#docfilm

[ufpfilmclub]

🎥 Save the date! Bedford Film Night x Ocean with David Attenborough Saturday 27 September 2025 @ St Andrew’s Church community main hall, Bedford Doors 6:15pm | Screening 7pm 🎟️ from £5 available to book now!

An extraordinary nature doc film taking audiences on a visually stunning journey through our oceans, highlighting their beauty, diversity and the urgent need for conservation.

[hovernews]

Project Highlight: Anwuli Ilegbe– Dance Sword Gyrotonic

Upper Manhattan served as the perfect backdrop for our recent collaboration with Anwuli Ilegbe, Harlem's premier Gyrotonic studio. Working alongside the talented Producer Sarah East Johnson, we shot for the essence of this innovative local business through dance, samurai swordship, and hands-on gyrotonic exercise with its founders, Oza Agu and Efe Alibo along with their clients. Enjoy a sneak peek of our journey with them through these stills and behind-the-scenes snapshots. Stay tuned for the films!

View their studio

[michael-stadnik]

Short excerpt of my Interview with the last Ukrainian police officer on duty, during the russian occupation of #Bucha.

[michael-stadnik]

Teaser for "THE LONG FEBRUARY" is now online on Youtube.

You will see and hear the choir of the Saint Andrew-Church in #Bucha. The choir #BuchaBest sang in memory of a member, murdered by russian soldiers during the occupation.

Please, drop a like and a comment here and over on Youtube! Support an independent filmmaker!

[mixdown01]

Production Documents - Documentary (Selkies)

Same thing I did with adaption, but with doc-- again, won't be too many!

My notes for the main body of our shoot - I didn't cut in order to catch everything I could in the limited shoot time we had, so this meant going back, having a listen, and transcribing the action(s) that were happening. I'm glad we had discussed not cutting and that I kept speeding, because this was actually easier to work with in post than if I had tried to break up the day with 'themed' sound files, when trying to catch certain things. All I had to do was change the position of the Boom and I could catch what I wanted immediately.

The links are to the transcribed interviews where there is speaking. I used Descript, which is pretty alright for a free software. I had to go through to edit for accuracy, which took so much time, and since I was kind of skimming i'd say it was maybe 90% accurate in the end. It might be worth investing in a (cheap but decent) transcribing software if I want to keep doing documentary.

Some (messy) pre-shoot breakdown notes

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Final Reflection: Documentary, Selkies

{youtube link xoxo}

Alright, lets get straight into it!!

For a quick Location recording review: I had been a bit concerned about the waves drowning everything out, but the 416 pleased me greatly and with some booming choices I managed to get some good chatter and some chatter in the ocean too. I wish I had done Wild Track of footsteps but the shoots were so quick, and with it being documentary subjects that we didn't want to ask to stage/do certain things, I didn't get it. I didn't end up needing it in post but just for some flexibility (And if I really had wanted it could have foley’d, but I was crunched for time due to picture lock and managing sound for adaption at the same time).

The interview was shockingly clean as well (or maybe expectedly clean, i did heave and haw over where to shoot it and did my best in an uncontrolled environment), and I think the location we picked ended up being the best in regards to the location for that. Even the birds weren't too much of an issue in the mix. The only thing is that I wish I had one other person there with me on sound. If they could have had a shotgun/boom as well, and maybe a second mixpre for being able to move around freely, it would have been interesting to have more variety.

Now onto post!

I did this film in three to four 10 hour days. Which. Jesus christ.

I built the sound from the ground up. The only thing I had was the voiceover and some sync sound, so It was an empty playground. Considering the amount of tracks I ended up using and what a full session it was, I am astounded at how relatively organized I managed to keep the session. So many folders.

I pulled in some stuff from my sound library and soundbanks, as well as atmos and got to work. Anne Marie gave me good advice, in that she recommended throwing everything you think you'll need if not more into the session and then go through it and mute/hide/lower volume/raise volume as needed. This was a massive tip and really helped create a fuller world.

It passed in a blur to be honest. The only thing I would do different is maybe try panning stuff, like the waves and voices, to match visually where they are in respect to the camera (ocean on the left, people on both sides/slightly more to the right). To be fair this might be difficult due to just how all encompassing and intermingled everything is, but with some creative cutting and jush-ing we could see what can be done.

All in all, again, good practice learning what works and doesn't in the workflow. It's a lovely doc and The Salty Sisters are really lovely ladies, and for the most part i'm happy with it

[mixdown01]

Update: Post Production

As we draw nearer to the crit I become a little pile of mush that drags itself to sas on some of the nicest sunniest days we’ve had in edi as of late. It’s alright though cause I only start to mind if I’m in by myself and there’s a plethora of people to bother when I’d like a break!

Documentary is doing good for sound. Anne Marie gave me some good advice and I’ll implement it today, wanna get as close to done as I can by nine, screw the eye strain headache. I feel a bit like a wizard throwing bits into a pot and stirring precisely 3.7 times to the right and 8.2 to the left. Which is specific but how I feel.

Slightly late, but earlier I had went through my files and created little time codes / transcoded the interview for easy finding of good sound bites and moments

I’m gunna throw more stuff in (tactfully) to make the soundscape more full and use automation for the mix to help make it not overwhelming.

I need to crack on with work but short update!

[mixdown01]

Documentary // Shoot pictures