Professional Practice: Final Piece

This is my final piece.

Craig Hardy Professional Boxer.

Professional Practice: Editing

I have been in contact with Craig and he agreed that the washed out look better fits the tone of the film than the vibrant colours. I also added a vignette to make the edges darker and make the viewer focus on the centre of the action. The overall tone of the piece is very gritty and fits my objective of being a cinematic piece. The narrative is told through picture, no dialogue. I think it is successful as it has a beginning middle and end. The film starts with an establishing shot of some punch bags to give us an idea of the location, we then meet Craig and see him in the ring. There is an element of mystery as there is a pull focus and we do not immediately see him. We then see Craig during various stages of his training routune and cut away to profile shots of him to break up the action. The end shows Craig out of focus in the ring, he then steps forwards into the camera and comes into focus and stares straigh into the lens. I am very pleased with the structure of the film and how strong the images are.

Professional Practice: Problems I faced

During my time filming Craig we encountered multiple problems, the first gym we booked disregarded our reservation and wanted to close when we arrived. We have to re book another gym later that week but we were not guaranteed the gym would be empty. When we arrived the gym was full of public users and was very noisy. There was music that we were un able to turn off and had to do our best to stay away from the speakers.

During the editing process i had to cut alot of sound and build ambiance to make it sound natural. I put emphasis on the noises Craig made when punching and breathing etc. I used a low bass track to vcreate a darker mood, which helped me to cut out the harsh noises from the gym.

I also found that the colour was too vibrant for the tone of the film, I used a black and white filter and reduced the amount so that the colour was still visible but looked very washed out. The look and sound of the film fit the mood of the piece and had a very gritty vibe.

The plan was to have a voice over much like in Blooms work, but after listening to the recordings we found that the voiceover was a little too upbeat for the tone of the film and so we left it out.

Professional Practice: Inspiration

For my comission piece I took alot of inspiration from a director named Philip Bloom. He has created a film of a boxer (shown below) that has a very cinematic feel and dramtic approach.



I looked at the type of shots he used to capture the strength and power of the boxer and tried to mimic the angles in my own shoot. Bloom mixes action shots with static shots of the boxer looking into the camera, almost looking at the viewer. I used the same technique to break up my shot sequence and create a greater dramatic effect.

Professional Practice Unit: Commission Piece - Update

I have found a new commissioner for my Professional Practice piece! I am going to be making a promotional video for a recently turned pro boxer named Craig. I have worked with Craig in the past and he has been in contact with me regularly ever since asking if I would be interested in working with him again.

He wants me to make a promotional video that he can use almost like a showreel on his website. It will feature his strengths and attributes, so that it almost sells him as a professional boxer.

Profession Practice Unit: Commission Piece - Update

Unfortunately, due to a lack of input from my commissioner I made the decision to stop my work with him on the music video he requested. I had been persistent in asking for the songs he would like me to work with yet had no response at all. He asked for a music video but didn't know what he wanted and lacked any enthusiasm or willingness to collaborate on ideas, and expected me to come up with the concept individually with no song to work with. I feel I cant work for someone who is unsure of what they want themselves and so decided to look for a new commissioner.

Professional Practice Unit: Commission Piece

For my Professional Practice unit this term, I will be working for an up and coming music artist know as Manish K. He is a self taught producer/rapper from Essex looking to make his break in the music scene. He currently has a backlog of music he wants to push out but hasnt got a platform to release or showcase it.

Manish approached me asking if I could produce a music video for his new song, and also a website that he can use to promote his music and use to showcase the video. He is currently recording his new track and is deciding on a concept he wants to use in the video.

I have been watching alot of music videos on youtube of the same genre to try and gain as much knowledge as I can but cannot really come up with a strong idea until we know the type of song we are working on.

Im looking forward to working with Manish as its the first time I have shot a music video and know its going to be a challenge but hopefully fun at the same time.

Major Production Unit: My Idea

For my Major Production Unit I am going to be making a series of documentaries (3 x 5mins). I am calling on a contact we met during our documentary unit last year. I will be venturing into the boxing world once again to explore what its like to be a trainer/manager in todays boxing world. I have spoken to Ross Woolgrove, who I interviewed in my last documentary and he has agreed to be interviewed for this project also.

I want to explore the role a trainer/manager of a boxer and show that even though they are often overlooked, that they are a vital part of the boxers career and the sport itself. I will explore what the role consists of, why it isnt credited as much as it should, why it is so important and also some other topics more relative to Ross and his boxers specifically.

Ross himself is a particularly good subject. He has been nominated for three national awards, the pride of Britain and is often featured in local newspapers for his work. He works with youngsters in the community and currently trains two young brothers aged 17 and 10 who are both terminally ill. I want to find out more about his work not just professionally but also personal level.

I am choosing to have three episodes. The first will be informative, the second will cover more action and the third will focus on emotion.

The first will be a general insight to his job role, what he does, why he does it etc. I will do a lot of actuality filming with some sit down interviews to gain as much information as I can, along with some of Ross' own opinions.

The second episode will focus more on before and after fights. I have been given access to an event Ross is holding and will be able to capture exactly what he does to motivate a man to get into the ring and fight. I will be able to watch Ross as the fight takes place and he watches all his hard work and planning go into action. This will show more of the before and after effect boxing on the team rather than the boxer.

The third episode will focus on Ross' personal relationships with his boxers. Why does he choose to manage them? How does he recognise potential? Does he class them as friends or colleagues? I also want to ask him about training two brothers who are both terminally ill. I am working on getting permission to interview them also, as Ross has recommended I do.

He is currently working on getting some of his boxers involved, and also permission for his youngsters to be filmed. He owns the gym I will be filming at so permission will not be a problem when it comes to location.

My Performance

I believe that throughout both shows I have shown I can overcome problems and work with a team to achieve a high standard piece of work. I think as a leader I could improve on my organization and motivation skills, and try to involve the team more than I did. I also think that I could have stayed more motivated even when I felt that I wasn’t being used as much as I could have been, and in future will learn to stay positive no matter what happens. 

Post Production

I wasn’t originally on the Post Production team, but when another student dropped out, again I was willing to step up and help out. I think editing is a strong point of mine as I have a good eye and ear for continuity, glitches and anything that doesn’t really look or sound right. We noticed that during the edit, we needed to use a lot of audience shots to cover live edit mistakes and problems. We then found that we had nowhere near enough coverage to edit with. However we did manage to make use of almost every cover shot we had available to us without using repeats. I also made a sting for us to use because of continuity between rounds and also from trimming our show.

I feel I had a large impact in editing, as the Punchlines Producer Sam Wilder, and myself spent many hours watching over every single cut until we agreed we were more than happy with our final cut. I was able to teach Sam certain techniques whilst using Final Cut Pro and also Photoshop, as we made edits to our picture round. By adding the Punchlines TV frame to all of our pictures, they looked like they fit the brand of the show, and were no longer clunky as they just appeared on screen.

After many hours of editing I am delighted in the way the final edit looks and sounds, I believe the efforts made by Sam and I paid off and proved that good teamwork and communication pays off.

Head Camera Operator

 “Camera operators are responsible for operating the camera equipment throughout the entire production. They often collaborate with the director, photographers, crew, and actors to make creative and technical decisions.”

I feel that my experiences on each show were completely different despite having the same role. On Punchlines, I felt that my say amongst the other camera ops was valued and listened to, whereas on Urban Review, I became more of a camera op, and felt like my input and efforts went unnoticed.

Working on Punchlines, I personally set up each camera individually, making sure all levels were the same, all tripods were balanced and at the same height, the dolly was straight and the handheld had enough slack to move freely. On Urban Review, everything I changed seemed to be changed back to how the camera ops personally preferred it. Tripods were moved, the dolly wasn’t straight and exposure levels were completely different from camera to camera. It wasn’t until the lighting professionals told the Director, Nikita Guatam, that the cameras looked different that changes were made, despite my efforts. 

I enjoyed working with the Punchlines Director, Ashley Kay, as we have worked together before and he had great confidence in my ability, which gave me confidence in myself. He allowed me to work close by him and communicated with me about how to improve my shots and in doing so I offered him new shots he could use. Again on Urban Review, I felt like I wasn’t used in the role I was given and any input I made wasn’t appreciated. I felt that despite being on a handheld camera, I was limited with the shots I was given and any shots I offered were not used. I became tired of my role on Urban Review as I felt wasted. I was given a handheld camera which allowed me to move in close and explore new angles yet when I approached the gallery about doing so was told no. I understand the directors job is to direct me but I feel in my role I should have been able to have some sort of input on certain aspects of the show.

Being the Producer and Director of VT’s

“An effective producer is a multitasker, regardless of the content or its delivery system. A producer might not only research, write and produce a program or segment, but might also shoot it, edit the footage mix the audio, design and add graphics, or write and record narration or voice-over.”

(Kellison, D Morrow and K Morrow, 2013)

When we were choosing our roles for the productions, being part of the VT team was actually my second choice, as I wanted to be part of the promotions team. However when I was given the role as Producer and Director of VT’s I was pleased I was given a role with some authority. I feel that my skills were right for the job, both technically and as a leader. My role meant that I could have a lot of input and work closely with the Producer of the show to come up with ideas we were both happy with for the show. My VT team consisted of three people, myself, Ashley John and Scott Fisher.

There were four VT’s that needed to be made for Punchlines, three introductions, one for each of our contributors, and a VT round in which the two contestants go out into London and try to make as many members of the public laugh as possible. The VT round gave us the most problems in the planning stages for many reasons, most of which I felt I was blamed for despite the fact I personally couldn’t do anything because of problems our Producer was faced with. To begin with, we had no contributors booked until the start of May, just weeks before the shoot dates. This couldn’t be helped as final shoot dates were changed and all previous confirmed contributors dropped out for reasons beyond our control. This meant that trying to get permissions establishments in London was very difficult, as we had no confirmed dates for when contributors would be available. 

There were also logistical problems and costs that we decided outweighed the benefits of filming in London, such as paying for travel for ourselves and the contributors, and having to plan a route with wheelchair access. With this in mind, and time ticking away fast, I made the decision to change the location to Maidstone and by doing so, cut the costs of travel and also made it a lot easier for my team to be able to get to the location. Once our contributors were finally confirmed and ready, we were able to shoot all four VT’s over the space of three shoot days. 

We again faced problems whilst shooting in Maidstone. I was unable to make one of the shoot days due to late notice and other work commitments, so I directed the team on what I wanted, showed them specific shots I wanted and the style in which I wanted it. They were happy with what they had shot until we came to editing. After emphasizing the importance of cutaways and covering shots, we found there was none. This was especially frustrating because I wasn’t able to be there myself, if I had been, the problem would not have occurred. The shots were overexposed and were shaky, unbalanced and quite disappointing considering the ability of the team I had. If I were there, I believe I would have noticed these problems and solved them as they occurred.

The day I was able make filming however, still had problems that needed solving. I had the help of our Assistant Producer Zarah Kemmenoe, who infact turned out to be very important as one of my team members was working in the studio as pre agreed, and the other turned up over an hour late. If Zarah, who was not part of the VT team, was not present I would not have been able to operate the camera and man the boom at the same time.  Even when my team member did arrive, they seemed to have a negative attitude throughout our time on location, which was no help to anyone.

If I were to change the way I performed during the shoot days I would now make sure that I had enough crew members, make sure that the team recognize the responsibility they each have as part of the team and that they are always checking back on their framing, exposure, focus and also sound quality. I think I came across a little too soft and could have been more stern with people when they took advantage of my approach, such as turning up late, bad attitude etc.