Lectures MMP1
Week 1: Introduction to Module
Discussed the stages of pre-production and important elements in
documentary film. We discussed the module guide and assessment criteria. Formed
our production group and had a brief conversation about initial ideas.
Have several topics to research for next week including; documentary modes, the
university’s ethical standards and practitioners; Philip Bloom, Chris Petit and Chris Marker. Set up yola website and began creating documentary concepts.
Week 2: Explored documentary modes
Discussed how photojournalism evolved into documentary. Looked at the important events that help develop documentary as a genre, events such as the Vietnam War. We were given many practitioners to research including Robert Frank, Eve Arnold and Corrie Day. Focused on creating our individual pages and setting up the links and pages.
Documentary Modes: Expository, Poetic, participatory, political, performative, reflexive and observational
Week 3: Canon 450D workshop.
Covered the different program modes. Portrative, TV, AV and fully manual. Covered Aperture, shutter speed and ISO. Research into kelvins and breaking the rules of photography. Tried to contact our primary source for our preferred idea (Docks).
ISO - Amount of exposure
Shutter Speed - how fast the shutter closes
Aperture - Depth of field
Week 4: No lecture
Spent the week developing my ideas and working on my yola site.
Explored music licencing and copyright, contacted Ultimae over the use of Solar Fields music for our documentary soundtrack. http://www.ultimae.com/
Week 5: RAW editing and photojournalism
Workshop on Raw editing. How the camera records separate versions of the image which can be accessed in editing. I explored a wider range of photojournalism from socialdocumentary.net.
RAW processing - RAW allows far more flexibility, white balance, tonal curve and compression are all saved to the RAW converter which allow the photographer to reconvert the photograph to different settings.
Week 6: Missed lecture due to illness.
Spent the week developing my photo essay ideas and conducting photojournalism research.
Week 7: Pitch overview and documentary language.
Covered the elements of the pitch, title, genre, length etc. Important research into risks and dependancies is needed within the coming weeks. Broke down BBC documentaries and recurring editing styles. Looked at 'Parallel worlds, Parallel lives' and discussed what makes it a good documentary. Began to collate our marketing strategies.
Week 8: Technical excellence 2.
Explored pitch points to include in our 10 minute pitch. Promotional material, themes and style, sources and dependencies
Week 9: Technical excellence 3.
Week 10: Technical excellence 4.
Began to collate our pitch presentation, my task is to talk about sources and sound as a device in our documentary.
