Thursday, 6 March 2014
Wednesday, 5 March 2014
Post Production
As sound recordist I have little to do in the post production process.
However I did go back and listen through the audio and have created a list of pros and cons on the zoom recordings.
The editing process was something I had to be pretty laid back ok. however in yesterdays session when I asked Harry what the atmos was looking like, and he said none existent. Tom further said we needed a pub atmos and a dock atmos, and I replied that I recorded those atmoses and they should be on the final cu document.
The fact the deadline is upon us and the Director has not looked at the extra sounds that i recorded or checked that they are their worries me, as I know for a fact they are on that final cut document as I saw our editor transfer them over.
The deadline is tommorow so I wil lbe going to the edit suite to view the final piece and we should be able to get it over to DVD.
However I did go back and listen through the audio and have created a list of pros and cons on the zoom recordings.
The editing process was something I had to be pretty laid back ok. however in yesterdays session when I asked Harry what the atmos was looking like, and he said none existent. Tom further said we needed a pub atmos and a dock atmos, and I replied that I recorded those atmoses and they should be on the final cu document. The fact the deadline is upon us and the Director has not looked at the extra sounds that i recorded or checked that they are their worries me, as I know for a fact they are on that final cut document as I saw our editor transfer them over.
The deadline is tommorow so I wil lbe going to the edit suite to view the final piece and we should be able to get it over to DVD.
Monday, 24 February 2014
Production Documents- Structure and tone
Structure and Tone – Director Guideline
First Act – Although this will be subject to change
dependent on information we obtain it is important to feel comfortable with how
the piece will develop. In the first segment of the film (1st Minute) location must
be established, using shots of Liverpool landmarks, archive footage plus images
of Hitler. This will coincide and a combination of city sounds and sounds found
on archive footage (fades and awareness of sound levels and what is in the
frame will be key to making this sound professional. This will then be intercut
with interviewee footage containing different answers to the question “When did
you first hear of Hitler being present in Liverpool in 1912? This establishes
the focus of the documentary and instigates enigma to draw in the audience.
This will continue using cut always of location and archive possibly including
a stylistic use of title for the documentary.
Second Act – Focus on content. Using Michael Ungars
explanation of the event will provide strong evidence and an interesting
location. This will be intercut with pub interviews setting the information’s
tone with integrity (professional historian) whilst simultaneously emphasizing
the sense of folklore and mystery that comes with the unsolved story (Pub
goers). At this stage an argument will have begun to develop, depending on
editing style this should provide a closed off or open-ended argument.
Following this cohesively will tie onto interviews of Echo journalists and
footage of the crew at the radio station. This seems a good precursor to the
final act and will be interesting in terms of reliability, assessing how the
information of Journalists stacks up against a Historians and locals.
Third Act – With the content explored and debate raised,
depending on our feelings towards the information we obtain, leaving the
audience to decide their verdict or continue there own exploration would match
the tone set by the mysticism of folklore. Leaving an ambiguous ending using
interviewees answering the question “did it really happen?” would onset and present
a diverse range of opinion. This will allow the audience to use their own
interest and intellect to decide whose information in the film was the most
reliable, hopefully creating a pleasant viewing experience that keeps the
audience questioning how information can be distorted and changed and giving
them an opinion on our subject matter “Did Adolf Hitler really go to Liverpool”
Friday, 21 February 2014
Liverpool Residential Filming
With a schedule sorted, and equipment loaned out, the team set off to Liverpool. The first Few hours were quiet with our filming not taking place until 7PM the Monday evening.
Monday 17th
We headed to our first location (the poste house pub) where Hitler apparently liked to drink during his alleged visit. Just to recap, our documentary is investigating into the folklore that Adolf Hitler came to visit his half brother in Liverpool between November 1911 - February 1912. We intended to get a mix of opinions arguing for and against from a variety of sources, both public and professional.
The team stopped off at a chip shop, before heading to The Poste House, to get something to eat, and and afterwards had a minor scare when we forgot one of the tripods, but luckily when Leanne and myself went back, the man working at the chip shot had it waiting behind the counter.
When we got back to the others, we were getting our first interview set up, regretfully outside the pub, due to it being to full. It was with one of the regulars who was quite common with folklore, and h gave us some very interestingpoints about his view and beleifs. As sound recordist I believe that the sound for the outdoor interview came across quite well, with only a couple of minor lags (a squeeky garage door) that can only be faintly heard.
We then went into the pub, but due to the small size of the veanue, and the amount of people in there, the recording process was delayed, and though we got talking tosome people, filming was an impossibility. However, I maneged to get an audio only interview with a woman, using the lapel microphone, and it came back sounding really decent.I then realised that if I use that, all the background noise (which the boom mic was picking up heavily on) would be mere mutters compared to the sound quality of the interviewee. We got a couple of interviews, with some old timers that seemed to generally argue that Hitler did not visit Liverpool, and they were both recorded with the boom and lapel.
The lanlady had a lock in on our behalf, and after kicking the remaining regulars out, gave her own interview. The recording was about 14 minutes long to my memmory, and though I did mess up having to shift the microphone round a few tmes (this interview being recorded with only a boom mic) their is plenty of clean sounding relating to the subject matter.
With the documentary only being a 5 minute piece, we came out of that first day feeling confident about our work as we filmed, I estimate, around an hour maybe an hour and a half of usable footage. So all pre production nerves were erased by a variety of things: the quality of our work, the freindlyness of the people, the amount of information we gathered, and of course a good team ethic.
Below are stills taken from the first days filming.
Tuesday 18th
Tuesday in our opinion was the biggest day for us; it was the day we were to interview Mike Unger (who had shown the most interest in this project) and we had heard back from historian Mike Roydan and arraneged to go up to Chester and meet him. The interviewing with unger took place between 11AM and quarter past 2, and he gave us alot of information and personal insight, as well as showed us the location where Hitler supposedly lived during his alleged visit (which had since been made into a power transformer).
The sound quality of the street was decent, considering it was recorded on the shotgun microphone (aka boom) so fair few background noises were picked up, but I aimed the microphone accurately enougth, to hear Unger over any passing car on the street, however there was a moment where an ambulence went by on the nearby main road, which completely drowned out Unger, so the point he made there was unusable.
We then went to the school where his nephew went breifly, but the information given i personally think doesn't relate to the subject we are persuing, so probably wont be included in the final piece, despite the excellent shots we got. We then interviewed Unger in a pub, and got 18 and a half minutes worth of footage and sound, with alot of relevent points favouring that Hitler did visit Liverpool. It was recorded on the boom microphone and the lapel, which worked in our favour, as the boom picked up some major static towards the end, so if that part of the interview is included, the the lapel can cover. However I do have some concern how clear the music in the background is, as I tried to make it as mute as possible, but I personally fear that some music may be clear, and on copyright terms thats a bad thing.
We also had the radio station call us for a phone in, and I had just set up for Unger, so it was a very last minute thing, I tried my best to get the equiptment set up, but some technical difficulty with the headphones meant I failed toget a recording, but lckily Josh Walker contacted the radio station and aquired a sound bite. I was highly critical of my failure on that occasion, and vowed to do better.
After finishing with Unger, we had a couple hours break before me, Tom Noonan and Josh Walker got a train to Chester taking a boom mic, the lapel, an XF100 andtripod with us, leaving the others to go get atmos, and cutaway shots of night time Liverpool.
We met Royden just outside Chester station, and our director (Noonan) somhow managed to get this hotel to let us film the interview in one of there 5 star suites, which was both lucky, and also helped convay the professionallism of the piece. we sent aout half an hour setting up the shot, and me and Tom breifly had a creative clash over what microphone to use as we left the zoom in Liverpool with the other group. I favoured the lapel as for me its the best for an interview situation, as sound is picked up clearly and cleanly from the interviewee, where as Tom argued that the boom createda richer quality and their was no background noise in the room, so the lapel wouldn't be needed. It ended up being down to my personal decision, which i'll admit I was abit biased as i was impressed with the lapel in the previous interviews, and wanted to explore it in this setting. Tom let me have the final call, and we tested it, to see if the subject moving would cause any distress to the sound. We found no quiries and opted for the lapel.
The sound on that I feel came back clean, though i will admit a richer sound could have been acheived with the boom, but I stand by my lapel decision as it really picked up the tone in Royden's voice, yet one issue with the lapel is the sensitivity it has to its subject, so there were sometimes where he got more intimate, and louder which cause the sound to just dip out of the bracket, and that is something to be corrected in post. As with Unger we recorded a large chunk off interview footage with him, which argued against the idea Hitler came over, and caused us to question Ungers views.
After getting back to the hostel the other team showed us real good footage of the albert dock which we think could be used for cutting away from ungers pub interview. The tuesday inished with a feel that we was almost there, we just needed a few more cutaways to fill the holes.
Below are images of the Tuesday filming.
Unfortunately the only still of the Roydan interview is a shot of the hotelroom with Royden in the background, as our stills camera was with the other group.
Wendesday 19th
The wendsday was a highly chilled out day; it became a mixture of sightseeing and working.
We started off with a meal at weatherspoons and the proceeded to go to a few locations. We got a shot of the high street, The Cavern Club, Alber dock, the Liver building.
We managed to get a free ride on the bus tour and Tom, Harry, Leanne and Amy set up the camera on the upper deck at the back and the effect was a shakey shot of the Liverpool street, that lood slightly surreal. it's like a unique shot that I don't believe I have seen in any film previously, however i doubt it could be used in this film. We came off the bus and agreed that our job was done....with only an hour and a half before our train home.
Below are two images from our bus filming.
Lookin back at the three days filming, we got enougth footage to make a feature length documentary let alone 5 minutes, so I am confident that our editing team of Nathanuel and Harry can make this a decent documentary that will be good to watch.
We have one more thing to film which is a phone interview schedualed for Monday, so though we have plenty of footage, it doesn't hurt to get a little bit more.
Monday 17th
We headed to our first location (the poste house pub) where Hitler apparently liked to drink during his alleged visit. Just to recap, our documentary is investigating into the folklore that Adolf Hitler came to visit his half brother in Liverpool between November 1911 - February 1912. We intended to get a mix of opinions arguing for and against from a variety of sources, both public and professional.
The team stopped off at a chip shop, before heading to The Poste House, to get something to eat, and and afterwards had a minor scare when we forgot one of the tripods, but luckily when Leanne and myself went back, the man working at the chip shot had it waiting behind the counter.
When we got back to the others, we were getting our first interview set up, regretfully outside the pub, due to it being to full. It was with one of the regulars who was quite common with folklore, and h gave us some very interestingpoints about his view and beleifs. As sound recordist I believe that the sound for the outdoor interview came across quite well, with only a couple of minor lags (a squeeky garage door) that can only be faintly heard.
We then went into the pub, but due to the small size of the veanue, and the amount of people in there, the recording process was delayed, and though we got talking tosome people, filming was an impossibility. However, I maneged to get an audio only interview with a woman, using the lapel microphone, and it came back sounding really decent.I then realised that if I use that, all the background noise (which the boom mic was picking up heavily on) would be mere mutters compared to the sound quality of the interviewee. We got a couple of interviews, with some old timers that seemed to generally argue that Hitler did not visit Liverpool, and they were both recorded with the boom and lapel.
The lanlady had a lock in on our behalf, and after kicking the remaining regulars out, gave her own interview. The recording was about 14 minutes long to my memmory, and though I did mess up having to shift the microphone round a few tmes (this interview being recorded with only a boom mic) their is plenty of clean sounding relating to the subject matter.
With the documentary only being a 5 minute piece, we came out of that first day feeling confident about our work as we filmed, I estimate, around an hour maybe an hour and a half of usable footage. So all pre production nerves were erased by a variety of things: the quality of our work, the freindlyness of the people, the amount of information we gathered, and of course a good team ethic.
Below are stills taken from the first days filming.
Tuesday 18th
Tuesday in our opinion was the biggest day for us; it was the day we were to interview Mike Unger (who had shown the most interest in this project) and we had heard back from historian Mike Roydan and arraneged to go up to Chester and meet him. The interviewing with unger took place between 11AM and quarter past 2, and he gave us alot of information and personal insight, as well as showed us the location where Hitler supposedly lived during his alleged visit (which had since been made into a power transformer).
The sound quality of the street was decent, considering it was recorded on the shotgun microphone (aka boom) so fair few background noises were picked up, but I aimed the microphone accurately enougth, to hear Unger over any passing car on the street, however there was a moment where an ambulence went by on the nearby main road, which completely drowned out Unger, so the point he made there was unusable.
We then went to the school where his nephew went breifly, but the information given i personally think doesn't relate to the subject we are persuing, so probably wont be included in the final piece, despite the excellent shots we got. We then interviewed Unger in a pub, and got 18 and a half minutes worth of footage and sound, with alot of relevent points favouring that Hitler did visit Liverpool. It was recorded on the boom microphone and the lapel, which worked in our favour, as the boom picked up some major static towards the end, so if that part of the interview is included, the the lapel can cover. However I do have some concern how clear the music in the background is, as I tried to make it as mute as possible, but I personally fear that some music may be clear, and on copyright terms thats a bad thing.
We also had the radio station call us for a phone in, and I had just set up for Unger, so it was a very last minute thing, I tried my best to get the equiptment set up, but some technical difficulty with the headphones meant I failed toget a recording, but lckily Josh Walker contacted the radio station and aquired a sound bite. I was highly critical of my failure on that occasion, and vowed to do better.
After finishing with Unger, we had a couple hours break before me, Tom Noonan and Josh Walker got a train to Chester taking a boom mic, the lapel, an XF100 andtripod with us, leaving the others to go get atmos, and cutaway shots of night time Liverpool.
We met Royden just outside Chester station, and our director (Noonan) somhow managed to get this hotel to let us film the interview in one of there 5 star suites, which was both lucky, and also helped convay the professionallism of the piece. we sent aout half an hour setting up the shot, and me and Tom breifly had a creative clash over what microphone to use as we left the zoom in Liverpool with the other group. I favoured the lapel as for me its the best for an interview situation, as sound is picked up clearly and cleanly from the interviewee, where as Tom argued that the boom createda richer quality and their was no background noise in the room, so the lapel wouldn't be needed. It ended up being down to my personal decision, which i'll admit I was abit biased as i was impressed with the lapel in the previous interviews, and wanted to explore it in this setting. Tom let me have the final call, and we tested it, to see if the subject moving would cause any distress to the sound. We found no quiries and opted for the lapel.
The sound on that I feel came back clean, though i will admit a richer sound could have been acheived with the boom, but I stand by my lapel decision as it really picked up the tone in Royden's voice, yet one issue with the lapel is the sensitivity it has to its subject, so there were sometimes where he got more intimate, and louder which cause the sound to just dip out of the bracket, and that is something to be corrected in post. As with Unger we recorded a large chunk off interview footage with him, which argued against the idea Hitler came over, and caused us to question Ungers views.
After getting back to the hostel the other team showed us real good footage of the albert dock which we think could be used for cutting away from ungers pub interview. The tuesday inished with a feel that we was almost there, we just needed a few more cutaways to fill the holes.
Below are images of the Tuesday filming.
Unfortunately the only still of the Roydan interview is a shot of the hotelroom with Royden in the background, as our stills camera was with the other group.
Wendesday 19th
The wendsday was a highly chilled out day; it became a mixture of sightseeing and working.
We started off with a meal at weatherspoons and the proceeded to go to a few locations. We got a shot of the high street, The Cavern Club, Alber dock, the Liver building.
We managed to get a free ride on the bus tour and Tom, Harry, Leanne and Amy set up the camera on the upper deck at the back and the effect was a shakey shot of the Liverpool street, that lood slightly surreal. it's like a unique shot that I don't believe I have seen in any film previously, however i doubt it could be used in this film. We came off the bus and agreed that our job was done....with only an hour and a half before our train home.
Below are two images from our bus filming.
Lookin back at the three days filming, we got enougth footage to make a feature length documentary let alone 5 minutes, so I am confident that our editing team of Nathanuel and Harry can make this a decent documentary that will be good to watch.
We have one more thing to film which is a phone interview schedualed for Monday, so though we have plenty of footage, it doesn't hurt to get a little bit more.
Friday, 14 February 2014
Production Documents- Question guideline
Interviewing Process and Questioning
Mike Hungar Questions
Where did you
originally find the story?
What fascinates you
about Hitler?
What do you believe
to be the most conclusive evidence suggesting Hitlers stay in Liverpool?
Do you believe the information
and research at hand today leads to a reasonable conclusion or is more needed?
Over a century since
the event supposedly took place to you feel too much information has been
manipulated to develop a reasonable assessment?
Writer of Hitlers
Memoirs Sir Ian Kershaw stated this in an email to us when we attempted to get
him to participate in the documentary “HE DID NOT VISIT LIVERPOOL AT ANY TIME”
do you believe his opinion has weight?
The bombings of his
supposed home on Stanhope Street has raised many questions, supposedly the
level of military accuracy taken to deliver that strike is implausible, was it
just chance?
Has the spirit of
Liverpool tale telling exaggerated the truth?
When presented with
all the information you have obtained or know of, are you 100% sure of the
stories truth?
Do you think it’s
true?
Local Liverpool Radio and Journalists
Where did you
originally hear the story of Hitler coming to Liverpool in 1912?
Why has the topic
received so much debate but still remains a mystery?
Was any information
lost that could have solved the ongoing ambiguity?
Has it been too long
since the event took place for a realistic conclusion to be made?
From a Journalists
perspective, what do you find the most likely truth to be?
Why did the story
interest you?
Guide Line Questions (Pub interviewees and
public)
When did you first
hear of Hitler coming to Liverpool?
What is it that
interested you about the tale?
Did you know anybody from Liverpool who claimed to have seen or known any of the Hitlers?
Do you have or know
of any information that suggests that the claim is true?
Do you have or know
of any information that suggests the claim is false?
Do you think it’s
true?
Production Documents- Sound List
Sound List
PUB
atmos
conversation
cash register
pints being poured
glasses being placed on
beer mats
pool being played
doors opening and closing
LIVERPOOL STREETS
Atmos
footsteps (different
footwear)
mild wind
conversation
traffic
possible sea sound
INTERVIEW
Diolouge
ALBERT DOCK
sea
waves
seagulls
walking/ footsteps
Thursday, 13 February 2014
Group meetings- preparation 13/02/14
In the last couple of meeting my documentary group has had over the last couple of days, we have established what equiptment will be needed, what we are going for, and what we are trying to portray.
In the meeting, our producer Josh walker established that we have received some calls back, and some things we are looking into may be urban myth, so we have to look into the concept of liverpool folklore, and chinese whispers when deling with this subject matter, as in Josh's words 'Hitler highly unlikely to have drank at that pub as he was T total'.
We have two contrasting opinions on the hisorians. Sir Ian Thomas, from University of Sheffield, responded with a short e-mail that stated he did not want to be interviewed and Hitler did NOT 9in block capitals as well) visit liverpool, and advised us to stop chasing the myth. i intened to get a screenshot of this e-mail ASAP. However Michael Unger believes it, and is willing to do interviews with us, and wants to take us round Liverpool and talk about his beliefs and then talk in an interview afterwards. There were several ideas in the meeting, with some talking about messing with the audience, and slipping a few white lies in there. We also made additions to the equiptment list including a second XF100, a wide angle lense and two tri pods.
This has brought our equiptment list to an astounding 15 items. a screen shot of the list can be seen at the bottomof th page. We intend to cover all angles, and have talked about maybe splitting up at some point so any landmark shots can be taken, which Nathaniel has nominated himself and Harry for as they are production assistants in this, so they won't have to be a real part of the main sound and camera shooting.
We seem to be able, according to Josh, to go to a radio station in Liverpool and put out a broadcast appealing for information, to anyone that may have an opinion on weather hitler visited Liverpool, and if anyone has some story from grand parents and maybe soime physical evidence, which will provide a starting point to the people of liverpool and there opinions on subject matter. This will help us to decide weather to ask random people as there was some conflict on this idea, of random people on Hitlers old street knowing about this local ledgand.
Between now and tommorow, we intend to each put forward documentarys we like the structure of, and have been given roles.
I have to do a list of sounds that are needed, Josh Walkers aranging shedual, and times to meet the contacts. Amy is going to work on a shot list and a guideline storyboard, so we all have something to be going between now and tommorow.
Link for documentary in image
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQiHFCYHOyo -Hotel Ground Zero
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6j_nop4wh0 - We Stand Alone Togeather
![]()
Below are a set of stills taken at production meeting
In the meeting, our producer Josh walker established that we have received some calls back, and some things we are looking into may be urban myth, so we have to look into the concept of liverpool folklore, and chinese whispers when deling with this subject matter, as in Josh's words 'Hitler highly unlikely to have drank at that pub as he was T total'.
We have two contrasting opinions on the hisorians. Sir Ian Thomas, from University of Sheffield, responded with a short e-mail that stated he did not want to be interviewed and Hitler did NOT 9in block capitals as well) visit liverpool, and advised us to stop chasing the myth. i intened to get a screenshot of this e-mail ASAP. However Michael Unger believes it, and is willing to do interviews with us, and wants to take us round Liverpool and talk about his beliefs and then talk in an interview afterwards. There were several ideas in the meeting, with some talking about messing with the audience, and slipping a few white lies in there. We also made additions to the equiptment list including a second XF100, a wide angle lense and two tri pods.
This has brought our equiptment list to an astounding 15 items. a screen shot of the list can be seen at the bottomof th page. We intend to cover all angles, and have talked about maybe splitting up at some point so any landmark shots can be taken, which Nathaniel has nominated himself and Harry for as they are production assistants in this, so they won't have to be a real part of the main sound and camera shooting.
We seem to be able, according to Josh, to go to a radio station in Liverpool and put out a broadcast appealing for information, to anyone that may have an opinion on weather hitler visited Liverpool, and if anyone has some story from grand parents and maybe soime physical evidence, which will provide a starting point to the people of liverpool and there opinions on subject matter. This will help us to decide weather to ask random people as there was some conflict on this idea, of random people on Hitlers old street knowing about this local ledgand.
Between now and tommorow, we intend to each put forward documentarys we like the structure of, and have been given roles.
I have to do a list of sounds that are needed, Josh Walkers aranging shedual, and times to meet the contacts. Amy is going to work on a shot list and a guideline storyboard, so we all have something to be going between now and tommorow.
 |
| Lift of equiptment |
Link for documentary in image
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQiHFCYHOyo -Hotel Ground Zero
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6j_nop4wh0 - We Stand Alone Togeather
 |
| Screenshot of documentary I like Structure of Documentary name: Hotel Ground Zero |
 |
| Documentary: We Stand Alone Togeather |
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