3MW Feedback

An interesting documentary idea which is largely successful in it's execution. It makes for an interesting watch and despite a few technical issues, provides an effective end result. Some good work throughout the year and a merit grade is well deserved.

You have comprehensively explained issues relating to factual television programmes with elucidated examples and consistently using subject terminology correctly.

You have explained codes and conventions of factual television programmes with reference to detailed illustrative examples and with generally correct use of subject terminology.

You were able to plan and research a factual programme for television to a quality that reflects near-professional standards, showing creativity and flair and working independently to professional expectations.

You have produced a factual programme for television competently showing some imagination and with only occasional assistance.

Production Schedule.

Risk Assessment.

Location Release.

Documentary.

About My Documentary:

In this project we had the choice of working alone or with a partner. I originally chose to work on my own as I thought I wouldn't have to rely on anyone else. However, after a lot of thought I chose to pair up with Tom. This was because I prefer to have multiple input and suggestion. It also helped with the work load after being off college. This meant that this was the wisest and best decision for me and it worked reasonably well.

To film we took out a camera from college as we didn't have our own at an adequate let alone professional standard. We did the filming over three sessions, the first two were filming Great Yarmouth and the last/third was filming an interview with Tom as hes local to Great Yarmouth and he also works there. The interview took a few attempts because of laughing and general awkwardness in front of the camera, however we managed to overcome this. I wanted the interview to be on the more casual side so that it stood out as a professional but less formal documentary. When filming we had to do a large amount of adjusting the ISO, focus and zoom mostly just due to the l brightness and reflection on the sand. We did try to make sure we started filming earlier on. The kept being to rough to film.

When editing my 3MW I made my stationary, still shots more interesting by using key frames. I made the travel between each key frame smoother and more visually appealing by adding an auto biezer to them. This in turn made the documentary look more professional.

In terms of transitions I mostly used different types of dissolve. I would have included more of a variety but other transitions just didn't look right or professional enough for my liking. I also used the transition, dip to white as this looked really good in one of the transitions due to the nature and lighting of the footage. This also gave a bit of variety to the transitions, although I did use different types of dissolve this created a more obvious difference.

For a couple of shots I edited the color in correlation to the key frames. This I feel livened up the documentary a bit making it more visually stimulating than normal color or black and white. For one of them I made the footage blurred with color and this just mixed up the type of footage to make it seem more appealing visually.

When editing in the interview I made it so that some of the vocals overlapped the footage. I did this to create more of a flow and to achieve a more interesting and less choppy final result.

With the introduction I made the footage blur in as I felt this looked better than a sudden video appearing. Our footage for the interview was a bit white washed but no matter what I put the ISO at the footage was still a tad whitewashed but I did mange to make it so that only his skin was whitewashed. If we had the time to do this interview again we would do it on a day when its less sunny or chose a different location. However, the location we did choose I felt was less formal and I didn't want our documentary to be formal.

When choosing the music we chose it from BenSound.com, this is royalty free music and meant that we wouldn't be infringing on any copyright laws by using it. We chose the track 'Epic' As it was informal and a bit comedic which meant that our documentary was less serious and I liked this about our documentary. I wanted the music to continue all the way through, especially as it was already the right size to fit our documentary's length. This meant that I would have to make the sound of the music quieter during the interviews. To do this I used key frames making sure the music's channel volume was lowered so that it could still be heard but wouldn't drown out the interview volume. I also used some audio transitions to make those transitions between volume much smoother.

My productivity during this project was reasonably high, I didn't waste much time and used my time wisely. I used all my college time to do editing as that's when I had the correct software and facilities to do so. I did practically all of my paperwork outside of college. This was because I could do this on the go using my smartphone. This was a great and efficient idea until my phone fried and I had to redo most of it.

Location Pictures.

Location Recce Form.

Introduction to the News.

The starting sequence is the familiar BBC sequence with backgrounds of London. These visuals have been used because it is relevant to the news setting and it is well known/familiar for the audience so that they know what news provider they are watching. Also by only using images of London it shows the viewer that the report is specific to the London area. The audio is also backing up the familiarity of the BBC starting sequence as it’s a recognizable track.

The stories covered include the pending EU result and what effect it will have on our economy, lives and our future. Also can some small companies benefit from leaving the EU, and the choices some members of parliament will have to make considering heath row airport and also the matter of avoiding buying fake tickets for Wimbledon and lastly is the weather for the next few days. I think they start with the EU referendum as its one of the most important things in our lives at the moment even if it isn't specific to London. By finishing with the news they keep the attention of the viewer throughout the program as most people want to watch the weather most and this is specific to their area. Therefore, their layout of their stories is done in such a way as to keep the audience’s attention for longer and they can do this because they are aiming at adults of the A, B and C1 demographic mostly however it is watched but others. But the language used is more suited to this demographic.

The main news reader was Riz Lateef. The political correspondent was Carl Mercer. Tom Edwards; the transport correspondent and Elizabeth Ristenie was their weather reporter all these people need to show a great deal of skills such confidence in themselves and what they are saying/doing, knowledge in their topics and backgrounds, ability to criticize people and not be afraid to do so. Finally, keeping calm under pressure of the job, being on camera (possibly live) and the pressure not to mess up.

The term “news ordering” means the order that each story appears in a news bulletin. A running order is a list of all the stories for the broadcasts in their specific order. The story that’s shown first is always the most important and most gripping story the audience the programme is aimed at. The other stories in the programme are always shorter than the first story. Often the news is finished with a weather broadcast to keep the audience interested in the programme as they want to see the weather for their area at the end. Running orders often change due to more important stories coming out due to real time events. A slow news day is where nothing of real high importance is happening therefore the news is often bulked out with low importance stories.  The term “news values” means the importance a story has and how much attention it gets from the viewers. Galting and Ruge is a list of news values that most stories can be categorised as.

Following Galting and Ruge news values the news broadcast I watched happened very immediately and was very culturally familiar to Britain as it was about the EU Referendum and that is currently a huge thing for us. This event was very amplified around the UK and on this broadcast as it was such and extremely important event at the time.

Bias through selection and omission means if a show is or is not shown and whether it is angled to give the audience a specific viewpoint. For example, before a vote one side of the argument’s leader was to be portrayed as aggressive as a clip of him/her was used in which they slammed their fist against the table. But, is a clip of them walking through a primary school and interacting with children is used the audience would receive the view point of them being a good, kind and caring person.

The headline of the news story is meant to sum up the story and on a whole reflect what it is about and the feeling the audience should have on the topic.

The photos and footage used in a broadcast can form bias and can have a seriously strong influence on the audience and impact their opinions and feelings. For example, when miners have been trapped in mines the footage used is dark creepy and reminding of a horror movie and plays on people’s fears such as darkness and claustrophobia.

Word choice can create a bias of negativity or positivity. For example, “OECD warns of Brexit 'negative shock'” is an article about the effects that leaving the EU will have on Britain. They use words such as ‘Weaker’ restrictions’ and ‘substantial negative consequences’ to create a negative atmosphere about leaving the EU and to persuade people not to leave.

Proposal.

In my 3MW documentary I would like to focus a lot on the visual side of the documentary, creating a good idea for the viewer what great Yarmouth is like and looking at the history of the town, what it used to be like.

Part of my idea for the documentary is also to shoot in both night and day around the town, to show the comparison between the two. I believe doing this will show a vast difference between night and day which is why I want to do this.

I also want to look into the history of Great Yarmouth and show what it used to be like, then use this as a comparison to what Great Yarmouth looks like in 2016.

I am looking to create more of an observational documentary with some but not much dialogue. The focus is more on filming and editing to create an effective video.

My idea is to document the town of great Yarmouth during both night and day and create a visual comparison between the two to show the difference between both times. The second idea I had is to research into and document the history of the town. In researching the history of the town I will conduct interviews with people to discuss the history of the town and talk about the changes the town has made in recent years as well as further back in history.

My documentary will be more of an observational format and will fall into the special interest genre. The target audience for my documentary will be pretty much anyone.

The aim of the documentary is to show a comparison between different times of the day in the town and also to document the history of the town. My plan is to document the towns history in chronological order to show the history of the town as it happened to some extent.

In terms of locations for filming, I am looking to film in a few locations in great Yarmouth. Firstly, I want to film in the town center both night and day, and then film along the seafront also both night and day. I will not need to travel far to get to these locations which makes filming a lot easier for me.

As far as other people’s involvement in the documentary, I will need maybe around two to three people to take part to be interviewed for the video. In the interview I will mainly ask about the history of the town which will help me to document the history of the town with more detail. Also I feel interviewing people will help add more dialogue to the video and more talking, as without this the video would have very little dialogue which is not what I am aiming for.

In terms of filming and crew I shouldn’t need anyone else to help with filming as the filming process should be very straight forward. I have my own camera but may need other equipment before I film such as a tripod and a microphone to capture the sound with more clarity. This is all the equipment I should need before filming. My main focus in the film is the visual comparison between night and day of the town. I am more focused on the visual element of the video in general as opposed to the audio side as I am not planning to add much dialogue aside from interviews.

Research.

The first 3MW documentary I found to look at is on the enbtecmedia YouTube channel. The video is titled “Lowestoft” and focuses on the town, its land and the residents within Lowestoft. The reason I liked this video is because it relates to the topic my 3MW will be about. The video includes interviews with people talking about the area and mores so discusses what the area now lacks as opposed to recent years. The scenes in this video which show the area of Lowestoft are what I will take inspiration from as in my own documentary I would like to not only just discuss great Yarmouth as a town but show the area to the viewer and explain the history of the town as it is displayed. I have decided to make video documenting the changes between night and day in my town of great Yarmouth, and documenting parts of the history of the town and comparing the differences and changes the town has made over the years up until now. As this video I first spoke about focuses on a particular town and discusses parts of its history, this is something I feel I can take ideas from, though I would still like to create more of an observational style of documentary with little dialogue. The shots in the earlier discussed video are something I would like to incorporate into my own video as I feel this gave off a good idea in the video of what Lowestoft looks like and what kind of town it is. The style of this documentary is very similar to what I would like to create.

The second 3MW documentary I found that liked is titled “heavy addiction” and it documents people who are obsessed with bodybuilding. The reason I like this documentary is for its style. The video consists mainly of both interview footage and footage of what these people do on a regular basis. I also feel like this is a subject which is very interesting and seeing and hearing from the people in this documentary adds intrigue as they discuss why they are so obsessed with what they do. I take inspiration from this video as I find it is a very raw and revealing documentary. This is something I would like to incorporate into my own work.

The third 3MW documentary I found is titled “100”. This 3MW documents a woman’s life as she turns 100. One the main things I like about this 3MW is the fact that it has a reflective quality in that it looks back on history and shows old photos in the video. The reason I like this about the documentary is because it makes you think and gives off a better impression of who this person is and their history.

Documentary Styles.

Within film making there are 6 different styles of filming: 

A poetic documentary usually has a very personal subject to the people involved in the documentary and focuses on it heavily. This tends to be a more emotional documentary style. The personality of the subject or maker is reflected in the music, shots, camera angles and content. Music being the main and most obvious expression.

An observational documentary focuses on what you see, usually a mash up of pictures, and video clips. This is usually people or animals that are observed but sometimes it's events and landscapes too. This style focuses less on audio and dialogue. For my documentary I will use this style as I feel like if done right it can be quite effective.

A performative documentary is more about the subject point and an emotional aspect of the documentary. They are very personal and unconventional and include reenactments of events. These are oftern very auto-biographical in their nature. A good example is "Tounges United' (1990).

An Expository documentary is where there is a direct adress to the audience. These are oftern social issues expressed in an argumentative fashion and it usually about non-fiction friends. 'An Invonvinent Truth' (2006) is a good example of an expository documentary.

A participatory documentary features the filmmaker in it and usually involves an interview between the filmmaker about the subject of the documentary. An example of this would be 'Supersize Me' (2004).

A reflexive documentary shows the constructive nature of the documentary. Its usually associated with experimental documentaries and usually have an interesting structure to the audience. The audience also engages in the documentary as it happens. They engage on a realism and representation.

Tom and my documentary will be more of an observational style, with some but very little dialogue included in the form of and interview. I think this would work well as a twist on the usual observational documentaries.