Filming days 2 and 3 (Final interviews)

Yesterday myself and Anouchka went to meet Voka, Dupindar and Rob to film their interviews in the library. Voka and Dupindar were filmed together between two books shelves near the library skill zone and Rob was filmed at his desk behind the second floor help desk. Rob's interview went very well however when we watched the interview with Voka and Dupindar we were slightly unsure of including all of their answers. Although these two participants were very helpful and polite, giving us some good answers, they put a lot of emphasis on the fact that they enjoy the benefits of only working part time, and they enjoy having a long summer break. They spoke a lot about these kind of benefits rather than the aspect of helping students. Although this is fine and perfectly acceptable for them to say, it is not in-keeping with the tone of video and the point we are trying to make. We want students to be aware that the library staff are here because they want to help students therefore students should appreciate the help by being more respectful of them. To get around this we will include some parts of their interview but simply edit out the parts that don't fit with our idea.

Today we completed our filming with Judith and Martin. We filmed these interviews as we did the rest in the library, including the shots of them working to include throughout the documentary. Both interviews appear to have gone successfully and the participants gave some very good answers and it was interesting to interview Judith as she is the manager of the library, so her answers were quite different to some of the other staff. We are pleased with all the footage so far and have booked an editing suite to begin editing the interviews and creating our documentary.

Student interviews

Today we filmed some interviews with students in the library. These were mostly friends of ours or flatmates of Anouchka's however all students signed a consent form and were made fully aware of the aims of the project. All of the students appeared to know hardly anything about the functionality of the library and most of them said they could not manage without the library. This is exactly the outcome we predicted and we are pleased with this footage as it will really show the importance of our reasons for making the documentary.

Filming day 1 (Lisa and Cath)

Today we filmed two interviews with staff members Lisa Peace and Catherine Johnson. The first thing we needed to do was find a quiet location to film with minimal background noise. Cath suggested that we use her office to film her interview in, and we decided to film Lisa's interview near a book shelf in a quiet area of the second floor. We spent a few minutes setting up the camera and tripod before filming each interview and asked both staff members to position themselves in the frame so we could get a clear, steady shot of them. We then did a final check that both ladies were comfortable with the questions and that they knew what was expected of them. Anouchka did the filming today and I asked the interview questions. After the interviews were finished we came up with the idea of filming both Lisa and Cath for about 30 seconds each in their normal work environment. This was so we could use these pieces of footage for transition shots in our documentary and to show a bit more of the work of the UEL staff that we don't always see. We have decided to do this with all of our participants. Having looked over the footage, Anouchka and myself are both very pleased with the footage and we have started to think about certain powerful statements each participant made or dramatic pieces of the interview that we want to include early on in the documentary to catch peoples attention. For example in Lisa's interview she stated "All i want to do is make people smile". We plan to film three more participants, Voka, Dupindar and Rob on Monday. Voka has informed us that her and Dupindar will be doing their interview together rather than separately so over the weekend we will be thinking about how to divide up the questions between both of them and how we can make a joint interview effective.

Gathering materials & preparing for filming

Today Anouchka and I completed the final steps of pre-filming preparation for our performance. We have booked a video camera as well as a still picture camera to use for our documentary, and we will be using these tomorrow when filming begins. We have now managed to come up with a concrete plan and concept for what our documentary will be like, and we have been thinking about what we want each shot to look like. Here is a detailed plan of what we plan to include:

Short interviews with students about how well they think the library is run, and how well they could cope without it: We want this to be the first section of the interview to support our point of view that students don't actually know much about how the library is run on a daily basis and what the staff members do to make it function properly. This sets up the rest of the documentary.

Staff interviews about their jobs: Here are some of the questions we plan to ask the staff members on camera:

What is your job role?

How long have you worked here?

What are some of the ups and downs of the job?

Have you ever experienced any rude or disrespectful behavior from students?

Do you feel appreciated and recognized for what you do? Are students aware?

What is the most rewarding part of the job?

The staff interviews will make up the main body of the documentary, and hopefully these will be strong enough to put our point across and raise awareness.

We have emailed our first two staff members (Lisa and Cath) these questions for them to look over before filming begins.

Tutorial with Clare

Today Anouchka and I had a tutorial with Clare to track our progress in creating our final piece. She asked us to think about the location of our final performance in terms of where the documentary will be shown and where the applause will take place. We came up with the idea that our documentary will be shown on the ground and third floors and will be played on a loop throughout the day. The applause will take place throughout the library.

Our progress: We had already emailed several staff members asking them if they wanted to participate in the documentary and for those who agreed, we went to meet with them and asked them to sign a consent form. They were all made fully aware of the aims of the project and that they would be on film and their name would be included. The staff members who have agreed to participate are:

-Judith Preece

-Martin Hamilton

-Voka Jeannette Nsinga

-Dupindar Patel

-Lisa Peace

-Catherine Johnson

-Robert Anderson

Project Proposal

Here is a copy of my Proposal for my final project.

Name Anouchka Ntezimana U1213055/Katie Evans U1145775

Contact Email anouchkantezimana@hotmail.com/kt_evans_07@hotmail.co.uk

Contact Phone Number 07596430142 07791694449

Title of your project A day in the life

Please describe your work in 50 words (this will be used in promotional material about the festival)

We plan to arrange a mass applause in the library for the staff that works there. We will firstly film a short documentary about the importance of the UEL library staff and how they contribute to the functioning of the library on a daily basis. This will be shown to students prior to the applause so that they fully understand the cause. Please tell us about what you would like to do including the ideas behind the work and how it works with an audience. (200 – 300 words)

We believe that the staff at the UEL library is taken for granted. Their importance is not recognised. We would like to convey to the people that come in to the library that the work that the UEL library staff do every day is important, whether it be visible or hidden from us. To do this we would firstly like to film a short documentary focusing on various staff members that work in the library. This would involve some documentation on our part of the daily tasks the UEL library staff complete to keep the library functioning. We would work closely with the staff by filming some of what they do as well as documenting it using some more oral methodologies such as interviews alongside this. As the final element of our performance we would like to create a mass applause in the library after the film is screened on the 10th May to thank the staff for their work and to creative a piece of art promoting a sense of community within the library. One particular real-life practitioner Paul Rooney inspired us to do this project. He created “lights go on- song of the nightclub cloakroom attendant” about the hidden importance of this job. His work shows that sometimes jobs that we may feel are inadequate and menial can be the jobs that are most important to us without us even realising. Another influential piece of art work that we have seen is the “We love libraries” film screening that took place in Euston Road in 2011. Similarly to our own idea, this project involved the idea of using a documentary style short film to convey to people how important the library is and to emphasise the sense of community. We want to reveal to people the importance of the little things that the UEL library staff do. An example of this would be pointing us in the right direction to a book. This may seem like a small action but without this help we may not ever find what we need. We also want to celebrate the hidden work of the staff, for example cleaning up the library after hours. We feel this project will create a positive message- hopefully inspiring people to be more appreciative and respectful of others whether it be the UEL staff or in their personal lives.

Please tell us about your target group (community) and how your project will interact with them. (200 – 300 words)

The first community that we will be working with will be the UEL library staff. Hopefully our project will give them a voice and help them to feel more appreciated for what they do. We plan to work with 5 or 6 different members of the staff, all of which have different roles. Some of these roles might include a shelver, a cleaner, a security guard, a librarian, and an assistant. We also want to emphasise the idea that all UEL library staff are equal in importance and each of their jobs is just as crucial to the functioning of the library on a daily basis. We will be working with UEL students as our target audience. Our project will interact with the UEL students and users of the library by revealing to them the work that goes in to maintaining the functioning of the library and encouraging them to appreciate the UEL library staff. As our project involves a mass applause involving many different people, we hope that our film can encourage them to celebrate the work of the UEL staff as a community.

Please tell us when and where you propose to present your work (location/venue/time)

We plan to present our work on the 10th May in the UEL library. We plan to do this In the afternoon when the library is at its busiest time (this will be about 2-3pm).

Please provide a project timetable detailing key targets and actions to be taken between now and the project delivery e.g. permissions, materials, health and safety checks

Permissions- We have already spoken to Peter Williams who is the Assistant Campus Library Manager and we have gained his permission to carry out this project.

5th April- By this time we plan to be beginning to speak to library staff about which of them would be willing to participate. We will also give them some information about the project and the reasons behind it.

11th April- We will be handing out consent forms to the library staff willing to participate.

25th April- We will have acquired all the equipment and materials we will need to film the documentary.

3rd May- We will have filmed the documentary to show in the library

5th May- We will have the laptop and screen ready to project the documentary of our work. We will also have a loudspeaker or microphone to be able to do the countdown to the applause. We will practice using the screen and equipment to make sure it all works.

7th May- UEL students will be notified about our project and what day and time it will be taking place. This will be done via e-mail and by paper flyers that we will put around the library.

Please list the equipment and materials that you will need to deliver your project We will be using the following equipment and materials for our project;

-Camera

-Laptop

-Memory Stick

-Projection Screen

-Printer to print flyers

-Microphone/Megaphone/Loudspeaker

Please describe the evaluation process that you will undertake during and following your project delivery We understand that creating this project will be a long process. We plan to evaluate our work along the way to improve and develop our ideas, making our final project a high standard and successful performance. The first thing we will need to consider is meeting with each other regularly. As we are partners in this task, we will need to regularly discuss what needs to be done in order to complete certain elements of the project in enough time and check that we have completed these tasks against our project timetable. We will also need to regularly ask our teacher for feedback on our work. We recognise the importance of constructive criticism and are willing to take suggestions from someone who is knowledgeable about this subject. We will be posting our progress on our blog as we continue to plan the project. This will help us to track our progress and keep up to date with the different stages of development necessary.

Please detail any ethical considerations that your project raises, and how you plan to address them

Our project raises the ethical issue of having people on film that may not want to be. To overcome this we will be handing out consent forms to the participants that include the fact that they may be on film if they participate. This will also be done when we send the email to UEL students and included on the flyers we place around the library on the day of the performance. The UEL staff will be made aware by ourselves and the manager that they will be on film and that any information they disclose will be seen publically. We will make the UEL staff aware that their names will be included in the credits of the documentary and ask for their consent to permit us to do this.

Please give details of your project budget We will need to allow a small budget of around £10 to print enough flyers to go around the UEL library. Audience suitability: Is there anything in your work that we may need to make audiences aware of e.g. swearing, nudity, flashing lights etc

The only thing our audience will need to be made aware of is the fact that they may be filmed during this project. The staff will be made aware of our use of the microphone/megaphone/loudspeaker that we will be speaking on to do a public countdown to the applause.

Please also include a brief artist’s statement that describes you and your work, a CV and any images/plans/maps or other materials that support your proposal.

Paul Rooney- Song of the Night Club Cloakroom Attendant

Paul Rooney is a practitioner in the public realm who worked with a night club cloakroom attendant and created a song about her work called "Lights Go On". Here is some of his work: http://www.axisweb.org/artwork.aspx?WORKID=37753

I found this to be an interesting piece of research in relation to my final project. This is because my project will involve me working with staff members in the library to shed some light on their job and highlight the importance of what they do. A similarity between my own work and Paul Rooney's is that both librarian and night club attendant can be seen as a menial and unimportant job by some. However both of these jobs involve talking to hundreds of people on a daily basis and coming in to contact with people from all over the world. This is why I want to raise awareness of what the library staff at UEL actually do and hopefully make people more appreciative.