While walking to Basford a few nights ago me and Jamie noticed a poster for a new vampire film. we found that this poster made us quite angry as most vampire films are the same, about how romantic vampires are and how they have a great life. in order to try and change this we came up with a mockumentary idea about a vampire. we have started to write the outline (which is above) and we are intending to start on the script soon. we think that this would be easy to make and we could make it on a low budget.

Sketch show ideas

the picture above is a scanned page from a note pad we have been using to write ideas down. the page is of the first few ideas we have had for a sketch show. we intend for this sketch show to be quite dark humored with an adult target audience.

My script

I have begun to write my own feature legth film lately, i have included what i have so far of this although it needs editing as i now know more about script writing.

Un-named Film

A Brief Introduction.
As I was walking the 5 mile treck home one night after a heavy night of drinking I started to have this idea for a film that in a few years time I would be able to make, at this moment it is a little too ambitious to put into production and so I am going to work on it through time and I want to show this to people to get them interested and get people to help work on it over time.

The Outlining Idea.

The idea for this film is fairly simple, the story follows that of the main character as he stumbles through the world in his drug addicted personal little world. Also with the main character throughout is his girlfriend. At the start of the film everything seems to be ok for the couple as they take the drugs and have fun while they do it. Each day they would get up and do the same routine, going out stealing the money to fuel their addiction, then taking the drugs.
However one day everything goes badly for our main character, who henceforth fill be known as Tez to make things easier. Due to a blunder by Tez (the nature of this blunder is as of yet un-known), a new dealer in town loses a large quantity of cocaine. In his fury this new big time dealer threatens Tez, giving him 3 days to come up with the money or he will be killed for his mistake. As the deadline draws ever closer Tez’s girlfriends is taken to act as a motivation for Tez, who is not only feeling the anger and pain at losing his girlfriend and having to find a large quantity of cash but also is feeling the lack of drugs after the few days of not being able to take any.
On the day of the deadline Tez enters the derelict warehouse used for the meeting to meet the dealer. As Tez has only gotten half the money he is knelt in front of the dealer crying and begging for more time, at this point we have not seen the dealer and this scene continues to show him only through the shadows, he agrees to give him two more days as he is a fair man, however he would not give him his girlfriend back as she acts as such a stimulant to him.
On the second day Tez is told to meet the dealer in the open for the first time, they make the meeting public to show that the dealer has no fear of the police or other authorities. As he gets to the meeting place Tez knows something is wrong as his girlfriend is stood unconscious. He is told she has been poisoned and must fight the dealer if he is to save her.
At this point I want to integrate in to the film a scene I thought of a long time ago and think would look amazing if done properly. In this scene I want a full fight scene lasting about ten to fifteen minutes, the fight would take place on the fountain in Nottingham city centre, with the water flying and the fight that could be choreographed I think this scene could be made to be stunning.
Tez fails to get the antidote and kneels with her head in his lap crying and screaming in anguish. He is given a further two days and in his anguish is unable to bring himself to get up and take vengeance.
As he arrives home he finds out he has had his house taken off him and has nowhere to live, sleeping the night in the gutter he begins a desperate struggle to get the money and save his own life, robbing post offices and banks and mugging old ladies.
He arrives at the new meeting place with the money and throws it at the dealer’s feet. The dealer is apologising for the methods it took to get the money but cruelty was needed to motivate him, all the time Tez is not listening and his mind is numb, he keeps seeing himself brutally murdering the dealer. He is brought out of his deep thought by one of the dealer lackeys walking up and whispering to the dealer. Suddenly looking angry the dealer looks at Tez and begins to yell, the cash is over a thousand pounds short, Tez begins to cry and plead, insisting all the money was there before.
The dealer nods to someone in the shadows and in the small sphere of light we can see and arm raises slowly, as it does so he catches sight of one of the dealers henchman and recognises him as one of the police that busted him in the first place, as the gun is raising flashes and interspersed within and we see images of the henchman taking the thousand pound, we see shots before the blunder of the dealer setting the blunder up and he realises what has happened.
We see Tez look up and say a single word “Why?” the only response from the dealer is to look directly at Tez, a close up of the dealers mouth and we see and hear him say “kill him” in a very slightly slowed down shot. The gun is fired from the shadows and Tez drops dead, we see him hit the floor in slow motion and see his wide eyed head hit the floor. As we watch a pair of feet emerge from the shadows and the camera pans up, as the camera gets to the killers face we see the sunken hollow face of his girlfriend, she is crying as she quietly apologises to her former boyfriend. We see a flash back of the day on the fountain and a closer look at the girl reveals subtle differences that explain it was not her who had been killed.
The dealer walks over to her and whispers comforting words to her while shooting up for her, there will be more flash backs of her with the dealer in days before and all though we cannot hear what is being said we get the idea from the images that she was in league with him and that the whole scheme was to fuel her heroine addiction.
The dealer slowly walks her away and leads her to a room that she has clearly lived in for some time, as he chains her to the wall she has no reaction, we hear him talking to her but all we hear is him softly say, “sorry but you too dangerous to me”, she remains stony faced as if not hearing him. As he closes the door he withdraws a grenade from his pocket, removes the pin and throws it into the room. The last shot of the film we see the dealer walking away in slow motion as the room explodes behind him.

The Death of Tez Scene.

Scene opens.
Tez is walking up a long cobbled drive toward a small but rich looking house. He knocks at the door and a small window is opened. A gorilla sized man is looking back at him. The window closes and the door is opened. He enters and is just about to set foot in when he is stopped and it is indicated he should remove his shoes. He does so. He is lead down a long dark corridor to a room at the end. He knocks and enters. The room is lit by a single desk lamp. We can see a large wooden desk, neatly ordered with papers a computer and a few pens. In the corner nearest the door we see a large pot plant intended for decoration. Along the wall are some very expensive looking paintings. We can hear Mozart drifting quietly in the background. In the corner to the left movement can be seen but the light does not permit the audience to see who is there.
Behind the desk the dealer is sat dressed in a crisp expensive suit. He beckons Tez in. He walks forward and throws the money at him without word. A thug walks forward and takes the money. The money is put through a counter. Tez’s face is blank and hollow we can hear a dull noise in the background blocking out sound.
Dealer: I am sorry for the circumstances in which this arose, but you understand don’t you? After all it’s just business.” He smiles.
Tez just looks blankly back.
The thug walks up to the dealer and whispers to him. The dealer suddenly looks infuriated.
Dealer “I thought we had an understanding, you were to bring the rest of the money or die.”
Tez is stood crying out pleading saying that all the money was there before.
Dealer: (shouting) “I have shown you infinite patients, and this is how you repay me? I gave you an extra four days because I liked you and you dare to come here with less than asked for?” he nods toward the corner.
An arm lifts slowly from the shadow, the camera flashes to Tez’s face, it then flashes to the thug that counted the money, a flash and a black and white image appears of the police officer that arrested him, it is the same man. The camera flashes back to Tez.
Tez (shouting): “You set me up.”
Dealer points to corner.
Tez whirls round and we see his face, looking on from the gunman’s point of view. Tez looks stunned.
Cut to the dealer, closer up on lips.
Dealer: “Kill him” (slowed slightly during edit.)
Tez: (tears in eye’s) “Why?”
The gun is fired. The gunman slowly walks out from the shadows to reveal the presumed dead Debby, hollow faced and crying.
Debby: “I’m sorry”
Flashback.
Debby is meeting with the dealer in the same room, they are sat making plans and discussing things unheard by the audience. On the table we see drawn plans for the blunder and they are pointing to parts and talking.
Present
We see the dealer walk forward and whisper calmly to her, all the while he is attaching a belt to her arm and injecting for her. He slowly walks her back down the corridor to a set of steps leading down. He takes her into her room and chains her to the wall.
Dealer: “I am sorry my dear, but you are far too dangerous, well it’s been fun, see you around” (smiles slightly)
Debby remains silent and unmoved. The dealer is stood at the door; he looks through and removes a pin from a grenade before throwing it into room. He walks away, the room explodes, slow motioned walking during the explosion.

this section is an idea i had an wrote up i have scanned it in and included it here

Four Components for a good Script

Now that i know more about opening my script, the layout of my script i need to know what makes a "good" script. to do this i have researched into what i should include to acchieve this. The work following is NOT my own and has been highlighted and annotated in paper form, soon to follow once scanned. The following information was taken from
http://www.filmscriptwriting.com/essentialscomponentsofstorytellinginscriptwriting.html
Give Your Character a Goal
Everyone has one major goal in life. Right now yours could be to become a professional scriptwriter, and you’re trying to achieve that goal by constantly writing, reading http://www.filmscriptwriting.com/index.html, taking a scriptwriting class, etc. However this type of goal wouldn’t be very interesting to watch someone obtain. Instead give your character a goal which requires him to practically put his life on the line. Make it nigh on impossible for them to achieve their goal and see how they react.
There should be a point in the story where it seems the character will never be able to achieve their goal but then they pull out that little bit more and get the job done.
Constantly Challenge Your Character
Your story should be set at the most crucial point of your character’s life. Maybe he’s just been diagnosed with AIDS or his life is crumbling around him, he’s lost his wife, kids and job. Whatever the challenge your main character should be going through emotional and/or physical hell.
Always keep your main character on his toes. Just when things seem to be settling down throw a bigger obstacle at him. Put him in the line of fire. By constantly challenging your character you give them the opportunity to develop and improve their self by the end of the story.
Focus On How Your Character Deals With These Challenges
Which challenges does your character deal well with? Which ones does he struggle with? How does he learn from these obstacles?
Every scene in your script should be written around the journey of your main character. While you might have sub-plots the script should always be focused on your main character’s journey. This is the spine of the story, if you ignore the spine then your script won’t move.
Outer and Inner Forces
A story moves forward by conflict. Conflict is represented by two forces, inner forces and outer forces. The outer forces are often the “bad guys” but they can also be natural disasters, complicated relationships or something else. These are the physical obstacles holding your main character back. They need to make the reader wish that they could step into the script and help your character fight against them.
However it’s the internal forces that really hold back your main character. All those emotional hang-ups and neurosis that cause them to sabotage themselves. These behavioural patterns/internal forces have plagued your main character’s life and during this story they will hit him hard. So hard it hurts. But it is in beating these internal patterns that your main character derives true glory. Maybe he will learn how to accept himself or how to share his emotions. One he is free from this emotional baggage your main character can finally walk off into the sunset and lead a happy, fulfilling life.
(http://www.filmscriptwriting.com/essentialscomponentsofstorytellinginscriptwriting.html)

The following picture is this information with annotation done by me so that i can use the important information to help me in my work.

Opening a script

One of my main problems when it comes to script writing is the opening. Therefore I looked at a guide on different ways in which you can open a film. The work following is NOT my own and has been highlighted and annotated in paper form, soon to follow once scanned. The following information was taken from http://www.filmscriptwriting.com/theopeningscene.html


The Blatant Opening - Within a few moments you know exactly who the hero is and what the movie will be about. The James Bond series are a great example of this type of opening. In this first ten pages of your script you will introduce the hero, the villain and exactly why they oppose each other. The blatant opening works particular well for action films, a fast, intense opening will hook the reader and keep them flicking through the script.
A Regular Day - In this opening you will put over the pace of life in a regular day for your main character. Then an event will happen which breaks the normality of your character’s life, one which they will need to rectify for their life to return to the way it was.
True Beginning - The script starts right along with the start of the story for the main character. They might have just been given a million dollars, or landed in a new country.
Dramatic Irony - This is the only beginning that won’t contain your main character. Instead you give the audience some information that your main character won’t know and will soon affect his/her life greatly. Dramatic irony allows the audience to be in a superior position and sets up both tension and anticipation.
Foreshadowing - This opening takes place before your main story begins and anticipates what is going to happen later in the story. Like the dramatic irony opening the audience is placed in a position to predict what is going to happen. This is often used for doomsday and horror movies.
Narrator - The narrator can be the hero, a secondary character or just a stand alone narrator. The narrator tells the story of the events which happened to the main character at a important time in their life.
Flash forward - The flash forward has two stories running side by side simultaneously. The B story has a narrator who tells the main story, which has already happened. At certain points in the story there’s a flash forward to the narrator who continues with his tail. The A story is the main story, the B story is of the narrator looking back.
Montage - This is a great type of opening if you have a lot of information to get across before the main story begins. Also known as a shotgun, a collection of short clips accelerate through the information until the story proper begins. Then the speed of the story can slow down to a regular pace. In a matter of minutes you can explain years of your main characters life.
http://www.filmscriptwriting.com/theopeningscene.html

The following picture is this information with annotation done by me so that i can use the important information to help me in my work.

Character study

Name:
Tom Robbins
Age:
25 years old
Home Town:
Raunds, Northampton
Family:
Single parent with a 4 year old son
Occupation:
Day job: ASDA employee
Instrument Played:
Lead Guitar
Band Name:
Arbitors
Time the band has lasted:
Four years.

Tom Robbins is the subject character of our documentary. We have chosen to do our documentary on him as he is in a minority as a single father but as well as this he works a regular day job and still finds the time to be in a rock band named “Arbitors”. We feel that this character deserves some recognition as an ordinary person who has what I feel to be, and extraordinary life. His unique position and caring nature lead to him being an interesting character, who goes against the stereotypical image that a young, single, male parent is not as good a parent as a single mother or indeed a family with two parents.

Dogma and Fifth Element

As i had not gained much from looking at a supposed structure for a sucessful film i decided to try looking at existing scripts and see what i can gain from them regarding layout, character introduction, non dialogue shots, angles, set descriptions and other things. I had a look at the opening sequences in script format, for two films, "Dogma" by Kevin Smith and "The Fifth Element".
This work has been highlighted and annottated to help me get the maximum learning potential from it.

Structuring a Script

The first thing I want to make clear is that I am not a writer, I have attempted to start writing a script or two but have not had much luck so far. The first think I really need to know, if I am to research into scripting, is how you might structure a film script.
The following information was taken from a web page I found while I was trying to find out how I could improve my scripts.
On this web page they believe that any script can be written if you stick to the following four point structure:
· “A main character who is driven towards achieving a goal
· An opposition to your main character who will hold your main character back from achieving their goal
· A fight (literal or metaphorical) between your main character and their opposition
· An ending which answers the questions "Can the main character achieve his goal?"
(http://www.filmscriptwriting.com/storystructure.html)
I have found that this was not a very useful piece of advice as I disagree in many of the points. The first of the points I do not agree with is the second point. On this web page they believe that you must have “an opposition to your main character”. If this is the case then a lot of films would have failed, in Clerks there is no opposition to speak of there are a few confrontations but no actual opposition. “Clerks was a highly successful film and lacked an opposition.
I also do not believe that you must have “An ending which answers the questions "Can the main character achieve his goal?" An example of a film which has done well without this aspect is “The Italian Job”, which ends with the thieves stuck hanging off a cliff with a large amount of gold in the back, the film ends there with no conclusion as to whether of not they got out of that situation.

Editing.

The editing is now also over, for the past two weeks we have been editing our footage together and i can honestly say it has been a nightmare. The first day during capturing and editing the computer crashed, losing two hours worth of work as we tried to sift through several hours of footage.
The next few sessions were not much better, although we did start saving a lot more often, as we all sat in a boiling hot room trying to determin the best shots for use and the best aduio to go with it. Overall i feel we have a good edit but the process was not as expected, we had some difficulty cutting it down to four minutes. In the end me and Kez sat watchin all we had edited trying to be as brutal as possible in what should stay and what should go, removing a second or two of footage at a time making the process a long and torturous one.
With the audio we had a few small problems removing small sound pops and irregularities. We also had to try and match the audio of the band and the footage of the band.
Unfortunatly as editing is designed for one or two people at a time we could not all gather together as much on this part as most of the group would be sat around with nothing to be able to do on the documentary itself.

Filming

Well filming is finally over, due to good planning and a team effort we some how managed to get all of our footage in one day. In fact i feel we have far too much footage, we have used five tapes in all, some of which are alternative angles from other cameras or of production and fun stuff. in this post I basicaly want to put in some production shots, locations and general thoughts about filming.

Wed 19th Nov, early morning- Everyone is bright eyed and cheery!

As we began filming early on Wednesday it took us a while to get up and get motivated, once this was done however we started to get into full filming mode as we go through the very first shots we needed and our Director went alone to get shots from the car with Tom and Liam. During this time we got creative...

....With a "Star Treck" character! (See if you can spot this figure in our footage!)

Toward midday we started to set up for the interview shots, we decided to hold the interview in the conservatory as there was plenty of light and it was a plain room in which to conduct the interview and would not distract the audience. We spent some time checking that the shot was right, getting people to sit as the subject in the interview while we checked lighting and sound.

However it was here that we encountered our only major problem while filming and that was that there was too much shadowing on one half of the subject. this was due to the Sun's position in the sky and was making things hard. But janet had a brilliant idea.

In the picture above you will notice a mirror leaning up against the freezer, Janet thought of putting this here to refplect the Sun's light on to the other half of the subject, evening up the light to the subjects face. This proved to be an ideal solution as it worked well and cost no time and effort to move if needed.

Throughout the rest of the day we continued to film Tom, Liam and the band mainly just encountering the everyday processes of filming, including, checking sound levels, ensuring nothing unwanted was in shot, looking at lighting and checking the white balance. we did not have many problems while filming, we had the odd shot with a group memebers leg or some bags in shot. One most occasions we noticed these problems almost imediately, but due to the amount of footage, extra angles and re-takes we did we had enough footage to find a better shot on any problems we found afterward.

Me and Kez checking the white balance before filming Tom.

By the time it came to get the train home everyone was relieved to have finished with a job well done and to be leaving for a good night sleep after two days of walking, filming and sleeping very little on a cold floor. However i enjoyed my time filming this project and i think it had a lot ot do with our organisation and pre planning causing all to go well that did it.

Last Minute Meeting

A last minute meeting was called to ensure that everyone knew the plan, knew the schedual for the next two days and had a contact sheet for each other member of the group. this meeting was aminly to make sure was were orgainsed and had no last problems as we only had one day in which to film. However due to slight complications with train prices we decided on going down to Raunds the evening before filming as we had to get early morning footage.

Group meeting 6

This meeting was once again held in the Library but this one was a continuation of the previous meeting to try and complete the proposal, the video for this has been included.
Video to follow once problems solved.

Group meeting 5

We have once more met in the library for another group meeting, this time the purpous is: The Proposal. The video with this post is of this meeting as we try to come up with a decent proposal that we think would be liked and approved. This meeting was probably one of the most difficult yet as we were not coming up with questions and storyboards but actualy trying to sell our documentary to Jools so that we could get the go ahead to film.
During this meeting we also decided that the filming date was to be the 19th of Novemeber with the 28th being the backup date incase anything went wrong.
Video to follow once problems solved.

A Shot I Love.

In our lecture we were asked to think about one shot we love and write a quick passage saying why we loved it. I chose to look at a one shot scene from "Warrior King", these are the notes i made on why i love the shot (as written in the lecture):
One shot, six minutes, the camera is used well to move over balconies to follow people that fall. Camera moves up the stairs following the action but focus not just on main character, moves into rooms see the wider picture of what is going on and then moves quickly to catch up to the action.
the following clip is the shot I was refering to:


We were then asked how we thought we might incorporate that into our own documentary. The only way i could think of to use Warrior King as an influence would be to actualy move the camera through the house from one focal point to another.

Group meeting 4

Video to follow once problems solved.

For this meeting we dicided to book another room out from the library, this meeting was to try and fathom out what we would be asking Tom (and possibly Liam) when we came to film.

We have decided to break down the questions into 3 main groups in order to make the most of the time we have. these groups were:

Past:

Present:

And future:

Janet took away the questions we decided upon and begain typing them into a usable question sheet, these questions however are mostly an outline as we also wish to improvise some of the questions depending on the answers we recieve. the main list of questions are as follows:

Past –
1 How did it happen?
2 How did you feel when Liam was born? / When Liam was born did you regret it as it interfered with your plans?
3 Were there complications regarding the custody of Liam?
4 How did the band started? What was the inspiration?
5 (Has there been any money issue? Does Liams’ mom pay allowances towards raising Liam?)
Present –
6 What do you think of the situation now?
7 Has your attitude towards the idea of being a single parent changed compared to your initial feelings about the idea?
8 Would you consider having your current girlfriend around be an advantage towards Liams’ up-bringing and why?
9 What is your biggest worry regarding the struggle between career and Liam?
10 Tell us about your career and what is happening right now?
11 Is there anything you regret? If you had a chance would you have done anything differently?
Future –
12 Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
13 Do you see yourself and Liam being a happy family with your current girlfriend?
14 What’s your view on Liam following your footsteps?
Kid questions
15 Do you like school? What is your favourite subject and why?
16 What do you think of daddys’ girlfriend?
17 Who’s your favourite band? Do you like daddys’ band?
18 What do you want to be when you grow up?

Question Types.

When making a documentary it is important to carefuly chose the questions, if we were to go to the interview without having prepared the questions properly we could get half answers or unneeded answers and this could be the difference between a good documentary and an unusable documentary.
Therefore I have looked at the different types of question we can use and how we would use them in a documentary (if it is even suitible for the documentary).

Open Questions
An open question does not allow for single word answeres, this type of question is used to make the subject offer more information to us than "Yes" or "No". an open question will often lead to them being able to talk about another related subject as they expand upon what they are saying.
For our Documentary we would use a question like
"What is your biggest worry regarding the struggle between career and Liam?".

Closed Questions.
A closed question can usualy be answered in one word and although it is not often that used in documenataries due to the fact that it offers very little information it still has it's place. We are going to try and not use closed questions in our documentary but if we were to use on it might be something like:
"How old is Liam?" this offers a very limited answere one of the longest being "Liam is ....... yeard old, in (Sepetember? October?)"

Hypothetical qeustions.
Hypothetical qeustions are questions where the subject is asked to imagine a situation and reflect upon it. This helps to get a better sense of who the subject is. In our case we may ask something like
"Where do you see the band being in 10 years?"
this then offers him the choice to give his thoughts, hope and fears for the situation.

Documentary styles.

When making any sort of film it is important to look at the existing market, as I have already looked at "Life", "Bowling for Columbine" and "Toughing The Void" as examples of existing work, but this post is intended to look at the different styles of documentary making.
Styles:
Poetic: Organised images, associations and patterns. Example: Body Soul.
Participatory: a documentary which is higly influenced by the film maker who uses themselves to tell the story or get their views across. Example "Farenheit 9/11"
Observational: Looking at life with a minimum of influence from the auteur sometimes known as "Fly on the Wall". Example: "Airline"
Performative: a documentary that relies on the subject matter, actors and stle of shooting to create an emotional response. Example: "Bowling for Columbine"

Group Metting 3

For this meeting we booked out a room in the library and all got together to discuss the sequence of events we could use in the documentary and to begin the process of storyboarding so that we all knew exactly what we were going to be filming when we got to Raunds.


As with most of our group meetings I think that we have been working well within the team and have worked together thus far to get everything sorted as quickly as possible so that we can get the filming done within the time frame allowed.


Generaly i have been enjoying working in this group as we have managed to get on with the work without having any real conflicts of opinions, but at the same time it has been quite fun, as a group we seem to have a good time and get the work done at a decent pace. for me this is somewhat of a change as I have normaly found that due to lack of planning I am always rushed to get finished where as with this project i am confident in the work we are doing and the speed in which we have done it.



As we have been working on the storyboard and the sequence of events it is also important for us to look at what questions we will want to ask Tom. If this were a different type of project this time would be spent scripting, however as we cannot know what Tom will say in the interviews a script would not be of as much to us.

We have decided that we should break up the questions into groups and for the next meeting we are to try and think of some questions for Tom these should be about: himslef, his son and the way in which his two lives (home and band) conflict with one another.
Video to follow when sorted problems.

My Previous Doumentary

While at college I made a documentary about Newark during the Civil war, I feel that doing this has helped a lot with this project as my experineces are relevant to this project. o try something However i feel one of the most important parts to metion about my documentary is that we used animations in it. This was an attempt to try something different, we intialy got our idea from "Bowling for Columbine", however our our animations did not work out as well as in Moore's film. We were hoping this approach would work as our documentary was aimed at school age children as an eduactional film.

The animations were used to provide maps, information and funny clips. however we also used conventional methods such as interviews, on screen presenters and a long shot of the presenter still giving information. this technique is often used in childrens shows.

Group meeting 2

For our second meeting we have once again gone to the Orange Tree, while in the meeting we discussed a schedual for the pre-production work and decided on booking out a room in the library to do the story boards. However we could not get the storyboard done until we had started on the story itself so we started talking about possible scenes we could use to get our message across.
while we were there we also decided that Janet and Kez should be in charge of the storyboard itself and decided on a shot list of what to get and how important it is.
unfortunatly we have yet to find a date that we can go to film at Raunds.

Group Meeting 1

For this first initial meeting the five of us in the group gathered in The Orange Tree to discuss our intended roles and what equipment each of us already owned so that we could know straight away what we would need to book and how many cameras we would have for the shooting.
During this meeting we established that each of us would fill these main roles:
Me: cinematographer.
Adam: director
Janet: producer
Andria: director of photographer
Kez: editor.
While we were in the meeting we decided that our documentary would be about a friend of Adams, who is in a rock band and is a single father with a regular day job. We will have to film down in Raunds in Northampton time is a major factor for this project and we will have to make sure everything runs to schedual

Bowling for Columbine

Bowling for Columbine is a feature length film made by Michael Moore as he tries to uncover the truth about gun crime in America. In this film Moore is very much involved, he is often seen on shot interviewing people and putting his views across.
Throughout the film Moore uses his own presence on screen to make a difference to how we see his views. During the film he talks about Marilyn Manson is blamed for the murders that were committed at Columbine, the clip of this is below.



In this clip we see Moore taking the back seat somewhat and letting Manson say what he has got to say, he gives him questions that would shed a good light on him. This is done because Moore does not believe that Manson is responsible for the murders just because his music is different.
However in the following clip we see a different side to Moore’s interview technique.



In this clip Moore is a lot more aggressive and outright than when he interviewed Manson. In this clip he forces embarrassing questions and even films when Heston walks away. In contrast of what he did with Manson this approach made the intended seem more guilty, as this is clearly Moore’s opinion.

I have included this film in my research as it is a good example of how the director or interviewer can use their own presence to get the intended results and show their views to the world.

Touching The Void

Touching the void is a feature length documentary about two mountaineers who get stuck while they are mountain climbing and have to fight through a snow storm and get down the mountain. Several disasters happen during the film that make it interesting and you get wrapped into the story as you watch.
The story is told by the two men who the documentary is about while they have a re-enactment of the events playing. They use both voice over’s and talking head shots in order to tell the story.
In these talking head shots we get a real sense for the emotions that the two characters still have about the ordeal. They are shot very close up so that you can see all of the facial details of the characters, this helps us to get to know them and gets the audience more interested in them as they get to know the characters. The background is very plain in these shots, this is used well as it makes sure that the viewer is constantly focused on the person talking.
I chose to talk about this film to demonstrate that a mixture of voice over and talking head shots can work to great advantage in getting the audience more involved in the film. In the previous review I looked at “Life” by Karl Pilkington and I said about how the way in which the documentary only used voice over.
After having watched this I have come to see how this technique of using talking heads give you more of an inclusion where as “Life” was more about just giving the facts and you didn’t feel as involved because of the voice over on its own.

Life

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” by 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.