Exploring Short Films : Taking a Trip Down The Lanes of Norwich...

I am a young ambassador for a national charity, and as a media conduct I have been given an insight into the world of media production, from the highs to the lows I have been able to unravel a few of the hidden secrets behind film production. Last year I was lucky to be involved (my five minutes of fame I say) in the production of a documentary  from this I learnt valuable skills of even within a professional documentary there was many takes in order to ensure that enough footage is gathered, to the best standard. I was also able to see the professional equipment involved, and how each person within the crew played a crucial part within the process. This experience taught me that although we are creating a film on a much smaller scale (with a much smaller budget), the basic elements involved within any film of any length are the same and therefore they have to all be delivered to a high standard, in order to reduce the effect of the film looking amateur. This year I was asked to be involved in a filming course called the 'BBC Voices', in order to gain more experience so that more interactive marketing could be employed to the charity. So on Tuesday 13th November, I headed down to the BBC studios which is situated at the Forum in Norwich to have a fun filled day of learning the ins and out of filming. Although the technical elements we covered were the ones that I had learnt and in turn used within my AS production (and off course now for my A2 production), it was helpful to be able to learn that even the professionals still have to apply the basic techniques. We were in the morning given the challenge of creating a short two minute film about Norwich with the only rule being that we were banned from using the zoom which was brilliant for me as it made me really explore the use of different shots and angles which is turn I can apply to me A2 short film,. Along with my colleague we decided to focus on the hidden streets of Norwich, therefore exploring the older aspect of Norwich which can at times be taken for granted, we were given an hour to complete our filming and after some lunch were back in the studio in order to edit out films. We were using windows media as our software for editing, so although this was a more basic software compared to premier pro, it was interesting to see how an effective film can be created from just a basic cut, demonstrating to me how important the variety of angles and shots are in the creation of a film, as even with a basic cut if the elements are interesting than the film will also engage the audience. Once we had all finished editing, we took a trip around the BBC studio, being allowed to see the broadcasting room as well as the radio studio, whilst our films were put together so when we returned we could do a "showing" of all our films, which was great to see all the hard work everyone had put in and the variety of elements of Norwich that people focused on from the market to the playhouse to the back streets. Below is the short film we created, watch and enjoy and then if your feeling inspired take your own exploration around the back lanes of Norwich and discover the secrets of Norwich yourself!