Use of Social Media

In order to get in contact with some of those featuring in my documentary I decided to use social media, it's the quickest way to get in touch with someone of my generation. They are more likely to respond to it than they are a text or phone call! 

Reply to Feedback

I decided to take the comments that had been made on my blog and look at how I can use these to improve my work.

The first comment is on my general documentary research, it says that I need to narrow it down. I need to look into other documentary styles like the one I hope to achieve and see how I can use the camera angles or general conventions to create my own documentary.





The above two comments are feedback on my practice establishing shots. It is positive feedback but as I have never filmed anything like this before there is definitely room for improvement. I need to think about the angle at which I film my scenes and the steadiness of the camera. Although the rest of my documentary is handheld and this can be told from the way I am shooting, it is still quite steady. I plan to re-shoot the outside scenes again with a tripod and try the technique that has been suggested to me.

The above problem and or comment I have addressed on the post by adding critque of the work and videos myself so that I know how I plan to change what I am doing, as well as explaining it fully. (Post is entitled First Interview Clips) 

Again I have listened back to the voki on this post and added a description and evaluation to the post itself in order to show how I have understood my thought process and how I plan to act on it.  (Post is entitled Further Suggestions and Brainstorming)

The final comment I received is for me to show clearly the distinction between how I changed my style of questioning, I shall upload an early video and a later video when I changed my questioning technique to the post and make sure I state how I changed it and why I decided to do so. 

Ancillary Tasks - Photo Editing

This shows the process of how I tried to make a picture of the front of school look worn out and old. This was in order to try and portray that they may not be helping the students as well with their post 16 education choices. A few ideas I am looking at how to portray my documentary in the double page newspaper spread and advert. Below are a few photographs of different colours and layers that I chose to edit the photo with in order to change the perception and portrayal of the school, simply through the colour of the photograph. It took several goes for me to achieve this and I followed an online tutorial.

 

I have had some feedback from these photographs and I think that it doesn't give a gritty view or look of the school. Despite the editing I have made the photograph crisper. I also think it may be due to the way in which I shot the picture and what part of the school that I took pictures off. I need to have a complete reshoot in order to capture the ideal photograpgh. I need to think about the positioning at which I take the picture, for example if there is enough of a plain area for writing and text to be positioned properly. So in the photograph above I could think about exposing more sky so that I had somewhere to add text, especially if this was for the newspaper advert.



Ancillary Task - General Research for Double Page Spread

I have started to look at my ancillary tasks that go alongside my documentary. By taking pictures of current newspaper double page spreads in order to understand the conventions and customs of what a reader would usually expect to see.

Above is a screenshot from the search engine 'Google' when I typed in newspaper advert/double page spread. After just scrolling I have started to notice similar layouts and items that appear in different newspaper articles.



After looking at the conventions above I have realised there are several things I need to think about, such as what I will need to achieve an authentic piece of work. Such as; photographs to accompany the text. Perhaps quotes from an interview with someone from the cast/directing (I could include quotes from myself and what I wanted to portray or achieve through creating the documentary). Look into specific layouts, such as spacing, appropriate title and or font choices as well as colour schemes. I maybe need to think about keeping things similar between the advert and double page in order to create consistency and something that they can link the two with.  

More Video Practice

I have done more practice with my videoing. This included improving the lighting of the shot and the way in which I interviewed the subject of the video. I am definitely happier with how these have both improved and hope to now go 0nto filming the real pieces of video.

Not only this but I have thought about the different shots that I can create to break up the pieces of video in order to improve the diversity of the documentary. As it is based around reality, I could have shots of my subject amongst their daily life/routine in order to keep the theme of my documentary. Furthermore I could also look at using a tripod, although I particularly like the handheld effect that I am currently gaining from my videos.

Documentary Style

I feel that I am still struggling with trying to find what direction my documentary is going in and the type of style it will have. I have decided to look at various styles of documentaries in order to understand how to approach my subject and how to bring it out the best I possibly I can. It is definitely proving a difficult task trying to narrow down and focus my interviews in order to gain an entertaining and enticing documentary.

Interview Technique

I have decided in order to improve my documentary style I need to alter the questions I ask, think about follow up questions I can use. This will give it a more flowing and natural feel to the documentary. Hopefully putting across a relaxed feel in order to entice the audience and get them hooked.

Not only this but I need to think about what direction I am going in with the subject, there has to be some sort of story or basis behind what am I trying to show and portray in the documentary.







The difference between the two interviews above are quite clear and straight forward, as you can see in the first video I clearly had set questions that I stuck to. In the second example, I had no questions and literally fired questions at the interviewee. I think it definitely gave a better outcome than the first time round. 

Further Suggestions And Brainstorming

I have used this to think about the way in which I can relax an interviewee. After talking to some peers, (after all its them I'm going to be interviewing) they suggested perhaps letting the interviews take place in a familiar environment and make it seem like you're having a conversation rather than a formal interview. They felt they would give better answers if I was relaxed and not worried about how the end result would turn out. 

As well as this, I have decided to stick with the Q&A type style of questioning people. This is because it means I will hopefully ask the questions that the audience would have wanted to know. The more video practice I get under my belt the more I will improve and hopefully put together quite an interesting and perhaps revealing piece. 

Following consulting my teacher I have decided that I wish to create a 5 minute extract from a documentary that would also feature the views of perhaps; parents, teachers, experts and outsiders, but the extract or clip I am going to create is going to focus on the students views. This way I can perhaps include the other views or one of the other views in my ancillary tasks, such as the double page spread. A documentary looking at the post 16 education system on a whole but my extract involves the student opinion. This is because it is easier for me to access students on a regular basis, and are more willing to give up their time or allow me to re-shoot if necessary. Whereas although teachers are more than willing to help and look forward to it, it is harder to arrange a suitable time that suits everyone, I also feel more relaxed around people my age, and as they are my age I can empathise with what they are saying or understand the process. 

Detailed Documentary Research

After shooting my first few clips and interviews I decided that I need to look more closely at the style of documentary I wish to create. My first two interviews came across as very formal and a bit blunt. I did not feel that this was a good style for me to choose.

So I therefore experimented with the feel of the documentary and conducted the next two interviews under a more relaxed condition and tried to concentrate more on capturing the personality of who I was interviewing.

One in particular documentary that I have looked at is 'Shermans March' by Ross McElwee

In this the creator has created a very relaxed feel to the film. There is a clear indication of a handheld camera being used with jerky and shakey frames, this gives us a sense of reality to the filming. Not only this but the careful positioning of those he interviews including the lighting and background.

As well as this he creates very interesting chots by varying them, in this case below there is the use of extreme close up.

 

 

 



In this screen shot you can see how he has purposefully positioned his interviewee near an open window in order to create a warm tone to the interview. Something I tried to recreate when I shot my fourth practice interview.

Again we see McElwee use this technique again, when he himself turns the camera around and films himself. This could be something I include in order to show reaction or give a different dynamic to the feeling of the video.

 

 

 

I also have looked at the famous Panorama documentary style. They are more of investigative journalist style, they take controversial issues and tend to show quite a bias opinion and side to the subect at hand. For example, John Sweeney, a well known Panormam journalist investigated Scientology. In this we see him follow one of the main leaders in this belief. Quite a forward style of filming that has a director and John Sweeney as the presenter himself. This may be too difficult to achieve on my own. However, there is nothing stopping me from attempting to create a revealing or argumentative piece similar to a Panorama.

 

I've looked at the way in which they interview people, the layout of the programme and ultimately decided to create a more relxed style clip of this that could fit into a long documentary about post 16 education. Just concentrating on the students view of how they find the post 16 education system.

 



First Interview Clips

Although I am happy with my very first try to interview and create a documentary style there is still a lot of improvement to be done. As you can see in the first two videos I took quite a formal approach to the videoing, had someone to help me set up the camera and mic in order to get the best quality angle and sound. However, the interview came across as very stiff and quite boring and mundane. After deliberation with my teacher it was suggested I tried to create a more relaxed feel to my videos. I therefore decided to take the camera home and film family members, I literally did a Q&A on the spot. I felt that these went a lot better than the first two videos. This may have been for a number of reasons, I was more comfortable as they were family members and I was in an easy environment. Not only this but I had more of an idea what the process would feel like and because I knew them I definitely found it easier to question them. The fact there is an obvious difference in my technique and how well the second way worked it shows I have improved and am starting to get more of an idea what I want to achieve. I think I definitely would like to show some sort of personality and opinion through the video to make it more interesting to watch and for the viewer to engage in as they can respond to what the person is saying. Previously, I hadn't really probed the interviewee to gain any real interesting answers out of them, they were pretty boring to sit through and watch. The main key for me to get a decent footage or video out of this is for me to be inquisitive and enjoy questioning people to find out what they think. 

Practice Establishing Shots

Practice Establishing Shots

My shots are quite wobbly and could be perfected if I used a tripod for my establishing shots so that there was a smoother transition.

Practice Establishing Shots

Practice with the Editing

Planning and Recruiting Interviewees

Documentary Mind Map on Questions

General Documentary Research

I have decided to do soome research on famous documentaries and how they are put together. Looking at the techniques used such as camera angles and shots and fading in and out techniques, particular the idea of adding extra layers such as titles/name tags.

7 Up Series 1 Part 1

Charlie Brooker - How to make a news report

These are a variety of shots and features from the comedy video made by Charlie Brooker on how to make a news report. I hpe to recreate some of these features are they usually associated with documentaries. The extra editing of titles, facts and ficures in the feature also make it more interesting to the viewer. I hope to add shots of headlines and appropriate facts and options that there are within the education system. Talking head shots is also a very well known feature in documentaries, particularly from experts or people involved in the situation or who the topic may affect. In my case students and people who have been through the education system or work in it.

Practice Still Shots

I decided to take a few still pictures of shots and images around the school that I hope to use in the documentary as the shots inbetween interviews and when the voiceovers occur. It is quite a traditional feature to have establishing shots throughout a documentary.

My next plan of action is to film these stills and also ask a variety of people to appear in the documentary.

TV Documentary - Post 16 Education

As I have recently been through the process of deciding what to do post 16 education,  I have decided to focus my documentary around this topic. I can ask current students, hopeful students, teachers and their options and friends a family that chose a variety of routes into their occupations. I would hopefully like to achieve a documentary that shows various opinions on the subject of university, apprenticeships, local colleges etc.

This subject seemed easily accessible within school, I can ask peers and teachers to appear in the documentary, not only this but within my own family I have family that have found their careers in different ways and achieved them differently. I hope to use traditional documentary style and look.

Initial Ideas