Poetic: https://vimeo.com/243657468
10 Minute: https://vimeo.com/247417171
Presentation: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/17YOC4qC6YuvqJH8RxwEdUMSkPz0aa_uKUR8AKkE6Jg4/edit?usp=sharing
Friday, 15 December 2017
Tuesday, 12 December 2017
Post 4
Reflecting back on our documentary project, I feel we learned a lot based on documentary making especially on how to impact the audience. We did have a last minute change to our original idea, deciding to go for a more interactive documentary style with Sam being the main focus point being the middle child in the family. Looking at the final piece it paid off massively changing style as we agree as a team it has more of an effect on the audience as we are able to get more of an insight to how the disabilities effect the entire family including Sam, instead of a basic overview.
One documentary that was of big interest to us was 'Louis Theroux: Extreme Love - Autism' as it shares a lot of similarities with our 'Middleman'. It is an interactive documentary where Theroux visits families with autistic children and interviews them to find out what it is like. The documentary as a whole has a lot of similarities to our documentary including the content and the filming style. The major difference however, is that because Sam is our presenter as well as part of the Cahill family (being both presenter and focus point), Sam actually has inside knowledge into the subject which played a key role in perfecting our final documentary.
In general, we as a team are fairly experienced in film making all being in our second year with all of us also doing film making outside our course and at sixth form level as well. We have all participated in documentary making before, with the main example being in first year, so this is nothing new to us as a team so experience definitely played to our advantage. We started off by just bringing ideas to the table on what we wanted to base our documentary project on. Our original idea was to create a documentary on the recent decline of Monarch airline and how it went from one of the UK's most successful airline companies to a bankrupt mess overnight. However we struggled to find a story within, and discovered we would have a hard time getting key material needed for a Monarch documentary to work such as archive footage. Our poetic documentary however was smashing expectations regarding feedback we received, and we even had to leave a lot of good material out for the poetic piece to match the time given on the brief. This is where we got the idea to make a longer piece on Jack as well as his sister Dara who suffers from a similar condition.
In terms of feedback, Our tutor recommended that we made the last minute decision to make Sam the focus point and having him interact with his family, being the middle child of the family and growing up with siblings with special needs means he has a good insight as the presenter to what it is really like, would make it more meaningful for the audience. One thing I did feel during filming was how intrusive documentary making can be, especially if it's a sensitive topic. The documentary overall is intended to give off the feeling of closeness, family and love, so I personally think that putting Sam as the presenter takes away any intrusive feeling for the audience.
When it came to production work, I was doing cinematography on the filming day. Cinematography is a production skill I am always aiming to improve, so I thought this project gave me a good chance to achieve that. The issue with documentary making when it comes to cinematography, is there are no second chances. Documentary is actuality, same with live TV. For example, if your production team was filming a game of football, you can't get a second take of a goal, as the event is actuality. If the cameraman missed it, tough luck, you'd have to use whatever footage you had. The same concept applies in documentary making, so it was definitely a challenge to make sure I caught every important detail (such as the reunion with Jack and his family) on camera first time around. The people you are filming are not actors, so to film an emotional moment like all three siblings together couldn't be acted out again and again. Using teamwork, this is exactly why we used two cameras when filming, so if one camera missed part of the action, the other camera would have been there for backup. Although we can't get second takes, at least with two cameras we would still have a choice to what shot to use.
In terms of overall professional skill, this module has been a great overview into documentary making as an industry. We researched into all different types of documentary making, from short documentaries, to feature documentaries for Channel 4. This has given us a great insight to what documentary making is, and what to include in our own. I think the most important thing I've learnt about documentary making is that the message it delivers to the viewer is everything, so it is very important that the message the viewer gets is exactly what was intended by the director. For 'Middleman', we wanted to give a positive one, and judging by all the positive feedback we received, I think we have certainly achieved that. Not only are we happy with the documentary we produced for the module, we are also now intending to enter it into festivals as a way to get our names out there to network with others in the industry. Overall creating this documentary has helped by develop my teamwork skills and also shown me how to make documentaries outside of the course, which overall will help me to create a strong portfolio to show potential employers.
One documentary that was of big interest to us was 'Louis Theroux: Extreme Love - Autism' as it shares a lot of similarities with our 'Middleman'. It is an interactive documentary where Theroux visits families with autistic children and interviews them to find out what it is like. The documentary as a whole has a lot of similarities to our documentary including the content and the filming style. The major difference however, is that because Sam is our presenter as well as part of the Cahill family (being both presenter and focus point), Sam actually has inside knowledge into the subject which played a key role in perfecting our final documentary.
In general, we as a team are fairly experienced in film making all being in our second year with all of us also doing film making outside our course and at sixth form level as well. We have all participated in documentary making before, with the main example being in first year, so this is nothing new to us as a team so experience definitely played to our advantage. We started off by just bringing ideas to the table on what we wanted to base our documentary project on. Our original idea was to create a documentary on the recent decline of Monarch airline and how it went from one of the UK's most successful airline companies to a bankrupt mess overnight. However we struggled to find a story within, and discovered we would have a hard time getting key material needed for a Monarch documentary to work such as archive footage. Our poetic documentary however was smashing expectations regarding feedback we received, and we even had to leave a lot of good material out for the poetic piece to match the time given on the brief. This is where we got the idea to make a longer piece on Jack as well as his sister Dara who suffers from a similar condition.
In terms of feedback, Our tutor recommended that we made the last minute decision to make Sam the focus point and having him interact with his family, being the middle child of the family and growing up with siblings with special needs means he has a good insight as the presenter to what it is really like, would make it more meaningful for the audience. One thing I did feel during filming was how intrusive documentary making can be, especially if it's a sensitive topic. The documentary overall is intended to give off the feeling of closeness, family and love, so I personally think that putting Sam as the presenter takes away any intrusive feeling for the audience.
When it came to production work, I was doing cinematography on the filming day. Cinematography is a production skill I am always aiming to improve, so I thought this project gave me a good chance to achieve that. The issue with documentary making when it comes to cinematography, is there are no second chances. Documentary is actuality, same with live TV. For example, if your production team was filming a game of football, you can't get a second take of a goal, as the event is actuality. If the cameraman missed it, tough luck, you'd have to use whatever footage you had. The same concept applies in documentary making, so it was definitely a challenge to make sure I caught every important detail (such as the reunion with Jack and his family) on camera first time around. The people you are filming are not actors, so to film an emotional moment like all three siblings together couldn't be acted out again and again. Using teamwork, this is exactly why we used two cameras when filming, so if one camera missed part of the action, the other camera would have been there for backup. Although we can't get second takes, at least with two cameras we would still have a choice to what shot to use.
In terms of overall professional skill, this module has been a great overview into documentary making as an industry. We researched into all different types of documentary making, from short documentaries, to feature documentaries for Channel 4. This has given us a great insight to what documentary making is, and what to include in our own. I think the most important thing I've learnt about documentary making is that the message it delivers to the viewer is everything, so it is very important that the message the viewer gets is exactly what was intended by the director. For 'Middleman', we wanted to give a positive one, and judging by all the positive feedback we received, I think we have certainly achieved that. Not only are we happy with the documentary we produced for the module, we are also now intending to enter it into festivals as a way to get our names out there to network with others in the industry. Overall creating this documentary has helped by develop my teamwork skills and also shown me how to make documentaries outside of the course, which overall will help me to create a strong portfolio to show potential employers.
Saturday, 9 December 2017
Post 3
'Middleman' Production Documents
Shooting Schedule
1st November: This is the day when we were filming 'Lucky Bunny Boots' so we will be using a lot of footage from this shoot day such as Johns interview as we had to exclude a lot of footage out of our poetic documentary to match the time frame.
29th November: This is the day when we will spending all afternoon and evening in the Cahill household getting all the footage we need, from Jack and Dara coming home to their bed times. We will also be getting interviews from Becky as well.
Shot List
Shooting Schedule
1st November: This is the day when we were filming 'Lucky Bunny Boots' so we will be using a lot of footage from this shoot day such as Johns interview as we had to exclude a lot of footage out of our poetic documentary to match the time frame.
29th November: This is the day when we will spending all afternoon and evening in the Cahill household getting all the footage we need, from Jack and Dara coming home to their bed times. We will also be getting interviews from Becky as well.
Shot List
Equipment
DSLR (X2): We are using 2 cameras overall for the shoot. This is because with the knowledge of knowing Dara will want to see her own footage, and documentary making they are no second takes, having two cameras will be more beneficial than just one.
Tripod: We will be bringing a tripod to the shoot just in case we need to get static shots (such as the house from outside). Only 1 will be required though as most of the shots will be done handheld.
Edirol + Mic: A microphone and edirol will be needed to record the audio from the shoot.
Monday, 4 December 2017
Post 2
Documentary Hints and Tips (Source: Session 5 Handout)
This handout has some tips into documentary making by 4docs.org.uk, which will be a very useful read for us as a team so we can make the best documentary we can with the advice we receive from extracts like this in mind. One thing this extract highlights is interviewing techniques, which is one aspect our documentary will be focusing on very heavily with Jack and Dara's parents. For example... "It can be helpful to start with introductory questions that give the person you are interviewing a chance to relax with get used to the camera it can be as simple as just asking them what they have been doing that day what they had for breakfast etc." This is helpful as now we know how important it is to relax the interviewee for the best results, as well as using that time to set up the camera for the best shot.
The Runners - Guardian Article (Source: Session 6 Handout)
Relating back to 'The Runners' documentary mentioned in post 1, the documentary gained so much industry attention it made The Guardian. This article is an interview from the directors to explore why and how they filmed this documentary. This extract is helpful to us as a team as we get an insight to the crew who took part in this film, and take inspiration from them when we go out to film our own documentary. One constraint the crew had was how they'd be able to film and interview runners, "Technically it was not that simple, running and filming is not an option. Filming from a car wouldn't allow us to film the parks and canals where runners congregate. The solution was a bicycle trailer on which we installed a plastic stool." This just highlights that even successful documentaries like 'The Runners' don't come without some constraints along the way, which is something we should keep in mind as a documentary team when we approach our own constraints in production.
Bill Nichols - Documentary Modes (Source: Session 1 Handout)
This is an extract taken from Bill Nichols book 'Introduction to Documentary (Indiana University Press). Overall it is a very helpful book for research as it is an insight to documentary making as a whole. Nichols defies 6 different modes of documentary making; poetic, expository, observational, participatory, reflexive and performative. Now we know as a team what different documentaries do and what genre conventions each individual documentary has. Overall looking at our treatment for our documentary and comparing it to the six examples, ours is participatory. Understanding different types of documentary is important so you know what type you'd want to create as a documentary maker, adding in as many genre conventions as possible.
This handout has some tips into documentary making by 4docs.org.uk, which will be a very useful read for us as a team so we can make the best documentary we can with the advice we receive from extracts like this in mind. One thing this extract highlights is interviewing techniques, which is one aspect our documentary will be focusing on very heavily with Jack and Dara's parents. For example... "It can be helpful to start with introductory questions that give the person you are interviewing a chance to relax with get used to the camera it can be as simple as just asking them what they have been doing that day what they had for breakfast etc." This is helpful as now we know how important it is to relax the interviewee for the best results, as well as using that time to set up the camera for the best shot.
The Runners - Guardian Article (Source: Session 6 Handout)
Relating back to 'The Runners' documentary mentioned in post 1, the documentary gained so much industry attention it made The Guardian. This article is an interview from the directors to explore why and how they filmed this documentary. This extract is helpful to us as a team as we get an insight to the crew who took part in this film, and take inspiration from them when we go out to film our own documentary. One constraint the crew had was how they'd be able to film and interview runners, "Technically it was not that simple, running and filming is not an option. Filming from a car wouldn't allow us to film the parks and canals where runners congregate. The solution was a bicycle trailer on which we installed a plastic stool." This just highlights that even successful documentaries like 'The Runners' don't come without some constraints along the way, which is something we should keep in mind as a documentary team when we approach our own constraints in production.
Bill Nichols - Documentary Modes (Source: Session 1 Handout)
This is an extract taken from Bill Nichols book 'Introduction to Documentary (Indiana University Press). Overall it is a very helpful book for research as it is an insight to documentary making as a whole. Nichols defies 6 different modes of documentary making; poetic, expository, observational, participatory, reflexive and performative. Now we know as a team what different documentaries do and what genre conventions each individual documentary has. Overall looking at our treatment for our documentary and comparing it to the six examples, ours is participatory. Understanding different types of documentary is important so you know what type you'd want to create as a documentary maker, adding in as many genre conventions as possible.
Friday, 1 December 2017
Post 1
Man on Wire (2008)
Man on Wire directed by James Marsh is a thrilling documentary based on Phillippe Petit's wire walk between the World Trade Center's twin towers in 1974. The film follows Philippe's dream and journey towards achieving his ultimate goal of wire walking between the two tallest buildings in the world at the time.
The documentary is edited in a similar style to your typical heist film, such as a film like 'The Italian Job (1969)'. This is because the film uses a lot of screen time for the build up, using suspense and creating a sense of excitement for the viewer to keep them hooked to the documentary. Keeping the audience hooked to a documentary is always important to a documentaries success as if a documentary is not interesting, then audience will loose attention and probably not even get the message the documentary is trying to give to the viewer.
The documentary starts off using a reenactment of Phillipe's team setting off from their apartment to begin their execution of the plan, along with cutaway interviews of the team describing the moment as the reenactment happens on screen. This is typical of a heist movie as the narrative dives straight into the action, and by leaving the action on a cliffhanger before the documentary moves onto Phillipe's early life as a tight rope walker. It creates enough suspense to keep the viewer interested right through till the 'heist' is carried out at the end of the documentary.
The only difference between 'Man on Wire' and your typical heist moving like 'The Italian Job' is that 'Man on Wire' is based on a real life event so the audience are likely to know the outcome whereas fictional heist films are at an advantage as the outcome is not known. Therefor James Marsh as a director had to make sure 'Man on Wire' was still full of suspense even though it's non-fiction. This suspense was created by interviewing a very passionate Phillippe Petit explain his constraints during the 'heist' as well as showing them through reenactments, such as when two members of the team were hiding from the guards under a blanket. Even though the audience knows they succeed, it creates suspense as you do genuinely get a feel in the way its edited if they are truly going to get to the top and complete the wire walk.
Although our proposed documentary idea is a very different style and genre to Man on Wire, being based around the Cahill family with an interview on John and Becky's daily life dealing with their children Jack and Dara, Man on Wire is a great example of how long documentaries keep audience on edge and engaged with the documentary throughout. Our proposed idea is 10 minutes, which will be the longest documentary any of us have created so learning about how feature documentaries keep the audience engaged will be useful to us when going about filming and editing our own. So for this reason, we will be editing to a style to make sure the documentary is as gripping for the viewer as possible.
The Runners (2013)
The Runners filmed by Matan Rochlitz & Ivo Gormley is a short documentary which simply interviews people while they are out for a run. Unlike 'Man on Wire' which is a feature documentary with huge funding, 'The Runners' takes a very simple approach to documentary making, even to the point where absolutely anyone with a camera could have gone out and made a documentary like this. It doesn't require interviewed off specific people of importance, doesn't need to technical reenactments or access to archive footage, just needs someone with a camera to go out and question runners while filming them.
This short documentary has likely gained popularity due to how unique it is. An important factor for short documentaries is because the budget is a lot less than those of feature documentaries, short documentaries have the harder task of needing to stand out from the rest. 'The Runners' achieves this as interviewing people out for a run has never really ever been done before. It is an experimental documentary as it takes the concept of interview documentaries and applies it to runners as putting someone on the spot while they are running will provide different answers to someone sitting down in a room.
One factor I think we can take away from 'The Runners' documentary is the concept of experimenting with style. We don't have the budget of feature documentaries like 'Man on Wire' and considering our documentary is a short 'The Runners' as an example documentary applies to us a lot more. A documentary that we find to be most similar to what we want to create is Louis Theroux's 'Extreme Love Autism'. In this documentary Theroux goes around interviewing American families that have autistic children to find out what their lives are like. This is very similiar to ours as it is along the same lines of our documentary, the only difference being that we have inside knowledge considering the documentary is about Sam's family. Sam as a team member will be very helpful when filming and editing our documentary as he knows what feeling we want to give to the audience. Overall I think 'The Runners' has a very interesting style showing that budget should never be an issue, and all you need at the end of the day is a bit of creativity.
Man on Wire directed by James Marsh is a thrilling documentary based on Phillippe Petit's wire walk between the World Trade Center's twin towers in 1974. The film follows Philippe's dream and journey towards achieving his ultimate goal of wire walking between the two tallest buildings in the world at the time.
The documentary is edited in a similar style to your typical heist film, such as a film like 'The Italian Job (1969)'. This is because the film uses a lot of screen time for the build up, using suspense and creating a sense of excitement for the viewer to keep them hooked to the documentary. Keeping the audience hooked to a documentary is always important to a documentaries success as if a documentary is not interesting, then audience will loose attention and probably not even get the message the documentary is trying to give to the viewer.
The documentary starts off using a reenactment of Phillipe's team setting off from their apartment to begin their execution of the plan, along with cutaway interviews of the team describing the moment as the reenactment happens on screen. This is typical of a heist movie as the narrative dives straight into the action, and by leaving the action on a cliffhanger before the documentary moves onto Phillipe's early life as a tight rope walker. It creates enough suspense to keep the viewer interested right through till the 'heist' is carried out at the end of the documentary.
The only difference between 'Man on Wire' and your typical heist moving like 'The Italian Job' is that 'Man on Wire' is based on a real life event so the audience are likely to know the outcome whereas fictional heist films are at an advantage as the outcome is not known. Therefor James Marsh as a director had to make sure 'Man on Wire' was still full of suspense even though it's non-fiction. This suspense was created by interviewing a very passionate Phillippe Petit explain his constraints during the 'heist' as well as showing them through reenactments, such as when two members of the team were hiding from the guards under a blanket. Even though the audience knows they succeed, it creates suspense as you do genuinely get a feel in the way its edited if they are truly going to get to the top and complete the wire walk.
Although our proposed documentary idea is a very different style and genre to Man on Wire, being based around the Cahill family with an interview on John and Becky's daily life dealing with their children Jack and Dara, Man on Wire is a great example of how long documentaries keep audience on edge and engaged with the documentary throughout. Our proposed idea is 10 minutes, which will be the longest documentary any of us have created so learning about how feature documentaries keep the audience engaged will be useful to us when going about filming and editing our own. So for this reason, we will be editing to a style to make sure the documentary is as gripping for the viewer as possible.
The Runners (2013)
The Runners filmed by Matan Rochlitz & Ivo Gormley is a short documentary which simply interviews people while they are out for a run. Unlike 'Man on Wire' which is a feature documentary with huge funding, 'The Runners' takes a very simple approach to documentary making, even to the point where absolutely anyone with a camera could have gone out and made a documentary like this. It doesn't require interviewed off specific people of importance, doesn't need to technical reenactments or access to archive footage, just needs someone with a camera to go out and question runners while filming them.
This short documentary has likely gained popularity due to how unique it is. An important factor for short documentaries is because the budget is a lot less than those of feature documentaries, short documentaries have the harder task of needing to stand out from the rest. 'The Runners' achieves this as interviewing people out for a run has never really ever been done before. It is an experimental documentary as it takes the concept of interview documentaries and applies it to runners as putting someone on the spot while they are running will provide different answers to someone sitting down in a room.
One factor I think we can take away from 'The Runners' documentary is the concept of experimenting with style. We don't have the budget of feature documentaries like 'Man on Wire' and considering our documentary is a short 'The Runners' as an example documentary applies to us a lot more. A documentary that we find to be most similar to what we want to create is Louis Theroux's 'Extreme Love Autism'. In this documentary Theroux goes around interviewing American families that have autistic children to find out what their lives are like. This is very similiar to ours as it is along the same lines of our documentary, the only difference being that we have inside knowledge considering the documentary is about Sam's family. Sam as a team member will be very helpful when filming and editing our documentary as he knows what feeling we want to give to the audience. Overall I think 'The Runners' has a very interesting style showing that budget should never be an issue, and all you need at the end of the day is a bit of creativity.
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