Janko Documentary | Xiuyuan Chen

PRELUDE - A Documentary of Janko

Pre Production

After going through the brief, we sat together and went through possible
subjects to film. Laura suggested filming Janko, her cello teacher who is
also a Serbian immigrant. We thought it was a great idea, as it turned out
we are all string players. We had fun wondering what kind of stories and
insights Janko might have for us since he is in his senior years and has
been playing cello his entire life.
Brainstorming process was exciting because the topic was what all three
of us could relate to and what we were passionate about. We also had the
understanding of string instrument and classical music in general, so we
had almost endless ideas we wanted to narrate through this documentary.
In the end, we decided that we want to highlight Janko’s experience with
music, and him as an immigrant in Canada.

Having decided on the filming subject, we started
brainstorming the shots we would want to include in the
video. Writing down any ideas that come into our mind
was helpful because the ideas eventually led us to
becoming better at creating a narrative about someone’s
life in an interesting sequence.

Shots we want to include

Dual screen with close up of his face while playing his favourite cello piece and close up of the cello (around the bridge while it gets played with a bow)
Janko teaching and critiquing a student
Back to back shots of him as an educator and him as a student (maybe add his narrative)
Cello maintenance
Cello solo performance
Photographical record of his youth? Or early days in Canada/Serbia
Videos about past experience
His cello collection
Him marking on sheet music

Interview question

What’s your experience with music? What inspired you to play cello?
What made you want to be a musician?
Is anyone else in your family a musician? How did he/she inspire you about music?
Does your family support you playing music? (mentally/financially)
What is your favorite cello piece? Why?
What is music to you?
What made you immigrate to Canada? (specifically Canada?)
How was your time back in your home country before coming to Canada?
Were there any obstacles living as an immigrant musician in Canada?
What’s your experience with music teaching?
What difference have you noticed in music between
Canadian and Serbian society?
Do you prefer playing solo? or in group ensemble/orchestra?
How’s your experience with learning other musical instruments?

Storyboards

Janko is a very interesting character and he had a lot to share, so
we tried to build a narrative that would be effective for his stories.
After figuring out what we want to include in the documentary, we
laid them out to decide where and when each segments should be
placed.
We initially landed on the timeline “Intro -> cello maintenance +
“I play/teach music for living”, playing -> personal history ->
immigrating to Canada -> Him instructing -> Him learning ->
more personal story -> Finale performance“.
But in the end it was shortened to “Intro -> What is music to him?
-> When it all started -> Immigrating to Canada -> Teaching
Experience -> Insight -> Finale performance”.

Filming D-day

We rented out the interview kit, DSLR cameras, and lighting equipment. We spent a few
days before the actual filming to make sure we understand how to use the equipments
properly to output high-quality footage. Learning how to set up the interview kit and
microphone was especially important given the nature of our subject which has a lot to do
with musical performance.
As we expected, we ran into some surprises when we got to Janko’s house. For example
the basement studio was not well lit so we had to use the light equipment which casted
shadow behind him. Janko was also nervous at first so we had to change our plan slightly
and ask different questions before getting into the actual questions we wanted to include
in the film. Otherwise, everything went smoothly and it was a great experience to be able
to hear his insights and anecdotes. Audio equipments worked perfectly which allowed us
to include high quality dialogue audio and soundtracks in the film.

Editing/Post Production

We started the editing process by dividing up the footages for the
audio - video matching process. The film was divided into three
big segments; basement studio/livingroom/church. We each took
care of each segments and cut down unwanted details. The whole
process felt similar to carving a sculpture. Eventually we gathered
the most essential clips from the raw footages, and started cutting
and weaving.
We paid extra attention to the smoothness of transistions between
cuts. In order to reduce the amount of awkwardness, we
experimented with different types of transitions (ex. dim in and
out) and transition lengths. We also tried our best to match the
transisitons/scene changes with the background music.
Because our film consisted of many different cuts, we realized that
the film had inconsistent color. Some videos were too yellow and
bright, and some were too green and dark. We used Adobe
Premiere’s comparison view tool to make sure the color stays
consistent throughout the segments.