Karl Pilkington: Life
In order to properly make a documentary it is important to have a look at existing documentaries and the styles they use. As we are being asked to make a four minute documentary I have decided to first look at a “Three Minute Wonder”, these are documentaries that are made by independent film makers and are shown on BBC4.
I decided to look at “Life” b
y Karl Pilkington. In this documentary Pilkington gives his general thoughts on life, museums, the big bang and dinosaurs. As he talks about each of his subject the footage he uses is relevant to his subject. As the documentary starts we are shown an animation of the earth taking up the whole screen, at first this seems that he has made the animation. As it unfold we are shown the larger picture of Pilkington watching the animation in a museum. For the wide range of subjects he has chosen the museum is an ideal place as it relevant to all of the subjects involved.
This documentary seems to work because of several things, the most obvious of which is the fast pace of the editing. For example while he is talking about stones in the museum the footage starts off showing two short clips, which were cut to quite quickly, of small meteorites followed immediately after by
a shot of a larger stone. This transaction takes place in the space of time it took for Pilkington to say ”have one, have one big one”. This as well is only held on for a two or three seconds.
Another major factor for this documentary is the humour that is used throughout. Pilkington’s views and blunt out right speech makes this work funny to the audience, this therefore leads to the audience paying more attention to it.
Pilkington uses the voice over style in this documentary and although you see him in the footage he never actually talks to the camera.
Over all I linked this work due to the way it was shot and the humour from the maker. If I was to incorporate any of this work into my documentary it would be the use of voice over throughout, I would prefer not to use the talking head style of interview if possible, this also helps to cut back on time and it means we can leave the questions out of the documentary. In order to do this we would have to ensure that Tom’s answers made sense without the questions.
In order to properly make a documentary it is important to have a look at existing documentaries and the styles they use. As we are being asked to make a four minute documentary I have decided to first look at a “Three Minute Wonder”, these are documentaries that are made by independent film makers and are shown on BBC4.
I decided to look at “Life” b
y Karl Pilkington. In this documentary Pilkington gives his general thoughts on life, museums, the big bang and dinosaurs. As he talks about each of his subject the footage he uses is relevant to his subject. As the documentary starts we are shown an animation of the earth taking up the whole screen, at first this seems that he has made the animation. As it unfold we are shown the larger picture of Pilkington watching the animation in a museum. For the wide range of subjects he has chosen the museum is an ideal place as it relevant to all of the subjects involved.This documentary seems to work because of several things, the most obvious of which is the fast pace of the editing. For example while he is talking about stones in the museum the footage starts off showing two short clips, which were cut to quite quickly, of small meteorites followed immediately after by
a shot of a larger stone. This transaction takes place in the space of time it took for Pilkington to say ”have one, have one big one”. This as well is only held on for a two or three seconds.Another major factor for this documentary is the humour that is used throughout. Pilkington’s views and blunt out right speech makes this work funny to the audience, this therefore leads to the audience paying more attention to it.
Pilkington uses the voice over style in this documentary and although you see him in the footage he never actually talks to the camera.
Over all I linked this work due to the way it was shot and the humour from the maker. If I was to incorporate any of this work into my documentary it would be the use of voice over throughout, I would prefer not to use the talking head style of interview if possible, this also helps to cut back on time and it means we can leave the questions out of the documentary. In order to do this we would have to ensure that Tom’s answers made sense without the questions.
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