Documentary "mini- task"

Documentaries are based upon non fictional motion pictures that have the purpose of documenting for a range of purposes, such as historic events. The very first documentary was called Nanook of the north. Robert J. Flaherty documented what life was like living in the Arctic. Documentaries are often used to promote awareness of a group of people, the audiences reception is often what makes a documentary so interesting. Louis Theroux's documentaries have been successful due to their peculiar and interesting topics. His content is original and sometimes meaningful.  Film makers  are constantly evolving  the "typical" documentary,ignoring moral boundaries and being more expressive in their work.

Expository Documentaries-
Expository documentaries are based around the idea of transparency and objectivity. Expository Documentaries contain both voice overs and visual images that are used to simply compliment each other with factual and descriptive content. The voice over directly addresses the audience on what is happening in the accompanying images. This gives meaning to the images and not opinion. The purpose of expository documentaries are not to persuade but instead allow the audience to base their own judgments on observational material and to not be influenced by emotions or personal prejudices. An example of an expository documentary is the film called "We are the Lambeth boys". The documentary follows  a group of young males that attend a local club. The documentary focuses on the lives of clubs members. The voice over simply describes the on screen content but cleverly highlights the boys views on present topics such as capital punishment. The documentary is especially interesting as it allows the viewer to make their own judgment of the boys without being bias or influencing emotions towards them. Another example of an expository documentary, is "I swear i cant help it" which follow two people with tourettes syndrome. The documentary focuses on the issues that the two face on a daily basis. The documentaries visuals are accompanied by a simple descriptive voice over.

Observational Documentaries-
An observational documentary has similar properties to an Expository documentary, however it differs in regards to its objectivity and how the audience connects to the people on screen. Observational documentaries are purely motion picture material and do not include interviews or any other input. The purpose of an observational documentary is to give a transparent and non bias representation of events. Observational Documentaries focus only on the content of the film and allow the audience to create their own judgments and opinions of the documentary. Observational documentaries can be a very powerful method of portraying people or an event. Observational documentaries give the most factual and clear representation of people and events. "High School" is a very good example of an observational documentary. High School observes a typical day at a high school. The events and people captured in the documentary have been purely observed and not manipulated. Another example of an observational documentary, is "24 hours in A&E". The documentary captures 24 hour footage from over 90 camera placed inside an A and E ward. The documentary gave its audience unprecedented access to what typically occurs on the A and E section of the hospital.

Interactive Documentaries-
Interactive documentaries are typically used in modern documentaries and are commonly used to present an agenda. The content of an interactive documentary is often criticized as being  inaccurate and a manipulated representation of real events. ID consists of interactions with people through interviews, a presenter and the audience. Interactive documentaries are often criticized due to its heavy editing in post production stages. critics often claim that interactive documentaries can never represent real life events as modern editing detracts the sense of truth the films content. However interactive documentaries are often the most popular documentaries due to the connection between the presenter and the audience. The problem with modern interactive documentaries is that they  are seen more as a form of entertainment than a source of factual/truthful information. Louis Theroux's "Louis and The Nazis" is a brilliant example of an interactive documentary. Louis Theroux presents and interviews a group of people  who's views on religion and nationality are considered to be those similar to the "Nazis". The remarkable response that his documentaries have on its viewers is due to the documentary's originality and lack of boundaries. The content is often questioned as people believe that it detracts a sense of truth after its heavy editing process. Another example of an interactive documentary is Trevor Nelsons "Living on Death Row", his informative and insightful documentary followed his journey around a Prison in America . He presents and interviews the prisoners on death row adding voice overs to accompany visuals.

Access and Privacy-
Film makers will need to go through various pre-production paperwork that protects and grant them permission to film interviewees, locations etc. Anyone who is filmed during the production stages will have to have to signed and agreed to a contract, allowing the film maker to produce material with that person in it. Ofcom have set guidelines concerning the privacy of individuals and organisations. These privacy guidelines protect those individuals against harmful or private material being broadcasted without their permission. Ofcom's principles section  states "to ensure that broadcasters avoid any unwarranted infringement of privacy in programmes and in connection with obtaining material included in programmes." Ofcom set these guidlines to protect individuals but to also inform film makers of when to use warranted material. They define the "warranted material" as being material that does not need permission due to its type of content that protects or informs information that the public should be aware. Warranted material is allowed to be broadcasted in certain examples such a !companies withholding information that effects the public".




Reflexive Documentaries-
A reflexive documentary is often refereed to as being experimental due to the film makers acknowledgement in the film. The film maker will often create a narrative from people and events in order to experiment the boundaries and concept of a documentary.  The film maker attempts to show the conventions of the documentary to the viewers. The documentaries content is captured and then experimented with on order to be creative and original. Reflexive documentaries are often very abstract and more about the creativity of the documentary rather than being persuasive or impressionable. An example of a reflexive documentary is territories, an experimental insight into gang life.The mix between the visual and on screen graphics creates a powerful and dream like effect on the audience. An example of a reflexive documentary, is "Handsworth Songs". The documentary focuses on the 1985 riots that took place in London. The documentary has a poetic montage sense about it and is very powerful to watch.

Performative documentaries-
Performative documentaries are possibly the most powerful and impressionable documentaries as they use a wide range of re-enactments, exaggeration of camera positions/angles plus the use of emotive soundtracks. Film makers have a close link with the audience in a performative documentary in order to establish connections on an impressionable and emotional level. They also have a large input in the documentary so that the purpose and message of the documentary comes across stronger. Performative documentaries use re-enactments in order to create attitudes towards a certain agenda, group of people or a cause etc. Re-enactments can be used in a number of scenarios, but are often used to create clear pictures of an event that will have an emotional effect on the audience. Performative documentaries often focus on one side of an issue or group of people and are therefore criticized of being manipulated and bias. Performative documentaries present the subject matter in a subjective,expressive,stylized and evocative way. An example of a performative documentary is the "Imposter". The documentary that focuses on a french man who claimed to be the child of Texas born family who had gone missing three years ago. The documentary uses interviews and re-enactments of events that took before and after the child was found. This performative documentary uses all of the above factors to create a powerful documentary.

One of the main problem that often detracts the documentaries sense of veracity is the use of repetitive re-enactments. In the "Thin Blue Line" re-enactments are used excessively in order to create an emotional link with the audience. The issue with this, is that often re-enactments are from eye witness accounts which suggest to a viewer that the documentary uses bias content and can therefore not be a veracity representation of real events.

My own philosophy on making a documentary is that they should be a truthful representation of real events. I support the use of observational material, as it holds the least amount of manipulation. It also allows the audience to make their own judgments on the content shown in the documentary. I think that all film makers have the responsibility of portraying accurate information as documentaries are very powerful tools and if a film maker creates a manipulated piece of work then it could have an impressionable effect on people who will believe in inaccurate information.

References:
 Ofcom:
 http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/broadcasting/broadcast-codes/broadcast-code/privacy/

Wikipedia-documentary formats:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Documentary_mode

Is Television news a window on the world?

Is Television news a “window on the world”? Television news has rapidly changed over the last few years, mostly due to the advancement in social media sites such as twitter. However the way in which the news is delivered to us and the methods in which they do this have generally stayed the same. The news channels have always somewhat branded themselves as an unmediated and neutral “window on the world”. The news uses different methods in creating this transparency of information that is presented to us in a non bias package. One of the ways in which they do this is through their starting sequences, sets and presenters. Most news programmes will begin their starting sequence with a large picture of the earth. This and many over connotations, is used to symbolise their motto of bringing news to the viewer from all around the world. They may also rush into different shots creating a feeling of speed that represents that way the news is packaged and then delivered to the audience. After these connotations, the starting sequence tends to either switch to a summary report (read by the presenter) or simply straight to the main presenter who sits at a large desk. The transition between these two shots might be used by the production and editing teams as a chance to show the viewer the programmes set. This is usually used to continue the idea that news programmes bring you unedited and neutral news. News presenters are also taught to present in a certain manner and attitude in order to once again show a non-bias representation of global news. The typical southern accent as well as their formal behaviour gives the audience the impression that these news stories are of serious importance and need to be heard. On very little occasions will news presenters give their own opinion on a topical subject, mainly because news programmes need to be perceived as impartial and professional.

 Regulatory bodies such as Ofcom and the BBC Trust try to withhold this idea of news programmes bringing unmediated, neutral news to its viewers. On Ofcoms website they state the principles that they try to follow. They main principle on impartiality is “to ensure that news, in whatever form, is reported with due accuracy and presented with due impartiality.” The BBC Trust has a similar statement on their website that reads “impartiality lies at the heart of public service and is the core of the BBCs commitment to its audiences. It applies to all our output and services- television, radio, online, and in our international services and commercial magazines. We must be inclusive, considering the broad perspective and ensuring the existence of a range of views is appropriately reflected.” Although these bodies claim to show a clear reflection of their principles on impartiality, I find it hard as a member of the common audience to understand how they can morally abide by these set of principles. Well, to unsure that these channels abide by certain impartiality rules, certain broadcasting rules have been in place such as the Broadcasting act of 1973 that deems “ITV will show due impartiality. Other laws include the BBC Royal Charter which states that the BBC “shall refrain from expressing its views on matters of public concern.” These laws do help to prevent against certain stories that might be deemed offensive or inaccurate. However, I question how impartial the news can really be; for instance how can the news be portrayed as impartial, when the very news story published on air have been shot and selected in a certain manner. It is in fact impossible for news channels to provide impartiality as in order for news stories to be packaged and delivered to our televisions, certain choices of shots and editing aspects are chosen. This detracts any sense of impartiality that news channels try to portray.

 The news can sometimes show forms of a narrative structure to their stories. This is no coincidence; most news reports have some sort of narrative structure to their story. For example, if a news programme were to report on the increasing number of overweight teens, they may use a sensitive story based around the child’s struggle to keep healthy. Field reporters will frame and interview their subject in order to create a certain emotional attachment to the interviewee. The fact that news programmes allow their reporters and studio news readers to present the news in this style detracts any form of impartiality. The editing of these clips using continuity transitions hides the constructed and artificial nature of the text. They use these edits to try and create realism in what would be a jumpy and unattractive news story. The news is therefore very much an impartial outlook on world news stories due to the fact that every single news story goes through a precision process of shooting and editing that will be perceived in less of a natural form. The choices that are made do to with shot angles, shot durations and editing processes are all selected/constructed for certain reasons. These reasons may be to indulge the viewer in what would a boring topic, artificially constructed to show only the interesting things. They may also be constructed to show in favour of a certain person, party or political scheme that would be beneficial to certain people. We must question how accurate these stories are and whether they have in fact been cleverly edited/shot to create an altered portrayal of real events.

 The news states to be objective and impartial yet they seems to struggle in balancing between an interesting story and an impartial and informative view on global events. We also have to question what makes a story news worthy, for example news that might be important to myself might not make the national news compared to a story about a famous figure in society. Certain news values make certain stories seem more important. Galtung and Ruge studied the idea of what makes a story news worthy and created list of certain aspects which allow the stories we see on the news to be selected in the first place. This is the list of some categories that G&R created: Frequency- the event has to fit in with the cycle of news production. Threshold-The bigger the event, the more likely it’s going to be focused on in the news. Meaningfulness- The story has to be relevant to the audience watching as it may impact their lives. The categories of news values that G&R created seem to be consistent with modern day news broadcasting, however I believe that certain categories will have to be added to their news values as the world will constantly evolve and change.

 One of the biggest changes to television news is the increasing use of the internet and in particular a social networking site called Twitter. Twitter is altering the way in which we are presented with news. The general public are now able to find and publish news through websites in an instant. Were also allowed to focus and follow certain news stories as they develop and expand into what will be reported on the news. As this is the case, news channels have to even more aware of what might be deemed biased and false. In a way the internet has helped prevent television news channels from altering reality in order to seem more interesting. The introduction of twitter has in a sense democratised the news. Impartial and factual information can now be sourced through the internet and allows the user to make his own unmediated judgements on topics. Twitter has also changed the job structure inside television news as reporters now have the option of simply using twitter to compile information. Although television news promises to portray an impartial window on the world, there is in fact no way that that the news can be impartial due to way in which they artificially construct their news stories. However due to the introduction of modern technology sites such as twitter are allowing people to explore factual and unmediated news. As this is the case, do we really need television news?

Production Diary

Tuesday 23rd April
Today e began preparing for our Documentary project. I have been paired with Ross, who lives fairly close to me which will make travelling to locations much easier and quicker. We began by barnstorming individual ideas on blogger and then eventually we pitched our favorite ideas to each other. We then researched and discussed our overall favorite idea.

Wednesday 24th April
Today we decided that our documentary would focus on mental health. At this current date we are unsure of what to specifically focus our attention on. However the main issues are either mental health in schools or the prejudice towards people with mental health.

Thursday 25th April
We began focusing our attention on mental health in schools, as we felt that due to the fact that we would be able to have a better acceptability to possible interviewees. We arranged to meet the colleges student wealth fair  support team to discuss our ideas and to basically find out whether mental health would be a viable option to document as we recognize the sensitivity of the topic. Both Lisa Osbourne and Paul Treadwell believed that documenting mental health would be very powerful however they thought we should specifically focus on how students with mental health overcome their problems and succeed in life. Myself and Ross liked their proposed idea and decided to begin our production work focusing on the finalized idea.

Friday 26th April
We began our Pre-production work, which included producing location recce's, blogging our ideas, production schedules and other necessary paperwork. we also met with Paul to discuss the possibility of interviewing a student with mental health issues. He said that he would ask students who he believed would be happy with being filmed. We also began developing some possible questions to ask both Paul and the student. We want to base our questions/documentary with a narrative structure. For example 1. The students  thoughts and feelings before joining the college. 2. The students experiences in college and the support given by the support team. 3. And finally, the students thoughts after studying at college and what they intend to do after college.

Tuesday 30th April
Today we began shooting the observational shots of life inside the college. This included pull shots and still images of the college premises. Once we had finished shooting, we began choosing and editing the clips we had shot that same day. We also met with Paul to discuss whether he had found a potential interviewee, as well as when we would begin filming the interview.

Wednesday 1st May
Today we continued editing and shooting observational clips of the college. We also began preparing for Fridays interview with a female student. We emailed Paul some possible questions and asked him too add or change any of them.

Thursday 2nd May
We continued editing and preparing for tomorrow. We have also taken out equipment and begun practicing

Finalizing Our idea

After meeting with the college's Student Wealth fair team, we have come to the conclusion that we either want to focus on Paul Treadwell (Student Support officer) or an East Norfolk Sixth Form student dealing with mental health issues. Paul has  been very helpful in trying to find a student that would be willing to be interviewed. As of yet we have been unsuccessful in finding a suitable interviewee and so we have began preparing questions, Production Schedules, Equipment lists and shooting arrangements. One of our shooting arrangement ideas is too use a interviewing technique that focuses around a conversation between two interviewees. With careful editing and shooting, the interview will seem like a natural conversation between two people. This sort of interview needs precision detail in camera/lighting positioning. We would use both three point lighting and a multiple camera set-up.

Using both these methods can create extensive editing issues, as the synchronizing and cutting of the clips cab be difficult when using the three camera's. However, if we are able to use these methods, i think that the final product will far more professional than an ordinary face to face interview. This method would also allow the interview to less stressful for the interviewee's as they will feel comfortable in a more natural setting. 

We would primarily like to focus on the students thoughts and feelings before joining the college and then there experiences while studying at college. Were also interested in the type of support that the students with mental health receive. We realize that the subject of mental health can be very sensitive, so we have tried to base our interview around giving a greater understanding to many who may shy away from the subject. 

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UPDATE:

Due too time restrictions, we have decided to focus our documentary on Paul's experiences while working as a student support officer. We would like to gain a wider knowledge on mental health and how the college works with students to overcome their mental health issues. The documentary may loose some content, however i still think that the end product will look very professional.

Equipment List

Camera 1 - Canon 600D - Supplied by Ross Prudames

Camera 2 - Canon 550D - Supplied by College

Camera 3 - Another DSLR - supplied by college (might not be required)

Studio lights - Standard 3 point lights - supplied by College

Microphones - Supplied by College

2 or 3 Tripods - Supplied by College

Portable Digital Audio Recorder - supplied by college - may be necessary since DSLR's internal microphones doesn't capture professional audio. We can Synchronize the audio and video separately in post-production
Light Reflector - supplied by college
no need for costume/prob list.

Pre-Production Paper work

Location Recce's

Risk Assessment

Questions

Initial planning

Main Idea:
After proposing our ideas to one another, we decided to focus on the sensitive subject of mental illness. The topic itself has never focused on the stigma behind mental health, mainly because of its sensitivity and emotional factors. We would like to explore the issues faced by Mental health patients in society and the discrimination that they have been subject too. We realize that the subject may be very upsetting for viewers due to the nature of the documentary. The proposed documentary would sought an observational look at Mental health as we feel that the interviews will be more than enough to give the audience enough of an insight into these peoples lives. 

Other ideas:
.Racism in Football
.The Energy Crisis
.Life of a mental Health worker
. Prejudice of Mental Health 
. Post Traumatic Stress- A soldiers Story 

 Primary Audience: 
Because of the nature of the documentary we think that the documentary will be viewed by adults.

 Secondary Audience: 
We think that our secondary audience may be teens as they maybe able to relate to their own experiences with mental health while their time in education. They may also be interested in the documentary because we are teen's are selves. 

Purpose of Documentary:
 Our main purpose of the documentary, is to explore the discriminating and prejudice faced by people with mental health issues. We also wanted to look at where these prejudice views have earthed from. We understand that the subject is both sensitive and emotional; we therefore believe that the documentary should be plainly observational and simply made of facts and personal views. 

 Style: 
We think that because of the nature of the documentary, its should be only be observational so that the emotional and sensitive issues are not discounted or hidden in any way. We want to create a media product that highlights personal experiences and views of a range of people. Subsequently the audience will be able to make their own opinion on the subject. 

Potential Constraints:
One of the potential constraints that we could face, is finding willing people to interview on camera. We might find it hard to finance the travelling.

Possible idea

We began the unit by brainstorming ideas. I came up with a few interesting ideas of which i personally think that Racism in football. I personally have played football and follow the latest professional news including the recent topic of racism. Its a very sensitive topic with an appalling history of which footballers of a different race were discriminated and tormented because of the color of their skin. I think that it would be a very interesting and emotional documentary if correctly shot and edited. I propose interviewing footballers at all levels of the game gaining an observational understanding of their experiences with racism in football. I would also like to focus on the FA's work on "kicking out" racism in football and whether racism is still a major problem in football. We could also focus on the younger generation pf footballers and how the FA need to focus their attention on educating the younger players.

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