Vegetarian Documentary: An (Almost Completed) Evaluation.

Even though we haven't finished editing our documentary, I would like to reflect on this experience and talk about what I've learned and how we got over problems we faced.

I have been passionate about this idea from the start; however, I wasn't sure which part of the vegetarian lifestyle I wanted to delve into because I think I washed over the fact that there is so much information but at the beginning, I didn't want to believe that. I didn't want to feel like I had to pin myself down to one particular area of vegetarianism, which is why the range of questions I asked are quite broad. So throughout this process, ideas have constantly been thrown in by myself, Caoimhe my producer, and our tutor. It wasn't until we actually started editing that we were able to pin down exactly what we wanted to the audience to know. I don't particular think this is such a bad thing because I was learning so much throughout this process and I feel if I had of pinned down a certain area at the beginning, I wouldn't have learnt as much as I have done.

Our passion came through in the pitch which I had posted about before. We wanted it to be a pitch to remember so having our t-shirts with our ideas on them as well as food and beauty products brought into the meeting, done this. I do feel like we were given ideas to push us away from our original idea and while I do very much appreciate those ideas and they were great, I had a vision in my head from the start and I didn't want to veer from it too much or I would feel like it wasn't what I wanted anymore.

When we first put the ad up online at the beginning and we got two responses, I personally didn't think we would get any so when we got two people, I was over the moon. We were very organized and got to meet with both Richard and Lindsey a few weeks beforehand, we showed them the questions we would ask them over coffee and this gave them the chance to ask us any questions or express any concerns they had about it. They were both really interested in what we were doing because they've never had the opportunity to talk about or vent about being a vegetarian before. When we shot with Lindsey, we were quite happy on the day of shooting but I think Caoimhe and I both knew there was something not quite right but because we only had Lindsey and Richard, we both pushed it to the back of our minds, hoping that it wouldn't be as bad as we expected. When we went to watch the footage it was clear that no matter how much we tried to colour it, the lighting was going to be an issue as well as it not being the look I was looking for. We didn't use different angles so if we were to use the footage, we would need a lot of cutaways to cut the interview up or else it would just look like the footage was jumping, and whether that is on YouTube or a big cinema screen, it wouldn't look good and I wouldn't want people to remember "the documentary with the jumping shots". This show is the building block for us all as film makers so we wanted to make the best film we possibly can with our skills, budget and time, that we can, so I don't want my mistake of using the wrong person, dodgy camera angles and not the best lighting to ruin that. I would rather not show my work if that was the case.

I feel like both Caoimhe and I were organized, we were one of the first groups to film but we ended up being one of the last groups to film too. This definitely struck a cord with me because we had been so organized, we got an ad set up, we had our coffee meeting with both interviewees, we had very regular meetings even over Easter and whenever we were off, and both of us were very reliable. We can't say that everything goes perfect when making a film, but I think I thought that because we had been organized, that things would go smoother for us. A few people had actually said that "documentary was the easy way out", they did mean it jokingly of course, but doing a documentary is just as difficult as doing a fictional film. We may not need so many actors, but we still needed people who were willing to talk about the subject, as well as finding locations to film as well as the same problems as filming a fiction (Lighting, camera angles, people's appearance etc. etc.).

I have never been the best at taking criticism and I have had to deal with it more in this particular unit than anything else. Not necessarily against me, but ideas that we've had, footage that we've shot; when we talk about it in our blog or we say how well it went and then we're told that we can't use it or that we should try it this way, it does make you feel a little silly and makes me think "am I just trying to put a positive spin on everything even though it wasn't that positive". I'm not sure if I've gotten any better at taking criticism but I have learned not to take everything so personal, which I still think is a bonus.

I'm really happy with my producer Caoimhe, she has been there for me from the get go and even though she is producing some one else's film too and she has her own projects outside of the Final Year Film area, she has been very supportive and offering up suggestions to help make our film better. Speaking of reliability again, because we both know how people can let you down on shoots and having to work around people's schedules (In both of other projects that we are producing, we have experienced this), we thought it would be best to shoot it and record sound ourselves and I'm very glad we chose to do this. We only had the three of us to worry about, the interviewee was able to book it off work, Caoimhe was able to work us around her work hours and because I don't work, as long as I wasn't shooting something else, I was good to go. This enables Caoimhe to gain more sound experience for our sound unit whereas being on camera has always been one of my favourite things on this course to do, and even though I'm not the best camera person in the class, I think my camera ability was made better because I played around with shots and angles and didn't have to ask permission, I could just do it and if it didn't work, it didn't work, I wasn't wasting anyone's time.


Overall, this has been an exciting but stressful experience for me. I got to work with someone who I'm very good friends with, who was reliable and who was there to back me up when it came to talking about our documentary. The situation with Lindsey and the problems arising there did make me feel like I had done something wrong but I soon learned that this is just the way the business works. I have had different problems to this arise in past projects so I'm not totally oblivious to sorting problems out. I believe that I researched this subject quite well, I could have researched it further but due to other projects, I didn't have time but if I ever felt like I wanted to expand on the documentary in the future, I would know what other research I would like to go into to further the information I want. I'm extremely happy with the second interview footage we have and editing is one of my passions, for the majority of the time, it's quite relaxing so I don't find it a burden. Both Caoimhe and I are producers at heart you could say. Some just think about the story but don't think about the pre or post production work, whereas we thought about the pre and post as well as filming itself and this helped us greatly. The edit isn't finished yet but I can't wait until it is because so far, we are both very happy with how it is shaping up and when it's on the big screen, I will probably still be a little embarrassed, only because it'll be weird seeing my work up in the cinema, but even if it hits home with one person or if it makes one person think twice before making a vegetarian joke, then I feel like I have done my job: made an informative documentary that is still enjoyable and that people remember.

Cutaway Time! (Photographs to be added!)

The next Wednesday (23rd April) had filmed some cutaways at the place I named in the previous blog post.

(Outside the stationary and book store, Eason's)

(Some of the healthy eating and vegetarian books in Eason's)

(More of the vegetable and healthy eating books in Eason's)

(Outside the book store, Waterstone's)

(Some healthy eating and books about vegetarianism in Waterstone's)

(More books about being vegetarian in Waterstone's)

(Outside the health food shop, Holland and Barrett)

(Outside one of my favourite stores, LUSH, where every single product is vegetarian)

(Outside The Nutmeg, another health food store, slightly
more under the radar than Holland and Barrett)

Scheduled Easter Meeting.

Caoimhe and I had scheduled to meet over Easter to film cutaways but unfortunately something had happened to the camera, so we were unable to do so. We still had our meeting, we just didn't get to film anything that day which I didn't mind too much anyway.

We sat down in a coffee shop to discuss more thoroughly what cutaways we wanted. We made out a list of shops we wanted to go to:

• Holland and Barrett.
• LUSH.
• Easons.
• Waterstones.
• Tesco/ASDA.
• Alley Cat.
• Restaurants in Victoria Square and St. Anne's Square.

We had a small number of concerns about these places. Firstly with Easons and Waterstones, it had been suggested to go into these book stores and look at their vegetarian book range but because of the internet, internet prices are much cheaper than in store places like both Easons and Waterstones. We didn't want anyone to see us in case they thought we were filming or taking pictures of the prices of books and going to buy them online instead. It sounds silly, but I feel like it is a huge concern for these shops and they could have thrown us out at anytime, even if we explain what we were doing.

The same type of thing we had concerns about for Tesco and ASDA. Obviously both these stores are much bigger than the book stores, so they have more security cameras and more people in store. Customers could report us or a member of staff could see us.

We were also worried about going around to restaurants and filming the menus. Again, the same price-comparison concerns were our worry, because I'm sure a lot of people go from restaurant to restaurant looking for the cheapest prices. 

The last production meeting for 'Dislocation' before Easter.

The same day (Thursday 10th April) I held a meeting for Andy's "Dislocation". Everyone was in that day so I took it as an opportunity to get together for the last time before we go off for Easter and the last 'real-life' production meeting before we shoot.

The meeting didn't go too well, I had asked everyone apart from Andy to have something prepared but the only person who had done this, was Pearse. I asked him to go through the script to look out for sound effects he would have to pick up on the day as well as music choices Andy had put in the script and if he had any suggestions for music choices, which he had done and had some great ideas!

I asked Conor to bring in his shot list so we could have a look at it, but he didn't have one done. Andy and Conor were meant to do the shot list together after the meeting but that didn't end up happening. Anya as our make-up artist, I asked her to tell us how she would prepare the gashes to put them on the actors faces (or on their bodies) and if she had any make-up ideas. The only thing she told me was that she had told me all this information in a meeting a few week's back. Over those weeks in between I had expected more ideas to have come up and if she wanted to suggest them to Andy, he would see if he would like them or not.

For this "Dislocation" film, we haven't had many meetings as a full team and I was slightly annoyed that I had asked almost everyone to prepare something and only one person had done it. With this happening, the meeting didn't last very long, so it was cut short.

The production meeting before filming!

On Thursday 3rd April, we had a small production meeting to discuss further details of our interview happening on Saturday 5th April with Lindsey.

We discussed where the interview would be and because of location constraints at Caoimhe's house, we decided that it would be easier to use my house since it would be free and no-one but us would be in. We made plans where I would pick Caoimhe and Lindsey up in Belfast and bring them to mine too. We also talked about possible cutaway locations, but these aren't nailed down until Lindsey answers the questions obviously.

Pitching Time!

Thursday (27th March) was pitching time! We had briefly gone over what we were going to talk about in the pitch on the day, just to keep it fresh in our memory. Below is a photograph of Caoimhe and I after our pitch and you can see our t-shirts.

On Caoimhe's t-shirt, I wrote "Vegetarians Do Eat..." because a lot of people think vegetables just eat vegetables so I listed a number of different foods (including vegetables) below this and on the back of the t-shirt, I drew and coloured in a few foods.

On my t-shirt, I wrote in big letters "What is a Vegetarian?". This was my first idea for the documentary; I wanted to dispel the myths and find out from vegetarians themselves what others think when they hear they are vegetarians. So on the front and back, I wrote questions and phases that vegetarians are likely to hear when people ask them about being vegetarian. 

For our pitch we talked about a number of different topics:

The title: "Green Beans and Everything Inbetween", I actually give credit to Pearse for this quirky name because he came up with it and we thought it wasn't a generic name for a vegetarian documentary but it was enough for people to be interested, just by the name.

Subjects: Lindsey Mitchell and Richard Andrews. We spoke very briefly about how we were glad to have a man and a woman involved so we could get two different perspectives. Richard has been a vegetarian since he was born, so he didn't choose the choice to be vegetarian, whereas Lindsey did make the choice so it will be nice getting those two different sides too.

Audience: We want these to go out to a wide range of audiences. We want people to watch this who are skeptical of the vegetarian lifestyle or don't know much about it. We want people who are interested in getting involved in becoming a vegetarian. We want vegetarians to watch and feel like they're not dislocated from society like a select few make them feel.

Research: I feel our research has been strong; we watched a film called "Vegan Love" about a guy who wanted to make a documentary about his best friend who was vegan, and trying to find a vegan girlfriend. I also ordered a lot of resources from the Vegetarian Society including leaflets, pamphlets and posters which I had posted about before. 

Themes: Both our themes and locations are heavily dependent on our questions and our subjects answers. Our themes include whether it is their choice to be vegetarian or not, their lifestyle, the reaction of friends and family, common myths and their experiences eating out and shopping.

Locations: As I previously mentioned, this will be dependent on our subjects answers. For example if Lindsey said to us, she did it for the animals, we would go somewhere like Streamvale Farm and get a few shots of the baby animals. However, if she said she did it for the health benefits, we would get shots of health food shops. A few examples of locations are; Holland and Barrett, St. George's Market, Streamvale Farm, supermarkets.

Interview locations at this point are depending on shooting dates; we have Caoimhe's house and my house down as possibilities but when we know when both subjects can film, a decision on interview locations can be confirmed.

Shooting Dates: We were thinking the 4th or 5th April for Lindsey's interview and 8th April or 12th April for Richard's interview and then going on the 13th April for cutaway shots once we watch the interviews back. We feel this will be much more productive due to time restraints, instead of going to get a lot of cutaways at all different places, at least if we know their answers, we can base locations off them.

I was really happy with how our pitch went; we had an innovative idea with the t-shirts and no-one had the same idea. It stood out, it was memorable and we were able to explain how our original idea started in a more colourful way.

Meeting Richard.

In our fifth meeting, Caoimhe and I met at the Linen Hall Library once again (Monday 24th March) and met with Richard, our second and final vegetarian that will be appearing in our documentary. He was really laid back, was pleased with the questions and actually gave us another question we could add, regarding Christmas dinner. Both Richard and Lindsey had spoke briefly about not having enough choice in restaurants over Christmas, so that question will be a nice add on.

Then in our sixth meeting on Wednesday 26th March, we went over our possible shooting dates as well as our pitching process. We had the idea of making t-shirts for the occasions and bringing in vegetarian food and vegetarian beauty products to show our tutor that we were expanding outside the food region a little.

Pitching Ideas for our Pitch.

Tying in with our morning meeting; after lunch Caoimhe and I sat and discussed possible ideas for our pitch next Thursday (Thursday 27th March). We're working around the vegetarian ideas and because real food is fruit and vegetables, this displays lots of bright colours and we wanted our pitch to be creative as possible. We found it difficult at first trying to think of ideas, but we came up with some good suggestions as to what we could plan.

With the pitch being next Thursday, we don't want to spoil what we will be in our pitch because then the judging panel (two of our tutors) wouldn't be surprised because they may have read our blog. We plan to post photographs of what will be involved in the pitching process and how we intend to grab their audience, once we have actually completed it.

Our Fourth Meeting.

Myself and Caoimhe had another very successful meeting yesterday morning (Thursday 20th March). We first had a meeting with our tutor to discuss how we have progressed throughout the week; we spoke about meeting up with Lindsey and how she was excited to talk about all the various aspects of being a vegetarian, not just the food side of things. We also said how we were planning on meeting up with Richard (another person who said they would like to be involved) on Monday morning.

Our tutor gave us the idea of just concentrating on Lindsey and learning more about her life and her hobbies. While I think this is a great idea, this would change the whole dynamic of the documentary and possibly become unlinked to our 'dislocation' theme. My original plan was to interview people and get their views on why do they think they are being judged for choosing this lifestyle, what problems with people have they encountered, do they think being vegetarian gets easier, why did they start and how did they start. These would just be a few of the questions but I was stream lining it on the fact that we were learning about the vegetarian lifestyle and that anyone who had had reservations about vegetarians or didn't actually know about the lifestyle, would watch the documentary and find out that it's not just about eating vegetables. However, if we just concentrate on one person and their life outside vegetarianism, I start to question what our documentary would even be about. I'm really passionate about learning more about the lifestyle because it's something I have wanted to learn about for a few years and if I can help even a little on reducing the stigma on it, then I will be happy and feel like I have created a successful documentary.

Meeting with Lindsey.

Today myself and Caoimhe met up with Lindsey to go over our plans for the documentary as well as discuss some of the questions that will come up in the interview. She seemed really happy about the questions and said she's looking forward to venting about them because she doesn't get the opportunity to talk about some of the things related to vegetarianism. It was a really good meeting and I'm excited to be moving forward!

My producing role.

I don't know whether I have actually said this yet but I am producing Andy's film, "Dislocation" as well as making my own. His blog can be found here and he is creating a fictional story, rather than a documentary. His short film is both comedy and horror based that sees two best friends 'geo-caching' (For anyone that doesn't know what geo-caching is, it is an international treasure community) for a rare mysterious cache. As the cache draws closer, find or did not find, re-establishes itself with live or die.

Tonight we wrote up advertisements for the three roles that need to be filled, and stuck them on the Studio NI Daily email newsletter, Studio NI Facebook page, Gum Tree and over the next few days we will be tweeting it with the appropriate hash tags so people and actors from Belfast will find it easily.

Our Third Meeting.

Our third meeting happened the very next day (Thursday 13th March) with our tutor. We updated up on the interest we had had so far, and that we had already planned to meet up with one of the subjects the following week.

We also discussed our idea of the opening of the documentary having us look online and typing in "vegetarian" onto various search engines, and all that comes up is vegetables. This is to lead in to what I wanted to know, is vegetarianism just about vegetables? Our tutor gave us an idea though; she said to use photographs or video that we take ourselves with markets and shops and to create a montage using my original "is it all about vegetables" idea.

Overall, I'm really pleased with our progress so far. We were a little worried we would come to class with no one interested but that quickly changed on Wednesday and I couldn't be happier.

Second Meeting.

In our second meeting (Wednesday 12th March) we looked over the research resources I had received the week before as well as reply to two responses we had received that morning. We also wrote up a short letter to politician Jim Wells because we found out that he is vegetarian himself. We haven't currently sent the letter yet because we have had quite a few responses so we were using that as a back up plan but we thought it was a good idea to write it up anyway.