For this unit I was asked to produce a piece of work that tells a story. In response to this brief I made a short documentary called aspirations and goals featuring professional dressage rider Chelsea Tolhurst. I wanted to make a piece of work that highlighted individuals following a different career path. My aim was to capture all the hard work and dedication a person has to put in, to become successful in a career that differs from the norm. Before making the documentary on Chelsea, I completed a series of test shots following the hard work of semi professional boxer Ben Reed. I wanted to make this test film, so I had a practice run directing and filming (as I’m relatively new to film making). Shooting the first shoot with Ben gave me a clear idea on what went well and things that I needed to improve on.
I wanted to make sure I got the results I was looking for before I when to Buckinghamshire to stay with Chelsea for a week whilst I filmed at her work. I wanted to give myself plenty of time to shoot and re-shoot if I needed to, so I decided to live on the yard for a week to get as much footage as I could. After conducting interviews and shadowing the subject for the week I finally got the footage I needed. I brought most of the footage into premiere pro whilst in Buckinghamshire, I did this to make sure I had enough content. Editing the footage while I was on the yard was useful because it enabled me to re-shoot certain elements of the documentary. Overall I am happy with the end result, I am confident that this story telling film piece is an improvement on my last moving image work from the previous unit.
I believe I have taken on board the feedback from the last unit and made the improvements needed to produce a stronger moving image piece. If I could go back and improve anything from my story telling final piece, I would have liked to make the documentary longer. Although the piece is over four minutes, had I known there would have been an extension on the duration of the project, I would have liked to stay with the subject for an extra couple of weeks. I would have liked to cover more topics such as; how the subjects family feel about Chelseas career choices, competitions and other employees on the yard.
In conclusion I am happy with the work I have produced for this unit. I really enjoyed making the body of work for this unit, I would as like to carry on documenting both subjects to follow their career paths. I believe my work shows a clear narrative and overall I am confident that this moving image piece is an improvement on my last.