Documentary Unit - Evaluation

Documentary Unit - Evaluation

Throughout this unit, I have learned a lot about what it takes to make a documentary through building experience and making mistakes, and I made a lot of mistakes. I do not feel as though our documentary is as strong as it could be, however there is a lot I can take from it. I have a better understanding on how to organise shoots better, how to communicate with contributors, why patience is key when shooting a wildlife documentary amongst other things. Being the first unit I've actively worked with a group (Jack Nix, Troy Smith and Josh Bayly), I feel that we have all learned a lot more about each other, some good some bad, but all that we were able to deal with appropriately.

Pre-production almost went without a hitch, particularly at the beginning. We were able to develop and idea quickly and we were able to find points of research easily. We made initial plans on how we were going to shoot the documentary unit and we knew a couple of different locations that we could potentially film at, we only had to go and get them. However work on the script took time, we didn't feel like we had enough to talk about until we actually visited the sites, meaning shoot dates were pushed back a lot. Communications also broke down a bit as we couldn't seem to come in at the same time as one another due to other commitments.

When we came to production time, we found picking shoot dates awkward, we couldn't seem to get everyone in on the same day and Great Bells could only let us film once we had gone through the RSPB communications officer and gained permission from them, which took time. It almost looked as though this documentary would never happen as Great Bells was the required location. That was until the final shoot day came when we gained permission to film and despite expecting heavy showers, the sun came out the whole time we were filming which was great. I would say the final shoot date saved our documentary, we met with various people like Phil Haynes and another bird watcher and we even got an interview with Rob Peck.

Though not the best documentary, I am happy with the outcome given what we learned as individuals as well as a group. I may not have fulfilled my potential, but I certainly gained a lot of much needed experience to help boost my work in future projects.