Tuesday, 5 October 2010

Interview Techniques

As Preperation for filming our Documentary, we have done some practise shots of a short style documentary based on CCTV in school.
The shots are shaky and unstabilised as we did not use a tripod but we think we have explored the different interview techniques that are used in a documentary by looking at Formal Interviews, Anonymous Interviews and a Participatory Interview.

Research on CCTV

We have explored different ways to research our topic of surveillance and this has really helped us with some ideas of what we can include in our Documentary.

Websites we have looked at:

http://tech.blorge.com/structure:%20/2010/10/05/internet-eyes-allows-home-cctv-spying/%20/2010/10/05/internet-eyes-allows-home-cctv-spying/ying/



This website link argues and raises the issues of how watching cctv over the interent can be a way of fighting crime and how it can be voyeristic.

This is an example of a live steam website which is available for anyone to watch a Crossing located in London over the internet.
http://www.abbeyroad.com/visit/

Visits:
I took a trip to the tate modern exhibition- Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveillance and the Camera.
This has helped give ideas towards our documentary and how we can expand on the topic further.

Research through Newspapers:
I have looked through the local newspaper and found this report of how the powers of The Regulation of Investigatory Powers act, have caused Controversy since their inception of 2000, with many critics accusing councils of using the legislation to 'spy' on people.
This is a serious topic we can explore for our Documentary as it is interesting yet intriguing as it is based in a local area.

[insert scan of newspaper cutting]


Photographic Research:
We went out to see what type of Closed Circuit Television is used around our school and where they are located.




Wednesday, 8 September 2010

Documentary Ideas.

Idea 1:
Our first idea is on CCTV, as Britain is one of the countries with the most CCTV cameras in the world capturing our every movement. The Documentary would be about how cctv has helped/effected us and its pros and cons. The Spider diagram below will explain our ideas of what would be in our documentary based on CCTV.



Idea 2:
This is an idea based on how the beauty industry has tricked girls and woman of all ages, particulaly teenagers under 16 through the magic of airbrushing and into what seems 'perfect' through television adverts, magazines which are modelled by their favourite celebrities but is actually faked and enhanced through post-production.
The idea of the documentary is to get the message through of what the process is and how it has affected teenagers around the world especially by cosmetic surgery and also interviewing what the general public (male and female) view on it is. This is a mind map to explain a bit more on the idea:

Friday, 3 September 2010

Word Cloud

This is my world cloud presenting words in relation to 'Documentary'






Word cloud made with WordItOut

Friday, 16 July 2010

Celebrity Documentaries

Celebrity Documentaries generally follow the day to day life of a celebrity or a celebrity couple.
The idea of the documentary is to give the audience and insight and behind the scenes look into their lives. The viewers are typically young adults and teenagers with a particular interest in up to date celebrity news or a fan of the celeb.


Some examples of Celebrity Documentaries are:



-Kerry and Me:

A Fly on the wall Documentary based on Kerry Katona's private life after her divorce.


- What Katie did next:


What Katie Did Next is a fly on the wall reality TV show that documents the model/television personality Katie Price after her separation from her husband Peter Andre. The show follows on from the Katie & Peter series which documented the couple when they were together.

This is a youtube clip of Part one of first episode of 'What katie did next':

Thursday, 15 July 2010

Conspiracy Documentaries.

Conspiracy documentaries reveal a new argument to why or how an historical event occurred.

They are typically subjective to only one point of view in order to persuade the audience.

They usually feature voice overs of the presenters explaining their theory whilst presenting footage of evidence as well as interviews to support their claims.

This type of documentary has a wider audience depending on the conspiracy theories featured. They are generally between 30 minutes to an hour in length.

Mockumentaries

The length of mockumentaries varies much more than documentaries of other genres as they can be documentaries presented as films or series. they include material that is often involved in current news or society such as Bruno making fun of the on going celebrity world or The Office making fun of the stereotypical office man.



Dispatches

Dispatches are documentaries that are often targeted at the older audience of whom are interested in Current affairs which are studied often using undercover cameras in older to reveal the true workings of associations.

They are filmed to reveal the negative aspects of associations of which society places some form of trust such as restaurants and social services or taxes and last typically between 30 minutes to an hour long.

Documentary Film

Some examples of Documentary Film are Supersized me, directed by Morgan Spurlock and also Borat and Bruno (which are mockumentaries).



The audience for Documentary films are largely dependent on the content and topic discussed.

They offer the audience a diffferent way of viewing a Documentary which some may find more engaging however they still follow the conventions of documentary rather than film.



Styles of Documentary

There are several types of documentary styles on tv for different purposes and views such as:
-Celebrity Documentaries
-Documentary Film
-Dispatches
-Mockumentaries
-Conspiracy Documentaries.

Wednesday, 14 July 2010

The Rise of Documentary


This is a timeline of The rise of Documentaries. Click on the pictures to link to some more information about the subject.

Sunday, 11 July 2010

Louis Theroux


Louis Theroux is a British-American broadcaster. He is known best for his Gonzo style of journalism. This style of journalism is similar to reflexive journalism. It is famous for sarcasm, exaggeration, humour and profanities and is written subjectively, in the first person narrative, including the reporter as a part of the story.

He is famous for his show 'Louis Therous Weird Weekends', which is a documentary series which was shown on BBC2 from 1998 to 2000 separated into 3 series. In this documentary, Louis Theroux gives the audience a small insight into the lives of different types of mpeople who have extremist beliefs or live in a culture which is stereotyped badly; individials who would not normally come into contact with what we know as 'normal' existence.

This is a clip of part of the episode of Louis Theroux: A place for Paedophiles:



As a class, we have watched one of his documentaries- 'Louis and The Brothel' which is about when Louis spends six weeks living in Nevada brothel, the Wild Horse Spa & Resort, set up by former prostitute Susan and one of her regular clients Lance. He meets the punters and the girls including Emily, who is the youngest prostitute at 19, Belle, who is 21 but looks 12 and attracts paedophile punters, and Haley, an alcoholic who wants to get out of the game.





It basically gives an insight of what life is like from working and living in a Brothel and how the girls of who Louis interview with, cope with everyday issues and what they expect from their job. It is a reflexive and expository type of documentary.

Nick Broomfield.

This is a presentation i made about Nick Broomfield:



This is a trailer of Aileen: Life and death of a serial killer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rExhihAZGxg

Michael Moore

Michael Moore

Michael Moore is an American Filmmaker as well as an Author and Liberal Political Commentator. Moore was born in Flint, Michigan on 23rd April 1954.

He began his path of success studying journalism at the university of Michigan-Flint. Michael began his journalist career by writing for the school newspaper 'The Michigan Times'.
By the time he was 32, Michael became the editor of a liberal political magazine called 'Mother Jones'.


After editing, Michael moved onto Filmmaking and bBy 1989, Moore directed and produced a documentary film called 'Roger & Me'. This was about what happened to Flint in Michigan after General Motors closed its factories and opened new ones in Mexico, of where the workers were paid much less. Moore was able to produce this documentary from earning the money for the budget by getting sued for wrongful dismissal and settled out of court for $58,000 which produced him enough money for his first film.


He had also Directed and produced films of mainly which were a string of Documentaries and TV Series predominently about the same subject of attacks on corrupt politicians and greedy business corporations. These are the films of which Michael Moore had produced and directed:


-Pets or Meat: Return to Flint (1992)


-Canadian Bacon (1995)


-The Big one (1997)


-Bowling for Columbine (2002)
The Bowling for Columbine was his first big hit about the bad points of the right to bear arms and probes the culture of guns and violence in the United States, which earned him an Oscar and a big reputation.


-Fahrenheit 9/11 (2005)
Fahrenheit then became a bigger hit which examined the aftermath of America's September 11th, 2001 attacks, Particularly the record of the Bush administration and alleged links between the families of George Bush and Osama Bin Laden of which were making fun out of. This is known as the highest-grossing documentary of all time. Michael is known for having the guts to give his opinion in public, which not many people are courageous enough to do, and for that is respected by many.

-Sicko (2007)
This is one of Michael Moore's most famous documentay. It is about comparing the highly profitable American health care industry to other nations.

-Captain Mike across America (2008)

-Capitalism: A Love Story (2009).

Introduction

Introduction

For my A2 Media course, i am going to be looking into documentaries and explore the different types and forms as well as researching documentary makers such as Michael Moore, Louix Theroux and Nick Broomfield. For our Main task, I will eventually be creating my own documentary aimed at specific audience so it is important to record my progress in research and development on this blog.

What are the purposes of a Documentaries?

Documentaries analyse or interrogate real life situations giving viewers entertainment and ways to express their views and opinions. They can Record, reveal or preserve and can also Persuade or promote viewers to something.

What are the types?

The types of Documentaries are:
- Reflexive = the film maker acknowledges their presence, sometimes infront of camera and give some narrative guidance.
- Poetic = artistic narrative is constructed, sometimes the topic is more human interest rather than current afairs.
- Observational = being there as events unfold, tend to follow a person or event and document their journey.
- Expository = analysis and exposition of person or topic, Michael Moore exposes society to forms or political corruption.