Further Research
Written by Paul Blatch and Rosie Barnes-Dennison

Research Week 1

http://films.nfb.ca/capturing-reality/

From watching Patricio Guzman ‘The Battle Of Chile: Continuing the Debate’, we find out how much of an impact a documentary can have on individuals or groups of people. He talks about how his documentary made a group of students cry because they had never understood or been given the same information portrayed in the film. So obviously documentary can be used to educate, but he also said that in other cases it spark ‘vigorous debates’ which tells us that documentary can be used to get the audience to question the world around them, whether it be focused on them as individuals or as a society, the audience can be made to question their beliefs or what they believe to be true.

      In another clip called ‘Our own take on Reality’ Guzman says that “Reality is a perception; we each see our own versions of it.” From this statement you can look at documentaries as in the sense that someone has made them to portray their perception of reality, even if it is a subject we know is true, how they choose to document it could be to invite us to look at the subject from a different perspective, whether it be objectively looking at it or giving a positive twist on something that is normally believed to be bad, we as an audience have to make up our own minds on the ‘truth’ behind the reality being shown within each film.

Definition of a Documentary: Week 1

• The Poetic Mode ('reassembling fragments of the world', a transformation of historical material into a more abstract, lyrical form, usually associated with 1920s and modernist ideas)

• The Expository Mode ('direct address', 'voice of god syndrome' - social issues assembled into an argumentative frame, mediated by a voice-of-God narration, associated with 1920s-1930s, and some of the rhetoric and polemic surrounding WW2) 

• The Observational Mode (as technology advanced by the 1960s and cameras became smaller and lighter, able to document life in a less intrusive manner, there is less control required over lighting etc, leaving the social actors free to act and the documentarists free to record without interacting with each other)

• The Participatory Mode (the encounter between film-maker and subject is recorded, as the film-maker actively engages with the situation they are documenting, asking questions of their subjects, sharing experiences with them. Heavily reliant on the honesty of witnesses)

• The Reflexive Mode (demonstrates consciousness of the process of reading documentary, and engages actively with the issues of realism and representation, acknowledging the presence of the viewer and the modality judgements they arrive at. Corresponds to critical theory of the 1980s)

• The Performative Mode (acknowledges the emotional and subjective aspects of documentary, and presents ideas as part of a context, having different meanings for different people, often autobiographical in nature)

• Political reflexivity (develops the audience’s awareness of the issue)

Genres of Documentary

Docufitcion: Filming the reality of a subject uses representations and dramatic forms to depict real events.

Ethnofiction: Portrayed characters play their own roles as members of Ethnic Groups. For example Nanook of the North, played an Inuit. 

Docudrama: Documentary style dramatic re-inactments.

Mockumentary: Fictitious events portrayed in a documentary format, used to parody current issues/ events. Known as Pseudo-documentary sometimes.

Mondo film: Exploitation of sensational/ taboo topics such as death and sex, sometimes referred to as ‘Shockumentary’.

Neologism: Directly conned to a specific person, period or event.

Ontology: The study of reality. 

Research week 2

http://www.fiftycrows.org/ - s=1&mi=3&pt=1&pi=10000&p=0&a=2&at=15

From looking a fiftycrows.org we found promotions for an exhibition ‘The Climate of Life’ that took place in early 2010 for the International League of Conservation Photographers or iLCP. In their online statement it says ‘The ILCP is a consortium of some of the best photographers in the world working for conservation. A project driven organization, ILCP’s mission is to translate conservation science into compelling visual messages targeted to specific audience’s.’

The website gives an insight into the uses photography can have, it can convey a message or aim to get a reaction from the audience to make them want to change or help, in regards to this exhibition its aim is to show the beauty of the world, with the underlying message that we are destroying it.

http://www.worldpressphoto.org/videolibrary/2011-Joop-Swart-Masterclass

From the world press photo website there are videos from photojournalists and their experiences, difficulties they have had etc.

Leo Maguire: Talks about his struggle documenting serious world events that he had no real understanding of/ feeling towards. He talks about his upcoming documentary ‘Strangers’, based on ‘Dogging’.

“ Showing viewers something they didn’t know existed, shining a light on something they haven’t seen”.

World Press Photo Archive

Year 1984

Photographer Pablo Bartholomew

Nationality India

Organization / Publication Gamma

Category World Press Photo of the Year

Prize World Press Photo of the Year

Date 00-12-1984

Country India

Place Bhopal

Caption: A child killed by the poisonous gas leak in the Union Carbide chemical plant disaster.

This picture is shocking to say the least but can grab people’s attention quickly and get them to notice what is happening in the world, it was ‘India’s worst industrial catastrophe injured 558,125 people and killed as many as 15,000[1]’

http://visualjournalism.com/

http://visualjournalism.com/osama-bin-ladens-death-in-infographics-gallery/2011/05/04/

From looking at this website we can see that they take factual pieces of information and relay them in a more fun/ interesting way to be an accessible media source for people who don’t necessarily enjoy reading through papers or news stories online. There is a lot of visual stimulus on this sight which makes the stories accessible to almost everyone.

http://www.zonezero.com/editorial/editorial.html

In this article Pedro Meyer talks about the way new media and technology is developing to give audiences ‘Real time’ updates about world events and news, he also says that he likes the way audiences are becoming more active as they have the ability to comment on things they like and dislike, through basic forms of things such as facebook, but now as newspapers have online services now, people have more freedom to comment on news stories, share their opinions with other people who have a similar interest.

[1] http://www.toptenz.net/top-10-pictures-that-shocked-the-world.php#ixzz1fxLhQHMc

The 6 Qualities of still image

·      Emotional content

·      Relative context

·      Create Empathy

·      Shock and Expectation

·      Voyeur image

·      The surreal

The 3 modes of Photography

·      ‘The Decisive moment’ – snap shot of reality – ‘natural image’

·      Modern staged manipulator – constructed images – defining a point

·      Social-voyeur-artist – defined contexts – making a point about ‘everyday’ event

John Berger

“Words, comparisons, signs need to create a context for a printed photograph in a comparable way; that is to say, they must mark and leave open diverse approaches. A radial system has to be constructed around the photograph so that it may be seen in terms which are simultaneously personal, political, economic, dramatic, everyday and historic.”^[1]

Jeff Wall exhibit

Volunteer 1996 - an example of Social-Voyeur-artist photography - click on the exhibit link above.

This picture was based on Wall's observations of homeless shelters and similar facilities, but was shot on a set. The mural on the right-hand wall, a precise replica of one in an actual shelter, was painted for the photograph. It emphasizes the potential in black-and-white photography for registering subtle gradations of tone. The man sweeping the floor appears absorbed in his task, in a mood and world of his own. The impression is of a chance glimpse into someone else's life.

Martin Parr on Magnum

"Magnum photographers were meant to go out as a crusade ... to places like famine and war and ... I went out and went round the corner to the local supermarket because this to me is the front line." "The principle objection would be that I would appear to be cynical, voyeuristic, exploitative. All these were the words that I heard." (Martin Parr)

Visual Metaphors

These components are the dot (which forms the minimal visual unit), the pointer (a marker of space), and the line (the articulator of form). But, there are also various shapes: the circle, the square, the triangle that occur in combinations, permutations, different planes of expression, and different dimensions of visual understanding. Tone (the presence or absence of light) is also a visual component that is employed along with color and texture. These are the visual elements from which a visual space is created, organized syntactically, and expressed metaphorically.

Print culture: Looking for details more than meaning, viewed from left to right, everything looked at in a logical way, void of emotional thinking.

Oral Culture: Looking for meaning and the relationship between the details, view all the information at once, emotive look, using emotions to understand the meaning.

 Week 3

   -  Exaggerating Reality-emotions: Using subjects in the image to convey the type of life they live to provoke an emotional response from the audience. Getting subjects to look directly at the camera creates eye contact between the subject and the audience viewing the image. By altering the AP of the camera you can bring focus on particular points within the picture to exaggerate what the audience is looking at.

     - Breaking Edges: having parts of the subject or location out of the frame allows the audience to imagine what is missing. Stimulates the audience’s imagination. Altering the shutter speed can affect the blur within the image, keeping the motion of the subjects within the shot, gives a sense of naturalism to the picture.

     - Foreground Vs. Background: Gives the audience the sense of a journey if the subject looks to be coming into the shot from somewhere else. Removes the subject from the action in the background, which helps depict the subject’s environment/ situation.

    - Depths of Field: Breaks the subject from the action, bringing them into focus or taking them out of focus to emphasis a point. Creates a narrative for the audience as they are shown what they are meant to look at. Over lighting a subject can make them stand out from the environment. A shallow DOF will remove the subject from the action.

     - Shuttering Reality: Emphasises the dynamics of the image, whether it revealing pain, fun or death. Stopping/ capturing the motion keeps the event/ action revealing more of the movement and subjects feeling. Altering the shutter speed on the camera can cause blur within the image, keeps the energy from the action and conveys it in the image

    - Above and Below: High angle shots can show repression, gives the viewer the sense of looking down on the subject, whereas a low angle shot allows the subject to have the power. Can add a voyeuristic feel to the action taking place. Using different lens to change the perspective of the image. Wide angle, or Zoom lens can give a different take on the same subject.

    - Minimalism Vs. Clutter: Creating larger centre point locations, helps with the narration of the image, draws the audiences eye to a particular point within the action of the image. The more cluttered the image, the larger need for a focal point; the minimalist picture needs the foreground to be filled to accent the context of the image. Altering DOF can isolate the subject from the image, keeping the background out of focus brings all the attention to the subject.

 Research for weeks 4-6 

The lectures were based around technical development of editing footage and stills which is reflected in the individual technical design pages.  

 http://learn.winchester.ac.uk/mod/resource/view.php?id=38274

This reading called Honest Truths: Documentary Filmmakers on Ethical Challenges in the Work, written by Patricia Aufderheide, Peter Jaszi and Mridu Chandra discuss how documentary filmmakers use the idea of Ethics in their filmmaking. What different topics of ethics that they use in their work and how it is one of the main themes in their work and how the filmmaker is morally aware of what they are creating. The reading then goes onto discuss that filmmakers have always been aware of recognising ethics, but throughout the years they have, as the writers described "intensified". They mentioned a few documentaries that have been considered to be controversial, these are Fahrenheit 9/11, Mighty Times: The Children's March and the Ghosts.

http://learn.winchester.ac.uk/file.php/1179/2010_folder/final_cut_pro_guide.pdf

This is a formal guide to explain how to use Final Cut Pro. It explains how to use the user interface and how to begin a project on Final Cut Pro.

Research of Week 8

 http://learn.winchester.ac.uk/mod/resource/view.php?id=38276

This reading gives a detailed explanation into the hows and whats of asking questions in an interview in Documentary filmmaking. It helps us as documentary practitoners to think about the different sorts of questions that we would ask; to plan and research what we would say, so the answer that we receieve is the best for our work. This means looking into 3 factors, 1. the past event recollections, 2. current stories that relate to the topic of the documentary and 3. what the effects of the subject and/or issue will be in the remaining future. It further goes on to discuss the 'how toos' into perparing for the interview and the question and what we hope to gain from.  http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/nyregion/20071125_DNA_FEATURE/index.html

Research of Week 9

http://learn.winchester.ac.uk/file.php/1179/2011-12/week_9_and_10_screenings.pdf

This reading discusses the different styles of documentary filmmaker Nick Broomfield and gives the reader questions to think about in terms of his style and to think about what and how Broomfield does these different techniques in his documentary. It also makes us think actively as documentary filmmakers and to think practically about how we as practioners to create our own techniques and styles. The reading then links another reading, http://exposureroom.com/members/White89/d25f829e9f4b4c30812992625a4ed569/. This video is an example to all practioners onto avoid asking questions that lead to the interviewee rambling on about something that is unrelated to the topic that is being discussed. For instance, the interviewee is being asked questions about violence in the video game, Halo and then goes on to talk about how he is a father and so on and so fore. It does not relate to the intial question that was asked and therefore problematic to the documentary. 

For the rest of the weeks we were perparing for the presentation.