Pre-Production: Music

For our documentary music I did some research into working with composers and using licensing of already existing songs:

When working with a composer I found it was very important to collaborate with them from as early as possible and to keep an open mind about the music they make. If you respect your composer, treat them as a collaborator and seek creative input, you’ll build a positive working relationship and a score you’re both proud of. -Desktop Documentaries 

Documentaries are able to become compelling and emotional films, they are able to shine a light on important issues and people and music can be used to reflect this too.

Before you begin working with a composer, though, it helps to hone your own sense of what music might work in your film. Spend time thinking about what styles of music resonate with your vision for the film. Analyse films with scores you like. Throw some music samples up against picture.  Begin a creative dialogue in your mind. -documentary.org

When picking music you need to decide on the mood of your documentary as the music is there to enhance this. 

When I was looking for composers/music for our doc I went to musicians I knew who directed me in the area of ACM in Guilford, a specialist music college with a lot of students looking for experience. I sent out an email to them and from there I am currently working through multiple emails and phone calls to talk to composers and musicians about what we want and what they can do.

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From here I am going to confirm our music choices and then send out contracts that were made in a previous blog. I'll be keeping in constant contact with everyone in this process allowing for good communication.

Pre-production: Risk assessments

A risk assessment is an examination of a location identifying what could cause harm on a shoot so that a production company can decide whether adequate control measures are in place to prevent harm.

Example risk assessment

Tips for risk assessments are:

• Identify the hazards and those who can be affected by them
• Evaluate the risk of each of those hazards
• Identify and prioritise appropriate control measures to eliminate/reduce the risk
• Review and update as necessary 

BBC example risk assesment

Risk assessments should be done when activities or situations proposed present a foreseeable and significant risk of injury or ill-health, When you don’t already have a risk assessment or safe operating procedure which adequately addresses the risks from the proposed activity; or where the review date for these has lapsed. -BBC Risk Assessments The earlier a risk assessment is done the easier it is to co-ordinate and communicate what's happening and what could pose a potential risk to crew and cast. It should not be considered a last minute task.

When doing a risk assessment you need to identify and prioritise putting in place, appropriate control measures

Start by:

• identifying what can harm people in your workplace
• identifying who might be harmed and how
• evaluating the risks and deciding on the appropriate controls, taking into account the controls you already have in place
• recording your risk assessment
• reviewing and updating your assessment -hse GOV risk assessments

When filling out a risk assessment you need to have a good understanding of the proposed activity/locations so you know what could go wrong, you need to do your research. Detail in the risk assessment should be proportionate to the risk posed, simple risks can be done in bullet points other risks may need more complex description. When doing a risk assessment it should cover anyone on the location who could be harmed, you should cover the general public and any other groups out side of cast and crew.

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From this I learnt:

• The importance of having detailed risk assessments
• The need to consider everyone outside your production too
• Risk assessments can be updated but it's vital it's done sooner rather then later

I will use this in pre-production by being able to put in much more relevant information as well as using the risk assessment to its full potential.

Before I filled out my risk assessments I made a table of risks and locations to ensure I don't forget anything.

I then transferred these into risk assessments for the two locations we have confirmed. The location for the title sequence will be the same as Tanya's interview in our house and therefore have the same information as that risk assessment.

Pre-production: Synopsis

After confirming the structure of the doc and what Jemma wanted in it I was able to write a Synopsis about it. In order to do it effectively I researched into Documentary synopsis' and how to write them.

Documentary Synopsis - The synopsis is usually the first section of the proposal. It is a succinct overview of what your story is about, why the story is significant and how you’re going to tell it.  - (Desktop Documentaries)

My original synopsis looked like this

'Rewerked' is a documentary that looks at the stereotypes that the public have about Drag Queens and the community around it. It'll focus on 18 year old Tanya a non-binary Drag Queen who breaks all the rules society has set, as she prepares for one of her first performances. We'll also be hearing from the perspective of other Drag Queens and Kings to see what they think about expectations that have been applied to their community, it'll include personal experiences and what misconceptions they have witnessed in their career. It will also see how they think drag is changing and what they think about it as they watch Tanya's performance.

Some tips from Desktop Documentaries included:

• Use an active voice (don’t say “We may be doing this film”, say “This film is..”). Make the reader believe this film IS happening.


• Write colourfully – avoid generic descriptions like “unique” or “magical”. Explain why something is magical or unique.


• Be specific – Don’t just give a general overview of your story. Describe situations, people and characters in vivid detail to make the story come alive.

From there I've rewritten the synopsis to make it more concise, short and to the point, it only includes information that the reader needs. Your narrative synopsis starts to break down the themes and story arcs of your film — in depth. It demonstrates the framework of your film, and this is where you’ll detail the progression of your story and characters. After reading the synopsis, the reader should understand how the story will play out and how the characters will develop. - Premium beat

'Rewerked' is a documentary that looks at stereotypes within the Drag community created through the media and general public. It focuses on 18 year old Tanya, a non-binary Drag Queen breaking all the rules in society, as she prepares for one of her first performances. It features interviews with Tanya's family and what they think about the Drag community, as well as interviews with other Drag Kings and Queens from a wide age range. It'll include personal anecdotes and misconceptions witnessed and experienced by the interviewees. The documentary will culminate with a performance from Tanya and end with interviews from everyone about their opinions of where Drag is heading and how it's changing.

Pre-production: LGBT people in documentaries research

Overall from doing my research into different LGBT documentaries I have learnt many things:

• It's important to have a leading contributor and/or presenter that is related to the subject in some way but can also educate through presentation/their replies to questions. This way the audience can relate to them.
• A lot of documentaries don't actually look at Bisexuality and if they do they can unintentionally promote negative stereotypes of them In reality, LGBT representation on film and TV went down overall last year. It’s even rarer to see bisexuals represented in the mainstream media, without hosts like Larry King and columnists like Dear Prudence shaming bi people for their sexual habits and discouraging them from living openly. -Bisexual.org This is something we are aiming to challenge with our Non-Binary, Bisexual lead contributor.
• Families are a subject that is often talked about in most docs about the LGBTQ+ community, this is something that is no different for our documentary as it's interesting to know what people who are close to the contributors think and how they feel. This also allows for a wider range of opinion from all sides.

How are these documentaries different from others?

LGBTQ+ documentaries are generally trying to achieve different things to other docs. They're often trying to educate/raise awareness for the subject they are about.

Pre-production: Contracts

Creating contracts for contributors

Contracts and release forms are ways to ensure that the content you are creating can be used after filming for where ever you want it to go and means that all the content in it (interviews, music, pictures etc.) are legally allowed to be distributed. 
When making a film you need to ensure you are aware of the copyright of other artists when you need to use their music, videos, films, artwork, photos etc. You need their permission and/or pay to copy their work. You need to be able to prove to potential broadcasters you have the rights, that means you will need documentation for every single item in your movie – music, photos, film clips, graphics… everything. If it was not originally created by YOU, then you will need to have a document showing you have permission to use it and copy it - Desktop Documentaries

Different release forms include:

• Talent Release Form - ie Personal Release Form, use this for your interviews.
• Materials Release Form - Use this form whenever you are including photographs, paintings, sculpture, other artwork, documents or artefacts in your film.
• Location Release Form - Use this for permission to shoot on private property.
• Group Release -Use when depicting larger groups, such as a club, athletic team, choir, etc.
• Extra/Background Release - For persons who appear in the background of a shot or scene, but who are not the focal point or subject of the footage in question.
• Poster Release - This is a poster-size release you should use when filming in public spaces where numerous people may be entering and exiting the frame. Examples: Public Parks, Government Buildings and surrounding areas, Shopping Centres, Malls, Sports arenas, and the like. (Note that location releases may be required for some of these kinds of places)
• Crew Deal Memo - Use this release for all crew members working on the film. This includes volunteers, Production Assistants, etc., whether in the office, or on-set, who work during any phase of production, from development through post-production.

- (Desktop Documentaries)

Interviews/Filming People

The easiest way to get permission is to do it before filming, it saves you then needing to track down people afterwards. It's also a good idea to get peoples consent both on paper and on camera Tell them to look in the camera and read something like: “I, Sue Smith, agree to be filmed in this documentary about such and such and understand it will be used for broadcast on the internet and television, without conditions.” - Desktop Documentaries

Anyone under 18 needs parental consent.

Things to consider are:

Privacy

In the Human Rights act of 1998 it states that everybody has a right to their private and family lives being respected This right means that the media and others can be prevented from interfering in your life. It also means that personal information about you (including official records, photographs, letters, diaries and medical records) should be kept securely and not shared without your permission, except in certain circumstances. - (Equality and Human Rights Commission Article 8)

Data Protection

The Data Protection Act 1998 applies to any person or company ‘processing’ anything within the definition of ‘personal data’. The Court has confirmed that storing, developing and printing photographs amounts to ‘processing’, so by extension recording and exploiting video footage is also likely to  fall within the definition. ‘Personal data’ is defined as anything relating to living individuals who can be identified from either that data itself or from that data and other information which the data processor holds or could have access to. - (Film London)

This goes as far as to include any image of a person if they are identifiable as this counts as 'personal data', in this case it's my job as the producer to comply with the data protection act which has 8 primary principles:

1. Personal data must be processed fairly and lawfully

This is among the most important requirements of the Act. In order to comply, you must provide individuals with the name of your business, and details of the purpose for which their information will be used. You should make it clear that the individual can access and correct the information that you hold about them.

Crucially, you must also tell them if the information will be used in any way that is not immediately obvious. For example, you must tell the individual if their details will be passed on to credit reference agencies.

2. Personal data must be processed for specified lawful purposes

You must have a specified, lawful reason for collecting data; you cannot simply collect it speculatively. Furthermore, you cannot use the data collected for another, “incompatible” or unlawful purpose.

3. Personal data must be adequate, relevant and not excessive

You should only collect the bare minimum; you may not collect information that is not immediately relevant to the specified purpose, and you may not collect more information than you need.

4. Personal data must be accurate and up to date

Any information you hold must be factually accurate, and updated where necessary. Depending on the nature of your business, you may need to develop mechanisms that allow individuals to update their details quickly.

5. Personal data must not be kept for any longer than is necessary

If the purpose for which you collected the data is time-limited, you must ensure that the data is not retained once it is no longer needed. Where applicable, you should tell individuals how long the data is likely to be retained for.

6. Personal data must be processed in accordance with the rights of individuals

The Act sets out the rights of individuals, as well as the responsibilities of data controllers. You should make sure that you understand these rights, and act in accordance with them.

7. Personal data must be kept secure

You must take adequate steps to ensure the security of the data. This means that it should be safe from tampering, loss, or unlawful processing. You may need to develop both technical and organisational processes to help you deal with this obligation.

8. Personal data must not be transferred outside the European Economic Area without adequate protection

Data may only be transferred out of the EEA if the country to which it is being transferred has adequate legal protection for individuals and their details. - (Simply Business)

The easiest way to comply with data protection is by obtaining consent from the individual depicted in the image, this can be done through a signed form or a display clear and prominent notices warning the public that filming is taking place and if they don't want their image in it they should avoid. If in doubt, the image should be sufficiently obscured so that the individual is not identifiable. - (Film London)

Defamation

Defamation is when someone such as a film maker makes a statement that refers to an individual in any way and lowers the reputation of the individual, it can be either directly or indirectly. If the statement made is true it's not defamation but to be sure filmmakers should ensure that they can prove their statements are true through evidence.

When using an image filmmakers shouldn't manipulate the image of an individual so that its meaning is altered. It should be carefully considered whether there are any defamatory meanings implicit in a persons footage, if there is then any identifiable personal images should not be used without consent.

Archive footage/Pictures

Traditionally when looking for archive footage you'd go through routes such as online archives or go through people who work at archives to assist. For our Documentary the archive footage we will be using will be owned by the people in our documentary so we are able to gain permission to use it.

If we were going through archives ways we'd do this would be:

1. Start communicating with the archives early
2. Be organized
3. Back up footage -(International Documentary Association) 

Music

When filming in settings such as a restaurant or store and music is playing in the background, you need to be aware that you need permission before you use it in your film. If the music isn't important to the doc you should always turn it off.

Getting rights

There are two different people that own a song, these are; the record company/label and the publisher. In order to have a song on your doc you need permission from both of these groups.

You'll need a Master Use License from the record company and a Synchronisation License from the music publisher. - (Desktop Documentaries)

When asking for permission for a song you need to state how much of the song you are using, where it's going (film festivals etc). If your documentary ends up getting picked up for distribution or you want to start selling copies or upload to the internet, you will need to renegotiate the terms. Obviously, if your documentary ends up getting picked up by HBO and you are paid, say, $100,000 for your film, the owners of the music in your documentary will also want to be paid since their work helped in the success of your project. - (Desktop Documentaries)

Working with a composer

Even if the composer is a friend you should always have a contract, this should include

1. Usually, you don’t buy-out the music.

2. There are generally two ways of setting up the contract regarding budget

3. Set a time frame

4. Payment

5. Crediting

6. Expenses

7. PR

8.  How and what to deliver

9. Exclusivity

Contracts

For our actual contracts I decided I'd make three; one gaining permission to use the person's image in the film, another for archive footage and pictures and finally one for locations. When these are all filled out they'll be kept on file so that if questioned we can easily retrieve the form that approves us for filming.

A Personal Release form is a document that gives you the filmmaker, the rights to film another person for your project and then to use that footage in your film. -(Documentors- How to make a documentary)

Example of a release for from Documentors

Because we will be using archive footage belonging to other people I've looked into Materiel release forms:

Examples from Cifvf

For music we are going with a composer to have a song made for us as well as using music that is already made. 

(Composer agreement example)

Example of music license agreement from NIMIA

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Overall from this I learnt:

• To obtain written consent from anyone shown on camera, anyone identifiable either in the for ground or the background needs consent. EVEN IF SOMEONE IS OBSCURED THEY CAN STILL BE IDENTIFIED THROUGH OTHER MEANS.
• Obtaining consent doesn't always mean having a detailed right agreement, it can be short and simple confirming the individual has granted his/her consent for their image to appear in production. These need to be kept safe.
• If not possible to gain specific consent, you should make sure the area you are filming in is clearly marked and had sufficient warning notices that are visible at entry points. They should be in plain English and a legible font. If possible try to take a photo of these signs when up.
• You shouldn't use images of people in situations that could be regarded as private.
• Do not such a context or meaning around a picture that isn't true.
• Get consent forms signed sooner rather than later.

From here I'll make the contracts and release forms to send off to musicians and contributors.

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 We have three forms, material release, appearance and musician release forms. These will allow us to use any photos and videos that are relevant to the narrative. The forms cover everything that we hope to be able to do and if both our group and Tanya stick to the contract issues such as defamation will not occur as we will all be working truthfully and respectfully.
We'll be able to use music that is made specifically for our doc.
We'll also be allowed to use Tanya's interview. As well as Tanya any other people taking part will receive an appearance form and anyone who is caught in the background of a shot too.

In accordance with data protection all information when not needed will be destroyed. 

Pre-production- Structure

During this unit our original idea and structure went through multiple changes and stages as locations and contributors etc. changed. These occurred between myself and Jemma and then were consulted with Gavin.

Structure 1

This structure had expert contributors Oliver (drag queen with a lot of experience) and Dr Elly Barnes (a Founder and Chief Executive of the charity Educate & Celebrate), it would include static interviews from other members in the LGBTQ+ community, and Tanya as our lead contributor.
This was done before any research from Tanya received so we were unsure if this would work. Another criticism of this structure is that there were too many contributors that the audience isn't able to connect with them, and they can't be established in the 20 minuet time slot. 

Structure 2

In this structure we took out a lot of contributors, it was also debated that Zodi could perform in front of a panel of people who don't know that she is an AFAB Drag Queen and gets revealed at the end. At this point the panel was only apart of the audience.
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After looking for contributors we found that finding 'straight' people who would talk about the topic was difficult, so decided it would be better if it was a panel of three experienced drag queens.

Structure 3:

After being unable to find contributors we had to drop Frankie Sinatra as they were unable to work with the dates that we had working with Tanya. Jemma contacted Sapphire Stone from Steal the Style and as I had already contacted Oliver we decided that they would work well together with Zodi in a drag show. The idea is they would perform in front of an audience, who would then be asked their opinions on Tanya's drag through Vox Pops. This is an example of the poster we would use to get an audience for the performance in January.

Structure 4:

In structure 4 we added in Amy who works with Sink the Pink, her insight on drag and her opinion is important to hear. She will be sat in with the audience and interviewed before and after the performance.

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From this I have learnt:

• How important it is to be able to change ideas when a contributor either backs out or changes something, this is done through good communication with contributors.
• The importance of communicating with the crew I am working with to bounce of ideas and allows the idea to develop further.

Pre-production- Contributors

For the contributors for our documentary I got 2 of them through social media, Jemma got Sapphire and Amy while I got in contact with Oliver and Tanya.

Tanya

I found Tanya via her instagram account where she has many photos of herself in drag. I sent her an email and got in contact with her explaining what our idea was and what we'd like her to do. She was very eager to be apart of the filming and I've been keeping regular contact with her.

After having regular contact with her myself and Jemma Skyped her and found out more information about her.

Things we found out are:

• Tanya lives with her dad
• Where exactly she is based
• What she studies
• What her study dates are 
• Her experience with performing in more detail
• What she is and isn't comfortable sharing with us

After that we went for a poster we were able to meet her again and chat with her getting to know her better while talking to her about schedules and forms.

 

I still keep in touch with Tanya for any questions she may have and reimbursements.

Oliver

Oliver is a drag queen I have on facebook from Steal the Style, I contacted him via messenger and he was very eager to be apart of filming. The schedule has been worked around Oliver's work and I'm in regular contact with him about it incase any dates change. Having previously nearly worked with Oliver I've already been apart of a Skype call with him and sent over questions to him so I already knew a bit about him.