Location Planning

After we established our story, we started to plan where we will film. To start of the film we will have opening establishing shots to help set the location, these are going to be of landmarks in Qatar. These landmarks will include places like the Pearl, Katara, Corniche and Aspire. The reason for using these specific locations is that within Qatar which is where our film is produced they are very well known, the Qatari culture is displayed and it helps audiences from abroad understand where this film is from.

After we have established the location, we will move into the story. Here firstly we will introduce our 1st character, this is actually going to be me. Therefore I will be introduced in my house, for the couple opening scenes showing me taking care of my disease. The locations within my house are going to be rooms like the bedroom, kitchen and dining area. After I have been introduced we are bringing in our 2nd character which is Abdul, similar to me he will introduced in his own house as well with similar but opposing scenes to the ones in my house. To further develop our story we are going to back up our facts with statements from official doctors and professionals, to help create the sense of professionalism we are going to be using their working settings like the Qatar Diabetes Association and Hamad Medical Centre. We will be recording interviews and statements in their offices. We are also going to visit Cornell Medical College where we will be creating some interval shots to put between the story. Finally we are going to have some scenes which are going to be located on the set, as in when we are filming because it involves driving around therefore we can't know exactly what locations will have the least traffic and noise for example until we are on set. 

This is from Abdulaziz's house where we only filmed within his room. This picture was taken prior to the filming as you can see the equipment laying around the room.

For my house we filmed in loads of locations including, garage, my room, living room and kitchen. This is from the kitchen where we filmed two scenes of me eating breakfast and taking my pills.

Mood Board

Documentary: Diabetes Research

Diabetes is a chronic illness marked by an increase level of glucose (sugar) in the blood. It is caused by partial or total lack of the insulin produced by the Pancreas, or a decrease in the effectiveness of the insulin it produces.
Insulin is a hormone secreted by the pancreas, and it plays a fundamental role in regulating the transfer of sugar from the blood to the cells to be utilized as a source of energy.

Low blood sugar can cause the following effects:

• Dizziness
• Excessive fatigue
• Excessive hunger
• Shivering
• Headache
• Sweating
• Anger
• Increase heart beat

*Hypoglycemia can lead to fainting and unconsciousness.

High blood sugar can cause the following effects:

• General fatigue
• Frequent urination
• Excessive thirst
• Dizziness and headache

*If not treated can lead to diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA)

http://qda.org.qa/about-diabetes/diabetes-facts

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2129799/Qatar-named-fattest-nation-earth-HALF-adults-obese.html

http://www.action-on-diabetes.qa/diabetes-in-qatar.html

http://thepeninsulaqatar.com/news/qatar/119521/diabetes-rate-alarmingly-high-in-qatar

Audience Profile

This is Abdul-Aziz, he represents my audience. He is 18 years old and an inhabitant of our filming location which is Qatar. He belongs to the more obese society which is a large part of the population here in Qatar. Like many other overweight people Abdul is under threat from diabetes type 2 which is extremely common in these parts of the world. Abdul is trying to change his life by following extreme diets and regular exercise but like many others he has a lot of bad habits due to his environment. We want to reach our to the group, especially teenagers as they are the most vulnerable who are under threat of the disease due to their lifestyles, the only way to stop diabetes is to prevent it from happening in the first place, this can be done through short films like ours who catch the attention of people like Abdul.                                                                                                     Qatar has roads everywhere, this means walking is excluded which can also be blamed on the climate. The weather here which is extremely hot limits peoples chances to do exercise in the outdoors, water activities like swimming are very popular here as the climate can be eliminated. Abdul practices water polo with the national team as one of the ways in which he keeps himself fit. Another problem here in Qatar is the amount of fast food available, like America a McDonald's

can be found around every corner, likewise other fast food chains due to the international environment here. People's access to this unhealthy fast food is increased by every fast food restaurant providing the opportunity to deliver the food enabling people like Abdul to sit at home and have the food delivered to their doorstep without moving a finger. Qatar struggles a lot with implications of diabetes, the main cause of it is that people are unaware of the disease, if it is made clear to people what implications it has on your life people hopefully will change their lifestyle to prevent this epidemic.

Focus Group Documentary Example

We showed a focus group clips from Sugar Rush, the same documentary used in a lot of our analysis work. This documentary is very similar to what we are hoping to create. Making this video we as a group all had different tasks, personally I took care of making the questions and asking them to the focus group. Other tasks were filming, editing and getting the whole thing organised as it was done in school hours. Below is the Youtube video we created.

Our questions mainly related to how the felt the message was spread throughout the piece as we are hoping to focus our short film about this. We learnt that keeping the story real is important and using real people examples for the interviews and story. Using experts was important but more using some sort of animation to help explain the disease is important. People generally liked the documentary, makes it easy for us as we can use this as an example and leave out the parts people did not enjoy as much like the long talks from experts and the extra long interviews. The message developed came across well by relating everything to real time examples. Music is necessary to keep our audiences interested, possibly bringing down the volume over the interviews would also be important. People were interested when following diabetes as a whole, we are still not sure whether we are going to follow individuals or generalize diabetes for Qatar. Possibly a mix of both, bringing facts for the country but following individual stories. People in our focus group wanted mainly to be able to make an emotional connection to the short film, this helps us know how we should base our story. One other thing was that it is still important to have some educational information as many people are still unaware of the disease.

Postcard and Website Questionnaire

We created a questionnaire about websites and postcards relating to a documentary. We shortly introduced our pitch for a diabetes short film and showed people examples of other websites and postcards before asking them questions. We are planning to use this feedback to ensure our product is of its highest quality. We worked on this part as a group, personally I helped with the questions and finding the examples of website and postcard.

Below is screenshots of charts representing the answers we received.

 This question is rather straightforward, we looked at other websites relating to diabetes and took the color schemes for these sites. We will probably go ahead with blue/white or red/white instead of black/white since this is kind of plain.

 On many postcards there are links and references to social media, same for website therefore it was important to know for us to know specific social media we should promote on our products to interest our audiences.

 This answer was very important to us, for our postcard it is important to know what we need to focus on, this indicates that image is the most important for audiences. This means we need to take a strong picture.

 This questions relates to the previous one, we again need to make sure we get the actual image

 Similar again to the last two questions this relates for the image on our postcard, we need to keep the text down and focus on the image mostly.

 The layout was not that complicated, a grid was used to create it therefore we will do the same.

This means we can make simple navigation routes with a few drop down categories with the different aspects of our website.

Narrative Analysis

In these expository documentaries, narration is very important as we are trying to expose a certain topic. People will understand the idea from the visual meanwhile the audio is a vital part for people to understand the details. Using an attractive voice is important, it needs to have a understandable accent, calm and clear voice. The audience will have to be able to understand what is being said, a typical movie narrative theory is called Todorov, this is a very general theory. I will relate it to Now You See Me (2013 Lous Letteterier)

the theory suggests that all films follow a basic plot line, there are a total of 5 steps in the pattern.

1. Equilibrium: At the first stages in the film all characters are introduced together with the setting, all feelings are currently happy and everyone seems satisfied. In Now You See Me, we are shown how all the magicians currently operate and what they do to make a living.

2. Disruption: A problem is introduced, this can be in many ways. Between characters or a new situation is brought to the film. The happiness and satisfaction of either all or some of the characters gets interrupted. In Now You See Me, all the magicians now are shown the card inviting them to something life changing, they are all rather unaware of the current situation and feel disrupted.

3. Realisation: Everyone in the film begins to be aware of the disruption and begin battling against it, chaos is commonly seen at this stage. In Now You See Me, the magicians meet up at the invited location, here they meet each other and start discussing what is going on.

4. Restored Order: This is typically the part where the characters start working against the issue they have been presented with and restore things. In Now You See Me, they plan out how they are going to overcome the challenges set for them and start doing them one by one.

5. Equilibrium Again: This is the part where everything is resolved, the issue has been removed and we return to a normal setting or a changed but worry free setting. In Now You See Me, this is when they overcome the final challenge and are accepted into their new lives.

In documentaries this theory doesn't really apply in the same way, often an issue is presented but it isn't resolved rather it is explained. In Sugar Rush we are presented with the issue straight away of the narrator living with diabetes, we then move onto how he is handling the process so step 3 is somewhat used as we are told how he is coping with living diabetes. As it is a terminal illness the issue cant be removed completely but we battle it the best we can therefore some elements of step 4 are present. Step 5 can not be reached since as I said the illness is terminal.

Since we are producing a documentary as well we are not going to use this theory, we are planning to incorporate some elements of it which are mainly step 2,3,4.

Editing Analysis

When creating a documentary, it is important to include observational, interviews and archival material. Especially in an explanatory documentary like ours since these various types of filming combined and edited correctly creates a solid piece.

Motion picture editing - is basically the act of shortening and rearranging audio visual material, and can include the addition of music, sound effects, graphics, animation, voice-over narration and other elements as needed for the unfolding of the film story. In our audience research it will be important to locate what specific type of filming our product should be based on as it is usually the audience who best recognizes what specific should be included, whether we should focus on emotional message, educational or psychological response.

Again looking at Sugar Rush which is another diabetes documentary the following editing techniques are found.

180 degree rule - the invisible line between two people talking with the camera being placed on one side and being able to move anyone with 180 degrees of the line to keep screen direction constant. This helps the general flow of conversations and makes it easier for audiences to interpret both emotions and what is being said.

 Non continuity - Many film pieces are edited into a continued film, for documentaries this is not common. You jump between different scenes are settings, usually texts or animations are displayed to break the continuity. Interviews are very hard to make continuity as well. We intend to follow this and include this technique and it is essential in making a good documentary.

Cross cutting- This is when you jump between two parts of the story line, this is done a lot especially between the interviews. this also backs up the statement that it is non continuity.  

Establishing shot- A shot of the location where the action is going to help take place, this is done a lot and we plan to use this when we for example are interviewing experts we want to firstly use this shot of the building or office they are working at. It helps the audience get their bearings and understand where they are.

Reaction shot- Show the reaction of one person over an action or situation. Sugar Rush uses this, it reveals certain facts about diabetes and then present them to the public and record their reactions. We most probably will not use this technique since we are not trying to inform people about issues of diabetes but focus more on preventing diabetes in the first place.

Soundtrack Analysis

Soundtrack Analysis

Documentaries are not that dependent on the soundtrack, they are not as vital to the final piece as you would see in other films. Typically you hear a very calm beat as the soundtrack, the purpose of it is to help the audience stay interested in the documentary meanwhile not being distracting and removing focus from the video as the message comes through there. Below is the complete soundtrack from Sugar Rush (2014 by Michael McMullan )which I will analyse.

Throughout there is one non-diegetic soundtrack, the slow playing of piano keys. This runs over the dialogues in the short film. As both the narrator and other interviewees are talking the music can still be heard the volume is just decreased. One of the struggles with audio in pieces like this where various sets of audio have to be combined is editing the volume levels to be the same and have it fade it and out correctly throughout the piece. Around 4 minutes into the film a few students are being interviewed about diabetes and here the music is stopped, the diegetic sounds from the interview are present such as the wind blowing and other background sounds. The same goes for interviews around 8 minutes in, the one thing these interviews have in common compared to the earlier interviews with the doctors is that they are live interviews, in the sense that they were not planned and the responses could have been anything. By having the diegetic background sounds available to the audience it helps them verify that these statements are not rehearsed and make us believe in what is being said, as to when the experts speak or the narrator.

In the final minutes of the film, the pace of the background track is picked up and a faster drum beat is added. This slowly fades in as the narrator is making is final points and play fully at the credits. The point of this technique is to help the audience understand the final messages given from the piece, it is always good to end on a happy note.

For our production piece we are going to use something very similar to the soundtrack in this piece. We will try to incorporate the technique of having the music play but at a lower volume at rehearsed interviews but in real time interviews use the diegetic background sounds. We will possibly record our own soundtrack as it is going to be a simple combination of piano keys which we can do ourselves, this also means we avoid any copyright issues. The final technique is also vital, to end the piece with a similar but a bit faster pace and possibly add another instrument. We want to focus on our editing a lot, as it is important to have smooth transitions not only between shots but also the sound as a lot of our information is going to be displayed visually through dialogue.