Research
Types of documentarys
There are many different types of documentaries present in the world of cinematography so here are a few that you need to know.
Expository Documentary-this type of documentary is one of the main form as its main purpose is to expose a person or a topic with the use of narration and associated footage and archival recordings which are linked to the subject being talked about by the narrator an example or a expository documentary is Americas most wanted.
Poectic is used to associate images and patterns of a historical theme to help the audience `to understand the topic on an emotional level by using art and depictions of events
The observational documentary this type of documentary is used to show events in history the way they happened as if there were no film crews no narration or any other editing done to the video to help keep the realness of these events as the actors used behave as if there was no film crew.
the participatory mode is where the film maker is able to address the audience or fellow actors during certain circumstances as they are able to talk about the film or a subject or interest a little bit like a behind the scenes on a DVD basically when the film maker narrates actions during a film or subject.
The reflexive mode okay this mode can be used in a few different situations.
Representation and semiotics
Representation
The representation in the media industry is the way that Groups, people and events have been represented in the media industry and that when a narrator of a documentary such as David Attenborough doing a documentary on penguins they don't present the reailty they re-present it in their own way.
Anything that is represented in a media goes through a process called mediation the process of mediation goes as follows Reality, Mediation and representation of reality. This process helps create the shows and documentaries that use reality and historical events and people to get the a proper representation in the media industry.
Semiotics
Semiotics is the study of signs int he media industry and how filmmakers make meanings in film throughout the creation and interpretation of signs.
Codes and Conventions
The codes and conventions of documentaries are basically the building blocks of the documentary industry
There are many different types of documentaries present in the world of cinematography so here are a few that you need to know.
Expository Documentary-this type of documentary is one of the main form as its main purpose is to expose a person or a topic with the use of narration and associated footage and archival recordings which are linked to the subject being talked about by the narrator an example or a expository documentary is Americas most wanted.
Poectic is used to associate images and patterns of a historical theme to help the audience `to understand the topic on an emotional level by using art and depictions of events
The observational documentary this type of documentary is used to show events in history the way they happened as if there were no film crews no narration or any other editing done to the video to help keep the realness of these events as the actors used behave as if there was no film crew.
the participatory mode is where the film maker is able to address the audience or fellow actors during certain circumstances as they are able to talk about the film or a subject or interest a little bit like a behind the scenes on a DVD basically when the film maker narrates actions during a film or subject.
The reflexive mode okay this mode can be used in a few different situations.
- it can be used to show our assumptions and expectations on the documentary form itself.
- it can be seen politically as it shows our assumptions of the world around us
- both of these techniques are used to sever our connection to the film and question the filmmaker itself the techniques mainly used in this mode is the voice of god narration technique and expository form and images and doesn't only speaks about the historical world but the issues of representation.
The preformative mode
this is used to show the emotional effect of a subject on the workplace and life itself as it stresses the tone and mood as well as arguments and evidence of events to show the emotional factor of these events and by using that emotional complex it helps the audience want to learn more about the certain subject and the way you feel about the subject is by how the filmmaker feels about the subject
Representation
The representation in the media industry is the way that Groups, people and events have been represented in the media industry and that when a narrator of a documentary such as David Attenborough doing a documentary on penguins they don't present the reailty they re-present it in their own way.
Anything that is represented in a media goes through a process called mediation the process of mediation goes as follows Reality, Mediation and representation of reality. This process helps create the shows and documentaries that use reality and historical events and people to get the a proper representation in the media industry.
Semiotics
Semiotics is the study of signs int he media industry and how filmmakers make meanings in film throughout the creation and interpretation of signs.
Codes and Conventions
The codes and conventions of documentaries are basically the building blocks of the documentary industry
Conventions
They are the accepted ways of producing something and that its closely connected to an audience expectation of a media product and are split into three types of conventions.
- Story convention: common narrative or structure and understandings that are common in storytelling.
- Genre conventions: common use of tropes, characters, settings or themes in a particular type of media
- Form conventions: the certain way we expect codes to be arranged
Purpose of a documentary by Michael Renov
Documentaries should
- Record, reveals, presents
- Persuades or promotes
- Analyse or interrogates
- Expresses emotion
The reasons for the decline of the shellfish industry
One of the reasons that the shellfish industry is slowly disappearing is that young people don't want to take up the profession as they don't really seem interested this can be proven due to an article in the Telegraph about The fishing of cromer crabs which is under the shell fishing term, the article talks about how the fisherman are worried that due to the.
Documentary directors
The reason for this section of the research page is to look at the different choices documentary directors have made, to help give me inspiration of what choices they have made that i could help factor into my project the main source for this research section i am going to use is a book called This Much is True - 15 Directors on Documentary Film making By James Quinn, ( this book details the choices and perspectives that 15 documentary directors have when making their own projects.
I hope to look into a few of the directors mentioned in this book and write a few Key points about them.
Paul Watson
He is all about honesty when creating his films as he says "you must convey the truth as accurate as possible as in some cases you have spent time in other peoples lives and you don't want to let anyone down by lying or hiding the truth"- (where did you find this info?) (give me an example of this in one of his documentaries) he stands by his work even if your brutally honest and help others accept the truth.
Henry Singer
He is known for "getting to the bottom of things" A good example for this quote is his documentary called "9/11 the falling man" in this he aims to find out who the man captured falling from the twins towers. The subject or the agenda in most of his projects is to find the secrets and the truth of modern events so that the public can know the true facts of a situation.
Marc Isaacs
He uses Character led film making in his documentaries. The characters he presents in his documentary to create themes in his work and is known to hide information from the audience till half way through his film to help switch their perception on a certain character and then uses this to drive the narrative of the documentary and this doesn't always work in his films. He also uses real life problems to create his project for example in his documentary "Men of the city" he looks into what the people of London think about their jobs.
Andrew Jarecki
He uses editing to his advantage in his films by using archival footage in the editing process. He uses editing to hide information form the audience to present it later in the film and takes his time when doing this in post production. He is well Known for his documentary "capturing the Friedman's" for his use of Archival footage to present the events.
Types of documentary
There are many different types of documentaries present in the world of cinematography so here are a few that you need to know.
Expository Documentary-this type of documentary is one of the main form as its main purpose is to expose a person or a topic with the use of narration and associated footage and archival recordings which are linked to the subject being talked about by the narrator an example or a expository documentary is Americas most wanted.
Poectic is used to associate images and patterns of a historical theme to help the audience `to understand the topic on an emotional level by using art and depictions of events
The observational documentary this type of documentary is used to show events in history the way they happened as if there were no film crews no narration or any other editing done to the video to help keep the realness of these events as the actors used behave as if there was no film crew.
the participatory mode is where the film maker is able to address the audience or fellow actors during certain circumstances as they are able to talk about the film or a subject or interest a little bit like a behind the scenes on a DVD basically when the film maker narrates actions during a film or subject.
The reflexive mode okay this mode can be used in a few different situations.
Conclusion
In conclusion the research I have done in this section helps give me a pathway into how I'm going to present my documentary and from what I've learnt is that when coming to documentary making you must present the facts as they are.
Also due to this research i have decide the type of documentary this will be and it will be a mix of reflexicve mode due to it having a voice of god and using interviews and archive footage as this would be good for a shellfishing documentary.
other research
In aid of gaining information I am going to look at any professional examples of short films or documentaries that show either similar qualities or present a similar subject to the documentary I'm creating.
During my research I have found a documentary that Is based on basically the same subject
as mine but is centralised on the subject of cockling and only looks at the coastal town of Hunstanton. it tells the story of the last cockler left in Hunstanton and how the cockling market in Hunstanton has all but disappeared thanks to commercial shell fishing. The last cockler.
The reason I think this documentary is great example is that it helps prove that the shell fishing Is on the decline in Norfolk as there was only one cockler left back 2010 when this was produced now there could be no one left.
Also this is great for inspiration in the actual cinematography of the documentary as the use of the establishing shot of the beach and the coast paired with the sound of waves crashing against the beach and cliffs and the soothing music paired with it really sets the tone of the film which I personally thought was memories as in the initial voice of god he talks of his childhood memories picking cockles, with him saying this I think adds a personal factor into this as he's trying to protect his childhood pass time by making this documentary.
What I have taken from this documentary Is that having a personal or emotional connection to your work is not a bad, it just shows your driven and passionate about your work. This means 1m going to use my personal stake in the subject of the documentary as a driving force to make it the best I possibly can.
My experience
My family is part of the shellfish industry thanks to my relatives Ben and Cryril who have the knowledge and experience to produce the best shellfish possible which will then be sent to some of the best restaurants on the Norfolk coast.
The reason i love shellfish is the way we can get a part of the coast. The reason I have shellfish almost every week is due to their healthy benefits to your body such as improving brain function thanks to the omega 3 acids and iron for muscle tissue building and repair.
This is not common in the UK diet due to the growth of fast food and ready meal industry which has partiley caused obesity in both adults and children alike and the reason the ready meal industry has increased so much is due to people not wanting to cook for themselves and use fresh ingredients because making your own food can be expensive but its also so much better for your health.
Target Audience
The average age of my target audience would be the 40-70 age range due to shell fishing being more prominent in their lives when they were young and this is also when technology wasn't a massive industry and family businesses in more easier trades were around.
the gender for my audience would probably be male due to when my age range was young the stereotype was that men did all the work so i think they would be more interested in the subject of my documentary.
My audience would live somewhere on the coast and would have a steady income such as £20,000 as they would be able to have a TV and be able to watch my documentary as they usually have 9-5 jobs and have the spare time to watch the documentary
They can either be married or single and could have a profession in fishing.
They should have an interest in the fishing or in the coat due to the subject of the documentary i am making.
My target audience will be on channel 4 as they are known to present documentary on new and interesting subjects such as shellfishing and the reason I think my audience would be on channel 4 due to this bar graph showing why viewers come to channel 4 than other networks.
The 2 main graphs you should look at is the bottomn right and top right graphs lets start with bottomn right
Bottomn right graph
the bottomn right graph is the one that helps give the reason why my documentary would be on channel 4 because they are known for taking diffrent aproachs to the documentary genre and in programming ande thsi turns out to be one reason why people come to channel 4 and creating an audience for my doc.
Top right graph
This graph is also a positive due to it representing the diffrent grounds channel 4 covers this includes the fishing industry and especially a documentary about the industry and this further reinforces the fact that my documentary would be perfect for channel 4
Bibliography
I hope to look into a few of the directors mentioned in this book and write a few Key points about them.
Paul Watson
He is all about honesty when creating his films as he says "you must convey the truth as accurate as possible as in some cases you have spent time in other peoples lives and you don't want to let anyone down by lying or hiding the truth"- (where did you find this info?) (give me an example of this in one of his documentaries) he stands by his work even if your brutally honest and help others accept the truth.
Henry Singer
He is known for "getting to the bottom of things" A good example for this quote is his documentary called "9/11 the falling man" in this he aims to find out who the man captured falling from the twins towers. The subject or the agenda in most of his projects is to find the secrets and the truth of modern events so that the public can know the true facts of a situation.
Marc Isaacs
He uses Character led film making in his documentaries. The characters he presents in his documentary to create themes in his work and is known to hide information from the audience till half way through his film to help switch their perception on a certain character and then uses this to drive the narrative of the documentary and this doesn't always work in his films. He also uses real life problems to create his project for example in his documentary "Men of the city" he looks into what the people of London think about their jobs.
Andrew Jarecki
He uses editing to his advantage in his films by using archival footage in the editing process. He uses editing to hide information form the audience to present it later in the film and takes his time when doing this in post production. He is well Known for his documentary "capturing the Friedman's" for his use of Archival footage to present the events.
Types of documentary
There are many different types of documentaries present in the world of cinematography so here are a few that you need to know.
Expository Documentary-this type of documentary is one of the main form as its main purpose is to expose a person or a topic with the use of narration and associated footage and archival recordings which are linked to the subject being talked about by the narrator an example or a expository documentary is Americas most wanted.
Poectic is used to associate images and patterns of a historical theme to help the audience `to understand the topic on an emotional level by using art and depictions of events
The observational documentary this type of documentary is used to show events in history the way they happened as if there were no film crews no narration or any other editing done to the video to help keep the realness of these events as the actors used behave as if there was no film crew.
the participatory mode is where the film maker is able to address the audience or fellow actors during certain circumstances as they are able to talk about the film or a subject or interest a little bit like a behind the scenes on a DVD basically when the film maker narrates actions during a film or subject.
The reflexive mode okay this mode can be used in a few different situations.
- it can be used to show our assumptions and expectations on the documentary form itself.
- it can be seen politically as it shows our assumptions of the world around us
- both of these techniques are used to sever our connection to the film and question the filmmaker itself the techniques mainly used in this mode is the voice of god narration technique and expository form and images and doesn't only speaks about the historical world but the issues of representation.
The preformative mode
this is used to show the emotional effect of a subject on the workplace and life itself as it stresses the tone and mood as well as arguments and evidence of events to show the emotional factor of these events and by using that emotional complex it helps the audience want to learn more about the certain subject and the way you feel about the subject is by how the filmmaker feels about the subject
Conclusion
In conclusion the research I have done in this section helps give me a pathway into how I'm going to present my documentary and from what I've learnt is that when coming to documentary making you must present the facts as they are.
Also due to this research i have decide the type of documentary this will be and it will be a mix of reflexicve mode due to it having a voice of god and using interviews and archive footage as this would be good for a shellfishing documentary.
other research
In aid of gaining information I am going to look at any professional examples of short films or documentaries that show either similar qualities or present a similar subject to the documentary I'm creating.
During my research I have found a documentary that Is based on basically the same subject
as mine but is centralised on the subject of cockling and only looks at the coastal town of Hunstanton. it tells the story of the last cockler left in Hunstanton and how the cockling market in Hunstanton has all but disappeared thanks to commercial shell fishing. The last cockler.
The reason I think this documentary is great example is that it helps prove that the shell fishing Is on the decline in Norfolk as there was only one cockler left back 2010 when this was produced now there could be no one left.
Also this is great for inspiration in the actual cinematography of the documentary as the use of the establishing shot of the beach and the coast paired with the sound of waves crashing against the beach and cliffs and the soothing music paired with it really sets the tone of the film which I personally thought was memories as in the initial voice of god he talks of his childhood memories picking cockles, with him saying this I think adds a personal factor into this as he's trying to protect his childhood pass time by making this documentary.
What I have taken from this documentary Is that having a personal or emotional connection to your work is not a bad, it just shows your driven and passionate about your work. This means 1m going to use my personal stake in the subject of the documentary as a driving force to make it the best I possibly can.
My experience
My family is part of the shellfish industry thanks to my relatives Ben and Cryril who have the knowledge and experience to produce the best shellfish possible which will then be sent to some of the best restaurants on the Norfolk coast.
The reason i love shellfish is the way we can get a part of the coast. The reason I have shellfish almost every week is due to their healthy benefits to your body such as improving brain function thanks to the omega 3 acids and iron for muscle tissue building and repair.
This is not common in the UK diet due to the growth of fast food and ready meal industry which has partiley caused obesity in both adults and children alike and the reason the ready meal industry has increased so much is due to people not wanting to cook for themselves and use fresh ingredients because making your own food can be expensive but its also so much better for your health.
Target Audience
The average age of my target audience would be the 40-70 age range due to shell fishing being more prominent in their lives when they were young and this is also when technology wasn't a massive industry and family businesses in more easier trades were around.
the gender for my audience would probably be male due to when my age range was young the stereotype was that men did all the work so i think they would be more interested in the subject of my documentary.
My audience would live somewhere on the coast and would have a steady income such as £20,000 as they would be able to have a TV and be able to watch my documentary as they usually have 9-5 jobs and have the spare time to watch the documentary
They can either be married or single and could have a profession in fishing.
They should have an interest in the fishing or in the coat due to the subject of the documentary i am making.
My target audience will be on channel 4 as they are known to present documentary on new and interesting subjects such as shellfishing and the reason I think my audience would be on channel 4 due to this bar graph showing why viewers come to channel 4 than other networks.
The 2 main graphs you should look at is the bottomn right and top right graphs lets start with bottomn right
Bottomn right graph
the bottomn right graph is the one that helps give the reason why my documentary would be on channel 4 because they are known for taking diffrent aproachs to the documentary genre and in programming ande thsi turns out to be one reason why people come to channel 4 and creating an audience for my doc.
Top right graph
This graph is also a positive due to it representing the diffrent grounds channel 4 covers this includes the fishing industry and especially a documentary about the industry and this further reinforces the fact that my documentary would be perfect for channel 4
Bibliography
Hetland, S. (2018, January N/A). Research and insight at channel 4.Retrieved April 18, 2018, from Slideplayer.com: https://slideplayer.com/slide/15403745/
Horton, H. (2018, August 29). Telegraph.co.uk UK section. Retrieved April 16, 2019, from The
Telegraph: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/08/29/cromer-crab-fisherman-shortage-young-people-wont-stick/
Telegraph: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/08/29/cromer-crab-fisherman-shortage-young-people-wont-stick/
Quinn, J. (2013).This much is true: 14 directors on documentary filmmaking.London: Bloomsbury publishing plc.
Find existing documentary commentary (analysis from a book/newspaper article) upon documentary... find the techniques used e.g. the rules for meaningful cut-aways. How does Paul Watson create documentary... what are his techniques? e.g. lighting. Also explore overlays and when to cut away. Next week.
ReplyDeleteAudience : find channel 4 audience statistics regarding documentary and define the demographic and when these pieces are broadcast... today.
ReplyDeletethank you ever so much James I have found a graph referencing the reasons people are coming to channel 4
Delete-Link & credit to where you found this information and who the person was wrote up this information
ReplyDelete- The "The reasons for the decline of the shellfish industry" and "Target Audience" titles is hard to read against the highlight color. A change of color wouldn't go a miss
-Explain the Channel 4 graph in more detail. Say what each section represents and why it matters to your project
-This one isnt completely necessary but have a look at the spacing of each paragraph
There is some really good research here Harry, you have looked into the different types of documentaries and the purpose of documentary. To ensure that you have interpreted this research to develop your idea, discuss what the purpose of your documentary is and as a result what type of documentary will it be.
ReplyDeleteRemember to always link what you have learnt from your research to your idea. In a similar vein, what have you learnt from researching into these documentaries - maybe the way they interview someone? the types of questions they ask? or the way that they edit interviews with other footage?
There is some great research here, it only needs to be explained in relation to your idea.
Since you have conducted some very useful information, i feel an opportunity has been missed to reference the source of this information. For example, you talk about a Telegraph article - what one? or where did you gather the information about the documentaries? I know from our discussing in class a book, but what one?
ReplyDeleteThen you can compile these in a bibliography, listing all the sources that you used to help develop your project.
you have done very good and thorough research, i feel everything that needs to be said has already by other lectures or peers.
ReplyDelete