Evaluation

'Steel Bells' overall, is a piece of work I am proud of. The idea of the film and what we wanted the result to be did change throughout the semester therefore the final film was very different from the original idea. Originally the film was supposed to be about several of the Morris teams in Sheffield. This changed over the semester as we decided to focus on Boggart's Breakfast, a mixed border side who defy all stereotypes.

The poetic Documentary I think was a lot more chaotic than I would have liked. This is what detracted from the film's overall impact. I wanted the poetic film to be an introduction into the Morris world that would be understandable to 'Morris Virgins' who might have either not have heard of it or have negative preconceptions about the tradition. I also wanted to show the journey from learning a dance and practicing it to dancing it out as a performance. I think we accomplished the former but not the latter. I think we tried to fit too much in and a lot of meaning was lost because of that. Therefore we learned from this and changed our approach, concentrating on a single team rather than several. This I feel leads to a more concise narrative and makes the film easier to follow for people who do not know the Morris world. Deciding to concentrate on Boggart's was I think a wise decision as they are a great strength in the film. They are all interesting characters and are all different with their individual face paint. Not what one would expect from a Morris team. From this we have created an interesting story to tell the audience that in coherent and centred on one thing while still fulfilling the original intent of breaking down the stereotypes of Morris.

I think another strength of the film is the imagery and sound and how they work together. The look and sound of the Morris was important to get across in order for this film to work. I feel this comes across and encompassing the noise and rhythm of the dance creates a strong audio/visual spectacle which captures the audience's attention. The interviews as well I think are a great insight into the team and this culture of Morris.

A major weakness I feel in the film is that it does not go deep enough into the characters of the Boggarts. I had wanted to keep the idea of them as Boggarts not themselves as a part of the film but I think this did not work as well as I had hoped. The audience need to get to know these characters as people I think so they can engage with them. This would have given them a deeper understanding of why they do this and therefore answering another question that the film asks; why do people do this?

I also feel something else we needed to set up better was the idea of the stereotype; this would have made the film even more impactful. I think we have this visually but for people who are not familiar with Morris, there is not enough of a setup, launching straight into the Boggarts I think works for people that have seen Morris dancing before, but not for people who have not.

When I came up with the idea of the film I wanted it to contradict the stereotypes of English folk dance and to be an education for people who did not understand what Morris is. I think it succeeds in opposing the stereotype but I think the idea of educating people on Morris is not something that has been explored fully in the finished film.

Making this film for me was a massive learning curve as I had never headed up a project that was my own idea before. Creating 'Steel Bells' was process in which I learnt a lot about documentary making.

One major thing I learned about was trying to get the best from interviewees, about how to make them talk and give interesting and good answers. I think the technique we used that developed over the semester was to talk to the interviewee beforehand, not about the questions as such but more making them feel at ease in front of the camera and prepping them in terms of asking them to frame the question in the answer. Making I think the interviews more natural looking.

Something else I have learned from making this film is that working with people you know and are in groups with leads to perhaps being more cautious in what you ask of them. I know that I was incredibly cautious of coming across as rude or causing offense. I think this is a factor that as a documentary maker you have to overcome.

We had to learn very quickly to make the most out of the shoots. We only had about two opportunities to film with each side, as they only practice once a week. Therefore we had to make the most of the time we had. We decided upon a two camera and two microphone set up. This is something I had never used before personally. We had to work around each other and not get in the way and being able to still get good footage.

In terms of the edit, working together in a directorial role with an editor was something I'd not done before either. In the edit process I had to know when to back off and let Lewis do his job and when I needed to step in and tell him about things that I really wanted to emphasise.

The final stage of this project the sound edit was a major challenge because the music was so important to the overall quality of the film and how effective it would be. I understand a lot better now how music and interviews need to be well balanceds, especially in a film where music is such an integral part of the film.

Overall I think my contribution to this project was large. It was my idea so I headed up the production. I took on the producing role. Because I am so heavily involved in the project we were shooting and had some contacts and understood the 'world of Morris' it made sense for me to take on this role. Also I feel that our contacts would feel more comfortable letting us film if they had had contact with someone they knew was looking for the positive side of Morris.

Overall we shared the directing role. I thought this would be best as I am not that strong at cinematography so I needed to be able to trust the others that had more experience in it. I think one reason I had to take on a directorial role as well was that a lot of the time especially when we were focusing on Boggarts I could tell Natalie where she could go and not get hit with sticks.

As we were such a small team we all chipped in doing more then one role. My other role was sound; I think my work on this was effective if rushed. In my opinion the music maybe takes over too much, I think it is quite constant and should have maybe considered breaks to breath. I also did a lot of the recording but took the production decision to bring in assistance on this as it was not realistic to be able to record everything at the exterior shoots when I was also dancing.

I think the only problem we encountered in terms of the group framework was the fact that Natalie and Lewis did not understand the idea at first they had to learn a lot about the subject before and during shooting

I think the team worked well together. I think Natalie and Lewis had to put a lot of trust in me to be able to carry out this idea. Also though I was able to trust them to help it be realised as they were investing in a project that was about something they did not really know anything about. This trust about the subject I think made for a strong group dynamic. We worked well together and I think that is reflected in the film that we made. It would not have been as successful had we not all worked together and shared thoughts and ideas so readily.

'For every Documentary there are at least three stories that intertwine; the film maker's, the films and the audience's' (Nichols, 2010). I feel this is something that defiantly rings true for me with Steel Bells. If I am the filmmaker, the film having been my idea, my story in the Documentary is wanting to show the world that there is more to Morris dancing than old men with beer bellies and hankies. The face that the film is produced by at least one person who holds Morris close to their hearts I hope came through. The film's story is of Boggart's Breakfast. Charting where they came from and why they do what they do. It also shows that the stereotypes of Morris are not always true. Then there is the audience's story. If an audience member had never seen Morris before the story is of an education in what this English tradition encompasses. If they have a preconceived idea the film for them would hopefully mean a change of attitude, and for anyone who was already into the scene it is maybe an insight into a team they had seen out dancing but did not know much about.

Documentary has two personalities in a way. 'Film as a record and as a representation centred on an idea - or ideal- unadultered truth'. (Bruzzi, 2006)

 

I think this would generally concern film where the subject matter is more serious however still I think this can be related to Steel Bells. To see it simply as a record is not I think enough. If we had simply left unedited clips of dancing maybe. However we have used deliberate cuts and chosen what parts of an interview we use in order to tell a story. In other words to represent the truth, or what we see as the truth, that Morris is not boring. Whether or not what we have shown can be conceived as truth depends upon the audience I think. However, we have as film makers represented through our use of editing and sound design what we see as the truth.

Many films are plot driven, some are character driven and some are question driven. (Bernard, 2011). 'Steel Bells I think is a mixture of character and question driven. As the filmmakers we are asking the question 'What is Boggart's Breakfast?' This is what drives the whole film. However I think that the character driven element cannot be ignored, it is the idea of these mischievous boggart characters that help to drive along the story along side the question.

What 'Steel Bells' is, is an adventure into a world that people may not know about. 'The best Documentaries are models of disciplined passion; they show us new worlds, or familiar worlds in unfamiliar ways' (Rabiger, 2009). Morris dancing is like a different world, it has it's own etiquettes and politics and inhabitants. What we aimed to do with this piece is to show this world to a new audience. And to an audience that knows about Morris dancing we show them a different side of something they may have thought they knew. By exploring something that people think they know and challenging expectation I think we have created a sense of discovering the unknown and have succeeded in our goal to show the audience something new.

In conclusion, I am satisfied with the film that has come from this semester. I think I've worked hard and well as part of a team in order to create a solid documentary. It does have issues and weaknesses but that is part of the learning process that I have undergone in this module.

 

Bibliography

NICHOLS Bill (2010). Introduction to Documentary 2^nd edition. Bloomington, Indiana. Indiana university Press.

BRUZZI, Stella (2006). New Documentary: a critical evaluation 2^nd edition. Abingdon, Oxon. Routledge.

BERNARD, Sheila Curran (2011). Documentary Storytelling 3^rd edition. Kindlington, Oxford. Focal Press.

RABIGER, Michael (2009). Directing the Documentary 5^th edition. Jordan Hill, Oxford. Focal Press.