Week 1: Module Introduction
The first week was a module introduction including an outline of our assessment criteria. We were tasked with producing and promoting a documentary film on a topic of our choice. We formed groups and were told to come back in a weeks time with 2 ideas that the individual felt confident in pitching.
Week 2: Photojournalism and Documentary
Studied the work of some famous practitioners in the art of photojournalism and were taught the different documentary modes.
The Poetic Mode
"The poetic mode of documentary film tends toward subjective interpretations of its subject(s). Light on rhetoric, documentaries in the poetic mode forsake traditional narrative content: individual characters and events remain undeveloped, in favor of creating a particular mood or tone. This is particularly noticeable in the editing of poetic documentaries, where continuity is of virtually no consequence at all."
In documentary, the poetic mode is a highly artful form of film. It purposefully creates an intentional emotion that it wants the audience to feel using carefully chosen imagery and music.
Examples:
- Rain (Ivens, 1929)
- Berlin: The Symphony of a Great City (Ruttmann, 1927)
- The Man with the Movie Camera (Vertov, 1929)
The Expository Mode
"Narration is a distinct innovation of the expositional mode of documentary. Initially manifesting as an omnipresent, omniscient, and objective voice intoned over footage, narration holds the weight of explaining and arguing a film’s rhetorical content. Where documentary in the poetic mode thrived on a filmmaker’s aesthetic and subjective visual interpretation of a subject, expositional mode collects footage that functions to strengthen the spoken narrative."
Examples:
- An Inconvenient Truth (Guggenheim, 2006)
- Recollecting Tibet (Stowe, 2008)
- Ways of Seeing (TV Series, Berger, 1974)
The Observational Mode
"Unlike the subjective content of poetic documentary, or the rhetorical insistence of expositional documentary, observational documentaries tend to simply observe, allowing viewers to reach whatever conclusions they may deduce. The camera, while moving with subjects and staying in the action, remains as unobtrusive as possible, mutely recording events as they happen."
Examples:
- High School (Wiseman, 1968)
- Don't Look Back (Pennebaker, 1967)
- Triumph of the Will (Riefenstahl, 1934)
The Reflexive Mode
"The reflexive mode considers the quality of documentary itself, de-mystifying its processes and considering its implications."
Reflexive consistently draws attention to itself, highlighting how the camera is portraying the subject matter to its audience and asking them to question it.
Examples:
- Man With a Movie Camera (Vertov, 1929)
- Land Without Bread (Buñuels, 1989)
- Wedding Camels (MacDougall, 1980)
The Participatory Mode
This mode emphasises interaction between the filmmaker and the subject infusing the opinions of the documentary journalist to skew the interpretation that the audience makes. It makes sure that the presence of the filmmaker alters the outcome of what the audience choose to interpret.
Examples:
- All Michael Moore films: Bowling for Columbine (2002), Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004)
- Louis Theroux films: The Most Hated Family in America (2007)
The Performative Mode
"The performative mode, the final mode Nichols discusses, is easily confused with the participatory mode, and Nichols remains somewhat nebulous about their distinctions. The crux of the difference seems to lie in the fact that where the participatory mode engages the filmmaker to the story but attempts to constructs truths that should be self-evident to anyone, the performative mode engages the filmmaker to the story but constructs subjective truths that are significant to the filmmaker him or herself. Deeply personal, the performative mode is particularly well-suited to telling the stories of filmmakers from marginalised social groups, offering the chance to air unique perspectives without having to argue the validity of their experiences."
Similar to the participatory mode, it uses a main protagonist to portray the narrative of the film. But the performative mode shows a much more emotional journey for the filmmaker, making his experiences during the story just as important as the subject matter he is experiencing.
Examples:
- Night and Fog (Resnais, 1955)
- Forest of Bliss (Gardner, 1985)
- Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives (BBC Production, 2007)
Week Three: Introduction to 450d Canon Cameras
Trained thoroughly in all the features of the Canon SLR's. Taught what the various shooting modes are for and when they are most useful. Shown the importance of aperture, shutter speed and ISO settings when using manual shooting modes for example:
Long panoramic landscape shot, very sunny:
- Low ISO to avoid underexposure e.g. 100
- Long depth of field needed to keep all of the environment in focus.
- Quick shutter speed as you don't need to worry too much about getting light. Although if light becomes a problem, slow the shutter speed slightly to allow more light to enter the lens.
- Aperture
- Or use landscape shooting mode.
Close up of flower, indoors artificially lit:
- Mid ISO to let enough light in but not overexpose although does jeopardise the quality of the photo.
- Very short depth of field to keep the background out of focus, but keep the flower sharp = Small aperture = Low Fno e.g. F6.3.
- Shutter speed should be quick, although can again be slower if needed to gain more light as the flower is not moving.
- Or use close up shooting mode.
Mid shot of a horse jumping competition, sunny:
- Low to mid ISO number e.g. 200.
- Depth of field would ideally be set to subject but because there is movement it could be hard to find a perfect depth of field. I would set the focus to the hurdle, that way the camera should capture the horse in focus mid air over the hurdle.
- Shutter speed needs to be high to avoid blurring of the subject.
- Or use the sports shooting mode.
TTL = Through the Lens Light Meter.
Contrast = Difference between black and white.
 | To the right is a shot I took at home the weekend after the lecture. The shutter speed was about 1/20 for this image and because it was a surprisingly clear sky the subject is overexposed slightly. With the longer lens I was able to create a larger disparity of the focus between foreground, subject and background. As you can see the background is a slight soft focus as well as the grass in the foreground. This draws the eye the sharper subject in the centre of the planes. |
This picture was taken immediately after and shows a much clearer image of the subject. I made the shutter speed quicker to approximately 1/30 and left all other settings as they were. This face is a lot clearer in comparison to the image before were features were not as well defined. |  |
Week Four: Lecture Cancelled
Worked on our Yola sites as no lecture was scheduled.
Week Five: Advanced Photoshop RAW editing
Missed lecture due to illness.
Studied the RAW photo editing tutorials on the Learning network to teach myself the industry standard we are expected to meet. I used some the photos I had took following 450d training to test what RAW editing was capable of and what looked good.
After this I feel I have learnt an essential tool for the business of photo journalism, although it will take some more practice before I can confidently use it in a professional environment.
 | Here is my first attempt at editing an image with the RAW tool. I first used the auto white balance feature and noticed that the greens of the plants and grass were heavily diluted. I then, again, used the auto for the exposure of the image and a noticeable but not hugely significant change to the luminescence of the whites was made, lowering their intensity. Lastly I raised the vibrance slightly to replace some colour back into the image that was lost from the white balance. |
In this image I did the same with white balance and exposure by setting them to auto. I then set the image to greyscale and increase the contrast slightly to cause the subject to stand out from the background. I also played with the sharpness tools to increase clarity of the image. But noticed a negligible difference when done with a greyscale image in comparison to coloured one. |  |
Week Six: Advance FCP Training
In this lecture got advanced training with Final Cut Pro on MAC. We used archived footage from a Sea World promotional film and we were given free creative choice on how we wanted to edit it.
We were taught advanced techniques including various transitions and effects but we mostly focussed on tools that made the editing process more streamlined and ways to creatively use sound.
From this lecture I feel significantly more confident in using FCP and have the ability to create what I want in my films easier.
Since this lecture we have gone on to create some other projects for other modules and here is an example of what we have achieved with this training.
Week Seven: Preparing Group Presentation
We began work on how we wanted our presentation to be. We made slides specific to sections outlined in the the workbook and then built around them to create a template of how the presentation will go. Little content was added at this stage as we did have any other than research. We also began to create a logo specific to the premise of the film.
