I remember my first open day at Bournemouth University. Andrew Bissell walked us through every unit over the three years we’d spend studying journalism. He spoke about the MMP and how it will be one of our biggest highlights. He showed us some great examples and one student in particular even went abroad to film the MMP. I was so excited because I wanted to do something like that but I guess Coronavirus didn’t care much about our future plans.
Learning that I wasn’t able to go out filming due to the restrictions was a bummer because I wasn’t able to prove my camera skills like I would normally do while filming, so Zoom was the only option. I was so set on finding the right time to go and film my interviewees, but it just wasn’t possible.
Zoom’s quality is OK but there is a high chance of something going wrong. And I experienced that with Jules interview. Everything was fine until I looked back at the interview and it was lagging. Lucy’s and James’s interviews were decent but you could still see the fuzziness on the recording.
To make things a little better, I used my camera to act as my second angle so I switched between the Zoom interview and the footage taken on my Lumix. I also had to rely on third party footage and my own improvised b-rolls to help me out.
The possibilities of going outside to film in the real world are endless, but when you have to make a documentary from the comfort of your own home, there’s less to explore with. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t make something great. You just really have to squeeze your brain for that Eureka moment.
One thing I found hard was not being able to see my advisor face to face. Last year when I worked on the other documentary I made, there was always someone in the labs at university to help us if for example, we experienced any technical issues with Premier or just had moments when we got stuck with something and needed some professional advice. Nothing beats face to face interaction and making a documentary remotely felt at times that I was a lot on my own.
I switched many times between doing TV and online since one of the interviewees wasn’t able to answer my questions. I contacted many other professionals who I thought would help with no luck. Time was of the essence and I started to panic because I kid you not, I think I found Jules, my Millennial expert after about 4 weeks. I looked at the online brief and thought to myself, there’s nothing I like more than doing TV. At least I would have known that I chose to do and MMP for the specialism I loved despite the fact that maybe it wouldn’t turn out so great in the end. But with all this said, I managed to find the perfect interviewee and continued with TV.
I sometimes wonder what the documentary would have looked like if I was able to go out filming but it is what it is and as journalists, we have to adapt in this fast paced industry.
It’s challenging, rewarding and draining to name a few. But above all, achieving to make a documentary in any given situation, is so fulfilling.