Filming Schedule, Filming & More

As me and asia have jobs we felt it was important to make a filming schedule so that we knew when we were all availbale to film. The filming schedule will ensure we don't rush the filming as it is nicely spread out accross many dates. We also ensured we knew exactly where to film.

We took pictures of CCTV cameras all round our school. These will be useful for just putting in places of the documentary at a later date.

We filmed shots of CCTV in London - Specifically: Abbey Road and Oxford Street.

Inside the station we also filmed a television screen showing CCTV and another CCTV camera.

The shots filmed in London were unfortunately all shakey as we didn't take a tripod. Hopefully we will be able to edit this in iMovie. The shots in Oxford Street of the crowd (inspired by an image we found online) turned out well. We plan to speed up the pace though as the crowd was walking quite slowly. It shows the sheer amount of people in the street and the amount of people who are being caught on CCTV just by walking down a street in London. We planned to film in Abbey Road as we knew from a website online (http://www.camvista.com/england/london/beatles_abbey_road_webcam.php3) that there was CCTV there that was able to be viewed by anyone online. We thought we could use this in the documentary as it is quite a controversial thing to be happening.

There is also a peice of grafitti on a wall in London by the artist Banksy that we plan to use in the documentary that says "One nation under CCTV". It looks like this:

Presenting to the class

We made a powerpoint presentation with our ideas for the opening sequence of the documentary. This included images that looked like the shots we wanted which we found on google images. We then presented it to the class and filmed it. We hadn't informed the class of our idea before and we wanted feedback on it. We presented the powerpoint and then had a few minutes for people to ask questions and for us to answer them. The session was a success and we found it very helpful, especially as people liked and were interested by our idea. Just from this short powerpoint people were shocked by our topic.

Here is the powerpoint presentation that we used:

Powerpointpresentation cctv-101017103309-phpapp02

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Practicing with the camera

Today in our lesson we got to practise interview techniques with a digital camera. Just using my group members we were able to film a few shots. To begin with we wrote down 3 questions - related to our topic of CCTV. We then wrote down shots we wanted to experiment with. These were:
1. Anonymous (where you do not see the person being interviewed's identity)
2. Two person shot (the interviewer and interviewee)
3. Interviewee talking (where you do not hear the question)
4. Just the interviewee (where you hear the question but do not see the interviewer)

We filmed these and made them into a short video which you are able to view below. I found this task very helpful as it showed what shots we wanted to use. For our documentary I feel that the anonymous style is not needed. I do feel that just the interviewee being in the shot is the best option.

ITV Documentaries

Fearne and..
Today I watched a documentary on ITV called 'Fearne and...'. Each episode she meets a different celebrity and does a documentary on them including an interview. She is lucky as she is able to follow the celebrity during a normal day of their life with a camera man. Fearne Cotton is the presenter and she has done documentaries for ITV before including one about online ProAna websites which was very controversial and became a big topic in the news.
The episode I watched was on Perez Hilton. He owns a gossip website which puts up pictures of celebrity sitings and rumours. The structure of the documentary was very good beginning with Fearne explaining Perez Hilton and then his past. It included quotes, pictures and statistics on the screen while she commentated which was a very good technique as it kept the viewers interested.

Final documentary idea - CCTV

We then decided on the final idea - CCTV. We felt it was the most interesting for us and other people, especially in this day and age where it is being spoken about often in the press. We feel as it is such a controversial subject it will be a successful documentary.

Documentary Ideas

It was time to start planning our documentary so, as a group, we all contributed ideas of what the documentary could be about. There were loads which we put into a mind-map, we then discussed which were the best and most interesting as it is important we are interested in the subject. These ideas included:

Plastic Surgery

CCTV

Teenage Pregnancy

Dog Walkers (How dog owners look like their pets)

Wildlife in Weybridge

Rise in University Fees

BBC Documentaries

Channel 4 has been the main focus for my documentary research but other television companies and channels offer documentaries too. The BBC is an example of another one. Their documentaries are usually shown on their main channels BBC 1 and 2, and then shown often throughout the week on BBC 3 and online on their website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer

I have seen a few documentaries by the BBC such as 'Underage and Pregnant' and 'The world's strictest parents'. It is interesting to compare how different 'Underage and Pregnant' is to '16 and pregnant' by MTV which is filmed in america. The american ones seem to have alot more funding and editing involved, they are also more observational. The english documentaries although on the same topics are expository.

This is a screenshot of the opening editing of 16 and Pregnant:

This is a screenshot of the observational camera view of 16 and Pregnant:

Fly On The Wall Documentaries

Fly On The Wall

The 'fly on the wall' style of documentary is mainly used in television. The name was formed as the filming is like the camera is a fly on the wall so what is being filmed is natural and not scripted or performed. The camera crew works unseen and unnoticeably. In some fly on the wall documentaries there is a voiceover or 'voice of god' edited in - usually using the voice of a character or someone mainly involved.

Examples of Fly on the Wall documentaries:

Big brother, I'm a celebrity get me out of here!, My super sweet 16, The Hills, Teen Mom, 16 and pregnant, The City.

Many fly on the wall documentaries such as 'The girls next door' end when the characters decide to take other routes in life away from the place and the people they've been filmed with. This often turns into more fly on the wall shows being made on the characters' new lives. 'The girls next door' branched off into 'Kendra' and 'Holly's world' which follows two of the girls' lives away from the playboy mansion where 'The girls next door' was filmed.

The Rise of Documentary

By clicking the fourth icon at the top of the timeline it shows all the available information of the timeline.


To see more information by clicking on each term or if you are unable to see this here is a link to the website it is hosted on:
Click Here For Timeline

Word Cloud

I began using the website http://www.tocloud.com/ for my word clouds. Unfortunately the website didn't work but there are many websites like it which I will use instead. This website was unique as you could enter a website address or a block of text and it would select the most commonly used words. It was however a confusing website to use although I would've liked to see what results it would've shown from my blog so far.

Here is a print screen of the web page (click to enlarge):

I found a website which was exactly like tocloud.com, except this time it worked! Here are the results it got from my website - although the words aren't all documentary based so I will make word clouds of my own choosing the words. The website I used to create this was http://worditout.com/

Research into more documentaries

Louis Theroux - A place for pedophiles

In class we've discussed Louis Theroux, one documentary of his that my classmates all found very interesting was the one on convicted pedophiles. I decided to look this up on the internet to see it for myself.










The documentary involves Louis Theroux himself being followed by a camera, he asks the pedophiles/ex-pedophiles questions that the public may be thinking or want to ask them. His first question 'Are you a pedophile?' is rather clever, it gives the ex-pedophile a chance to explain that he once was a pedophile but he no longer thinks in that way or is a pedophile any longer. This makes the audience question whether you are once a pedophile always a pedophile or whether it is possible to change.

The documentary takes place in 'Coalinga State Hospital' it is for mental health in california and is built to contain and treat the states most serious sex offenders. Louis asks many patients of the hospital questions and they are all willing to answer and give detail of their offenses. Each patient spent time in prison for child molestation and rape. Instead of being released they've been diagnosed with sexual disorders and been sent to the hospital against their own will.
All the men feel it is necessary to make it clear that now they are not attracted to children. I find it very interesting how Louis can get good developed answers through his interview techniques. This is one thing my group will need to think about when asking questions for our documentary - how we will get good answers. In the case of this documentary the answers are quite developed as the men feel that Louis is giving them a chance to explain themselves and how they are now and to send a message to the world that they are not the pedophiles they once were.

Useful Websites

Useful Websites
For research and to see different styles and techniques the internet has been very useful for watching documentaries.

Channel4.com
This website has over 541 documentaries on it. You can watch most of them online and leave comments. There are documentaries on historical, biographical, health, science, nature, environmental, music and more topics.
I have found it very useful and have watched a few documentaries on it. So far these have been..
Supersize vs Superskinny
A show about extreme eating habits - over eating and under eating. Includes facts, statistics and advice.
The Family Series 1
This program had cameras in an average every day household, wasn't very interesting just showed alot of arguments, there were no camera-men just stationary cameras around the house.
My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding
A documentary about a few girls who were gypsys about to get married. It explained how gypsys get married young and all about how different their weddings are from different cultures. Was quite interesting as I didn't know gypsy weddings were any different.

Documentary makers: Nick Broomfield

Who is Nick Broomfield?

Nick Broomfield is an English documentary film-maker. He is known for his distrinctive style of documentary. He only films with him and two other camera men present. His love for film and camera work branched from a photography hobbie he developed on a trip to france.

Nick has made 27 documentaries in total the most recent being in 2009.

Who cares? - 1971
'Who cares?' was Nick Broomfield's first documentary.

Documentary makers: Michael Moore

Who is Michael Moore?

Michael Moore is an American filmmaker, author and liberal political commentator. He is the director of four of the top documentaries of all time. He began his career as a journalist after dropping out of college. From journalism he turned to film making, his first film made him one of America's well known and most controversial documentary makers.

Michael Moore has made 11 documentaries as well as books and TV shows such as 'Michael Moore live'. He has been nominated and won many awards such as an oscar.

He is most well known for giving his opinion in public, his opinion is on topics such as politics or conspiracy theories and they are very strong opinions. Those who agree with his views respect him for having such courage, but those that disagree find he has challenged them and some people are very rude about him.

Sicko - 2007
This documentary by Michael Moore is very famous. In Sicko he compares the highly profitable American health care industry to other nations. He travelled to countries such as Canada and Great Britain in order to get a greater understanding of their health care. Many pharmecutical companies refused to take part in the interviews including GlaxoSmithKline. He showed their hospitals, staff - including doctors and even the patients. The shocking revellation drawn from this documentary was finding that in the USA prisoners have better medical treatment than people living in the USA. The film was the subject of some controversy when it became known that Moore went to Cuba with chronically ill September 11th rescue workers to shoot parts of the film. The United States is looking into whether this violates the trade embargo. The film is currently ranked the third highest grossing documentary of all time and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary Feature.

Documentary makers: Louis Theroux

Who is Louis Theroux?

Louis Theroux is an American-English broadcaster. He is famous for his documentaries and has been nominated and won awards such as the British Academy Television awards. He began his career as a journalist but after working for Michael Moore turned to documentary making.

He has made 36 documentaries in total. Some of which were made for his own series' called 'Weird Weekends' and 'When Louis met..'.



Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends

Mr Theroux was signed on by the BBC to do his own series of documentaries. He went on to do three series' over two years. The program took the audience into the lives of people with extremist beleifs, stereotyped cultures, jobs people don't know much about and more.

Series 1 - Episode 3 - Porn Stars

This episode shows the pros and cons to the porn star industry. The male and female porn stars explain problems they experience under the pressure of the set and how it is hard to find work that suits their sexual preference. It is interesting that Louis Theroux did a documentary on a subject that people don't know much about and don't ask about as it is not an every day normal job in most societies.

Series 2 - Episode 2 - Swingers

Not all Louis Theroux's documentaries are to do with porn and sex but he has done a few on these subjects just to let the world have an insight to them and understand them more, even if the audience doesn't agree with them. This episode shows Louis meeting a couple who hold swingers parties in california, america, and have been for many years. He attends one of the parties and interviews them and other couples asking them the questions people would normally wonder such as why they do it, and how they feel they are okay with swapping partners. This programme also offers a brief look into other kinds of swinging through an organisation that has a database of members that are rated on a scale of 1 to 10. Under this system, people rated highly are invited to exclusive parties intended to keep out unattractive, socially awkward, or otherwise undesirable people.

Series 3 - Episode 2 - Indian Gurus

In this episode Louis goes to India, he witnesses Westerners seeking enlightenment. In the city of Goa he finds a 57 year old man named Deepak who studies meditation. He meets more people including someone who claims spiritual powers through hugging people. He joined this person along with 400 others on their tour of india for three months on a pilgrimage.

You can watch some of Louis Theroux's weird weekends online, here is a link to some episodes from series 3:
Click Here

Observational Documentaries

Observational documentaries are made to just observe. The audience comes to their own conclusions. The camera moves with the people and stays unintrusive to the scene so it simply films events as they unfold. They can involve no narration, no music, no interviews and no scene arrangement.
Michael Moore is one documentary maker who has become famous using the Observational style of documentary. I will research him and his work further.
Another form of observational documentary is Fly On the Wall which I will also find out more information on.

Reflexive Documentaries

A reflexive documentary is one where the maker is present and part of the narrative. The audience is interested in what the documentary is about but also how it is made. Louis Theroux and Nick Broomfield are examples of reflexive documentary makers. I will do more research on them and their work. Reflexive documentaries can be called more engaging as the audience sees what the documentary maker goes through to make the film, although they are also very good at swaying peoples opinions. They are usually truthful and focus on 'realism' but as the documentary maker is narrating and addressing the audience they are able to sway their views.

An explanation of Expository Documentaries: my powerpoint

Below is a Powerpoint Presentation I made using Microsoft Powerpoint, it has a brief explination of Expository documentaries. The information provided in the Powerpoint is brief but gives you a better understanding of this documentary genre.

Expository documentaries[1]

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Introduction to Documentary

What is their purpose?
- To record, reveal or preserve
- To persuade or promote
- To analyse or interrogate
- To express views or opinions

Forms/Types
Reflexive: infront of camera and given narrative guidance
Poetic: artistic narrative - telling a story
Observational: being there as events unfold
Expository: exposition of a person or topic