I am Emmanuel, and I am the Director and lead Producer of our documentary production. My role involves making sure that our aims are adhered to whilst producing, getting back to the group with ideas, and finally, ensuring that everything goes smoothly on set.

The final documentary shall reflect our research and discovery into desire and counterfeit culture, a visual and audio reflection of the city of Milan, our conversations with participants along the way, and highlights of our journey so far, as a team.

I have documented each production day we have had by writing posts for the documentary section of the blog.

Our adventure started very early in the morning, we got a cab at 4.15am to the airport, we arrived, checked in our bags and went straight through to departures to grab a bite to eat.

7.00am rolled around so quickly, and we were heading to the gate before we knew it,  we were thankful to be leaving the miserable rain of England behind us.

The plane was very small which was a new experience for some of us, and with a flight time of 1.45hr we barely had time to sleep on the plane. Those who were awake managed to get some great photos of the Alps.

When we arrived at Milan airport we collected our luggage and faced our first challenge of locating the metro. Soon after we exited the terminal we saw electronic billboards displaying adverts against counterfit products , explaining that you could go to prison, if…

The day started off with a meeting back at our residence, where we decided as a team that it would be more effective to split into two groups and cover the production of two separate things.

Alex, Shay and myself (Emmanuel) decided to meet up with one of our participants from the previous day for a recorded conversation on fashion, capitalism and emotional wants.

Shay took on the role of interviewer, I directed, and Alex covered the session via photography.

The location of shoot was of particular interest to us, as designs seemed very simple and experimental, promoting an environment for the expression of self, properly. Our participant arrived with two other friends of his, then we proceeded to obtain a written consent from the shop owners, agreeing to allow us film, and the participants acknowledging likewise.

I set up my tripod, camera and radio microphones and we started filming each of…

Our production began early in the morning around 10:30am.  Alex asked his friend Doris to meet the production team in the Duomo area, and she agreed to be our translator and participant for the limited number of hours she had available. Shay, Alex, Shamim, Camille and myself (Emmanuel) headed down to Duomo.

The weather was bright sunny, which worked well in our favour, as it would result in the use of a low ISO camera setting, resulting in clearer images from our recording.

The production kicked off with the set up of my tripod, with the assistance of Shamim, who acted as a Production Assistant, as well as Co-photographer, alongside Alex for the day. I proceeded to set up the Radio Mics and make sure that they were positioned correctly onto the the jacket of our participant, Doris.

We decided to film in less busy areas of Duomo, in order…

We arrived in Milan at 10 and after checking in to our hotel myself (Emmanuel), Shay, Shamz and Alex headed out to discover Milan.

Before travelling to Milan, we planned to film and research The Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II and Duomo Di Milano locations, with the intention of focusing on fashion and class.

After visiting these two places, we realised that our preconceived notions about Duomo Di Milano differed, as it was in truth much bigger than what we saw online. The building as a major attraction of Milan was key in finding our participants, as that area brought a variety of people together.

After looking at areas in Duomo, we realised that it would not be safe to film alone, but to go in groups. This was due to huge numbers of people the location brought together, and it would not be safe to trust everyone.

Our visit to The Galleria…