The Only Way is Essex - Observational documentary
The Only Way Is Essex is an Observational documentary in which a camera follows peoples lives and events as they unfold. The cameras remain as unobtrusive as possible, allowing the audience to make up their mind, for example, about which characters they like and which ones they do not like. The documentary starts with a message explaining that some of what the people do has been set up for the audiences entertainment however they are real people, not actors. This questions whether the documentary is observational or not as its almost as if they're actors due to the scenes having been set up. However, I would still say that this is an observational documentary as the camera is following the lives of real people.
This message at the start sets the scene and makes the audience interested especially with the background music. The background music then blends into a montage of clips from the previous episode. This encourages people to watch the programme as a series rather than a one time watch and therefore in turn increases the popularity of the programme.
People who usually watch this type of show are girls in their teens up to early 30s. Some young males may be interested to, however the show includes gossip and parties and females are more attracted to this type of programme than men. In my opinion I really enjoy watching this show as I get to experience the life of others living in another part of the country and see their day to day lives. I also get fashion tips from the outfits that they wear as some of the girls on this show own their own fashion boutiques in Essex.
This message at the start sets the scene and makes the audience interested especially with the background music. The background music then blends into a montage of clips from the previous episode. This encourages people to watch the programme as a series rather than a one time watch and therefore in turn increases the popularity of the programme.
People who usually watch this type of show are girls in their teens up to early 30s. Some young males may be interested to, however the show includes gossip and parties and females are more attracted to this type of programme than men. In my opinion I really enjoy watching this show as I get to experience the life of others living in another part of the country and see their day to day lives. I also get fashion tips from the outfits that they wear as some of the girls on this show own their own fashion boutiques in Essex.
Blackfish - Expository documentary
Blackfish is an expository documentary about Orca whales, in which sea world are exposed for many things, such as keeping the orcas captive in tiny areas. An expository documentary speaks directly to the viewer, often in a form of an authoritative company employing voiceover and proposing a strong argument and point of view. The documentary opens with footage of a trainer in the water with the orca with the orca circling around the trainer. This automatically draws the viewer in as they will want to find out what happens next. There is a pause and then a radio transmitted voice states that the trainer has been pulled down to the bottom and the orca has killed its trainer. The voice presents the idea that as a viewer, you are actually there at that moment. Sea world are then directly addressed straight away by a commercial. Following this, there are various interviews from former sea world trainers and this indicates from the start that this documentary will be exposing sea world.
Furthermore, the slow music at the start of the documentary, mixed with the footage and the voice of the radio transmitter, depicts a gloomy theme and that this isn't going to be a happy documentary. I would say that expository documentaries are the most interesting due to the fact they 'expose' things that you didn't know about and give a very detailed insight into what they expose.
David Attenborough - Reflexive documentary
This documentary is a participatory documentary, where the documentary-maker (David Attenborough), interacts with the subject. There is often location shooting, where a handheld camera is used- as with this documentary. David Attenborough begins here talking to the camera, however then it switches to his voice over whilst he is on the screen climbing up the tree to the sloth. He then narrates whilst footage of the animal is being shown to give some background information and factual knowledge to the audience. When the camera flips back to him talking to the audience, this makes the audience feel as though they are a part of the documentary as he is directly talking to them...whereas the voiceover is more to give some facts whilst observing the sloth.
People who would probably watch this documentary are those who love nature, and like being both directly addressed and also told factual information that they can take in. The age range of viewers here would probably range from young teens right up to the elderly as it appeals to all. Personally I don't find these types of documentaries particularly exciting as the majority of the time they are about nature and those types of documentaries aren't of my interest. I also prefer observational and expository as the narrator isn't on camera and thus makes it more life like.
People who would probably watch this documentary are those who love nature, and like being both directly addressed and also told factual information that they can take in. The age range of viewers here would probably range from young teens right up to the elderly as it appeals to all. Personally I don't find these types of documentaries particularly exciting as the majority of the time they are about nature and those types of documentaries aren't of my interest. I also prefer observational and expository as the narrator isn't on camera and thus makes it more life like.
Modes of documentary
There are 6 different types of documentaries that can be identified.
Reflexive
Expository
Observational
Participatory
Performative
Poetic
Reflexive Documentary
In a reflexive documentary, the film maker acknowledges their presence in front of the camera and provides a narrative to the documentary. The reflexive style of documentary is usually associated with experimental documentaries, where the viewer is just as interested about how the film is constructed as they are the actual content.
Conventions
-Voiceover is likely to be questioning and uncertain - rather than authoritative
-Reliance on suggestion and implied meaning rather than fact.
-Emphasises the expressive nature of film e.g dramatic music
For example : The man with a movie camera
Reflexive
Expository
Observational
Participatory
Performative
Poetic
Reflexive Documentary
In a reflexive documentary, the film maker acknowledges their presence in front of the camera and provides a narrative to the documentary. The reflexive style of documentary is usually associated with experimental documentaries, where the viewer is just as interested about how the film is constructed as they are the actual content.
Conventions
-Voiceover is likely to be questioning and uncertain - rather than authoritative
-Reliance on suggestion and implied meaning rather than fact.
-Emphasises the expressive nature of film e.g dramatic music
For example : The man with a movie camera
Expository Documentary
Expository documentaries are documentaries that expose a person or a topic. The primary purpose of expository documentaries are to make an argument. They are well known for having a commentator, talking over pictures or videos and explaining the story.
Conventions
-A commentator
-Rhetorical questions
-Facts
-Opinions
- A variety of footage including interviews and stills which all support the argument.
-Editing is used for continuity to link together images that support the argument put forward in the voiceover.
For example : PBS American Masters
Observational Documentary
An observational documentary tends to simply observe the people being filmed, allowing viewers to reach whatever conclusions they may deduce. There aren't too many pure observational documentaries being made these days because most are set up to try and cater the audiences entertainment.
Conventions
-Documentary maker's presence is hidden
-No interviews
-Subjects pretend their aren't being filmed
-Location shooting - using hand held cameras
-No voiceover in its purest form
For example : Hoop dreams
Participatory Documentary
A participatory documentary is an inclusive and collaborative process that engages communities in designing and carrying out the collection and dissemination of their own story. It is not simply about producing stories. These films usually take the form of a series of interviews or other forms of even more direct involvement from conversations to provocations. Archival footage to examine historical issues is also included.
Conventions
-Documentary-maker interacts with the subject
-Interviews dominate but tend to be informal - 'literally on the run questioning'
-Use of archive materials - stills, news footage, newspaper headlines
The
Performative documentary
This final mode highlights the subjective or expressive aspect of the filmmaker’s own involvement with a subject to heighten the audience’s responsiveness to the subject and to this involvement. These films reject objectivity and favour emotion. The performative mode is particularly well-suited to telling the stories of filmmakers from marginalized social groups, offering the chance to air unique perspectives without having to argue the validity of their experiences
Conventions
-Documentary-maker interacts with the subject
-The audience is addressed and directed in an emotional way
-Subject matter often concerns identity
-The documentary is often shaped into the narrative of an investigation or search, possibly without a satisfactory conclusion.
Poetic Documentary
This abstract approach to documentary filmmaking emphasises visual associations, tonal or rhythmic qualities, description, and form. These films often bear a close resemblance to experimental and avant-garde film.
Conventions
-Documentary maker gives subjective view
-Not in typical narrative structure
-Particular tone is created - enhanced by music
-Some light rhetoric but not always
-Unrelated shots edited together
-Events are under-developed
Conventions
-Documentary maker gives subjective view
-Not in typical narrative structure
-Particular tone is created - enhanced by music
-Some light rhetoric but not always
-Unrelated shots edited together
-Events are under-developed
Documentarian research
Michael Moore
Michael Francis Moore (born April 23, 1954) is an American documentary filmmaker , screenwriter, author, journalist, actor and left wing political activist . He is the director and producer of Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004), a critical look at George W. Bush and the War on Terror, which is the highest-grossing documentary of all time and winner of the Palme d'Or. Fahrenheit 9/11 was also the first documentary film to win the prize since 1956
After his first year at the University of Michigan, he dropped out (where he wrote for the student newspaper The Michigan Times). At 22 he founded the alternative weekly magazine The Flint Voice, which soon changed its name to The Michigan Voice as it expanded to cover the entire state. In 1986, when he became the editor of Mother Jones, a liberal political magazine, he moved to California and The Michigan Voice was shut down.
Michael Moore first became famous for his Emmy Award winning 1989 film, Roger & Me, a documentary about what happened to Flint, Michigan, after General Motors closed its factories and opened new ones in Mexico, where the workers were paid much less. Since then Moore has become known as a critic of the neoliberal view of globalisation.
Nick Broomfield
Nick Broomfield (born 30 January 1948) is an English documentary filmmaker. His self-reflexive style has been highly influential, and was adapted by many later filmmakers. Broomfield generally works with a minimal crew, recording sound himself and using one or two camera operators. He is often seen in the finished film, usually holding the sound boom and wearing the Nagra tape recorder.
Broomfield came to documentaries by way of an interest in photography as a teenager, finding it 'a great way to strike up conversation'. At the prestigious National Film and Television School he met American director Joan Churchill, and they struck up a personal, incredibly productive professional relationship.
After many years working as a filmmaker, Broomfield altered his film style, appearing on-screen for the first time in Driving Me Crazy (1988). After several arguments regarding the budget and nature of the film, he decided that he would make the documentary only if he could experiment by filming the very process of making the film—the arguments, the failed interviews and the dead-ends. Broomfield's best-known work is probably Kurt & Courtney, about American singers Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love, which was selected for the 1998 Sundance Film Festival. Its screening was canceled by the festival after Love threatened to sue, as the film was released after Cobain's suicide.
In 2006, Broomfield changed his style again, adopting techniques of what he calls 'Direct Cinema', using non-actors to play themselves in dramas with a screenplay.
He completed a drama called Ghosts for Channel 4; this was inspired by the 2004 Morecambe Bay cockling disaster, when 23 Chinese immigrant cockle pickers drowned after being cut off by the tides. Ghosts won an award and helped raise nearly half a million pounds to help the victims' families.
Kevin McDonald
Kevin McDonald (born May 16, 1961) is a Canadian comedian, actor and voice artist. He is known as a member of The Kids in the Hall, the voice of Pleakley in the Lilo & Stitch series, Waffle in Catscratch, and the Almighty Tallest Purple in Invader Zim. Kevin is the grandson of producer Emeric Pressburger (The Red Shoes, A Matter Of Life And Death) and brother to Andrew McDonald (producer of Trainspotting and The Beach) meaning he has a lot of family film makers too! He won an Oscar for his first cinema documentary called One Day In September which is about the rescue of the Israeli athletic team in the 1972 Munich Olympics.Furthermore, his documentary Touching The Void won him a BAFTA, for a film that's breathtaking in its dramatic power and ambition.
Louis Theroux
Born May 20th 1970, Theroux is a British documentary filmmaker and broadcaster. In his early years, Louis Theroux was working as a journalist on Michael Moore's TV Nation series, (Michael Moore is a documentarian who I have already researched and so it is interesting how these two link up together to both individually become very successful documentarians. It is clear that Louis Theroux learnt some knowledge from Michael Moore.). In working for Michael Moore he provided sections on cultural subjects, including selling Avon to women in the Amazon Rainforest. After finishing TV Nation with Moore, Louis Theroux got signed by BBC and produced the documentary; Louis Theroux's weird weekend. He won a BAFTA in 2001 for this documentary and won another in 2002 for his documentary When Louis met...In the same year and for the same documentary (when Louis met..), he also was nominated for the best presented at the Royal Television Society Television Awards.
Vanessa Eagle
Vanessa Eagle is a British Documentarian - making films for BBC Television since 1989 where she spent 4 years working for the BBC2 arts show, The Late Show and spent 15 years making arts documentaries. In 2002 her 3-part series 'Britart', which is described to be about Young British Artists was made for the new launch of BBC4. Following this series, she created another 3-part series in 2004 called 'Art and the 60's' which was exhibition at Tate Britain. However, her most successful documentaries have come from the last 10 years, whereby she has been making documentaries on authored social affairs on a wide range of subjects. In November 2015 she won an Outstanding Contribution to Documentary award at the Aldeburgh Documentary Festival. Further to this in the same year 5 months later her documentary Inside Harley Street was shown on BBC2. In earlier years (2008) - Jews, and (2010) - Women, were both nominated for the Grierson Awards.
Interview styles and techniques
The type of documentary we have chosen to do for our final piece is a mixture of reflexive and observational. The documentary will be a follow of the Reed's rugby 7s squad through their season looking at their training, practises and gym work...thus being observational in the process even though they know the camera is there. The reflexive side of the documentary will come in the interviews that we ask. The voice of the interviewer will be Sam whilst I film, and so the film producer is getting involved although he will not be on screen his voice will be heard in the interviews. In order to create a interview that looks like it would belong in a sports documentary I did some research so that I could take it through to the interviews and make them look as real as I could.
Here is an example of the type of interview we will be doing with the rugby 7s S and C coach: Ben Haining, the rugby 7s captain: Toby Dabell. as well as the rugby 7's main coach: Tony Talbot
In this clip the interviewer's body and face is not in shot, however the microphone is held to portray that the interviewer is there and asking questions. In our interviews the microphone is on the camera, meaning that we will not be holding up a microphone to the interviewee however we still will be asking questions from behind the camera so that we are not in view. This focuses the audiences attention purely on the person being interviewed and what they have to say rather than looking at 2 people in shot. Additionally to this it is much easier to film only 1 person in shot rather than having to find the right angles to film 2 people. Further to this, this interview is from a post match game, whereas we will be interviewing the coaches and captain about their roles through the season, although we have planned to go to the Rosslyn Park National Sevens, where by we can film some interviews from the players in how they think a certain match went ect.
Here is an example of the type of interview we will be doing with the rugby 7s S and C coach: Ben Haining, the rugby 7s captain: Toby Dabell. as well as the rugby 7's main coach: Tony Talbot
In this clip the interviewer's body and face is not in shot, however the microphone is held to portray that the interviewer is there and asking questions. In our interviews the microphone is on the camera, meaning that we will not be holding up a microphone to the interviewee however we still will be asking questions from behind the camera so that we are not in view. This focuses the audiences attention purely on the person being interviewed and what they have to say rather than looking at 2 people in shot. Additionally to this it is much easier to film only 1 person in shot rather than having to find the right angles to film 2 people. Further to this, this interview is from a post match game, whereas we will be interviewing the coaches and captain about their roles through the season, although we have planned to go to the Rosslyn Park National Sevens, where by we can film some interviews from the players in how they think a certain match went ect.
Another style of interviewing is when the narrator is in shot and sits beside the people being interviewed- usually a bit further away from them so that the narrator has more of an angle to talk to the interviewee's on. This type of interview is very reflexive as the narrator is in shot and is asking the interviewer questions, getting a response and making other convocation with them.