As I'm confident with the structure and conventions of documentaries from my research, I'm now beginning to focus on smaller details including stylistic cinematography, editing techniques, and how content and narrative is presented through these things. I've deconstructed a similar documentary to my own production by the BBC; 'Blurred Lines the New Battle of the Sexes', presented below using SlideShare. I found this documentary particularly engaging and powerful, which makes it appropriate for me to analyse what it is which makes it so successful.
Friday, 2 January 2015
Thursday, 1 January 2015
Comparative Documentary Deconstruction
As this is my third deconstruction, by now I am feeling confident with this genre. Therefore I've chosen to deconstruct a contrastingly styled, fly-on-the-wall documentary, and evaluate how it compares to the other documentaries I've investigated. I've presented this deconstruction below using Prezi.
Job Specification
I've organised the different roles for my pre-production and production and who they are allocated to using this simple and professional looking table making software: truben.no/table. This is an important planning process to stay organised, make sure that every role will be completed by somebody, and manage my crew and personal workload.
| Job/Role: | Person Allocated: |
|---|---|
| Director | Me |
| Cinematographer | Me |
| Producer | Me |
| Script Writer | Me |
| Editor | Me |
| Musician | Maya Law |
| Narrator | Rowan Perrow |
| Voice-Over | Rowan Perrow |
| Expert Interviewee | Sam Baker |
| Interviewee | Emily Gooda |
| Audio Editor (including foley artist if required) | Me |
| Casting | Me |
| Make-up Artist | Me |
| Costume and Mise en Scene | Me |
| Locations | Me |
| Planning and Production Blogger | Me |
| Storyboarding | Me |
| Lighting | Me |
| Photographer | Me |
| Journalistic and Advertisement Writing | Me |
| Photoshop Editor | Me |
| Titles and Typography | Me |
| Market Research (directed by me) | Focus group and social media followers |
Cinematography
To shoot my documentary in an artistic, interesting, stylistic and professional looking way, I have researched the art of cinematography and the techniques which I can refer to when forming my shot list.
red-gecko-productions.com/redgecko/2010/07/29/the-skills-of-a-documentary-cinematographer
This article was interesting and helpful due to the stated conventional techniques for documentary cinematography, and how to successfully shoot them; (click to enlarge)
This presentation was another useful resource due to the detailed/ technical descriptions of the rule of thirds, depth of field, and framing; refreshing my knowledge from AS Level. From my research of documentaries I've found that these are conventional techniques - particularly rule of thirds during interview shots which I will also be using. The depth of field will be useful when photographing and editing for my ancillary product images, as well as the descriptions of different representational shot types for focal actors and objects. This was a simpler and less specific resource, but significantly beneficial for my research.
red-gecko-productions.com/redgecko/2010/07/29/the-skills-of-a-documentary-cinematographer
This article was interesting and helpful due to the stated conventional techniques for documentary cinematography, and how to successfully shoot them; (click to enlarge)
This presentation was another useful resource due to the detailed/ technical descriptions of the rule of thirds, depth of field, and framing; refreshing my knowledge from AS Level. From my research of documentaries I've found that these are conventional techniques - particularly rule of thirds during interview shots which I will also be using. The depth of field will be useful when photographing and editing for my ancillary product images, as well as the descriptions of different representational shot types for focal actors and objects. This was a simpler and less specific resource, but significantly beneficial for my research.
Cinematography for Foundation Portfolio from Nicola Naisbett
Next I'll be considering this research when planning my shot list.
Next I'll be considering this research when planning my shot list.
Character Planning/ Influences and Casting
The characters and cast members I require for my production, and will include some of within my ancillary products (character descriptions and introductions in double page listings magazine spread, and short introduction in newspaper advertisement) include;
I will update a post with my responses to be an actor for my production/ photograph for my ancillary products from my cast.
I will update a post with my responses to be an actor for my production/ photograph for my ancillary products from my cast.
Plan for my Script
I've decided to make a detailed plan of my script to successfully produce it, and organise my structure and content. I'll format my final script professionally using plotbot.com.
I'm structuring my documentary in 4 parts to separate the different sections that I'm focusing on - divided by subtitle shots with the part number edited in text:
I'm structuring my documentary in 4 parts to separate the different sections that I'm focusing on - divided by subtitle shots with the part number edited in text:
- Part 1 - Introduction and a main focus on music industry. I'm using this for my extract and the beginning of my documentary as the music industry is most relevant to all demographics of my target audience according to my market research, which would therefore immediately engage them, encouraging them to watch my documentary.
- Part 2 - Focus on the film and TV industries as I've found from my research there are significantly less issues in relation to sexism for these areas, therefore they can be discussed quickly together. They also link together.
- Part 3 - Focus on journalism and feminism in relation to the media, which also links together due to feminist articles/news websites and magazines that I've found such as thefword.org.uk and everydayfeminism.com.
- Part 4 - Summary and conclusion of documentary; answering my questions from my introduction and over viewing what I've found.
Script plan for part 1 (my extract production)
Tuesday, 30 December 2014
Costume, Mise En Scene and Semiotics
Below is my Prezi demonstrating my research, planning and organisation for the costume and mise en scene (including the semiotic representations which they create) that I'll be using within my documentary and ancillary product photography.
To research in greater detail about semiotics, I used these resources;
http://www.uvm.edu/~tstreete/semiotics_and_ads/terminology.html
I've also created a concept board for my costumes using Polyvore, which I have based on my Prezi presentation for this area. Polyvore was very helpful for creating this concept board as it links to where the costumes can be purchased, which I'll use for organisation of costumes and to include more detail about them on their original websites. My narrator's costume is to the left of the collage, and my interviewee's is towards the right.
Next, I'll send these costumes to my cast to organise which similar clothing items they own themselves and which I'll need to arrange in their sizes.
*Update: After casting, I've sent this concept board to Rowan and Emily to arrange their costumes. The ones which they own match perfectly to my envisioned style as set out by my concept board, therefore they will wear these to each shoot, with Rowan varying between jeans and black trousers to create a slightly more interesting range and to differentiate between time during my shoots.*
To research in greater detail about semiotics, I used these resources;
http://www.uvm.edu/~tstreete/semiotics_and_ads/terminology.html
I've also created a concept board for my costumes using Polyvore, which I have based on my Prezi presentation for this area. Polyvore was very helpful for creating this concept board as it links to where the costumes can be purchased, which I'll use for organisation of costumes and to include more detail about them on their original websites. My narrator's costume is to the left of the collage, and my interviewee's is towards the right.
Next, I'll send these costumes to my cast to organise which similar clothing items they own themselves and which I'll need to arrange in their sizes.
*Update: After casting, I've sent this concept board to Rowan and Emily to arrange their costumes. The ones which they own match perfectly to my envisioned style as set out by my concept board, therefore they will wear these to each shoot, with Rowan varying between jeans and black trousers to create a slightly more interesting range and to differentiate between time during my shoots.*
Thursday, 25 December 2014
Lighting
It is conventional of documentaries to use simplistic and natural lighting, as they are often shot on the move and improvised rather than overly planned in detail, and do not present complexly stylised lighting such a chiaroscuro, silhouettes or bright, coloured lights. Therefore for each location, the lighting I plan to use includes;
- Outdoor narrations: Natural lighting shot in not overly bright/shadowed locations during daytime. According to my initial location research into daylight hours, I will need to shoot between 11:00-2:00.
- The Forum, Marzano and library interviews/narration: Shot during the same hours as the previous location (I will therefore need to spread my shooting over different days to cover everything in time.) These locations all have losts of natural lighting due to the large glass windows, walls and ceilings, as well as the bright white lighting, and white walls which won't project colour (which I found from my location plan filming).
- Starbucks informal interview: This location includes artificial studio lights at the bar seats, however due to the yellow filter formed by the wallpaper and shadows of this location, I will also require natural lighting by holding my interview near the large windows; balancing the colours of the lights.
The images for my newspaper advertisement and double-page magazine spread will be photographed within my locations in order to introuduce them and form strong links tommy documentary. Therefore my lighting for this photography will remain the same as my documentary production lighting.
Saturday, 20 December 2014
Animatic
I have produced an animatic from my documentary storyboard following my plans to do so on that post, which allowed me to;
Documentary Animatic from Courtney O'Donnell on Vimeo.
I noticed from this production that I didn't meet by 5 minute duration by 1:52, therefore I'll be including more shots, particularly artistic cinematography within my documentary, which I will include when writing my shot list and script to add the extra time. As my timings weren't exactly correct, I decided not to add my non-diegetic music as I had previously planned, as my music timings would also be inaccurate.
- become familiar with the Final Cut Pro editing software which I'll be using for my editing
- research Final Cut Pro editing techniques such as this one
- practise the timings I'll be using for each clip and to see whether I'll meet my 5 minute duration
- view how my editing transitions and effects will flow together
Documentary Animatic from Courtney O'Donnell on Vimeo.
I noticed from this production that I didn't meet by 5 minute duration by 1:52, therefore I'll be including more shots, particularly artistic cinematography within my documentary, which I will include when writing my shot list and script to add the extra time. As my timings weren't exactly correct, I decided not to add my non-diegetic music as I had previously planned, as my music timings would also be inaccurate.
Sunday, 14 December 2014
Documentary Storyboard
I have planned the production of my documentary by creating a storyboard with detailed annotations, as a plan for my:
- locations
- shot types
- mise en scene
- characters
- order of shots
- order of sound
- and some of my editing
I have also presented this storyboard interactively using SlideShare, as embedded below:
My Documentary Production Storyboard from Courtney O'Donnell
To extend this planning, I will need to create an animatic from this storyboard in order to plan my timings and editing transitions, as well as non-diegetic music.
To extend this planning, I will need to create an animatic from this storyboard in order to plan my timings and editing transitions, as well as non-diegetic music.
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