Education System
Our topic for 'British youth' is the pressures and anxiety evolved with exams and school work within the academic structure of Britain. In todays society exams are a key topic amongst teenagers, the pressure to succeed and impress your peers and make a future for yourselves. Yet, this can cause your downfall as you suffer your way into adulthood. We are producing a documentary targeted for teenagers and parents to raise awareness of the critical state our education system is in. School is for learning and developing skills which will BENEFIT you for later life, yet today the mental health of youth is washed away as teens are seen as a grade on a piece of paper and not as children suffering. We want to shine light on this topic in a present led documentary Jobs role for making of 'British Youth' x2 Cameraman: Charlotte and Jemimah Editor: Grace Lighting and props: Charlotte Location Scout: Zara Producer: Zara |
Secondary Research
A quarter of British parent’s report their mental health was negatively affected by having children who are currently taking exams as there children's fears leach onto their own conscious and make them fearful for the future. From 2013-14 child line has said they have seen a 200% increase in the number of people calling Child line due to their exam stress. A survey was performed by the National Citizen Service which was done by 1,000 students, this found that one in ten students stopped showering during exam season and one in five did not leave there house in days. Harvard Reference Check: Laura McInerney. (2017). Exam stress rising? No, pupils are just better at seeking help . Available: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jun/17/exam-stressrisingpupilesbetterseekinghelp.Last accessed 02/10/17 The Children's charity Child line said that they have provided 3,135 counselling sessions to students suffering with exam pressures. This is equivalent to nine days of work. Harvard Reference Check : Sarah Marsh. (2017). GCSEs and A-levels: how are young people coping with exam stress? . Available: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/may/12/gcses-and-a-levels-how-are-young-people-coping-with-exam-stress. Last accessed 02/10/17. The Guardian performed a survey given out to primary school leaders, eight out of ten completed the survey and said that they had noticed an increase in mental health due to exams. It even said that one child had lost their eyelashes due to stress. The survey of 1,2000 teachers by the Key, a National School Support Service, found that in general cases, anxiety and panic attacks had risen by more than three-quarters of primary school students over the years. In addition to this, the school leaders illustrated an increase of fear within students of academic failure, 76%, and depression, 55%,since 2014 with students. Harvard Reference Check: Sally Weale . (2017). More primary school children suffering stress from Sats, survey finds . Available: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/may/01/sats-primary-school-children-suffering-stress-exam-time. Last accessed 02/10/17. This website showed that one in ten children have a diagnosable mental health disorder, roughly three children in every classroom. Also, one in five young adults have mental problems and half of all mental health problems manifest by the age of fourteen, with 75% by age twenty four. Harvard Reference Check : N/A. (2017). Mental Health Stastics . Available: https://youngminds.org.uk/about-us/media-centre/mental-health-stats/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIyYv3jf7T1gIVTrHtCh3uWQBFEAAYAiAAEgLxp_D_BwE. Last accessed 03/10/2017 A new grading system for English and Maths got introduced in 2017, this is a move away from modular testing, course.. One false move and that's that it seems to be with the new harsh grading of the summer of 2017. Harvard Reference Check: Hugh Muir. (2013). Michael Gove's new GCSE exams leave pupils without a second chance. Available: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/01/gcse-exams-michael-gove. Last accessed 03/10/2017. A ‘linear’ system will see pupils take all their exams at the end of Year 11 with less reliance on coursework. In 2017 it shows that the number of students achieving a grade C/4 has dropped to its lowest level since 2008. Harvard Reference Check: Joe Tambini . (2017). GCSE grade boundaries 2017: What are the grade boundaries? OCR, Edexcel, AQA, more. Available: http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/844998/GCSE-grade-boundaries-2017-what-are-OCR-Edexcel-AQA-grades-results-day. Last accessed 03/10/2017. These statistics involve the decline of involvement within creative subjects such as drama, these subjects are key for our future as a society as they do play to many peoples strengths, yet school system today wants to shape it's pupils into academic style students. As between the years of 2003 and 2013 there was a 50% drop in the number of students doing design and technology. On top of this, 23% for drama and 25% for other craft type subjects. The reason for this is the dismal due to the government not funding the arts as the number of arts teachers have dropped by 11% since 2010. Harvard Reference Check: Mark Brown . (2017). Arts and culture being 'systematically removed from UK education system'. Available: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/feb/17/arts-and-culture-systematically-removed-from-uk-education-system. Last accessed 3rd October 2017 . |
This is an info-graphic from a website explaining top tips from scientist on ways to deal with stress and conquer the feeling.
Harvard Reference Check: Jessica Orwig and Lydia Ramsey . (2016). 15 ways to manage stress according to scientists. Available: http://uk.businessinsider.com/ways-to-manage-stress-according-to-scientists-2016-1?r=US&IR=T. Last accessed 3rd October 2017 . |
Mental health within schools: According to the leading charity, Young Minds, between 2001 and 2011 inpatient admissions for young people who self-harm increased by 68 per cent, while in another survey 46 per cent of girls aged 11 to 21 said they have needed help with mental health issues. Schools must recognise that it is not competition and hard work that causes stress and mental health issues among their students, rather fear and anxiety. Schools that have not been averse to using anxiety - however unwittingly - and fear of failure to drive performance, urgently need to review their practice and ethos. (HARVARD REFERENCE: Peter Tait. (2015). 'Causes of growing mental health problems sit largely within schools'. Available: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationopinion/12025711/Schools-largely-to-blame-for-rising-mental-health-issues.htmlhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationopinion/12025711/Schools-large. Last accessed October 2nd 2017.) Schools are struggling to access support to deal with a surge in the number of children and young people suffering from mental health issue. Responding to a survey for the NASUWT union, almost all teachers and school leaders (98 per cent) said they had come into contact with pupils who are experiencing mental health issues. (HARVARD REFERENCE: Rachael Pells. (2017). Four-year-olds suffering panic attacks, eating disorders, anxiety and depression, report says. Available: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/uk-schools-mental-health-surge-support-issues-children-pupils-nasuwt-barnardos-a7682751.html. Last accessed O.) Tough new GCSE exams brought in for the first time this year are taking a toll on pupils’ mental health, experts have warned. Children’s charity the NSPCC reported a surge in the number of young people seeking through the child line support service specifically as a result of exam results stress this year. (HARVARD REFERENCE: Rachael Pells. (2017). Tough new GCSE exams risk pupils' mental health, warn school leaders. Available: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/new-gcse-exams-pupils-mental-health-stress-anxiety-tough-school-education-curriculum-warning-a7908961.html. Last accessed October 3rd 2017.) Information on Anxiety Anxiety is a feeling of unease, such as worry or fear, that can be mild or severe. Anxiety is the main symptom of several conditions, including:
How anxiety effects academic performance: types of anxiety Test Anxiety If you have test anxiety, you have significant problems completing tests, although you are able to do the homework and you know the material. Test anxiety is a performance anxiety, where your mind goes blank and you are unable to recall the information from your brain, when in a testing (performance) situation. And since your test scores are a significant portion of your grades, you will most likely fail your class if you don’t get a handle on test anxiety. If you have an extreme fear of an object or situation, then this can negatively impact your school performance, as your feared object or situation may be encountered at school. For example, you may have a fear of closed spaces (claustrophobia), and being crowded into a small classroom may trigger this. General Anxiety Disorder You spend so much time worrying, that it makes you anxious and tense. And when you are anxious and tense, you are not able to study adequately, and your grades reflect your lack of focus on your studies. |
Social Anxiety Disorder here you avoid crowds of people due to fear of social scrutiny. So you may avoid going to school and your classes due to the fear of being embarrassed in crowds of people, like your classmates in school. Avoiding school has obvious consequences for your academic performance. Panic Disorder If you have panic disorder (with or without agoraphobia), you may avoid your school or classes due to fear of having a panic attack there, and you may be afraid no help will be available. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder If you have post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), you might have experienced a traumatic event at school, and you avoid the school due to the anxiety of being exposed to reminders of the trauma. Separation Anxiety Disorder Separation anxiety disorder is a common reason for younger persons to have difficulties at school. People who have separation anxiety disorder have problems separating from their primary caregiver or loved one. If they do separate, then the affected person worries constantly about the well-being of their loved one, or that something bad will happen to them. Selective Mutism With selective mutism, although you are able to speak freely with your caregivers or loved one, you are unable to speak with others. Because of this inability to speak with others, you are not able to communicate, and your school performance suffers, given the social demands of interacting with teachers and classmates. Your inability to speak with others, despite having intact language ability, stunts and arrests the learning process. Specific Phobia If you have an extreme fear of an object or situation, then this can negatively impact your school performance, as your feared object or situation may be encountered at school. For example, you may have a fear of closed spaces (claustrophobia), and being crowded into a small classroom may trigger this. HARVARD REFERENCE : Dr. Carlo . (2015). Anxiety Boss. Available: https://anxietyboss.com/anxiety-has-what-effect-on-academic-performance/. Last accessed October 3rd 2017. A quarter of British parent’s report their mental health was negatively affected by having children who are currently taking exams as there children's fears leach onto their own conscious and make them fearful for the future. From 2013-14 child line has said they have seen a 200% increase in the number of people calling Child line due to their exam stress. A survey was performed by the National Citizen Service which was done by 1,000 students, this found that one in ten students stopped showering during exam season and one in five did not leave there house in days. Harvard Reference Check: Laura McInerney. (2017). Exam stress rising? No, pupils are just better at seeking help . Available: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jun/17/exam-stressrisingpupilesbetterseekinghelp.Last accessed 02/10/17 |
Expository format
Expository documentary speak directly to the viewer in a authoritative, we want to do this to inform our viewers on a more intellectual way and show them our view on the education system. It involves voice overs and titles within our editing style which can make it more engaging to the audience. Within the documentary we want to propose a strong argument and views about the education system and expository will be the perfect format for this style of documentary. We are doing all of this in order to persuade our audience to think negatively about exams and pressure from school life. We want to show our audience real life stories and struggles amongst youth of today endured by the education system and exams as a whole.
Harvard Reference Check: N/A . (2015). 6 Times of Documentary . Available: https://collaborativedocumentary.wordpress.com/6-types-of-documentary/. Last accessed 13th October 2017 . |
Interviewee Research
Tina Elven is the founder of the company 'Support 4 Kids Ltd' which specialises in giving self help to children, teenagers and parents. It's an online way to empower children and make them more supported. She is a trained therapist and decided to work with children's mental health, she saw more of an success rate in children who worked at home or online as sometime they don't want to talk one on one with a therapist. This introduced the company 'Support 4 Kids Ltd' they are online self help solution for young people and adults. When interviewing her we want to ask her opinion on what she thinks about exams effecting young peoples mental health and ask for advise o what the best measure to take is. As film makers we disagree with the education system and really want to highlight the struggle it is inflicting young minds. Tina shares the same passions of helping youth, especially teenagers, and we want to highlight the struggles within youths education in order to create a change in the world.
Pitch
James Feedback
The group made a very effective start to their presentation after some technical glitches with a well-rehearsed gimmick to grab the audience’s attention. Grace has a very confidant delivery style and was naturally engaging at the start. Jemimah was clearly nervous but kept going in spite of this. She had notes to support her but she didn’t really need them. There was very good use of graphics on her section of the presentation. She used direct questioning very effectively with her audience. Her section was quite long and may have benefitted from being broken into smaller pieces. Zara also had a good presentational style. She used research from a reputable source and made very good use of graphics. Grace spoke quite quickly but was very informative. She did get a bit lost using the mouse at one point - more practise might have helped. Charlotte read from notes which made her section less engaging and she was reading the same information as the audience could see on screen. This did not make the best use of the opportunity to communicate with the audience. The last slide made very good use of graphics to convey information. It was very eye-catching as well as informative. Overall the presentation was very go as for a first attempt. |
My own evaluation In my group pitch, I thought it was very successfully. We, as a group worked well together, we all talked for an equal amount of time and got the information out effectively. I think the pitch was very effective, especially at the start when we all talked over each other in a round like form, this managed to grab the audiences attention and really start of the pitch with a bang. One audience member said. "the best part was the start". I think when doing the pitch we need to be more specific about what our documentary is about, one person said, "are you going to do it specifically about the British education system, or other countries?" This proves to me that next time we need to add in more specific information so the audience can gain an overall understanding of our topic. Another student asked "Is your documentary going to be bias against the education system?" this made me think about the documentary as a whole and maybe how we should show alternative viewpoints, next time we will involve a less bias view to improve our pitch and make it more of an evaluation. Overall, I thought my performance was successful as I spoke a rehearsed speech with lots of statistics in due to me doing secondary research, one person said, "You all spoke clearly and were good at presenting". I spoke clearly and slowly, yet at one point I did mess up when saying 'PTSD' as I couldn't pronounce the wording. To improve on this next time, I will practice my part of the pitch again more thoroughly. Another thing, I would like to improve on is my standing position, I will stand still next time and not fiddle with my hands as it is quite distracting moving around loads and can look unprofessional. Also, I appear more confident by doing this. Next time, I would like to add a video (this will help in breaking up long bits of speech that get in the way)or maybe interact more with the audience, we did this in the pitch but I didn't do it personally. This will make the pitch more engaging to the audience and really help to sell our documentary idea. Next time, I would like to rehearse the pitch more as a group as whole so it flows better and it will take the time of the pitch down, making it more snappy and to the point. |
Pitch Prezi
1. Can you explain about the company support 4 kids?
2. Out of the young people that you have spoken with, would you be happy to share some of the issues that they have come across at school? 3. A lot of pressure is put on young people at school these days, how do you think this can change? 4. With the new English and Maths GCSEs this year, how do you think these affected young people? 5. Do you think that exams were a negative or positive change for young people and how do you think they have affected their mental wellbeing? 6. How do you think more support could be offered to students? |
Final Product
Evaluation
In the making of the documentary 'How does the education system affect the youth in the UK?’ we faced many challenges amongst planning and the making of the documentary. Yet, we managed to overcome these challenges by working effectively as a group, in the group we all had strengths in which complimented each other. For example, Charlotte and Jemimah worked well with the filmography aspect and worked well as camera men. They each did different shots using their camera, Charlotte using the tripod where as Jemimah did moving shots. Yet, we did have a struggle of organising the equipment which meant sometimes we didn’t have the correct equipment for the shoot, as we didn’t fill out the forms to hire the equipment till the day before. This is a communication error amongst our group so we should have discussed what equipment we needed and when we wanted it for next time. For example, we needed to have a dolly for one shot where Grace walks through a group of students yet due to the lack of equipment we couldn’t get a dolly in time. Next time, we will organise equipment better and hire out the correct equipment one week in advance. I worked as the producer which I think was working to my strengths as I am an organised person and have a good concept of time management, I helped to assign roles for the group and instructed everyone on what the task of the day was. However, when it came to Tina Elven, the person we were interviewing, falling ill we needed to rearrange the schedule to make sure everything was done. This was very difficult as I had to come up with a backup plan of another person to interview whilst we still remained on task.
Finally, Grace played an important role as she edited the whole footage, with input from the rest of us, she did this effectively by making it the best it could possibly be by looking up tutorials online to get the most out of premier pro. However, in the editing process we kept getting side tracked from the original plan in which we scripted. The video was edited in a different way, without the opening sequence of Jemimah in bed rolling around. To make sure this doesn’t happen again, next time we should create a storyboard and use it whilst filming to make sure what we are filming matches our plan. This makes sure we work efficiently and don’t forget any important aspects of the documentary. I think we were successfully in finding a group, during the making of the documentary we all remained on task and learnt to compromise ideas. However, next time I think we should all have a try at different roles to allow us to improve as individuals, for example I think I would of liked to try a b it of editing and this may of given the piece a whole new perspective and improved it more. To improve next time we could have another member of the group being a cameraman, this will allow us to have more footage for B-roll and have different angles when shooting, overall this will making it more engaging to the audience and make the documentary appear more professional and realistic. Also, we could of made the group less democratic by instead of all having equal power we could had a leader which made the decisions, this meant that time would be more efficient with time so we could make decisions quickly. Even though democratic group work is good for involving everyone’s ideas, it’s not the most efficient with a tight time schedule. As a group we communicated well with each other we even made a snap chat group chat in order to communicate away from college.
In the creation of the documentary we did research to gain and understanding on the education system, we did this through primary and secondary research. Charlotte and I did secondary research, the key questions we wanted to know was what affect does exams have on mental health and have statistic to back it all up. The research played a very important role in the quality of the documentary. We did have a struggle finding sources which were from different websites, I personally found that all of my research had come from the guardian. To make my research more thorough I could have looked harder for other websites which were sharing information or had written articles on mental health involving exams. As well as this, I could have watched other documentaries about mental health or even went to the library to find some resources. Next time I will do this to make sure my research is more thorough. We used the statistics from both primary and secondary research and had them on screen during parts of the documentary. For example at the start, information as text popped on the screen. We also gained a more rounded perspective on the topic as we learnt who exams affect, how exams are changing and about the dismissal of creative subjects. We used this as inspiration to change the style of our documentary to expository in order to persuade the audience about the negatives of education. Without the research the documentary wouldn’t have much depth to it and wouldn’t be as powerful, the facts and statistics used back up the information shared. To improve and make our documentary better in the future we could have done more primary research which wasn’t just surveys on survey monkey, we could have interviewed members of the public or come into contact with teachers and asked their opinions on exams and the education system. As well as this the research allowed us to find one of our people we were interviewing, such as Tina Elven, by researching our topic we found the ‘Support4Kids’ website which enabled us to get an interview with her. Without that interview the quality of our whole video will decrease. Next time, I would done a bit more research with different formats such as books, this will improve the quality of the documentary as we will have far more to say within it. This will make our documentary more convincing and more informative to the audience, we will have a broader idea on how the British youth feel towards education and schooling in Britain does.
As the producer my role was to organise the group, this is why planning came a lot into it. For example, I made a schedule day by day on what we wanted to achieve that day, the equipment we needed and a time frame of what we were doing at certain times. The fact that as group we were very clear on what we had to do and had very good communication meant we got all the footage that we needed on time and didn’t forget about any aspect of the documentary. We even managed to re shoot some scene which we weren’t happy with by scheduling them into our time plan, this allowed us to work effectively as a group and get everything done top bets standard. However, our interview with Tina Elven was cancelled on the Wednesday, the day before we were actually supposed to meet her, this took a strain on the documentary making as we wanted our interview to be successful yet at that time we didn’t have one. To solve this issue we decided to film an interview with a student just in case Tina didn’t recover. Then, we reschedule our interview to filming on Monday by adding it into the schedule and planning out our time wisely so we gave ourselves enough time for editing. By having this set plan we were able to overcome this challenge, in the end we manage to keep hold of our interview with Tina and also had another interview on top of that. Due to us writing a script and all understanding how the documentary was going to go we all had a clear idea about the documentary, though it did take a long time to plan for the documentary by planning it enabled the end product to be successful and well thought out. Also, to improve for next time we could have hired the equipment out earlier to solve problems of their not being the correct equipment. The more you plan the documentary the more successful it will appear.
After completing of our documentary we received feedback from the teacher. One of the teachers said our shot was shaking in the exam hall scene, they suggested that next time we should use a tripod in the birds eye view shot. In order to improve this the next day we schedule into our time frame to reshoot this scene. We shot the scene again this time using a tripod which definitely improved the quality of video and made it stand out and for the moving tracking shots we used a dolly in order to have a steady and clean looking shot. This feedback from the teacher really helped to improve the quality of our video and now next time I look out for unsteady shots when filming and remember to use camera equipment to make the shots better.
On another occasion, during the editing process the editing style was very mechanical especially amongst the interview. The teacher told us we needed to edit the b-roll to slow its speed duration and pause it for a second. To do this we looked up editing tutorials on YouTube on how to make these improvements. By using YouTube to help us with the editing the quality of editing improved. Also, we got asked by our teacher to add in more B-roll amongst the interview with Tina Elven, this is because we didn’t have much B-roll overlaying the interview and by adding B-roll it will make the interview more engaging and interactive with the audience. To improve this we filmed clips that related to the topic at hand, for example Tina was explaining that ‘Support4Kids’ was an online support solution, to align with this we filmed students on their phones looking up the website. Also, when Tina spoke about teenagers understanding a world online we filmed B-roll of students on laptops and phones to show this dynamic. We added these clips to our interview and overall this made it more engaging and more visually pleasing to the audience. The feedback from the teachers helped to improve the quality of our documentary and thus made it better, next time I would like to go to teachers more and ask for more improvements to make sure my documentary is the best it could possibly be.
From the making of this documentary I discovered that I really thrive in producing for example team management, planning and timings. I already was quite good at this skill in the past for other projects, yet this documentary making was a different process in which I wasn’t aware of. I definitely think by making a day to day schedule it allowed our group to be on task and work effectively. As well as this, I developed a new skill of filmography, I learnt some new camera technique such as depth of field which allowed some of the B-roll footage to look very professional. I enjoyed the filming and thought this could be an area which I could try out gain for the next project or documentary we make.
Finally, Grace played an important role as she edited the whole footage, with input from the rest of us, she did this effectively by making it the best it could possibly be by looking up tutorials online to get the most out of premier pro. However, in the editing process we kept getting side tracked from the original plan in which we scripted. The video was edited in a different way, without the opening sequence of Jemimah in bed rolling around. To make sure this doesn’t happen again, next time we should create a storyboard and use it whilst filming to make sure what we are filming matches our plan. This makes sure we work efficiently and don’t forget any important aspects of the documentary. I think we were successfully in finding a group, during the making of the documentary we all remained on task and learnt to compromise ideas. However, next time I think we should all have a try at different roles to allow us to improve as individuals, for example I think I would of liked to try a b it of editing and this may of given the piece a whole new perspective and improved it more. To improve next time we could have another member of the group being a cameraman, this will allow us to have more footage for B-roll and have different angles when shooting, overall this will making it more engaging to the audience and make the documentary appear more professional and realistic. Also, we could of made the group less democratic by instead of all having equal power we could had a leader which made the decisions, this meant that time would be more efficient with time so we could make decisions quickly. Even though democratic group work is good for involving everyone’s ideas, it’s not the most efficient with a tight time schedule. As a group we communicated well with each other we even made a snap chat group chat in order to communicate away from college.
In the creation of the documentary we did research to gain and understanding on the education system, we did this through primary and secondary research. Charlotte and I did secondary research, the key questions we wanted to know was what affect does exams have on mental health and have statistic to back it all up. The research played a very important role in the quality of the documentary. We did have a struggle finding sources which were from different websites, I personally found that all of my research had come from the guardian. To make my research more thorough I could have looked harder for other websites which were sharing information or had written articles on mental health involving exams. As well as this, I could have watched other documentaries about mental health or even went to the library to find some resources. Next time I will do this to make sure my research is more thorough. We used the statistics from both primary and secondary research and had them on screen during parts of the documentary. For example at the start, information as text popped on the screen. We also gained a more rounded perspective on the topic as we learnt who exams affect, how exams are changing and about the dismissal of creative subjects. We used this as inspiration to change the style of our documentary to expository in order to persuade the audience about the negatives of education. Without the research the documentary wouldn’t have much depth to it and wouldn’t be as powerful, the facts and statistics used back up the information shared. To improve and make our documentary better in the future we could have done more primary research which wasn’t just surveys on survey monkey, we could have interviewed members of the public or come into contact with teachers and asked their opinions on exams and the education system. As well as this the research allowed us to find one of our people we were interviewing, such as Tina Elven, by researching our topic we found the ‘Support4Kids’ website which enabled us to get an interview with her. Without that interview the quality of our whole video will decrease. Next time, I would done a bit more research with different formats such as books, this will improve the quality of the documentary as we will have far more to say within it. This will make our documentary more convincing and more informative to the audience, we will have a broader idea on how the British youth feel towards education and schooling in Britain does.
As the producer my role was to organise the group, this is why planning came a lot into it. For example, I made a schedule day by day on what we wanted to achieve that day, the equipment we needed and a time frame of what we were doing at certain times. The fact that as group we were very clear on what we had to do and had very good communication meant we got all the footage that we needed on time and didn’t forget about any aspect of the documentary. We even managed to re shoot some scene which we weren’t happy with by scheduling them into our time plan, this allowed us to work effectively as a group and get everything done top bets standard. However, our interview with Tina Elven was cancelled on the Wednesday, the day before we were actually supposed to meet her, this took a strain on the documentary making as we wanted our interview to be successful yet at that time we didn’t have one. To solve this issue we decided to film an interview with a student just in case Tina didn’t recover. Then, we reschedule our interview to filming on Monday by adding it into the schedule and planning out our time wisely so we gave ourselves enough time for editing. By having this set plan we were able to overcome this challenge, in the end we manage to keep hold of our interview with Tina and also had another interview on top of that. Due to us writing a script and all understanding how the documentary was going to go we all had a clear idea about the documentary, though it did take a long time to plan for the documentary by planning it enabled the end product to be successful and well thought out. Also, to improve for next time we could have hired the equipment out earlier to solve problems of their not being the correct equipment. The more you plan the documentary the more successful it will appear.
After completing of our documentary we received feedback from the teacher. One of the teachers said our shot was shaking in the exam hall scene, they suggested that next time we should use a tripod in the birds eye view shot. In order to improve this the next day we schedule into our time frame to reshoot this scene. We shot the scene again this time using a tripod which definitely improved the quality of video and made it stand out and for the moving tracking shots we used a dolly in order to have a steady and clean looking shot. This feedback from the teacher really helped to improve the quality of our video and now next time I look out for unsteady shots when filming and remember to use camera equipment to make the shots better.
On another occasion, during the editing process the editing style was very mechanical especially amongst the interview. The teacher told us we needed to edit the b-roll to slow its speed duration and pause it for a second. To do this we looked up editing tutorials on YouTube on how to make these improvements. By using YouTube to help us with the editing the quality of editing improved. Also, we got asked by our teacher to add in more B-roll amongst the interview with Tina Elven, this is because we didn’t have much B-roll overlaying the interview and by adding B-roll it will make the interview more engaging and interactive with the audience. To improve this we filmed clips that related to the topic at hand, for example Tina was explaining that ‘Support4Kids’ was an online support solution, to align with this we filmed students on their phones looking up the website. Also, when Tina spoke about teenagers understanding a world online we filmed B-roll of students on laptops and phones to show this dynamic. We added these clips to our interview and overall this made it more engaging and more visually pleasing to the audience. The feedback from the teachers helped to improve the quality of our documentary and thus made it better, next time I would like to go to teachers more and ask for more improvements to make sure my documentary is the best it could possibly be.
From the making of this documentary I discovered that I really thrive in producing for example team management, planning and timings. I already was quite good at this skill in the past for other projects, yet this documentary making was a different process in which I wasn’t aware of. I definitely think by making a day to day schedule it allowed our group to be on task and work effectively. As well as this, I developed a new skill of filmography, I learnt some new camera technique such as depth of field which allowed some of the B-roll footage to look very professional. I enjoyed the filming and thought this could be an area which I could try out gain for the next project or documentary we make.