Research

Codes and conventions of documentaries are commonly seen in documentaries. Most common ones are:

Interview is to ask questions about the documentary matter usually asked by the filmmaker, to get opinions from people who, mostly, are associated with the documentary subject. Gives realism that the filmmaker's opinion is shared, making them more valid.

Achieve footage, this is media from the past, such as books, photos and letters to create context and show historical events in the documentary about the past. which adds detail without having to film.

Narration, this is usually the documentary maker, who does the narration either on screen or off which is usually referred to as the voice of god. This gives context to the visuals happening on screen and moves the narrative forward.

Cutaway, this can show or give an idea of what the narrator or an interviewee might have been talking about, also keeps interest so it’s not just one thing the who time. 

Observational footage, Footage taken by the documentary maker, to similarly give visualisation to what the narrator or interviewee was talking about.

Re-enactment, usually used in crime documentaries, it is reconstruction of events that happened, usually to the interviewee, so the viewer gets some idea of what happened. They can give a sense of realism to the viewer, as if the even happened in front of them.

Graphics, the title that come up at the bottom of the screen for an interviewee or when they are in a place to introduce them without taking up time of the documentary.

Analysis of 2 Documentaries

Touching the void, is a documentary of two men who tried to climbed a never before climbed mountain and they did it, but then on the way down, it went wrong, when one of the men slipped off and broke his leg so they both went down the mountain slowly together, this is shown through both men, who were actually in the incident, recall the events in an interview setting, mostly cutting away to a re-enactment which for the viewer create realism and as if we are there with them on the mountain. The wind when they are climbing is loud which creates the atmosphere that it was super cold and what they had to go through to get to the top. When they get to the top it plays glory kind of music which creates a happy accomplished feeling of finally doing what they set out to do, the music also accompanied by the visual of a far drone footage view of them on the mountain which makes them look like ants which show how big the maintain was, making their achievement much greater.

This documentary is quite different, to the first one, the first one is a budgeted 1hr or so long documentary were as this one is just a brief YouTube documentary about the Butterfly Effect. This one is narration over pictures, giving a visual representation to what he is saying. He talks about how the research was done on the butterfly effect, then he goes on to talk about what big of an impact major events not happening would have, using facts and pictures to show this. Then he shows how the butterfly effect impacted him, showing that it effects everything.

To conclude, these are very different, touching the void is longer and better quality, whereas the butterfly effect is brief and good. Both however have narration over some sort of visual representation. The sound in touching the void makes it better because it makes the visuals more immersive and makes you feel what they are feeling, when I watched it I felt cold, which gave it atmosphere and realism.

Interviews

There are 2 types of interviews, Formal and Informal.

Things to consider when picking someone to interview:

Who am I interviewing? Are they interesting? Are they relevant to the topic? Are they the right person to interview?

The formal interview is more controlled, the filmmaker can pick a specific background, an object, such as a notebook, that might represent something about the interviewee. the interviewee will stay there the whole interview, which makes it feel less natural.

The informal interview is less controlled by the filmmaker and more by the interviewee as it is where they are comfortable, and they can move around. The interview is also less structured. The interview is more natural feeling as the interviewee will act how they usually do because they feel comfortable in that environment.

Here is an example of the interview I did for practice. My documentary won’t need an interview as is going to be like a David Attenborough documentary.

Kitten interview

Type of questions

Open questions these are used to get more than a yes or no answer.

Example, “what is your idea?”

This type of question allows the interviewee to talk freely about the subject letting them give more information and include their feelings and opinions about the subject.

Closed questions get limited responses usually yes or no.

Example, “do you like cake?”

These questions give a quick answer that state facts, there known as leading questions. Most interviews open with this, as it’s easy to start with a simple answer before getting into for depth.

Single questions are direct questions about the topic.

Example, “what is Easter?”

These will be directly asking about a topic. These are done in short interviews when you only need them to answer an important question and getting a different variety of answers to that one question.

Multiple Questions have more than a single answer.

Example, “what is your favourite chocolate and why?”

These helps receive a lot more information from the interviewee. This is getting two questions out the way, by only using one question about the topic. This can help when an interviewer has a lot to talk about.

Direct questions are used when the interviewer wants to get a straight to the point answer.

Example, “do you really want to be a head?”

These questions are hard hitting, that helps the interviewer get straight to the bottom. This sort of question tries to get the interviewer to react towards the question positively or negatively.

Leading Questions is the first question that directs the interviewee into a topic the interviewer wants them to talk about.

Example, “You mentioned that you enjoyed last year’s Christmas with your family. Do you think this Christmas will be as wonderful as last?”

This helps the interviewer move the interviewee into another topic, by answering a quick, easy question. This question’s come off biased to one answer. Such as the way you use positive words such as ‘wonderful’ guides the interviewee to follow and agree. Meaning the interviewee is in control of the interview.

Modes of documentaries

Poetic

This a montage of clips that manipulate emotion. There is no fact or opinion, it is entirely visual, like a video form mood board. They are subjective and abstract as they have no clear narration. An example of this is, the trail of happiness

Advantages of this is that the filmmaker has more creative freedom and they are visually appealing.

Disadvantages are that some events can be underdeveloped, and some shots are unrelated. They also have no educational value.

Expository

This is one of the most traditional forms of documentary. They take one opinion and take that as fact, these are supported by a narrator that is accompanied by images or footage to support their argument. These are used to expose a topic or person.

An example of this is David Attenborough’s blue planet, in which he narrates over observational footage of animals where he states facts about them and what they are doing.

Advantage of this is that the narrator’s argument in supported by the images shown on-screen. This is also easy for visual learners

Disadvantage is that the information said by the narrator maybe not be taken in because the viewer may get distracted by the visual elements.

Reflexive

In these documentaries there is little to no editing to just let the information out by itself, the cameras and crew’s presents is acknowledged by the film maker which provides the narrative.

Advantage shows the viewer what they faced trying to make this documentary.

Disadvantage because these documentaries are associated with just being experimental, the subject may be overlooked as they viewer just watched the editing and making process.

Performative

The film maker takes part as the subject, using what they find to manipulate the audience. The film maker can use what they find to manipulate their audience into believing the documenter’s opinion/subject of the documentary.

Advantage the film maker gets a unique experience and new or updated findings.

Disadvantage the audience don’t get the truth or the full truth to the conclusion of the documentary.

Participatory

the film maker interacts with the subject of the documentary. The footage has little to no editing. It is pretty much like the diary of the film maker of what went on in the making of the documentary.

Advantage the video diary makes the audience feel more involved.

Disadvantage the film maker might not get clear representation of their idea.

Observation

The film maker doesn’t interact with the subject, they observe from a far. There is commonly no interviews and no intervention

Advantage gives the audience a chance to have their own opinion.

Disadvantage the audience might be led to the wrong conclusion by accident.

Kitten Research

When the kittens were still very tiny we found this YouTube channel called kitten lady, she did a video of kittens from 0 weeks to 8 weeks I will be doing somewhat similar but just 4 to 6 weeks. It would be less fact based and more observational with a narrator, over the footage, talking about their behaviour pattern.

In the video it is in 9 sections but all similarly structured, the lady has the kitten in a blanket then as they get older just her hands and talks about their size, then cuts to what they should weigh, when they should feed, then just some footage of them playing, sleeping or feeding. At the start it is a presenter type style when she is has the kitten and talking to the camera. Over the facts visual as the numbers pop up on screen she narrates.

The present type style, I might do but just like kittens walking around my feet or legs in shot with the kittens, playing with toys or just interacting with the kittens. I will defiantly have some footage of them playing with toys or just each other, I will try to get footage of them eating if they don't get scared by the camera.

When looking for other kitten research I came across the documentary series called the secret life of kittens, so I watched the first episode and made notes to try to include in the voice over. I unfortunately did not have time to watch the rest of the series and the first episode had most of what I already knew when first looking for kitten care information.

The style of this documentary is observational footage of the kittens, really close up. The narrator talks about what they are doing and how that helps their development, the documentary follows several different kittens from a couple of different litters in what they do in their day to day life and how their individual experiences also help their development.

For my documentary I want to do something similar to have a voice over on the kittens doing things and then me or someone else, the narrator, explaining how that helps the kittens develop into house cats and how t will help them moving on to their forever homes. I might incorporate some kitten care from the kitten lady research.

Essay

How do the creative choices affect our perceptions?

In many documentaries, the film makers use the micro elements to help persuade the audience to feel a certain way either changing their opinions or making the viewer feel a certain emotion about the whole documentary or just that part of the documentary.

The lighting in certain documentaries can be used to make the viewer feel certain emotions one mode of documentary that uses this well are poetic documentaries. In this poetic documentary called True Nature (2019) the lighting and colour is a natural green reflecting off all the leaves and the white of the clouded over sky, which give the expression of beauty and a natural feel of the plants, bugs and trees shown. The light being calm with warm relaxing colours and well matched with the plants not flashing or bright hot colours makes the viewer feel that nature is in not chaotic or dirty but beautiful and calm, shown through the neutral war colours of nature itself.

In expository documentaries one thing used and most associated with expository are voice overs. The voice over is used to help guide the viewer to the documenter’s opinion. The tone that some word is said or how a certain part is explained can change the viewer’s perception on that subject. For example, in What happens when TOURISTS wear kimono? (2019) what Hannah includes in her voice over when she talks about tourists being interested or taking part in traditions and other Japanese culture, she says it in a higher, interested and accepting tone, the tone shifts when she starts to talk about all the criticism celebrities get from the western audience when they try to incorporate Japanese culture in their line of work, being music videos or album covers or a red carpet outfit, all changes the viewers opinion on cultural appropriation and appreciation, showing the Japanese point of view to the westerns opinion on whether it’s appropriate for celebrities to incorporate the Japanese culture.

Facial expressions and body language can be used to change the views perception on the subject. As the filmmaker is the subject of the documentary, they can overreact about something to make anything seem better or worse than it actually is. This is what they need to prove or just to make the documentary more interesting to manipulate the audience. For example, in super-size me (2004) Spurlock’s facial expressions and body language declines as the month goes on. In the start he is grinning, smiling and has a general happy look, he is actively listening, nodding and sitting up then as the month goes on, just a couple of days into the month, his facial expressions are neutral and he is starting to slump over and yawn and is just generally tired looking, towards the end of the month, this really does add to the viewers perception that fast food is not good for you as he seems more miserable and tired then from the start of the documentary when he was eating organic vegan food.

In conclusion the creative choice of the film maker can take an effect on the audience’s perception of the documentary’s subject. The level of usage of the micro element could change the opinion of the viewer drastically or very little. The lighting and colour used in the poetic documentary was used to make nature feel and look calm. In expository the voice over was used to conflict opinions on culture appropriation and appreciation and views from the Japanese to western. In the participatory facial expressions and body language was one element to add to the viewers perception that fast food is bad.

References

super size me. (2004). [film] Directed by M. Spurlock. America: The Con.

Youtube (2019). True Nature Poetic documentary. [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVVXCcdrfpc [Accessed 14 Jun. 2019].

Youtube (2019). What happens when TOURISTS wear kimono//外国人が着物を着る事は日本人に失礼な事？. [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YG_hloEVFGY&list=PLp2iTF4f2VU2FxkVsaUKvTuoowQdyUW7m&index=3&t=0s [Accessed 14 Nov. 2019].