Throughout the process I discovered that Annie became quite distant when responding to my messages. When I began filming, Annie was very reliant and would always answer and messages I sent. I visited her women’s only kickboxing class in the first couple weeks to get b-roll footage of her teaching kickboxing, and in person was the main way of communication about the next time of filming. I did reconfirm everything over message so she wouldn’t forget dates too. Once I had the footage of the kickboxing classes I didn’t see her unless I was filming interviews, so to schedule these interviews I would text her. She also agreed to send me footage and stills of her childhood and roller derby days. Gradually over the weeks of filming, Annie would take days to reply to any messages. I found this very frustrating because time was running out for me to film and edit. I ended up sending her several messages and calling her to schedule filming. I believe I was polite and not a nuisance when having to push for answers from her, and I don’t believe she felt that either with the way she thanked me after our final filming date. I did end up filming everything with time to edit but it was quite stressful as I had less time to edit. I have learnt that I need to schedule filming further in advance and, to try and film within a smaller window of time. Next time, I am going to ask Annie or my subject for their schedule and plan dates for filming straight away rather than as times goes.

I decided to split her story into three parts: childhood, roller derby and personal training and film an interview for each. I filmed the childhood interview at her kickboxing class studio, which on reflection I should have interviewed about her current work. At this point I had asked for access to her home, and she was unable to provide it me initially because her flatmate had Covid, so she was staying at a friend’s. Afterwards, I found out I could film at the friends but at this point the first interview was done. I then decided to film at the friends flat because she started out her current work during the pandemic and had to do most of her classes at home online, so I thought I recovered well from my initial mishap. The final interview about roller derby I had most issues with because I wanted to do it at a roller derby rink, however, I either had no responses or with covid I couldn’t have access. My next option was a roller derby shop in London, I tried to get the interview there, but it is only open three days a week, and has very little availability considering I would have to use up the entire store with it being so small. With time running out, I had to end up using the TV studio for the final interview. 

Overall, I found I was quite unlucky with getting access to places and it made the process towards the end very rushed. This included my editing because I didn’t have as much time as planned, so I feel like I haven’t been able to produce to my fullest ability. The rushing around and stress I had at the end of filming left me in a bad mindset when editing, so I didn’t have the time or mental health to make the documentary as I intended or to what it deserved. I have learnt how much work is involved in making a documentary and that I should plan the process lots better. I think that is where I fell most in. Next time, for the FB698 documentary, I am going to plan an entire schedule before filming begins and contact other sources as soon as. The earlier I can get the filming done, the more time I have to edit so I can produce the documentary I planned.