Tuesday 19th April Blog

Yeah, yeah day late again I know.

Today at Jack FM started off with a far less stressful journey than the day before as I remembered the correct turnings.

For me the day started off with editing the intro for my personal documentary which was mixing parts of big hip hop anthems using Logic.

I then had to go through the schedule for the morning show which would be aired live on Wednesday and make the correct changes, such as news, sport, countdowns, 'Jacktivities' and update the information for the 'Gone in 60 seconds'. This included using the resources available like irn.co.uk and ents24.com.

I then moved on to recording some links in more detail. These were evaluated by the DJ and I recieved some good feedback.

Research for Hip Hop Documentary.

As part if my work placement I have to research, produce, present and edit a 5 minute documentary of which I could choose the subject.

I decided to go with the Hip Hop scene in the South West as it is something that I am very passionate about.

I've been researching certain documentaries that are on YouTube to get some ideas on how best to structure the piece.



I really like the opening of this video. The strings in the background create a nice bed of audio for the voiceover. The background of Hip Hop is a good idea before going into adressing the issue of who killed Hip Hop?

In the opening they do show both sides to the argument with sound bites of different people saying whether they believe Hip Hop is dead or not.

However the creator of the documentary does let his opinions enter into it by focusing so much on money as the guilty party in killing Hip Hop.

The structure of it is very good. It gives you a historical knowledge and clearly explains the question it is going to be asking.

18th April Jack FM

Okay a day late I knooooooow.

18th April was the first day of my 2 week work placement with Bristol and Bath digital radio station Jack FM.

The day started off with getting lost around 3-4 times on route to the studios! It was nothing quick U Turn on a dual carrigeway couldn't solve though.

When I arrived at the studios I was greeted by studio dog Cassie, before her owner and my contact at the studios Downsy appeared. It started off with a tour of the office and studio, which included a talk on my aspirations and what I hoped to get out of the placement as well as a demonstration of how the coffee machine worked ;)

When we got down to work I had been assigned the task of booking in contestants for the 'Gone in 60 seconds feature'. This meant calling people who had registered to play the game online and sorting out a suitable date for them to play which fitted in with the shows timeline.

I also recieved a quick run through on how to edit the shows schedule for the current day as well as the links for the newsroom website and entertainment news for Bristol and Bath.

One of my tasks for over the next 2 weeks is to produce a 5 minute documentary on a subject of my choosing. So this meant brainstorming ideas with Downsy and coming up with a brief and basic timeline.

Weds 26th January Filming.

On Wednesday the 26th January I began filming for my personal project which is entitled - 'Matt Partington: The Iron Doesn't Lie'

The location for filming was the Ministry Of Fitness Gym in Bristol.

At this point Matt is 15 weeks out of competition and has been dieting for a couple of weeks but the intensity for training really kicks up from this point.

Throughout the filming for this section you see Matt and his training partner Mike going through a workout and you also see them both interacting with gym owner Tom Blackman. Tom himself is a south west champion. One of the most interesting parts of this shoot was Tom helping Matt with his posing.

Tom is a very renowned poser so for Matt to be able to get advice from someone like him is very positive.



It is a good part for the documentary as a whole as the audience get to see the shape Matt is in at the start of his journey, and will give a good indication of how far he has come when it's competition time.

I am likely to go back to Ministry of Fitness again at a later date in order to shoot some cutaways of the gym and also to film a tour of the gym for Tom for the website.

Over the coming weeks we will be filming in ministry and also City Fitness in Melksham.

It acted as very good experience for me personally as it gave me chance to see what kind of shots work and which ones do not. It also isn't easy to find the best shots as you are constantly dodging through equipment and other people who are training in the gym. Next time I will be more prepared and will be abl to plan the shots I want to get better.

It's also given Matt his first taste of being infront of the camera. We had to film and introduction where Matt and Tom talk into the camera, which was an odd experience for the both of them. We will both be a lot more used to filming these type of shots next time.

Keying - 5002

Link

Individual project proposal.

The project I am proposing is a documentary about the sacrifices bodybuilders take in order to prepare for a show. I will be focusing on my brother Matt Partington as he prepares for his competition in late April/early May. It currently has a working title of 'Matt Partington: The Iron doesn't lie'.

It will be predominantly aimed towards a sports audience. however, I hope with the theme of sacrifice and dedication it will be able to rope in a larger audience who enjoy being inspired to challenge themselves.

The documentary will follow my brother as he approaches his show. So you will see development and improvement in his physique whilst he discusses how he is feeling at different stages, and gives an insight into the diet he has to undergo.

Group Project: Liam Richards The Making Of A Fighter

Liam Richards - The Making Of A Fighter from Simon Partington on Vimeo.

Above is the completed documentary on boxer Liam Richards by me and Edem King.

I'm proud of this piece of work because I think it has a professional feel to it as we took inspiration from shows such as Sky Sports 24/7 and UFC Primetime as well as All Access. Through doing research on programmes and documentaries on sport we quickly noticed similar shots that all directors like to use. There are a lot of slowed down shots and close ups of the fighters faces so we wanted to include this in our piece.

24/7 is also very good at showing fighters personalities in the feature, this makes more entertaining viewing and allows the audience a chance to get to know the fighter better. We were very keen for Liam to be himself on camera and let his personality come out. You can see that in the documentary in the parts were he is looking into the camera and blowing kisses. In the interview he comes across as very natural and relaxed, which is a big positive as we didn't have to retake any questions or even edit down his answers as everything he said was relevant to the question and interesting.

I think we use the soundtrack well. In this kind of programme instrumentals are usually used so you can intercut with soundbites or voiceovers, which is what we did with the former. Without lyrics in the track it makes the viewer focus more on the image on screen, which is ultimately the most important part.

It was a shame that we couldn't have more control over the lighting as we shot all in one day. In hindsight it would have been better to try and get Liam in the gym by himself when we could have experimented with the lighting around him to get some different shots and nice cutaways.

Another way we could have improved is again really down to time management. If we had filmed for example 3 sessions we would have a lot more footage to play with and could have varied the shots more.

A disappointing point is when accidentally used the same cutaway twice in questions following on from one another. We didn't notice this when we proof watched it and it only became apparent when we were writing the DVD.

I really like the mix of still images with video footage, it breaks everything up nicely and offers variation. Plus the images from his last fight were taken brilliantly by Patrick Bethel and fitted in perfectly with the theme of the piece.