Documentary Modes
Documentary language
This week we spent some time during lecture looking at documentaries and breaking down the composition of the film to understand techniques used by documentary practitioners that enhance the viewing experience. We looked at a couple of BBC documentaries, 'Wonderland: The British in Bed' and 'Horizon' to sample some of the filming and editing techniques.
POV shots: Point of view shots are used because they portray the subjects perspective to the audience, not just from a literal point but from a psychological angle. A good example of this would be the rose petal scene from 'America Beauty' where Lister is looking up from his bed at what appears to be the ceiling, however it then cuts to a POV and we see he's looking at his mental image of Angela, this puts the audience in the main characters position which subconsciously builds up a connection to the character. As our documentary will have many characters and we are trying to show the life of the docks and the people that work there I believe that we should explore the use of POV because it could prove a useful device to build a character audience relationship.
Voice of God: The voice of God usually take the form of a narrator, it is used to inform and direct the audience about the content of the footage. We feel our documentary would not benefit from a narrator or presenter as we want the dock workers and imagery to be our main form of communication with the audience, this is because it allows wider audience interpretation. As our documentary is observational it is important for us that the audience can draw its own conclusions about the film rather than us manipulating it via post production.
Experts: An experts opinion or input is crucial in all documentaries as it forms the basis of reality for the audience, if a documentary film did not have the expert element the audience would not be convinced by anything they see in the film. Usually the expert element is in the form of a interview where the person talks about the subject while cut away footage is put over the top to keep it visually interesting. In our documentary the expert element will be in the form of the dock workers and everybody at the docks that we film.
Recurring imagery: Repetitive imagery is used in documentary to convey the importance of an event or subject to the audience. An example of this is the documentary '9/11 The falling man' in which a photograph of a man falling from the burning towers is repeatedly show throughout the documentary, although this the subject of the film every time a new theory or question is asked in the film the footage cuts back to the photo, often lingering while the narrator poses a new answer. As our documentary is in a linear form I think the use of recurring imagery is limited.
Second unit: A second unit is a camera (and sometimes sound) team that captures footage that the main production team wouldn't be able to. Second units focus on subjects that are missed by the main camera, for example if a production team were conducting an interview of a executive in an office a second unit might be filming the colleagues around him and their reactions to what he is saying. From our production teams point of view we know that we are going to need multiple second units, as we are trying to capture the workings of a large dock we are going to have to cover several locations.
Structure: The structure of 'Life in a Day' follows a simple linear pattern which goes from morning to day and ends at night. The beginning of the film starts slowly, with slow paced music and long clips, this slow pace represents the lack of activity in the early hours of the morning. A notable element of the film is the continuation of sound from one clip running over several, this creates a link between two unrelated pieces of footage.
After watching this film there are a number of characteristics which could be incorporated into our concept. The first element is the linear narrative which runs from the early morning to late at night, I would like to see this in our film as it gives a definitive structure to the piece which is universally recongnised. I would also like to look into our use of music in the documentary to manipulate pace and atmosphere, I think the music in 'Life in a Day' worked well because it matched the pace of the footage.
Philip Bloom
Bloom is a British filmmaker famed for his use of DSLR filming. He has made several documentaries including 'Exploited: Asia's child sex shame' (2006) and 'How to start a revolution' (2011).
How to start a revolution is a documentary about Gene Sharp, a Professor of political science. He has written several pieces on nonviolent revolution which have lead to multiple uprisings around the world. The film follows Sharp's work in practice and demonstrates the power of words, social media and human spirit. The footage is comprised of HD footage filmed on a DSLR and user generated footage from the Cairo uprising. This use of user generated footage gives the film a hard hitting edge that compliments the slower paced interviews. Giving that our dock idea will probably have interviews in we could take some inspiration from this and mix it with exciting pacey footage.
Chris Marker
Marker is a French documentary filmmaker who's work includes the groundbreaking 'Le Jetee' (1962).
Le Jetee is a documentary film that uses stills instead of moving image to create the post apocalyptic world of the future. The sound is key to creating the necessary atmosphere which accompanies the the stills, the most notable choice is the decision to omit dialog from the characters, instead the film is narrated by a voice over which adds to the realism of the film.
Zinedine Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait
A 21st Century Portrait is a poetic documentary observing the three time world footballer of the year zinedine Zidane in a league match. The film follows the perspective of Zidane through the match and uses creative sound techniques to captivate the audience. The sound is stripped down to its purest form to create a unique atmosphere unrecognisable to anyone who has seen a football match. Another technique used is replacing the match sound with sounds of children playing football in a city with dogs barking in the background, both these techniques help create a hypnotic aura around this documentary. As the sound designer for our documentary I have paid attention to the use of sound in the films that I have viewed, I would like to have sound as rich as the sound in this film as it enhances the visuals.
Educating Essex (Television series) 2011- Audience Reception
Educating Essex is a fly-on-the-wall expository documentary that films the everyday occurrences at a compressive secondary school in Essex. When researching this documentary I decided to investigate audience reception rather than the content and production of the programme. When it aired on 22nd September it became one of the most discussed shows on British television with over 100,000 tweets over the course of its run.
The series divided opinion when it was aired, on one side there were the pessimists who thought the school may be portrayed badly, unearthing Britain’s social problems (teenage pregnancy, bullying and communication issues between adults and youths) and displaying the poor condition of the education system. These criticisms came predominantly from conservative institutions with a more traditional view on education. The Daily Mail wrote an article on the programme which focused on the negative side of the documentary. “Pupils, parents and staff agreed to have 65 cameras installed to record life at Passmores School and Technology College in Harlow, Essex. But most emerge from the seven-part Channel 4 series in an unflattering light.” The reader’s responses to this article were very argumentative with the majority disagreeing with the views of the Daily Mail, “I found this programme excellent in revealing what goes on in the challenging environment of a secdy school and will pass final judgment when I have seen the complete series. Something the DM might usefully have done rather than feeding the prejudices of much of its readership.”
Overall the programme was received well by viewers and critics, it differed from other documentaries because it took a sensitive and topical issue (education system) and looked into the stories of individuals involved rather than organisations. This humanisation gave the programme depth that the audience connected with. In our documentary I think we have a big opportunity to investigate the human stories behind the taxi drivers. We want our documentary to provoke an emotiona response from the audience.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2040729/Educating-Essex-What-sort-example-set-children.html#ixzz1fCmnv8HA
