Most Successful Aspect/Skill

Pre-Production
Production
Post-Production

I feel that the most successful thing about the Pre-Production stage of my work was the content research that I carried out on my chosen topic. This work
took roughly 5 days to complete, through out this time I had to find 3 expert opinions about the topic, which I found via the internet. I was able to find
quotes from Sir Trevor Brooking, Gordon Brown and Sir Alex Ferguson all of who gave their opinions on the respect the referee campaign. This was
extremely useful as now had some valuable information to use as these 3 people are such instrumental figures in football and grass roots football. I also
had to find 5 facts and figures about the campaign and with every fact or figure that I found I also had to post the link of the website that I had found it
from. I believe I was able to find these fact and/or figures as this topic is becoming a growing issue in football. This was useful for my documentary as it
gave me more information which I then included in several pieces of my voice over. I then had to find answers to 5 of my own questions about the topic, I
was able to do this by researching several different areas of the campaign and finding videos on YouTube to show examples of what the answers that I
wanted. I believe this made my documentary better as I was able to include a lot of the information that I found and use to it my advantage when it came
to interviews.

I felt that during production my strongest point was filming my documentary. Through out this process I had to film 2 interviews, one set of vox pops, a
talking to the camera piece and some cut away shots at a Sunday league football game. The two interviews that I had to film were pretty easy to set up.
Before the interview I had to set up the equipment and test the microphone, however in one of the interviews I was not sure if the microphone was
working or not so I decided against using it. I feel that the angles that I used were good enough to use however I feel that I could have experimented more
with different angles and shot types to add some variety into my work but with both interviews we were limited on time. My vox pops were also fairly easy
to shoot, all though most people were reluctant to be on camera which caused a problem. However the people who did agree to do it gave some great
answers to the questions which made my work stronger. When filming the presenting piece, I found it difficult to remember my lines from the script. After
looking at the footage afterwards, I decided to leave the presenting out all together as I looked uncomfortable on camera and the documentary worked a
lot better without it. Finally I filmed several cut away shots. Most of these were filmed at a Sunday league game and despite the difficult weather
conditions I feel that I got some good shots. I also filmed the crowd outside Upton Park stadium and the “West Ham UTD” text at the top of the stadium
which also worked well in my documentary. I feel that overall the ideas I had while filming was really effective and made my work look a lot more
professional.

I feel that the most successful skill of mine in post production was editing my work. The first thing I did was upload all the footage that I had filmed over the
past weeks. This involved cutting certain clips up and putting them into place so that I could have an early idea of how my documentary would look once it
was finished. Once I had the basic structure of the documentary arranged I started to upload my archive footage. As the introduction of my documentary
consists mostly of archive footage, I had to make sure they were all cut well so that it would flow better. I feel that I could have used slightly less archive
footage then I did but it was the best way of getting visual representations of what the voice over was talking about. Finally I added in my transitions and
voice overs in to my production. I only used a few transitions such as text to show contributors names and an overlap of clips at the beginning and all
though I did not use many transitions I feel that the ones I did use made my documentary flow a lot better. My voice overs were done by Mr Phillipson as I
had a throat infection at the time, however I feel this was better for my work as he has a better voice for doing voice overs and overall I feel it made my
piece stronger.
 Time Management
Pre-Production
Production
Post-Production

I feel that during pre-production I managed to manage my time fairly well and for most of the work that was set, I believe that I
was able to meet the deadlines effectively and with no problems. However there was times where I struggled to keep up with
the work and as a result missed some deadlines because of it. I feel that one of the pieces of work that I struggled with was the
rationale. I believe this was because it involved a lot of writing which is something that is not my strong point. My first draft that I
did I felt could have been better but once I received feedback from my teacher, I was able to improve my work which made it
easier to complete it in the time that was set. One of the pieces of work that I felt I did well in completing in the time given was
the content research. I found it easy to meet the deadline for this work as we were able to use the internet to gather the
information we needed, which made things a lot easier and even though I had to do research for all 3 of my ideas, I was able to
manage my time effectively to ensure that the work would be completed.

During production was where I felt that I managed my time the best. I started filming in the half term which was a few weeks
before the filming deadline. However I found that during this period of time I had more time during the day to film everything
that I needed including vox pops, interviews with contributors and cut away shots. I feel that my filming of vox pops at Upton
Park was where I managed my time the best as we got there 3 hours before the game kicked off, which gave us plenty of time
to record everything we needed without being too disturbed by other fans or stewards. I believe that for the most of the
production stage I was fully on top of my work and was able to meet nearly all of my deadlines with only a few minor
exceptions.

Through out the post-production period I feel that overall I managed time very well. I was able to edit my work down to 5
minutes and have everything done except for voice over's by the first draft. However I missed a week off of school due to
illness which set me back slightly in terms of putting the finishing touches to my editing, which included doing my voice over.
Fortunately I was allowed an extra day to do finish editing my work and make sure that it would be completed which I was able
to do. Overall I was happy with my general time keeping in this stage of my work and even though I was ill, I’m happy that I
was able to get the work finished.
 Actors & Crew
Pre-Production
Production
Post-Production

Through out pre-production, it was my job to find suitable contributors for my documentary. I needed people who could give
their expert opinion and who had a fair amount of knowledge on the subject. The first person I thought of contacting was the
Portsmouth F.C Chief Executive, Peter Storrie as he is a friend of the family. However as he lives up in Portsmouth and
probably extremely busy because of the clubs situation, I felt that this would be almost impossible to get an interview with him.
Luckily my mum’s friends son in law is Ian Hendon, the manager of Barnet F.C, who were the first club to start the basic idea of
the respect the referee campaign and after getting in contact with him he was happy to give an interview. I also sent an email
to the Essex county F.A and eventually got a reply from Chris Evans who also agreed to be interviewed about the subject. I
also had arranged an interview with the manager of the coach of the Collier Row under 13’s who would have been offer his
experiences of referee abuse that he has seen through out his time as a coach. This process overall was fairly simple for me
and I didn’t really have any problems in getting in touch with my contributors. However I would have liked to have had a few
more contributors in this but the people who did agree to take part were probably the two best to have interviewed as they had
first hand knowledge of the subject. I did email other people such as the Referees association but I never heard back from
them which I was disappointed about because an interview with a referee would have made my documentary even stronger.

During the production period of my documentary nearly all of my contributors were really reliable. When I travelled to Barnet for
my interview with Ian Hendon, I did have to wait for a while as he was taking training with his squad but as soon as he was
finished he was fully ready for the interview. I was pleased with how this went as he gave some very clear and interesting
answers, this was most likely down to his experience as a manager and dealing with interviews on a regular basis. He also
offered to ask his assistant manager to be interviewed as well, however I did not have any questions confirmed which was
unfortunate as that would have been a big bonus for my work. However not all of my contributors were as reliable as this, even
though I managed to record some decent cut away shots, I was supposed to interview the manager of the collier row under
13’s team. However after the game finished he had to go and as a result could not do the interview. This was irritating as I
made the journey there, quite early in morning, however I understand why he had to leave as it was raining heavily and he had
to take his kids home, which wasn’t his fault.
 Equipment
Pre-Production
Production
Post-Production

Through out my production stage of my work I did not encounter any technical difficulties with the equipment that I used. The
only time I was unsure about something was during my interview with Ian Hendon, when I plugged my ear phones into the
camera I could hear static because of the microphone and because I didn’t want to risk not having sound on a very rare
interview so I decided against using the microphone, which didn’t really have any significant effect on the sound. The reason I
didn’t want to risk using the microphone on this interview was because a class made had a mistake with the microphone before
and I did not want to make the same mistake. Apart from this everything worked fine and I got used to the microphone after
that interview and knew how to operate it well afterwards.

During post-production I used a Mac to edit my work, I would have preferred to have been using a laptop but the Mac was just
as good to use. I did not face any problems whilst importing the clips onto the Mac and the quality of the clips came out
brilliantly. The programme that I used to edit my work was I-Movie and I found this programme really simple and easy to use.
The transitions that were available to me made my work look a lot better and I found it incredibly easy to cut and edit my clips
effectively. I also found that importing songs and editing the volume levels of my music to be straight forward as well and
overall I felt that my ability to use the equipment was pretty good through out this work.
 Budget
Pre-Production
Production
Post-Production

During pre-production we were told to plan out a fictional budget for our documentary. All though we wouldn’t be spending
money on equipment and food etc, it was important to know how much this would cost us if were doing a professional
documentary that we would have to use our own money for. I felt this was work that I struggled with to start with as I had not
used Excel for a few years so there some aspects of the programme that I couldn’t remember how to use. However the more I
got into this piece of work the more I got used to the programme and I found it a lot easier to understand.

In all honesty during the Production stage I didn’t really keep track of my budget, however this is because all I spent was £2 on
a travel card to get to Upton park to do my vox pops. I was able to get my dad to drive me to the other locations that I was
filming at. After looking at my budget after all my filming was done, I am sure that I would not have overspent on anything and I
will make sure in future to keep an eye on my budget during production.
 Less Successful Aspect
Pre-Production
Production
Post-Production

I feel that my least successful aspect during Pre-Production was my Rationale. This is because I do not feel that writing long
and well structured essays is my strong point and is something that I have always struggled with. An example of this was my
first draft where my teacher commented on it saying that all though it was a strong piece of work, I did not lay out correctly,
which is one of the problems I had with this work from the beginning. However since redrafting this work, it has taught me how
to structure rationales properly and I feel that I have a better understanding of what to write in the future.

During Production I feel that my weak point was talking to camera. I originally intended to be my own presenter for my
documentary but after watching back the filming we did outside Upton Park, the teacher and I both felt that I appeared very
uncomfortable on camera and on several occasions I stuttered and forgot my lines. I agree with this as I never felt confident
doing the presenting part and in future I will ask someone more capable. As a result my documentary did not have a presenter
feature in this documentary which overall I feel worked well for my piece as the voiceover did most of the work that the
presenter would have done.

During Post Production I honestly don’t feel that there was any weak points when it came to my editing. I feel that I was more
than capable to edit my work well and considering that I missed a week off of school because of illness, I still feel that I did a
really good job at editing my work.