LMD07105 Representing the Real
PROJECT: Jack Logan: Whitburn Tourism
DATE OF CRITIQUE: 27.04.22
TUTOR(S): Sana Bilgrami, Joe Li, Tomas Sheridan.
VERBATIM TRANSCRIPT OF FEEDBACK:
Sana: Watch the film on the big screen…What worked for you? What did’nt?...
Nikola: Yes, it’s a bit quiet…Oh I’m Nikola, the director.
Roderick: I’m Roddie, I did editing.
Finn: I’m Finn, I was producer.
Sana: Hang on…Roddie, what were you doing?
Roderick: So, yeah, this wasn’t our…the film we planned to do…it was to do with communication issues and scheduling stuff so…Finn’s friend, he got in touch and.
Sana: So when you say ‘not planned’, you had another subject?
Sana: That’s fine…. yeah, this keeps happening.
Roderick: Yeah…and it worked pretty well.
Nikola: Yeah, I’m quite happy with that, I loved the editing, and I would say the only thing I wish we had talked about more in the documentary is that he kind of focused a lot on the town more than like the individual on himself. He did focus on himself as well because I tried to ask questions that would make him talk about himself, but like, he’s such an interesting person, so I would’ve liked to talk more about him.
Roderick: I think him and us as a group had different visions…
Roderick: For like how we wanted the film to end out, so we were trying to like…we were interviewing him and trying to poke him and stuff but yeah…
Nikola: He just really likes Whitburn.
Roderick: And then we did a little walking too which was quite nice.
Sana: Any other comments? Or?
Finn: I think we got really lucky with him to be fair, he’s really comfortable in front of the camera and stuff so…
Nikola: So it was really fun, talking to him was just like, like talking to your friend.
Roderick: I did wish we got more footage. We did get some but by the end of the day our SD cards were filling up and our batteries were draining and yeah…We had an interview with his granny, but that was pretty unusable.
Tomas: She was just swearing all the time.
Nikola: She was really fun.
Roderick: Fun woman, yeah
Nikola: Yeah, she forced us to take our coats
Roderick: she was aggressively hospitable
Sana: Okay, Okay. Do you want to start first?
Tomas: Yeah, sure. So okay. And again, just drawing attention to stuff that really work. Definitely, you got…so far…the prize for the longest time without someone talking in the film. Did we not enjoy arriving to Whitburn without someone telling us anything? I won’t go on about it, but I like the arrival. I like the elliptical nature of ending on the part… arriving then departing. So, then these things are too neat, but I definitely felt I would have liked even more arriving and even more departing to be honest like just to get the sense of wondering about this place and I actually know Whitburn [ Tomas laughs] Its quite…Its quite funny as I’m…So I think that you set up the guy you met on the street. It was a set up? A friend?
Tomas: Yeah, Yeah, okay. And, and also on your arrival…people who aren’t actors don’t act very well so maybe don’t make them act. Just, I mean, just go with the reality of it, you know, don’t pretend you bumped into them and asked them about this person who you’ve not seen yet. I like the idea of starting to introduce this minor celebrity through the voices of some other people, but then they don’t even meet enough people, it didn’t become a thing. You know, that he was like a minor celebrity off the back of the video and in a way I would have made up for the lack of people you bumped into on the rainy day on Whitburn who’s willing to talk about jack, make up for it with more of his video with proper sound, and getting to see this kid and build up an idea of who this jack is before we see the real jack. SO, I think you had a really good intuition. I would admit it for longer to get into thing…and also to appreciate how funny this fake, this fake tourist video about Whitburn was for a kid to make, you know? 10,12 years ago. Great that there was no voice, great that there was no music, uh…the set up was quite obvious with the guy in the street, more of his film. Uhm, yeah, when you were, I thought you were really onto something when you had him standing outside of the community centre and you maybe should’ve just pushed a bit harder for him to staying character the way he did when he was a kid, because that sort time has passed and nothing has changed in Whitburn feeling, or everything’s changed, but for the worst, but its sort of tied into what he says in the interview, I just wished he had been standing there with the umbrella saying “this is the community centre” and then seeing the boarded up thing, and I really liked the walking around him, introducing us to space, a bit like intel. It just gave you cutting opportunities because were in different places and so you could piece it together on like maybe the talking head interview. And I like the visual storytelling or like even the shaky camera that you just held when you see, you know, devastated public space and stuff. Even though the camera work was shoddy, it worked. Sorry, sorry.
Tomas: I mean, it was, it was shaky, you know, shaky hands, but it didn’t bother me, you know, compared to to say, ivan walking, it bothered me less because you were saying…
Tomas: I’m sorry, is this? I don’t want this to be this personal, I want, I just want you guys to thing, oh, yeah, well it’s like shaking behind Ivan for like two seconds and it’s just covering a cut, that happens. But when you hold it for eight seconds, which feels like an eternity and tis not static camera work, it becomes like a feature of the aesthetics of the film, and I think it ties in quite well personally. But…so it didn’t bother me with the humour and everything, sorry.
Sana: So, yeah, yeah [ Sana laughs]
Joe: Okay, I liked the, the spontaneity in the film, like the natural flow f emotions, whatever. I think you look like you had fun and you also had fun…He’s like a fun project, I enjoyed that, that’s very good. My biggest problem is about the production technically, I think its quite awkward, the shots from the past, we look at the roads, look out to the roads. The framing, I think its quite awkward. Also, there’s very poor lighting, especially for the indoor interview. Did you use light at all?
Roderick: Eh ye, we used a light, but we were facing the window, so.
Leo: Too much background?
Tomas: And did you grade in editing?
Roderick: I tried but it just crashed my computer.
Tomas: Yes, it’s like ungraded black magic.
Joe: Oh…A bit of a focus issue as well, on the costa coffee cup, I think it changes, you know? That one, two, seconds. Yeah, I think there’s some technical issue here. Sana?
Sana: Yeah, I, I think actually, looking at my feedback, I liked the start and ending, the bus journey, I really enjoyed that – I got a sense of coming into this town. And I think, oh sorry, before I say that, I really enjoyed the film [she laughs] great character. Really liked coming into the town and I feel at first, like tommy said, you could have done a bit more in terms of then visually establishing the town, so we get a little bit of a flavour of this place so that we can appreciate that video we then encounter. And then but you, you kind of ask this pal, whoever, you know, who is this guy? That was good, and I thought you could have done a bit more of that with other characters as well before, so you keep building us this ‘who is this?’ mystery. Or, yeah, I felt that was sudden because suddenly we are at the door and then we meet this person, so I felt that journey of looking for this character could have been built up a bit more personally. And then so then when he revealed somebody who’s perhaps, I mean, you didn’t? then you’re trying to work out… but before we …sorry. I’m just trying to remember the order of events. You ask the person, then you show us a bit of the YouTube video, right?
Roderick: Yeah, we knock on the door, and he lets us in.
Sana: yeah, but there’s a little bit of the YouTube that you show us earlier as well.
[ Nikola and Roderick reply ‘yes’]
Sana: And I found that very confusing because I don’t know nothing about your film and I felt that you shouldn’t have shown that too early, like don’t show that to us yet because im trying to work out what the hell is going on in this film?
Sana: What is this film about? And it wasn’t a good kind of intrigue. It was more intriguing to have you ask people who this character is because then we are wondering who you’re looking for. And then when we do meet him, he’s quite…not out of the ordinary, you know, he looks like an ordinary bloke. And then, the reveal of the YouTube video would be much more interesting. And then I would have wanted you to stay with it a bit longer. So, this is quite detailed feedback, but not difficult to adjust in your edit, and I would have loved to have seen more of the video then, as tommy said. And, yes, I struggled a little bit to hear all of that but I really, yeah, I really enjoyed being taken around this town and this sense of…yeah, really enjoyable, nice kind of portrait of a town through a character, so, well done.
Sana: Oh just one thing there’s a shot with him in a kind of cupboard full of DVDs he’s got.
Roderick: Yeah, he likes his DVDs, he’s got like a massive home cinema and stuff, he gave us a tour of his house.
Sana: Yea, so you could have, okay, you should have taken us on a tour of his house then, you know, because you just had this shot in the middle of an interview and you’re there for a few seconds and then it’s gone. So, it’s like, what was that about? That was kind of interesting, but I, you know, it neither said something about, I feel, you know it’s a bit of a continuation from what we’ve been talking about this morning as well, about how its let the shots, you know, let’s have all of it, let’s have the tour and outside the community centre microphone…what was I saying-
Tomas: Boom in shot, boom in shot. I thought that was comical.
Sana: No, no, I didn’t mind the boom in shot, I had something else to say about it. Sorry, doesn’t matter, I didn’t write the thought behind it, I just flagged up that scene. Something else happened at that moment. I don’t mind seeing the microphone but something about that scene. I’m really sorry, but my brain is kind of letting me down right now. But, yeah, I really enjoyed some of that. If you fix these things, it would be even more enjoyable to watch them, well done. How much time do we have?
Leo: I thought it was brilliant. It felt really confidently made, like in the edit, a couple of the things like flana…I meant Sana flagged up, I really liked. The guy you were talking to, obviously he was an actor but you’re talking to him, and you get the feeling, oh, is this some sort of minor celebrity? And you had those like flash forwards of this shot of him in the camera view finder, getting ready to be interviewed and you’re like, hey what’s going on here? Who is this person? You’re building up the mystery. I think like…really what made it was this certain confidence on how you’re approaching your subject – I love that you show you will be representing the city, sorry, town, before you even show him. And I really enjoy that you took my suggestion about putting you not outing the YouTube video, but the YouTube interface that video side because it really contextualises him as like a viral phenomenon. And I enjoyed even more that you had the full screen at the end where it just showed the video without the YouTube interface where it gets a bit more personal, you just see him being a kid. And also, some design – the mix is a bit quiet, but I feel likes it’s not fair to tell you guys off because you guys haven’t really been used to mixing. But there’s this…I really noticed in this one film that there wasn’t a single moment where you can hear the gap in sound, like sound fading out nad coming back in. I don’t know if that was because of that like low volume, it might be, but giving the benefit of the doubt, it was really well put together sound wise, because like it flew...
Leo: Flowed, thank you. It flowed together really well. There wasn’t a moment where there was like a technical mistake that took me out of it. I was like, okay, I was with the the subject from the beginning to the end, and it was really funny because [inaudible] really funny. The one thing that I definitely did not like was the shots of him in the room of DVDs that aren’t contextualised, that don’t say much about him. So, in a sense, you just should’ve gone for different footage. I’m sure you had plenty of footage you could have used otherwise. Those are the only shots that really felt out of place other than that [inaudible]
Tomas: I just wanted to point out, don’t be afraid of going around, going around Whitburn and saying,
“Hey, do you know Jack Logan?” “Who?” you know? Just put together some of those, and then the YouTube video intercut like that… somehow you’re expecting him to be…He was a minor celebrity when he went viral, but it was a long time ago and he wasn’t like, you know, a celebrity, so no one will remember him. So, you know, don’t…don’t feel like you have to set up someone talking about him like he’s famous because we didn’t fall for it because…and like, like maybe going around with a bunch of people saying “who?” and then we see the video and then someone goes “nope, don’t know Jack Logan” you know, and, but you’re building up this sense of mystery a little, you know, [inaudible] in the YouTube interface.
Sana: I just want to say though, I’m not sure that when we see the glimpses of the YouTube, before we, you know those those bits. I don’t know if it’s doing the job of telling us that this is a minor celebrity.
Tomas: I mean you could even have the interviews stopping people saying, you know, “Jack Logan who went viral you don’t know him?”
Sana: Some kind of context would help then if you want to go down that route.
Leo: I don’t think the lack of context set up him character but set up a mystery.
Sana: Yeah, and i…the mystery…how do…yeah, you need more mystery. Okay, do we have any more time? One? Yes. Go for it. Oh, no, I can do this. [movement]
Davide: I just wanted to say that I like the consistency and like the irony of the whole thing from just like making a big deal to like go in there and even like the part with the actor and just like asking him and then we have like…uhm… he’s, he’s like a very ordinary person, which kind of, I think reflects the fact that were just like building up this altar of this town and stuff, and then it’s just like common, like neighbourhood. And yeah, I really, really love that…this.
Sana: Great, anyone else? No? Okay, thank you very much.
MAIN POINTS GLEANED FROM FEEDBACK:
• Don’t bring in friends to act, use real people, get real reactions, build up the intrigue..
• Double check lighting and focus- leave nothing to chance.
• Contextualise the DVD shot or use other footage.
• Record him giving us a house tour – contextualises and gives more footage.\
• YouTube interface perhaps too early, might ruin mystery.
I’m very happy with the positive feedback we received and appreciate the suggestions for improvements to draw forward to the next project.
Obviously, there are things that could be revised mostly in the edit, like the DVD shot or colour grading, simple fixes that will definitely be looked into so we can add the film to our folios.
I agree with the lecturers comments we could have built more tension into the lead up and reveal of meeting jack, interviewing more people about who Jack Logan is, to get a broader view of his character and standing in the local community. I believe if we approached random people on Whitburn high street and ask them if they knew him, it could add another dimension to the comedy. We would either receive the expected “who?”, which would add to the comedic and ironic tone, or could find someone who knows him and could tell us a bit about him, adding to the mystery and excitement to meet this character.
With lighting, it was something I noticed watching back, but with it being a dull day and only having one light it was tricky, however if we could go back and do this again, I would think more before the shoot day, check the weather, and try to be more organised to create a clear and crisp image.
As a group, I would really like us to consider all feedback and complete the revisions noted to our film, adding footage not previously shown and possibly creating a longer version to add to our portfolios,
On a personal note, I would really like to obtain all footage and make my own edit over the summer, using the advice from Joe, Sana, Tommy and Leo, but also input from Jack. With the extra footage; not yet used a new film could be created all together. I would like to experiment with all this in mind, just for the fun and experience and perhaps even improve on the original.
