The ACM Gospel Choir

So after months of hard work we have finally finished editing the ACM gospel choir documentary...and due to some highly unforeseen circumstances it is now known as simply:
'The ACM Gospel Choir: The Man Behind The Music'
The process of filming went well, we got around three hours of footage for the editing stage and most of it was very relevant to the piece. On a trip up to a gig in Manchester I managed to get interviews with many choir members as well as footage of the choir rehearsing and chilling on the journey. All this was planned to help back up our narrative and add a lot of depth to the story.
However, not all goes as planned, and after waiting for weeks for the log and capturing process to work propperly we had finally managed to get it on to our machine only to find that the following day it had been deleted! Not only this but the tape with it all on had gone missing. We were at a lose end, we had lost more than half of the story and the cut-aways.
So our solution was simple, to use the footage of Marks De Lisser's interview (the choir leader) and make it a story of his journey. How the choir had come to be and where would it go.

And so we got the editing finished and here is the finished product:

ACM: The Man Behind The Music from Kirsty F on Vimeo.

There are a few things I would change if i were to go back and do this project again. Number one i would have chosen a much smaller project to do. The choir is a group of 29 individuals, each with their own agenda. Not just that, they are over 2 hours drive away and are very busy. It was a great idea but was a little out of the league for a student in the first year. Secondly I would have assigned specific jobs to each individual in the group. We reached a stage of working together where we either didnt know what to do or we wanted to do the same jobs. This made tensions grow between us, ever for students who are close friends. This made our work suffer.
All things concidered however i am very happy with the out come and would love to work with Kirsty and Mike again.

And they're off...

Monday the 8th March came and we had scheduled in the all important first full day of filming for the 'ACM Gospel Choir Documentary'. This is how it went:

I was already half way to Guildford on Monday morning as I had spent the weekend at home for a friends 22nd. I was up and eating breakfast (eggs and bacon on toast!) when Cornish Mike and Thirsty Kirsty turned up at around 11am. We downed a quick cuppa, discussed the plans for the day and got on our way to the ACM.

We got there with good time and got straight on the phone to Emily Lambros and Rikki Ancell, two members of the Choir who had agreed to be filmed rehearsing. This was when our first problem hit. Julia, the lady who we needed to approve the filming of the ACM building was off ill and so, after a long discussion, we were restricted to filming only in one of the practice rooms. This was an positive outcome yet it would have been good to get more footage of the ACM and what it is about.

We got our video of the guys practicing, asked them a few questions regarding Mark and the Choir then moved on to Emily's house. We considered filming some of her everyday life in Guildford but decided against it as we already had one hour of footage from the rehearsal alone! Once again, we hit the road...this time, destination London...

We arrived in Croydon just before 4pm. We had a chat about what we were going to do then went in. Having looked around we decided to film in Marks lounge as the lighting was best, it was a more relaxed environment and the sound was better (no echos etc). We spent an hour and a half filming our interview with Mark and even got his wife, Tracy, to answer a few questions.


We hit the road for the last time at about 5.30 and, after escaping the London rush hour traffic made a quick return back to Bath. All in all it was a great day filming and I'm very happy we made the extra effort to go all that way as it will add so much more depth the the documentary...

ACM Gospel Choir Documentary - Continued

Unfortunately I was unable to attend Tuesday the 23rds session. However Mike and Kirsty made a draft of Important scenes to include in our project:

Scenes to include

• Markde Lisser interview - spilt into 2/3 sections
• Mini interviews with choir members - Interspersed
  
• Rehearsal footage
  
• Performance footage
• BBC Archive footage

Interview Q's/Points to cover

• Why you started choir?
• What you ask from members?
• What message you have?
• Any difficultly/struggles and how you have overcome them?
• What is the future?

Act One

• Archive
• Past Tense/establishing interview Q's
  
• Intro to choir and location
• Intro to some elements of conflict/struggle

Act Two

• Interview Q's with Mark about personal life
• Quotes from members about struggles/other commitments
• Some rehearsal footage

Act Three

• Looking to future
• Message of ACM
• Reflection on successes
• Summary interview Q's
• "Live" footage

The ACM Gospel Choir Documentary

We have all been doing small bit of research in the last few days for this project. We all felt we needed to get a full understanding of the choir and what they are about. Kirsty looked into the BBC Last Choir Standing website. There was one video on there she found "particularly useful". The video focused on the choir Musical Director Mark De Lisser. Not only was it made in a very similar style to what we wanted to achieve but it focused on Mark, someone we believe could be the backbone behind our documentary. I phoned Mark, asking why he started the choir and how had he found the journey so far...the ball seemed to be rolling!

The Pitch

Tuesday came and it was time for us to head over to Paintworks in Bristol and Pitch our idea to their team. Unfortunately however I was unable to attend. The choir had been asked to go to the ITV studios and be involved in a show called Ultimate Movie Toons. We decided as a group that it would be beneficial not only for me but for the project if I went along, took and camera and did some field research.

I helped make a simple power point presentation for the pitch:

For this we used Google Docs.

Its a shame I wasn't at the pitch, I felt bad that I had left Mike and Kirsty to do it alone when it had been my idea all along! In spite of this i know they did a great job.