Evaluation

The idea I was working on was a documentary about British boxer Ruben Alves, we planned to follow him and find out his story. The first part of the film was a poetic piece, the idea behind this was to film Ruben straight on as we changed the lighting to different colours, the main part of the poetic piece was the sound which I had to do. The inspiration for this was taking from a video game called; The Last of US.
I felt that the overall look and feel of the poetic piece was very aesthetically pleasing, I also felt that it runs smoothly and an enjoyable experience to watch. I felt that the idea for the piece was also very unique and unlike any of the others we had heard about or seen. The sound on this project was a massive part of it as it would tell the story and I felt as though it did tell the story and lead the audience through the build up of a fight. The sounds that were also used for the piece were very clean and edited accordingly, especially with the heart beat being a forefront of the film. 

I believe it terms of weaknesses in this film, was that it wasn’t long enough and the reaction that we got to it was that people wanted more. In terms of this weakness we would have liked to have added more to it, but felt it wouldn’t have worked for us personally. The other weaknesses of this piece, I felt were that it was a bit too acted from Ruben and didn’t look very natural, although this was what we wanted to do, I think if we did it again we would want him to be a lot calmer and not have to que him and to just let him get out the feelings that he would associate with the build up to a fight.
The overall piece of the documentary I felt was very strong and got the story of Ruben Alves across, I feel that this piece was also very pleasing to the eye. The style of the piece suited the personality of Ruben, it was very calm and relaxed, but also had a bit boxing edge to it. The cinematography of this documentary was very strong and had a lot of nice shots of the gym. Another strong part was probably the main part of the documentary and that was the interview with Ruben, throughout the film you see Ruben sat in his living room talking about boxing and his experiences, I think this bit is so strong because he has so much to talk about; he also talks very personally about everything. His calm persona is also an interesting aspect. The sound of the documentary is very clean, especially within the interview, Ruben is heard clearly, which is what we wanted as we wanted to really push his story though. 

Even though I do think that this documentary is a good piece, it also has its weaknesses, the problems I think it has is that it’s very interview heavy, by this I mean in terms of the shots of Ruben sat in the living room, I think that this does become quite repetitive and I understand that this can become quite boring for the audience. The other down sides to the documentary is the eye line of the interview, throughout Ruben is looking up and this can become very distracting to the audience also.  We did use music on the documentary, although very quietly we probably could have went without it, as the audience were pretty hooked on listening to what Ruben was saying instead of getting distracted by the music playing throughout.  
The process of making this work was pretty straight forward from my point of view; I felt that everything was done to a schedule and ran pretty smoothly. This was the first documentary that I had worked on in a while, so I was very excited to follow something new and find out a thing or two along the way. In terms of the way we went about thinking of ideas we were the kind of group that were watching stuff all the time looking for inspiration or just little bits and pieces that we thought would work in our project. From my perspective I didn’t know a great deal of boxing; I had watched it before I just didn’t know the ins and outs of it, and so my process of work was to learn more about it. I did this by watching a variety of different boxing videos, such as; Interviews, Boxing matches and even adverts, this helped me a great deal as it gave me a lot of different ideas and helped me to understand the personas of different boxers. As a group as we were constantly coming up with ideas this gave us a good starting point for when we started the poetic piece, we all knew the idea that we wanted to go for and I feel we all had a similar idea of how we wanted it to look and feel. This process then overlapped into the making of the documentary, a lot of different discussions took place as to how we wanted the documentary to be stylistically. This prompted us to look into a range of different documentaries so that we could get an idea of different approaches that we thought would best suit us. When in the specifics of making this documentary we took a very calm approach towards it as we wanted that to reflect in the finished film, we thought that if were relaxed about it then it would keep Ruben relaxed which I feel that it did. The way we went about the post production was also very much the same, we took our time on it, didn’t panic, we all put ideas into how thought it could flow and I thought this worked as we all had a chance to voice our opinions which meant we were all really happy with the finished documentary. 

My individual contribution to this project was the sound design; I wanted the sound on both projects to be of a high standard so that it didn’t affect the visuals. As this was something I wanted to achieve I spent a lot of time perfecting my own skills so that I could give it my all and be proud of it. My contribution for the poetic piece was all of the sound that was featured in it, as I wasn’t in the group from the start some of the sounds we recorded by Reece, when editing the poetic piece I felt that the sound that Reece had recorded was too a good standard for me to work with. As the poetic piece was very sound lead, I wanted the sounds to be very full to show the crowd reaction along with Rubens reaction. The actual sound edit for the poetic piece didn’t take me very long at all as I know how I wanted it to sound and already had a sound design put together for when the visuals were ready, so that when they were I just had to put it on and tweak it around a bit. My contribution to the actual documentary was a lot more hands on as I was recording all of the sound and especially the sound for the interview. To make sure I recorded the sound properly for the interview I got some different types of sound equipment out such as boom mics and lapel mics, this reason for this was so I could try them out on myself and then I was able to see what worked best and what didn’t work at all. When it came down to doing the interview I decided upon lapel mics as I felt that they were the best for dialogue and meant that it was right up next to Ruben speaking. The problems I felt we encountered as a team was that we were quite light on numbers compared to other groups, I’m not using this as an excuse, but I felt that we couldn’t get things done as efficiently as each person had to take responsibility of more than one role. This was sometimes problematic In terms of producing for James as he had to think about the production side as well as his main role, it was at times difficult getting a hold of Ruben, so we would all turn up ready to shoot but Ruben would cancel which could be very frustrating.
As I have said previously my approach to working on this project was watching a lot of different documentaries, even unrelated ones.  For example I watched a documentary on BBC called; Life and Death Row, this documentary followed inmates on death row in America, it also gave us and insight into the families of the victims and the prisoners. I used this documentary as I feel it was quite a reflexive documentary in that whenever the inmates finished speaking you would see them take off their radio mics and proceed to leave. I like this about the documentary as you got to use the workings of the piece. I feel this toppled into our documentary in that ours was quite reflexive in that you hear Reece ask Ruben the questions; this means the audience can get a taste of how we made our film.  Throughout this documentary you also got to a see a very personal account of the inmates which I felt I personally wanted to get from our film and I feel that we did this also as Ruben definitely showed a vulnerable side to himself.

Whilst I was doing sound on this project I was also reading; The Location Sound Bible, by Ric Viers, this turned out to be a massive help to me as it explains everything you need to know about recording sound on location, it was useful as if I couldn’t quite remember something about the techniques of recording location sound, I was then able to open this book and find out what I needed to know, by doing this I also learnt a great deal more just by looking over the book every time that I needed to.  
Overall both of these approaches to the making of the work made a massive difference to me personally as I found them to be massive inspiration, by doing both of these techniques of watching and reading, it has also helped me to learn a lot more about the fields I have worked; documentary and sound. I plan to use the theory side a lot more in my future projects, as I believe it is the best way forward.

Luke Hall 

Round 2: The Ruben Alves Story

I think our final documentary is an accomplished piece of work and I feel that it really gets across the story of Ruben Alves, I also feel that it is very sensitive and shows a different side to the boxing world. 

COMMENTS FROM REVIEW SESSION 

Enjoyed Ruben's story, thought he was very interesting 

Leaving the questions worked well 

The sound was good 

Eye line for interview was a bit off

Shots of boxing right were a bit far away

Too interview heavy 

 

Interview Sound Ideas

After getting out some sound equipment out and testing between different microphones and different set ups, I've decided to go with lapel mics the reason for this being I feel I will get a much clearer sound as it will be right up near to his mouth. 

I think there are a lot more pros with using a lapel mic for this, as I we will be able to put it through the camera and It shouldn't pick up any unwanted sounds as it will have his jumper to muffle the sound. 

Discussion of Music

After a discussion on the sound design and whether or not we want music we have decided that we want to go with some music, the reasons behind this are because we feel that Ruben himself is massive music fan and the sounds that we will use will try to reflect his calm persona and also the rhythm he uses when boxing. 

The songs we have decided to go with are: 

Dashade: "90's Old School Hip-hop-Sample Beat 127 Piano Boombap"
Darius Marian: Asap Rocky- "Ghetto Symphony Instrumental Remix"
Kasim Keto - "Through"
Hans Zimmer - "Time (Inception OST - Cover)" 

Ricky Hatton: The Road to Redemption

I have been looking at another boxing documentary, this time it follows the story of Ricky Hatton, I feel that this one is quite important for ideas towards ours, the reason being I feel that our documentary is going to be a bit of a redemption story. Due to Ruben being cheated out of his final and his story being that he still wants to carry on, I feel I can find some similarities and gain some ideas from this. 
This is also a very personal account of Ricky Hatton which is hopefully something we can get from Ruben. 

Floyd Mayweather

I have also looked a T.V special on boxer; Floyd Mayweather, this has given me a lot of ideas in terms of interviews and the way the approach of this is fairly typical of a boxing documentary, in the way that it is a bit flash and how it focuses on Floyd Mayweathers confident persona. I would like to think that we could do something a little bit different as Ruben is very different from your average boxer, I do like the idea that it is shot in Floyd Mayweather's house. 

Life and Death Row

To get inspired I have been watching a variety of different documentaries, by watching them it also helps me to understand how they would have done the sound recording, Life and Death row is a little bit reflexive in its approach to documentary, in that you get to see the inmates take off their microphones, by doing this it gives and insight into how the documentary is being made, I think this is something that we could bring into our own documentary. 

Review of Poetic

The review of our poetic didn't go as well as planned, this was due to our film being shorter than stated on the brief. These comments then overshadowed us from getting any constructive criticism. I also believe that there was a few negative comments just for the sake of it. Although I can take criticism on board I think that there was very few helpful comments. 

I think that a lot of the audience didn't quite grasp what we were going for which I think is fair enough and is something that we will take into consideration for our overall documentary. I also take on board the comments about the length and as a group we understand that you have to stick to a brief and aim for a certain time frame. 

Final Poetic

This is the finished piece for the poetic section of our documentary, I am very happy with it and I believe it definitely has the look and feel that we were going for. I believe that the visuals are aesthetically pleasing and that the sound leads you through the build up to a boxing match. 

Pros - Nice visually, Clean sound, Sound explains the story.

Cons - Static sound at the beginning, Could be more sounds. 

Sound Editing Poetic

I have been editing the poetic piece with the influence that I have previously stated in my blog, the screen shot below shows a rough edit of the sounds that will be involved. 

Sound Notes - 

Everything has been straight forward in terms of putting the sounds where they need to go. 
Currently trying to get the sound of the heartbeat to come to forefront and make the crowd die out, the transition for this is proving difficult as I want it to be as clean as possible. 

Sound Influence

This is a boxing advert that I have come across on Youtube, I find it quite interesting in terms of the sound design and the build up that it creates surrounding the boxer involved in the advert.

I like the sounds that come through during it, such as the boxing gloves against the punch bag, I like this effect as you don't here much else as the music overpowers but I like the idea that the sounds of the boxing are key and this is something that I want to carry into the poetic piece and also the documentary itself, I want the sounds involved with boxing to be a way for the audience to follow what's happening.

Forum/Article

I have found a forum in which someone is trying to find out techniques for sound design in boxing and foley techniques, the reason I have looked into this is because I want to try and carry some of these ideas into the my sound for the poetic piece. As it is non sync I want to try and find out some foley that I would be able to use If I have to go back and get some. 

Here is a couple of responses I found useful - 

Having worked on a couple boxing films, the thing I would recommend is to get in touch with some of your local boxing clubs and gyms- they would probably allow you to come in and record the real stuff- just be nice.....

One of the best early lessons that I learned (from folks like Charles and Randy Thom) was that what sounds over the top by itself is often barely enough when pulled back into a mix. So think outside the box when creating sounds. The "real" object doesn't have to be used. 

It's just a piece of paper, but don't feel like you have to use the same type of paper. Try wrapping paper, tissue paper, newspaper, etc. in various sizes. Maybe you might need to wipe it with a damp sponge to get rid of some excessive crackle to get the sound right. Try different ways of manipulating it. The same applies to the boxing sounds, you don't have to limit yourself to sporting equipment. For your "intestines" sound what individual elements make up the sound? Many effective sounds are actually layers of sounds.

I found these useful as they gave me a couple of different tips that might come in handy, if I do have to go back and record some more sound. 

Sound List

The poetic piece is about Rubens feelings as he enters the ring for a boxing match, this will feature the build up and all the different sounds that are associated with boxing.

It will also need me to make a smooth sound edit so that it gets the audience into the mindset of Ruben and to also get his feelings across. 

Sound List

Crowd Noise

Deep Breath 

Heartbeat

Boxing Noises - Punches, Movement in the ring.

Bell Noise

Coach Dialogue

 

Sound Issues

We have shot some footage for the poetic piece which in my opinion is looking very good, but the issues I had was that I wanted to do some sound recording for the piece, but on location so I could get some ideas on what sounds go where. This turned out to be unachievable as the location we were using is above a pub, therefore my sound equipment was picking up all the sounds from downstairs, especially the bass of the music being played. 

This is not a major issue as the sound has to be non sync and I will be able to use the camera sound now to work out what sounds will go where. 

Poetic Influence

The influence for the poetic piece is from a game called The Last of US, the style of the film will be to have the camera fixed on Rubens face while we change the lighting, this project will need to me make a good sound design so that it carries the visuals. 

The idea is that the sounds are reflecting his feelings as he walks out to a boxing match. This will mean that I have to get all the sound perfect so that I can get the point across.  

Here is the video that our poetic piece will be influenced by - 

Ruben's Final

Although I was unable to attend Rubens final, sound was recorded by Reece which was a great help for when I come to edit it for the poetic piece. 

Here is an image from the venue of Rubens Final. 

Interview

As interviews will feature in the documentary I decided to look at a couple of different boxing interviews to get an idea of the way boxing interviews are approached, this was so I could get an idea of the style and overall feel of the sounds involved. 

I decided to look at two different interviews from different eras so that I could compare the way that styles have changed and whether boxers attitudes have changed. 

I find that they are fairly similar despite the quality of the sound and also the visuals. 

Boxing

For a bit of research I decided to watch a boxing match, this was so I could get an idea of all the sounds that are involved, It will also get me into the mentality of the way boxers act towards each other will help me create a tone for the piece.

Boxing Documentary

The documentary I am working on for this semester is a documentary about a boxer called Ruben Alves. I am going to be doing sound design for this project. I feel that boxing has a lot of scope for sounds which will be fun to work on and create an effective sound design for. 

Boxing is also something I haven't never really gotten into having only ever watched a handful of bouts, so this will also be a good project for me to explore the world of boxing and even find out a lot from working on and watching this documentary.