Documentary, what is it all about?
Today we looked at different genres of documentary film making.
Task 1a: Welcome to Yorkshire
What is primary research?
Primary research is any type of researching. where you could go out and collect yourself. For example: using a survey, interview with people (Normal people, Local people, and Famous people).
What is secondary research?
Secondary research is a method used for when you research on the internet or find books in the library. But sometimes the internet cannot always be a reliable source. You would need to go to the Library IF it is important to proof read and find real facts.
What we did with Peter (Our Friday Tutor).
Our Tutor Peter showed us a slideshow presentation about Yorkshire. He showed us the faces of many famous people who were born or grew up in Yorkshire: Patrick Stewart (From the X-Men, Star Trek: the Next Generation), Dame Judi Dench (Agent M from the James Bond films, Queen Elizabeth in Shakespeare in Love) and Zane (a boy band member from one direction).
What have we got that is special about Yorkshire?
Famous people (cricket players, Tv actors and actresses, pop bands, singers) and the Bronte sisters who wrote Wuthering Heights.
Famous Historic and contemporary architecture
Whitby Abbey is a monastery. It was one of the most important religious centres in the anglo-saxon world.
I dislike broken castles because it reminded me of beautiful castles being attacked. I also dislike gothic castles as well.
The Yorkshire sculpture park is an outdoor art gallery. Where visitors could go and see many creations of art. It was one of my favourite school trips.
The Sherwood forest was once a large forest, stretched from Yorkshire to Nottinghamshire. I like listening to the stories of Robin Hood as I knew the legend since I was 7 years old. I have not yet been to Sherwood or Nottingham but it will be a good experience.
Important news events.
Le Tour de France race in Yorkshire.
The Le Tour De France race is an international cycling race in France. It took place in Yorkshire as a special event for 'Welcome to Yorkshire' in May 2014.
Yorkshire culture with food and drink.
The Yorkshire pudding is a well known and famous food in Yorkshire. I have not yet tried the Yorkshire pudding but it will be a nice meal to have as a treat.
Task 1b: Yorkshire Documentaries
Educating Yorkshire (Channel 4)
Channel 4's Educating Yorkshire was a bit interesting but I find it a bit strange and uncomfortable watching other people in schools. It felt like spying on other people or watching a young version of big brother. The Documentary was made in 2013 (?) by Channel 4.
Educating Yorkshire is a documentary about the challenges the teachers face in real life schools and about the students' life, showing both teacher and pupil.
I don't think they have used any special techniques when producing a documentary.
Manhunt: The search for the Yorkshire Ripper (ITV)
ITV's Manhunt: The search for the Yorkshire Ripper was a news documentary about the crimes committed by Peter Sutcliffe and how he got caught. The documentary was made in 1999. The target audience are only for adults. They have no special techniques used for their camera. As a student, I don't like documentaries about the negative events of Yorkshire because I believe in positivity in Yorkshire. I sometimes avoid listening to news stories about people committing crimes or young people putting themselves in trouble.
Police under Pressure (BBC two)
Police under pressure is a crime documentary about the police doing their jobs under the pressure of the budget cuts in Sheffield. The documentary is made by the BBC in 2014.
The target audience are for adults and for people who are interested in crime. They have no camera techniques. I'm afraid I have no interest in crime documentaries. It is something I dislike watching.
Task 2a: Job Roles within Film and Documentary Making
Researcher
Finding out 'researching' the subject of film/documentary
Casting Director
They hold interviews and auditions to find the right actor or actress for the film/documentary.
They also negotiate fees and contracts for the people who get the part.
Actors/Actresses
They play the roles of the characters from the film/documentary. They show their talents after they follow the script for what they need to do when they tell a story.
Editor
When the filming has finished, they edit and choose a scene in order to tell the story. They work in editing suites to put the film/documentary together so there could be a finished product.
Camera Operator
They use the camera and its equipment to film the scenes. They use special techniques and visual styles.
Make up and hair artist
They create the make up and hair styles for the actresses/actors. They make them look how they are meant to for the film/documentary.
Costume designer
They plan and design the costumes for their Actors and Actresses to wear and make them look how they are.
Producer
They are responsible for producing the film/documentary. They turn the story into a film/documentary.
Screenwriter/Scriptwriter
He/She writes the script and lines for the actors and actresses to say and help them perform.
From all the roles that I have seen I would be interested in Costume design because I would find it challenging (in a good way) and learn what world" the story is set in.
My first time as a filmmaker
Task-2B: Equipment Needs in Film and Documentary Making
Hardware
Video Camera
It is a useful equipment because you learn on how to film ''professionally'' as a film maker.
The video cameras could also be heavy to use when making a film. You also cannot capture motion when using a vid
eo camera. You can only catch someone's movement when using a normal camera.
eo camera. You can only catch someone's movement when using a normal camera.
The tripod is designed to help you capture the scenes when you're producing a film or a documentary. It's also an easy way to take off the weight from holding the camera. The difficulty is carrying the tripod. It could be heavy to carry after you've finish filming.
The use of using the camera light is for when you change the lighting of the camera depending on the weather (the brightness of the sun) or when the filmmaker plans to film in the summer or in the Autumn. The only difficulty is to make sure you find the right brightness.
Three-point Lighting kit
The benefit of using a Three-point Lighting Kit is to capture a professional looking video. As a filmmaker, you need to understand how your camera sees the scene. The negativity is not using the following lights: the key light, the fill light and the backlight. The other negative is using the Key Light in a different angle instead of having it in a 45 degree angle.
Boom Pole
A Boom Pole is a microphone attached to a pole. It can be used for Interviews or for filmmaking when Actors/Actresses can perform. It can also be used for long shots when using the Boom Pole. The negativity of using a Boom Pole is losing control of the microphone and let it slip to someone's face. The Boom Pole is lightweight and strong. And it doesn't bow under the weight of the microphone. The other negative is the person holding the Boom Pole. The Boom Pole also doesn't stand on it's own.
Digital Audio Recorders
A digital voice recorder is a small hand-held recorder. It is used to record voice memos, saved on a memory chip. It is useful for recording an important lecture when you miss out today's lecture in the university or record someone while you interview someone as the journalist. The negativity for using the voice recorder is trying to avoid the loud background sounds.
Microphone
The benefits of using a microphone is to produce a high quality sound. The negativity of using the microphone was when the mic was unused to change the volume of sound and someone spoke on the mic, the mic makes an annoying sound. So the mic needs to change the settings to make sure the mic was safely set up with the right tone of volume.
Laptop or Desktop
Using the Laptop is good for keeping the memory of your work. It is useful to edit your final product (your film/documentary) in any type of software. The negativity for the Laptop is receiving computer viruses and risk losing your film or the files online with your work.
The Hard drives and Memory Cards are useful and has bigger space to save your whole work. Your work will be saved on a hard drive as a back-up. The negativity for using the memory card would be losing the memory card if it was dropped by hand.
Task 3: Visuals - Framing Techniques
Bird Eye's View
The Bird's Eye View shot is a scene where you (as the cameraman/camerawoman) shoot a scene in a very unnatural and strange angle. The scene will put the audience in a ''godlike'' position, looking down on the action, making it look like ordinary people as insignificant or ant-like.
High View
The High View is a camera shot elevated above the object using a crane in order to give a general view. Using high angles makes the object photographed seem smaller and less significant.
Neutral View
The neutral view is an angle, used as the position of the camera, as though it is a human observing a scene, almost like a point of view shot but reversed.
Low view
The low view is a shot used as the angle of the camera. It is also a camera technique used when you decide which angle you should do when it comes to filmmaking. The low view, is a camera placed below the actor's eyes to show the viewpoint of the child and make the characters look dominant, aggressive or ominous.
Worm's Eye view
The Worm's eye view shot is opposite to the Bird's eye view shot. It is an angle where you are looking up from beneath the object of interest.
Task 4: Planning and Organising the Documentary
Today, we are planning a short synopsis for our documentary and we also discussed as a group on what type of documentary it should be. We initially chose a 'historical' documentary where we look at the past as the beginning and then the present as modern-day Yorkshire.
'Welcome to Yorkshire' The Documentary
Synopsis
Planning our Documentary
During the early stages, our first plan was to produce a Mockumentary called ''Rad on Tour''. We brainstormed on the first project (Rad on Tour) and looked at which number of locations we should film. We later had a group discussion with our Tutor and decided to produce a documentary on the
Evaluation
We brainstormed the themes for our documentary project, the ideas I looked at were: a comedy about the founder of Saltaire, a documentary about medieval Yorkshire, Yorkshire Tea, Asian Curries, and a supernatural documentary. We decided to make a 'Mockumentary' which is a fake documentary with a comedy twist. We wanted to go forward but we realised it was too difficult as a big project. We decided not to go ahead with it. We decided to make a normal documentary to explain about the history of Yorkshire.
We watched a number of short documentaries to understand what we should do when it comes to making a documentary. We then did our research of Yorkshire on the internet and looked at architecture, food, and places to visit. We then decided to ask and interview people about Yorkshire.
I am particulary interested in costume design because you get to be imaginative.
The equiptments we used when we start filming a documentary are: Cameras, Tripods, microphones, and memory cards. The benefit of using a camera are: Taking pictures, and filming (making a video), zooming, changing mode, and using a different angle. The negative side of using the camera are running around with the camera on your neck, dropping the camera, making the film when the camera goes jammed. The advantage of the using the tripod are: making a bird's eye view, a worm's eye view and moving the shot around the college building. The disadvantage of using the tripod are: carrying the tripod while it was heavy. The advantage of using a microphone are interviewing people, hearing their voices clearly. The disadvantage of the microphone is the microphone making the camera heavy when you attach it.
The Framing techniques I used are the bird's eye view, the worm's eye view. We also used the high view and the Low view and the neutral view. They helped me achieve the looks I wanted to create.
It is important to have a production plan because you have a team or film crew, your team will have a copy of the plan so they will know what's going on and who's doing what.
I find working together in a group helpful because all our tasks are shared out and making the task easier to complete. The people in my class who were absent made it a bit difficult for us to complete the tasks. I complete the tasks without their help.
I would not do anything differently because I am happy with the work I have done.
We watched a number of short documentaries to understand what we should do when it comes to making a documentary. We then did our research of Yorkshire on the internet and looked at architecture, food, and places to visit. We then decided to ask and interview people about Yorkshire.
I am particulary interested in costume design because you get to be imaginative.
The equiptments we used when we start filming a documentary are: Cameras, Tripods, microphones, and memory cards. The benefit of using a camera are: Taking pictures, and filming (making a video), zooming, changing mode, and using a different angle. The negative side of using the camera are running around with the camera on your neck, dropping the camera, making the film when the camera goes jammed. The advantage of the using the tripod are: making a bird's eye view, a worm's eye view and moving the shot around the college building. The disadvantage of using the tripod are: carrying the tripod while it was heavy. The advantage of using a microphone are interviewing people, hearing their voices clearly. The disadvantage of the microphone is the microphone making the camera heavy when you attach it.
The Framing techniques I used are the bird's eye view, the worm's eye view. We also used the high view and the Low view and the neutral view. They helped me achieve the looks I wanted to create.
It is important to have a production plan because you have a team or film crew, your team will have a copy of the plan so they will know what's going on and who's doing what.
I find working together in a group helpful because all our tasks are shared out and making the task easier to complete. The people in my class who were absent made it a bit difficult for us to complete the tasks. I complete the tasks without their help.
I would not do anything differently because I am happy with the work I have done.
Final Task- The 1-minute YouTube challenge.
The videos we have made from our main documentary 'Welcome to Yorkshire' is with our Tutor Jen Gray who is away off sick so we cannot finish our main project. Hopefully our Tutor will get betterbefore we could finish our main documentary but so far I think we are doing very well. Our Final task was to make a 1-minute 'infomercial' for YouTube and for 'Welcome to Yorkshire'.
Synopsis
The 1-minute YouTube Challenge is a short film explaining briefly about the history of Yorkshire and it's culture. The location takes place outside the University of Bradford and at the Bradford City Park. In both of my videos, you will see the view of the University and the City Park in a 360 angle shot. The characters in the short films will be pedrestains.
Scripts
The script was only one scene because it needed to be one short continous piece. There were no actors, there were only pedestrains in the Town. I decided on the location because it is a mixture of past and present. The props and equipment I need is: a camera, a memory card, batteries and a tripod.
Shooting Schedule
What went well?
We had managed to film our scenes for our infomercial and our deadline is on Thursday 4th December. I did the 360 degrees panning view and this was a good view of Bradford City Park. I was very happy with it's result. I needed to film a 1-minute video and I kept within my timing. The weather condition was good and we were able to successfully film.
What didn't go so well?
In my video below, I had some difficulty moving the camera without using the tripod. I made the camera shaky and I could not control the balance. When I first made a 1-minute film, there was no sound. However, I will make another attempt to make a 1-minute video.
Improvements to the Video.
Hopefully I will make a new video, using the Tripod, to make a better 1-minute camera shot. I will also use a microphone for sound.
My Second attempt.
I have made a second 1-minute video, with a new Location in Bradford. The difference I have made for the video is that I have used the tripod to make sure I could move the camera slowly. I then added some text to explain what I've learned about Yorkshire
I have made a second 1-minute video, with a new Location in Bradford. The difference I have made for the video is that I have used the tripod to make sure I could move the camera slowly. I then added some text to explain what I've learned about Yorkshire
A good start to this project Ibrahim, keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteNice start to the project Ibrahim, keep up the good work!
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