Divisions: The Beginning

Divisions: The Situation in Greenwich

I have recently become a student at the University of Greenwich studying 'Film & Television Production', part of the course is to create a 3 minute documentary piece, which through this blog I hope to explain our process in which we're going about to make this piece. Everything from our first conception of the idea to the final days of post-production.
In this post I hope to cover our thoughts on how we came up with the idea for the production.

The group:
First job as a group was to assign ourselves our roles. We decided to go about it in consideration of what our current strengths and interests were and where we'd be happiest. My background is in Sound and Editing. I've been on professional shoots performing separately in both roles and so I'll be happy in any of these roles and will able to bring forward my professional experience to each. I was assigned to Sound assistant and Editor. Sound assistant; my team mate was very keen on being the writer for the piece and create the content for the final documentary, however to fit within the previously stated roles, they decided to go with the sound role despite not knowing much about it. It was decided I will lend them help in the role, showing them how to use the equipment effectively and control parameters such as recording level, balance, stereo and mono recording etc. I will then focus fully autonomously on the editing side to the production, sourcing music, creating any VFX necessary etc.
Currently our timeframe on the creation of the final product is within 3 weeks, given time to research, plan, film and edit.

The Idea:
Currently we're working on the idea of bringing awareness to the rich and poor side to the borough of Greenwich, specifically the areas such as Woolwich and Greenwich town where the divide is most obvious in the amount of homelessness and the wealth division between the populations (hence the name!). We hope to uncover the effects of homelessness on not only the general public but also local businesses. We also hope to understand what action is being taken to combat this issue, not only through the random generosity of the general public, but also through the work of charities which maybe working in our area.
The outcome will be to raise awareness of the situation in the borough of Greenwich and also to make people aware of what it is they should do to help the situation and what is already being done to ease it.
We believe it should be reasonable simple to acquire the necessary information on what the current situation is. Through various government and other official websites and sources we should be able to provide a general overview of the standing situation.

Evaluation so far:
Currently we're working well as a team, it will be interesting to see if this continues and everyone is still able to pull their weight by the end. We have a strong idea with suitable material for a three minute documentary. We have the existing skills and resources to pull it off and confidence is high.
On a personal note however, I feel we could face some confidence challenges with the vox pops we plan to film with the general public. Other members of my team have done little to no experience in filming and talking with members of the public, not knowing how challenging it can be getting a total stranger to go on camera for a few minutes and answer a few questions.
The lack of experience in general concerns me as it will be a learning curve for most of the team, having to support them in the necessary steps toward the end goal; creating call sheets, organising interviews, arranging permits and filming locations etc.
However, so far the team is working well and we look set to keep to our schedule and turn the project around within the three weeks.

The Next Steps:
Pre-Production is our next step, writing up call sheets, schedules, location planning etc. This for me will be the most challenging part as it's my least favourite part to the process, but also likely the part I have most to learn from. This will also require the most 'leg work' going out on locations, establishing risk assessments around them etc.