The Other Side of Matthew Street Shot List

Oliver MacLellan & Tony Ansell

Shot List

Production title: ‘The Other Side of Matthew Street’

Group members: Connor Fieldsend, Nick Gosling, Oliver MacLellan, Tom Woods Tony Ansell

Note: The locations are subject to change. Check Call Sheets for more information

Day 16/02/15

Scene/Scenery:	Shot Type:	Content of shot:	Shot Movement:
Matthew Street: Eric’s live (Ext) and street.	Low angle	Shot of Eric’s live sign	Handheld
“                    “	Long shot	Long shot outside Eric’s Live facing the pathway	Handheld
“                    “	High angle to long	Pathway then shot of people walking.	Handheld
“                    “	Long shot	of Eric’s Live entrance	Static
“                    “	Long shot	of the public walking	Static

Day 17/02/15

Scene/Scenery:	Shot Type:	Content of shot:	Shot Movement:
Eric’s Bar  (Int)	Medium-close up	Interviewee (Doreen) on seat	Static
“                             “	Medium-close up	Memorabilia	Pan
Eric’s Bar (Ext)	Medium-long shot	Sign	Static
Back Street	Medium-Long Shot	Graffiti/street art	Static

Night 17/02/15

Scene/Scenery:	Shot Type:	Content of shot:	Shot Movement:
Matthew Street: Eric’s live (Ext) and street.	Long shot	People walking down the streets	Static
“                     “	Medium shot	Eric’s sign	Pan across
“                      “	Medium shot	Eric’s sign	Pan upwards
“                       “	Close up	Eric’s sign	Static
Royal Liver Building	Long Shot	Clock	Pan
“                         “	Medium-Long shot	Clock	Static
Radio tower	Long Shot	The Radio City tower	Static
Alley	Long Shot	Empty back street	Pan
Busy Street	Long shot	Cars and buildings	Static

Day 18/02/15

Scene/Scenery:	Shot Type:	Content of Shot:	Shot Movement:
Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (Int)	Medium-close up	Interviewee (Keith) sitting at table	Static
“                            “	Medium Shot	Pictures on walls	Pan
Liverpool Institute For Performing Arts (Ext)	Medium-long Shot	The Entrance	Static

Behind the Scene Stills

Photography: Tony Ansell

Director's notes

Click on the image (above) for an enlargement of the document.

Bowling for Columbine (2002)

Michael Moore explores America’s fascination of gun and investigates the organisations that use guns on a daily basis. The documentary begins with a narrative from Michael Moore highlighting certain aspects of American life. In a way, he is mocking the way Americans live, showing a montage of the typical American life. Moore mentions the date 20^th April 1999, which is the main subject of the documentary - the Columbine High School Massacre. The meaning of the date soon gets overshadowed by Michael Moore opening a bank account and receiving a gun for opening one. Michael questions the assistant “Do you think it’s dangerous to give out guns in a bank?”

The film cuts to Michael Moore in his early years (archive footage) telling the audience about his shooting experience he has and how he was awarded the national Sniper award. Between the footage, American adverts were shown promoting toy guns and the sequence shows the audience the usage of guns in American films from the early 40s & 50s. This gives the audience a sense of what the documentary is about and how gun is part of American culture. This film shows how politicians are involved of the making of weaponry and how the US has affected different parts of the world.

What I observe from this documentary that some of the interviewees are speaking on the spot as some look very nervous and uncomfortable about talking about a subject. Mostly the politicians seem to be more nervous than the local people. I really enjoyed hearing the insight of the local people as they are the main one affected and have experienced the gun subject by hand. Michael Moore is the host of the documentary and it seems that he can handle the people in hand as he seems comfortable talking about the subject.  Having the host in the shot interviewing the people feels like I am just listening to a conversation between two people; I like that because it feels genuine.

The usage of archive footage of press conferences, the Columbine Massacre, and news reports are so effective to convey the message on how Gun culture in America is a problem.  Bowling for Columbine is a depressing reflection of America and how it is not all beautiful and Hollywood but how bleak United States of America can be.

The Imposter (2012)

The feature length documentary starts off with home video of a young boy filming around a household, detailing the rooms in the house. The camera boy is Nick who is filming his sister’s birthday where he mentions that she has a TV in our room and other items that he seems to envy her over. The footage keeps cutting to different locations of the house. The footage cuts to the kitchen where the family is all sitting around a table about to cut the birthday cake, the boy turns the camera around and tells the camera his name (Nick). The film then cuts to black
.

The film comes up with text of where the documentary is taking the audience - Texas, America. The film explains to the audience that Nick went missing in 1994 and presumed dead as there was no contact or sighting of him. The film cuts to a montage of interview between the Mother of the missing boy, the sister and a friend of a family. They are all talking about the disappearance of Nick Barclay and the reappearance of him. The film then cuts to Spain where we see a young boy is at a phone box being picked up by the police. The young boy who is picked up by the police is not Nick Barclay by an Imposter. The documentary resolves around how imposter Frédéric Bourdin tricked the authorities & the Barclay family.

Majority of the film is reconstruction of the events of what happened after the reappearance of Nick.  I feel that is the reason why I enjoyed this documentary is because of this factor. Whilst any of the interviewees describe what happened, the audience had visuals that I feel engages the viewer into the story. The story is very gripping and it did feel like a ‘film’ as it is unbelievable and would work as a feature film. I believe that the documentary would’ve lost its gripping factor if the film did not be mostly reconstruction of the story.

One of the interviewees in the documentary is Frédéric Bourdin; which surprised me because he was the Imposter but he is telling his side of the story. I think having him tell his side was brilliant as the audience will get answers on why he did what he did. The camera composition and techniques were impressive; some interviewees were positioned to the left or the right of the frame but Frédéric Bourdin was talking directly into the camera (talking head). This tells the audience that Nick is the main person to focus on in the film and it shows that the person was not ashamed of what he done.

The sound design and score of the documentary gave the documentary an intense feel and somewhat scary which hooks the audience. The Imposter is a 9/10 documentary that stays with you for days and makes you think – how the hell did this happen?

Interview Techniques session

On Friday 13th February, we were given the task of going out on the streets of Sheffield and obtaining three documentary interviews. We also recorded some gv's and filmed an introduction of a documentary. Afterwards we got back to the workstation to review the footage, our feedback was positive.

Images of the tasks below:

Photography by Tony Ansell

Style and Approach

Kanye West Interview – With Zane Lowe (2014)

For the documentary, we can use close-ups of the interviewees as this can keep the audience interested in watching. I feel that we should have two cameras, one for the wide shots and one for close-ups. In the editing process, we can cut to different cameras to give the interview pacing and engagement.

First image (above) continued with different shot

I like how this is a medium-long shot, with the background behind Kanye West. The background is out of focus but it is appealing to look at. I also like that there is an over the shoulder (OTS) shot of Zane Lowe as it looks like he is having a conversation with the interviewee. The over the shoulder shot will not feature in our documentary but it is a good camera technique.

The Imposter (2012)

The shot here is from the film documentary The Imposter, directed by Bart Layton. The subject is talking directly into the camera. This is known as being a ‘talking head’.  The style of this interview tries to grab the attention of the audience by the subject staring into your TV or laptop screen. The technique makes you feel that the person is actually talking to you. The shot is a medium shot as it’s framed only to see his head and shoulders. There is enough room to add Astons (text on screen) in the right hand side of the shot.

Bowling for Columbine (2002)

This shot is a two shot as it contains two subjects in the frame. This documentary feature is directed by Michael Moore.  I like the framing of this shot as it shows two people interacting with each other and this gives the audience a sense of involvement in the discussion on screen.  As we are not looking to have a presenter in our documentary, I have getting the idea of how to construct a two shot perfectly.