Documentary analysis

Documentary Analysis by Kameron Brown


Documentaries are programmes that reveal different views on happenings in places common people may not get to see upfront personally. Documentaries come in a wide variety from wildlife to interactive, to sports and even reflective; the genres are limitless. A strong example of a sports documentary would be Bones Brigade by Stacy Peralta which is a features names from the former childrens skate group Bones Brigade including Rodney Mullen and Tony Hawk. This type of documentary has in depth interviews with the skater and is interview based and makes it very personal, emotional and clear to the viewer. An example of an interactive documentary would be Bowling for Columbine which is about a school shooting massacre which took place  in 1999 at Columbine high school in Columbine.

The reason it's an INTERACTIVE documentary is because what took place on screen was driven by Michael Moore himself rather than through narration or video and interview, it differs from traditional documentaries and is more personal and direct. Michael Moore gave a real time following of events, showing all aspects from meetings which led to scenes, failed requests as well as him meeting new people and speaking to them to even his organized protests. He used a number of tactics to give clear evidence on the cause and corruptive spirits behind the school shooting and how it could've been avoided. What made the film so credible is because Michael Moore appears to be a very average man by sight and is seen struggling and fighting to compromise with companies and executives as well as plead to acquire interview time with big names who play huge influence on the theory of guns. A scene that stood out from a lot of the other was a scene set in the house of Charlton Heston, the president of the National Rifle Association who Michael more had stated hosted a huge gun related event right after the school shooting leaving many hugely distressed and causing uproar within Columbine. Mr. Moore after numerous accounts of request finally acquired time with the President after turning up to his front door on-camera to ask personally for an interview which even then was held off until the next day.

When Moore then got in he added immense pressure to the president who couldn't answer or give valid reason for his choice and eventually called the interview off and left when he came to the realization that Moore was very much exposing his ways and clearly on the winning end of the interview. Michael also pointed out the way media review situations like this and got interviews with musician Marilyn Manson who was blamed on a huge scale for what had happened, which in the documentary Michael set out to expose that it wasn't artists and video games as the media was saying but the media itself which played the biggest role. Michael Moore gave an in depth view on how the media harnessed fear and use it against people. He then showed how easily accessible firearms and ammunition was and protested outside the Walmart headquarters on a great scale after the higher ups had shrugged him off serveral times. Michael Moore had a distinctive point he was trying to make a was very bias in making his point throughout the documentary.

A second documentary I watched was Errol Morris' 'The Thin Blue Line' made in 1998 which is based on the story of Randall Adams who was a convict for Murder charges against a police officer which he didn't commit. He spent 12 years in jail and was released only because of the documentary and soon after died. David Harris who later confessed to the murder at the end of the documentary (which added a huge twist to the documentary). The murder of the police officer took place in Dallas, Texas. This documentary is a performative genre documentary because it is pure realism and factual, with interviews from the people involved and interviews included. It shares it's style with other formats of film like a feature film and this is simply due to it's use of shot and dynamics to help tell it's story, adding intensity purposely in close ups or by using shots of an old tape player instead of a person when playing back an interview. These all appear coincidentally but however are very much intentional and have huge addition and impact on the outcome and effectiveness of the documentary as a whole, shots included tracking shots, close ups and mid shots to name a few which included non-diagetic sound to be used with the interviews and credits more in the beginning of the documentary. It's very distinctive in style and is very interactive with it's viewer and doesn't use voice over and has more of a television show aspect in terms of how it feels to watch. To compare to Bowling for Columbine, Michael is in shot throughout whereas Errol isn't in a single scene or voice over which makes Michael Moore's project interactive.

The Night Mail by John Grierson and released in 1936 is a expository due to it's direct approach to it's points and concept. To convey messages to the viewer it uses voice overs in an informative format of what night mail is including it's history and how it works/what is inclusive and how it would've felt. The whole documentary was staged because there wasn't space for the camera on a regular train. The voice over is factual along with dates and more isn't bias in any way, Traditional formats of documentary are Expository and the purpose was to enlighten people's opinion on the large mail operations and mould or change the overall views on it.
It wasn't to one point as seen in Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine and had more points and wasn't as much of a sensitive subject .

To conclude, I believe Bowling for Columbine was the most moving and interactive to watch, it kept me interested and kept me learning interesting and relevant information which shaped my own living as well as everybody around me and for that It stood well out of the pack out of the three documentaries.

Evaluation (James)

Evaluation

Me and my fellow classmates had got the opportunity to film and organise the Staff Awards 2013. The Staff awards is an annual event held within the college grounds which aims at giving recognition and showing appreciation toward the hard working staff over the year. As a class we had to film the interviews and vox pops including comments and brief insights to the views on colleagues by fellow staff members as well as produce the title sequence for the live event.

My role for the day was Director and as the director I made sure the show ran smoothly and gave direction to the vision mixer as well as kept the floor running smoothly through the audio headsets. I was also in charge of giving adjustment orders to the camera operators which included changing shots, adjusting shots and getting in position for upcoming shots. My expectation of the role was that I'd be running around like a headless chicken having to look at a thousand things at once, I was extremely nervous and prepared for embarrassment and a day from hell; I was still going to give it my all. As the show began it got easier and soon after I had found my rhythm and began understanding how the job role worked. I also took part in filming majority of the video inserts (Voxpops and interviews) as a camera man. My job role was thrown at me by my teacher and initially was pretty shocking considering I asked to be  a lighting assistant.

I learnt a lot before, during and after the day of the awards. Before the day during the pre production process I learnt a lot about camera work for example I trained my skill of improvision as there were a few cases where people needed re recording or didn't have a straight forward plan for shots or the lighting wasn't as expected. I learnt on the day how well I could handle new experiences and not crack under pressure which was very nice and boosted my confidence in my own abilities. With that being said I now feel like I can do a lot more, as if to say I have expanded the world I live in around me by now having fewer limitations on what I will allow myself to do and where I call my comfort zone.

We had to pick first, second and third choice for job roles individually. A lot of people got their first choices however, my teachers wanted to show me I could do more than be a camera man and put me out of my comfort zone, agreeing to put me in charge.
I loved the challenge and believe it couldn't have gone much better for me on the day.

I feel the staff awards went very well and everyone stayed strong under the pressure even though the show got off to a rocky start with us starting a little later than planned, the team worked hard together to make it a well earned success. Not long after the client and our team had a meeting to acquire feedback. The feedback was straight forward and extremely positive, the client stated everyone was brilliant and that it was a good event. She did however state that the only negative was the late start. Besides that the feedback was positive and definitely pleasant for me and everybody who took part in the show.

The following week I kept on getting hand shakes and congratulations for me and my teams efforts on the day and that it was a superb show.

To conclude, I think it all went smoothly and near enough to plan and the experience it's given me is priceless, I'm more confident, daring and my leadership skills have enhanced plenty since the day of the event. It was very fun and brought smiles to everyone. I'd do it again any day and was worth the hard work inputed into the whole buildup.


Kameron Brown

commenting on classmates work (Sue)

Photographic evidence (Sue)

I showcased my video installation to my peers and received positive feedback saying they like my colour use and framing, I got a negative comment saying that it's slightly difficult to understand and could be more direct in it's approach.

Photography video pitch (Sue)

Script for photography video pitch (Sue)

My idea for this task is to recreate vintage photos chosen from my mood board. I will have my model sit in a school photo type position with a basic backdrop and one lighting stand. I will then reduce the photos saturation in post production and add a gold gradient and reduce the opacity to get my end result.

Vintage Life Magazine is a magazine that features practically everything that's vintage From styles and fashion, hair and beauty, house and home, to music and film, everything great about the 20s right through to the late 70s all in one magazine.

With a wide collection of experts sharing their knowledge and many featured articles each issue, Vintage Life aims to put it's reader in touch with memories past and bring them alive all over again.

It's has nearly half a million Facebook fans and nearly 40 thousand twitter followers. Subscribers are worldwide from America to new Zealand, Europe to Hong Kong.

The magazine has featured The Great Gatsby, Paloma Faith, Downton Abbey, Caro Emerald, Dita Von Teese, Breathless, Call the Midwife and Mr Selfridge to name a few.

I believe my photos fit with the magazine because of it’s vintage/antique style and simply because that’s what the whole magazine is based on and looks for when they’re choosing which photos to execute and use.

Unit 23 Multi Camera techniques (James)

Eastenders

The shooting style of this particular programme is very dramatic and up close. I come to this opinion due to the constant use of OTS, Close ups and mid shots in comparison to how often a long shot or wide shot is used. Shots like long shots are only every really used to introduce a location which technically would make them establishing shots. By using close ups and mid shots it makes the viewing very personal and in depth, adding to and enhancing the dramatic appeal the show has on it's audience.

It relates to others in terms of content through it's use of characters, constant trouble and single location as found in shows as Hollyoaks Later which is also a multi-camera production. It relates in audience expectations because of it's constant drama, the audience watch on expecting feuds, lies, and secrets to run the overall entertainment of the show. The programmes both share the same genre and are both British soap operas and both come on roughly around the same times between 8-10:30 latest however Eastenders is on BBC three and Hollyoaks is on channel 4 most commonly.


Everybody Hates Chris

The shooting style of this particular programme anchors purely of humorous and comedic shooting styles, angles and it's use of shot style helps heighten the affects a joke has to the viewer. This often means lots of OTS and equal eye lined shots.

It relates to other shows with the same format in terms of content, lots of comedy and laugh worthy scenes and story lines as found in scrubs. Both audiences expect to be entertained, expect no swearing and lots of comedy, They're both comedies and come on very late/early hours, around 1-4 am



The cube

The shooting style of this particular programme is very dramatic in more of a thrill and adrenaline rushing way in comparison to Eastenders social drama. It's shooting style is very observing and there's a   large variety of long shots and close ups as if the cube was it's own character. These shots of the cube consist of bird's eye view shots especially.

It relates to other shows in it's formats (game shows) because it has the same element of having everything to lose and that a single wrong move can sabotage a contender's chances completely. The audience expect no swearing or offensive terms and expect lots of nerve raising close calls and near misses while the cube is being challenged. This can be compared to another game show like 'Win In a Minute' which is also a game show with the whole short time big win nerve triggering idea. They both come on at different times, The Cube comes on at Sunday at 8:30 whilst Win In a Minute is Friday television for NBC instead of ITV.