Primary Research
During our project, various forms of primary research were completed. Firstly, when we had decided our on final topic, we looked at many websites containing information about homelessness and homeless shelters. We tried to find a suitable filming location that involved soup kitchens and soup runs to base our documentary on. Although we found soup kitchens that were based in London, we decided to stick to the Winchester area as this proved easier due to all our group members living here and the fact that there is a surprisingly large amount of homeless people in and around Winchester town centre.
We discussed the possibility of entering the 'Winchester Churches Nightshelter' and e-mailed them with details of our proposal for the documentary and asking permission to film. Once being referred from the The United Church, who e-mailed us back first, unfortunately we were unsuccessful in receiving any more information from them. A lot of the places we contacted either didn't do soup kitchens, or didn't get back to our phonecalls and e-mails.
The Salvation Army in Winchester finally got back to us with good news! They seemed thankful for our interest in using homeless people and their soup kitchen for our documentary and were extremely helpful! We met with one of the coordinators of the Salvation Army a week before filming where we discussed our plans in ordr to get her permission. The volunteers of the Salvation Army then informed all the homeless people who attended the soup kitchen the week before we wanted to film so they could either agree or disagree with our plans.
Thankfully, there wasn't anyone that had a problem with us coming in to take pictures, conduct interviews and film, and we were able to attend the soup kitchen the following Sunday!
Other primary research that we undertook involved reading up on how to use the filming equipment we would be using, and knowing how to adjust shutter speeds and f-numbers in order to get the pictures and footage that we needed, to the best quality we could. We used both our notes from the lectures that involved technical issues and attended out of class sessions where we could learn more in order to be fully confident.
We discussed the possibility of entering the 'Winchester Churches Nightshelter' and e-mailed them with details of our proposal for the documentary and asking permission to film. Once being referred from the The United Church, who e-mailed us back first, unfortunately we were unsuccessful in receiving any more information from them. A lot of the places we contacted either didn't do soup kitchens, or didn't get back to our phonecalls and e-mails.
The Salvation Army in Winchester finally got back to us with good news! They seemed thankful for our interest in using homeless people and their soup kitchen for our documentary and were extremely helpful! We met with one of the coordinators of the Salvation Army a week before filming where we discussed our plans in ordr to get her permission. The volunteers of the Salvation Army then informed all the homeless people who attended the soup kitchen the week before we wanted to film so they could either agree or disagree with our plans.
Thankfully, there wasn't anyone that had a problem with us coming in to take pictures, conduct interviews and film, and we were able to attend the soup kitchen the following Sunday!
Other primary research that we undertook involved reading up on how to use the filming equipment we would be using, and knowing how to adjust shutter speeds and f-numbers in order to get the pictures and footage that we needed, to the best quality we could. We used both our notes from the lectures that involved technical issues and attended out of class sessions where we could learn more in order to be fully confident.
Posted by Documentary and Photojournalism. Posted In : The Project
