YMCA England Project Update

Well, we have had a little break after our film screening at the YMCA National Conference. We are now going to meet up with Jill this Monday at 12.00pm to wrap up and discuss what we are going to do further with the project now that the film has been completed. We have now been asked to produce short clips to take from our completed film and make them for the YMCA England website.

YMCA National Conference film screening... complete

It was great! I mean we were worried that the resolution may appear different on the screen at the EMCC, but it was fine. All the people loved it and we got a big applause at the end! The speech was a bit nerve-racking in front of a few hundred people, but it went good. I did mention in the speech for the opportunity for future projects to take place (for our third year projects).



Many people at the tea break congratulated us on the good work. At the end of the conference, we were approached by a few people for some potential third year projects. More on that soon!

Feedback for Notts County Film

So today we showed our films and I believe we got good feedback. Feedback received was that it was a lot better than the previous draft, the interviews interlinked well, the sound worked well where it was used, however could have done without at some points, and the titles sequence and voice-over worked really well.



I believe this was well-deserved feedback, as I spend A LOT of time changing/editing (not being big headed), so getting the good feedback felt good. A group that worked well to achieve a good result.

Meeting for YMCA Proj

Met today with Jill from the YMCA to discuss how we are going to go about editing. We discussed the length and we were also asked to produce short clips (taken from the documentary) that would be put up on the YMCA website (and potential payment may be in place for us to complete this task). Editing will now go on it's way, should be done in a few weeks!!

Notts County Doc update... SVEN RESIGNS (and makes our doc even more interesting!)

Went down to Notts County ground today for some GV shots and footage that could be used as b-roll. Oh yeh, between today and yesterdays interview with John Staplton, Sven Goran Eriksson has resigned as manager from Notts County!

At first we thought that this will make our documentary harder to film, due to all the media attention, and we also had good comments from John about Sven's arrival and how it will serve Notts County well in he future. However, we could incorporate this into our documentary and link this in with the issues of why fans have decreased and the how the change of so many managers over the years have affected the club.

As we were not given permission to film anything within the ground, we got alot of GV shots from all around the ground. As well as this, we got gained alot of good stills also.

Given that there was loads of media attention at the football ground today, we were lucky in gaining an extra interview. We met someone who worked as an accountant for Notts County. Due to all the problems etc the team have been facing recently, he refused wanting to be interviewed. But after a bit of persuasion, he agreed to do a short interview for us, but NOT mentioning anything about the issues of finance and just talking about the club in general. We did get some VERY interesting stories about Notts County from him, but it was a shame we couldn't get them on film as he didn't want to disclose anything on camera.

Whilst filming all around the ground, we also met a VJ (video journalist), who was also there to film the ground, who gave us a good few tips. Me and Chris, asked the reception if we could film in the ground (again, just in case), however we were told by the receptionist that it would be really difficult, as there was alot of media around. He did, however, tell us to come back next week and we may be able to do it.

Notts County Doc update... Interview with John

Today we have filmed an interview with John Staplton, who has been a Notts County fan all of his life. I believe we got alot of footage that will give ease in the editing phase. Ben, our director, wrote down a set of questions, and I believe from them, we got good detailed responses.

Tomorrow, we will be visiting the Notts County stadium to film some GV shots (and obviously much more), the more the better i.e. what I said in my earlier blog that because we will have limited time given by Notts County, and all the group will be coming along, we will use all the equipment we have to get more footage completed.

YMCA doc update...

All arrangments have been sorted for the days. Both sets of train tickets to Liverpool and London have been recieved to myself. We had a meeting on Wednesday, with Jill, Deborah and the whole group and discussed everything and made final arrangements to be set for filming on the 10th February. Alan just needs to have a look at the pictures Jill has sent and complete risk assessments. We are going to have another meeting to complete the shot list, shot schedule, and other things prior to our filming day. I have contacted Jill for some archive footage that we can include, however she is still in the process of getting hold of that. We will also, after the next meeting, meet John and re-check all the equipment and check that the tie mics are working as they were not previously.

The roles of group members are:

Abdul Seedat - Director and editing and camera assistant
Umar Hussain - Producer, and Sound recording and post production music/effects
Duncan Leigh - Camera/Lighting, and post production visual effects
Alan Vickerstaff - Locations Manager, titles designer, photographer

Notts County Doc update...

We have found a person who will be the key person who drives our story (Pete IronMonger - a relative of the IronMonger, a goalkeeper who played for Notts County in the early 1900's). This person has been a Notts County for a very long time, therefore we will be able investigate Notts County through time in a good way. This is what the theme will be for the documentary - Notts County through the eyes of a long term and dedicated fan. We will show Notts County through the years and how it has development/changed and how this has had an effect on other things like the number of fans and why their popularity has changed and the causes of this. In the meeting today we discussed all of this and identified five points that we will include to make it an interesting narrative.

Trips have been made to the BBC nottingham to get in touch with Colin Slater (Notts County commentator), and the the evening post to get a copyright for some images we want to include in our film. Finally to the Notts County ground to talk to the head of the supporters group. We have now got someone (Iris - Head of the fan club/supporters group) who is now helping us to get interviews with some real dedicated fans who will hopefully, have many stories and views on how the club has changed over the years.

FAIL

We have abandoned our idea of the 'unseen heroes' theme of our documentary because we have not been given permission by Notts County Football Club to film the interiews that we needed to. However, they have allowed us to have a 30 minute slot in which we will be allowed to film GV shots. We have discussed in our meeting today about how we can make the most of this 30 minute slot, as this is the only time we will be given. We will take two Sony Z1's, a camcorder, any relevent sound equipment, and a stills camera to get as much footage as we can. The whole group will be present on this day and given individuals jobs, so that everything can be done on time and within the allocated 30 minutes.

However, on the good side, for the YMCA project, I have spoken to Jill about some other arrangments about tickets to the locations and she will be posting them soon. Jill has also proposed another meeting with the whole group sometime next week, in which we will also meet Simon from the communications team from the YMCA.
The only concern I have is clashing of days, as both of my projects will be running alongisde each other. If we arrange to interview someone on a day (for the Notts County Doc), it may be on one of the dates I am doing the YMCA shooting, mentioned in my earlier post. However, as of now, I know for sure the dates of the YMCA project, and we have planned to shoot one of our days for Notts County on the 11th February, which is the day straight after our filming in Liverpool. Hopefully, it will work out well, because the way I see it is, the YMCA project we are doing will help me and give me a real-life experience on working with a client and getting valuable work experience. It will be good practice for me for my final year clientel project also, as I have spoken to a few finals years and they have mentioned it is something similar to what they are doing in their projects.