B2 Documentary Project | Learning Journal

This learning Journal will talk about my personal and professional growth through the process of creating my documentary. this project is something create by myself and another student an die are extremely proud of this result and have receded amazing feedback from commissioners based at channel 4 and the BBC.

AC1

PURPOSE OF PRODUCT

Our brief for this next project was to create a documentary exploring a topic that impacts our current generation and delves into the challenges, aspirations, and experiences of teenagers and young adults in 2023. It had to be a minimum of 15 minutes long and feature an unbiased outcome for an ultimate audience decider. The idea we came up with was a hybrid participatory and expository documentary that explored the fame and fortune of the viral app TikTok.  

TikTok made me famous: fake or fact. This was the title of our product which is set to be premiered onto YouTube and accessible to all by august 2024. It is a 45-minute documentary that will involve five different influencers who all have a unique angle on the industry, which will follow a narrative of two presenters (myself and Sam) travelling around the uk speaking to said influencers. The purpose of our product is to explore how these influencers gain such fame on the platform, and if anyone could achieve it. By speaking to these people, it will help us figure out what really happens behind the screens and allow others to appreciate the hard work and business ethic behind the app. With a key title component being ‘fake or fact’ we want to find out the facts and myths behind creating a presence on TikTok and whether people are their true selvs on the platform or if it’s all an act. TikTok has proven to be one of the biggest growing platforms of the generation and has now become a very well-paid industry. With business now moving promotions onto social media and hiring TikTok specialists on their PR teams, it is evident that this platform is going to be a huge participant in our future; therefore, understanding its past, present and future potential is key. This is where we found our USP. 

Underestimated. This was a great word to describe our findings from this project. We knew when we started that this project was going to reveal the truth behind the community and industry of social media, however, we weren’t ready for the glamorized walls to be brought down. From the world of brand deals to movie features, once fame is achieved from one app, it’s safe to say anything could happen. The purpose brought into this documentary was to explore the hard-working industry when in fact we ended up exposing some of the biggest kept secrets in this fast-developing sector. 

We believe it is important to make this documentary as it not only diminishes the stigma of stuck-up celebrities and fake wealth, but it proves that these influencers and TikTok stars are just like you and me, it’s just one day they had the guts to make that video on their phone and post it. We most importantly wanted to explore the importance and sustainability of this new career. In Glasgow they now have a university course on influencing for social media. That’s crazy. Before this new industry kicks off, isn’t it important to see if it’s worth spending 9k a year on? 

This documentary is relevant and needed now. It’s what the people see every day and are unconsciously obsessed with, it’s time to take a step back and view this platform for what it is, a business, a career, an industry. It’s the future. 

BREIF AND CLIENT

The creative brief as mentioned was to create a documentary that delves into the challenges, aspirations, and experiences of teenagers and young adults in 2023. You could say our client was btech as they were the instigators for this project, however in my opinion to shake things up a bit, I’m adamant that our client became the public. The public whether they are coming from a personal or business mindset; the public need help knowing more about this app. From a business mindset people are constantly trying to keep up with trending content or trying new or tested content ideas to keep up with the constant growth of the platform. This app has become the fastest way to transmit content directly to a large audience. To keep up with the competition it is crucial that companies keep up with this and stay relevant, but how? How do companies keep up with an app that is untested and thrives off original content? 

The scary realisation is that because this app is so new and untested, no one can predict what’s next. The ever-changing algorithm is also dependant on people’s opinions, and we all know how unpredictable our own opinions are never mind being able to predict or cater to everyone’s opinions all at once. This was one of the things we discovered- it’s the old saying of ‘all publicity is good publicity’. what we found was that even though our contributors experienced hate and negative interactions, it also got people talking about them a lot quicker and they then started to reach a larger audience. This again is the confusing element of TikTok. Is it now the way to promote by annoying your audience? Are businesses or influencers now growing via TikTok by manipulating human instincts of opinions and emotions, then turning them against each other intentionally to create conversation? Alright, maybe that’s too deep; but the scary factor is as a basic outline goes that’s essentially what TikTok does.  

So, as I said the public need this information, therefore we are delivering this documentary for the public. With that said it also gives us great freedom to explore and create a product with minimal limitations. Our only limitations include a minimum duration of 15 minutes and a finished first edit by January 1st, 2024.

TARGET AUDIENCE

The target audience for our documentary is primarily teenagers and young adults, however, as a production company we feel this is a documentary that could be appreciated by all. The primary determined target audience was given to us by btech, which we have based our psychographics and demographics towards. These include psychographics of TikTok users, content creators, influencer followers, documentary makers, marketing specialists, fame chasers, influencers etc. and our demographics include ages 13+, all genders and all nationalities- with a Uk focus. 

Psychographics were chosen purely based off the themes and topics featured in the doc. There were themes and opinions surrounding all relevant chosen psychographics. We chose these demographics as TikTok itself is promoted at 13+ plus, so by using this target we would reach TikTok users directly, we also wanted to aim it at all genders with a gender-diverse cast, there being a female and male presenter, with a mixed gendered set of contributors. We also have an ideology of a multi-national reach, which is why we chose YouTube. However, with that said it will be in English and be based in areas of the Uk. The proposed client which shaped the tone of our documentary was channel 4. I say proposed as this idea is massively unpredictable and we were running with this pilot idea whether it was commissioned or not. With this said we still used channel 4’s inspiration to create a product that would look good amongst their content. During early production we reached out to channel 4 who got back to us with a very speedy response praising our idea. They stated “the idea sounds interesting but unfortunately, it’s not quite right for our strategy at the moment. Don’t give up on this idea, it could definitely be a perfect fit for channel4. Best of luck with the project though and keep in touch x’. This was a huge confidence boost and proved we were on the right track, plus I had now made a great contact with one of the lead commissioners for factual entertainment/ documentaries at channel4. 

REPRESENTATION

Our product was created to diminish stereotypical representation more so, but I wouldn’t necessarily say this involves more positive than negative representation or vice versa. We have shown the influencers in their true light, and as we wanted this to be an unbiased documentary, it’s up to each audience member to decide whether that is a positive or negative representation.  

I will say that our documentary will show negative and positive areas of the industry and that will again represent the industry in two very different projections, but each moment where this does happen it will always be followed with a question and counter opinion, again leaving it for mass audience interpretation.  

There were defiantly areas where I feel some influencers could be represented in a positive manor. Jason Allan and will young are both two amazing individuals that come to mind. They were both two of the kindest and most genuine contributors I’ve had chance to work with. They spoke the truth on and off camera and were just as appreciative about helping up and we were them. We asked them both the same question at the end ‘did TikTok make you famous?’ and they both responded with very similar answers in a phrase of that neither of them would consider themselves as famous and they were more thankful for the platform for giving them a community and audience to share their passions. There was not one mention of being in it for the money or the fame, for them both it was all about sharing and interacting online. This is bound to look good and show positive representation as they are being true and are not playing up for the camera. I can vouch that they are both the same on camera and real life, which will go down well as they are proven as truthful, honest people. They are also just very likable and humorous which will go down well Infront of an audience. 

Negative representation could also be show in Jason’s segment down to his opinions on his disagreements with Shrewsbury council. This could be taken either way, dependant on audience location, career, or personal opinions. He proceeds to shout F the council at his gig which was broadcasted onto a platform aimed at 13-year-olds- could this be seen as negative by promoting offensive language and hate. He is now an influencer after all should he be setting a better example, or is he setting a good example by sticking up for himself?... this is why I love documentaries.

IDEA GENERATION

FORMAT

The format of our documentary is a hybrid of expository and participatory. I decided on these two due to our purpose being to expose a truth behind TikTok fame, however, Sam (co-producer) and I are both presenters in the doc, and we follow a journey of discovery by participating in the exposure. The codes and conventions of an expository documentary are archived b-roll, handheld camera (fly on the wall approach, voice overs, guests/ contributors, interviews, facts and history, rhetorical questions, investigations and of course opinions from all sides of the story. However, the codes and conventions of a participatory doc are slightly different and include some elements of meaningful interactions with contributors, an active involvement in the story but they both also share conventions such as voice overs, vox’s/ interviews, handheld shots, archived b-roll etc. There are all elements that feature in our documentary throughout. One specific moment this is proven is during Jason Allan’s section. This starts with a walking presented shot with me and Sam on our way to meet Jason, then followed by a graphic with archived footage, b-roll of his work, facts and a voice over; editing this section nicely into an interview featuring Jason, Sam and me. 

BRAINSTORMING

TikTok believe it or not wasn’t our first idea. At the beginning we started with 3 other ideas which led onto the conclusion. Our initial ideas were:  

LUND VS BRUM- Lund vs Brum was an idea we had where we were going to compare student lifestyles from Birmingham to Sweden. The reason we had these ideas was because Sweden has been voted the happiest place in the world to live as a student. However, we were curious to find out whether this statement was as true as it said it was. The more research we found clearly made it evident that Sweden has more things in place for student well-being than over here in England. After the research left us amazed, we thought I t would be ana amazing angle for students across the world to notice the comparisons and maybe acknowledge changes that could be brought over to other countries to improve the metal health crisis now hitting our generation.  

URBAN VS RUREL – urban vs rural was again another comparison where we were going to compare two different social climates to see which lifestyle is more aesthetic to live in., we would compare aspects such as diet, wellbeing, activities, income, and general day to day lives, whilst also analysing stress, happiness, finance, and energy levels to achieve an outcome.  

SCHOOL: EDUCATE OR DICTATE- this initial idea was an investigation into the British schooling system. We were going to question whether the current school system works for our generation, or does it need to change? Are children being properly prepared for the world ahead in a way that maximises their achievements without discrimination. We will uncover the curriculums and compare them to modern day and past investigations. This will depend on a many investigative factors such as academics, wellbeing, and attendance from the first-person accounts within modern schools and higher education. Our final idea then came to us 3 months later after we had started the idea generation process for Lund vs Brum. We soon realised that this idea was unfortunately not achievable in the current time frame, therefore leaving us no other option than to go back to the drawing board. We eventually came to the idea of TikTok made me famous as missy (our old colleague) knew two influencers who had faced difficulties and success through the platform which got us all interested. Due to the high level of interest sparked it felt right to follow the idea and transform it into a documentary structure.  

TIKTOK MADE ME FAMOUS: FAKE OR FACT TikTok is one of the fastest growing social media apps of this day in age. Developed in just over 200 days, the platform had 100 million users within a year and 7 years later, more than 100,000 influencers reside on the app. But how? How do you make money on TikTok? How do you make a living on TikTok? How do you grow on TikTok? Our participatory documentary will focus on a handful of influencers in the UK and explore their experiences with the platform and the followers, whether it be positive or negative. The episode will be based on ‘Fame on TikTok: Fake or Fact?’, and the life behind being in the public eye. This can be based on many factors: workload, mental health, hate, career progression... Is TikTok changing futures for the better, or leaving behind a damaging social footprint that can never be erased? Is the fortune worth the fame? We want our documentary to be engaging for most ages, for different reasons. Age 13+ Is our recommended viewing age. This is because we feel that 13 is the prime age where social media gains its biggest influence. We also did not want to limit this to a specific age due to the intellectual capacity of the British public. With a 13+ regulation in place I sis also a safety adviser as some topics discussed may be of an older nature or sensitive to some viewers. Our psychographics however are widely, people that are familiar with TikTok, those Intrigued by psychology, older generations that may not understand TikTok and social media fully but are intrigued to know more, aspiring influencers looking to know how others made it big on the platform and finally just people who are interested in social media. 

After discussing multiple different ideas and themes for the documentary, we settled on The Social Curve: TikTok Made Me Famous – Fake or Fact?. This documentary is to focus on how influencers have led their way to fame on TikTok and the positive and negative factors along the way effected the way they went going ahead. We decided on this so that we could create the pilot episode of The Social Curve to a smaller scale (as opposed to Lund Vs Brum), and because we were already in contact with multiple influencers on the platform.  

Our target audience is the British public aged 13+. This is because we feel that 13 is the prime age where social media gains its biggest influence. We also did not want to limit this to a specific age due to the intellectual capacity of the British public. We want to explore social media and its positives and negatives for the younger generation but also prove to the older generation that nowadays, people that work on TikTok and social media do work hard though it looks so easy through the screen – which is also partly why we are calling the episode ‘Fake or Fact’. Due to this, the way we are going to execute this had to be some way that is engaging for both young and old. This is why we settled on the format of a participatory documentary, that our two hosts can travel round the country exploring the why and how people make it on TikTok. This will keep teens engaged at we are visiting their favourite influencers, while them seeing people like themselves exploring, while adults will be intrigued into the deeper questions, and how the young hosts go about finding this out. 

Even though we had to create the product on a smaller budget, we began crowdfunding for money and attempted to secure larger funding, since we wanted to make it the best it could be. We are going to achieve this by travelling up to the influencers and hiring crew members from the academy to help the team. We will be using Taylors equipment so that we can get some creative drone shots and interior shots in the car. 

including regular meetings and discussions during idea generation, we also did a few location reecess to potential spots, one being London. we needed to test out travel, landscapes and the public, to justify whether filming would even be possible. after a few scouts and fun but necessary Detors we concluded with our final result. We have executed the structure of the documentary by going with a narrative throughout the documentary. This will be the fact that two individuals are travelling around the country to discover how influencers make it big on TikTok and how they manage to maintain their audience– is it as easy as it looks, or does it take more work than we may think. The car we will be The Social Curve Cab, and there will be many shots of us travelling, including discussion in the car between the hosts, as well as discussion with influencers. 

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RESEARCH

It’s a fact that the evolution of social media has shaped our generation. We are what’s known as the iPad kids or the square-eyed teens. In a sense this is true, I don’t know about you, but I can’t sit down and start my lunch until I’ve found something to watch, and by the time I usually go to eat the meal I’ve just cooked, It’s cold. I also feel I can speak on behalf of our generation as I am 18 years old and currently studying media, and well, social media marketing falls beautifully under that. So, you can say I’ve grown up at the peak of developing technology. I know this essay is about social media, however, I do think technology itself is a crucial catalyst influencing the power of social media. After all, we couldn’t have social media at the tip of our fingers 24/7 if it wasn’t for the latest smartphones, smartwatches, laptops, iPad… the list goes on.  

TikTok. It’s great, isn’t it? A healthy or unhealthy addiction, we can all admit you can spend hours on that app without realising it. I feel like all you hear from all these tech experts, psychologists, and scientists, is negative stuff about this platform, but from a personal overview, I think it’s great. Where else can you learn the 50 states of America, the best Japanese food places in Manchester or which crystal gives you the best career prospects, all in the space of a 15-30 second video that also maintains your complete attention? The truth is you can’t. It’s a great educational resource for schools and students, it’s a space to share art, create and share businesses, find like-minded people, share inspiration, find jobs, get help on finding jobs, wellness tips…the list ‘again’ goes on. But not only can you post anything or watch anything, but you can also now make a living from it. You can earn money. Scrap that, you can earn BIG money. You can earn a living from just being yourself, why wouldn’t you want to become a tiktoker? 

So, I’ve got a metaphorical proposal that I want you to imagine. It’s 10 pm you’ve just got home after a busy day at a work/school that you hate, a long day of travelling to your job/ school and back again, you’ve been moaned at all day for not hitting targets, and you crash on the sofa with the biggest migraine ever and just want to sleep, but you’ve just received an email in your inbox that says.  

Hello [your name], 

I apologise for the out-of-the-blue email; however, I have been meaning to contact you for a while. 

We think your realism and individuality are qualities that deserve to be seen by the world. Therefore, we would love to offer you an ambassador status with our agency.  

We are a new company that celebrates people’s values and talents, and we help them to do this for a living.  

The role and responsibilities: 

• Post a minimum of 3 videos a week of your choosing onto one of your social media accounts. 

• Quit your awful degrading job/ school course. 

• Attend celebrity parties, holidays, and events for free at no extra cost. 

• Receive PR packages from huge names brands at no extra cost. 

• You will meet likeminded people and make friends. 

• with minimum pay of £1,500 per video that you post 

• You will gain millions of followers and become verified on all platforms. 

All you need to do is say yes and all this will be yours. 

Best wishes 

[your dream brand] 

Okay, so if you say no to this next question you are lying. Would you take this, or even consider taking it? If we were to discount all the negatives that we surround with an ‘ambassador or influencer status’ you would jump at this opportunity. You read those responsibilities and if your brains are anything like mine, I immediately would have said ‘fuck yes’ and quit my job there and then. So, what were your initial thoughts? What was the first thing that popped into your head? A word or phrase, anything but don’t overthink it. I know my advancing thought was then ‘What’s the catch?’. We’re humans, right? Trust is something so hard for the human mind to comprehend. It’s the fear of the unknown, the side-tracked thoughts of influencer horror stories. Is this a joke? Is this real? Could I make it by just being me? Well, these are the exact reactions I can imagine most of the modern social celebs have experienced in their initial breakthrough. An interview with Charlie d’a melio and ‘Entertainment Tonight’ talked about how this was precisely how Charlie’s fame began. She was living a normal life, and then she was sent an email. It just so happened that, that one email would change her life forever.  

With TikTok being such a huge platform in the present day, it has almost become easier to get more and more out of it. What i mean by this is that more and more people are downloading the app therefore, engagement and activity is growing at a rapid rate, which encourages promo to advance and investment. That investment has ended up pumping millions of pounds into TikTok’s algorithm. Companies like ‘campfire marketing’ have a whole ideology based on the power of TikTok marketing and how it’s ‘the next big thing’. This huge investment has led to TikTok becoming a paid ambassador hub. There are hidden ADs everywhere. As mentioned, before this proves that there is big money in the business. Which is maybe why this career prospect has become so appealing. The only issue with this is that its directly happening in front of the public eye, people are watching these average people, start from nothing and become millionaires. Why spend a year studying and working at dead-end jobs to make it to the top when nobody else you see is? The other thing with that point is that people are working behind the scenes to become millionaires or gain successful careers, it’s just that it isn’t plastered all over your phone every time you go on there for a quick scroll.  

This is where there are incredible dangers for our upcoming generations. This new idea of success is not deemed as ‘realistic’ and younger people are giving up the whole realistic route for the one they see on their for you pages. TikTok is changing young people’s career prospects. But I want to explore whether this is a good or bad thing.  

To break it up i want to start with a video trend that was out a few months ago. The BBC released a competition through TikTok which was a current cbbc Newsround presenter reading out a teleprompt. It was then instructed for others to duet with this video, tagging the creators, where the new CBBC presenter would be selected via the best video. This video had 6.2m views and was dueted 1.4k times. This was a legit advertisement which led to two ordinary people being hired based on this TikTok. I don’t know about you but out of 1.4k people that’s impressive. It’s crazy to think that TikTok could now become the future of hiring or advertising jobs. But what about the people who have trained for years in media and acting to get that presenter job? Does education and training mean nothing anymore? I have just recently applied for a job with Camp America which I saw and discovered on TikTok! There’s a positive right there. why couldn’t it be the future of advertising jobs? it’s fast, free promo and reaches a large audience at once. However, you could also argue that it’s made the employment scene even more competitive.  

I stand by that our world is in an employment crisis. Scientists are becoming lorry drivers and accountants are working as McDonald’s managers. This is something we have all been made aware of for years. Personally, I think TikTok has made it worse. What was an overwhelming desperation for a job you enjoy, has now become a desperation for a job that pays well. Which is where it merges into the appealing nature of becoming an influencer. Young people are seeing the struggles their parents and family members face. They watch their trusted adults come home miserable and exhausted from jobs that are the opposite of their dreams and aspirations. One of the biggest fears going into this world is now ending up in that exact position. One thing I have noticed from people my age is that money is now deemed the key to happiness. You may say that’s an exaggeration, but i urge you to find someone aged 13-17 and ask them, what’s your dream job, then why? I guarantee you will end up in the conversation of ‘it pays well’. Teens and young adults are desperate to become financially free, therefore once they see that, that could end up in the palm of their hands they will do anything to get there. 

Following on from that it also explains why when many people see an ‘influencer’ role in their sights it then becomes an ideal prospect. Some people will even put pull focus into this from a young age, therefore, abandoning their education to focus on it full time. Due to this seeming like such an incredible role, people brush over the negatives, because in fact, I think it’s one of the hardest jobs in the world.  

The psychological pressure from this job is more intense than anything you’re ever being prepared for. We all know about the dangers of social media, the skyrocketing linked suicides, catfishing, cyberbullying, scamming etc. Still, because a lot of this is so new, there is so little research out there to help these influencers deal with the issues they come across. As soon as they step into that public eye, they are no longer people. So, if they’re not people, then what are they? And to be honest i don’t have an answer for that. What I’m trying to say is they have a voice. People will listen to them, inflict inspiration, and opinions and will be the first point of contact for people they don’t even know. The trouble is that these people are just people. They will not be able to fit society’s perceptions of everybody, but that is where it gets difficult. I could go into detail about this but it’s not the point of the essay I’m writing. I just want to make it clear that these human beings face more than we think they do, and the next time you think of putting that comment or dm, just remember to differentiate between reality and think if you heard that in the street you would just accept that no one is the same and no one will agree with everyone, so just scroll on and let it be. They are not just faces behind the for you page, they are people behind the for you page. 

The other night I finally got around to watching the Bafta-winning I am Ruth, on channel 4. What an incredible production. From the emotional performances to the heart-wrenching soundtrack, it was so incredibly powerful. If you haven’t seen ‘I am Ruth’ then firstly go and watch it, but alternatively, it is a moving short series that explores a mother and daughter relationship that is then corrupted by the negative effects of social media. They touch on themes of depression, anxiety, self-harm and underaged sexual exploration, which are all effects of social media. Ruth is a concerned mother who battles with her internal conflicts and troubles to save her daughter. They both find their relationship deteriorating due to the pressures of social media and even social standards.  

I wanted to mention this, as I feel such themes have tried to be recreated before in multiple forms, however, I have nothing yet, ever communicate it with such realism as this piece does.  This is also perfect timing for my research. Studies have found that “Bark, a parental watchdog app, saw a 25% increase in self-harm and suicide alerts among young people between the ages of 12 and 18 in 2021, and more than 43% of young teenagers and nearly 75% of teenagers were involved in conversations or situations involving self-harm or suicide. Those sentences alone from Bark, evidently prove that teens are suffering life changing effects due to social media. “ 

The question is then why, and how do we stop this from happening?  

Why? Are we just the ‘snowflake generation’ who takes everything to heart? Are we too sensitive? The thing is back in the day when there was no social media or messaging platforms, if you had something horrible to say, the only way to do it was to say it to someone’s face. Who’s ever heard the saying from your parents saying, ‘id knock them out’ or ‘In our day we just scrapped it out?’ I don’t know if it was just a northern thing and because well if you said anything to a northerner that they didn’t agree with, they would probably lamp you, but beside the point, in those days if you were upset by a comment there would just be a fight and it would be over. So, in theory, we must all be the snowflakes, because I don’t know about you, but I think lamping someone over a small comment, is taking it very much to heart.  

The contrasting situation of our generation is that our frustrations or retaliations cannot be evidenced in the same way, one because most of the time we don’t know the person on the other end of the nasty dm or comment, and two because we are so conscious of our digital footprint that we are just told to ignore it and move on. However, we then end up in a situation of not being able to voice our frustrations or resolve them, it all then gets built up and our frustration comes out onto ourselves in ways of self-sabotage, or it accumulates to mental health struggles, or it comes out onto those closest to us. Either way, you’re creating a negative environment for yourselves either for your surroundings or your internal state. Once that is then bottled up, it will get buried by more and more negative situations online until we eventually explode and become ‘too sensitive’. 

• 46% of teen social media users felt overwhelmed by the drama and cyberbullying on social media apps. 

• 43% felt pressured to only post content that would make them “look good to others.” 

• 37% felt pressured to only post content that can get a lot of likes and comments. 

• 26% felt worse about their own life due to what they saw on social media. 

 https://www.levylaw.com/blog/2022/august/social-media-linked-to-rising-teen-suicide-rates/ 

Types of Documentaries: 

Expository documentary | observational documentary | participatory documentary | performative documentary | poetic documentary | reflective 

Our documentary will be primarily participatory but will have clear elements of expository making is a hybrid doc.  

Participatory - Features interaction between the filmmaker and the subject to capture emotional responses and interactions – also known as interactive documentary. Inspiration includes Stacey Dooley investigates Louis Theroux, Emily Atack 

Expository- Focuses on a specific point of view or side of an argument about a topic or subject. Usually features a ‘voice of’ God’ narration. Inspiration includes Blackfish Blue Planet the Civil War. 

Terms that will help us during creative development. 

Media bias: “Media Bias relates to thesis/perceived bias or journalists or news organisations, as well as the wider media. It normally implies a wider bias that impacts the audience. Media bias is often political. “ 

Unconscious bias - Unconscious bias is based on your personal bias, and own judgement. Media deliberately tries to paint a certain image of an event/group/individual. 

Types of media bias include:  

• Spin - over dramatizes/out of context info.  

• Unsubstantiated - without clear evidence  

• Opinions Presented as Fact - " Ad Hominem - attacking an individual.  

• Mind Reading - Journalists assume, public opinions, often wrong.  

• Flawed Logic - Unjustified conclusions  

• Bias By Placement - when media priorities front page to stories they deem most important. 

Echo Chambers/Media Bubbles: 

Group of like-minded people which share the same opinions as yourself, means you hear your own opinions back. This is why it can be productive to have wide virtual networks. Filter bubbles is where media outlets distort what you see based on your past behaviour. 

FEEDBACK

We received feedback at many points of our production from various teachers and peers. I feel this feedback was especially important as this was by far the most challenging project, I’ve managed over the past two years. I occasionally even went to teachers for advice on problems or issues where their feedback would help shape by decision making at important moments. One point in the production where this is demonstrated is during our deadlines/ checkpoints. At every check point our teacher would provide us with feedback on our task so far, whether this was pre prod, rushes, call sheets etc. Which we would then either be greenlighted or given notes for improvement. One example of feedback from our teacher about our pre prod was “Great amount of detail in your pre-production. You have targeted each area that is required. I will request that your call sheets are re-done for industry standard, and that each documentation are in each individual folder. This will make your planning concise and easy to go through. The idea is excellent, planning is meticulous. Great job. Please add these comments to your Progress Logs as soon as you read this. Resubmission: Please add my previous comments to your personal log and please update the call sheet with the one that was provided via email”. After receiving this feedback, I responded by rewriting my call sheets in the given format and then updating my progress log.  

Another way feedback developed our production was through peer responses. We often asked our peers for advice including our dop on shoots. One stand out moment was during the formal interview with Jason Allen. Sam and I were unsure how to light the interview therefore put it in the hands of our DOP Taylor who is a trained professional and ended up creating a perfectly, seamless result.  

AC2

PROBLEM SOLVING

DISCUSSION

The Social Curve is a series of episodes that will focus on specific social issues/debates in Great Britain. The pilot episode will be based on ‘The Faces Behind the FYP’, focusing on influencers that have grown on TikTok, and the life behind being in the social public eye. This can be based on many factors: workload, mental health, hate, career progression... The participatory documentary will focus on a handful of influencers in the UK, and their experiences with the platform, positive or negative. Is TikTok changing futures for the better, or leaving behind a social footprint that will never be erased? 

From a production point of view production has been planned to start from the 20th of November and run for a total of 3 weeks. Due to the varied locations of our influencers, we will be traveling up and down the country to meet with them. Once introduced we will conduct an initial briefing of the schedule and questions a head of the interviews. We will then follow into a formal interview setting. If we require b-roll from the individual, we will set up an additional time slot afterwards to capture this. pre-production started October 1st and postproduction will end December 20th at latest. This has been shaped to fit client deadlines and meet the requirements set by btech and the idea of producing for channel 4. ideally, we would have liked the production to be spaced out longer, however we have a tight deadline of Jan 1st, 24. As for discussion this was major factor in the entire process. My peers and I spoke about every decision as a team, therefore influencing every step with fairness and inclusivity.  it was important to me that this project remind a team effort and was created by people for the people. with this being an expository documentary, it was also important to use multiple opinions on screen and behind the screen, which created an unbiased result. We had weekly production meetings about the progress of the production and communicated via email and group chats.  

TESTING AND EXPERIMENTATION

As a team we experimented and tested camera set ups, settings, editing, lighting and software. Examples where we did this are completing test shots for formal and informal interviews before shooting, playing with fps, iris and the iso.We found that b-roll was much better being shot at 50fps and then interviews at 25fps, we also mainly kept the iso round 200-400 to keep the gain low but sometimes had to rase it higher in low light, but the iris was also mainly kept at 2.8. lighting again was tested during test shots especially dependent on how much natural light we had, as it often wasn’t the same time or location when it came to the actual shoots, this meant improvising or adjusting on the day, however, by doing test shoots defiantly made us more prepared as a team.  

Software is something we have probably experimented with the least due to us using software that we already had confidence using, however regarding converting files and editing, I have picked up a few new skills including transitioning, layering and text timing.  

I feel most of our test's shots went well and most Definity prepared us for shooting. Despite that, one test that didn’t work out as well as we hoped for the real day, was when we went to shoot at wills farm. We had tested and prepared the Lav mics to use the next day on our shoot, however, when we got to the farm, we after a last-minute crew cancellation and we had to result in the one camera on the gimble to be used for the walk and talk. This meant we only had one camera to attach one Lav mic pack onto. However, this meant that only one mic was synced and set up. We then had to quickly try and sync the second Liv mic to the other mic pack to record both mic inputs. This seemed to be working well but when we then reviewed the footage the audio levels were awful and had a signaling issue that wasn’t made obvious during the day. This evidently affected our result. 

RISKS AND LIMITATIONS

We encountered a problem at every step of this production. Whether it was a crewing issue, budget problems, impossible ideas, contacting contributors, contributor cancelations, permissions, transport, date changes, availability or deadlines, the list goes on. At one point it just seemed like the universe really didn’t want this production to go ahead, but we managed to pull it off despite the troubles faced. Our main issue to begin with was most definitely the budget. As we were a student-led production, this was a nonprofit documentary. We were prepared to pay for the costs ourselves and even started up a go fund me but only managed to raise £100. Despite this, after discussion with our head of department we were encouraged to take this production to a higher level after she offered to help with funding via the college. We went ahead with this and contacted more contributors and started to form a plan around the proposal. After the plan was finalized, we then proposed said plan to our head teacher who then replied with “this is far too much”. As you can imagine we were then a little defeated. Nevertheless, we had already got these contributors on board, and we were not going to let this planned opportunity slide, we then spent weeks devising an alternative and reduced the said budget by 75% resulting in £45 ahead for accommodation and travel expenses. After spending weeks making a new plan, again postponing our contributors and re-editing months of paperwork, we sent this new proposal to our head teacher. He replied then with “unfortunately the college is not able to support or provide student with funds” which left us confused and shocked as before it was only stated the budget was too large, we shrunk the budget and were then told that the college would not give us any money, therefore wasting more of our time. We then had to again plan another possibility and change all paperwork to a new proposed date.  

After then finalizing a plan after many more hiccups along the way, we were two days away from shooting our biggest shoot, to which the college were aware of months before; they had now said due to safeguarding reasons (which was eventually comical after the suggestion that sleeping in a service station, or driving 4 hours there and back with a 5 hour shoot in-between as a 5 day old passed driver, appeared more safe than staying over in a hotel) we were now not allowed to film at all and that an adult would need to chaperone the under 18s with no hotel stay aloud. This was again frustrating, but we agreed to these terms and found a chaperone last minuet for the under 18s, to which our principal changed his word 12hours before the shoot stating that he now no longer agreed to any of it, denning any mention of the production before that day and wanted us to cancel the shoot altogether. This had us in utter shock, as they were aware of this months ago and we even agreed to their terms after they had made us change the filming dates three times for our crew and contributors.  

We then put our foot down and saved our professional reputation by saying we were going ahead with the months of hard work despite their lack of support, and we then devised another plan fast, that everyone was happy with. To finish that Whorl wind of a day, our dop then cancelled due to a family emergency which left us 10 hours before the shoot with no camera man, no budget, no support, no equipment, and a heavy deadline approaching. With an hour left to resolve the issue before college closing, I immediately booked out as much equipment as possible, I sat down with Sam and figured out a logistical way of filming with just the two of us, this meant editing the shot list, script, schedule and narrative last minute. We then carried all of the equipment (7 bags) from the college to the station and took two trains home late that night, where I then had to edit all the paper work, re-print and teach myself how to use the equipment just borrowed, and also prepare the equipment for the following day, to leave the house at 5am with 7 bags, for a 14hour shoot with a drive to Buckinghamshire and back again. Despite the constant chaos we again pulled it off with an amazing result and without rescheduling, and most importantly without the support of our most trusted source of higher management. 

This was a fast paced but pivotal moment for me and Sam as after we stepped back from the situation, we soon realized that we had more potential and organization than we thought. The reason this mishap had unfolded was because we went to the college for advice and help, however, we never needed their help which then gave us the confidence to just keep going and trust our judgement. It's unfortunate that this ended with us both feeling let down by our leadership team, but it has also made us feel even more pride in the work we have produced.  

TMMF PREPRODUCTION

AC3

TECHNICAL SKILLS

Our technical approach evolved over the whole production. We went into this project not knowing a lot about the technical elements of filming a documentary. However, I can now confidently say that through observation and experience I now know significantly more about the technical elements of a documentary. It is evident in our work that our camera skills and overall aesthetic of the documentary improved as we developed, which meant there was a lot of trail and error. The issue with this was that most our shoots were scheduled on a very tight time scale, so there wasn’t a lot of time for trial and error, which has ultimately left us with no option but to work with what we have got. 

The challenge we found was that because me and Sam are not very technical when it comes to equipment, we had to either hand the responsibility over to Taylor, our DOP, or give direction. The second issue with this was that because we lacked the confidence technically, we held back when convicting our ideas during shoots, which then lead to regrets rewatching the coverage. One example being the shoot with farmer will. This whole week wasn’t going to plan in the slightest. It tested us professionally and personally but was also a key component in our growth and development.  

On this specific day our DOP unfortunately, pulled out last minute due to a family emergency, which left the crew down from a minimal team to just the two of us. The minimal crew was part of our conditions with our college, therefore we had no back up or external crew to have on call. Despite the crew now being at its bare minimum, we went ahead and decided to go and do our best. Neverminded the stress of being a production manager on this day, I also now had to step in with less than 6 hours’ notice to be the camera and sound operator. I was terrified. As mentioned, before I am not technical, I have no experience in this area of cinematography and sam had huge expectations for this specific segment. There was no room for these nerves, we were on our our way to Buckinghamshire for something we had been planning for 3 months, with one of the biggest influencing names on TikTok, we couldn’t turn around now. We tuned up and I asked sam to go over and run through the questions with will and get the content forms signed etc., while I then tried to stay composed and set up all of the cameras, lav mics, lighting panels etc. and then also try and figure out how to use the gimble from text messages from Taylor. Long story short we got all the coverage we needed, and I can with pride say I did my very best that day, on my own, with a smile, but that was 100% one of the toughest days yet. My whole point of this story was that although I feel I did the best I could on the day, and we were both running on pride and adrenaline of how we both managed to pull it off; a few weeks later Sam had regrets and wasn’t happy with the decisions made and coverage captured. While he has never once complained about my efforts on that shoot, I can’t help but feel that with our more experienced camera op and maybe a few more days extra notice to plan and get ahead and up to speed with the equipment before the shoot, we could’ve achieved something truly incredible. 

I think in terms of technical improvement, we needed a clearer script and shot list. As our director struggled to articulate his vision and it left us on set often indecisive and clueless. I couldn’t plan schedules and call sheets due to no shot lists and scripts, which lead to me creating a rough script in order to create timings, which then left the documentary all over the place, as my vision was not what sam was envisioning. Frustrating, yes, and understandable yes 100%. This production always was going to have that added pressure due to us hyping it up so much. Sam wanted it right and perfect, as that was how it was pitched. I wish that we didn’t give ourselves that pressure, and then we could have had fun with this technically.  

I wish we went out and just played around with different shots in different locations, sound equipment, such as trying the booms instead of lav mics. We should of just of been students! If I regret anything it would be that we relied too much on our end result providing us with pride, rather than finding success in experimentation and learning about all the technical equipment we didn’t know about. It’s all good me saying this is a regret, but the truth is that I needed to experience this now to know that it’s important to slow down and appreciate the process just as much as achieving the end product. 

We were fortunate to have the talented Taylor perks as our DOP therefore anything less than a high level of technical quality was never even in the question. Anything Taylor films is produced with the highest level of consideration, artistic viewpoint, and technicality. He is incredible at what we do which is why we wanted him on this project. The good thing about our crew relationship was that we all saw the potential in this documentary, therefore we all wanted nothing but the best for it. By having Taylor in our meetings, we could use his technical knowledge to bring out creative ideas to life. One example being our presenter walk and talks. Sam has a vision where we would produce narrative elements through a similar daytime tv presenting aesthetic, Taylor knew exactly how to bring this to life and suggested we used the drones to capture that Birdseye angle, ready for a quick cut into a front facing gimble shot. See, I told you he was good. It was why our crew worked so well, Sam brought creative, I brought logistics and Taylor brought technical.  

CONSISTANCY OF TECHNICAL EXECUTION

The conditions made by our DOP meant we needed to keep that consistent in our solo shoots. This was where we struggled. With that said, we did use techniques to make sure it was as consistent as possible. We did this by using the same camera settings throughout, no matter the camera: iso was always between 200-400, iris at 2.8, if we had to use the 4k Blackmagic pocket cams, instead of Sony, we would always shoot in 4k RAW to try and keep the high-quality image and of course make sure we were using the right fps depending on the shot. This did work to a standard, but you can tell when the quality shifts. Although we managed to resolve this the best, we could through color grading and adobe film filters. 

One example where there is a visible contrast in quality and structure is at the farm. As stated previously, we had to film this with different camera, different sound equipment and with a severe lack of experience and practice.  The proposed structure for each segment was set to include a formal, filmed with a 3-camera set up, one wide, one float close up and one side close up, including sound recorded on two lav mics and a backup shot gun, including then a 4th camera on gimble and to add perspective, there was one of me. Additional to the formal we were also structed to get drone footage, two walk and talks on gimble, broll, narrative sit and chat with another 3-camera set up in a different location, in one day. This was challenge with the correct equipment, an experienced DOP and minimal crew, so as you can imagine when we realized it was two of us, the panic set in. it was made apparent that we needed to drop the structure expectations and create a more achievable idea, however, it was also apparent that it wouldn’t look identical to the other segments that had been previously filmed. 

The only option to maintain consistency and use the coverage that was gained on the day was to just assess it in post. We made a plan to shoot some drone shots at a location identical to the farm area, then use those in-between the other farm shots, and also to film the narrative sections also at the identical location. Additionally, to this we had to use postproduction techniques to hide the footage strategically behind the other shots, so it wasn’t noticeable.  

If were being completely honest this project has taught me that I don’t want a career in technical broadcast. I find it competitive and I’m not good at it, which is why I’ve lacked the confidence in trying. It’s taken a high-pressure situation to prove that I can do anything I put my mind to, and that I’m not ‘not good at it’ I’m just not as experienced as others. Nevertheless, I still don’t think it’s a career aspiration of mine, but it’s given me a glimpse into the responsibilities and the importance of having a good tech crew.  

TECHNICAL COMPETENCE

I have learned many new technical skills during this project, one of which being in editing. When editing the factual graphic section for the documentary I had to experiment and teach myself how to incorporate graphic elements and footage seamlessly. My first attempt at creating a scrolling phone on the footage wasn’t great, however after watching a few tutorials on some cool transitions and layering, I edited up with a pretty good result. The most challenging part was exporting the graphic and being about to add it into the actual edit. I did the graphic on Canva due to its flexibility and resources, but when it came to exporting you couldn’t download the video with a transparent background, therefore I had to save it as a landscape video then use the lasso tool in premier to cut the video onto the top layer.  

Another skill I picked up along the way which was specific to this documentary project was 100% lighting, which I’m sure Sam can agree on. This was one of the components we both underestimated in preproduction. It was our first interview where I realize its potential as myself and Sam had suggested to Taylor that we just wanted to keep things naturalistic with just the use of natural light, however even with a huge window at the filming location we still needed lighting to enhance the naturalistic tone. Taylor taught me about the best ways to light interviews and that if you don’t then the contributor could look washed out or faded into the background. The best way I would describe how to do this would be that the secrete it to have 3 areas of lighting, a key light, a back light, and a fill light. These will match your shots- for example if you have a 3-camera set up (interview standard) then you would have a wide cam, which will rely of the fill light, then a side cam, which will show more of the key light, and then a back light will enhance those focus shots from the 3rd camera. So, although, I said I wanted it to be extremely naturalistic, by having this lighting it just made our focus points pop out. 

The biggest challenge for me was thinking about everything at once. One specific moment being the sit and chat at the farm. I had to man 3 cameras and 3 pieces of sound equipment, as well as a handheld camera. I then understood the art of multitasking from a Camera operators’ perspective, as it wasn’t just manning the camera and sound for the interview it was setting up the cameras with all the right settings such as the fps, formats, iris, iso etc. then connecting all the sound recorders and watching the levels from start to finish and all three devices, then it was watching the SD storage, then watching the time as I was also the production manager on the shoot so it was keeping an eye on the script and timings, and then making sure every cam was still in focus and fully charged, then finally actually being able to film on the camera that was in my hand during all this. this isn’t even including the set up and the set down of all the equipment. Overwhelmed is the best way to describe that, but like I mentioned before it proved that I was capable of more than I thought I was, and sometimes an opportunity such as that one is needed to give you the confidence in trying new things.

CAMERAWORK

Framing was key to the storytelling of our contributors. One example being related to the previous mention of the 3 camera shoots. One camera was the side close up. We wanted this to be a consistent feature for all our guests. This side close up was able to show an informal and personal point of view, making the interviews rawer and more intimate. Having that close up framed to show their emotion from almost a side-to-side angle, creating almost a friendship feel, allowing that connection between the audience and the contributor.  

The key lighting was one thing that made our influencer pop in their segments; however, it was also massively important to make sure the focus was on point. the main vision was to have our influencer as the key focus point, and then a blurred background related to there are of interest or career. An example of this would be Jason’s formal interview. The idea for this was to have Jason in the bottom left two quadrants and then a blurred background of a music studio to highlight with status as a musician. Unfortunately, due to location issues with the studio we had to relocate the interview and improvise with lighting, however, this worked in our favor as by using the two TikTok colors with light beans, it allowed the significance of the formal to be TikTok itself, which worked as the formal questions were all TikTok specific.  

That leads perfectly onto my next point of the power of composition within our coverage. This was included in the lats point of our formal interviews. By using the blurred background, we needed to arrange the objects in relation to the key focus, the influencer. For wills formal we decided to set things up in his living room due to the lack of space on location. When we shot this, it was Christmas which meant his decorations were a prominent part of the house décor. There was no avoiding this seasonal theme no matter where we were facing, so we had to embrace it. We decided to keep Will central for this and angle the tree to the right hand side due to many issues, one being the overall aesthetic but also it were on the left you could almost catch the side cameras reflection in the baubles, therefore it was an intentional yet logistical decision.  

The cameras movement was dependent on the set up. If we were doing formals, they would be still on tripods with 1 being free to pan for focus, however if we were out an about doing narrative shots or Broll, we would use the gimble due to its easily accessible movement from panning to tilting, it was great at following its focus seamlessly. Another key example of music is of course the drone footage. Establishing shots were a huge part of the structure of the documentary- setting the scene or setting up for voice overs, it was the perfect way to break up the heavy moments of information. It took our student documentary up with a level of professionalism, to compare it to industry standard pieces of work.

AUDIO AND SOUND

Sound is something I always find tricky to talk about, but in this project, I guess It was important to get right. Of course, we are using recorded audio and it was an expository doc, which meant sharing information was crucial. Our influencer was a huge assist to this idea, without them the success of this project would be miniscule. Despite ethe obvious need for recorded audio, the other element of sound that I though was just as important was music.  

Music is known to create feeling and connection through pieces of media such as tv and film. Getting it right was a necessary, as this documentary was all about educating and connecting with the people over something we all have in common. Being able to provoke feelings and emotions was one of the only ways we could shape our opinions or enhance the moments and memories shared by ourselves or the influencers.  

The moment created by our influencers were often honest and emotional soties about their graft for success, therefore we had to do it justice by adding cinematics- a key element of dramatics is music.  

Sound effect will be something to think about more when I come to postproduction, however I have ideas for adding traffic or morning birds over the drone shots and broll, to create atmosphere to set the scene, if not captured by the recorded audio. voice over were also something that Sam wanted, which I presume will be over the factual graphics or over the top of broll, when introducing a segment. 

As previously mentioned the main issue with sound was on the day we filmed with farmer will. On this day we filmed an interview outside at the farm with will and sam. For this interview we used lav mics, however, the mistake we made with this shoot was that we connected the two lav mics to the same camera/ recorder. Therefore the issue we had was that when each person spoke the mic would isolate the audio, meaning that when the two spoke at the same time, it cut the audio out almost completely. The signals between the mics were constantly disrupted due to this issue and made the sound impossible to work with due to it being so distorted. This was a major learning curve and going forward into future shoots i would make sure the lav mics are connected separately to their own transmitter/ recorder. It would be smart in the future to do a test shoot to test out the audio and picture, but understandable this wasnt possible this time around, due to crew cancellations and last minute technical improvisation.

POST-PRODUCTION

Unfortunately, i cant speak first hand on this section as i didnt edit the documentary. I did however, have input and create the graphics. From the areas where i had decisions it was primarily based in developments and improvements. Sam had the footage and over half term he completed half of the rough cut. I reviewed this footage and gave advice on areas where i felt it didnt look the best or needed improvement. An example of this would be the music; the music he initially had over the titles in my opinion didnt work at all. Creatively it didnt match with the aestetic, cuts or transitions. This first piece of music was almost like advertisement music, therefore he took this feedback which gave him the opportunity to find the perfect track to go alongside the edit. This one matched the pace and overall aesthetic of the final product, and it also worked well with the rest of the work as we put them together and manipulated the track to split scenes and shots. 

Another example where we used creative video editing was by embedding the formal interview throughout the doc. This was incredibly hard to do, as it was a lot of reviewing footage and picking out the best and most relevant sections. It was also hard to embed them seamlessly to fit with the pace and narrative. We knew we wanted to have bit of jasons formal interview in his vt, as the formal was created to theme the documentary back to tiktok. Alot of the questions we asked were purposely about tiktok and his influence on the app, so this was great as when the busker talked about himself and his personal journey, we could still use it and tie it all back to tiktok and the main purpose of the doc. We also did this by adding in broll of him either busking or performing in the sections where he taked about his career, which enhanced the visual story telling and provoked more emotion and perspective. 

Pace was a huge issue we had to face from the start to the finish. Originally our rough cut was 56 minuets, then we cut it down to 45, then finally got in down to 32. We just had so much content and footage that we wanted people to see. Due to it being an investigative piece following our own journey, it was important for us to include as much of that journey as possible to keep realism and authenticity. However, we also wanted to keep the product engaging and entertaining, therefore that meant cuting it right down! The way we cut it down was by getting external people to review the section we had completed and telling us where they got bored, which indicated to us the bits we needed to cut. We also had to face the fact that most of the talk from jason was not relevant to the documentraty, and no matter how interesting it was, it needed to be cut, but we didnt waste this as it will be used alternatively for socials for promotions. The pace overall I feel is strong, it reflects our journey from the start to finish of the investigation and is broken into clear sections to aid the narrative. 

Transitions were also relevant to the pacing, as mentioned before our doc was spit into sections, which meant transitions were often the establishing broll at the start and end of each section, or sometimes we used graphics to split the sections apart. With specifics we used a centre split screen to embed our graphics into the vt of jason allan. This worked really well because it added professionalism to the edit and proved we could add depth and skill to the edit. Without the transitions of graphics and broll, it would be very information heavy and by having these segments inbetween, it alsmot gives the audience a little break from all the information they are receiving. 

Colour correcting could also be seen as a weakness in the doc; ultimately this fault is down to the switch of kit throught the doc. As time went on we used two different cameras, sony and black magic. These have very different looks and feels, especially since a few of the shots were shot in different settings such as 4k, hd, raw. When you watch the doc you can visually see the difference between the two cameras and it is obvious which ones we shot with which. We used an adjustment layer on premiere pro to correct and blanace the colour, however when the layer is used on all of the doc, unfortunately when used on the two different cameras it produces two different visuals, either over or under saturated. No matter how much we adjusted each layer it was never going to be identical, unless we got a professional colour corrector to have a go. 

Finally one issue that had a huge impact was file size. When editing in premiere, it doesnt like large files and often crashed due to the capacity. Proxies were a game changer during editing the overall peice. We were able to edit the sections separately and then push them together on a proxy setting to stop any lag or risk of it crashing. This made the process so much easier, quicker and decreased stress. Proxies were never something i used before when editing but are definitely a skill from the project that i will use in the future to continue my post production development. 

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DOCUMENTARY ROLES

Director SAM LEWIS 

As the director of The Social Curve, it was Sam’s responsibility to lead all creative aspects of the project, as well as deciding on who we managed to secure as contributors. He oversaw the look/feel and theme of the documentary, and how this would be presented onto the screen – Visually, by audio, editing, music, and narrative. Sam also must make sure that he would be able to make these contributors feel comfortable before interviews.  

1. Producer 

BOTH – SAM LEWIS AND JESS WATSON 

As producer we oversaw the idea generation and overall development of the production. We discussed and made creative decisions and contributed to the way we were going to produce the documentary. We didn’t necessarily agree on everything but as co-producers it was our jobs to compromise and make those important decisions together. 

1. DOP 

TAYLOR PERKS  

The DOP is responsible for managing all camera equipment, and in this case, being the lead camera operator for the team. Taylor will work closely with Sam in ensuring that his creative vision is executed to an industry-level standard. Taylor will oversee framing shots, lighting shots as well as leading the camera crew throughout the production.  

1. Editor  BOTH- SAM LEWIS AND JESS WATSON 

As co-editors it was our key duty to deliver a well presented edit that met the standards of the creative brief. Their job is mostly in post with the occasional influencer in production- however, because we were taking on many roles this just meant are roles were fused a lot of the time. 

1. Camera Operator 

ETHAN TURNER 

It is the responsibility of the camera op to capture the footage following the director and/or DOP’s requests. It is the responsibility of the sound op to ensure that clean, crisp audio is captured throughout the production, with requests from the director.  

1. Production Manager 

JESS WATSON 

Jess’ responsibility is to make sure that the entire team knew which dates we would be filming, by scheduling, sending out call sheets, and making sure that the production was going on track. Jess is also responsible in making sure that crew is always booked for production dates, ensuring that we have enough each day of shooting.  

PRODUCTION MANAGER | PRESENTER | CO-PRODUCER 

YOUR ROLE

Responsibilities 

• Booking talent and crew 

• Scheduling 

• Research 

• Pitch and proposal. 

• Budget 

• Locations 

• Contracts 

• Contingency plans and risk assessments 

• Booking travel 

• Call sheets. 

• Distributions 

• Learning lines 

• Attending shooting days 

• Acting in front of camera 

Communication in this project was everything from start to finish, however, it was also something we lacked, sometimes even between just the two of us. Because this was sams ‘passion project’ it then left me with the job of making his vision come to life. This was the part I found most tricky as because of our friendship I found it hard to be strict and say no to things. One example being the finish date. Our estimated finish date was dec 20th. We didn’t get the footage needed to achieve the full creative vision, due to many unavoidable and unexpected events, which meant Sam was not going to wrap up until he had all the coverage. I understood his motivations as I too wanted a brilliant result, however it then got to January where I put my foot down that I was wrapping up the production due to deadlines and estimated time in post. Sam didn’t not agree or like this decision as expected, as this project meant a lot to him. The only trouble with this is that Sam then had all the footage, which left me unable to start or produce my own edit in time, leaving my now unavoidably 2 months behind on deadlines. It was clear due to communication issues we had very contracting motivations towards this production in the end. Despite this, it has taught me that it’s important to set these clear working boundaries and nonegotiations when initially contracted for a job, and probably not to work with your friends on a production as important as this one. 

Initially, our proposal for communication was to explain a little bit about the project to our desired features/management, which would ultimately confirm our features and subjects for the documentary. We had reviewed this with Louise Tugwell (Executive producer). The email included a PDF of our project pitch and explanation as shown below. We gave the idea of arranging calls if necessary and often did this post-email. At first, we described the project as student-led, however soon removed this, as we didn’t feel it was necessary to our clients.  

INITIAL EMAIL  

Hello,  

We are contacting you regarding a documentary about the positives and negatives of fame on TikTok and the wider media in society today. We think that you would be the perfect fit for our documentary thanks to the presence and purpose of your own social media accounts.  We want to touch on all things – nothing is off limits! We’re looking to tell your story about the way you got into the jobs you have, the positive opportunities that TikTok or socials may have bought you and perhaps some of the negatives that the popularity on the platform might have led to.  In return for helping us out with the project, we will be posting clips on TikTok and Instagram, with the full edit of the project being aired onto YouTube (unless we get commissioned otherwise), giving you guy’s accounts promotion, as well as the chance for you guys to make new connections in the influencer world.   We have attached a short PDF which includes an overview of our goals for the doc and a little bit about us. We need you on our list!  We would love for you to get on board! If this is something, you think you may be interested in then please get in contact asap! You could be involved by video call, writing or hopefully in person, we’d just love to have your input.  Best Wishes,  The Social Curve Team  

TEAM COMMUNICATION  

As a team, we immediately set out targets and proposals for each week of work that we did towards the documentary. This was done by getting together for a production meeting every week and ultimately deciding what was on the agenda for the week and setting deadlines to do these things. Eventually, we introduced taking minutes as part of our weekly meetings so that we could record these voiced opinions on paper. If we went a week where we didn’t meet our targets, then we would end up discussing the reason for this and how to overcome it in future weeks. We had pre-production days where we would simply focus on pre-production being completed which led to meeting more targets for the week.  

CONTRIBUTOR COMMUNICATIONS  

It was important for us to create strong relationships with sour contributors and their regents; therefore, it was a huge priority of ours. We kept in good contact with them all and were very conscious of keeping them updated with the progression of the production. Communication, however, wasn’t always great. We unfortunately ran into problems with late replies and on one occasion ghosted us. I’m aware this is an inevitable element of production as priorities change and this leads to effects on production. The successful outcome of this was that we responded well through quick changes and substitutions, and we always communicated this to our contributors and crew.  

WEEKLY MEETINGS - COMMUNICATION  

Weekly meetings were huge for us as we were both busy with other projects alongside this one, which led to small details being missed. Having these weekly meetings made sure all information was covered and all questions are being answered. It also allowed us to set targets for the week and evaluate progress points. We used this time to arrange meetings and shooting dates and adjust the calendar accordingly.  

CO-DEPENDANCY 

My main issue when it came to this project was co-dependency. I am incredibly use to independent work and relying on no one but myself to achieve goals and deadlines, yet with this project I truly realised how difficult it is to finish a production that in real term just isn’t finished to the standard we desired. The main contributor to our project not being finished relies unfortunately on last minuet cancellations. Whether this was crew, contributions, or kit, we have had at least 6 filming dates that have been cancelled over the past two months.  

My opinion of this would suggest that others including myself grew tired of the never-ending process and wanted to wrap up the project to move onto the next to avoid late work submissions and piling workloads. So, in conclusion I don’t blame crew for prioritising other projects over this. with that said it was devastating to plan ready for a shoot then receive on the day cancellations, leading to money loss on booked travel and time loss on other work. Again, this did fall under communication and honestly. Relating to co-dependency, this was where I struggled to keep moving forward, as the only thing you can’t control is the response or effort of other people, which ultimately lead to my decision to wrap up the production and work with what footage we had, even if the director disagreed. 

On a positive note, creatively, we worked well. One example being that at the start Sam struggled with writing scripts. He had an amazing vision in his head of the documentary, and I fortunately have written scripts in the past which lead to us merging our roles of director and production manager. Sam helped me with risk assessments and locations while I worked on creative aspects such as structures and scripts, so in short form we work really well together and produced some incredible pieces of work with some incredible people- no two work colleagues agree all the time, do they?  

LANGUAGE 

Language now comes naturally in our 2nd year. It’s strange how at the start of this course we felt official just saying action and now were calling shots like professional movie sets. It’s what comes with the nature of the industry and lingo used on set is something that happens in the early and late stages of your career.  

ASSET MANAGEMENT

All our footage was stored onto Taylors hard drives and passed over to Sam on his hard drive. I however, am not in a position to buy a 2tb hardrive to store a 3rd copy therefore was relying on collage to borrow one for over the edit process, but unfortunately they haven’t got one- and haven’t had one for 2 months now. I have attempted multiple time to transfer footage onto multiple large USB’s but because the files are to large not one of the videos will transfer. This has left me with no footage therefore, no independence to submit an edit in time for the deadline and will have to wait for Sam to finish his edit before even starting mine, which again leaves us with an issue as its now feb and Sam is being stubborn and will not start his edit until he has all the coverage- which will not happen in the near future as myself and Taylor have wrapped up on this project due to other projects now coming in, and other contrasting events, leaving us with no availability to film anymore for the doc; at least until we leave boa at the end of May. This is sams passion project therefore it is his priority for the two years, I understand this, and I do feel for him, but we have found it hard to communicate to him is that it’s not our priority and that’s something he needs to accept. 

So currently, I am in a bit of a rubbish situation which may compromise my final grade, which again may I add is no one’s fault but my own. 

Regarding storage Sam has state that all footage is stored safely on a hard drive in labeled and organized files. Each file is labeled by location, date, and contributor.  

PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE

Safety was a huge factor in this specific project. This documentary compared to other contained five external cast members all being at different ends of the uk. This meant communicating online and then travelling down to their locations to film. The issue with this was safeguarding due to two crew members being under 18. This was most definitely understandable which was why we were incredibly cautious, made sure we had the correct paperwork and were filming in appropriate areas. With this said, that wasn’t always possible. One example being Will young. Will was one of our key contributors and most famous influencer. The issue we had with will was that he not only lived in Aylesbury, a 3hours drive away from Birmingham, but he also lived in the middle of nowhere on a farm. Alongside this we also never had access to wills direct personal contact. All communication was through his agent.  

From an outsider point of view this look sketchy as anything. However, from our point of view we have gone through 2 months of zoom meetings and calls with a bit time legit agency and had gone through months of planning for this filming date. Will is also a hugely well-known and recognized social media figure, therefore we hoped that to have this huge audience, he had to be friendly and likable enough. With that mentioned I do get that presuming is never enough in order to guarantee safety, which is why we turned to our head of year for advice which ended up in a whole other story, but as a result to maintain our after we has rehearsed the route, had our own mode of transport and the one minor that was taken due to limiting crew numbers, had an adult/ parent with them through filming.  

As a successful ending, we turned up to the proposed farm location and met will. He was friendly, approachable, and likeable as expected. I do understand this isn’t always the case, and we did just get lucky that we had organized this with huge success, but I do also feel we put a lot of hard work and pre-production into filming these on location shoots. Pre-production included risk assesmnets, rout eolans, location recess, worst case scenarios, back up plans, schedules, call sheets for all, in depth contracts with safeguarding info- NDA’s.  

AC5

COMMUNICATION

PLATFORM/ AUDIENCE IMPACT

This documentary will be uploaded onto youtube and sent out as shorts onto other social platforms. This will allow it to reach many demographics at no extra cost. We want our doc to create awareness and educate other about the growth of tiktok and its influencers; therefore, it was important for us to make the viewing of this project extremely accessible for all. This production was created with the intention to be seen on tv screens, which is why it has the structure and aesthetic to suit channel 4 or bbc iplayer content. With this in mind, we will also be distributing our final production to commissioners at said companies, which could lead to more prestigious distribution and viewing.  

Youtube is a great creative platform for tv and film professional, therefore it is also a place of collaboration and inspiration. Our contributors also have an impressive online presence therefore their audience is based online. With us having a significant potential reach for their audience asweel as our own, it was crucial that we try our best to invite their viewing to our documentary. The agreement with our influencers also grantees promotion on their platforms also, which gives us hope of reaching that audience.  

COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUES

Viewing an reach is what will make this purpose and intention successful. In order to achieve this reach, we need to use that online distribution. Regards to offline use, we unfortunately will not be in a position to offer this. Due to budget and licencing requirements, we will not be putting this documentary out into any external viewing parties such as cinemas or film festivals.  

As previously sated the promotion of this project is what will help us achieve our desire reach. However, in order to do this we need to use creative and strategic routes in order to invite other audiences in. we were both really keen to do this through audience interactions w=such as q&a’s with the public and also through mini vox pops on socials. We will be regularly teasing the doc leading up to its release, and we will use the contacts gained through the production process to share this content. We want keen the platforms fresh, trendy and relevant- by using exciting content with graphics, shorts and interactions. We have high hopes in our marketing strategies through previous employment and marketing experience, and we feel together we will make an impressive attempt to promote our documentary.  

In order to upload this successfully onto youtube it will be an MP4 file. 

We want our documentary to be engaging for most ages, for different reasons. Age 13+ Is our recommended viewing age. This is because we feel that 13 is the prime age where social media gains its biggest influence. We also did not want to limit this to a specific age due to the intellectual capacity of the British public. With a 13+ regulation in place, I am also a safety adviser as some topics discussed may be older or sensitive to some viewers. Our psychographics however are wide, people who are familiar with TikTok, those Intrigued by psychology, older generations that may not understand TikTok and social media fully but are intrigued to know more, aspiring influencers looking to know how others made it big on the platform and finally just people who are interested in social media. From the footage gained so far I feel it fits perfectly with the target audience its educational but entertaining enough to maintain young people’s attention span.  

Regarding psychographics, which is our secondary audience, I feel it will reach out to winder age ranges through psychographics such as TikTok, influencing or anyone who knows a teen with a phone really. Everyone who has a phone and is in their young adulthood, knows about TikTok which creates a huge magnet point for our doc. I feel by using these common interests it will help us achieve our desired reach and audience goals.

The communication used to connect our intentions with our audience was evidenced from pre to post. When planning our scenes we made sure we were painting our shots to capture a personal but also observational pov. We wanted our audience to feel involved in their own investigation, as well as feeling apart of ours. We did this by using three camera angled that could reflect both of these intentions. One was a wide, to create an observational ‘fly on the wall’ overview, but the sectioned and third angles were close ups and side pov’s to create that more personal approach. This worked really well in terms of story telling as it enhanced the expository journey, of knowing nothing to finding our the truth. Our creativity was shows again through his approach due to our passion for wanting our audience to ask their own questions and discover their own opinions. We didnt want to provoke any unconscious bias, but we did want to share our opinions. We did this through using those angles to hide our reactions at occasional moments, as our facial expression may have projected an opinion on our audience. Regarding audio we used teh communication of the time of day through sound effects; such as using nature sfx or traffic sounds to enhance the atmosphere of moring or evening, depending on the shot. 

I feel we did this really well; we were always conscious of keeping a levelled opinion and we have used clear messages of the journey in each shot “its now the next morning, and were now on our way to see…”. By using language to support the progression of the journey, it make sit easier for the audience to follow the story and connect to our emotional development. Audiences also tend to enjoy a piece of entertainment which is easy to follow, if we didn't keep this structure and make it easy to follow, people would lose interest quickly. Despite us trying our best it was hard to keep things levelled out. Due to the documentary being unscripted, it had plenty of room for opinionated responses and questions. In order to keep the conversations following and provoke the best answers, it meant we needed to be ourselves! People respond better to people, it was important for us to remain professional but also form personal connection with these contributors, as this was the best way to get raw content. In order to follow through with this approach our documentary will have influences from ourselves therefore may damaging our attempt on limiting unconscious bias.

Our documentary has never been done before. There is now so much out there regarding influencers, social media and the effects on our generation, however, no one has ever explored the faces beine dteh for you page in related to fame and fortune. Its a daring investigation that i feel is best being told be the generation that is experiencing the growth of tiktok. Its an interesting subject that can relate to everyone, young or old, and will also be relevant in years to come, when people will be reminiscing about the growth of social media. It can be used as entertainment or a research product for companies or students. We stand out because of our age. We are young producers, who feature on screen as young presenters, talking about a relevant topic aimed at young people. This will give us a great aesthetic in the market and hopefully appeal to our top demographic of 13-25 year olds. In comparison to other filmmakers our age and skill level, i do appreciate we stand out mostly due to our impeccable pre production. Our bookings and contacting skills paid a huge role in our success as our contributors are the main evidence of our USP. Even through we are at a beginner level we have managed to book all of our guests and locations for free, along with their combined following of 4million. 

RATIONAL AND PURPOSE

Yes and no. I think youve got to be some sort of magician for a plan to go exactly as expected. Regarding expectation of our end product, is hard to pinpoint as i didnt really have any. I knew i wanted something that would provoke opinions and showcase the influencers as being hard working career driven people. However, my opinions changed as the doc progressed. I initially had the expectations of these influencers being really hard working and working all day everyday and being infatuated with creating content, but my intention change after meeting the people. The contributors we picked were the most genuine and nicest people ive working with thus far, they were just people who ended up in the world of tiktok for being them. Although they had this fame, the connection they both shared was that tiktok is self was not at all their priority. My expectations then changed from pre to post, of projecting them more for the people they were rather than their job. The original focus was to highlight their career progression and exploring the things they have given up to progress int he industry due to their fame, however the point now is to exploring who the people behind tiktok really are, and if that the reason they are so successful. 

We made sure our pre production was on point, this wa important to me as the pre production is my favourite part of a production and is where my strength lie. I find so much passion in orginising, logistics and admin, so it was a huge celebration when the documentary was commended for its level of planning. Did our pre production reflect our documentary? Yes, i hope it did. As i mentioned before, our doc achieved it success mostly down to our contributors; without them it wouldn't of been what it is today. Could the doc of being progressed planning to filming better? Probably. our downfalls maybe come into light more during filming, due to the work falling on the two of us, the pressure to keep up with exceptional level of the pre production was really difficult, as we were the ones who set those expectations high. To me im happy with the result, and from being in the start to finish of the production i can confidently say we couldnt of done any better. From an outside pov, i would say you can see inconsistencies from pre to the final product, and without knowing the ins and outs of production, people may question the development and final product, which they may say it didn't meet expectations, but for me, im happy with what we produced.

There are so many changes, however, I strategically made sure our plans were adaptable and could deal with these changes, such as leaving gaps and creating mock date sand schedules, longside cast and crew availability. It helped that our doc was almost completely unscripted, which left so much room for new thoughts and questions. We were prepared for opinions to be changed through the doc journey, and we wanted that to also play a huge role in the development process. One example being jason allan. We originally had planned for one busking vt and one formal with jason, but after talking we ended up following jason to his gig a few weeks after and then to see him busking in birmingham a few days later. We changed our edit structure and schedule to fit in extra filming dates and crewing. This ended up working really well, as it created more of a journey for the audience, and gave us content to fill in the gaps which contributors dropped out.

A hand held camera is a key convention in most documentaries as it adds realism and perspective to a product. We used this many times during broll and walking shots. Although most of our shots were filmed using a rig or tripod, we wanted our documentary to have that perspective, therefore we substituted it with tight angles and side views. A voice over is also something we had, as by having that narrative it makes the journey and story much easier to follow. Interviews are a convection that is integral to a documentary, especially one like ours. Our doc needed questions and answers in order to investigate and explore the truth. Establishing shots are great in most things but helped us so much in post production, and were also really fun to capture with the drone.

written by jessica-Chloe watson