Evaluation
Evaluation
- Initial Research
- Pre Production
- Production
- Post Production
Initial Research
I created a documentary titled 'Fashion in the North East' as part of the regional identity project given by 'Sunderland Culture'. Almost immediately after reading through the brief i was set on the idea of adding a fashion component to my final project as it was very fitting to my interests and my personal regional identity. I wanted the documentary to be a showcase of north east talent, small businesses, local fashion brands etc, while educating people on the history of fashion in the north east and how it has evolved over time. I chose to do this in the form of a documentary as being in the target audience age range myself, I thought about what form of media I would most enjoy seeing this represented in and I landed on a documentary. This was due to the fact I can display as much information as possible, which I felt I couldn't do had I completed this in the form of a poster etc.
I researched extensively into 'Sunderland Culture' who assigned the brief, where I found out that they were founded on the hopes of bringing together Sunderland's most important assets and highlight the ambition of the city. This only helped more inform my idea of creating my project on the topic of fashion and style in the North East as it is a massive part of Sunderland's Culture and would be highlighting the local talent within the industry.
Looking back at my initial pitch, I decided to focus on local fashion brands and the history of fashion in the north east after realising that's what i would most like to learn about. I also wanted to give the audience an insight to the talent behind the clothes they are seeing and most likely wearing everyday and to shine a light specifically on the North East's own talent with people from and working in the North East. Finding out the target audience was people aged 16 - 25 years old helped inform my decision to create the documentary with this topic due to the fact i felt this would engage with young people and hopefully encourage them to think about and express their own identity through their personal style.
I went straight into researching north east owned fashion companies and brands, this is when i found that my own knowledge on the subject area was gonna massively help me with the research element of this project. I was able to do more in depth research into fashion brands I had previously been familiarised with however, it was at this point that I was alerted to the lack of information out there about fashion companies in the North East and how hard it was gonna be to find information on local fashion brands. Had it not been for my prior knowledge on the topic I believe i would have struggled quite a lot on finding the information I needed to inform my documentary planning. Thankfully I was able to gather all the research I needed and was able to plan my documentary thoroughly.
I constructed a survey to find out what the target audience would be interested in seeing in my documentary and their ages etc, to help inform the audience profile I would later be creating.
The most important question I asked, that would give me the most information as to what I add to my documentary was 'What would you be most interested in learning about related to fashion?'. Where I instructed the participants to tick as many of the answers they like so I could find out what they were most interested in seeing out of my documentary. I found that the topic the audience would most like to see covered in the documentary was local fashion brands and companies so I knew that was gonna be a massive part of my documentary and my main focus. The audience also wanted a focus on how fashion has evolved in the North East and a focus on local fashion designers so I made sure to incorporate this element into my documentary. The thing the audience responded to the least was stylists who are from the North East so I made the decision to abandon this as it wasn't what my target audience wanted.
I then went on to create an audience profile based on the results i received from this survey which visually aided me in seeing exactly who I was making this documentary for.
After extensive research into the types of documentary's i could be making I decided on creating an expository documentary and I feel I achieved this as it had an educational aim from the beginning. I also mostly had voice overs throughout the documentary rather than me explicitly talking to the camera, I also included interviews, graphic videos and photographs to help educate the audience.
I chose to analyse existing products in the form of a docuseries i found on youtube titled 'The Future of Fashion with Alexa Chung'. I decided to analyse this documentary as it was fashion related and would help me find the codes and conventions that would be suitable for use in my own documentary. I liked that this documentary episode was short and only 11 minutes long so I decided to make my documentary around the same time length. I also loved the font that was used in the clips so I decided to use a fairly similar one for my own as I felt it was very fitting with the style. In this documentary there was many voiceovers with montages of things relating to the theme of the documentary which help set up the idea of what was later to come in the video, I made sure to do a lot of this with my video. There was also an introduction scene with the documentary maker talking directly to the camera and explaining a bit about the documentary before just jumping straight into it which I also added to my documentary.
Pre Production
I got in touch with a local fashion company called 'Studio Courtenay' to see if they would be interested in interviewing with me for my documentary and much to my delight, their founder 'Louisa Rogers' responded that she would love to answer a few questions for it. Pictured below is the email i first sent to Louisa.
I then began researching into her career extensively so i could curate some appropriate questions to ask when i interview her. These were the questions I chose to ask her after looking through her company and deciding what my audience would most want to learn.
- How is Studio Courtenay sustainable?
- What inspired you to start this company?
- Would you say there is a north east influence on your brand?
- What sparked your interest in fashion?
- What interested you about the North East?
- What responsibilities have you taken on as creative director for Studio Courtenay?
- Do you think the increasing amount of overseas brands coming to our shores is a threat to local designers?
- How has your work evolved since starting your own label?
- What is your favorite piece you've designed?
- Do you find that a lot of your customers come from the North East?
- What makes your brand different from other local fashion companies?
I also reached out to a company called 'Harlow collection' with a similar email asking to interview them and ask a few questions about them and their brand however they didn't respond. This was a slight setback in my documentary production as I had planned for two interviews to be featured in my video however I managed to work through this and get the appropriate answers and content from just one interview.
I completed the appropriate pre production that would aid me in filming this interview and my later filming at Barbour Headquarters. I completed a risk assessment, location scouting, location release, personnel list and resource list to prepare me for production. At this time I was also constructing a script which i was constantly adding to and changing dependant on the interview answers i received.
Production
I began shooting on 16th March 2022 where I shot my interview with 'Studio Courtenay' founder 'Louisa Rogers' at Northumbria University School of Design. I was slightly nervous about filming here as I had never visited before and was unaware of the setup and how i would setup my own shots. Upon arrival I found it relatively easy to find an angle to film at that I was happy with, I did this with help from my production assistants, Fern Gallagher and Lucy Martin. I did suffer a setback while filming as we realised that we had lost our SD card and would have to film on my iphone. This caused us quite a bit of stress as we were unsure on what to do and were worried about the quality of the footage however I still had the use of a tripod which would help me get the angle I needed despite the fact I wasn't able to use a camera. Overall, I was still able to gather all the footage I needed without any further problems.
I shot at Barbour Headquarters on 20th April 2022, I did originally plan to record footage of me talking to the camera outside of Barbour headquarters however I didn’t anticipate the busyness of the area at the specific time I was going so I wasn’t able to get the footage I originally intended to. This was a minor setback that I resolved very quickly as I made the decision to add the voiceover of what I planned to say in post production which I actually found I preferred. Other than that the filming went smoothly and I was able to gather all the footage I required.
I filmed my introduction for my documentary at Sunderland College, Bede Campus using a tripod and a CANON DSLR camera. I was assisted by Lucy Martin as she handled the camera to ensure I was completely in shot and had my script at the ready in case I needed it. This filming went great without any problems and I was able to film my introduction in only 1 take with no reshoots needed.
Post Production
I chose to edit on imovie rather than Premiere Pro due to the fact this meant I would be able to continue my editing while not in college, allowing me more time on the editing process. Due to having more experience on this project, I was able to experiment more with the features I added, like video overlays, filters, text, voiceovers etc. I feel that this majorly improved the quality of work I produced. Linking back to the analysing existing products, I found that many of them were using very basic fonts with either white or black background. I made the decision to use a font titled 'VOGUE' to help represent the recurring theme of fashion and explore it in more ways than just the graphic part of the video. Vogue being a well known brand means that when people see my documentary they will immediately associate it with the vogue brand and know that it will definitely have some kind of fashion element to it.
I completed a focus group where I showed a group of people my first draft footage of the interview I completed for my documentary and asked them a series of questions that would aid me in finishing my documentary. When asking what music to add to the background of my video in my focus group, they mentioned something that is upbeat and uplifting with a pop element to it which I feel I achieved with the music i chose.
Overall Evaluation
Overall I feel that my final project in the form of a documentary was effective in providing everything that was explained in the brief. From the feedback I received to my first intentions, I feel I set out an aim to educate and entertain the target audience and in turn created a documentary that covered all these things while still fitting the brief. Creating this documentary also allowed me to learn a lot about the process of a larger scale project than I had done before. I was able to learn more about all aspects of research, pre production, production and post production, things like time management, filming, completing paperwork and the editing process. There is still a lot of things that could have been improved on however, I still think this project showcased my best work.
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