What is a documentary

What is a documentary?

A documentary film is a movie that attempts to document reality. Even though the scenes are wisely chosen and arranged, usually through editing after filming, they are not scripted and the people in the movie are not typically actors. A documentary can be made about near enough anything and created by anyone.

 Sometimes, a documentary film may rely on voice-over narration to describe what is happening in the footage; in other films, the images speak for themselves without commentary. A documentary often includes interviews with people in the film for additional context or information.

Documentary’s should mainly include facts and even some figures to do with what is being spoke or seen too in the documentary, a documentary can either been written in first or second person however sometimes can be written in third

In general, documentary films focus on real life and include footage of events as they happened. A movie about World War II might feature actors portraying soldiers, real or fictional, in the war, recreating certain battles or events. In contrast to this, a documentary film about World War II might primarily feature news real footage of actual fighting, with commentary from experts and veterans who were in the war. It is this focus on documenting reality above drama or a fictional narrative that typically separates these movies from summer blockbusters and other popular films.

One recent documentary that has been show on tv a lot is 9/11, I feel that this was a really touching yet interesting documentary, it told us information from the American terrorist attacks in such detail as was all given by a narrator/voice over. Throughout the documentary they show a number of interviews with people from the 9/11 attacks such as some of the people who survived the attack, fireman, police officers and family members to those who were involved. Using interviews in documentary’s I feel really makes the show, aslong you have someone with good questions to ask and be answered an interview will really make a documentary worth while.

Documentaries dont always use the official footage of an event as there may have been no footage filmed at this particular time. In some cases documentaries can often use recreational footage to show the audience Documentaries can be ranged from extremely random subjects to something we all think about every day. Most of the documentaries which seem to have rather random subjects are called ‘Experimental documentaries’ these range from all sorts of subjects but one in particular I have seen is ‘Once upon a Tram Ride’ which tells a story on the life of a protestor in The Hague.

The six types of documentary’s

1. Poetic documentaries, which first appeared in the 1920’s, were a sort of reaction against both the content and the rapidly crystallizing grammar of the early fiction film. The poetic mode moved away from continuity editing and instead organized images of the material world by means of associations and patterns, both in terms of time and space. Well-rounded characters—’life-like people’—were absent; instead, people appeared in these films as entities, just like any other, that are found in the material world. The films were fragmentary, impressionistic, lyrical. Their disruption of the coherence of time and space—a coherence favored by the fiction films of the day—can also be seen as an element of the modernist counter-model of cinematic narrative. The ‘real world’—Nichols calls it the “historical world”—was broken up into fragments and aesthetically reconstituted using film form.

2. Expository documentaries speak directly to the viewer, often in the form of an authoritative commentary employing voiceover or titles, proposing a strong argument and point of view. These films are rhetorical, and try to persuade the viewer. (They may use a rich and sonorous male voice.) The (voice-of-God) commentary often sounds ‘objective’ and omniscient. Images are often not paramount; they exist to advance the argument. The rhetoric insistently presses upon us to read the images in a certain fashion. Historical documentaries in this mode deliver an unproblematic and ‘objective’ account and interpretation of past events.

3. Observational documentaries attempt to simply and spontaneously observe lived life with a minimum of intervention. Filmmakers who worked in this sub-genre often saw the poetic mode as too abstract and the expository mode as too didactic. The first observational docs date back to the 1960’s; the technological developments which made them possible include mobile lighweight cameras and portable sound recording equipment for synchronized sound. Often, this mode of film eschewed voice-over commentary, post-synchronized dialogue and music, or re-enactments. The films aimed for immediacy, intimacy, and revelation of individual human character in ordinary life situations.

4. Participatory documentaries believe that it is impossible for the act of filmmaking to not influence or alter the events being filmed. What these films do is emulate the approach of the anthropologist: participant-observation. Not only is the filmmaker part of the film, we also get a sense of how situations in the film are affected or altered by her presence. Nichols: “The filmmaker steps out from behind the cloak of voice-over commentary, steps away from poetic meditation, steps down from a fly-on-the-wall perch, and becomes a social actor (almost) like any other. (Almost like any other because the filmmaker retains the camera, and with it, a certain degree of potential power and control over events.)” The encounter between filmmaker and subject becomes a critical element of the film. Rouch and Morin named the approach cinéma vérité, translating Dziga Vertov’s kinopravda into French; the “truth” refers to the truth of the encounter rather than some absolute truth.

5. Reflexive documentaries don’t see themselves as a transparent window on the world; instead they draw attention to their own constructedness, and the fact that they are representations. How does the world get represented by documentary films? This question is central to this sub-genre of films. They prompt us to “question the authenticity of documentary in general.” It is the most self-conscious of all the modes, and is highly skeptical of ‘realism.’ It may use Brechtian alienation strategies to jar us, in order to ‘defamiliarize’ what we are seeing and how we are seeing it.

6. Performative documentaries stress subjective experience and emotional response to the world. They are strongly personal, unconventional, perhaps poetic and/or experimental, and might include hypothetical enactments of events designed to make us experience what it might be like for us to possess a certain specific perspective on the world that is not our own, e.g. that of black, gay men in Marlon Riggs’s Tongues Untied (1989) or Jenny Livingston’s Paris Is Burning (1991). This sub-genre might also lend itself to certain groups (e.g. women, ethnic minorities, gays and lesbians, etc) to ‘speak about themselves.’ Often, a battery of techniques, many borrowed from fiction or avant-garde films, are used. Performative docs often link up personal accounts or experiences with larger political or historical realities.

http://collaborativedocumentary.wordpress.com/6-types-of-documentary/

interview attempt 2

This was our second attempt for our practice interview. This was a very successful and entertaining interview. We chose for our location to be in the media office room, we felt that this room would be best to film our interview in as our interview was based around Ryan's school and social life. As Ryan spoke about the subjects he chose, one of them including media we thought that it would be a brilliant idea to film this in a media room as the location would fit in with the concept of our interview.

I feel that our interview flowed very well this time and i think this was due to the fact before we filmed our interview we had a short rehearsal which  consisted of myself talking ryan through some of the questions in which i was going to ask him so it gave himself some prepreation time to think of some good responses. As i was the interview i had already prepared some questions however, some of the responses i recieved from ryan linked me to ask different question as well as the ones i already had which was very useful and helped for our interview to have a smooth run.
There were no long or awkward pauses throughout our interview which allowed our interview to seem more professional and consistent.
Our interview did not need much editing due to the fact we had prepared well before hand, the only editing we had was at the beginning and end where we had to stop the camera ourselves, so we just edited that our and put in the titles.

Whilst filming and taking part in the interview, it did not only teach me how to be a well presented and spoken interviewer it also gave me the chance to set up the cameras, lighting which was very useful.


-What do you study at ravenswood boys school?
This question was a great question to open our interview as it not only engaged me in the interview but made me feel comfortable. It also showed the audience that i was a student.

- Are you hoping to take any of these further to college or university?
This question was a very good question as it not only linked in with the last questions but it is a very good question to ask and it was highly likely to get a good response.

-what are you hoping to active by studying that at university? what are you future aspirations?
This was a good question as it allowed the audience to feel as though they know me, they know what i look to do in the future.

-do you know any one in tv production?

This was to me one of the worse questions in the interview as it is a question that will be hard to get a good response to its also a bit of a boring question to as, the audience dont really want to know about who i know they want to know more about me.

- so did your teacher tell you to for fill this and go and study this at university?
This question was an example of a question that kristie the interviewee mad up from the previous response that i gave to the previous question that i got asked.-do you currently work outside of school?

-did you have to train to be a lifeguard?
This was my worst question in which i recieved a bad response to. as it was my last question i was hoping for a much longer response, however if i had to chance to re-do my interview again i would make sure i ended my interview on a much stronger question.

Soundtrack mindmap

Although these were our original ideas for our sound in our advert, we finally decided to change our soundtrack to Fix You by Coldplay. We found that this fitted our advert a lot better than some of our original ideas for our soundtrack.

Copyright Research

Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of the original work gives exclusive rights to. Generally, it is "the right to copy", but also gives the copyright holder the right to be credited for the work, to determine who may adapt the work to other forms, who may perform the work, who may financially benefit from it, and other related rights. Copyright applies to any medium, so you must not reproduce copyright protected work in another medium without permission, this can include, publishing photos on the internet, making a sound recording of a book, a painting of a photograph and many more.

As a general rule, the owner of the copyright is the person who created it, i.e. the author.  An author could be the writer, the composer, the artist, the producer or the publisher or another creator depending on the type of work. 
One important exception to this is when an employee creates a work in the course of their employment in which case the copyright owner will be the employer.

A copyright owner has both economic and moral rights. Economic rights cover acts that only the copyright owner can do or authorize.  These include the right to copy the work, distribute copies of it, rent or lend it, perform or show it, communicate it to the public (including making it available online) or adapt it (e.g. making it into a play).

Exceptions 

There are a number of specified copyright exceptions in UK law which permit copying in certain circumstances (for instance for use in judicial proceedings) or for certain categories of people (for instance for those who are visually impaired).  More detailed information regarding these exceptions is beyond the scope of this overview but can be found in the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 or on the UK Intellectual Property Office's website.
In addition to the specified exceptions, there exists a group of exemptions which fall within the scope of ‘fair dealing'.  Material reproduced for the purposes of non-commercial research or private study, for criticism or review or for the reporting of current events is included in this group.  If material is reproduced for these purposes, provided it is genuinely and fairly used for the stated purpose, and is accompanied by a sufficient acknowledgement, it may be considered fair dealing and thus exempt from clearance.  However, the test is subjective and will depend on the circumstances of each case.

Documentary Research Grading

U27 LO3

Grade: Distinction

the research is detailed and consistent, it is clear that you have put a lot of work into this. you have planned and researched to a near professional standard.

U5 LO1

Grade: Merit

the research is detailed and consistent, it is clear that you have put a lot of work into this. you have planned and researched to a near professional standard. But for this LO you need to say how research is a requirement for working to a brief.

Shot List For Interview

Shot List

Our interview consits of 21 shots. The shots can be seen as very repetative as we simply go from one cameram view to another, the reason we chose to have two cameras filming the interview was to make our edit work, we felt that our interview could go from one shot angle to another by using and effect such as fade, we also decided to use two cameras when filming our interview becuase we thought it would be effective when editing our interview to be able to use cross shots of James from different angles. It was also a sort of backup incase we lost any footage on one of the cameras we always had our other camera to rely on, we also found it a lot easier when editing and cutting out our sound that we could use one camera for the footage and the other for the sound, that way we were able to to cut our any stutters or long pauses we had when filming our interview.
Having two cameras as well also allowed us to have all different shots of the interview, we used some close ups and overview shots. This made our interview look very professional.
I feel that the shots do not seem as entertaining as our actual interview however here are a few examples of some of the shots we have:

This is an example of a close up shot. We decided to use close ups

so that we would able to see he's facial expressions as he answered

some of the questions.

See below for
more examples.

         

This shot is more of an overview, we decided to have a few

shots further back so that we were able to see he's gestures and 

hand movements when he was speaking.

animation equpiemnt