One Loud Cat Productions

Lucy - Documentary Processes In this page I will be exploring the differing documentary knowledge I have gained from the module and extra research/readings. I will be looking at documentary genres and styles, camera work, documentary history, practitioners, techniques, primary and secondary sources, online delivery of documentaries, media outlets, interviews, question structures, aims and objectives and pre and post production.		Documentary Ideas & Research Photo Essay Photojournalism Research Individual Analysis Critical Reading Reviews New Media Application Documentary Processes Technical Design Professional Practise Blog

The question of the 'real' and/or the 'truth' is still being asked today, along with the question 'what is a documentary?'. Actualities - John Grierson, 1920's, recordings of real events. 'Actualities' are "creative treatments of reality". Propaganda - Documentaries were used as a way of persuading a certain audience demographic. Wartime documentaries are an excellent example of this. Fly-on-the-wall - From the influence of the latest technology in the 1960's and onwards. Smaller, light-weight cameras, small crews, cheaper film stock, improved sound equipment and smaller microphones gave more of a 'true' response to events. As a result of this, crews are less conspicuous, developing a more intimate, direct relationship with subjects. Cinema Verite - Interacts with the object/subject to get a reaction Direct Cinema - Unobtrusive towards an object/subject, capturing reality Documentary Genres Instructional - documentary showing how something works, how to do something Educational - documentary explaining art, science, politics, social and cultural activity Travelogue - documentary following someone on their travels Arts - artistic performance explored and represented Historical/Archival - looking back on an historical event Investigative - Documentary reporting on a subject/event Expressive - Documentary as art Biographical - Documentary showing a story of a single person Expressive - Documentary as art Observational - Representation of a community, institution, group, etc. Basically more than one person Wildlife - focusing on wildlife Docudramas - Fictions presented as if they were documentaries Dramadocs - Dramatised documentaries Example of dramadoc: 127 Hours (2010, Danny Boyle) and Touching The Void (2003, Kevin Macdonald) Capturing Reality: The Art of Documentary' - here I watched a few of these videos whilst researching into the modes, themes and styles of documentary, and picked out a few quotes from some of the practitioners that I think are not only helpful in my run-up to making our film, but also full of advice to follow and take into consideration: Malcolm Clarke (Sound/Narration) "... words can and do get in the way..." "... words wrestle and jostle with the images, and for words to have power they need to breathe, need space, they need images, montages and music to evoke an emotional response from the viewer..." "... words come in beneath to support everything..." Joan Churchill (Shooting: the art of anticipation) "... [you must] always [be] aware of what is happening and using that to understand what is going to happen next..." Malcolm Clarke (The Ideal Cameraperson) "... [they need] skill and ability to keep a level head..." "... not just good technically but making the interview go well and making interviewee comfortable..." "... in a documentary, everything is gonna change" Serge Giguere (A passion for shooting hand-held) "... I'm not creating a show with my camera. I'm not creating a concept... I come back to what I like best, simply being there with a camera, waiting for something..." "I'm sometimes impulsive. I'm compulsive. I see things and I have to shoot right away..." Albert Maysles ("Stay With It!") "... One thing that is most important is to stay with it..." "... Be prepared to go right at it again..." "... Once people think it's over they relax and come forth with something ad you won't get that with a camera in their face..." Rakesh Sharma ("As if we were just having a conversation") "... Aimed at making the person who I'm with to become comfortable..." "... I do not disrupt my subjects in any way..." Rakesh Sharma (Working with two cameras) "... [working with two cameras] allows us to see other people out of shot from first camera..." "... If I miss the last sentence of an interview it is covered in the other camera..." Stan Newman (Informational Bulimia) "... When I'm preparing a film, I adopt a policy of total immersion into the thematic space of the film during the prep stage..." "... Bulimia for knowledge..." Scott Hicks (Asking the right questions) "... Locate the best material that you can that gives you the full context and background of what you're doing..." "... Really looking for individuals who are going to reveal their story..." Emmanuel Priou (Editing: a creative dialogue) "... the editor, above all, is there to serve the director..." "... I think that an editor who blindly does what he's told is not an editor, but merely a technician..." Patricio Guzman (Our own take on reality) "... Documentary has always been subjective..." "... Documentary has never been objective..." "... Reality is a perception; we each see our own version of it..." "... It's a projection of a personality..." Jean-Daniel Lafond (Making sense of the world) "... Documentary tries to humanize, just a bit more, humanity..." Primary and Secondary Sources Primary Sources A primary source is some form of material that relates directly to the original concept or idea. For our documentary then, a primary source would be the interviewees and perhaps the charities that we look at and interview, too. We have got in contact with some 'real life superheroes' (The Dark Spartan & S.O.S) and both sources seem interested in our idea. We have also got in contact with Fathers 4 Justice, who dress as superheroes in some of their petitions and they have also said they are interested in taking part in our documentary. We would ask them why they dress up as superheroes and what impact they are trying to cause when they do this. Another primary source could be Heroes Run - an event created by the charity Pass It On Africa. People dress up as superheroes and run to raise money for the charity, and we would interview them to ask why they feel the need to dress up as superheroes, and what connotations dressing up as superheroes has. Secondary Sources Secondary sources refer to pieces of material that comment upon or build upon the primary sources. In our documentary, our secondary sources would be the RLSH (Real Life Super Hero) registry and other websites that we have gained information off, along with quotations, facts and figures that we gain from our research.