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

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