1.1 Reviewing my passion project
Introduction - This is my passion project and this is what, why, how and when it is going to happen.
Outline - The general idea of my passion project is to make a wildlife documentary (around 45 minutes) at Bristol Museum and Arts Gallery and i would be filming the Western Wildlife area of the Museum as this Documentary will be shining light on the local wildlife in and around Bristol. I will be doing this with a member of staff who will allow me to record a voice over for the documentary and they will just talk about each local animal.
Context - The reason I want to make a wildlife documentary is because I've always had pets and have been fascinated by other animals. I’ve been thinking of going to Bristol Museum. If i can get permission to film there, I would like to make a promotional documentary for them and go around filming different animals they have on display and have them talk about them. I would be uploading this on their social media accounts (like Instagram, Facebook and twitter), and my personal accounts.
Need & Market - This would be relevant as there are very little videos and media around the Museum, most I have seen has been has been from the public. Hopefully I can work with them and get a worker to do a Voice over, just in front of a camera and whilst they’re speaking I can cut to shots of the animal they’re talking about in the museum and in the wild. Compared with other Wildlife documentaries, like on the BBC (Dynasties, Blue planet), this would have a different style as it is not solely filmed in the wild, there will be half and half inside the museum and in forestry.
Mindmap of original ideas
Moodboard
Pitch Slides
These are the pitch slides for my passion project, which were initially aimed towards Noah's Ark Zoo Farm, however I am now planning my passion project towards Bristol Museum. The overall idea for this project has remained the same as I will be making a wildlife documentary around 45 minutes long, but it will be based around the Western Wildlife you can see everyday.
Passion Project Pitch and Feedback
This is my Passion Project Pitch for my wildlife documentary at Noah's Ark Zoo Farm. Overall, I think my pitch went well but it could've been better as I wasn't as clear as I wanted to be when speaking. Another thing that was wrong with my pitch was there wasn't as much information on the slides compared to the actual amount of research I did, so I could've added a lot more info.
Questions
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Do you feel like Noah’s Ark has enough content for 45 minutes?
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What happens if no-one wants to voiceover? What is the contingency?
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Do you think there is a reason why no long videos there already?
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Who is subscribed to their channel already?
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What kind of audience do they have?
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Would you release trailers to build up an audience before the release?
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Are there ways you can get the animals attention whilst filming?
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With wildlife you need to be very patient? Is 2 days filming enough?
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Using GoPros
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What are you going to do for soundtrack? e.g. music, animal noises
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Representation of different animals
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Why those animals in particular?
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Are you going to script for the voiceovers?
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Could you include interviews?
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Legal and Ethical Considerations
Legal Issues:
Copyright - Protects your work from other people trying to steal it so they'll have to pay for use. Copyright on say a youtube video can do many things, like take some of the revenue, all of the revenue or take the video down completely. To prevent this, I will use my own footage and whatever isn't mine, I will get written permission to use.
Permission to film - If you are trying to film something in the public, people might come up to you and tell you to stop if you don't have permission to be there. This can cause big problems with production and can even cause it to be stopped indefinitely. What I'll do to prevent this is get permission from Noah's Ark (or wherever I film) to film there and make a promotional documentary for them
Health and Safety - You must comply with health and safety legislation, so you must make a good risk assessment analysing all the risks in the location you are filming and you must use the equipment you have the way you've been shown. If these guidelines aren't followed, you are at risk of injury and the location is at risk of been deemed unsafe. The way I would prevent this from happening on my shoot, is by using a 400mm lens so I won't have to get close to any animals that react rashly.
Ethical Issues:
Stereotyping - Saying people can't or have to do certain things because of there gender or race. For example, there is a song called "Blurred Lines" that got a lot of slate because they were insinuating that women are objects and should do as there male counterparts ask. In my documentary there won't be any stereotyping but the viewers are allowed to choose what they're more interested in, so not all girls are going to like horses and not all boys are going to like lions.
Omitting information - Only showing the positives of a product and ignoring the negatives. This can really control the outcome of a product as, for example, if a bottle of soap claims it kills 99.9% of bacteria and the next day you get Corona, it isn't going to look good for that soap company. This is hard to prevent for my project as it isn't up to me as they might only want me to film what they want you to see.
Representation - not treating everyone equally, for example, if the press wanted to take a picture of a football team but they only took a picture with white players, that not really discriminates, but it isn't fair as they are apart of the team as well and for them not to be included in a team picture is wrong.With my project, this doesn't really affect it as I'm going to be filming animal, but I still understand the premise.
Passion Project Changes
With my idea for the Passion Project unit, I have changed the plan slightly. Opposed to filming at Noahs' Ark Zoo Farm, I will now film at the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery. I went for a tour of their archives and saw that there is a lot of unseen artefacts and history that they would like to be seen by the public, as not many people care to think about the past anymore. With Noahs' Ark Zoo Farm, I was planning on making a long form video, to show what a day trip is like and what you could see when visiting, however they haven't responded and their staff are unable to record VoiceOvers due to the pandemic giving them more work. One of the biggest changes to this project is the fact I won't be filming alive animals unless I am recording footage for my Western Wildlife video. The ideas I have for my passion project are to make a variety of short form videos, for them to post on platforms like TikTok and Instagram, and to make 1 long form video based around the Western Wildlife you can see and find in and around the Bristol area. This Western Wildlife idea is more my passion, however they have said that they would like more social media reach and that they could offer a work placement as their social media manager.
In whole, once the timing of filming has been sorted out, I am now going to make a variety of short form videos for the Museums social media accounts and 1 sub 20 minute passion video, based around Western Wildlife around Bristol.
Above is the updated original budget doc and production schedule. These were made while I was still planning to film at Noahs' Ark Zoo Farm. Below are the fully up to date budget and production schedule docs ready for when I start filming at Bristol Museum in May.
This is an old risk assessment from previous production companies who would've gone to the museum. Although it was made in 2014, all the points still stand and are relevant to what I will be doing. Looking at this, I can see that there are a few risks when filming, like tripping, falling, illness from powerful lights needed to keep exhibitions lit and heated, etc.
This is the first storyboard made for this project. This is planned for one of many short form videos I will make for the museums social medias. They would like to shine light on the collection they have that is unseen by hundreds of visitors each day. Due to the rise in short form videos on YouTube and TikTok, this will appeal to many people who are interested in the history of the museum, the history of creatures and the history of Bristol. I will also be making my own, more personal video based around the Western Wildlife exhibition and what animal you can see each day in and around Bristol.
Sample Material
These are my editing examples for my passion project and what I have done is I have speed ramped these videos so that they are slowed down for a part of the video. So in the first edit, I have speed ramped it so that when my cat yawns, it is in slow motion.
The reason I recorded some b-roll shots like the ones above is because it helps with the pace of the video, for example if I was just recording two animals fighting, then cut to a quiet aftermath it helps reduce the suspense. It also helps with the ambients, as there will be lots of noises coming from the fight and then it cuts to a small stream with water sounds, which will settle the nerves.
Action Plan
I have tweaked my passion project so now I am filming at Bristol Museum and will be focussing on the Western Wildlife in and around Bristol. I will be going to get a tour of the Western Wildlife exhibition on Friday the 11th of February and will judge what birds and other animals I will film in the wild. Below is my revised production schedule, which says I will start production on the 11th May and finish filming on the 12th. If I get all the content needed, I will start the edit on the following Monday, however if more footage is needed I will return on the weekend.
Due to the project deadline, I will have to push production forward and I will be filming for the next two Mondays. So Monday 14th, 21st and 28th if needed.
Updated Passion Project
Here is the Project Brief for the M-Shed Climate Change Project. This is my new passion project which involves editing a 15 second still shot of the harbour side, one edit being positive and the other being negative. For the negative edit, I decided to show what the harbour side would look like if nothing changed and climate change became a bigger threat. It show the extreme weather conditions that could happen like blizzards, flash floods and heatwaves/droughts.
For the positive edit, I made the water more blue as it looks like sewage water at the moment as its brown and disgusting, I also added floating gardens in the water and some trees as this was filmed during winter/autumn, when the trees were bare. I also added some solar panels on the roof to the bottom right to show the more renewable energy sources that could be used instead of fossil fuels.
Initial Ideas and Raw Footage
Here is some screenshots from the positive edit. To the left, there's a masked in tree which I had to invert and put under the original video, then adjust the feather so that it looks real. For the other trees and floating gardens, I had to just put them onto of the video file as I was only allowed one inverted mask. I adjusted the opacity to make it look real as well. Most of this edit is masking and changing the colour and opacity.
Here are the PNG files I used in this edit, I got these from pexels and put them into photoshop so I could go around the bit I wanted, then select the inverse, unlock the image layer at the bottom right and finally deleting the background so I was left with these graphics above.
Here are the graphic layers I have for the positive edit. The bottom layer is the inverted masked tree, then its the video file, then its the two floating gardens, the rainbow, the 3 trees I added (1 to the right and the other 2 to the left), then the 2 solar panels and finally, the adjustment layer to make the whole shot look nice and positive. I also added a lumetri color effect to the video file so that I could mask around the water and change the colour.
Finished Positive Edit
Negative Edit Raw Files
Here is the negative edit screenshots that I took to show the steps I made to make this edit. Below you can see the scorched earth graphic I used to make it look like the water has dried up. I did this by masking around]d the water and adding key frames to slowly change the opacity so that the graphic can be seen. I also added key frames for the blizzard effect, this helped by making it look like the wind is really strong and is changing the strength of the blizzard. This also used the opacity key frames. For this part, the heatwave, I used a couple effects to make it look realistic. Firstly, I added a lens flare effect which makes it look the sun is there so I added some key frames to make the sun move from one side of the screen to the other, this also change the lens flare and it moved with the sun. I also used the Turbulent Displace effect to make it look like there's heatwaves. What this effect did was add multiple bubble which warp the area around them, I made this quite low as the bubbles are visible so it was around 10% which was enough to get the point across
Finished Negative Edit
Project Evaluation
At the start of this unit, I was planning on making a visitors documentary on Noah's Ark Zoo Farm however this quickly changed due to Covid-19 interfering with my plans. My next idea was to make a Western Wildlife informational video based at the Bristol Museum, but this also changed as I was told about a Climate Change brief project that wanted two edits (1 positive and 1 negative) showing the Harbourside over time being affected by Climate Change. What went well when editing both aspects was being able to create it with my own ideas and to have that freedom over the project whilst also contacting Emma to make sure everything looks good. Something that limited me was having to start the edit at home as my laptop couldn't handle all the effects, rendering and exporting. What I did to improve this was editing the 2 views in college during another unit, as I could finish the other unit in my own time. Looking at the finished edits, I can assess the strengths and weaknesses of them. For the negative edit, everything about it I like, the only thing that could be improved would be all the masking layers as they were rushed and if you look closely you can see some mistakes, like in the flooding mask. For the positive edit, there are a few more things I could improve compared to the negative edit. For example, the trees started with an inverted mask but you can only have 1 inverted mask per sequence so I had to duplicate the graphic and change the opacity to make the other trees look real. Also, the part of the water that is on the other side of the dock didn't get effected by the water mask as I couldn't go around the dock. Overall, if you are just looking over the edit, I am happy with the outcome and the negatives of the positive edit are minimal. Looking at the threats that are out of my control, the initial deadline for this project was the 25th May, but due to me being the only person who has attempted this, they extended it to the 10th June. Another threat would be the render and export times as the amount of graphics on the timeline made it longer and kept getting longer with each graphic I added.
