Welcome to my blog, here you will see me progress through my film and creative media tasks at south thames college. I will be updating my blog every lesson with work that I have completed, this will consist of short films and other film based work.
Photo Gallery
'Lucky Ten' Short film
Here is a short simple film using multiple shot types, the films tells a quick story of a boy who has no money, but luck is on his side and he finds a ten pound note blowing through the wind, I used multiple shot types to help tell the story. For this short film used a canon 650d with a stock lens, I also used a tripod to keep the camera stable allowing all the shots to be stills.
To put this short film together I used Adobe Premier Pro which a editing software specifically for putting footage together.
Foley Sound
Me and my class had a lesson about 'Foley Sound', we learnt that foley sound is used alot in films, foley sound is when the original sound is replaced by artificial sound which is created by someone and placed in the edit, if the 'Foley sound' is done professionally you wouldn't recognise that it's not the original sound of the footage.
Me and a few classmates formed a small team and we went out to try and create our own 'foley sound' to place over a short film we made earlier this week, unfortunetly the ambient sounds did not match the footage that we had so it looked unrealistic and wouldn't work, the biggest problem was that the wind was too strong causing our recordings to be un-listenable, when the weather changes we will go back and try again and try to make our 'foley sound' fit in and feel realistic.
(Below is a video about foley sound that me and my class watched)
180 Degree Rule
Me and a class mate made a short video using the '180 Degree Rule', The '180 Degree Rule' is a basic guideline regarding the on-screen relationship between two characters or an object that is within the scene.
I also used 'Tracking' in my video, or 'Key Framing' to make the text follow the movement of an actor and then dissapear.
'Key framing' is simple but a time consuming process as you have to move the text gradually and take key frames after every movement, but the end product comes out nicely.
Here are some screenshots of the video I made (video thumbnail is also an example). As you can see the shots don't go past 180 degrees of me and my classmate, hence the reason it's called the '180 Degrees Rule'
180 Degree Rule Video
Searching For A Friend
'Searching For A Friend' is a short film that I made with a classmate, for this task we had to make a short film using a green balloon as a prop. My short film us about a boy who has lost his dog and is looking for him, and this magic balloon has the answers, after blowing the balloon up it acts as a crystal ball and shows him where he can find his lost friend.
for this task we had to use the theme happy or sad, I used sad as my theme but also tried to show my characters excitment when he finds information about his dogs whereabouts, using as many shots ad possible in a short time I think I did a good job of this task, but had to make changes to my edit as some of the shots were over exposed due to the sun being too intense for the camera, next time I come across this problem I will make sure I change the settings as much as possible to avoid my camera being over exposed.
For this short film I used a Canon 700d, All my shots were stills so I used a tripod to make sure that none of my shots were unstable.
Foley Sound Fight Sequence
One of my tasks was to make a short scene, removing all the original sound and creating my own 'Foley Sound', me and my classmates decided to make a small fight scene as the sound in a fight scene needs to be effective, we attempted to make our own sound for the fight scene using our voices and objects we had in the surrounding class room.
I think this task went really well for the first time using 'Foley Sound', I think if I was to do it again I would add more sounds as I was missing a few sounds that would increase the realism of the fight scene, but apart from that I think this task went well.
Pre-Production
This film targets people who like action and adventure fantasy films, the target audience for ‘Lord of the rings’ would people aged 12 as people from this age group tend to like fantasy Adventure stories, I do believe this film was also made for older people as the fan base would have originated from the book ‘The Hobbit’ which came out in 1947 years before the ‘Lord of the Rings’ film trilogy.
Having such a broad target audience is great for this film trilogy as they can make a lot more money compared to if they had one target audience.
I think the main target audience would be the younger people who have probably never read ‘The Hobbit’ or even ‘The Lord Of The Rings’ books in that matter, the makers would spend a lot of time drawing the new audience into the films as they already know that the earliest fans (older people) will already attend/buy the films, to keep the original fans on board with the films they would have used key things in the advertisement so that the fans reminisce and what to see the story unfold again but In the form of a film.
Above is the shotlist for my 'London Loctations for 40-45 year olds' video, I did this in class before visiting the locations, so my shotlist consists mostly on just key shot types I want in my video.
Primary Research
Secondary Research
For my Primary Research I asked my dad some questions by texting him, I was not able to do a filmed interview as he was away.
I asked him questions that linked to my film to give me inspiration for when I go out and start collecting footage, his answers helped me with the locations of my film.
The objective of this task was to make a short film promoting London for 40-45 year old who lived in London so it was important to listen to the answers my dad gave me and portray them in the short film as footage.
For my secondary research I looked at a website called 'TimeOut' this is a great website for finding out things to do in your city, using this website I located places that would fit into my film.
This website gave me a wide majority of locations to pick from in London, from Brixton to Soho and so on, it gave me information about pubs, cinemas, events and more that is all happening in and around my area making it ideal for my research.
Another website I looked at that wasn't as helpful is 'Londonist' this gave me a list of places and things to do in London for Londoners.
On this website I found some places which were suitable for my film, for example, I found information about Tate Britain and Tate Modern which was helpful as they would work in my film.
London Locations Film - 40-45
Evaluation
The theme of this task was to create a promotional video for London using a certain age group, Me and my classmate Stanley was given the age group of 40-45 year olds, we had to create a video promoting London for Londoners aged 40-45.
To develop ideas for this task me and Stanley individually asked one of our parents questions as they were in the correct age group, their answers gave us ideas of what 40-45 year olds would want to do in London, We also looked at websites such as 'TimeOut' and 'Londonist'.
Overall I think this project went well, I think the production of the film went well as we were organized, we planned times for meet ups for wrecking and shooting, we gave ourselves enough time to get the shots we wanted before the deadline, I think that we achieved some really nice shots which fit well together in the edit.
If I was to do this again I would have got more shots to spread out the edit, for example, intro and outro shots, I also think we could have been more specific when it came to getting the shots we needed, I would have also have got more filler shots as I think the film ended to quickly and was way too straight to the point which I think didn't let the audience see enough of the things the voiceover was talking about, If i was to do this again I would also use more locations as I think there weren't enough used in my film.
Genre
A film genre is a category based on the the elements of the film or the emotional response of an audience, genres in films are used to match the target audience, every film is put into a genre usually based to the stereotypes, for example, a film with a high amount of combat throughout would be put into the 'Action' genre, and If a film is made to make the audience jump and feel afraid it would be put into the 'Horror' genre.
Blue Velvet film Trailer
Blue Velvet fits into the genre conventions of a Phycological Thriller Drama, the trailer of this film does not give too much information away about the narrative of the film, this is an effective way of getting the audience to come and watch the film if this technique of a trailer is used effectively, it is a good way to draw in audience as they would want to find out the meaning of the happenings in the trailer.
In this trailer the colors are dark and dull, lots of black, greys and blues, this matches the thriller aspect of the film, the trailer starts of lighter with a happier feel then gradually gets darker and increasingly mysterious, I think this builds tension the longer the trailer goes on, in my opinion the trailer shows two sides of the narrative, almost like the trailer is trying to express good and bad, that there's two sides of the film.
All the shots are all edited at a medium paced and mostly last as long as each other, this allows the audience to relax and analyse what is going on the trailer, doing this can be a risk as you can give too much of the film away.
The short dialogue sections allow the audience to have a bland idea what the film is about, giving them a rough idea of who the main characters are.
The film Scream helped me with a lot of the inspiration of my film trailer, I think the idea behind Scream is simple but effective, using a simple plot and stereotypical cliche's that you expect to see in a horror film, for example, chase scenes, attractive female main character, masked killer, Dull minded white American high school victims, Etc..
I want my trailer to have similarities to the scream films, for example, the unknown voice on the phone and the hooded masked killer.
Texas Chainsaw Massacre was a must use for my research for my horror trailer because of the way it uses it's high intensity scenes throughout the film from its gory murder scenes to it's cheesy cliche chase scenes through the woods. I think this is a great film to use for my research as it uses all the conventions of a horror film.
Shotlist
Blood On The Tree Bark Trailer.
Evaluation
Representation
Research
In this extract the representation of male and females is very stereotypical, men are shown as strong, powerful and aggressive where as woman are shown and weak and quite timid.
The screenshots on the left are three examples of men stereotypically being aggressive and dominant, the first two screenshots are conflicts between two people representing men as being aggressive, the last screenshot is a short scene of two men competing against each other about how many injuries they've had, this represents men as being competitive and also using the stereotype of men trying to be an 'Alpha Male' when around others.
The screenshots to the right are examples of woman being portrayed as weak and emotional, the stereotype of men being the dominant sex is being used throughout this whole extract, woman are shown to be less important and less aggressive compared to men.
For this unit I had to create a film trailer with a theme and genre of our own choice, for this trailer I wanted to try and create a simple horror film trailer using a stereotypical setting, scenes and sounds that you would expect to see in a cliche horror film.
Watching films like Scream and Texas Chainsaw massacre helped me with inspiration when making this film trailer I chose these two films for my research because of the chase scenes and jump scares the other reason was the masked/hooded Villain.
I tried to make a piece that would put the audience on edge using music and quick cut shots to build intensity, I don't think this went well In my film trailer, If I was to attempt it again I would try to capture better shots and make the edit of the trailer cut sharper to make the shots seem quicker and more intensified for viewers. I also think that I gave way too much away in the trailer in terms of narrative, by watching my trailer the audience already knows what is going to happen making my trailer more like a short film.
If I was to do this again I would make sure my trailer was a lot shorter with quicker cut shots so that the audience is brought into the story of the film then straight back out before they can figure out too much about the film
For a lot of the natural sound I replaced using the foley sound technique for example, phone ring tone and my actors footsteps on leaves these two sounds I replaced the original with my own sound.
Overall I think my trailer turned out well, I think that I used the camera to a good ability, I made sure my shots and lighting was well done, my favourite part of my film trailer is the chase scene as I think it worked really well with the theme that I was going for.
Examples of Stereotypes;
Maths Genius
Asian Stereotypes
Every Asian Knows Kung Fu
All Asians eat noodles
"Oh you're Asian, so you must be Chinese?"
Planning
Scene Ideas
'You're black, so you love chicken right?
Black People are all Thugs
All Black people play Basketball
Black People Stereotypes
All black people are rappers
Asian Man Stereotypical Scene 1;
Asian Character cooking ramen, continuously doing the peace sign at the camera and shouting out maths equations, after cooking the ramen the character would do some kung fu and anime related fight moves.
White man, Stereotypical Scene 1;
White character wearing a shirt and tie, supposably working in an office, with a big cup of tea next to him, referring to his mum and dad as mummy and daddy, posh accent, and also trying to dab when a song comes on.
White man, stereotypical scene 2;
In a pub, smoking a cigarette, greets everyone as "fella", "Darlin'" or "Geezer", drinking a pint of Heineken, Screaming England half way through a converstation with someone, wearing his collars up on his polo shirt.
Documentary Idea.
Documentary style project, using the representation of people in London based on Stereotypes, In this documentary I will be targeting certain places in London and find the stereotypes of the surrounding people in the area, I may do vox pop questions, for example I could use the question "what is a stereotype?" or "Would you consider yourself as a stereotype"
I could also do a voice over talking about stereotypes in London, With shots of London, I could talk about the positives and negatives of the Stereotypes on people.
Idea 2.
A short documentary about an Asian man living in London, In this piece the audience will see and find out whats it's like for a Stereotypical Japanese man to live in London, and what he does on a day to day basis, for example, Eats Ramen, watches anime, reads manga, knows martial arts and drinks green tea.
Evaluation
The theme for this project was 'Representation', for my piece I focused on stereotypes In a documentary/Vlog style edit. I came up with multiple Ideas for this project, at first I decided I was going to to Vox box with the public of London, but the public were very unresponsive as they did not want to answer any of my questions, so as I was quickly running out of time to get the footage I needed.
As my friend is Japanese I decided to do a documentary style film to show the representation of Asian people in London, I wanted my character to portray a stereotypical Asain man living in London.
Overall I think that I did well in this task, I think that main thing that went well was framing the shots and using my actor to portray the character that I wanted, I also think I used the locations of my shots to my advantage to portray the character I created.
If I was to do this again I would have planned it better from start to finish, as I had to change my idea with a small amount of time left to complete this task.
I need to improve my own decision making when it comes to tasks like this as I struggled to pick what I wanted to do which causes time to be wasted.
Narrative
A Story is a series of events recorded in their chronological order
A Plot is a series of events deliberately arranged so as to reveal their dramatic thematic and emotional significance.
Order of Story.
Crime Conceived
Crime Planned
Crime Committed
Crime discovered
Detective investigates
Detective Reveals
Order Of Plot.
Crime Discovered
Detective Investigates
Detective Reveals
Crime Conceived
Crime Planned
Crime Committed
Flashback
Spider-man.
Initial Situation;
Peter Parker turns into Spider-man.
Disruption;
The Green Goblin tries to kill Spider-man
Resolution;
Spider-man defeats the Green Goblin.
1. Peter Parker starts off as a nerd at School.
2. turns into spiderman
3. Peter Parker learns how to use his powers.
4. Green Goblin shows up
5. Spider-man defeats the Green Goblin
(sub plot)
1. Peter parker starts off as a nerd at school
2. Turns into spiderman
3. Spider-man lets robber escape, robber kills uncle
4. Spider-man defeats robber.
5. Spider-man uses his power to help people
Home Alone
Initial Situation;
Kevin gets left at home
Disruption;
Robbers attempt to catch Kevin
Resolution;
Kevin defeats the robbers and his parents come home.
1. Kevin's family goes on holiday and forget him, leaving him behind at home.
2.Robbers try to rob Kevin's house
3.Robbers try to get Kevin.
4.Kevin Defeats the robbers, getting them arrested by the police.
5. Family returns home to Kevin.
Battle Royale.
Initial Situation;
Shuya Nanahara and his classmates are on a school trip.
Disruption;
Shuya and his classmates get forced to fight to the death until the last person standing on an unknown island by their own school teacher.
Resoloution;
Shuya Teams up with his friends and manages to stop his teacher which allows him to escape the Island.
1. Shuya and class mates are on a school trip.
2. Whole coach gets gassed which makes them all fall asleep
3. Shuya and classmates wake up on an unknown island and have to fight to the death, last person standing wins.
4. Shuya teams up with friends and plan an idea to defeat the main bad guy
5. Shuya and friends escape the island after defeating bad guy.
Youtube is a massive example of a media institution, ever since it was released in 2005 it has been a massive website which is used everyday, Youtube completely revolutionized media in the 21st century, allowing people to upload their own videos onto the internet properly for the first time ever, Youtube has made stars from Justin Bieber to Ksi and PewdiePie.
Youtube is used by massive companies to advertise their films, products and more, Millions of music artists use it to spread their music around the world and release music videos.
Institution
Netflix's Ideology is to provide their subscribers/viewers with top quality tv shows and films for a low and affordable price.
Netflix is an online company which allows you to watch films and tv shows wherever and whenever you like as long as you have access to the internet.
Netflix have their own exclusive shows known as 'Netflix Originals' that you cannot View anywhere else except on Netflix itself, (some well known 'Netflix Originals" shown above.)
Another example of something similar to Netflix is Amazon Prime, with the exact same concept as Netflix.
Logos
Bold stand out text to draw attention from the audience
Every institution in the Media have their own unique logo, Logos are an essential part to creating a visual representation of a company that people can recognize, logos assist a company creating a brand and identity, branding helps the company get recognized easier.
Companies tend to use colors that have a high contrast when next to each other, this way their logo will stand out and catch the eye of the audience, companies will also make sure their logo is unique and original, this way it helps the logo to be easily recognized
Companies will usually have multiple logos to advertise themselves in different ways
Using photoshop I created my own logo for my work, I made two logos with different styles, I used simple colors (Black & White) I found that using simple colors it gave my logo a professional look.
This is my favorite out of the two logos I created, I think this one looks more professional that the one above, I also just like how plain it is, I find that this makes it more attractive and straight to the point.
Evaluation
I think that the logo I chose out of the two I created is an effective clean logo, I wanted my logo to be smart but simple, this way it brings a professional feeling to it, I spoke to a few of my peers and they all thought my logo was clean and simple which I was happy about as that was the objective.
If I was to create it again I would probably use a different font type to make it more exciting making it stand out more for the audience to see, as even though I think that my logo looks professional and smart I don't think it stands out amongst most logos that are out there.
If I was to animate my logo I would have the small text fade in and then the 'C' would come in as if it was being drawn on, I would also make it sound as if and old film reel was being unraveled.
Stage One.
I simply added the text 'Clements Film Productions', I then added the initial for my first name 'C' increased the size and made it the other text almost sit inside it.
Stage Two.
For this stage I started to prepare the 'Brush tool' to the Texture and opacity I wanted it in.
Stage Three.
I then got onto choosing the color I wanted for the 'Brush tool' I chose white as I wanted the black text to seem like it was fading into the background.
Stage Four.
I then used the brush tool to do as I wanted it to do, I used the white brush tool to fade my initial '' into the background which gives the logo a professional clean feel to it.
Final Outcome
Exhibition Visits/ Video Installation
Before the winter holiday me and my class visited two film art exhibitions, I found them really interesting and I think they have helped me with my ideas building up to creating my own Video art installation, I think it was important for me to see the way these artists have set out their work as an exhibition, as the layout of a video installation is very important when it comes to expressing your work and setting a mood in the space you have for your exhibition.
This was one of my favourite pieces of work from one of the exhibits as I think it was set out really well.
the centre screen had the main film showing, while the surrounding environment had various lights to set different moods.
above the viewing area there were lots of small speakers hanging down which were projecting the sound of rain, a long part of this piece you sat in darkness listening to the rain and watching lights changed colours, I found this part my favourite as it made me feel very relaxed and happy.
This is another piece of work that I like, I really liked the layout of the work. All the small screens showing different clips of old film, for example, Charlie Chaplin, he was a major factor of this piece as Charlie Chaplin is such an iconic original film star.
The other thing I liked about this piece was the sound, there wasn't any, it was a dark peaceful room, which really brought you in to what was going on in the films shown, it gave you the chance to pick a certain screen and watch without being distracted by others, I liked how unique this piece was.
I got the chance to use a 16mm Steenbeck Flatbed to create my own 3 cut edit using found footage that was laying around in the Steenbeck room.
Even though the edit was short I wanted it to relate to the theme (Memory) that I have been given for my own video installation, I also wanted it to incorporate horror into it as I think the look of old film can give off a sinister feel to it.
A man awakes from a nightmare holding his hands on his head, it then cuts to a POV shot of a car driving down a long road and then to mysterious candles on a table top.
Installation layout Ideas
Chairs for viewers
Individual Monitors
I quickly created some plans for the layout of my video installation, My first idea was to have three individual screens to show my installation, each screen would show a different scene.
My second idea was to have one screen (maybe projected onto the wall) showing a fluid video installation more like short film, I think this would be better as the viewers wouldn't miss anything from a certain scene.
Research
Martin Creed - During my visit to 'The Infinite Mix' I saw a variety of different pieces of art, the first piece I saw was by an artist called Martin Creed, I really enjoyed the simplicity of this piece, like other pieces of Martins work it focused on one single movement, each scene was a different person making it across the zebra crossing, each person was different which made this piece so unique, each person had a different struggle/challenge to complete the journey across to the other side of the zebra crossing.
I think using one movement of gesture is a very effective technique when it comes to video art installations.
Rachel Rose - Another artist that featured at 'The Infinite Mix' who presented a spectacular piece focused on an experience of a U.S astronaut who goes on to tell the viewers about the time he spent in space looking down at earth.
The visuals of this piece of work were amazing, using everyday products such as milk, food coloring, oil and water to create all these amazing colors and sci-fi effects.
I am hoping to make my video installation quite visual so that the viewers enjoy what they're watching.
Reasearch Survey
Installation
Installation Screening.
Screening my work like this was a new experience for me and I think it's good for a film maker to present his/her work like this because it gives you a good understanding of how audiences react to your piece of work,it also gives to the oppurtunity to gain feedback from your viewers.
Evaluation
For this project I had to create a video installation and present it to my classmates in college, I was given the theme 'Memory', throughout my first year of living in London I had documented the places I visited allowing me to put together a personal piece. I focused on using a variation of colors in my installation to show different feelings of how I felt at the time.
I feel as if I didn't really have enough footage when it came to putting my shots together which was a problem but I think that I did well with what I have done, I need to work on my planning before going filming so that I can get the right amount of footage needed.
If I was to do it again I would make it more of a screenplay by using actors reenacting things that have happened to me, this would have been more of a short film style piece but I would still use colors and shot types
Breathless
400 Blows
Le Jettee & 12 Monkeys
Scene Remake – La Jetee
For this piece of work I will be looking to remake a scene from 'La Jetee' from when the main character is being sent into the future using special goggles, I really like this scene because it can be portrayed in may different way, I think that I want to keep some sort of eyewear on my character and maybe an open faced balaclava for an extra aesthetic.
I have the idea of using a dark room (film studio) for my scene, and really focus on the lighting and positioning of my character, I have the idea of my character passing through some sort of time portal at some point through the scene, using the lights in the studio and quick cut editing to create an intense feeling.
Convict Of Time
Evaluation
For this project I recreated a scene from 'Le Jetee', I chose a certain scene when the main character is being put through the process of time travel.
I think that I could have done alot better with the footage I got, as I feel like I rushed the filming which caused me to make mistakes but I do think I did well with what I had put together In the edit. The main thing I focused on was the edit of this piece as there was only so much that I would be able to film in the college studio, I specifically focused on the lighting of my shots, for example, when I wanted to increase the intensity of my shots I used more light and moved them around at the same time.
I really wanted this piece to give out a Sci-Fi horror theme and more intense than the original 'La jetee', doing this gives me my own sort of style to it rather than copying 'La jetee'.
The only props I needed was a chair for my character to sit in and a strap to make it look like he was contained in the chair, If I was to do this again I would create some sort of costume to fit the scene, for example, sci-fi type goggles.
To Improve myself I need to slow down and take time In my work to make sure i'm not rushing and making mistakes, doing this can really help me think about what to do in the time I have and really focus on making my piece of work that I can be proud of.
Documentary; Nick Broomfield & the triumph Of the Will
Tupac
Biggie
Animation
Research
Pingu
Pingu is a famous children's show that has been around for years, this show was one of my favorites when I was little, with it's timeless style of animation it is still watched by children children today. I wanted to use Pingu in my Research because I love how fluid and timeless the animation is, it never seems to feel old.
Harry Potter
I wanted to base my animation on another childhood favorite of mine, so I chose Harry Potter, I also chose a Quidditch scene as I find it exciting and nostalgic, i've always thought that Quidditch would make a good animation.
PINGU AND THE GIFT- PINGU OFFICIAL CHANNEL
In-text: ("Pingu And The Gift- Pingu Official Channel")
Your Bibliography: "Pingu And The Gift- Pingu Official Channel". YouTube. N.p., 2017. Web. 24 Mar. 2017.
Gary Potter - Animation
Evaluation
For this task I had to create an animation of my choice, I chose to base my animation on a Quidditch match from 'Harry Potter'.
To create the animated images I firstly drew them out and then simply cut them into shape, I then took digital pictures of them and imported them into Adobe Premier Pro where I can bring my animation alive. By key framing my images I am able to make them move the way I want them to, I also recorded myself making funny noises for sound effects and a few words for my character to say during the animation.
Overall I think that I could have done a lot better with my animation, I think that my animation feels slightly rushed, I don't think my animation is at a high standard.
Development: If I was to do this again I would take more time into creating my images for my animation as I think that my animation was too plain and simple. I think that I would also try and create a more complex narrative so that my animation has more of a meaning.
What is Documentary?
Michael Renov's four distinct (but sometimes overlapping) purposes of documentary:
-
to record, reveal, or preserve
-
to persuade or promote
-
to analyze or interrogate
-
to express
What are the different forms of documentary?
Poetic - Instead of using traditional linear continuity to create a story structure, the filmmaker arrives at its point by arranging footage in an order to evoke an audience association through tone, rhythm, or spatial juxtaposition.
(Example, Joris Ivens - Regan 1929)
Expository Documentary - Expository Documentaries speak directly to the viewer, often in the form of an authoritative commentary employing voice over or titles, proposing a strong argument and point of view. These films are rhetorical and try to persuade the viewer. (Example, Night Mail 1936)
Participatory Documentary - Participatory Documentary is when the encounter between filmmaker and subject is recorded and the filmmaker actively engages with the situation they are documenting. (Example, Louie Theroux - Weird Weekends)
Observational - Observational documentaries is when unobtrusive observation of the subject is the director's aim.
(Example, David Attenborough - Planet Earth)
Reflexive - This is where the viewer is just as interested about how the film is constructed as they are the actual content.
(Example, Dziga Vertov - Man with a movie camera 1929)
Performative - Performative documentary emphasizes the filmmaker's own involvement with the subject.
(Example, Marlon Riggs - Tongues Untied)
Examples of early documentary
Extracts from 'Man of Aran' (1934) -
Sypnopsis - In this blend of documentary and fictional narrative from pioneering filmmaker Robert Flaherty, the everyday trials of life on Ireland's unforgiving Aran Islands are captured with attention to naturalistic beauty and historical detail.
FLAHERTY, R., FLAHERTY, R., KING, C., DIRRANE, M. AND DIRRANE, M.
Man of Aran (1934)
In-text: (Flaherty et al., 1934)
Your Bibliography: Flaherty, R., Flaherty, R., King, C., Dirrane, M. and Dirrane, M. (1934). Man of Aran (1934). [online] IMDb. Available at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0025456/ [Accessed 22 Jun. 2017].
Day in the life of a Coal Miner -
A coal miner says good-bye to his wife and children, and heads off to work. He reaches the mine, prepares his lamp, and then descends into the mine along with some other workers. As he and the others work inside the mine, the coal is sent to the surface, where others at the mining site are ready to process the coal and to prepare it for shipping.
A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A COAL MINER (1910)
In-text: (IMDb, 1910)
Your Bibliography: IMDb. (1910). A Day in the Life of a Coal Miner (1910). [online] Available at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0257522/plotsummary?ref_=tt_ov_pl [Accessed 22 Jun. 2017].
Night Mail (1937) -
Night Mail is an account of the operation of the Royal Mail train delivery service, and shows the various stages and procedures of that operation. The film begins with a voiceover commentary describing how the mail is collected for transit. Then, as the train proceeds along the course of its journey, we are shown the various regional railway stations at which it collects and deposits mail. Inside the train the process of sorting takes place. As the train nears its destination there is a sequence - the best known in the film, in which Auden's spoken verse and Britten's music are combined over montage images of racing train wheels.
BFI SCREENONLINE: NIGHT MAIL (1936)
In-text: (Screenonline.org.uk, 1936)
Your Bibliography: Screenonline.org.uk. (1936). BFI Screenonline: Night Mail (1936). [online] Available at: http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/530415/ [Accessed 22 Jun. 2017].
Investigating Documentary Form
This link will lead you to an atricle which talks about 'Direct Cinema' which is a documentary genre which started around the year 1962 in North America. This article also talks about 'Cinéma vérité' which translates to 'Truthful Cinema' is another genre of documentary filmmaking. In 'Cinéma vérité' the filmmaker can participate in front of camera aswell as making artistic choices and be able to create an artifice within the film whereas in 'Direct Cinema' the author is not participant.
Having your camera hidden from your subject gives you the chance of capturing natural movements from your subject which would be hard to get from a subject that is acting as there will be nothing forced in their actions.
Having your camera hidden can cause problems when wanting to capture something specific as you have no control over what your subject is doing, you also may only be able to capture certain shot types compared to when you have a subject that knows there's a camera there, for example, close ups would be a problem when wanting to keep your camera consealed from a subject.
The Thin Blue Line
Director - Errol Morris
Year of production - 1988
I think that the purpose of this film was to find out if the man arrested for the crime committed was wrongly charged or not. There were a few techniques used in this film one of them was reconstruction, there were some brilliant scenes where the filmmaker had reconstructed a murder which I think is really effective for the audience to see as it really brings what the people in the film are talking about alive, I think reconstructions/reenactments are very important in a film like this as the people in the film are being very descriptive into what they are talking about so I think that bringing their experience to life is important for the audience to have a better understanding of to whats is going on, I think it also builds more excitement and intensity in a film like this which is important as if it was just people plainly talking to the camera it could become boring for the audience.
This film observational as you never hear the filmmaker speak, yet the people in this film are being interviewed, you never hear the questions being asked which I thought was interesting, the questions come to mind in your head and they're answered by the people in the film. I thought that the editing in this film was simple and clean, every cut was sharp with no fades or cross overs which I think is more effective as you are then not drawn away from the narrative.
The music in this film was poor in my opinion, yes I think it fit the crime/noir feel but I think it was quite boring, I think that a more exciting soundtrack would have fit better and would have had a bigger impact on the audience.
The narrative is slowly constructed by the people being interviewed throughout the film and reconstructions that give you more of an insight.
I think that the ending of the film was good, I think it really rounded the whole story up and would have had a good impact upon the audience and also the actual case itself, the convicted man was freed from jail because of this film which is extraordinary.
https://www.nfb.ca/film/capturing_reality/
Synopsis: In this feature-length film on the art of the documentary, director Pepita Ferrari interviews 33 leading documentarians and shows clips from over 50 films. From cinéma-vérité pioneers like Albert Maysles and Michel Brault to mavericks like Errol Morris and Nick Broomfield, it explores the challenges of capturing reality on film. Directors as diverse as Pakistani feminist Sabiha Sumar and new media guru Peter Wintonick reflect on ethical issues and the contested status of the “truth.”
My Documentary Idea
Synopsis
UK Parents who are about to see their children being in a massive debt after attending universities are worried and want a change, I will be speaking to parents and undergraduates to see what they think of this situation, does something need to change? Hopefully this documentary can answer some questions. A big question asked by parents is "why are British students charged for attending British universities?" This will be my main question asked to the parents and the students as I really want their opinion on this case. The average debt a graduate has after leaving university is £44,000 which is a massive sum of money especially for someone so young, I want to speak to Parents and students about this, why does the British public have to pay so much to study in their own country?
Loglines
A logline is a sentence that is made to try and sell a film/documentary, loglines are very specific sentences that give out the key information about the film/documentary that will bring an audience in.
Examples;
"A documentary following the controversial captivity of killer whales, and its dangers for both humans and whales." - Blackfish
"Johnny Knoxville and his band of maniacs perform a variety of stunts and gross-out gags on the big screen for the first time." - Jackass: The Movie
"Writer and musician Nick Cave marks his 20,000th day on the planet Earth." - 20,000th Days On Earth
My Logline;
"Young aspiring filmmaker gets answers from UK Parents on their opinion about the Heavy Debts on their children's shoulders that come from Universities"
Big Money
I am in west wales, Aberystwyth and surrounding areas a drone is used to film the scenic country and seaside town starting off by coming over the well known constitution hill and then down onto the tow of Aberystwyth
Multiple families individually standing outside their houses, cuts between each family with the amount of tuition fee debt popping up above the head of each family. we then cut between each family sitting down on their lounge sofa, each shot is the same angle. The song 'Black tambourine' playing in the background.
This documentary is over two days and is to see what parents and undergraduates think about the debt that their son/daughter will be in when they graduate from university. Each of the families introduce themselves to the camera, in this order; Jones, Williams, Patel's and the Kent family, In the first day I will be talking to the Jones and Williams family, the faces of the Jones family are censored as they wanted to keep their identity safe.
I ask about what courses the undergraduate will be doing in university and what university they will be attending. (Questions are only asked once then cuts between answers from parents and undergraduates from both families)
I then talk to the undergraduates individually and see what they think about the situation as I think it's easier to talk when your parents aren't around. I ask the undergraduates if they are worried about the debt that they will have when they graduate and if they think that it will change their life in anyway having a debt like this, I also ask if they think that UK citizens should have free tuition.
I then ask the parents the same thing about their son/daughter having that much debt on their shoulders when they graduate and if they think UK citizens should get free tuition to see if I get the same response.
Both the Jones and Williams families think that tuition fees for UK citizens should be free as they feel it is too much stress for their children to carry on their shoulders at such a young age.
The second day has come and I am now talking to the Patel and Kent family, these two families earn considerably more than the two families that I spoke to on the first day I did this on purpose as I can now see how different families with different incomes react to a big debt like that.
I go ahead and ask about the income of the families and how they think they are going to cope with their son/daughter being in such debt, I also bring the undergraduates aside and ask them individually what they think about the whole situation as before, I also ask about their opinion on having free tuition fee's for UK citizens like themselves.
This time both families still agreed with having free tuition fee's but unlike the Williams and Jones families they are less worried about debt issues as they are willing to help their children pay it off after they graduate but are still wary that not everyone is in the position to do that so they still think Tuition fees should be paid for by the government as it was when they were uni students.
Similar to the introduction when the families all take a seat but this time standing up each family stands up and walks off shot edit cutting between them. The song 'Black tambourine' playing in the background.