Editing

Recently the main focus has been towards editing our footage from the interview with Darryn, this has been a battle between technologies as over the christmas holidays we have only been able to get hold of some of the footage to edit whilst the majority of the interview footage remains at school. 

Sam and I did think before the holidays that we needed to transfer the footage from school onto a portable device but the problem came around once we noticed the file size was huge. 

Therefore for Christmas i have received a portable hard drive with 320 GB, so we will be able to transfer all files, including huge iMovie files between computers.

As we have some footage from the interview i have been able to play that back on iMovie and selected key frames which we could possibly use in our documentary and supporting pieces. The key frames alone are 4 minutes and 35 seconds in total, which is our first indication that the 5 minute maximum for the documentary is very restricting.

Progress

Since last blogging we have been editing the footage from the interview, london and premiere. The editing stage is going slowly due to the detail wanted and certain issues with technology. Whilst editing we have also been discussing ideas for our supporting pieces.

Initial ideas:

• Podcast- radio clip, whole interview with Darryn Lyons, interview with presenter, interview with public



• Article- magazine, newspaper, flyer, leaflet



• Billboard- Darryns face, strong image, tag line



• radio jingle- includes camera shutter sounds



• advertising campgain- leaflets, posters, products

I then explored the idea of a billboard.
Some example are attached.
Tag lines could include...
Do you feel violated?
Would you bow down to him?
Right or Wrong?
Professional or pushing Privacy?

The Ivy Restaurant

The Ivy restaurant is a hot spot for paparazzi to be lurking due to the high amount of celebrities which dine there. After roaming the backstreets of Leicster Square we found the posh restaurant and a line o very expensive cars lined up outside. Sadly there were no photographers around at this time to interview or take footage of. Instead we decided to film some narration outside the Ivy, the problem then occured that we had been filming all day and the camera and back up camera had run out of battery!

As a substitute we used my camera phone which has a 8 mega pixel camera with video. This was just a practice to decide wether we wanted to add this footage/ topic into the documentary.

Once returning and reviewing the footage the quality is not as bad as we had expected but it is not up to scartch with the other footage filmed on previous occasions.

Therefore it is unlikely we will edit this footage in but if we do decide to include The Ivy Restaurant into our documentary we can easily return to film more.

A Christmas Carol Premiere

Whilst researching into the paparazzi and media world, film premieres are a good opportunity to see a different side to the paparazzi as the event is planned and photographers are notified, as the celebrities who attend want publicity unlike some other events. Looking at a calender of uncoming premieres, Sam and I noticed that there was a large scale film premiere on Tuesday 3rd of December at 7:30. We arrived early to get a good position in the crowd. Leicster square was blocked off with fake snow, red carpets and christmas tress. The blocked off part had a special section designated to photographers to take pictures of celebrities on the red carpet. Sam and I tried everything possible to acces this area but we were not allowed in. We waited outside and filmed celebrities arriving, this footage turned out to be great.

Celebrities we saw:

• The X Factor Finalists
  
• Peter Andre
• The Saturdays
• Brian May- Queen
  

The Dorchester Hotel

Whilst filming at the Dorchester and interviewing the Paparazzi we were told that Pamela Anderson was staying in the hotel and they were waiting for her. Sam and I then felt like real photographers as we decided to hang around, hiding behind a wall waiting to see her and the reaction to the paparazzi!
Half an hour later she appeared from a different exit of the building which the photographers were not expecting, therefore all ran to her. At this point Sam and I were not prepared to capture the footage and had missed her as she went back in the front entrance of the hotel. Immediately the photograhers looked at their cameras seeing if they had a good shot. Ten minutes later she appeared again, this time i was in the perfect place, behind the paparazzi, to get shots of Pamela Anderson walking out of the hotel and the Paparazzi crowding round.

This footage was complete luck as we just happend to be there at that moment in time. That is the difficulting we have noticed with trying to capture footage of celebrities and paparazzi, you have to be there at the right moment.

After Pamela Anderson has got in the car i left the camera rolling and noticed that after her car pulled away all the photographers had rushed to their cars and started to follow. This is how they can then get more photos at the next location or tip off others.
(caption from http://www.mrpaparazzi.com/)

Pamela Anderson

Looking slightly dishevelled Pamela Anderson left her London hotel earlier today and headed for a day out around the capital. The former Baywatch star is currently in Blightly on a short promotional tour, but will be returning to the UK again very soon as she’ll be staring in panto at the New Wimbledon theatre as of December.
Yesterday Pammie was spotted visiting the theatre where she’ll be appearing in Aladdin in a few months, then later that night she headed to Whisky Mist where she apparently stayed for ten minutes before going home.

Interview with Darryn Lyons

We approached the office door feeling very nervous, once inside we noticed the red velvet drapes, the silver throne, and the walls lined with frames full of celebrity gossip stories, we knew we were in the right place!

Meeting Mr Darryn Lyons was bery intimedating but turned out to be very beneficial in the end. We had a look round the office and waiting area and decided to set up the interview in his office as we thought the surrounders most suited him and this room had the best light. We added an extra spotlight to increase the light evenmore. We set up one camera on the tripod which would be our main camera, with Sam sitting next to it and asking him the questions. Whereas i had a handheld camera to move around during theinterview getting different angles and shots. This turned out to be a good idea as the footage has variations. Mr Lyons would talk and go off subject which was brilliant as it meant he kept on talking, giving us more footage. He did not have a problem with answering any of the questions and even included some information of a lawsuit against him which i would not expect him to talk about. Another topic he went into is how some paparazzi shots are actually set up between the photographer and celebrity, which I also didnt expect him to comment on.

I think the day was a brilliant start to filming the documentary and the next stage is to upload the footage we have and start editing whilst also planning more filming.

Interview with the Paparazzi

Whilst filming in London, outside the Dorchester, Sam and I came across two men who were lurking outside. After paying attention to the close details (camera hidden in bags!) we noticed they were photographers. I approached them and asked if they would mind being filmed, suprisingly they said that would not be possible. Instead of giving up on the two, i then continued to ask questions about their job.

Afew comments:

"not chasing but following"

"i work for an agency who then sells one photo mutiple times around the world"

"pictures can keep on selling"

"tip off's" (how they find out where to go)

Pamela Anderson was "followed back to the hotel last night and word spread around"

We are now waiting for her to come out and get into her car, "all of a sudden cars will appear from no where and follow, just watch"

This infromal interview has given us an inspiration to go and interview more paparazzi to find behind the scenes knowledge about what they go through on a regular basis. Even though we would like to do this, actually finding paparazzi we realise will be a struggle as we do not have any connections to them, and their locations are constantly changing.

Shots in Picadilly Circus, Leicester Square and outside Big Pictures

For the day of shooting, Sam and I went up to London before the interview to do some location shots and other shots in London. London was a perfect location as the paparazzi are known for stalking the streets in London. We filmed at a well known location first, Picadilly circus, this location was chosen as it was recgonisable and had an interesting background with the screens.

We walked down towards Leiscter square to film the chaotic environment in London. We experimented with camera angles and had the idea of fast foward the footage in the editing stages.

Finally we made our way to Big Pictures office and took footage, from presenting shots to panning shots. This we help us in the documentary as it can give an overview to the company.

Paparazzi Progress

Before the interview, we were discussing possible ideas for the content of the documentary and decided to practice our interview techniques.



This film is part of our planning preparation, which we recorded, analysed and presented to the class. We included the positive and negative factors and how we could improve.

Interview date changed

Darryn's P.A called us on monday letting us know that he had to re schedule the interview for Wednesday 28th October at 3. 30 pm at Big Pictures office in London.

Questions

Hi Eloise, I'm Sophie Moore and you have very kindly agreed for my colleague, Sam and I to come in on Wednesday 28th October, to film an interview with Darryn at 3:30 pm.

You asked for a list of questions which I would like to put to Darryn so I have listed 12 below in no particular order:

How did you get started into the media business?
What is your role in the company? Are you still taking pictures yourself?
Has your business been affected by the recession?
How did Mr Paparazzi evolve with the idea of the public supplying pictures?
Do you find yourself getting involved with lots of legal cases?
How has the definition of the word ‘celebrity’ changed over the past ten years?
How has reality T.V affected the business? Easier or harder to get access to ‘celebrities’?
Do you develop good and bad relationships with certain celebrities?
Do you find celebrities come to you for help?
The public are known to have controversial views towards the paparazzi, how do you feel about this?
Why do you think there is such a high demand for pictures of celebrities? How does the public react to them?
It has been said that celebrities have an obligation to the public, but why do you think some are resistant about having their pictures taken?

Hope that's ok, if there are any concerns please e-mail me before the interview.

Many Thanks, look forward to seeing you all on Wednesday,

Sophie Moore

Interview

In preperation for the interview, Sam and I have practised using the equipment effectively. We set up a pretend interview with different lighting and different angles experimenting with the camera. This will help us when we go to do an interview with Darryn as we will know what shots we would like. The shooting of the interview is taking place this Tuesday 27th October from 11am at Big Pictures office in London.
The equipment we experimented with includes, a video camera, a tripod and a microphone.
On the 27th, Sam and I will already be in London shooting the interview so depending on how long it lasts, we may be able to go and take some shots such as the presenter walking down Oxford Street afterwards.
Looking at the positioning of the interviewee in the screen, we will conform to the conventions of a documentary and position to either side of the screen.

Reply from Darryn Lyons

We have just recieved an email from Elise Bucholtz, pa@bigpictures.co.uk, confirming the chance of an interview. Below is the email.

Hi Sophie,
Thanks for the email.
I am more than happy to set up an interview with Darryn.
In terms of times, he can do the following:
Mon 26th Oct-11am onwards
Tues 27th Oct-11am onwards
Thurs 29th Oct-11 am onwards
As soon as Darryn is back on the 2nd October he has to go away again for a week or so on business to France, so i cannot get anything sooner.

I hope one of those times is suitable and i will wait to hear from you.
King Regards,
Elise

This is really good news that we have heard back so soon and can now arrange for the interview to go ahead.

Letter

We are currently working on producing a letter/email to send to Perez Hilton and Darryn Lyons. We hope to hear from them within a week, then we can make any arrangments if an interview is possible. If it is not possible to get an interview any correspondance from them would be great.

Below is the email we have sent.

To whom it may concern at Mr Paparazzi,

My name is Sophie Moore and I am currently working towards an A-level in Media Studies. My colleague and I are currently working on a documentary featuring the opposing views towards the Paparazzi.

Would it be possible to arrange an interview with Darryn Lyons or one of his colleagues? The information will only be used for educational purposes and will not be displayed to the public in any form.
We are currently working with a strict deadline and would appreciate any correspondence.

Thank You,

Yours Sincerely,

Sophie Moore
Heathside School Weybridge

Perez Hilton

Mario Armando Lavanderia who is better known as Perez Hilton is an american blogger and television personality. Perez Hilton has his own blog called Perezhilton.com, which covers gossip items about celebrities. He also posts tabloid tabloid photographs over which he adds captions or doodles. His blog has seen negative opinions as Perez Hilton has outed closeted celebrities.
Perez has befriended Paris Hilton and rarely reports on stories or rumours casting Paris Hilton in a negative light, and is often praising her positive achievements which is unusual for a gossip blog. He also promotes his favourite and up coming musicians.
Hilton faces problems and criticism in day to day life. A suit against Hilton for copyright infringment was filed by Zomba Label Group on October 11, 2007, stating Hilton illegaly posted recordings by Britney Spears on Perezhilton.com.
Bloggers, journalists and news agencies have charged Hilton of copyrighting content from their sites but Hilton defends his use of this material by claiming it falls under the fair use exception to the Copyright Act.
On his blog, Hilton is open about his homosexuality and his desire to 'ou' those who he claims are closeted gay celebrities.
Recent Controversy- Shortly after Michael Jackson had gone into cardia arrest Hilton claimed it was a publicity stunt. "Get your money back, ticket holders!!!!" and "jacko pulled a smiliar stunt when he was getting ready for his big HBO special in '95 when he 'collapsed' at rehersal!". After realizing the death was not a hoax Hilton immediately deleted the origional news post and replaced it with a shorter message stating Jackson was in a cardia arrest. Hilton recieved backlash for the incident and getting involved in a Twitter argument with Pete Wentz over the situation.
From this we have leanr of some of the issues the paparazzi face and the ways of publicising themselves through websites but lso the backlash from being in the public eye.

Darryn Lyons

Darryn Lyons is an Australian paparazzo and media personality who is best known for his work in britain. In 1992, Lyons founded the picture company Big Pictures, supplying paparazzi style photographs for new organisations. Mr Paparazi.com is a celebrity news and gossip website launched in 2006. Lyons gained popularity when the company sold a photo to News of the World, supporting the claim of soccer star David Beckham having an affair with Rebecca Loos, his personal assisstant.

Big pictues has a photo archive of over 5 million celebrity images and is the worlds largest celebrity picture agency, with a worldwide staff of 75 representing over 1000 photographers, supplying pictures to 40 countries.

A Life in the Day: Darryn Lyons (Times online)

"Celebrities use the media when they can to sell a CD or book, but scream 'privacy' when it suits them"

"i got sucked into the showbiz world, chewed up and spat out"

"people are scared of my straight- talking image on television"

"many celebrities offer big money to stop pictures from being sold. I protect a lot of them but only if i'm friends with them. If i detest them, i don't.

"the biggest problem with celebrities is that they forget where they came from"

"Tony Blair made us money, but Gordron Brown doesn't"

"i'v been close to death at least three times. I shouldn't really be alive"

We can use this information to build up questions for an interview, such as, 'what is the most amount of money a celebrity has offered to stop a picture being released?'

Initial Storyboard

I have started to create the initial storyboard for the documentary. I have included vital descriptions such as sound and shot type. The storyboard will help in the process of filming as it will show the shots we need. This is only an initial storyboard as after filming and during editing we may notice that clips work better in a different order or have filmed footage which was not originally included in the plan. A final storyboard may be created if lots of shot and details have changed.
Now i have made a storyboard with a rough idea of the contents, the next stage is to arrange filming. For this i will need to write to famous paparazzi's to see if they are available for an interview and if this is possible, a date, time and equipment will need to be arranged. Along with this a schedule for shooting will also need to be created.

Research cont.

I have now done a sufficient amount of research into techniques for the stage I am at. The research has so far helped me with the style of documentary but I am now exploring what the contents of the documentary should include. I have initally searched Amazon for products which have exploited the theme of paparazzi, some were positive views and others negative.

• Darryn Lyons: Mr Paparazzi (book £18)
• Paparazzi (Ps2 game £10)
• Paparazzi Celebrity video quiz (DVD £20)
• Paparazzi (film 2004 £6)
• Paparazzi and our obsession with celebrity (book £18)

The paparazzi has also inspired many song artists, such as Lady Gaga who has recently released a single called Paparazzi. LadyGaga's video is also set all around her celebrity figure who lives for the paparazzi. Below is a link to her music video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQJ9Vi8GLok

I have created a first draft of the paparazzi documentary storyboard but it is only a initial rough guide to the contents. As we are limited to a 5 minute clip, i have chosen to do the opening to the documentary as this gives a glimse into the whole documentary

My group have produced a short part of a paparazzi documentary to experiment with interviews, lighting and other effects. From this i have been able to list all the good and bad points but also improvements so when we film the main documentary we will know how to make it look as good as possible as we have experimented before.

Shot 1
good -shows main title in a simple form so easy to read
bad -music of a film roll as it does not relate directly to the paparazzi
improvements -make the title stand out by making it bigger and brighter
-shorten the length of the title
Shot 2
good -sfx to look like a camera flash
-sound of a camera shutter to match the flashes
-relevant paparazzi pictures
bad -pictures are very quick
-only show pictures of paparazzi not celebrities
improvements -show pictures of both to show the documentary is not bias
Shot 3
good -sub title shows the name and profession
-idea of the lighting
-off centred to the right showing which side of the argument he has
bad -sub title takes up a lot of the room
-big gap between head and top of screen
-gap between him and right of screen
improvements -smaller sub title
-shine a light on one side of interviewies face
-position the camera better- to the right and lower
Shot 4
good -lighting, natural light by window-relevant to topic
-positioned to the left to show opposing side
bad -jolty zoom
-gap between head and top of screen
improvements -smoother zoom
-better positioning of camera
Shot 5
good -same as shot 3
-split up his interview to keep audience intrested
bad -same as shot 3
improvements -same as shot 3
Shot 6
good -positioned to left showing same view as celeb
-good positioning
-shows small amount of interviewee walking to show they are public
bad -to hear the question wastes time but is needed for approaching public
improvements -possibility of using sub titles when talking to public as speech is not always clear

Paparazzi idea and Star Documentary

Paparazzi- initial ideas of which we should include

• hand held shots- chasing celebrities
• location shots
• interviews-celeb, paparazzi, public, lawyer
• Current topics- Susan Boyle, Katie and Peter and Michael Jackson
• reconstructions
• special effects- public eye
• suspense built with music

The next stage in my research is to study any previous documentaries or clips on paparazzi to look at specific codes and conventions. I could also look at articles and other media texts to get more information.

Paparazzi related Documentary

I have researched into a past documentary on the paparazzi and have listed names of interviewies who i wil get more information on and maybe even try to contact them for some information on paparazzi.. the list includes John White, Darren Banks and John Roca.

Key conventions of the documentary:

• old footage
• zoom into pictures
• explore different types of paparazzi

1. spotters
2. car spotters
3. paparazzi spotters
4. red carpet
5. celebrity
6. people-razzi

• shots of chasing celeb
• advert of a celebrity publicising themself

This Documentary has given me an intial insight into the relevant style of documentary for the paparazzi, which has a fast pace with lots of interviews. As i am restricted in my time i will have to use a sufficient amount of interviews but also include other information etc.

The next stage is to produce an initial storyboard.

Sophie x

Ideas

Above i have created a mind map of initial ideas for our documentary. I was able to produce this eye catching and colourful mind map by using the website www.worditout.com
Initial ideas included documentaries on...

Fashion, Newspapers, Economic decline, abortions, a day in the life of..., Shepperton studios, Olympics, swine flu, binge drinking, drugs and media.

From media, we then narrowed it down to paparazzi. We have chosen this idea to research into further as there are many points of view on this topic, available information, current topic and is all round an interesting subject.

Research cont.

I have listed all the documentaries i have seen and noticed the wide scale of documentaries being broadcasting. I have also listed all the main conventions of a documentary:

1. Talking heads- direct to camera
2. Hand held cameras
3. voice of God/narration
4. obscure shots
5. audio not always clear
6. presenter
7. 2 sides of a story
8. realism- lack of glamour-people and setting
9. equilibrium/ disequilibrium
10. Interviews use lighting effectively and usually shot in 1/3

Michael Moore and Louis Theroux

Michael Moore
Michael Moore is an academy award winning American filmmaker, author and liberal political commentator. His most popular documentaries are Sicko, Fahrenheit 9/11 and bowling for Columbine.

Fahrenheit 9/11

• slow music to build up to the speeches to build tension
• extreme close up on eyes to show them jolting, which is normally related to someone lying
• uses a lot or irony, ends on Bush talking about a serious matter 'I call upon all nations to stop these terrorist killers...Thank You.. now watch this drive(golf)

Louis Theroux

Louis Theroux is an American broadcaster who is best known for Louis Theroux Wierd Weekends and When Louis met...

Africa(Racism)

• 'exposing'
• follows one person around
• lots of location shots
• interviewees take up 1/3 of shot
• as its a documentary, the public can be unpredictable and in this documentary they are filming an interview when a man walks in front of the camera then ducks.

From studying these two documentary styles i have been able to see that each documentary takes its own style in shooting and editing. I have also realised we must be prepared for the unpredictable public whilst filming. When relating these to the paparazzi documentary we are planning i think neither of the documentaries would be right for paparazzi.

Sophie x

Nick Broomfield

Background information
Nick Broomfield was born 30 January 1948, and is an English documentary filmmaker. He films with a minimum of crew just himself or on or two cameramen which gives his documentaries a distinctive style.
He has 8 awards and 10 nominations for his films. Broomfield has an idiosyncratic approach to observational documentary makes his film stands out. Nick Broomfield has explored topics such as urban blight, marriage counselling, unconventional sexual practices and the changing world of South Africa.

The selling of a serial killer by Nick Broomfield

• insert clips from old news reports
• shots of newspaper headlines
• police footage of her confessing
• interview with lawyer, lawyer doesn't talk to camera
• digetic music turns into non digetic
• Nick Broomfield is seen in the shot holding a microphone
• a lot of travelling shots from in car
• aim is to expose a shocking story

Nick Broomfield is an inspirational filmmaker and from this research i have studied the aim for a documentary, being able to capture an interesting or shocking topic but showing opposing views through interviews

Documentary research

I have researched into past documentaries to analyse the codes and conventions, to be able to apply these in my own documentary...

Cutting Edge

• Voice of God
• have subtitles for the interview as speech is not clear
• majority of shots on mise en scene as they want to set the scene and show the environment surrounding
• panning shot over map to show location
• out of focus shots give show viewer a distorted shot
• cross dissolves separate the different stories
• non digetic loud music represents youth and celebration of the boys release
• dialogue starts in interview but carries over other shots as they do not want to lose the viewers interest
• the interviewee is off set to one side
• distorted shot to hide identity
• include pathetic fallacy of weather

South Bank

• includes a presenter, left third of screen, shot of head to torso
• handheld cameras
• point of view shots
• more than one camera used to show different angles

The Hutton Enquiry

• split screen shows four locations
• narration sets the scene, voice over
• reconstructions

Arena

• Uses old footage
• text over pictures
• extreme close ups
• interviewee not looking to camera

From this research I have been able to identify some key codes and conventions of documentaries such as the positioning of the interviewee and the majority of shots being of mise en scene and location

Introduction

My name is Sophie Moore and I have created this blog for my A Level Media so I am able to record my research and publish my progress frequently.

Sophie