Casting

Casting is always an important part of film production, because if the actors aren't very good then the whole outcome can seem unbelievable. Seeing as our documentary is going to be on a sensitive topic in which we want it to look like a real story, we needed good actors. 

The roles we needed filling were:

FEMALE ACTRESSES:

- victim in the interview

- victim in the reconstruction

- friend of the victim

MALE ACTORS:

- attacker in CCTV footage

- attacker in reconstruction

- rescuer in reconstruction

- rescuer in interview

We needed the two different actors/actresses in the reconstruction and interview to be of a similar age as one would be playing the "real" victim and the events in which occurred.

Inspirations for our Documentary

I really like the idea of a crime genre documentary. We can use the skills we learnt from last year when making our short thriller film for this because it would need to be full of suspense to intrigue the audience and create the atmosphere the victim went through. After watching the clip in the link below, my group and I realised this is what we want to do. We could include a variety of different types of shots to show our knowledge and ability of camera skills and editing, such as; CCTV footage (which will rely mostly on editing), reconstructions (lots of different camera angles and techniques), police photos, voiceovers, actual audio (police call) and interviews.

This clip managed to engage me and make me intrigued to watch the rest of the clip. The interviews from the victim creates sympathy as we get a first hand source of what happened and how it has affected her. The audio from her interview is played throughout the different clips as she narrates what happened, which is supported by CCTV and reconstructions to show the audience what took place and how. The CCTV is chilling as we can actually see what went on, and what the victim went through, managing to mae the audience emotionally attached.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/crimewatch/appeals/2010/09_10/hayes_attemptedrape.shtml

"Teen Cribs"

In order to decide what type of documentary to do, Tilly and I thought it would be a good idea to make a mini documentary so we could get a feel for the style in which it would need to be filmed, and to figure out whether or not we liked it. After all, there is loads of different types of documentaries to choose from. Our inspiration for this was 'Teen Cribs'. It is observational and also expository, in which the camera follows the person showing the audience around their house and talking to the camera as though it was a person. MTV have a very modern approach to their series as they edit and film it in a funky way. They zoom in and out, rewind and fast forward and tilt the camera to different angles, which appeals to a teenage audience. I really liked filming and editing our version of Teen Cribs because it was funny and not something we had to think hard about because we watch the programme ourselves so we knew what sort of things to include.

I filmed and edited the clips, and Tilly Guess acted it in. I tried to make it seem upbeat and modern by putting a hip-hop song in the background, which I faded to 10% during clips where Tilly spoke, and leaving it normal (100%) volume during the other times. I set one of the clips towards the start to rewind because I have seen this effect used in the real programme and I really like it. I did this by selecting the bit when she jumped onto the bed, then copying and pasting it after the first clip of it. I then double clicked it and 'Converted the clip', which then gave me the option to have it in 'Reverse'. While she is in her bathroom, after watching it back I felt as though it went on a little too long. So to speed things up, I made the time she took to walk from her toilet to her shower, and her shower to her sink faster. I used the same technique I used to rewind the clips, in which i copied and pasted the clips I wanted sped up, then converted the clip and increased the speed. I also repeated some clips to emphasise how spoilt the girl is, as this is really what comes across during our short test documentary. I copied and pasted the clip where she says 'Dolce and Gabbana' and cut it to those exact words so she repeated it 3 times. When I showed some friends the clips this made them laugh which is the reaction I wanted to achieve.

Testing Out... Camera Angles

Watching Documentaries

In order to learn more about documentaries, how they are made and why they are made in certain ways, I am going to watch a variety of real life documentaries during the course of this year to further my understanding and to hopefully improve my final outcome when I make my own.


Seven Days:

Seven Days is the new TV programme that follows a diverse group of Nottingham's most interesting people, living and working in Notting Hill who want the public's opinion as to what they should do next in their lives. It is aired by Channel 4.


The documentary starts off with black sentences against a white screen reading 'What you are about to see, happened in the last seven days. To people who live or work in Notting Hill West London. Tell them what you think.' This introduction sums up the meaning of this documentary and "tells" the audience what they have to do. It entitles the public to not only have their own opinion, but the ability to voice it. This is a rare opportunity as most are only there to observe.


After this, it goes into 3 arial shots of the city to set the scene, then a few short clips of things happening that day; people dancing on the street, newspaper headline for that day, someone at the dentist. I really like this idea because it shows a brief insight into where these people live, already giving the viewers a lot more knowledge, only a few seconds in.


Following this, the characters are introduced. The first to be shown are two girls, sitting inside a cafe. They are introduced by white text with their name and their job beneath that. It doesn't stay on these girls for long. It then goes to two guys in their home, but they are not introduced. It then goes back to the girls, but this time showing the name of the cafe they are in. Not long after this it introduces us to someone else, Hannah, an Interior Designer. It then cuts back to the girls in the cafe, and then back to Hannah. It is showing two different locations with different people weaving into each other. This idea is clever because it shows contrasts between people that live there. It kept my attention longer because two different things were happening at once, so I wasn't stuck in the same scene for too long. These short scenes enabled the editors to cut out less interesting scenes more discretely. 
Not only does the text show people's names, it also tells us why someone is where they are or what is going on, like 'Malcom's new buy-to-let property', as he enters the house, because we would have not known this otherwise.


None of the actors hide the fact they are being filmed. They will openly talk about the cameras and if they are distracting them from they're everyday lives. This sometimes happens in reality documentaries, but you would never see this in an education documentary such as 'Life' - the nature documentary.


Most of the shots are mid- shots and long shots. All of them are level with the people they are filming; we're not seeing lots of sophisticated shots such as arial shots or with objects in the way. This keeps the viewer's focus, and enables them to feel like they are actually there. Sometimes during less intense conversation scenes, there will be shots of people's feet as they walk etc but this is discrete and I think it works well.
Each scene usually starts with a few short clips of the surroundings, and then the rest are usually long clips that have the camera panning the scene, instead of lots of different angles which would make me feel as though what is happening isn't real, but acted. It would seem more like a reality TV show instead of a documentary.


Throughout the show, a white box at the bottom of the screen appears with the show's web address on it, reminding the audience they can go on it and voice their opinion.


This sort of documentary is very similar to something I would like to produce because it follows the lives of people in a way I really like. It consists of hand held shots and steady shots, and makes the viewer feel as though they are there in the scene.

Testing Out... Interview Techniques

'Testing Out...'

In order to further develop our skills and knowledge, my group has decided to make a series of short videos showing us practising different areas involved in making a documentary to find out what we like and what we don't like. It is going to be called 'Testing Out...' and each one will show us testing out something different such as:

• Camera Angles
• Ways to edit
• Interview Techniques
• Documentary modes

Chosen Idea

From both the two initial ideas, my group and I decided on the crime genre idea. We felt it had more leeway for us to film and include a larger variety of shots and camera techniques to enhance our creativity and skill. Crimewatch has given us some great ideas and has been a real influence as to how we want to shoot our documentary. 


This Prezi will show you the storyline we have come up with and what we plan to include:

Initial Idea 2 - Bipolar Disorder

Bipolar disorder, also known as manic-depressive illness, is a brain disorder that causes unusual shifts in mood, energy, activity levels, and the ability to carry out day-to-day tasks. Symptoms of bipolar disorder are severe. They are different from the normal ups and downs that everyone goes through from time to time. Bipolar disorder symptoms can result in damaged relationships, poor job or school performance, and even suicide. But bipolar disorder can be treated, and people with this illness can lead full and productive lives.


We came up with this idea because it is more personal. We wanted to do a documentary on someone's life, with the camera following them - like Seven, because it is a style of documentary that myself, Matt and Tilly like to watch. It would be observational and expository, as well as educational because it would follow a teenage girl with the disorder, and give the audience an insight as to how it affects her day to day life, and also how her family and friends cope with it. This way we could include interviews and maybe even a Video Diary where a camera is placed somewhere in their house/office and they come and talk to it when something has happened or they want to talk about their feelings.
We would quite like to make our documentary have a funny side and not too serious, but need to think of a way of doing so without making it look like we are mocking the disorder.

Initial Idea 1 - Crime

My group's first idea was to do a clip show documentary of crime scenes and events, exploring the tradegies people have faced and how it has affected them. It would include CCTV footage and reinactments along with interviews of those that were involved, such as witnesses or family and friends of the victim. We got this idea from Bravo's 'Most Shocking' TV show; "The clip show that exposes some of the most outrageous challenges faced by the police".

When researching this sort of documentary, I watched the 'Most Shocking Series 4 - Robberies' (Episode 43) which displays burglars caught on a web cam, drug addicts caught attacking a cashier, and thieves crashing a car through a shop window. It's genre is reality and fly on the wall which is what I have been interested in from the start of this course.



Louis Theroux: Law and Disorder in Philadelphia

Word Donut

Words related to Documentary:

Diamond 9

Aspects of a documentary, in order of importance:

Testing types of documentary example

The topic of these types of documentaries is about becoming 'Head Girl', and the different styles of filming whilst following and interviewing one candidate in particular. We included Louis Theroux's, Nick Broomfield's and Michael Moore's documentary styles, along with an expository and poetic clip.

For the first clip we inserted a title in the bottom left hand corner to show the name and status of the person being interviewed. In our clip it was 'Helen Revell, Head Girl Candidate'. In the other clips we added another title to show the style we were copying, but this was not part of our actual documentary footage; it was for educational purposes only.

The expository footage was a hand held shot of someone secretly following Helen. To enhance the situation we added a 'Vignette' effect to the entire clip which darkened the edges,
like this:

At the end of the expository clip we added a 'Fade to black' transition because the surroundings went darker as the camera faced the wall so this would have made the fade more subtle.

To end the short documentary clip, we included a panning shot of one of the classrooms in Helen's school which we then imported a voice over on top of in a poetic mode style.

Testing Types of Documentaries

Today during our lesson, Tilly and I decided that instead of researching into documentaries some more, we'd get a better understanding of the typical ones by practising them ourselves. We did this by collecting 2 of the school's cameras, a tripod and an actress - our friend Helen.

The short clips of the different types of documentaries we filmed were:

• Poetic
• Reflexive
• Observational - hand held shot following Helen up the stairs (Michael Moore style)
• Nick Broomfield's style - one camera filming Helen with sight of the director filming in the corner

Filming this gave us some ideas as to what types of documentaries we'd like to do, although we have lots more research to do before we decide on a topic!

Types of Documentaries

Every documentary has a purpose, whether it be to:

• record, reveal or preserve
• persuade or promote
• analyse or interrogate
• express views or opinions

Each purpose falls under one of the four types of documentaries:

• Poetic
• Reflexive
• Observational
• Expository

There are different types of documentaries which include one or more of the above purposes:

• Exposes e.g. Exposing Israeli Apartheid
• Social e.g. Extraordinary People: The boy who sees without eyes
  
• Personality Profiles e.g Serial Killers (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOSRInSsflU)
• Travelogues e.g. Around the world in 80 treasures
• Nature e.g. March of the Penguins (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3k-fkOtTDo&feature=related

How some of these documentaries are made:

Watching this short clip gave me various ideas as to what type of documentary it would be possible for my group and I to do, and which ones would be more difficult.. I would quite like to make a documentary which involved some exciting CCTV footage as I find this can add suspense and is a more exciting way to show a particular event you are talking about instead of re-enactments. In the above clip this was described as a "fly on the wall" technique and is classed as part of an 'observational' type of documentary.

I also like the look of 'participatory' documentaries as it includes the film maker and is capable of doing on a low budget depending on your subject. This is why I have eliminated the idea of nature because it can involve expensive types of filming such as birds in the sky, and also can be quite type consuming as relying on insects/animals seems much harder than relying on humans. The only concern I have at the moment is participatory documentaries usually aim to prove a point or a goal/moral, and this may not be achievable in just 5 minutes worth of filming.

Another shot that I liked was Andy Warhol's 'Empire', a 7 hour shot of the Empire State Building. I could use this idea to shoot something for a period of time and then fast forward it to a few seconds long to show the change or development of an object such as a flower, building of a house or traffic.

Documentary Makers

[ Documentarist - n. One that makes documentaries or a documentary. ]
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/documentarists


Louis Theroux:



Louis Sebastian Theroux was born in 1970. He is a British-American broadcaster best known for his Gonzo style journalism. He has made many films such as; Born Again Christians, Porn Stars, Swings, Survivalists and many more.

Theroux appears in most of his documentaries as he personally interviews people or celebrities and follows them on their quests; i.e plastic surgery, rehabilitation of sex offenders/drug addicts and gun crime etc.

In this clip below he personally talks to the group of Philadelphia youths about gun crime and their refusal to "snitch". This is a lot more personal and makes the audience feel more involved as the camera is beside him and the camera pans from Louis to the boys he is interviewing, creating tension as his situation is dangerous and high risk.

The telegraph online states, "The new documentary is certainly his riskiest assignment yet. The BBC’s safety guidelines meant he had to wear a bulletproof vest so thick he was unable to do up his seatbelt."

Compared with the two other documentarists, Louis' films are less focused on all the fancy camera angles and more on getting the facts recorded, even if it is in one long shot instead of lots of short clips with photos and other footage included aswell.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/3563806/Louis-Theroux-Law-and-Disorder-in-Philadelphia.html

Michael Moore:
"I don't compromise my values and I don't compromise my work. That's why I've been kicked from one network to the next: I won't give in."



Michael Francis Moore was born in 1954 in Flint, Michigan, U.S. He is an actor, director, screenwriter and producer whose purpose is to analyse or interrogate, as most of his documentaries expose people and events because he is a self-described liberal, who has criticized globalization, large corporations assult weapon ownership, the Iraq War, U.S President George Bush and the American health care system in his written and cinematic works. His strong opinions and will to expose these things has led him to make 4 of the top 8 highest-grossing documentaries of all time; Bowling for Columbine, Fahrenheit 9/11, Sicko and Capitalism: A Love Story.


Moore has succesfully won 33 awards and has had 19 nominations (by far the most victorious of the 3 documentarists)

Fahrenheit 9/11:

Fahrenheit 9/11 is a 2004 documentary film by American filmmaker Michael Moore. The film takes a critical look at the presidency of George W. Bush, the War on Terror, and its coverage in the news media. The film holds the record for highest box office receipts by a general release political film. It is the highest grossing documentary of all time. It had a budget of $6million and made a gross revenue of $222,446,882! The film was distributed by Lions Gate Entertainment and was extremely controversial, generating criticism after its release shortly before the US presidential election in 2004. Moore stated in an interview that he hoped "to see Mr. Bush removed from the White House", therefore the purpose of his film was to influence the election; "This may be the first time a film has this kind of impact".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Moore

Nick Broomfield:


Nicholas "Nick" Broomfield was born in 1948. He is an Englsih documentary film-maker who uses a minimum crew of just himself and one or two camera operators, which gives his documentaries a distinctive style. Broomfield is often in shot holding the sound boom.
Nick has won 6 awards and has had 10 nominations:

Wins:

Amnesty International - DOEN Award

Flaherty Documentary Award

Interfilm Award

SIGNIS Award

Solidarity Award

Best Director

Nominations:

IDA Award

Best Film

Best Director

Golden Satellite Award

Best Documentary Award

International Fantasy Film Award

Grand Jury Prize (2007)

Grand Jury Prize (1993)

Grand Jury Prize (1987)

Flaherty Documentary Award (TV)

This proves that Nick is a very succesful documentarist.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0112374/

Nick has a wide filmography, including documentary films such as; Alieen, Battle for Haditha, Behind the rent strike, Biggie & Tupac, Chicken Ranch, Dark Obsession etc.

Introduction to Documentary

For our A2 media studies course, we are researching, planning and filming our own Documentary. As an introduction to the course this morning, we learned about:

• Documentary Makers
• Documentary Purposes
• Documentary Forms/Types

This helped improve my knowledge of documentaries to a basic level. I then did further research into the background information and facts about each of these areas.