Category: documentary film

For this task I had to make a short expository documentary that was roughly a minute long and I had to base it on something I’m familiar with.

DRAFT SCRIPT:

So much work to do… Such a big exam tomorrow…. It’s 1:43, I have to get some sleep. I am so tired, I am just going to snooze for a few more minutes…. OH MY GOD! NO! It can’t be! My exam started at 9… Oh no! The school has called. This cannot be happening! I have done so much work! How can this happen? Quick grab everything they might still let me in! RUN RUN RUN I’ve got to get to the bus. I hope I remembered my calculator… NOOOOO!!

PROCESS:

For this I had thought of a few ideas and wrote down a few I thought would work well. Once I thought of my idea I then created a storyboard on some of the particular shots and techniques on what I will use. For example zoom in shot and a pan shot. Once I made this I then used it as a guideline when creating my expository documentary. For the filming I used my phone, which unfortunately made it have a bit of movement in the film when recording. Once I recorded all my videos I then uploaded them to WeVideo where I will be editing my documentary. I made sure to have all the videos in chronological order and to edit it down so it fits within the time frame. I then voiced out my script and edited so it fits well within the video I made. I also made sure I added the sound to my short clip over the voice memo, as this made it more realistic.

Signified bellow is my Expository documentary:

Meaning of a performative documentary:

A performative documentary is a genre of documentary filmmaking that emphasizes the personal involvement, subjective experiences, and creative expression of the filmmaker as an integral part of the documentary narrative.

Key concepts within a performative documentary:

• Filmmaker as subject – presence of the filmmaker as an essential subject in the film
• Narrative subjectivity – prioritize subjective storytelling, allowing the filmmaker’s personal viewpoint and emotions to the shape of the narrative.
• Autobiographical elements – filmmaker shares personal memories, experiences, or reflections.

To allow me to understand a performative documentary I watched a documentary called “Supersize Me” which is about an experiment, where the producer of the film Morgan Spurlock eats McDonald’s for 30 days straight, aiming to investigate the impact of a fast food diet on his physical and mental well-being.

There are two ways in documentaries which signify meaning to the audience, these are distance and present.

Distance is when they can sometimes be signified giving a birds eye view which gives an overview of the subject matter. This gives the audience a sense of control and an overlooking view with what’s going on.

Present is when we are placed right into the action and at a personal perspective. This makes the audience feel they are there in the moment.

An observational documentary is a non-intrusive way of making a film without interfering with what happens to the people in the documentary. This means that the camera is purely observing what people are doing in a particular situation without direction from the film maker. An observational documentary is used to observe people’s real life activities and to represent the experiences of people that they have around the world. An example of a observational documentary is Baraka which is a non-intrusive documentary on cultures around the world. The movie has amazing cinematography with no dialogue in it. An example of Baraka being non intrusive is when it conveys different cultures and signifying what they’re doing without interfering.

Below is my observational documentary I made of the Les Varendes  sixth form centre, which uses framing and composition to convey a sense of  unease and discomfort.

below are a few of my favourite shots I made which connote different emotion:

This is one of my favourite shots as it creates a sense of edginess and disorientation as the shot is a canted angle/long shot. The shot also reflects how long the school really is due to the long corridors which almost makes it look endless.

This is also one of my favourite shots because the picture is taken in a depth of field while also signifying a wide shot, which creates a sense of isolation and remoteness in the surroundings. Reinforces the sheer size of the school. I also like the contrast signifed in this shot with the shadow and the light exemplifed as it creates a nice image.

Another one of my favourite shots was this shot, because it has a macabre image which creates a creapy and horrifying look to it with the close up shot. I also like the fact bright colours are signifed in this image, as it makes it stand out and makes it even more unsettling.

During this part in the course, we have been learning about documentaries. I learn’t that a observational documentary is when  the filmmaker watches what happens in the world around them without interfering. Most documentaries will focus mostly on cinematography, as some documentaries have no dialogue. This is why there is a whole range of different cinematography techniques used for different meanings to make the viewers more engaged when watching the movie.

We have also learn’t about composition, and the different types of composition. Some of them included involve contrast, depth of view, and leading lines. Compositions are used for the arangement of visual information within a camera frame. They’re also mostly used for the attention of certain characters, or points of interest in a scene. In particular the one I learn’t was leading lines. This draws the eye into frame on a particular image, which leads to a point of interest or a subject. This signifies anything can be a leading line as long as it connects the characters to essential subjects, situations, or essential objects.

This scene from Baraka 1992 is using a leading line, this draws the eyes into frame and leads to a subject or point of interest. The director used this technique because it makes the image stand out. Also is used to guide the viewers eyes and attention towards something specific during the movie.