Making further contacts

Whilst choosing to film an extra interview close to the deadline was risky, it also provided us with the opportunity to talk to new people about our idea and make further contacts. Although this was unanticipated, it was an exciting part of the documentary filmmaking process, as we just happened to be filming in the Green Room when the sound engineer from the SheffAid single was in the bar.

Before this interview, we had not heard of the SheffAid campaign, but after it being mentioned we were interested in finding out more and so used this as an opportunity to introduce ourselves and our project, whilst finding out more about the SheffAid single. We actually came away from this interview after exchanging details with a suggested offer for us to use the track on our film, and/or promote the campaign as the cause that they are trying to promote ties in well with the theme and general idea behind our film. In this case, it was a bit disappointing that we had come across this at such a late on stage in the process as we could potentially have gained a lot more contributors and made a stronger film if we had more time to work with this, however we understand at the same time that unpredictability is part of documentary filmmaking and we are still pleased that we have gained potential contacts to send the film to and perhaps work with in future.

The SheffAid campaign

(source: http://www.thestar.co.uk/what-s-on/gigs-music/slideshow-sheffield-musicians-roundabout-way-to-support-retailers-1-7002440)

The SheffAid single was released by local Sheffield bands and musicians to raise awareness of the demolition plans and to try and save the independent businesses, whilst also raising money for Roundabout charity.

Instead of putting this track underneath our film as it's main soundtrack, we used the local busker's instrumental track instead as we felt this fit alongside the visuals better and was not too distracting in terms of still hearing what the interviewee's were saying and giving the viewer time to take in the visual content. However, we still wanted to include the SheffAid campaign in some way in our film, so we did this by putting a link to their social media page on the end of the film.