My project in Documentary Filmmaking from Scratch course

Thanks for watching our final project for the course. We would like to comment on some aspects of its creation so you can have a better idea about the creative process behind the piece.

First, the reasons. The idea came in a very natural way since Rene lives around the shop and he was curious (as a good documentary filmmaker) each time he walked around the window. As we were going to film originally in Madrid but the pandemic started, we were searching for a small but interesting project to shoot in London as the final project for this course.

One day, Rene entered and talked to Ryan. His story sounded interesting, as he had the special thing of coming from another area of expertise and changing completely his career when he discovered leather and how he could fit a gap in the market with his creations.

Then, we organized an online meeting where we chatted with him and started building the relationship. The main questions for the documentary came up in that meeting. Rene scouted the place and found it interesting. Maybe it was not the most beautiful or comfortable place to shoot in but as it presented some real-life challenges (being small, dark, having traffic outside, etc), we finally chose to film Ryan's documentary because the final project would be something real, not in the best location, not telling the most astounding story but still being interesting and making us face different challenges which all of you will face sooner or later.

Everything was shot in 5 hours: the interview, the b-roll, the exteriors. That was our commitment. We would not light to create the most precious shots but we would use 90% of natural light, we would not reshoot despite the traffic, etc. We both shared the different tasks. To make things organized, Jose would direct while Rene would be in charge of the camera and technical things.

So, what you see is a real project, with its strengths and its imperfections, as a documentary usually is. We hope you like it and gives you an idea of a short portrait documentary in a real situation