Interviews

Analysis Of Documentary Process

In class we looked upon our documentary and evaluated what was
the successful and what needed improving when looking at making
the final documentary.  

One Shot

Camera Angles: During the interview filming
we used the camera angle 'two shot' as this clearly

showed to the audience the interviewer and the 
interviewee, which also showed reactions. 
This is an appropriate shot to use in the filming
of our main task,equally effective would be a one 
shot but with a voice-over with the questions
so the focus is on the interviewee. 

PreviewTwo Shot 

We also worked an the opening/introduction to our documentary. 
We decided we would use sped up video of the route of the car
journey heading into both the private school and public school.
After filming the footage we decided it was an effective way of
showing a clear difference between the two. The camera angle used
was a panning shot used through the windscreen of a car. 

Here are the two screenshot from Google Maps of the route we took
and the entrances to the

public school (Heathside School) and the private school (St Georges College)

St Georges College 

Heathside School

Documentary Process so far : Analysis

In class we looked at the process of our documentary so far, what was successful and what wasn't successful. We looked at things we need to improve to make our documentary everything we need it to be.

The camera angles we have used so far and why: We've used two shots for interviews, this worked really well as both the person being interviewed and the person interviewing were in the shot. This allowed the audience to get a full perspective of what was being spoken about.

We've created a really good opening for our documentary. We filmed the journey in to school to both St Georges and Heathside. This was really effective as there was a massive contrast between the two. The camera angle used here was a panning shot as it sets the scene for the documentary.

We took lots of long shots when filming the facilites to get a full view of them all.

Close ups throughout our documentary also worked really well as they emphasized certain things we filmed.

We researched some interviewing and questioning techniques, this worked to our advantage as we got a good idea of what would work well in our interviews included in our documentary

Our documentary takes the forms of observational and participatory. Our group members get involved with the documentary allowing the audience to really understand and get involved with the documentary themselves.

We chose to do a magazine double page spread, this task is done individually. We also are doing an advertising campaign as a group based around our documentary.

Our documentary targets a varied audience. The aspects included in our documentary target all ages as a lot of issues are covered.

We've made our documentary different and interesting by including many different aspects. We have included several interviews throughout which works well to keep the audience interested, it also breaks the documentary up nicely. We have also including statistics in our documentary as the statistics support our arguement in the documentary.

We've worked well together as a group, our group is organised and we are up to speed with the process of our documentary. We have aimed to take on  individual duties so our final outcome is the best it can be.

It would be good if we could get together more outside of school and do some work as a group as we need to stick to deadlines.

We are going to include archive footage in our documentary such as pictures and newspaper articles. This will be effective in the outcome of our final piece.

Interviews

In class today we filmed our interview with myself being asked the questions. We did this as I could give a perspective on both a private school and state school. The interviews worked really well as we asked a wide range of questions that really bring together our documentary. We also interviewed Miss Donovan as she could also give us a point of view from both sides. We are going to St Georges College next week to film a few interviews with teachers there and to get some more footage of the school itself, mainly the facilities as there is a massive difference between the two. Types of questions included were:

• Is there a massive difference between the facilities at the two schools? If so what are they?
• Do the pupils have a different attitude to learning?
• Is it worth the money you pay to be educated at a private school?
• Does the uniform in sixth form effect attitudes to learning?
• Is the teaching standard the same? 
• What does a typical school day consist of?

Planning our interviews

We have decided to include various interviews in our documentary in order to break our documentary up as well as include different points of views on a state school and private school.
I am being interviewed in our documentary as I used to go to St Georges College in Weybridge so I have experienced both a state school and private school and what life is like at both. I will be able to unravel some of the differences and similarites from both schools.
We are also including interviews of several teachers and we can pick and choose the best bits to include in our final outcome.
During our interviews we also have to consider the different camera angles. This will provide the audience with a more interesting documentary to watch as we will not just stick to one camera angle. Possible shots we have considered are: Two Shot, Close up, Long Shot, Zooming in and out to create a bigger picture. Specfic camera angles will also allow the audience to follow the story line more clearly.

Development for magazine article

Doing this presentation helped with deciding what to do for our group ancillary task. Looking at different examples and annotating them really helped me. It also gave me a chance to look at different lay outs and images that will relate and go well with our magazine article. We also need to think of a good story line in which will capture the readers attention. We will need to think of things such as font and colour and the effects of them. 

Public vs Private

In order to get a good idea for exactly what we were going to do and what we wanted to achieve, I created a powerpoint to show what we were going to do, the roles everybody has, how we are going to make it unique and what audience will our documentary interest? It was very useful doing this powerpoint as it will help in our developing and progress of our documentary. 

Location shots of Heathside school

 In preparation for our final piece we took some location shots of both schools we were basing our documentary around. This really helped as we were able to develop and edit some of our ideas for our final outcome. It also allowed us to see some of the major comparisons between each of the schools.

Playground area

Sports fields

Long Jump

Netball/Hockey/Basketball/Tennis/Football court

Rugby field

Our Final Idea

For our final piece we have decided to look at the comparisons between a state school and a private school. The school we have chosen for our state school is Heathside school in Weybridge and the private school we have chosen is St Georges College in Weybridge. This will work well for us when it comes to filming as both schools are very local. In our final piece we are going to look at the facilities, uniform and the students and teachers, which will include interviews. The final conclusion will prove or dis prove the asumption that private schools achieve higher GCSE results than state schools.

What is needed

Marking criteria

It was important to take on board what was expected from us to achieve the best possible results.

Hayley - The world's oldest teenager

Hayley Okines, who has a condition known as progeria, which makes her age eight times faster than a normal person, stars in Channel 5′s documentary, Extraordinary People, I watched this documentary last week and was so moved by it.
The World’s Oldest Teenager, follows Hayley to the USA where in the New Year she is to try a new drug. Forever Young could transform all of our lives as it could enable everyone to live 20 to 30 years longer – and Hayley, who will be 14 in December, is to be the guinea-pig to bravely trial it out. It takes nerves of steel for her mum Kerry, because there could be side-effects no-one knows of. At the same time, it could transform Hayley’s life. When doctors diagnosed Hayley as a toddler, it was estimated she might not live until her 13th birthday. Now, although nothing can reverse the rare genetic condition she suffers from – which causes arthritis and hip problems as it prematurely ages her – it could give her the chance of a future.
At the same time this incredible film, which is narrates by Hayley herself, follows her as she meets fellow progeria sufferer Harry Crowther. Since meeting a year ago the pair have struck up a strong friendship and regularly keep in contact on Facebook. They are helping one another through their life-threatening illness.
Hayley is also shown with her brother and sister – who don’t suffer from the condition – and as a normal teenager. And in that way, she is just like any other girl of her age – she adores clothes, make-up, Facebook and Twitter – and is possibly singer Justin Beiber’s greatest fan.

And like any other teenager she and mum Kerry fall out sometimes. “Hayley is tiny so I find it hard to let go,” says mum Kerry, “I don’t even like her going on the bus by herself into town – but of course she wants to just like her friends.”
Meanwhile, Hayley, who is recognised wherever she goes and even has her own Wikipedia page, is shortly to have her autobiography published. Old Before my Time, written by Hayley, her mum Kerry and writer Alison Stokes, will be published on 24th November .

Story board for final piece

Within our group we created a story board to help us with our final idea. It included a shot-by-shot explanation of our documentary opening.

1. Shot one was a long shot of our chosen private school.
2. A long shot of our chosen state school.
3. Wide angle shot of uniform.
4. Long shot of facilities- comparisons.
5. Two shot- interview- students- state school.
6. Two shot- interview- students- private school.
7. Two shot- interview- teachers- state school.
8. Two shot interview- teachers- private school.
9. Statistics of both schools.

Ideas

Analysis of Documentaries

In class we watched about a ten minute clip from 6 different documentaries and made notes on the conventions presented in each.

We looked into:

1. The conventions used
2. Soundtrack
3. Editing techniques
4. Use of archive footage
5. Documentary type

The first clip I watched was from 'The Blue Planet'...

1.  The conventions used were, voiceover, voice of God, narration- facts and figures
2. Natural sound was used, build up of sound to create tension was also used, the sounds of animals were used which was effective because it was realistic.
3. A variety of camera angles was used, different lighting, jumps from scene to scene which kept it exciting, fast and slow shots also kept the audience interested.
4. No archive footage was used.
5. It was a nature documentary, it also included some poetic forms as it was very calm and relaxing with the music and pictures shown.

The second clip was from 'When we were Kings'...

1. Voice over was used as was voice of god, interview was also used.
2. Loud music was played, meaningful music was also played which made the documentary moving.
3. Variety of camera angles were used, different lighting was used, black outs, fast and slow editing, pausing on images, black and white images.
4. Archive footage was used, clips of him training were shown, posters, clips of him boxing and also shown with other celebrities.
5. It was a poetic/observational documentary.

'Summer Heights high' was the third documentary...

1. Use of interview, use of titles, introduction to documentary was effective, it enabled the audience to understand exactly what was going on. Voice over, mise en scene.. school, correct environment.
2. Natural music, school play music, music between scenes.
3. Variety of camera angles, fast and slow editing, lots of reaction shots, introduction to characters, lighting.
4. Musicals the drama teacher has featured in. DVD of school.
5. Its a parody/mockumentary.

The fourth was 'The World at War'...

1. Use of interview, mise en scene, voice of god.
2. Patriotic music at the beginning.
3. Jump cut, slow motion, colour/black and white, variety of camera angles, use of titles, use of translation.
4. Clips of Germany, Images of soldiers, letters/reports.
5. Expository documentary

The next was the 'Take That official documentary'...

1. Voiceover, Hearing the boys point of view, use of interview
2. Crowds screaming, tense music, Take that backing music.
3. Jumping from scene to scene, blackouts, slow motion, sped up, Use of titles, cuts between interviews.
4. Clips of them as children, clips of concert, Philip Schofield and 15 year old Gary Barlow, pictures of their old jobs and clips of them performing when they were younger.
5. Poetic/observational documentary.

The last documentary was 'David Tennant- who do you think you are?'...

1. Voiceover, use of titles, voice of god,  voice of authority, handheld camera
2. Peaceful calm music in the background
3. Variety of camera angles, close ups, jump cuts, establishing shots
4. Use of computer graphics, time line, pictures
5. Participatory/observational

This activity allowed us to develop skills and get a better undestanding of the different conventions in different types of documentaries. It was good practice as we had to really watch the clip of the documentary in order to comment on the conventions used.

Examples of A2 Documentaries

In class we watched four examples of past A2 documentaries. I found this task very useful as we got to see a wide range of ideas and the ways in which different students presented their work. We were given a sheet where there were four levels 1-4 and we had to mark each point based on how well they did it. The marks were awarded for:

• Holding a shot steady, where appropriate
• Framing a shot, including and excluding elements as appropriate
• Using a variety of shot distances as appropriate
• Shooting material appropriate to task set
• Selecting mise en scene including colour, figure, lighting, objects and setting
• Editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer
• Using varied shot transitions and other effects selectively and appropriately for the task set
• Using sound with images and editing appropriately for the task set

The four documentaries were called, C Level, Top Gear, Short Guy Ritchie and The truth about teenagers.
The best one we watched was C Level, it had mostly level 4 for all the catogaries, The truth about teenagers was also good and included lots of level 3 as did Top Gear. Short guy ritchie was a very different type of documentary and didn't involve any of the levels so we therefore decided it would be graded a very low grade.

Watching these documentaries was very useful and helped when developing ideas for our own. It showed us what worked well and what didn't so when it comes to filming our documentary we will be prepared for what to include.

Our Documentary Timeline

In our group we created a timeline for the making of our documentary as we thought it would keep our group organised and on track to creating our final piece.



19th- 23rd September- Practice filming interviews. Getting some practice of using the camera and talking about what we plan to do.

26th- 30th September- More practice on filming interviews. We want to make sure we have had lots of practice so when it comes to filming our final piece the interviews work and flow really nicely.

3rd-7th October- Filming preliminary. We are going to do a preliminary but we are only going to look at State schools.

10th-14th October- Choosing a final idea and locations. We also need to ask permission for the locations we decide to film at.

17th-21st October- Show planning on blog. We also need to research some articles and archive footage.

24th-28th October- Start filming our final task.

31st-4th November- Adding more to blog and an anaylsis of our ideas so far.

7th-11th November- A group discussion of what we can improve.

14th- 18th November- Continue filming. Discussing how our documentary fits in to our chosen mode.

21st-25th November- Extracts on blog. We need to discuss what works and what doesn't work.

28th-2nd December- Continuing last bits of filming.

5th-9th December- Start evaluation

12th-16th December- Make sure all filming is final and complete and that we have all the necessary footage that we need. Start editing.

Jersey Shore- US documentary

The series follows the lives of eight housemates spending their summer at the Jersey Shore. The documentary involves all different camera shots allowing the audience to really understand what is going on. There is use of interview throughout the documentary, we get to hear the housemates opinions on everyday happenings. The documentary type is observational as the camera stays as unobstructive as possible allowing the audience to make up their own minds.

Ross Kemp on gangs- UK Documentary

I watched a few of Ross Kemp's documentaries and they facsinated me. On the show Kemp travels around the world talking to gang members, locals who have been affected by gang violence, and the authorities who are attempting to combat the problem. In each episode he attempts to establish contacts within the gangs who can arrange interviews with the gangs' leaders.Throughout the documentary many different camera shots and angles are used, this works well allowing the audience to see everything which is going on. The editing is a mixture of fast and slow, again building up and emphazing tension. The documentary type would fall under Expository and observational, as it is from his point of view and he very much gets involved in the filming. The music adds to the atmosphere and builds tension.

MTV cribs UK & US Documentary

MTV cribs is a documentary shown on MTV, we get to see inside the homes of our favourite celebrities. Many conventions are used throughout the show.

• Use of interview
• Editing
• Background music is played
• Sounds effects are played when necessary - this either emphasizes what the celebrity is showing us or creates a particular atmosphere.
• There are a variety of camera angles used- this works well as it shows us as an audience all the different views and angles of the house.
• Use of titles
• Cutting from scene to scene
• Zooming in and out of certain objects
• The lighting is different throughout which works well, creating different moods throughout
• Lenghts of shots are varied and certain clips are either sped up or slowed down
• No archive footage is used 
• The camera is hand held which has both advantages and disadvantages, some shots in which are taken are sometimes shaky but on the other hand the camera easily gets around allowing the audience to see every detail
• The type of this documentary is observational

Kids behind Bars

We chose a documentary which we had to watch and look at all the different conventions involved. I chose to watch BBC threes 'Kids behind bars', It's a new three-part series following children detained at Vinney Green secure children's home in Gloucestershire. It tells their stories and examines their progress.

It's brave of these units to allow cameras in, and important that they do - it's the only way the public can begin to understand how vulnerable children are cared for under lock and key. Unlike young offender institutions, secure children's homes are generally used to hold younger offenders, those aged 12 to 14, girls up to the age of 16, and 15 to 16-year-old boys who are assessed as particularly vulnerable.