Clay Before Diwali: A 5-Minute Observational Documentary on a Potters' Colony, with Production Report

Clay Before Diwali is a five-minute observational documentary, made by a team of three during a BJMC internship project, about a potters' colony in the three weeks before Diwali — the busiest and most uncertain season of their year. The film follows one family of potters (with their consent) as they prepare clay, throw diyas and pots on the wheel, fire them in a community kiln and take them to the market, while factory-made lamps and imported electric lights compete for the same customers.

The project is built as a complete broadcast production exercise. Pre-production includes field research, a written treatment, a shot list, call sheets and signed release forms. The shoot uses a DSLR or mirrorless camera, a tripod and a gimbal, with lapel and shotgun microphones recorded separately. Post-production is done in Adobe Premiere Pro (rough cut → fine cut → colour correction) and Audition or Nuendo (dialogue clean-up, ambient bed, final mix to broadcast loudness). The finished film is exported to broadcast and web specifications and screened to a small audience whose feedback is collected with a short form.

Alongside the film, the team writes a production report covering research, treatment, production decisions, problems faced, budget and audience response. The bundle gives you the whole workflow, templates for each document, the report structure, a 12-slide presentation and a viva bank focused on the questions examiners ask about documentary craft.

Abstract

Traditional potters in north Indian towns earn a large share of their annual income in the weeks before Diwali, when demand for clay diyas, lamps and pots peaks. The same weeks bring rising clay and fuel costs, unpredictable weather for drying and firing, and competition from moulded and electric alternatives. This project produces a five-minute observational documentary, Clay Before Diwali, which records this season through the daily work of one potter family, and a production report documenting the research, creative choices and technical workflow behind the film.

Introduction

Documentary is the form in which journalism students learn to observe rather than tell. An observational (or "fly-on-the-wall") approach lets the subjects' actions carry the story, with minimal narration and no staged interviews where possible. Short festival-season stories are ideal for an internship project: the subject is time-bound, visually rich and connected to larger issues of craft livelihoods and markets.

Existing coverage and gap

Newspapers and TV channels cover potters mainly as colourful Diwali visuals — a few seconds of a spinning wheel over a voice-over. Rarely does coverage stay with a family long enough to show the economics and the labour behind a lamp that sells for a few rupees. This project attempts that longer look within a five-minute runtime.

Approach

• Research: two recce visits, informal conversations with families, the local market and a clay supplier.
• Form: observational with sparing on-screen text; two short sit-down conversations only if the observational footage does not explain costs.
• Structure: three acts — making, firing, selling — over roughly 3 weeks of calendar time.

Feasibility

• Technical: department camera kit and editing lab; team members trained in BJ-406 and the TV production course.
• Operational: the colony is within 30 minutes of the college; the family has agreed to be filmed; shooting days fall on weekends and after classes.
• Economic: travel, batteries and memory cards within ₹3,000; all music original or royalty-free.
• Time: six weeks from research to screening.

Potter families depend heavily on the few weeks before Diwali, yet their work appears in mainstream media mostly as decorative festival footage with no context about costs, labour or competition from factory-made and electric lights. Students of broadcast journalism, meanwhile, rarely get to carry a real documentary through every professional stage — research, treatment, permissions, shoot, edit, mix, delivery and audience response — within an internship.

This project addresses both gaps: it produces a five-minute observational documentary that shows the pre-Diwali season from inside a potters' colony, and a production report that documents each production stage with its paperwork, technical settings and decisions, so that the process is as assessable as the final film.

In scope

• One potters' colony and one principal family, filmed over about three weeks before Diwali.
• A five-minute film (±30 seconds) with credits, plus a 30-second trailer for social media.
• Pre-production documents, production log, post-production workflow and screening feedback.
• A written production report of 40–50 pages.

Out of scope

• A long-form investigation of the pottery industry or government schemes.
• Drone footage (needs permissions) and paid stock footage.
• Broadcast on a TV channel — the film is screened in college and uploaded privately for evaluation.
• Staged or re-enacted scenes presented as real.

Production model

The team follows the standard three-stage production model — pre-production, production, post-production — with a feedback stage added at the end. Each stage has a written output that goes into the report.

Pre-production (week 1–2)

• Recce: two visits to map locations, light direction, noise sources (traffic, loudspeakers) and power points.
• Research notes: process of pottery, prices of clay and fuel, selling price of diyas, market days.
• Treatment (1–2 pages): logline, point of view, characters, three-act structure, visual style (handheld close-ups at the wheel, locked-off wides of the colony), sound style (natural sound first).
• Shot list by sequence; call sheet for every shoot day (location, time, crew, equipment, contact numbers); release forms signed by all adults filmed, and by parents for any child.

Production (weeks 2–4)

• Camera: 1080p/25 fps (PAL region), shutter 1/50, flat or neutral picture profile, manual white balance.
• Sound: lapel mic on the main potter, shotgun on boom for ambience, separate field recorder; clap sync at each take.
• A daily production log records card numbers, clips shot, problems and backups (two copies of every card).

Post-production (weeks 4–5)

• Ingest and label clips in Premiere Pro bins by sequence; transcribe any speech.
• Paper edit → rough cut (8–10 min) → fine cut (5 min) with guide feedback at each stage.
• Colour correction with Lumetri; titles and poster in Photoshop.
• Dialogue clean-up and final mix in Audition or Nuendo; loudness around −24 LUFS for a broadcast master and a separate web master around −14 LUFS.

Screening and feedback (week 6)

Screen to about 30 viewers (students and faculty); collect a short feedback form on clarity, emotional engagement, sound and pace.