Tuesday 14 December 2010
Filming - Day Four
The final day of filming was shot on location at Coleg Morganwg and was simply two scenes of James giving his introduction and conclusion to what had been discussed before now. The filming went smooth and took well under an hour. After four days of shooting I had gathered about an hour of footage which would be needed to cut down to about 10 minutes. I can see me spending a lot of time editing and a lot of great footage being left out.
Filming - Day Three
When I originally set out this project in my mind, Day Three was the most important day of filming. Today I attended ACTS Community Church in Tylorstown. I had obtained permission a couple of weeks in advance to film the sermon and get interviews with various people at the church who I felt would add something to my film. I spent the whole morning there filming and the interviews I had shot were informative and I felt they would make my project more credible. I have to give thanks to those who gave up their free time to me, it was a great help.
Filming - Day Two
Day two consisted of filming at Oakdale Industrial Estate and Darren Park, both in Ferndale. This involved less travelling and more time to prepare and plan each shot. This only made me realise even more the importance of getting permission to film at locations well in advance of the day of the shoot. As the shots we got in Cardiff on day one could of easily been shot closer to home. This would of freed up even more time for prep and planning.
Today's footage was more of James talking to camera. The only additional prop was James's car, needed for one scene to explain combustion. The icy conditions meant a new risk assessment of both areas had to be carried out before filming begun. The ground was treacherous underfoot but there were no serious mishaps. The filming went well and was all done by lunchtime, this extra half day of free time was used for planning day three.
Today's footage was more of James talking to camera. The only additional prop was James's car, needed for one scene to explain combustion. The icy conditions meant a new risk assessment of both areas had to be carried out before filming begun. The ground was treacherous underfoot but there were no serious mishaps. The filming went well and was all done by lunchtime, this extra half day of free time was used for planning day three.
Filming - Day One
Filming on day one was done on location at Cathays park in Cardiff and St Mary's Statue in Penrhys. My original intention to start the day was to get footage of James speaking inside The National Museum of Wales in Cardiff. However we were unable to get permission to film there. This became the theme of the day with various places I had planned on using becoming unavailable to us. On reflection, for my next project, I will plan ahead and make sure I have the various permissions for the locations I would like to shoot at. This will prevent any last minute re-writes and scrambling around to find alternative locations. The scenes planned for and filmed today were two scenes of James talking to camera on the subject.
Despite all the problems with not being allowed my original choices for locations, the first days filming can be seen as a success. James's professionalism allowed us to get the footage in few takes and this freed up a lot of time for us to get some additional footage that wasn't planned. This included footage of a busy Cardiff town centre, a city preacher giving a lecture and plenty of footage of James just walking various streets and bookstores. A lot of this footage may not be needed but I thought it may come in handy during the editing process, and as I have learned, you can never have too much footage.
Despite all the problems with not being allowed my original choices for locations, the first days filming can be seen as a success. James's professionalism allowed us to get the footage in few takes and this freed up a lot of time for us to get some additional footage that wasn't planned. This included footage of a busy Cardiff town centre, a city preacher giving a lecture and plenty of footage of James just walking various streets and bookstores. A lot of this footage may not be needed but I thought it may come in handy during the editing process, and as I have learned, you can never have too much footage.
Tuesday 30 November 2010
Relevant Quotes
"Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind."
- Albert Einstein
"It is...idle to pretend, as many do, that there is no contradiction between religion and science. Science contradicts religion as surely as Judaism contradicts Islam - they are absolutely and irresolvably conflicting views. Unless, that is, science is obliged to change it's fundamental nature."
- Brian Appleyard
"Science and religion are two windows that people look through, trying to understand the big universe outside, trying to understand why we are here. The two windows give different views, but both look out at the same universe. Both views are one-sided, neither is complete. Both leave out essential features of the real world. And both are worthy of respect."
- Freeman Dyson
"Faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence. Faith is the belief in spite of, even perhaps because of, the lack of evidence."
- Richard Dawkins
"Science is an effort to understand the creation. Biblical religion involves our relation to the Creator. Since we can learn about the Creator from his creation, religion can learn from science."
- Paul H. Carr
"Science makes major contributions to minor needs. Religion, however small its successes, is at least at work on the things that matter most."
- Oliver Wendell Holmes
"For the belief in a single truth is the root cause for all evil in the world."
- Max Born
- Albert Einstein
"It is...idle to pretend, as many do, that there is no contradiction between religion and science. Science contradicts religion as surely as Judaism contradicts Islam - they are absolutely and irresolvably conflicting views. Unless, that is, science is obliged to change it's fundamental nature."
- Brian Appleyard
"Science and religion are two windows that people look through, trying to understand the big universe outside, trying to understand why we are here. The two windows give different views, but both look out at the same universe. Both views are one-sided, neither is complete. Both leave out essential features of the real world. And both are worthy of respect."
- Freeman Dyson
"Faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence. Faith is the belief in spite of, even perhaps because of, the lack of evidence."
- Richard Dawkins
"Science is an effort to understand the creation. Biblical religion involves our relation to the Creator. Since we can learn about the Creator from his creation, religion can learn from science."
- Paul H. Carr
"Science makes major contributions to minor needs. Religion, however small its successes, is at least at work on the things that matter most."
- Oliver Wendell Holmes
"For the belief in a single truth is the root cause for all evil in the world."
- Max Born
Research Day Three
Although my research into the subject of science and faith is fundamentally to make my documentary as part of my Creative Media Course, I will take advantage of it to go on my own journey and come to my own conclusion regarding the material. As an atheist I am very much in the corner of science at the moment and find it hard to believe there is something else out there working on a different level. However I do not want this to come out in my film and I want it to be as impartial as possible, therefore I need to keep an open mind. The books and videos on the subject, that I have read and watched, have certainly interested me and I want to explore this further.
However, while they have stirred an interest in the subject for me, they have also opened my eyes as to how difficult this project is going to be. There is a minefield of problems I will need to explore before I have even began filming. Starting to feel like I've bitten off more than I can chew and the subject is way too big for me to successfully fit into a ten minute documentary. What I need to cover and what can be left out will take a lot of consideration.
Target Audience Survey
Last night I completed a survey to gather information on my target audience. This was in the form of a questionnaire that I got random members of the public to complete. The information will be used to ascertain what type of people watch BBC Three and what type of programmes interest them.
The biggest watchers of BBC Three appear to be 16 to 34 years of age and the most popular programmes are comedies and documentaries. Having watched a lot of BBC Three for my research I would have to agree that the majority of programmes are are of this type, and many are a mix of the two.
Having considered all the information above I have decided that my documentary, though covering a very serious subject could benefit from a light hearted approach, given the target audience. This is something that will have to be approached with care as not to offend anyone.
The biggest watchers of BBC Three appear to be 16 to 34 years of age and the most popular programmes are comedies and documentaries. Having watched a lot of BBC Three for my research I would have to agree that the majority of programmes are are of this type, and many are a mix of the two.
Having considered all the information above I have decided that my documentary, though covering a very serious subject could benefit from a light hearted approach, given the target audience. This is something that will have to be approached with care as not to offend anyone.
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