'The Truth about Depression' is a 2013 BBC documentary where Stephen Nolan meeting and interviewing a few people who have experienced depression first hand and examines the science behind this life-threatening illness. I am going to look at the interview between Stephen Nolan and Denise Welch, who is an English actress, dancer and TV presenter, best known for her main roles in Coronation Street and Waterloo Road. (29:01 - 34:30) The documentary starts by introducing the interviewees by having them tell the viewers what depression is in their own opinion with Stephen Nolan introducing what they are talking about and within the first couple of minutes Stephen Nolan tells the audience a statistic that 1 in 4 chance that it will effect them in their lives, which draws the audience's attention as it may effect them and keeps the audience interested and watching the rest of the documentary.There are a few cut a ways that cut to an actress driving a car in the rain with the lighting being very low-key and dark, which isolates the driver and makes it look like that no one is around to help and she is all alone to face this illness of depression. The cutaways help give a visual explanation to match what the interviewees are saying and to make it less boring to having the interviewees talking at the audience the whole time. The slow, sad piano music also fades in and out before and after the voice over and the interviewees talking, this creates an effect to make the audience sympathise for the interviewees. Half way through the documentary, they introduce Denise Welch by playing the Coronation Street theme tune and the voice over tells the audience that she has suffered from depression for most of her life and kept it a secret by after getting over the illness she wrote an autobiography telling the public how she over came her illness and her addiction to alcohol and drugs. Before they started the interview they had a hand held shot of Stephen Nolan knocking on Denise's door and entering with a hug and a joke to liven things up with the audience, as it is a very deep subject to talk about so they will need a few second break every now and then. It cuts between medium close up shots to close up shots of Denise and then an over the shoulder shot at Stephen, the close up shots of Denise are to show the feeling and emotion that she is feeling at that moment in time. The over the shoulder shots are to show reaction shots of how Stephen is reacting to Denise when she talks about her illness that she had. To make the documentary less boring they would have a voiceover or the interviewee talking over a VT and different cutaways like a two shot of them both on the sofa. The interview then changes to the next person so they aren't all talking in one go, as they would make it very boring but the next woman; Heather Keough carries on from what Denise finished with so they do not repeat what has already been said. The sound in the beginning of the documentary is only non-diegetic sound of the mood music, the voiceover and the interviewees speaking but then as we get further in the documentary a bit of diegetic sound is played in certain scenes. There is very minimal editing in documentaries, as they are shown to give the audience information.
I moved from TVP to Tech Arts in half way in the first year and I don't regret anything. Even though I made a quite a few friends in TVP, I soon befriended a few people in Tech Arts as they are both separate courses but we do still work together. First year of University was something different coming from a small town to a big city in London, I have made so many friends since I have been at University and I feel right at home! First semester was nerve racking as the year went by so quick and pretty much half way though our degree, I loved working on the photo portfolio as I love photography in general, doing it at A Level help guide me through this project as I pretty much already knew about the basics of it. We also had to write about the use of lighting for a certain scene in a TV programme or a film and I choose to write about 'Mama' as the lighting in this film is a very stereotypical lighting for the genre of horror. I also worked as a VT supervisor for the second MDX now show which was pretty nerve racking as it was such a big role to play. The only downside is that TVP and Tech arts are always separated even though we are on the same course I feel like we are one whole course!
Last year I went to the Warner Bros. Studio Tour - The Making of Harry Potter and it was one of the most amazing experiences of my life, exploring behind the scenes of the famous, most successful film of all time - Harry Potter. There were so many things to see and do, ranging from the real life sets, props and costumes that were used in the films, how characters were created in the films and the use of green screening.
It already felt magical when we arrived at the car park, seeing a few of the chess pieces from the movie outside. Once entering the studios, it was very busy seeing people walking in and out, on the wall was Daniel Radcliffe's, Rupert Grint's and Emma Watson's hand prints. Big canvases of the main cast were hung on the walls and a few props hanging from the ceiling and also the big gift shop was by the entrance, seeing all the different props used in the films and the strange sweets that you could buy. When I was queuing up to go start the tour, the first set building was the cupboard under the stairs, which was also known as Harry's first 'bedroom' at Privet Drive. To start the tour it gave us an insight of what we would be expecting without giving away anything and as the screen lifted up, behind the screen was the entrance of Hogwarts and they as they opened it revealed the Great Hall, where the whole school would have their breakfast, lunches and dinners. During my time that I spent exploring the studio, I learnt many interesting things and a lot about how the film was actually created. A lot of green screening was used for the films, the Quiddich scene and Harry and Ron's getaway scene in the flying car were the works of the special effects and visual effects team, using a digital backdrop in post-production. I had a go on the broomstick during my visit, which was literally a broomstick with a green screen behind it so once I put on my cape and sat on the broom stick, I could see myself on the screen flying over Hogwarts. Looking at all the different sets and the costume designs made me realise how much work and effort the cast and crew put in, even the tiniest details just to make the film look the way they are, defiantly incredible! There was a major focus on the design, animatronics, make up and architecture, the crew had major talent to design and create the monsters and characters in Harry Potter. During production of Harry Potter the director liked to use cameras attached to the jib and tripod, in order to get high shots and able to move in great distance easier.
To end the tour they had the amazing detailed model of Hogwarts Castle, which was used for exterior shots in every film of Harry Potter. It took 86 artists and crew members to create this beautiful castle, measuring 50 feet across that has more than 2,500 fibre optic lights to simulate lantern torches and students passing through hall ways. They also used a green screen the cast and size them down for the shots with the Castle and fix it up in post-production. To think that the tour had finished, they had a wand room with hundreds of wand boxes individually made, stacked up on each other showing the names all cast, crew and writers - from J.K. Rowling to the driver of Hogwarts Express and every camera man, electrician and make-up artist.
This is honestly, hands down a once in a lifetime opportunity and worth every penny if you are either a Harry Potter fan or a film maker, if you love both then it's a bonus!
After Christmas I was assigned a role as Location Sound by our tutor, Roddy to help the TVP complete their project. Travelling was not an issue as I live near Felixstowe, where Megan the Director lives. The Documentary was based on the beach down by the Felixstowe pier where we filmed all the footage.
My role in this documentary was to record the sound of the waves hitting against the shore and the sound of the arcade games in the amusment centres, using a boom pole and mic and a zoom H4N kit. I needed to put the windshield onto the boom mic as I was recording sound outside on the beach, where it was very windy. The windshield helped me block out the wind hitting the microphone as it was very sensitive and made loads of muffling noise, blocking out the sound of the waves. To minimise the muffling wind noise, I had to lower the recording level to get nice clear sound which was then boosted during post-production. There was extreme weather conditions on the day of the shoot, which affected us whilst we were shooting but we worked around it. To get from the amusement centres to the people who were fishing, we had Megan's car which was useful as we did not have to carry our heavy kit from one side of Town to the other. As we are students, we bought batteries from Poundland but the result of buying cheap batteries ended up changing them every so often.
Next time I go out on a location shoot doing sound, then I would check the weather forecast and let the Director know that there will be bad weather conditions and if they would like to change the date to a more suitable day. As the wind can disrupt the recording of the sound, depending on what you are recording. I would also go and buy some batteries, which are a little bit more expensive and well known so that it would last longer and I wouldn't have to change the batteries every so often.
