Production Process
When a film is made, it follows the media production process.
Development
Pre-Production
Production
Post Production
Distribution
The development process is how a media product begins. During development key creative roles, normally the producer and director, explore ideas, stories and audiences. During development an idea may be fully formed or vague, and generally this stage is where the themes are investigated, topics are researched, and techniques are experimented with.
Hunder’s photo series - RISE – where she photographed Australian hip-hop artists and noticed the gender imbalance, is considered the development stage of Her Sound Her Story. Following RISE, Hunder researched the gender imbalance in the Australian music industry and approached Claudia Sangiorgi Dalimore to direct a documentary with her about it.
The pre-production process follows. This is where the specific narrative is planned and the structure of the narrative is considered. Audience is considered during this stage.
The pre-production of Her Sound Her Story included organising all the interviews with Australian musicians, planning questions for these musicians, deciding the locations for the interviews, and organising equipment for production. The pre-production also included a discussion with each artist on how they wanted to be represented, and Sangiorgi Dalimore and Hunder then used their own personal style to construct positive, powerful and professional representations of each musician
The production process includes all the filming as planned, with lots of creative problem solving!
During post-production, the footage is edited and refined into a sequence. Post-production also include the sound editing. During this stage feedback and refinement are crucial.
Distribution is the final stage of the Media Production process and is when the media product is given to audiences.
Her Sound Her Story premiered at Human Rights Arts and Film Festival in December 2017. Unconventionally, Sangiorgi Dalimore used the audience reaction and feedback to further refine the work after this date.
As the documentary is independently funded, these processes are unconventional – very different to traditional studio-driven media products. Hunder and Sangiorgi Dalimore describe how they followed the Media Production Process in the behind the scenes interview.
After reading above and watched the behind the scenes interview videos answer the following questions:
Unconventionally, the Production process for Her Sound Her Story continued after post production and even after distribution! Explain strengths and weaknesses of this process for the makers and the audience members.
Sangiorgi Dalimore speaks about using unlicensed music that she can organise directly with independent bands. Discuss what you know about copyright and using music in films. Brainstorm places to find copyright and/or royalty free music, or musicians you could contact for music in your future films. What are the positives and negatives of this process?
What are some factors Sangiorgi Dalimore and Hunder may have had to organise and plan for during the pre-production stage?
How did audience response inform the editing and refinement process?
Sangiorgi Dalimore discusses the audiences they considered for the documentary. :
Music industry executives
Musicians and others in the music industry– friends of the interviewees
Australian women
Young people
Sangiorgi Dalimore explained that she wanted to engage this audience through the tone of the documentary. Explain your understanding of this and a specific example of this in the documentary.