Shooting script,treatment, call sheet and interview questions

Here are links to the shooting script, treatment, call sheet and interview questions for 16 Going on 60
16 Going on 60 Shooting Script
16 Going on 60 Treatment
16 Going on 60 Shooting Schedule
16 Going on 60 Questions for Voiceover

Fine tuning edit.

Today i went through my edit cleaned up some of the interviews cutting down the silence then adding in my voice over clips that Lizzie kindly provided us with the voice over was used to explain certain parts of the documentary for example when the paramedics came, i also replaced my voice asking the questions with Lizzie's just so the flow of the video was better instead of different voices.

The interviews with Kaylash Panday and Orlagh Higgins could of been done better there is a shot where the tripod was moved so in the middle of the interview the camera moves i wasn't aware this had happened until i came back to look at the footage once the camera had been handed back also the shots where very shaky i am unsure why they are like this.

Kaylash and Orlagh interview. 

We also have some sound issues background noise, also i misplaced Kaylash's mic so every time Kaylash moved her hand it would be picked up on the mic this was my fault and in further i will make sure where i place the mic will be in a better place, there is also sounds being picked up of scott coughing slightly we need to re-think where the camera person and how close to the camera they are.

A nice simple intro to match the
calm and simple style we want
from this video. 

The reason for the the colours for the intro is so that it creates a nice calm feel to my audience and they will pay a lot more attention to what my documentary is saying, through out the documentary its a calm feel until we get to the part where Kathy is taken to hospital I've used music that picks up the tempo and creates a tense and uneasy atmosphere.

Ambulance waiting for Kathy.

The things i need to improve on by keep trying them is the white balanced i found it very difficult trying to make my lighting outside look less blue so when i come to edit i don't have to colour correct my videos and i will save myself time, also i need to keep working on improving my sound skills and directors skills i found my subject could easily convince me not to film when really i should of all these i will keep working on to improve myself for my next project.

Bad white balance
thats why my image have a blue
tint to it. 

Editing.

Its 17:13 and I am still in the studio editing away after sorting out the different clips that are in different formats and rendering small clips at a time I have now got a sort of order to my work, I've decided to cut the bit about Hadlow out due to the lack of imagery we had for the college and it just didn't feel right so instead I'm kind of going for a more personal look on her life so how friends feels about her being ill a bit more about her life sort of, the part where she was rushed into hospital I've decided to darken the soundtrack make it more serious and tense for my audience compared to the rest of the sound track which is kind of celtic like and fairy like music to relate back to her roots in Ireland.


The whole flow of my edit has changed as well its a lot slower and calmer i just want it to be peaceful until the point of no return ( sort of speak) where the ambulance is outside our house.

Royalty free music websites i have used to help me have a soundtrack to my documentary:
http://www.jamendo.com/en/
http://incompetech.com
http://audiojungle.net

Emails to and from Sainsburys regarding filming permisson

Here are the emails I sent and received regarding permission to film in Sainsburys in Maidstone

Dear Sir or Madam,

My name is Scott Fisher, I am a student at the University for the Creative Arts in Maidstone, and I am currently making a documentary about a day in the life of an individual who suffers with Multiple Sclerosis. One of their day to day tasks is of course shopping, and their preferred store is Sainsburys, so I would be very greatful if I could have permission to film the individual doing shopping in your Maidstone store tomorrow, Saturday 1st December 2012. There would not be any shots of any other customers in the store, and I would not identify any members of staff by name or face if requested. My number is ----------- if you wish to call me to discuss the matter further.

Thank you for your time,

Kind Regards,

Scott Fisher

Hi Scott

Thanks very much for your e-mail regarding filming in our Maidstone store.

I’m afraid we aren’t going to be able to help you on this occasion. We are currently getting a very high volume of filming requests and, as I am sure you will understand, we have to turn down the majority of these requests as we just can’t accommodate everyone.

We are approaching the bussiest times of the year for our stores and given that filming is inevitably disruptive for our store colleagues and for our customers, and we already have a number of media commitments, we are only considering requests which are directly related to the Sainsbury’s brand at the moment.

I’m sorry to disappoint you and I hope you are able to find an alternative location for your filming.

Regards

Kristian

 

Kristian Ward | Corporate and Digital PR Assistant | Corporate Affairs
Sainsbury's Supermarkets Ltd 

Emails to and from Hadlow College regarding filming permission

Here are the emails I sent and received regarding permission to film at Hadlow College

Dear sir/madam

My name is Scott Fisher, I am a student at the University for the creative arts in Maidstone, studying Broadcast Media. I am currently working on a documentary which is about one of the students at your college. The scenes I would like to film at the college (Hadlow Campus) are only outside of animals and the surrounding area and of the student working. I would do my best not to capture any other students on film. The days I would like to film are Wednesday 28th and Thursday 29th of November. If you have any questions or would like any more details do not hesitate to contact me, or my course tutor Helen Curston at hCurston.s1@ucreative.ac.uk

Thanks and kind regards

Scott Fisher


Dear Scott,

Please could you clarify what curriculum area the student your documentary features is in please so that I can pass your query onto the relevant person.

Kind regards,

Jo

Jo Tapp
PA to Associate Principals
Hadlow College


Hi Jo, thanks for the response. The student in question is studying animal management.

Regards
Scott Fisher


Thank you Scott. I have passed your enquiry to the Head of Faculty Animal & Land Management, Zoe Chapman.

Kind regards,

Jo


Thank you Jo, I look forward to hearing from Zoe soon. 

Regards
Scott


Dear Jo,
Further to my email dated 23rd of November regarding filming permission, I am contacting you to enquire whether permission has been granted. Ideally I would like to film this Thursday 29th of November. I would be extremely greatful if you could get back to me as soon as possible regarding this request. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Best Regards,
Scott Fisher


Dear Scott,

I am sorry to hear that you have not been contacted. I have spoken to Zoe Chapman's PA who will raise this issue with her today as soon as is possible and ask her to contact you.

Kind regards,

Jo

Dear Scott

We have considered your request and, whilst we would love to be able to help you out, unfortunately we have a large number of students who it would not be appropriate to film.

As we are unable to guarantee that you will not film these students we have had to make the  decision that, on this occasion, it will not be possible to support you.

We wish you every success in your studies.

Kind regards

Zoe Chapman

Celebs with M.S

While looking into Jack Osbourne ( recently been told he has M.S) i thought there must be more than just him in the lime light with this condition, so it accorder to me to research this and find out a bit more and its surprising to find Olympic runners have the condition and also to find  the first recorded case of the condition was Sir Augustus Frederic D'Este  grandson of King George 3rd king of england), All these kind of information will be the start of my documentary to show my audience that M.S really doesn't stop you from doing what you want. I want to start off with the first recorded case and make my way up to now with Jack Osbourne this also shows the condition can affect anyone doesn't matter about money or fame its just down to your genes. 

Sir Augustus Frederick D'Este

maureen manley cyclist

 Emily Mann - director and playwright

Ernie Mc Alister 










These are just a few famous names to mention there are lots more we could name but we could be here all day :). 

New information.

After having a small chat with Kathy last night we got chatting about college and now she has been given the option to do the course part time, she will still get the qualification just its going to take her a year longer i think this proves how much M.S can affect a persons life and just shows how slowly she has to take things even when she thinks she can do it at the same pace as the others.

This information will be put in at the end of the documentary as a kind of what is going to happen type of thing, and it wont be Kathy saying this information it will be the commentary as this information came after Kathy spent the night in hospital.

Editing

Now we have filmed all we can the next stage is to edit, Scott has been given the job of editor and while scott edits i will be sit with him to give him an extra set of eyes and to also spread the jobs equally, i will help scott by saying my opinion and advising him through out the process.

The kind of edit i am going for is a very smooth interview heavy kind of documentary just because Kathy has a lot of interesting things to say with cut aways to give a visual on some of the things. I want and need my audience to feel the same pain and upset Kathy will feel but also to feel the passion that runs through this person.

The things i would of changed with filming;
I would of been more pro-active with contacting places.
Be stronger when filming people even friends ( not to be pushed around)
Involve my partner more.

Filming- Hadlow Edit- All Clips

Today me adn Scott travelled to Hadlow college, even though we didnt have permission to film on the campus we decided to film from the road side and just get shots of the college from outside and the sign outside of Hadlow college. While in the little village of Hadlow we decided to take a few short shots of the town to help the audience get a feel for this little village. 

Today we have brought back all the video clips we had done we have kind of had to think a lot on the spot due to Kathy going into hospital around 2am 4th December she came into my room to say she was going in so i decided from a film makers point of view to film the situation as it happened i didnt go to hospital with her i just filmed the bits leading up to her going in the ambulance to to show how much pain M.S can cause one person. 

I do feel kind of bad i didnt help my friend instead i filmed her in pain but i didnt know what else to do i needed to show the other side of MS and Kathy would kind of hint she didnt want me to show her that side but it balanced out the good with the bad. 

This evening i will be looking at the clips and put them into some sort of order where the interviews flow a bit better and start adding peoples names to the edit so we know who is who. 

Filming- 2nd December 2012

While filming Orlagh and Kaylash we managed to get a 5 minuet interview just asking their opinion and their feelings about living with Kathy and her condition, the interview went very well i framed the interview with Kaylash and Orlagh sat together my reason for this was so they both felt relaxed enough to talk more naturally and so they can bounce off each other.

the filming went very well, This morning (3rd December 2012) we was suppose at 9am the bus ride to Hadlow college with Kathy but it took me 4 attempts to wake Kathy up this morning to once again our filming has been prolonged a bit longer i have managed to book the camera out for one extra day and hopefully tomorrow we will have more luck i will sit down with Kathy and explain the situation to her more and just explain she needs to just go about her day like normal i am there to follow her and not to get in the way too much.


So far i feel my interview filming is going ok there is not much i would change about what i have done, i have gone into my locations looked around and found the best place to place my interviews, i have also taken my time to look at the camera look at lighting and double check sound once i had done this it was scotts job to manage that camera while i asked the questions in the interviews.

Filming Sequence shoot.

Today was the day i was suppose to film Kathy taking a walk in the park with her cain the point to this was to show how other people react to a young person with a walking stick if there is any reaction to this, But due to Kathy not feeling up to this i have to come up with something different to show Kathy in her everyday life so now i will ask her if we can get her to do some house work maybe hover up the front room and cleaning up in the kitchen.

This could show how tired kathy can get very easily hopefully she will  be more co-opertive with this idea and will spare a few moments of her time.

What i have found out with documentary work is that people are so much harder to workwith cause they feel they are doing you a favour they can pick and choose when they can help you and feel they can let you down at the last minuet at least with dramas there is a little more control over the actors cause they want to be there.

I think if i was to do a documentary again i wouldnt use friends, i would be more likely to find another story with people i dont know i feel they would act more professional cause they dont know me.

Interview last night:

Last night i did manage to get an interview out of Kathy the interview went very well she was giving great answers not just yes or no responses she was happy to answer the questions i gave her and also she gave us lots to work with so when it comes to editing the interview it will be intresting and to mix the interview with the video diaries Kathy has been keeping.

More bad news- 01/12/12

I've just set up the camera for my first interview with Kathy's boyfriend Alex I set the camera up and was ready to shoot i was using the radio mic for the first time so took me about 15 mins to set up properly and when i told the questions i was going to ask so he could have a thing about them before being filmed.

I pressed record and stood still for 15 mins waiting for him to be ready for Alex to turn around and say he wasnt comfortable to be filmed any more, i couldnt convince him to change his mind so now im in search for one more person to be interviewed and im hoping the intviews can help the fact that all my locations bar the bus company have turned me down and the interviews would be able to hold together my documentary for me.

Ive asked some of Kathy flatmates for help hopefully they will be able to help me out and i can finally get this documentary over and done with.

Filming- 1/12/12

Today we are filming but we have been delaid by Kathy going to the zoo while she has been there it has given me chance to charge all cameras up and also to sort any lose ends up making sure we have the right forms and just general things that i would some times over look if i was rushing around.

The plan for this evening is to:

Interview Alex (Kathy Boyfriend) before he leaves to go back home.
Interview kathy
Have a chat with Kathy while she gets ready to go out
Film a few shot sthrough a window ( we didnt get permission to film in the pub the staff felt the pub was too small)
Have a chat with Kathy once she has left the pub and how she coped with the staires and the small layout also find out how people reacted to a young girl with a walking caine.

Sunday filming:

I will be filming Orlagh an ex-flatmate and she could explain how it was living with Kathy was.
Film Kathy going for a walk in the park and how the cold affects her but she still goes out to do it.

Monday filming:

On monday we will film kathy on the bus to hadlow college.
Film Kathy going into college doing close up shots of the sign and establishing shots of the building
(the reason for this is because we was told we couldnt film in the college cause there being under 16's attending)

The biggest problem we have had is not being able to film in certain locations but we got around this by thinking of other places we can film for example mote park and staying on the street so we can film outside of the buiding and maybe sneaky shots through windows.

After a few personal problems I am now back on the feet and working to get this filming done and do it to the best I can and knowing I did the hard part shows me that i am stronger than i think when it comes to filming and i have developed more confidence in myself to follow my gut feeling.

Difficulties encountered when trying to gain permission to film

Whilst making enquiries about getting permission to film at an organisation, I have encountered a number of difficulties, as follows:
I have phoned multiple times to try and speak to someone about filming permission, I did get through to someone and spoke to them about it, they told me they would call me back when they had checked whether it would be ok or not. However, I never received a return phone call.

Furthermore, I have phoned them since and now been told that their marketing department no longer take enquiries on the phone, and to email them instead. I have done this, and have been told my enquiry has been passed onto the relevant person, but have so far had no response. I have today sent another email to the person who was dealing with my enquiry to ask if any progress has been made on it.

Whilst I appreciate that organisations have many enquiries to deal with, me and Gemma have put a lot of time into planning this shoot, so when people do not get back in contact with us and we have to keep chasing them, it could put our plans in jeopardy and potentially mean we are unable to film.

Given that I have had no response from them regarding filming permission, I feel that I have no choice but to go and see them in person and discuss this matter as all the ways that I have tried to contact them so far have had no response at all.

Documentary viewing: Britain's Hidden Hungry

I viewed the BBC documentary Britain's Hidden Hungry on BBC iPlayer recently, and it has given me more insight into how a documentary is made. There were some good interview shots of Charlotte, one of the main character in the documentary, who tells us about the last time she ate three meals a day. There is some good camera work in the programme, with over the shoulder and fly on the wall shots used throughout. There is also a commentary used which gives the audience more insight about the issue the programme is covering.

There were certain aspects of Britain's Hidden Hungry that we will be using in our documentary, in particular the voice over, as this is a good way of getting information across. However, there is one thing missing from the programme which our documentary will have, and that is video diaries. I feel these are important in a documentary because they give a very personal insight from the character themselves and allow the audience to engage intimately with them. I have put a link below to the episode on youtube, as it is no longer available on BBC iPlayer.

Britain's Hidden Hungry (Youtube)

Phoning locations for filming permission

I phoned up Arriva earlier in the week and was asked what the specific time, day, and route was that I wished to film on. Given that at the moment I am unsure of this information, I will phone them again when me and Gemma have discussed when we will be filming. I am also going to phone Hadlow college again today as they have not returned my call from Monday.

Getting Permission to film

I have been phoning around people to get permission to film in certain locations that we need to film in for our documentary. However, one of the locations we want to film in have proved to be a bit tricky to get hold of, so I will try and phone them again tomorrow. Also, I have been editing the shooting script further so that it is coherent and tells the story effectively.

Script- Gemma Whipp

Today myself Helen and Scott went through the script in more detail making sure we included my points which i wanted to touch on:

About Kathy:
Her life at Hadlow
Friends
Jobs
Relationships

In our script all these points where covered we have managed to get the script to flow better instead of jumping from one point to the next and cut down how much we did at Hadlow college a lot as well over all the script is looking more structured and will give me more help when it comes down to filming Kathy.

On Thursday 15th November 2012 I have asked Kathy to come up to the studios where she can meet Scott and if she has any questions Helen is on hand to explain anything to her Kathy that she may be worried about. My aim of this doc is the inspiration behind Kathy NOT the bad things but the bad things will help her move along.

Over all i am pleased I've also been in contact with Orlagh and Kaylash to get them for a chat so i can explain what i want from them in the interviews and so they are also aware that they need to fill some forms in for consent to use them, I also need to get hold of Alex Kathy's boyfriend and give Hadlow college another phone call, Scott has also been asked to ring the bus company to get permission to film on the bus if that is at all possible.

All the interviews i want apart from Kathy's to be done in the common room of where we live just because it has a more of a homely feel and the interviewee's will look more relaxed and be less concerned about the camera being there. Kathy's interview will be in her room just cause thats her space and her room shows a lot of her personality in the little bits and bobs around the room.

My planning hasn't been brilliant there are things i could of changed for example sharing the jobs more instead of me just doing everything and expecting Scott to do work, But scott needs to learn to think oh i could help by doing..... instead of waiting to be told to do it.

Script and shooting script. Gemma Whipp

Over the weekend i asked Scott to do a script while i carried on thinking about the shooting script, the result of scott's script proved for this two people need to be together since scott did forget about a lot of things that needed to be included and he focused a lot on the college which is not what i wanted, In-between helping Lizzie and Sam with their filming i've been in a fighting battle to try get scott to be more pro-active in this project which i am finding difficult he wants to be told what to do instead of thinking about what needs to be done.

The shot list is almost complete i am just trying to fill in some small gaps without using cut away shots i was going to use Kathy's video diary to help build the story more on the more personal level get my audience right in there kind of like a nick broomfield interview where he is always pushing the boundaries more and more.

Some of the documentaries I've been watching are:
Kurt Cobain- For the drug usage in this doc they are quite open to talk about their drug uses which Kathy is finding difficult to talk about she didn't use the drugs to get high she did them purely help ease the pain when in her early stages of her M.S
Festishes- the reason i watched this one was to see how i can talk about difficult subjects in interviews things that can happen with MS that cant be helped are always quite sensitive and in this film they used lots of different ways to show this with clients and the mistresses in the film. They interviewed the mistresses in their homes as well as in pandoras box, they concealed clients identities to get better interview responses all these things made its easier for the interviewees to give good answers.

Watching Nick Broomfield has helped me a lot to understand how to talk about certain subjects and to understand there are ways to get the answers you want by the way you word things.

Research Part Two. Gemma Whipp

When I spoke to Kathy when she came home from Ireland I popped into to have a chat with her and see how things went. As we was talking Kathy handed me  bag full of paper work in the paper work there are reports of things Katy went through I.E depression also there are articles on cannabis use all these options are open to Kathy. I also got from Kathy DVD's of her MRI scans where we can see selections of muscle and brains and Kathy will be pointing out the bits of the scan my audience will need to know and this is where my narration skills will come into play.

My research has helped me map together my script which I have placed on my wall at home on a post it note form so when it comes to writing my script I can in a sense copy from my wall into a script form where i will add other details for example when im going to add narrations.

Shooting Script

Today I wrote the first draft of the shooting script. Gemma has done the shot list so once we combine these two items we will have a coherent shooting script which can then be approved for filming.

MS Society website

Here is a link to the MS Society website, a portal to everything to do with MS, including diagnosis, treatment, and background information on the disease. This website has been a useful research resource in the production of our documentary which looks at the life of someone who suffers with MS.

MS Society Website

Research M.S- Gemma Whipp

After my documentary got picked to be commissioned i went and told Kathy the young lady i have based my documentary on.

For around four days i have not been able to speak to Kathy as she went home so when she got back last night once i got her up to date with what i've been doing such as using post it notes to create a shot list and mapping out what shots i want where, i also got some information from Kathy so lots of different paper which all speak about symptoms Kathy had and how she went through depression brought on by her M.S there is also information about using illegal drugs to help ease pain, for me to be able to touch on this sort of subject i need to look at other documentaries where people speak about drug use and use a similar way they use to get around the subject.

I have to ring Hadlow college to make sure i can film there, the shots i want to use at Hadlow are shots of things that Kathy will be up against that other class mates wouldn't think twice about doing for example maybe steps leading into lessons.

I have asked Kathy if she would be up for doing a video diary where she can talk about things that are on her mind or if she is feeling particularly painful, there are certain things that i wouldn't be able to film and this is another way to capture moments for example when you suffer from M.S you lose control over your bladder so there could an example where this has happened and she might want to mention it. Also this is another way for my audience to relate with Kathy and feel like they are friends and they have known each other for a long time.

Research on M.S Gemma Whipp

When I was thinking about this documentary unit I was wondering to myself what do i have in my life that i could do a 10 minuet documentary on, Then it came to me that i have this person in my life who is so great and just aiming high all the time but her down fall is she suffers from M.S but that didn't stop her then i thought what is M.S and so i did my research and looked on-line and this is what I've found out. 

MS is a disease affecting the central nervous system (the brain and spinal cord) the symptoms can come and go and they can also depend how sever the pain can be. The illness is different for every one who suffers from the illness, as much as this is horrible and painful people who suffer from it but cause M.S as it stands has no cure BUT there are ways people can treat the symptoms. 

The symptoms can start off as small things like Loss of balance, fatigue, Bladder problems there are lots of symptoms and some people might not have all of them but they will have some and they will hit at different times. 

The reason i wanted  to base this on Kathy was because of her drive she isnt letting her illness beat her and she just keeps on moving forward with her life she now lives in Maidstone she has a relationship with a guy called Alex, these are good steps and she just keeps on working to be the best she can be and doing it while she can. 

DOCUMENTARY Commission- Groups.

Today we was told what pitches where picked my pitch was chosen. My documentary was based on my friend Kathy who suffers from M.S the reason i picked to do this on Kathy was because she is only 27 years old but when she is having a bad day she is basically like a 90 year old woman when she is really bad she ends up shuffling around on her bottom to get around. Some of the things i will be looking at is how she lives from day to day and her medicine she has to takes what happens if she misses some of her meds. There is a lot of information to filter through and it will be hard to decide what makes the final cut. The shots i will use for Kathy will be close up shots nice tight frame then slowly draw out to show her with her walking stick and show how frail she becomes when she is having a bad day. 

I will be getting permission to film on the Hadlow campus where Kathy attends to see what challenges she is up to face while at that college. M.S is a very common illness and people such as Jack Osbourne who has been recently diagnosed with the illness which means my documentary is being made at a good time to help raise more awareness around the illness and to show that cause they are ill doesn't mean they are unable to live their lives and can still do things they wanna do it just means takes a little longer for her to do.