perth Australia and I got to find out more about how other countries operate with natural disasters.

A photo of my interview with Dave Ramsey

On the last day of week nine, Friday, I spent the day relistening to my interview with Dave and finding the best segment to take from it with the most clarity and began editing the audio. And although not perfect, I managed to remove the background noise and connection cuts within the interview and think it sounds incredible in comparison. In the afternoon, we had a class swap in college, where we peer assessed Film and TV’s work and they did the same with ours. I was happy with the feedback I was given, especially since they only saw the skeleton of my product before all the components and segments were introduced onto it and I was happy to see their highlights of my product was the same as mine so I felt more confident in my knowledge in how my audience would engage with my product.

Week Nine

For my second to last week of post-production, I began by finding a new youtube-mp4 converter which was better quality than the first one I used, so redownloaded my Reach Out World Wide videos and placing them in the right spot and choosing the best segments to take from it. Despite one of the videos being an interview recorded by the organisation, I found the vocals to be very echoey from the room Cody Walker is being interviewed in so I decided to edit the vocals and found putting a denoiser over the audio sample really helped improve the overall listening experience and then decided to put it over my own voiceover despite using my noise cancelling mics, and I found it just gave it a more crisp sound which in turn made my product feel more professional. I think that despite using footage and an interview from another company that I could not get myself (despite having emailed them) it makes the project feel more united and gives it a little more edge as it is a face and voice everyone is familiar with.

A screenshot of Reach Out World Wide's Instagram

Alongside this, on the Tuesday I looked over the smaller gaps in my voiceover that did not have corresponding visuals and struggled to think of what best to go there and decided to research some shots to use. That is when I stumbled across the sots of the American paramedics and the self-reflection shot inside the ambulance and thought this would give my audience a more sympathetic feel and continues to push that ideology of unity across the globe.

On Thursday I worked on the subtitles for Dave Ramsey telephone interview after clearing up his audio to the best of my ability and had some peer feedback with my college tutor Joe. Unfortunately on this day, my drone footage shots froze on my timeline and after this happening multiple times within my editing, I was debating whether to replace the drone shots so I can ensure I could edit that segment properly. But I decided to leave it for that day and revisit it when I had chance to on my own WIFI and with backup in place in case the worst was to happen with my product.

On Friday, I decided to host a focus group for my project with my family and friends to get any feedback on small things I could do to improve as I do firmly believe that when we spend months creating something that our mind can miss a small opportunity we could pursue to make our products perfect. Within this, I got really great feedback and brought a few people to tears, which was always my aim and one of the men that watched my product informed me he a has a friend that works in media down in London and he would send it to him to give feedback. This would be incredible as I could get professional feedback and create a new contact link to have for my future as a journalist.

Week Ten

On my final week before the deadline, I spent the week going over every detail of my product to ensure it is above and beyond my standards for this documentary to ensure I can achieve the a distinction.

On Monday it was a special occasion date, therefore I was away from my project during the day. Despite that, in the evening I went to carry out more intricate details on my product such as final audio level checks and colour grading when I found my project was lagging again on Premiere Pro and freezing certain shots and also crashing and ‘not responding’ a few times during the day before just returning to normal. I found it had been having this issue throughout my project and assumed it was because of the type of shots I have struggling on Adobe Premiere Pro and it would be find once I exported it. Previously I had just deleted the shot on my time line and put it in again from the clips library and it would only take a matter of seconds, but this time there was an extensive amount and I was nervous about this being an issue – especially when I have heard horror stories about my friends FEP deleting itself a week from deadline day – so I decided to consult my father on it and we both came to the conclusion it was the hard drive doing this. Therefore, for this project I decided to pay for extra storage on my laptop and spent the evening transporting every file in my FEP hard drive to a folder in my laptop. This took a couple of hours as some of the body camera footage I have are an hour long each, making them big files – but it worked and my project was running smoothly and the drone shots were working and there was no more lag playing on my documentary. Overall, I definitely wished I had confronted this issue sooner as I feel I could have saved myself some missed editing opportunities and frustration within this project but now I have a deeper understanding of technology and devices such as hard drives so I can be more knowledgeable in the future with future topics.

On Tuesday, I did the final watch over with my friends and family – in which I found a spelling error in my subtitles for the Dave Ramsey interview that everyone had missed throughout this project and was able to fix this – and got any last small detail feedback from my peers and I uploaded it to YouTube to prepare to submit it onto my website for the deadline. My family broadcasted it across all socials and all the feedback I got was incredible and made me feel confident in what I have created and that I did the best I could and pushed my limits with this documentary and I felt immensely proud.

In the evening I then consulted my notebook and planned out everything I would do over the last 3 days for my website to ensure every section is at distinction level.

A screenshot of my product on YouTube

Continuing on to Wednesday, after I finished work, I went over to my website so I could begin checking off everything I have accomplished and reorganising my files and website to ensure it all flows well and something doesn’t sneak past me unfinished.

On Thursday, I finished my evaluation and my last production blog, ever, and did a last reference with my friend Charlotte’s FEP that she completed last year to see where I can manage and improve the smallest details – to give myself some peace of mind that I have put my everything into this project. Then Tomorrow, on Friday, I will have my course leader Jo consult my work as she will know exactly what a distinction worthy piece will look like and can give me any last feedback and tips and then I will submit my project to the submissions box and close this incredible chapter of my life.

Peer Feedback

My Response To The Feedback

Overall, I am happy with my feedback and feel confident in my strengths mentioned, this will allow me to continue to go forth with my vision of my product, knowing it is already having the desired outcome/engagement with my audience.

For areas of improvement, I am aware that they saw the 'skeleton' of my product before it was finished and had all the components included such as voiceover, all the B-roll and full music. But I am confident that I can work on their critiques and have a better product once I have got more of my editing stage completed.

Final Product