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The Documentary ‘Problem’

What is the problem behind documentaries?

The main issue surrounding documentary ‘truth’ is that they’re inherently bias, created in order to manipulate the viewer and pursuade them about a specific subject. This means that events and problems are often overexaggerated or only one side of the argument is presented to the audience, in order to convince the viewer. All stages of production work to convey the directors main intentions, from cinematography and lighting to sound and editing. However this often goes against the main intentions of the director, to provide the truth in order to properly inform audiences, as these production stages work to create an overall atmosphere, in order to truly convince the audience. This often inadvertantly results in an alteration of the truth, creating bias.

Example:

Here is an example of a documentarty short which has a manipulated truth, as the director uses a combination of poetic cinematography alongside the expository style of interview in order to make the audience feel sorry for the interviewee’s. This causes them to side with the directors argument, despite only hearing one side of it. As the audience, we don’t know why the town was being demolished, or what was being offered to them as a result of giving up their house. Which perfectly explains how the opinions of the audience have been manipulated in order to convey the argument and create an overall emotional atmosphere.

“John Grierson’s definition of documentary filmmaking – ‘the creative treatment of actuality’ – summarises its overarching fallacy. The fallacy being that documentaries often purport to reveal truths, however by the very act of documenting actuality, the director inadvertently alters its ‘truth’.”

Harvard Referencing

www.mediafactory.org.au. (n.d.). – ‘the creative treatment of actuality’ |. [online] Available at: http://www.mediafactory.org.au/arielle-richards/2018/03/05/18-1-the-creative-treatment-of-actuality/.

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Horror Inquiry

Researching Horror and German Expressionism

Sources

1. Hendry, S. (2011). Horror Monsters. MediaMagazine, [online] pp.56–59. Available at: https://bpb-eu-w2.wpmucdn.com/blogs.grammar.sch.gg/dist/8/543/files/2018/02/Monsters-MM-Feb11-1n2lzvl.pdf.

  • “Many horror texts between the wars reflected the social changes in terms of power, authority and class that followed the political upheaval of WW1.”
  • “Mankind had shown itself to have the potential to be monstrous. Horror movies soon reflected this.”
  • “Over-stimulation could lead to extreme desensitisation, and this idea can be seen in recent horror monsters”

2. German Expressionism: Crash Course Film History #7. (2017). YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6XDyth0qxc.

  • “Their aim was to compete with the large scale spectaces made before the war, to entertain and distract audiences from the devastated economy”
  • “His (Murnau’s) camera never stops moving in an attempt to make us feel what his characters are feeling” – about The Last Laugh (1924)

3. BFI Education (n.d.). Silent Film for KS5 Film Movements – German Expressionism. [online] Available at: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1iKtztKg_2cfmBQFcTJO4eD7eVm6MWeJZ_mRk7CYX_50/edit#slide=id.p1.

  • “The portrayal of technology as miraculous reflects the German Expressionists’ ambiguous relationship with modernity”
  • “The genre feels dreamlike, often with an oppressive or paranoid atmosphere”
  • “Themes surrounding order vs chaos, hope vs fear, convey the anxieties following the crumbling of the great empire”

Horror Genre and Understanding

Write 300 words outlining your understanding of the horror genre, including the nature of the representation of monsters & the degree to which horror films owe their look and psychology to German Expressionism

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Documentary Pre Production (shoot 2)

Production Meeting Agenda:

Click on the image to see the full doc.

Risk Assessment:

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Questions:

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In order to carry out our second shoot we needed to create another production meeting agenda (chaired by our director) in order to plan out locations and shooting schedules. We also made note of all the props, mise-en-scene and equipment needed on the day, so that we can ensure that we have it all ready. As well as this we have done a second risk assessment to note down any hazards, and how we will prevent these from happening. To prepare for our interviews we have also made a list of potential questions which we may ask our interviewee.

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Shoot 1 Reflection

Creative work in my film production role

‘What specific decisions or actions did I take to make meaning and fulfil my creative intention on the shoot?’

As editor I had to….

Alongside this the role of sound designer was split between my group, to fullfil my part of this I attempted to record some animal sounds to act as Foley sounds. However we did not bring a dead cat with us, therefore the microphone only picked up wind sounds.

 

This means you should first think about the specific decisions you made in your role during the shoot.

The question, regardless of role, is, ‘What specific decisions or actions did I take to make meaning and fulfil my creative intention on the shoot?’

  • If you the editor you should have things to say about continuity or montage.
  • If you are the sound designer you may have recorded some Foley or an interview and should have something to say about production technique

Supporting Visual Evidence

You should include images of the following:

  • Shot Lists
  • Sound Spotting Lists
  • Storyboards
  • Behind the camera photos
  • Screenshots from the footage

Collaboration with my core production team

You should also include some detail on how you worked together as an effective team to fulfil the objective of the shoot, which should be evident from your Production Meeting Agenda (please include an image)

  • Developing, planning, scripting…. your documentary.
  • Including new ideas from yourself or other team members.
  • Assessing risk (please include your risk assessment).
  • Organising and communicating.
  • Giving and receiving feedback.
  • Problem solving.
  • Resolving disagreements
  • Working flexibly.
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Documentary Pre Production (shoot 1)

Production Meeting Agenda:

StoryBoard:

Risk Assessment:

Before we could complete our first shoot my group needed to properly plan out our shot list and schedule, to ensure that we knew where we were going to be and at what time. This helped us to stay organised and make sure that we didn’t run out of time. Once we had done this we also needed to risk assess any potential hazards which we may come across alongside how we can control each risk, for our own safety.

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Documentary Research

This is a slideshow presenting my groups research into our main documentary idea, including a timeline, images and some examples of similar documentaries. We also each wrote a slide about our specific roles as a group and what those involve.

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Documentary Pitch

Teacher Feedback:

Targets:

  • Ensure we have a variety of different shot types: long shots, close ups, mid shots
  • Plan out questions for the interviews, so that we have a set topic and focus point
  • Avoid recording interviews outside, as the wind could mess with sound quality
  • Ensure that interviews are shot in close up, to maintain a sense of intimacy with the interviewee
  • Have a set colour filter throughout so that the shots remain continuous
  • Make sure that mise-en-scene is properly controlled (costumes, props)
  • If using a score, include information surrounding the whole process for reflections
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Production Teams

Here is the group agreement for my documentary, which includes some scheduling and planning as well as information regarding each of our roles.

Click on the image to see the full doc.

The group agreement allows everyone to be aware of their roles, so that we can share the load of work equally, to ensure that everyone is putting in the same amount of effort. As editor, I am responsible for storyboarding as well as putting the final film together, while considering continuity and colour grading. I will also need to ensure that the edit follows the intentions of the director and is within the correct time frame.