Beyond the Music

Well, we've finally finished. After 13 weeks of planning, preparation, filming and editing, my production group and I have completed work on our documentary, Beyond the Music. The film told the story of John Gardonyi and his Music shop Gardonyi's. The film sees John discuss how he started the shop, the people he encounters, the lessons he teaches in the shop as well as an incident in which his store was robbed and his windows and door were both smashed.

The film shows our subject, Gardonyi, in a Social Space as we feature him interacting with his regulars who come in often as well as some first-time customers. During our interview shots with John Gardonyi, we chose to film him with a medium-shot. This was done as we felt if we showed Gardonyi with some of his shop's products in the frame, it would make him appear more comforting and approachable to the viewer. This interview is intercut with shots of the shop's musical instruments, people walking past the shop on the outside, and John talking to customers. We even got a shot of him taking a selfie with a man who just bought a kazoo. It's small things like that, which can make the viewer warm to the subject more.

When Gardonyi is showing the camera where the robbers attacked the shop, we included an insert shot to give more detail to the damage. This is normally a technique used in Documentaries produced in Continuity style. This film chose that style as we hoped that this would help the story be followed more easily by the viewer. Continuity style of editing is a common feature of the Observational Documentary mode. This is where the filmmaker observes actually with little intervention. This is the mode that we chose for the film. Other techniques frequently used this mode are natural light, no voice over and no re-enactments of events. This was always going to be the mode we chose for the film as we wanted the viewer to feel immersed into the narrative and this was the style that would easily simulate the idea that Gardonyi was talking directly to the viewer.

I do however feel our film is too dialogue heavy. Almost the entire film is John talking and explaining what has happened to him. While what he says he very interesting, there is little structure within them to make a cohesive narrative. There is also no obvious climax to the film. The biggest drama in the film is when John is explaining how his shop got robbed but this soon moves on to more of his life story.

Despite that small gripe, I am happy with the final product. I am really excited to show the film to John and get his thoughts on this. I feel like this film would go down well being shown in a gathering of small business owners as they would be interested in how John has managed his business and how it relates to them.