A mini-documentary that explains the concept behind Rat Park, a live magazine discussion show produced by the queer creative collective ‘Duckie’.
Each of the four programmes took place each Saturday afternoon during February 2025, hosted by Scottee with the Gay Liberacé Front on the piano.
There were weekly performances by Neil Barlett, Zack Mennell, and Rhyss Pieces, and artist Robin Whitmore led the community in creating themed artworks.
Each week also featured a variety of guest speakers and performers.
Camera set-up
I filmed each four-hour programme in 4K 4096×2160 resolution. For the final show, I used four cameras. Two of the four cameras were mounted on opposing lighting stands near the stage. The other two cameras were tripod-mounted in front of the sound and lighting desk, one filming a wider shot and one filming closer shots.
Sound recording
I recorded the sound feed from the sound desk and the room’s sound atmosphere separately. This helped when I needed to edit the sounds of audience reactions into the documentary edit.
Instagram reels
From the filmed footage, I delivered a series of Instagram reels of up to 3 minutes in length each week. In total, I edited 32 Instagram reels over the four-week project. Each reel was approved by the producer, Simon Casson, and the contributor before being uploaded to @duckievauxhall on Instagram.
Filming in 4K enabled me to easily resize the 16:9 filmed shot to 9:16. The higher resolution also enabled me to zoom into the shot if required without losing any quality for vertical delivery on Instagram.
Short film edit
In addition to the Instagram reels, Duckie commissioned me to deliver this short film to help explain the Rat Park project to a broader audience. I initially edited an 8-minute version of the film and then extended it with additional content after a first viewing. I hope this mini-documentary can help Duckie obtain further funding to make this project happen again. The mini-documentary was delivered as a 1920×1080 file.
Creative freedom
One of this project’s many highlights was the creative freedom I enjoyed given to me by the Duckie gang.
