Documentary: Critical Evaluation

Documentary: Critical Evaluation

This will be my final evaluation of this unit. I will brake it don in to Pre-production, production, and post production, giveing posatives and neagtives for each. 

For this unit I was tasked with working in a group to create a documentary that was relevant and appropriate for a BBC3 audience.

Pre-Production

In the pre-production stage we went through a series of ideas and groupd developments. Our initial idea was to look at guide dogs and disability animals. However after meetings with Zoe we realised this would need a lot of work to fit a BBC3 audience. So we went through more idea changes, and eventaully settled on weight loss hacks.

We really liked this idea as there was a lot we could do with it, however it was also dificult since  we had to heavilly construct it in order to deliver a clear message and obtain the content we needed. We initially planned for our group member Ethan to be our test subject and presenter, but sadly he dropped out and for a short while we were a group of two. Fortunatly Cailan joined and helped add input in to our idea and we put out an add on casting call pro for a presenter. After interveiwing candidates as a groiup we found the perfect presenter and set about planning our locations and content. 

We worked together on a google docuemnt to put together a rough draft of a script, this helped boost our communication skills but we found it dificult to exactly match teh example Helen provided, getting coonfused over format. Fortunatly we acted on the changes and problems, quickly producing a second draft. 

When it came to organising locations and interviewess I was heavilly involved and took a leadign role. This went rather successfully. I sent out emails and got in contact with: Pole Fitness, a photographer (I originally planned to use soemone from UCA but had to fall back on someone from MidKent  Collage). I also contacted House Of Fraser where we intended to shoot a segmant with a personal shopper. I initially received permission, however they decided to withdraw it the day before shooting over consusion about the aim of our documentary. this was a slight setback but I ivercame it by contacting John Lewis (my backup idea) and getting their permission. 

I also laid the foundatiions for, and helped contact dozens of nutritionists to interveiw. However many turned in to wid goose chaces and I had to get Alex to help me. 

Production

Production went pretty much to plan, all of the locations apart from John Lewis proved to be successful and helpful for our documentary. We had a few issues when it came to poor lighting and available angles in Pole Fitness, however we utalised teh camearas settings to our advantage to overcome this. However fans, music and other noise still cuased issue and we had to ask them to be truned off during filming. 

Cailan was absent for a few shoot days which caused minor annoyance but wasnt a majour set bcak since he eventually came through for us. We found ourselves editing the script and cutting sections completly while filming beacuse they either didnt feel natural, or just didnt work. 

I did a lot of prominant camera work during production, I was also responsible for obtaining concent and negotiating and communicating with various contributors and locations.

Shooting with three different cameras allowed us to pick up a variety of angles and it made editing much easier (apart from colour correction) since we coudl cut to a different angle if we needed. However we occasionally got in each otehrs way so hadn to assess the situation and decide how many cameras were neccissary, but overall multiple cameras was a good thing. We found DSLR mics provied adiqute audio and only used the clip mic in propper sit down interveiws. 

Post Production

We decided to split the editing in to thirds to give everyone equal chance to shine and save time. However this turned out to be both a blessing and a curse. When we recieved feedback from Zoe and Helen we acted on it straight away. We found we didnt quite have enough cut aways or commentary so had to do more shooting, but this only benafited our documentary. However if specific changes needed to be meade to a particular persons section then it made it dificult since they had to edit it, render it, export it, then send it to ther rest of the group which took a lot of time. 

I worked hard on my own section noting down feedback form grouop members as well as Zoe, helen and Sam. 

I also made all the graphics for our documentary. 

Writing a transcript was realativly painless even though we had to miss the tutorial and became increadably useful when cutting down sections in the edit. This was a joint effort between myself and Caialn while Alex helped me edit a rough cut of our sync pull. However we struggled to write a paper edit and preferend to make simple notes then converse as a group before making changes. However we were able to act on  almost all changes that were suggested to us and put togtehr a very successful pice with a clear message (something we were concerend about early on).

 

Overall this unit pushed our communication skills to the limit but I feel we came out stronger and produced an amazing piece of work that I hope will be very successful. I had a huge input to this project which I have hopefully detailed and it ahs been my favourite to work on.

Documetary: Morgan Spurlock

Documetary: Morgan Spurlock

For this unit we needed to analyse a documentary maker. I have chosen to look at the work of Morgan Spurlock, known for programmes such as "Super Size Me", " Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope", and "One Direction, This Is Us".

Spurlock is a well known documentary maker who's career frst took off in the early 2000's. Over his career he has constructed a variety of documentaries fullfilling a variety of roles such as presenter, producer, director etc. He is know for following nieche yet very relevant topics, and is very good at manipulating audiences to feel a certain way. 

Super Size Me

"Super size me" is considered one Spurlocks earliest sccesses.

It centred around the idea of obesity (a mojour topical influence for my documentary). It uses a familier style coherant to that of Nick Broomfield and Louis Thourux.

 

Naratively it followed the 1 week journey of the presenter who intended to eat nothing but mcdonalds for a week. It was simple to follow (something which is present in all of his documentarys), and usewd a variety of techniques to grip audiences.

Spurlock is known for rhythmic editing and montages within his documentary (something I intend to experiment with), creating introductions and sequences that fot around a music track and maintain the atention of an audience. This is very present it "Super Size Me", and Spurlock uses theese sequences to deliver hard statistics.

His documentaries are always very character or presenter driven. Something I intend to ustalise in my documentary. He is able to seemlessly blend commentary and PTC and I intend to reflect that technique, as it can help move the narative foward when there is a lack of visual content. 

He is also very fond of using graphics to articualte and deliver his messages. He uses vibrant colours and quick cuts to make sure people pay attention to what his messages. T he message and narative of "Super Size Me" is very hard hitting, despite not intending to create a serious documentary he ended up delivering clear morals to his audience. This is partly due to the expert advice he gained from several different doctors. This is useful to someone like me as I can see he has deliberatly sought out multiple opinions and for a documemntary like mine that is a necessity. There is also mass use of product placement and iconography witin "Super Size Me" which is something I will deliberate as to how effective it could be for my documentary.

One Direction, This Is Us

"This is us" (2013) is one of Spurlocks later works, which demonstrates how his directign style has developed but also what has stayed the same. "This Is Us" followed the band "One Direction's" journey to fame. 

In this documentary Spurlock is'nt trying to deliver a hard hitting message or convince an audience towards a certain veiwpoint. However a lot of his stylistic techniques remain the same. Similarly to Supersize me he is fond of rhythmic editing matching cut aways, stock footage, graphics etc. to the music. Where as in "Super Size Me", he used heavier rock music to get audiences pumped and angry at some of the pounts he raised, here he uses One Directions slower songs to generate a feeling of nostalgia and craete a heart warming journey. 

Spurlock is able to blend hand held and static shots seemlessly inliek "Worlds Fattest Man" and ensures that his interveiws and montages follow the standard conventions. 

Spurlock has the ability to create easy to follow naratives even when there is a lack of commentary; and what I like about "This Is Us" is taht it delivers a subtle message of friendship, hope and success without having to explicitly state it in comentary or PTC (something I struggle with in documentary making). 

Overall I admire the way Spurlock can subtly manipulate audiences opions and emotions. He uses music, colours (e.g. the red of mcdonalds products) and lighting to either get people angry at big corperations like MCDonalds, or feel happy or cry at moments of nostalgia, or feel physically sick at otehr times. He always has the full atention of an audience, and throughout his career can craete a different atmosphere in each of his works simply by following the rules. For example in "A Fans Hope" he uses handheld shots and characters energy to engage the audince and excite them, but in "This Is Us" he uses lighting and colour to create a calm. I intend to take on boardd a number of teh techniques I mentioned.

Documentary Analysis: The Worlds Fattest Man

Documentary Analysis: "The Worlds Fattest Man"

For my research I have chosen to analyse the documentary "Worlds Fattest Man". It was documentary's like this that first inspired the idea for our documentary. Since obesity is such a relevant topic this was great to look at.

The documentary follows the "fattest" man in britain, where it shows his life or rather living conditions over a period of time and his journey to receive a potentially life saving opperation. 

The documentary starts with comentary (By an un seen narrrator) and a series of "stock footage" of obese people in britain, while the narraotor delivers a series of statistocs about obesity in the UK. This not only establishes the subject of the documentary but also establsihes the location and nature of the programme. This is something that I picked up on in a number of documentary's and I think its a very effective tool that I will utalise in my documentary. 

After a breif intro we are qucikly introduced to our "Character" and are given some context about their life. This means the audience has a full understanding of who and what they are looking at. 

As the documentary progresses we are given more context about our characters situation and how he got to the position he is in today. We are then introduced to the other majour people in his life. Meanwhile the narrator explains their relation to the character and provides more statistics and comparisons. This is intercut with cut aways of footage that matches the commentary/dialouge e.g. shots of othe robese people, shots of surgery, shots of people eating etc. 

In terms of music and sound since this is a documentary, verry little sound effects have been added in post to maintain reality. However a soundtrack is put in the background durign moments of "drama" or tension. It is aslo underlayed while commentary and cut aways take place. This is something that I picked up on in a few documentarys but not all, it very much depends on the genre. e.g. a nature documentary will almost alsways have music since there is little dialouge. It helps keep audience attention at key moments. 

Anotehr thing I noted while watching this documentary is that the "character" answers a series of questions throughout the documentary; however we never hear teh question actually being asked. This is likely because they dont have a presenter, and is not something you'd see in all documentarys. For example a Louis Theroux documentary which is more interveiw driven.

I intend for my documentary to lie somewhere inbetween.

Stylisticly the camera work is interesting on this documentary, it is primerilly handheld which is unusual for a documentary of this sort. It tends to use a 1 camera set up and tend to cut away to other footage (that matches the dialouge) rather than change angle. 

Naratively the story is easy to follow, primerilly driven by the narration, this is effective and allows the audience to easilly keep up with the events. I intend for my documentary to be driven by a mixture of PTC and comentary. 

Overall this documentary follows some of the conventions e.g.comentary, cut aways, underlying soundtrack etc.

But the rest is rather inconsistant e.g. the use of graphics is inconsistant, as with the change between handheld and static shots, and lack of lighting. 

I intned for my documentary to maintain consistancy, especially with graphics, tripod shots, interveiws etc. But I did pick up some useful ideas. For example this documentary follows a very seriouse topic and maintains that tone throughout. I intend to keep a light hearted tone and while we touch on obesity we will be looking at an obscure angle of weight loss such as life hacks witht he ocasional grounding in the serious.