Renata Magalhaes Pereira

Production Log

In order to showcase my management skills, I've had to conduct a wide

range of tasks before carrying out my interviews. The pre-production
process is always the most important in managing everything that needs
to be done and making sure it is done to a correct timescale.
The first task before carrying out and interviews coming up with your
initial idea, and then presented to your client (teacher). Picking the topic is
vital as we have to make sure it appeals to our target audience. Our client
for these interviews was BBC three, the target audience for this channel is
16 to 34, and therefore we had to make sure it appeals to this wide target
audience. The topic we have chosen for this last interview is 'is there a
god'. We as a group chose this topic as we all shared an equal 8interest in
finding out different peoples perspectives on this topic.
The next part of this process, was conducting the research on the topic we
had chosen, and we quickly found that it would be a lot easier for us to
divide the research into 3 different sections;
- Werth: he would be conducting the research so that he could build
questions to ask his contributor (which we all decided would be an
atheist) that would challenge their beliefs.
- Renata: my task was conducting research to use to build questions
on, so that I could ask my contributor (which we all decided would
be a Christian religious believer) that would attempt to make them
answer a few questions which a lot of atheists would ask.
- Bradley: he would be conducting some research to also build
questions on, so that he could ask his Buddhist believer.
When researching my section, I looked into the different interviews
Stephen Hawkings done on the topic of God and religion in general, and
came across a very interesting interview with IBTimes, and I also looked
into the most popular questions asked by atheists. Research was vital for
this particular topic (as well as all the others) as I needed to make sure I
knew what I was talking about, in order to get a good interview.
On all the other tasks (especially the first and second) I had to perform
extensive research, as the first interview was based on binge drinking,
and the second was based on crime. Research was significant in all of my
interviews as I had to have a wide range of knowledge on all of the topics I
was talking about in order to get a good and successful interview with all
the information I needed from my interviewees. In order to do this I also
had to use a wide range of question types e.g. open, closed, building
bridges, etc. the way I asked my questions was important as I had to
make sure the interview was engaging, and appealing to my target
audience, and in order to do so, I laid out my questions so that it would
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progress from light hearted questions to more in depth detailed

questions which would entice the audience(we had to aim our interviews
at the BBC 3 target audience, which is 16-35, as this is who our client
was).
28/04/2015
Today we researched the topic of is there a God in order to formulate key
and important questions on the topic. I will be interviewing from the
atheist perspective, delving into the brain of atheists and asking the most
common and important questions. When researching I came across the
Stephen Hawkings article on TechTimes
(http://www.techtimes.com/articles/16687/20140930/atheist-stephenhawking-denies-god-existence-science-more-convincing-explanation-foruniverse.htm) and also a list of bible contradictions on TTA (The Thinking
Atheist) http://www.thethinkingatheist.com/page/bible-contradictions)
these two links were very important In question building process.
Today I also looked for people who I could interview, who have extensive
knowledge on the topic. I found a couple people that would be good, but
after doing research into the people I wanted to interview, I discovered
that the best person to interview would be Paul Bickley, who is an
associate pastor at Trinity Vineyard.
For the next few days, the main aim was to come up with profound and
compelling research that would enhance my knowledge, and increase the
amount of building bridges I could do, as I would have a wide range of
research which would allow me to ask relevant questions.

30/04/15
Today, the main goal was coming up with structure ideas for our interview.
We then also began to come up with introduction ideas and looking for
found footage based on the universe (infinite zoom: there inner universehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vnA_KIojLg) that we could possibly
use for the intro, we also we decided that we wanted to record three
different peoples back stories, relating to why they first started to believe
in God/why they dont believe in God. I thought this would be a good idea,
as this way, I would be able to make it look more like a documentary, as it
would have the codes and conventions of a documentary, and would
begin to appeal to our specified target audience.
What did I do?
Today, my main role was to research into different ideas that we could
form for our interview, and also look at other BBC 3 documentarys so that
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we could follow the codes and conventions of the interview. I made sure
that my group was organised, and that we would be able to get this all
done by the set deadline day for our documentary.

01/05/15
Today, we all began to call our contributors, setting/confirming and
organising a time/date for our interview, and sent them a courtesy email
with the questions that will be asked, so that they can look over and alter
any questions that they are not happy with. This was a very important
stage In our interview process, as we needed to make sure we get the
right people that we want for our interview, making sure that we are
professional when talking to them.
What did I do?
Today, I tried to contact my contributor Stuart Burk, but he was
unavailable and didnt answer the call or get back to me, so I had to fall
back on my contingency plan, which was to contact Paul Bickley, and
emailed him instead. Below are the screenshots of the conversation that
me and Paul had.

Renata Magalhaes Pereira

Production Log

After this conversation, I then sent him a courtesy email listing all the
questions that I will be asking in the interview, so he can look through it,
and alter any questions that hes not happy with, or any questions that he
deems inappropriate.

Renata Magalhaes Pereira

Production Log

Paul Bickley then said that he was happy with the questions, although
they were tough.

05/05/15
Today, me, and my production crew travelled to Westminster to film the
interview with Paul Bickley, we followed the conventions of the single
camera filming process, and believed that is all went well, and we were
happy with the footage that we recorded, although I think I could have
been a bit more relaxed when asking the questions.
What did I do?
Today, I was the interviewer, conducting the interview with my
contributor, I made sure I followed the conventions of the interview, and I
also made sure I kept direct eye contact with him, while asking the
questions.

06/05/15
today, we put our footage onto the Mac and began to edit our interview
with Paul, identifying which parts were vital in the interview. We also had
to make sure we got our edits in order, as we used to single camera, we
had to make sure we got a Camera edits right as we had to record it 3
different times. Bradley also filmed his interview with the Buddhist
believer.
What did I do?
Today I went through all the clips, identifying what ones were he best to
use, and when. I also decided that I would edit some of the production too,
so we all had our input in the editing process.

07/05/15
Today, we started looking for background music for our interview, and
began to contact a science teacher for Werth's interview as the people he
contacted at first didnt get back to us to confirm that they would be
interested in partaking in our interview. As part of our contingency plan,
we had to contact another person who would fit a similar description to
the person that we wanted to interview first. We then found a science
teacher- Mr Jones, at CTK who was interested in taking part. Werth then
sent Mr Jones the courtesy email with the questions that would be asked
during the interview.

08/05/15
Today, we filmed the interview with Mr Jones, and put the footage onto the
Mac and began to edit, again making sure that the edits were in order as
we used single camera we need to make sure the cuts were in the right
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place, we also began to plan our intro more thoroughly so that we can
begin to film and edit our intro on Monday.

11/05/15

Today we filmed the voiceovers for our

interview intro, and began to further
research into more BBC 3
documentarys so that we could get
inspiration from them. The BBC 3
documentary that we finally chose to
use for inspiration was Worlds Toughest
Jobs. We came up with 3 different ideas
for our intro filming, and I think they
were all innovative ideas, on the right
are a few notes that I made that would
help us with the planning of our intro,
and also the dialogue for the beginning
of it.

There were multiple ideas that we wanted to use for our interview, but we
were limited by time constraints, and also the lack of availability from our
interviewees. One of the biggest problems we faced was having to
change Werths interviewee because this put a lot of pressure on the
group, trying to find another interviewee was a hard task, but with group
effort, we eventually found someone that would fit the description of the
person we were looking for, so in this case it was lucky that we did have a
contingency plan put in place, just in case the things we had planned
didnt work out.
I and Bradley also had a few problems with the pre-production planning
side of things. When contacting Stuart Burk, he didnt get back to me or
reply to my emails, so I had to automatically fall onto my contingency
plan, as we were running out of time, and I needed to get someone to fill
in the place, which is why I contacted Paul, and he got back to me on the
same day, which me and my teammates were overly relieved with. After
overcoming this problem, we then were faced with another problem,
which was that Bradley then had two people who were unavailable at the
times we needed to find a replacement quickly before we began to run out
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of time, he then found someone to fill in for the people who couldnt make
it, and then this helped my group and I to get back on track.
Through doing an interview several times, I began to become more
confident in my Interview skills, as my teacher noticed, and mentioned to
me. I think the confidence part was one of the biggest elements which I
needed improve on, and also my familiarity with filming a single camera
production. Mr Barton helped us with a few hints a tricks that we could use
to make the editing process easier, one of the tricks that me and my
group tried to use was the phone recording in the top pocket of the
interviewee, but we didnt do this successfully as we found that after
finishing the interview, there was a hole in Pauls blazer pocket which
caused the phone to slide all the way to the bottom of the blazer, but we
might still be able to use a section of it to cover up the background noise
that occurred in one of the scenes.
Another skill that I am now familiar with is the actual shooting a single
camera production, Mr Barton helped us with ways that we could film our
production, we went over camera placement, background choice, lighting,
and fillers again, and learnt that In order to keep our target audience
engaged, we needed to make sure that we changed camera shots and
angles several times in order to keep the audience engaged an intrigued
in the interview, which relates to their short attention span which we
found while doing research.
I now feel that I have a better understanding of these new techniques, and
I also feel that all these different techniques will help me in the future
when filming other things, and now I believe that the single camera
production has helped me to understand how to film productions
professionally, and the interview unit has made me more confident,
although I do believe that I still have a lot of improving to do.