Unit 27 Task 1 - Sam Peate

Issues

Accuracy - Accuracy is very important for a documentary because a documentary maker, you want all the truthful facts and statistics in order for your film to be more believable and interesting. An example is Michael Moors "Bowling for Columbine" documentary, there is an in-accurate part of the film where he makes out like you can easily buy a gun from a bank and walk out with it almost immediately, but cuts out the part where you have to sign a form and wait 6 months before you can actually receive the firearm. This type of misleading information is crucial as depending on what the documentary is about, and in what context, it is very bias and can lead the audience to side with one thing, even if its not true which is why accuracy in giving information is crucial for documentaries.

Balance - When making a film on something such as a political issue for example, its important that you show both sides of the argument without being bias. Its easier for the audience to understand everything when they are told everything without one point being more leaned towards than the other side of the argument.

Opinion - As well as being balanced an bias to both sides of the story you are telling, its also important to get your own opinion across in the documentary. If you are a documentary maker that involves himself in the documentaries such as Louis Theroux, adding an opinion inti the mix of a debate type documentary gives your character some "flavor" and makes it more interesting to watch now that there are two sides and you can watch and understand both sides with a little more information with something with an opinion who is well knowledgeable about the subjects.

Bias - Some documentary makers choose to show a much more bias opinion to something rather than to show the full story and let the audience decide. This leans the audience more towards one side than to go into detail on both points to the argument that the film is about. This can be a bad way of showing a documentary as it could wrongly influence viewers and give them a bad opinion on something that might be wrong, however if they watched it and were given the information in an un bias form then they could at least form there own opinion on the subject

Representation - How something is represented in a documentary is important as it could change the audiences opinions of other aspects of the film. The subject needs to be shown with all previously mentioned factors, it needs to be accurate and not bend whats actually happening and it needs to show both points without being bias straight away.

Privacy - This can tie in to the contract with viewer definition, where its something included in the rules and guidelines to follow. This is more specific to not breaching anyone space or property when researching on location during a documentary.

Contract with viewer - As well as all mentioned things to have in a documentary, sticking to the rules and guidelines is another thing to consider when making a documentary. You have to make sure the script and everything shown and said is not offensive, rude or can taken in any other harful manner by anyone on the film or anyone watching.

News:

Studio news readers - This is where you are reporting something that someone else has researched. The field reporter will go out and get the information needed for the news broadcast and the news readers will be the ones that have it all to read while broadcasting live

Field reporters - Before the news readers in the studio can read out the information on whatever subject there reporting about, a field reporter has to go to the location and be there to talk more about the subject, sometimes interviewing a witness or a member of the public about the subject the report is about

Interviewing

Experts and witness - You can use members of the public and eye witnesses in order to add the the information and advance the narrative of the documentary. Interviews with people that are very high in the field or whatever subject the documentary is about are commonly used in order to give the viewers just that little but more information and knowledge on the topic. Another common thing used in documentary in interviews with random members of the public, this is to get an on the spot, un bias opinion. All these types of interviews are used to give the audience every angle of information on the story.

Report structure - This is the way the information is presented to the viewers, it needs to be in an order that makes sense. For example, if you were reporting some news or a subject poeple didnt know much about, you wouldn't start by showing all the interviews, and then explaining what the subject is. As that wouldn't make any sense to viewers as they wouldn't know what the interviews were about having not been given any context.

Actually footage - Real life footage and stock footage is something used in both documentary and news reporting in order to show and explain some backstory to the subject. It also interests the audience more seeing the real effects and footage of the subject as appose to just being told the information or seeing a re enactment. For example if you were making a film about World War 1, you would most likely show some real life stock footage taken during the first World War so the audience can get a better sense of the time period, what life was life and the conditions that if they were just told.

Documentary Formats

Poetic - This format of documentary started in the early 1900's and shows a reaction against both the content and rapidly crystallizing grammar of the early day fiction film. There is not usually any voice over but con taints the use of lots of short cut clips in the form of a montage

Expository - Speaks directly to the viewer in the form of an authoritative voice over. Uses a "voice of god" type commentary asking rhetorical questions in order to try and persuade the audience. Images are not paramount but are just solely to proceed the narrative

Observational - Observes someone or something without intervening or disturbing anything that could change their/its characteristics for the documentary. Firstly started in the 1960's made possible by lightweight cameras and portable sound recording equipment.

Reflexive - This is the most "self conscious" of all documentary formats, and highly addresses the format of realism in films. "Don't see themselves as a transparent window on the world, instead they draw attention to their own constructiveness, and the fact they they are representations."

Performative - Documents an emotional experiences response to something that has happened. Also can be some kind of social experiment to show a subject to the audience and presents its pros and cons. An example of this is the 2004 documentary Supersize me, where Morgan Spurlock uses himself as a human guinea pig and sets himself a challenge to eat McDonalds 3 times a day for a month in order to see the results of how bad it is, how fat it makes you and how it makes you feel.

Participatory - This is when the maker of the documentary involves himself in the documentary in order to get a stronger point across to himself and viewers. An example of this is Louis Theroux as he makes himself the main subject of his documentary in order to try and understand an interesting political subject along with the audience. This makes it more interesting to watch as the audience can relate to Louis as he only knows as much as they do so they can relate more to him. "The encounter between filmmaker and subject becomes a critical element of the film."

Realism - This is a documentary that records factual events, and includes "Gate keeping" which is the rejection of information for inclusion in the text. It shows real footage with the use of handheld camera. The format usually consists of interviews with people involved with the subject event and facts presented as statistics and graphs

Dramatization - This format is quite self explanatory but its when the documentary is cut in a way that makes it very enticing for the audience, this is done by short fast cuts, intense music, cool shots and interesting re-enactments. It brings a real cinematic feel to the authentic of the show.

Narrativisation - This orders the narrative of the documentary in an order that tells a story to the audience but also presents the facts in a way that makes sense to the audience. The technique of putting a plot in order is familiar to people from watching films in the cinema, so when used in a documentary its easier to understand and the audience can relate to it more