Codes and conventions!
There are certain codes and conventions that a director must take into consideration when filming a documentary, these are conventions that i will need to take into consideration when filming a documentary, following these and i will be able to make my audience feel and perceive a documentary.
LIGHTING
when interviewing someome there are certain rules that you need to follow, when filming outside the interviewee must be facing the sun, and this is to prevent glare on the camera and also means that in editing we do not have to fiz the white balance which can be time consuming. if you are inside filming always have the interviewee infront of the camera and the camera not facing the window for the same reason.
this is an example of the rule of thirds and as you can see that when you do split the screen into squares the cross sections really do stand out and this is why we use the rule of thirds
CAMERA ANGLES
When interviwing people medium close ups are mostly used this is to show from the chest up (helping the audience see the body posture), however sometimes aclose up is used and this is to show emotion when something important is being said. an important thing to remember is that alot of these shots are applying the rule of thirds so it is important when planning the interviews to position the subject correctly. the most im portant point is that the intrviewer must sit next to the camera asking the questions because the interviewee must be looking away from the camera an eye level match between the interviewer and the interviewee is important. we must also use a range of positioning from placing the interviewee on the left sometimes and sometimes on the right and this is to give the action a break.
Archive footage
Archive footage is footage that has been taken in the past and stored, people involved in putting the documentary together will go and find this footage, and its main purpose is to back up what point the documentary is trying to get across, so for example if the documentary was on world war 2 and they were talking about an old air base we would expect to see archive footage of the air base and life in world war 2. In our docementaries we are allowed 30 seconds of archive footage, I feel that is this type of footage will give our haunted documentary added credibility it will deserve.
The voiceover
In expository documentaries there is an effect called a voiceover, this is later put on during editing over the footage that people collect,it is called the voice of god, and this is because the voice is all knowing and is almost overseeing what is happening and knows what is going to happen in the documentary, it also helps build a connection with the audience.
In the teeth of jaws!
This was the first documentary that i looked at
And I took a lot of notes about it, the first thing that I realised was the graphics along the bottom of the screen, they appeared each time a new person was on the screen , and I realised they did this so that as an audience we would realise their status and what they had to do with the film itself. It also fitted in with the codes and conventions of documentaries as the interviewees where always placed along the rule of thirds and on the left or right. this is to give a break in the action, stops things getting to repetative, and is something i will have to look at when filming my own documentary, The background was either of the sea or a cut out of some jaws with the interviewee inside them playing on the title of the documentary “ in the teeth of jaws”. there is alot use of a STATIC CAMERA when inerviewing people and this is so that we can focus mostly on the emotion of what is being said during the interviews.
The Simpsons 20th anniversarry special in 3d on ice.
this is the second documentary that i watched it was made for the simpsons 20th anniversarry special, this is rather different to the first documentary that i watched on jaws. this is where i have started spotting similarities between the two documentaries, again medium close ups are being used in the interviws, so we can see the shoulders and head, and interviewees switched from the right side to the the left side of the screen, all of these are interviewees are placed along the rule of thirds. there is also more similarities with the backgrounds in jaws they had photos of sharks and the sea and in the simpsons they had what characters the actors that were on screen played for example, at 9:58 on the video we have an actor named Hank Azaria the actor and the characters moe and apu underneath these are the characters he plays with the characters in the background, this helps us relate to the actor as well as the characters i will have to consider where to interview and what to have in the background. Alot of archive footage is used during this show as compared to the documentar on jaws.
Music bizz Meatloaf special.
There are a few themes running throughout this documentarry and these are then built upon to create a grande knowlege of meatloaf and his carrer aswell as the music indistry. it also digresses later in the documentary to show how other bands have made it in the industry with the village people they also used archive footage to show this.
The narrative structure for this documentary is quite simple it is a linear narrative showing a timeline from meatloaf when he first began and followed him all the way through until he was a successful recording artist, it does however have element of a non-linear narrative as it has flashbacks to times in his earlier carrer but this is just a code and convention of an expository documentary, they have to show his whole carrer for him to be exposed fully to the public. we also hear a narrator or a 'voice of god' in this documentary again proving that the meatloaf music special is an expoitory documentary.
Camerawork is very important when it comes to documentaries such as these as we can use certain angles and shots to make our intended audience feel a certain way, in this expository documentary the director uses alot of fast cuts between shot, this may be so he can fit as much footage of meatloaf and the music indistry into the documentary. the beggining starts with the celebrities on the red carpet, meatloaf is featured on the red carpoet this shows us that he is important and making us instantly interested as we are in an age obsessed with celebrities.
again the Mise-en-scene is very important in expository documentaries such as this one, the backdrops are always relevent when the subjects are being interviewed, for example when people are being interviewed about the village people archive footage of the village people are playing on the backdrop in the background this is just one code and convention to do with documentaries. there are many types of sound used in documentaries especially in documentaries about the music bussiness the sound changes throughout this documentary there is constant music playing throught, there is alot of metal and rock music playing throughout and this is to show the relation with meatloaf and then it shows us meatloaf videos, this is synconus as what is happening on screen is happening with the music for example they show the music video of meatloafs bat out of hell and it is playing so it matches on screen. i also made note that there are not many sound effects in this documentary showing the seriousness of it. there are only a few editing techniques used in this documentary it is mainly consistant of fast cuts between shots however there are some dissolves in there when trying to mix up the use of editing and a slight change from cuts, keeping the viewers interseted. the use of archive material is great in this documentary it shows footage of a bat out of hell video, it also uses cut aways and shows archive material. it shows material of meatloaf all over the world from magazines, to newspapers showing that he was a worldwide phenomenon.
The devil made me do it!
The devil made me do it is again an expository documentary there to exploit and show what has happened in life and creating it into a dcoumentary that people would enjoy watching. this documentary is about Marilyn manson and " boys who killed because they said they listned to his music.
There are many themes running through this documentary there is music, crime, media, violence, religion and even horror. and this documentary is good as an expository documentary as it shows all of these themes and explores them for all too see. again the narrative of this film is a linear narrative it plays strait from his music and where it all began and then plays through to what happened when the 2 boys did what they did when they murdered the 2 nuns. it almost shows a almost "timeline" of events. again the camerwork mimics the camerawork in the meatlof music documentary and this is because it is a expository documentary but also because it has some of the same themes running through it such as music, media and the celebrity lifestyle. there are atricles shown of newspapers and magazing the camera zooms in on these almost showing that these are important to the story and what happened. there are also high angled camera shots showing maraliyn mansons fans not only showing his popularity but also showing there are millions of other fans that didnt do what these 2 fans did. Mise-en-scene again shows the backdrops have specific and relevant backdrops, there lots of religious symbols when they are talking about what happened to the nuns obviosly this relates as they were religious people. people when being interviewed swapped from left to right hand side of the screen, rule of thirds is also used when interviewing another code and convention of documentaries. again like other expositoyr documentaries the sound is similar there is a narrator or also known as "the voice of god" playing over the top of whats happening on screen. when the religious part of the documentary is on the music changes from metal music like marilyn mansons to gospel music as this links to what is happening on screen. we also hear sound effects such as fans screaming, trumoets and church bells ringing. there isnt too much editing just again simple cuts between shots and when showing archive footage they use dissolves to show the amount of footage shown on this story. there was also montages made with all of the footage from newspapers and the news.
That thing, that thing Lara Croft.
there are not as many themes running throuout this documentary as some of the others that i have watched and previosly wrote about however some themes that do cross over are the media, violence some that dont but areprominent in this documentary are feminism, gaming, the age of technology. it again is a linear narrative showing a timeline from when the game began to recent day games but also has a seperate narrative running through it showing the film and how that has progressed.
game film
the camera work in this documentary are rather simple there are a couple of shots where there camera crabs from left to right showing a lot of men sitting down playing lara croft, it can be argued that men are sexually attracted to lara croft which is why they play her games. it also zooms in on computer screens almost showing the obsession that these men have with her and this game. the mise-en-scene is different to what we have seen in previous documentaries as there is not as much archive footage used it shows real footage from the actual time it is up to date, it also shows shots off all of the "avid fans" and gives their point of view, it gives me multiple views on lara croft including the feminist views that she is be littling the females of the world and making men obsessed as she is shown as a sex symbol for men to control. the sound again is syncronus with what is haooening on screen there are alof of sound effects put into this game to give a sense of verisumilitude, there is also a male narrator showing the males obsession with lara croft. syncronus sounds of gun shots and sighs when the men are playing the game. there are alot of match on actions in the we see a finger pressing play and then he clicks play and then it cuts to a shot of a man speaking inside the computer as a reult of the match on action. they also use cuts and a blue screen to play lara croft over the interviewees. there is alot of archive footage from the game aswell as the film it shows lara croft in two different types of media and shows how the male audience is following her from the game to the film and beyond.
Stan lee's superhumans.
This is an Exository documentary the creator of comic books such as Spiderman, the fantastic four and the incrdible hulk, is the main producer in this documentary his name is Stan Lee. He is searching for the worlds real superheroes and at the start is the 'voice of god' then we meet the worlds most flexible man who now becomes the voice of god and the narrator. the narrative is stictly linear it goes from Stan lee wanting to find these superheroes to the worlds most flexible man setting out on his journey, it is almost set out as a timeline picking up superheroes as he goes. the narrative shows the man meeting ( in order) the human conductor, the human calculator, the radar then finally a man with super strength.
there is not too much archive footage in this documentary, the only it uses cutaways of comic books and that is the only type of archive footage in this documentary. this brings me into the type of editing that is used, the only type of editing i can see in this expository documentary is the cut aways used, there are also crossfades with the human calculator doing sums, the sums fade ontop of whats happening on screen. again the mise-en-scene is used but the only main points that have really stayed the same are the use of rule of thirds, and the relevance of the background in the interviews.
Paranormal state
This is an expository documentary, the creator plays the voice of god however this voice of god is specialist to this documentary as they use a voice recorder effect, not only is this creepy as the documentary intends but it also is a participatory documentary Ryan is the creator of this and is also the main focal point and investigator, showing he is getting involved in the documentary.
There are many themes but mostly there are haunting themes, paranormal, ghosts and even horror themes running throughout, this is a reason why I chose to see this documentary as it relates to our own myself and Alex are going to make. It again like most expository documentary it is a linear narrative documenting the events from when they start the investigation through their research, to the investigation to the results.
The camerawork in the documentary is very simple and is almost like the camerawork off horror films such as paranormal activity and the blare witch project. I feel this has been done purposely as it fits into the codes and conventions of horror which is one of the themes running in this documentary. Rule of thirds have been used as you can see from this photograph.
There is not really any archive footage in this, there is sometimes archive footage when they have to research old ghost stories and local folklore, there are a few editing techniques used but however these are just strait cuts and dissolves when there is a lot of information across the screen.
