I think it safe to say that this whole project has been a rocky road! There have been times throughout I have thought about what I am actually doing with the project; points where I have questioned whether I am ready to move on to Uni but I am here! I made it to the end and it’s been a blast. Not just this FMP but my entire time at Exeter College, as a filmmaker (specifically editing) I think I have pushed on massively and the staff at Exeter College are a big part of where my journey is, at this point!
Did I meet my aims?
I think I fully met my aims by making a short mental health Documentary that I hope will stand up against other people’s work and look better than all my previous projects.
Overall, I think it’s a solid final film and I am happy with how it turned out. In my original proposal I wrote that I wanted to make a mental health Doc in which I interview suffers and an expert as a way of raising awareness. Obviously this idea changed throughout (I go into a lot more detail in my production journal) but as a whole I think I stayed true to what I set out to do back in February.
I think the feedback I gained from the first edit shows this as well. People were aware of what the film was about and what I was aiming to do with it. Especially as no one who watched the film knew Matt personally this really shows that I have done a good job showing this in the film.
The only thing I didn’t do was have a lot more people suffering with different mental health issues but, I think it’s a lot more effective without as this could’ve flooded the film and not given it the same feel. As I got into the production and did the first interview with Matt & Tyler this when I knew that it would work a lot more focusing solely on one person, so I committed to working with Matt and haven’t looked back since.
How does my work fit to my research, specifically my practitioners?
The main practitioner I tried to base my film on the most was Nick Broomfield as I think he is the best Documentary filmmaker and most experienced of the three. I think my film would fit in nicely with his current portfolio of work. Not for one second am I comparing myself to who many people class as one the best Documentary filmmakers of all time. But, the mash up of interviews and fly-on-the-wall style works very similarly to something he would publish.
Looking back on my film I think the interviews would’ve been better if I shot them on location rather than going to his lounge. For example, the one with my mum could’ve been done in the hospital. Apart from that I think I have followed in his footsteps very well.
My other two practitioners: Cy Dodson & Professor Green helped me on my journey but as my idea changed and developed I can’t say my work fits with Pro Green’s style. On the other hand I think that my fly-on-the-wall bits were well influenced by Cy Dodson. The way he made Beneath the Ink helped me massively and I think my work looks similar whilst still having my own style to it.
I also think it’s a good representation of the other research I completed. The one thing I talked about massively during the research process was ethics. I didn’t want to make a mental health Documentary that just has sad interviews and sad music as this is good for no one and can come across a bit patronising if done badly. I think I have got a good balance between the emotional serious stuff and also showing Matt as a real person and not just a robot that doesn’t do anything but talk about his issues. This was key for me during the whole process as there would be nothing worse than making a film that just embarrasses one of my close friends!
Whilst completing research I looked into student films and also different mental health Documentaries. The biggest issue I found with the student ones was always the audio. I wanted to make my audio crisp and also steady throughout, so I didn’t have massive peaks or background buzz. This led me to do audio tests and pick out the best equipment to use on shoot. In the end I went with the compact shotgun and even then I still found a little hiss in the background at points, but I think that in post I did a good job of trying to disguise this and make the film bearable to watch without the audio problems taking control.
How did my film represent my pitch?
The biggest change from the pitch was obviously main star. I was originally going to base the film around Tyler Prouse but after the first interview I filmed with him and Matt I realised that it wasn’t working. Tyler is a good friend of mine and I really wanted to give him the platform to speak on. But as soon as the camera was in his face, I think he changed from his usual confident self to someone who was very shy. This sudden change of personality really made me think am I doing more bad than good here? I realised at this point that Matt was a lot more open to talk about his issues and it didn’t seem to change him when I was filming I made the decision to change. I am happy with this one as not only did I make a film that I was a lot happier with, I feel like it didn’t make Matt’s situation any worse and sometimes when making films like this one, you do have to think whether making a film is worth damaging someone’s mental and that is a definite no!
The biggest thing about making a Documentary and focusing on one person is making sure they are happy with you filming and they don’t just crumble in front of camera. Test shots are great for things like this as you can see how someone is in front of camera and check everything is okay when they are being filmed. I struggled a lot because Tyler was so good in front of camera when I made my third PPP and the test shot I completed. It seemed to change drastically as soon as I started to interview him and talk about his depression, I am unsure why but I really didn’t want to carry on and make it worse.
I set my run time at 10-12 minute during my pitch and I missed out by 15 seconds so I think this was a very good time to set and works really well with the film. At points I thought that 10 minutes was going to be too long for this type of film but overall I think it works really well and is the perfect time to feel like you know Matt as a person and what he is going through.
In the pitch I also said I would interview a number of people, but as I said above I thought this wouldn’t work as well. As soon as I got into the filming process I realised that it would be a lot more effective and work a lot better with the film just focusing on Matt rather than having loads of people with different stories that could over cluster the film and make it hard to follow. In my opinion if I were to add more people it would also make the film feel like it’s more attention seeking as viewers may feel like I am just making the film because people with real issues are looking for the sympathy vote and not only is that very unethical but it is something that I am really against.
Finally I talked a lot about the way I was going to edit the film together, having the serious sit down interview mashed up with the normal life that at the time, Tyler was going to represent. I stuck by this and this is why I think my film is so unique and works so well as a mental health Documentary because the mental health issue at times, isn’t the main focus and it shows a different light on it; you can have a good time and still have mental health issues and I think Matt shows that really well. The film wouldn’t be the same piece if he hadn’t been so open and so up for raising awareness.
Does the film appeal to my target audience?
From my research I came to the conclusion that my target audience was teenage girls. I am confident that this film does appeal to them. I would say at times it could definitely appeal more towards men, as the main star is male and the typical lads lad. He talks a lot about football and girls and loves winding up Kane, which are more stereotypically lads chats.
Saying that, I think it doesn’t matter what gender he is or what he is talking about, when it comes to the serious stuff girls can definitely relate to it and understand what he is going through. I think it’s so hard to pick a target audience with this kind of topic anyway because I wanted to appeal to all people and try and raise awareness with young people in general and I hope I have done just that.
I also had my mum in the film to try and cater to both genders and it works really well adding a female person talking in it and also talking from quite a high level of knowledge. But overall the aim was young people rather than aiming it at women or men or any other type of person because mental health issues really affect anyone and everyone.
Overall, the biggest thing for me was catering to young people and making it more a laid back approach whilst also keeping it serious and getting my point and Matt’s issues across to the best of my ability. I think i have done this well and it feels like it’s aimed at the younger audience when I watch it.
How does this film reflect my skills and what I’ve learnt?
I think this film reflects my skills well. It misses massive parts of my editing skills and the stuff I have been practising this year with After Effects, but if I tried to garnish this film with loads of VFX it just wouldn’t work and it wouldn’t subtle enough for the genre of film. I found this quite hard at time because it almost felt like I spent the whole year working on my editing and building up to this film but I couldn’t use them in the final thing. I quickly got over this and moved on to make a completely different style of film. Throughout this year I feel like I have used different techniques enough so if I were to make an updated showreel it would be fine; this definitely helped me when I was editing the film as I knew they hadn’t gone to waste.
Saying all of that I feel like this is the best film I have made since I starting Exeter College and I feel like I have learnt so much and come on leaps and bounds since my first ever film in AS Film & Video almost 3 years ago, particularly this year.
This year I completed a number of different tasks: some helped with cinematography, some editing & some working with a real life client. These have helped me push towards where I want to be and made me ready for Ravensbourne University.
I feel like the skills I gained from the Corporate film helped me the most when making this film as that film was also quite stripped back and didn’t have too many flashy effects. When making the film for March Coffee I didn’t do too much cinematography but I did a lot of lighting work whilst we were on shoot so this along with my first PPP set me up for the interview and lighting the subject well, something I am very proud of.
How successful were the promotional materials?
They actually worked a lot better than I originally thought. At first I was really puzzled at what I was going to do because with a topic like this a flashy trailer can sometimes take away what the aim for the film was. In the end I went very stripped back having a snippet for the interview with Matt and the title of the film. I was happy with how this came out because not only did it get people excited for the film but it also made people aware that BDD exists which was the aim from the very beginning.
I also made a Poster for the film which I uploaded to my social media profiles. This helped with getting the film out there and getting recognition and people started to message me saying well done and talking about the film which is exactly what I was aiming for with theses promotional materials and shows they work really well!
Obviously if I was a bigger name in the industry and I released the film I would’ve done interviews and all that good stuff but I don’t think at this stage it would’ve helped me at all with promotion. Overall, I am really happy with how it went down and I am just excited to see the response of the film when I release it tonight!
What would I do differently next time?
If I were to make the film again the most obvious thing is to make the film about Matt from the very start. This would’ve saved a lot of effort in the process and I would’ve finished a lot earlier but there are always bumps in the road when making a film and a part of me is glad it happened because it allowed me to make something I was really happy with.
I think I would also shoot the interview with Matt at a different location. I think it would’ve been better to shoot at a pub or cafe he normally goes to, as it gives the viewer a more natural feel whereas at times it think it’s a bit too structured. I think this would add to fitting more towards my target audience of young people because it would feel a lot more relaxed.
Finally, I would’ve loved to add some old videos and photos of Matt when he was younger to overlay the interviews because at times I definitely feel like it needs something else to boost the film. If the football season hadn’t finished I would’ve loved to go down a film a match because I think this would’ve worked really well with the context of the film.
What did I learn?
The biggest thing I learnt from this project is not even film related. I realised that stress is not the answer at points I got very stressed out from different things happening and things not working, but when I really sat down and just thought about it I came up with a solution and I think this will really help me when I move forward. I would say I am very quick just to stress out and it’s really not needed.
I also learnt that sometimes you can make a really good film by just stripping everything back. Before this project I was all about heavy effects and making something look slick but now I realise that sometimes the best films are just made with a camera and no flashy effects.
Finally, most of all I need to enjoy it! The best part of this project was when I didn’t really focus too much on making something amazing and just went for it and that’s when I am at my best. I will always take that approach when moving forward and just have fun when I make something!
Jack Tanner 