modes of documentary

Process book 

Week 1 

In week one we watched a few examples of some short documentary’s we also discussed different modes of documentary’s such as:

Poetic Documentaries

First seen in the 1920s, Poetic Documentaries are very much what they sound like. They focus on experiences, images and showing the audience the world through a different set of eyes. Abstract and loose with narrative, the poetic sub-genre can be very unconventional and experimental in form and content. The ultimate goal is to create a feeling rather than a truth.

Expository Documentaries

Expository Documentaries are probably closest to what most people consider “documentaries.” A sharp contrast to poetic, expository documentaries aim to inform and/or persuade — often through omnipresent “Voice of God” narration over footage devoid of ambiguous or poetic rhetoric. This mode includes the familiar Ken Burns and television (A&E, History Channel, etc…) styles.

Observational Documentaries

Observational Documentaries are exactly what they sound like — they aim to simply observe the world around them. Originating in the 1960s with the advances in portable film equipment. The style attempts to give voice to all sides of an issue by giving audiences first hand access to some of the subject’s most important (and often private) moments.

Participatory Documentaries

Participatory Documentaries, while having elements of Observational and Expository, include the filmmaker within the narrative. This could be as minor as the filmmaker’s voice being heard behind the camera, prodding subjects with questions or cues — all the way to the filmmaker directly influencing the major actions of the narrative.

Reflexive Documentaries

Reflexive Documentaries are similar to Participatory in that they often include the filmmaker within the film — however, unlike Participatory, they make no attempts to explore an outside subject. Rather, they focus solely on themselves and the act of them making the film.

Performative Documentaries

Performative Documentaries are an experimental combination of styles used to stress subject experience and share an emotional response to the world. They often connect personal accounts or experience juxtaposed with larger political or historical issues. This has sometimes been called the “Michael Moore” style, as he often uses his own personal stories as a way to construct social truths (without having to argue the validity of their experiences).

This is a short documentary I watched called ‘Short Dinner’ it’s about a popular Chinese restaurant closing down. Id say that this response is performative as it’s about a personal account and its stressing about the subject of the documentary trying to get an emotional response. I liked the way he shows the owner of the shop with the shop in the background I feel this is important to inform the audience about this sort of information

We also discussed narrative and how the documentary’s we watched all had a beginning middle and end of story and how we would have to plan our narrative for our documentary so when thinking about ideas make sure we have formed a narrative before going ahead with it.

We were also asked to make a one minute film, I did mine on ‘My first day at Sussex’ where I got a student to talk about their first day at Sussex. This allowed to start thinking about interview techniques and how lighting can affect the interview as you won’t be able to see the subject properly, I also had issues with my sound as I didn’t use a mic so it was filmed off the camera instead of one of the mics.

It also gave me my first chance to use premiere pro and get on a first base level with how to put clips together and mess around with audio.

Week 2

In week 2 we were given a first look at the Sony X70 camera this allowed me to get a better understanding on how the camera and mic worked so when it came to it we would know how to connect the camera to the mic and change settings such as white balance, rule of thirds or the focus/zoom. And also we would know how to operate the camera in the future so if we need to change any setting on the camera we would know how to do so.

We also started to discuss different ideas that we could use for our final project making sure that we could form a powerful narrative with the ideas given. 

First idea: 

To look into specific tattoo artist and their view on the culture of it within Brighton, and how its progressed throughout the years and become mainstream. Also looking at the recent 'Brighton tattoo convention'.

Second idea: 

Another idea was to focus on the skatepark in Brighton and what and what kind of people it brings, could also look into the history of it and how it has progressed throughout the years and if the changes made to it have made it better or worse.

Third idea:

Third and final idea was to focus on a up and coming artist from south London, and talk about the culture of the genre and how he has progressed in his career, and what he was trying to show with his lyrics.

Idea

We decided to go with the third idea on the up and coming artist from south London as we all agreed we could create a powerful narrative including an interview that would give the artist a voice to say what he is trying to do with his music and how it differs from other people’s sounds. We also knew that he would be performing us allowing us to get footage of him and his band performing, we were also going to include cutaways showing south London as this is where he is from as well as various other cutaways showing the artist himself so the audience can get to know him.  

I watched a short documentary called ‘What are dreams’ by ‘Sean Price’ this is a expository documentary informing you about what dreams are, I have chosen to speak about it as it includes a style of cutaways I really like so I was going to use inspiration when filming for my 1 minute video.

Week 3