Present a brief outline of your documentary.
My documentary will be documenting the impact of music on the city and it’s community. It involves montages of the city at night, smooth jazz music, shots at local bar music, interviews with organizers of small gigs, the performers and the audience (and possibly random citizens) asking what they think the importance of music is in their society. It will then have an antagonizing perspective that music is not enough to make a living for people to survive, and leave the audience with the question of the importance of passion over making money
What is the purpose(s) of your documentary?
It will be an attempt to persuade the audience into understanding the importance of the music, and also to expose the local Auckland music scene and how it functions. This is because I think the importance of music is underestimated in society today, with the media producing countless replicas of Top 40 entertainment, art has slowly slipped through the cracks and has been forgotten. Our society has then reflected the attitudes evident in popular music; the partying, the sex, the recreational drug use and a general shallow way of life. I think this is a problem, so I plan to make this documentary give the message that it can be deeply gratifying to indulge in the artsy music scene, and furthermore it is a good way to discover yourself and build your own character. This should interest the audience too, by showing them a side of music they possibly have not seen, and could inspire them to make changes to themselves.
Explain the ideas/messages that you wish to explore in your documentary.
To show the importance of music (and art) in a community where business and commerce is so apparent, and that there is more than just the Top 40 scene. (Further explained above)
Explain how your documentary will appeal to the target audience.
It will focus on blending pleasant imagery (city lights, cool and calm drives through the city, atmospheric bar performances, happy audiences, clapping, smiling people) with music and the idea of music in the city. This should appeal to anyone who has the ability to see, but furthermore it will target everyone who considers any aspect of their life dull or boring, and give them a breath of fresh air. They’ll be interested because it is capturing moments of magic in the city we live in, but it is also informative enough to provide a new outlook that will also capture their attention. This includes the audience that will be at the film festival, school students, family members, friends and generally all members of the public.
Consider practical details – what does your documentary involve in terms of:
Time: I would like to have a lot of night time shots, which may clash with the school time we are offered to film with. I will have to solve this by utilizing out of class time.
Research: I may need to research the income of musicians, and other aspects of their lifestyle, like working a day job in conjunction with music, however it should be easy to do this at any point.
Personnel: Will need someone to drive crew to the city, sound person, camera person, and interview respondents. I have only considered parents and other family members, or bus.
Locations: City mainly, gigs at bars and small venues (such as the open mic night at the Wade Hotel in Silverdale). I will need to plan ahead to get into these. A lot of the gigs are monthly, so I will need to take whatever opportunities I can at whatever time they come.
Equipment: A good quality camera to capture the night scenes well, tripod and any stabilizing equipment, a mic for interviews and performances, car. Charlie and Briar, who are most likely going to be in the same group as me have a lot of equipment we could use. I have nothing.
Releases: Permission to film all the interviewed people, performing people, permission to film in bar and at gigs. These will just have to be written and printed whenever
Graphics and Special Effects Using Adobe After Effects I could add colour enhancing (using curves) to bring out particular visuals. Other than a general visual enhancment, the documentary will remain fairly basic regarding effects. This must be done on an out of school computer
What problems might you encounter and how might you solve them?
-I may not be able to get the required releases (listed above), or permission to film at all. This would mean we would not be able to include some segments that were essential to our plan, and we may have to reconsider how the documentary will be. We currently have a backup for Laughton Kora (Jimmy Christmas, another NZ musician), for Dean McGovern it would be one of the music teachers who is more readily available, and there should be no need for a contingency for the vox pop segment.
-Bad sound could ruin certain parts. We will try hard to avoid this, by checking our sound equipment thoroughly and doing tests. If we do have an inconsistent or inaudible clip, we may have to consider re-filming or replacement. If that is not possible, we could synthesize, download or record an alternate audio take to put over the clip.
-The people I plan to interview may have no profound opinion, in which case we may need to consider using our contingent interviewees (Jimmy Christmas and the music teachers). We will try to avoid this by constructing an interview that encourages interesting answers, by both using open ended questions and questions that hint towards a specific idea.
-I personally do not have immediate access to equipment, so I will need to borrow equipment. If Charlie or Briar are absent when we need to film, I could be useless. To avoid time wasting, I will always work to better my written/theory content. However, good communication will remain between group members to minimize any absences that could affect production
I also do not have a full license, and will need to find someone to drive passengers. We will most often use the public transportation system which is limited but generally reliable, so we shouldn’t encounter any problems with it.
damblo 