Production diary 6 - interview of Mrs Allen

Today, we interviewed the EAL teacher Mrs Allen, who is often associated with international students, espacially Chinese students, and we think we could interview her about view of Chinese students and their daily life.

Since we worked as a group, we could filmed in two different angles by each person holding a camera. Therefore, we have two angles of the interview shot:

 The is the side shot that Melissa filmed the left side of Mrs Allen.

And this is the shot that the camera is face to Mrs Allen's face. As I need to ask questions, we decided to use the tripod to hold the camera. However, after we filmed the whole interview, we found that the camera may put a bit lower than we want. But I think it may still be fine.

For the location of the interview, we decided to film in Mrs Allen's classroom, as this is a place that could simply tell the audience that she is a teacher. In the both angle shots, the background could show this is the classroom.

The second draft of website

After getting more footage of our production, I made some change of my website and it is nearly done that it is really close to the finale website view.

This is the new front page of my website. We still made a video for it, however, it is not like the previous one that just put in the pictures, this is more like a trailer that we edited some footage together and mainly focus on our main character - Cynthia. Also, we added the Chinese title as our primary target audience is Chinese people, and we used a really 'Chinese' style typography. Still we put the English title but slightly smaller as the Chinese title is more important. Moreover, we put the tagline on the top right, that is "Travel is never a matter of money, but of courage - Paolo Coelho." This may give the audience a sense of our documentary that what we are talking about in the documentary, what story that we are shown here. And I put the release date at the bottom and it is quite small, as I don't think it is really important and I don't want to cover the video behind.

Here is the information part and I didn't change so much, I just change the colour of the container of "UK's Educaton mode', as I want to make it fit the colour palette that we chose for all our production. 

Under the repeater, I put this picture which is similar to what we put in the poster. Not only because it could let the audience make a link to our poster, but also as in this picture, the location is in school and our character is wearing uniform carrying books, which just show our narrative. I think this is a good picture and therefore I put it inside.

There is not many change here, but I am now thinking about the app that I used for discussion. I used to think about using Forum for this part, and I think I will still use it, however, I'm now thinking about to add the link to a social website which is called 'zhihu' (in Chinese is 知乎). This is a Chinese social website (and app) that people asking questions on it and people could make comments and having discussion on it. The reason that I think about it is because our target audience involve Chinese people, and Chinese people may not know how to use Forum, zhihu for them is more familier. As a result, I think I might add the link to the questions that I create for the topic.

By getting more footage, now I could put the pictures into the Gallery part. As we might still film some more footage, we might add or change some pictures in this part. And the final part, contact, I didn't change it because I don't think that I need to change anything here.

Overall, my website is nearly done, but still I need to finish the pages of discussion and information. When those pages are finished, I think my website may be done. 

Editing plan

As we have nearly done our all filming, we start thinking about our editing. And I used Vizzlo to make a long process diagram about the editing plan.

Here is the plan:

Although I made a plan (or it could be seen as an overview) for editing and filming, it may still be different to the final production as we may change during editing and filming. But it is good to make a plan first as we could know what we are going to do and make.

Production diary 5 - previous footage

In this production diary, it is not the pictures or footages that we took today, but the footages that we have taken from previous day till now. I have already put most of them, but some of them that filmed by Melissa I still have not put on to the blog.
These footages are mainly the scenes in dining hall:

As during that time, it was Chinese Luna New Year, in dining hall, there was a banner with "Happy New Year" in Chinese. We filmed it because we thought it

This is a shot when Cythia was waiting in a queue, which is the things that we will do in dining hall, queueing for lunch or dinner.

Normally, Chinese students would like to stay together in the dining hall, which just same as the picures shown. To make the audience know clearly that who is the main character, we filmed some close up focusing on Cynthia.

These are the shots which Cynthia and other Chinese students playing together. Although these are really good footages that we could use, we might not use it in our product. This is because that we filmed it in a vertical way, and the shots look narrower than other footages. If we put it into the documentary, it may look weird.

I think these are the all footages that I didn't put on the blog. Even though now we have more footages than we used to, we may still have too few footages that we could put into our documentary. Therefore, we might still need to film more footage or we may focus more on the interviews.

Production diary 4 - go to lesson and during the class and the image for poster

Today we filmed our character going to lesson and study during the class. Also, we took the picture for our poster.

This is when Cynthia is going to a lesson that we just following her and film it. 

These are some pictures that Cynthia is having the lesson.

Those are the pictures that we took for poster, but also for website as we are trying to create a 'brand' for our production. The reason that we choose to film in this location where the statue is because it is a sign of our school. And we let our character wear uniform to give the code of narrative that it is about school life.

Production diary 3 - Prep time

On Tuesday, we filmed Cynthia when she was working on her prep in the prep time as we need to get some daily life footages of students study in a foreign country school.
Here are the shots that we chose for filming.

This is a mid-shot but could be seen as an establishing shot that it shows the mise-en-scene: the background is Cynthia's room to show that we study in our room, and it also shows the character which the audience would be clear that who is working on the prep.

This is a close-up, which focus more on the prep. But actually, as the light is too bright, it doesn't really show what the prep is. However, I still think when we show the prep time in the film, get some close-up like this could also be great as it makes the scene not be so dull.

This acturally is just a testing photo that is not really for the filming, but it is a good photo to show our prep and what we are learning, so we might use it in our documentary as well.

the first draft of website.

I started making website seveal weeks before, and today I'd like to show the first draft of my website and also I would like to talk about what I may change or do to get the best website that I could do.

 This is the front page of our website. As we think about we could add a bottom which could change the language, at the start, I use English title. at header, I put on some social media which is familier to most of people in the world, especially people who is not Chinese (this is because some social media that shown in the header are blocked in China). But also, I have put on a Wechat, which is a really common social media that most of the Chinese people, almost all of them would have an account in Wechat. The reason that I put it is because our primary target audience is Chinese people, using Wechat would make the advertisement and distribution easier. For the front page, I made a video which is just like a moving gallery of the photos that we took in China. However, as we now focus more on Chinese student's school life in foreign country, I think I might change the front page. There are two way that Melissa and I decided to do: one way is to use only a picture which is taken in our school in the UK and the main character is shown in the picture; Another way is still I make a video which I put plenty of footages of Chinese students in our school that we have taken recently, which looks quite similar like this one.

Also, we used to think about to make a trailer for our documentary, so I have created a bottom just under the title that people could click it to go to the 'trailer' page to watch our trailer. However, now as we don't really think we have time to make a trailer, now I am thinking about to get rid of it and put on the date that we will release our documentary.

 This is the information part. Here I didn't put on the information right there, I put a repeater and split our information into three part. As our documentary relates to education, we decide to give some information of both Chinese education system and UK's education system (as we are now studying in UK). This could give both our primary and secondary audience, Chinese people and foreign country people some information of these two really different types of education system. In the middle, it is more information of our documentary. All these three parts would go to another page - "information"

 Here I might put a picture, but because when I started making website, during that time, the footages that we got are too few, I still not really sure what picture that I would like to put here.

 This is the discussion part, which is my idea that to get the audience more involve to our campaign, I think to get a discussion that people could leave comments about their ideas of study abroad and students who study abroad would achieve it as they could express their idea and communicate with others. After asking teacher(sorry but I fogot his name), I decide to use Wix Forum in another page "discussion" (which is particularly used for discussion). Wix Forum is the app that could build up an online community, and I think this is what I want.

 And here is the Gallery page. I think we will not add any extra page for Gallery because those pictures we think are already enough. And after getting more photos and footages, I think I will start putting on some footages.

And finally, this is the contact part. Here I just make it quite simple, but I think I might put something more, such as, the QR code which is quite common in China, and the Wechat of us and we may create a Wechat just for our documentary and we could put in here.

In addition, you could see that I didn't change the colour of the background or adding any images. This is because now we are still thinking about our whole branding colour palettes, and I will add the background colour after we decide the colour.

risk assessment

Risk assessment is important to a film maker, as not matter what you are filming, a risk assessment should be made before you film your production. Film maker makes risk assessment by thinking through the filming day and consider whether there are any potential hazards, what could result from this hazard and how the risk can be reduced or avoided. And this makes sure film makers' responsiblity as they need to consider the safety of everyone in the filming.

When I am looking at the risk assessment for my production, it is unlikely that I will write out a formal risk assessment, since in my production, there are less hazards than those in an action movie. However, I still found out some hazards for my production, and therefore, I still make a simple risk assessment for my product.

My production name is called 'Study Abroad', which is a TV documentary about a Chinese student studying in a British school. It is made by me, Ziqi Zhang and my friend Melissa Fu. And our main location for the documentary is the school. I think our production making will start from 7th Feburary till 20th Feburary.  In our production, we are going to film a Chinese student, Cynthia, about her daily life in a British school, and we are going to interview some people, here is mainly our EAL teacher, Mrs Allen. Therefore, the main risk assessments are in those two part.

I made a risk assessment by using a website which is called 'Risk Assessment Tool', which the main use of it is to create the risk assessment.

Here is the risk assessment that I made:

If it is not clear, you could enlarge it by clicking it.

A production diary till now

I have created a project phase chart to show what I have done from September to now, just like a production diary but quite rough. Also, as Melissa and I got some problem when we follow our original plan (pitch) to make our production, we might have some changes that we recently considered, and I have made some future plan as well.

(If the picture is not clear, click the picture that it could be bigger as I can't make it too big.)

Production Diary 2 - Chinese new year activity

Today is the day before Chinese New Year, which is also important to us. As during this day, people will gather together and have a big dinner and people will watch the show on Television until mid-night that people are waiting for New Year's coming (usually people will not sleep on this day or they will keep waking until 12 o'clock is coming, which is the start of the New Year).

Today, although Chinese students like me cannot go home and celebrate the Chinese New Year with family, we have a small celebration with friends and teachers in the afternoon that we made dumplings and did some calligraphy work.

During the event, Melissa and I have also filmed some videos and took some photos. Also, we have filmed some interviews in two different angles.

Here are some photos that I took during the event. We used to decide to use two cameras (Melissa's own camera and the school one's), but because Melissa only got one SD card that we could only use one camera, I used phone instead.

Also, as some of them are videos, and I just get some screenshot of the video, you might see some irrelevant stuff.

This is the shot when Chinese students were discussing what should they make by using the rest of the dough (as we ran out of the fillings, but still have so much dough left, they start thinking about what should they make), during the scene, one of the Chinese student brought his phone and played some very Chinese New Year style song, which just fit the genre. They used to think about making noodles, but as none of us know how to made noodle strips, at the end we did not make the noodles.

This is the shot when students were making dumplings, one of the guy(in the middle of the scene) was kneading dough which is used for making dumplilngs.

Not only Chinese students came for this activity, but also some local students and other country's students came as well. They came for eating the dumplings. But one quite interesting thing but I fogot to film is that some of the students they don't know how to use the chopsticks and use them strangly and quite funny. 

This is the teacher who held this event, and she was the one who cooked the dumplings for us, and here is the shot that she was cooking the dumplings.

This is a close-up (a little bit not clear is because it is a video and when I got the screenshot it is not quite well) that students picked up the dumplings. In fact, here are some naughty boys who are copying how other country's students who do not know how to use the chopsticks do when they try to picked up the dumplings.

And here are those naughty boys

Here is the interview shot that this is the angle that I chose to interview. But problem is, as I was using phones for interview, and the music in that room is too loud, the person who was talking in my video might not be so clear. Luckly, I heard from Melissa that she said in her video (that she filmed by camera with microphone), the sound is fine that it is better than what she heard during the event. 

This is another student and another interview, in this interview, at the start, this student was looking towards to me, but after a while, as Melissa started asking question, she turned to her sight. And one quite annoying thing is that, when I was filmming, Cynthia was distracting me! So in this interview, mine might not be so well.

This is the shot that my Chinese teacher asked me to took for her.

A close-up to dumplings

When I just randomly filmed, these students looked here and I just took it

This is the photo that I caught up when he is eating the dumplings (well, I think I might get trouble......as it is quite funny)

this is when students were practising their calligraphy on the sheets which by using water and the writing brush(as the words students written would disappear after a while and others could rewrite again)

Someone drew a pig as this year the animal is pig (quite cute!)

Another shot of people practising. One sad thing is that as there were so many students writing on the sheets, it is hard for me to get a good point of view shot of how they write a complete word (but I saw Melissa have filmed herself of writing the word, so it may not be a problem)

In conclusion, even though I couldn't celebrate Chinese new year largely like I have done in China, I still had a great fun in that afternoon and also I have got some good photos and videos as well!