Magazine Article Research - (Individual Supporting Task)

Magazine Article Research

Poster for Traders In Tottenham

We spoke to the owner of 'The Eye Pod' on Tottenham High Road who showed us and email of a poster that had been shown/handed out to all the traders affected by the riots in Tottenham. The poster invites them to St. Mary's Church to a live programme about the riots.

The owner kindly agreed to let me email this document home and here it is:

Supporting Piece Plan - Individual Task

Supporting Piece Plan - Individual Task

Press Association Video Portal

Having been in contact via email with Isabelle Potts at Press Association and Mrs Donovan writing a letter explaining our project we were granted access to download footage from their video portal until January 2012 on the basis that once we have got all footage, we send a letter to them again stating what we used and how much of it.

Letters

We sent out letters to Tottenham Police Station and Assistant Commissioner Owens at New Scotland Yard regarding interviews about the riots.

I also emailed Press Association about permission to use their footage and was told that our head of department must write a letter explaining the project.

Here are those letters:

Visit to Tottenham

We went up to Tottenham to get location shots and interview shopkeepers who were affected by the riots. We spoke to many shopkeepers but most said they were away or they had only just bought the shop off of it's previous owner which shows the effects of the riots.

We got three interviews in the end, one from 'Everyday Pets', one from 'Sevilles Hair Salon' and a 'Mobile Repairs' shop.

We are planning on visitng Hackney and Croydon in the coming weeks so once we have all footage we will decide which/how much of, each interview we will use.

We got some location shots of Tottenham High Road:

Mark Scheme

Animatic Evaluation

The animatic we created allowed us to map out a visual layout for our documentary, it made us think about what content we want, for how long and in what order. We gave it aproximate timings but close to filming we will need to sort out more specific periods of time so that we have a target to work to.

The difficult part was deciding what ideas to include and what not to, we had many interesting and intuitive ideas for our documentary but when it came down to it, we had to select sensible and suitable ideas which were realistically going to work well.

The problems that I can see occuring in our project are:

• If nobody wants to talk about the riots
• If there's no signs of damage anywhere
• Getting good quality stock footage/CCTV from the riots

This animatic gives us a basis and a template to work on for our documentary so we have an idea of what we want to come out with at the end. We can modify it as we go but at least we're now not just going in without a clue!

Animatic

We created a storyboard on paper for the layout of our documentary then took photographs and brought them into iMovie video editing software to create an animatic.

We used the song 'Jungle' by Professor Green because it doesn't have to many words at the beginning and the words that are used apply to our subject of riots, and the attitudes adopted by the rioters. This is portrayed with the lyrics 'so I just take what I can find' which links in with the looting that occurred during the riots.

Another Student Final Task Question

We asked Meg a few questions about her documentary final task topic and here's what she said:

Our Group's Chosen Final Task Questions

We were given a set of questions to answer about our chosen topic for our documentary.
These are our answers:

Timeline for The Year Ahead

Filming Location for Final Task

We will film our chosen idea which was 'London Riots: Living In Tottenham' mainly in Tottenham but also the other areas that were affected in London such as Croydon. You can see below where Tottenham is in comparison to the rest of London.



View Larger Map

We wil visit landmarks of the riots such as the House Of Reeves furniture store that was burnt down and take footage and photographs of the damage and destruction that was caused.

Documentaries

Group Idea - Riots Documentary

Group Idea - Social Networking Documentary

Social networking

Analysis - Captive For 18 Years: Jaycee Lee

S

Synopsis: In June 1991, Jaycee Lee Dugard was waiting at the bus stop on her way to school in South Lake Tahoe when a man and a woman pulled up in a grey Ford saloon, jumped out, bundled her into the car and drove off.

Eighteen years later, on 24 August 2009, an investigation began that would lead to an astounding discovery: Jaycee Lee Dugard was alive and for the last 18 years had been held captive by a notorious sex offender.


Conventions Used: 

• Interviews
• Voiceover
• Aims to gain emotional response from viewer
• Handheld cameras

Editing, Sound and Use Of Archive Footage:

• Lots of archive footage of Jaycee Lee before she was kidnapped
• 'Voice of god' explains story
• Long takes
• Fades
• Ken Burns on still images
• Sound builds up atmosphere and tension

Documentary Type: 

• Expository
• Reflexive

In Class Documentary Analysis - Who Do You Think You Are? (David Tennant)

Conventions Used: 

• Follows David Tennant
• Interviews
• Voiceover
• 'Voice of god'

Editing, Sound and Use Of Archive Footage:

• Diegetic Sound
• Two Shots throughout
• Mid Shots by himself or with others throughout
• 'Voice of God' used in between interviews to explain on-screen footage or story
• Sound bridges
• Archive footage used to explain backstory of David's family accompanied by 'voice of god'

Who do you think you are? - David Tennant from Rob Miller on Vimeo.

Documentary Type: 

• Observational
• Participatory

In Class Documentary Analysis - Take That: Official Documentary

Conventions Used: 

• Voiceover
• Formal Interviews (relevant setting and dress)
• 'Voice of god'

Editing, Sound and Use Of Archive Footage:

• Diegetic Sound
• 'Voice of God' used in between interviews to explain on-screen footage or story
• Music builds up suspense and tension when speaking about taboo topics such as drugs
• Lots of archive footage used (performances, concerts and practice mainly)

Documentary Type: 

• Observational
• Poetic
• Expository

In Class Documentary Analysis - The World At War

Conventions Used: 

• Voiceover
• Formal Interviews (relevant setting and dress)
• 'Voice of god'

Editing, Sound and Use Of Archive Footage:

• Translation (voiceover) used to translate foreign interviewees
• 'Voice of God' used in between interviews to explain on-screen footage or story
• Non-diegetic sound
• Lots of archive footage used

Documentary Type: 

• Expository

In Class Documentary Analysis - Summer Heights High

Conventions Used: 

• Parody
• Interviews
• Voice of god
• Groups of footage of each subject grouped together

Editing, Sound and Use Of Archive Footage:

• Main titles theme tune
• 'Voice of God' used in between interviews to explain on-screen footage or story
• Jump cuts used throughout
• Long takes
• No archive footage

Documentary Type: 

• Mockumentary

In Class Documentary Analysis - When We Were Kings

Conventions Used: 

• Interviews
• Titles
• Voiceover

Editing, Sound and Use Of Archive Footage:

• Sound was generally happy, upbeat and also synchronous
• 'Voice of God' used in between interviews to explain on-screen footage or story
• Jump cuts used throughout
• Fast paced editing
• Lots of archive footage of Muhammed Ali fighting used

Documentary Type: 

• Observational
• Participatory
• Poetic (at times)

In Class Documentary Analysis - The Blue Planet

Conventions Used: 

• Voiceover by David Attenborough
• 'Voice Of God' - He can be heard but not seen

Editing, Sound and Use Of Archive Footage:

• Sound suits the mood of the footage (e.g. Penguins escape out of the water - upbeat music played)
• Jump cuts used throughout
• Match On Action
• Establishing shot
• Wide Shot
• Close up shot
• Birds eye view
• No archive footage used

Documentary Type: 

• Observational

Last Year's A2 Level Documentary - Caught On Camera

Conventions Used: 

• Voiceover
• Sped Up Footage

Editing, Sound and Use Of Archive Footage:

• Sound keeps the documentary upbeat and interesting/engaging
• Jump cuts used throughout
• Fade to focus used
• Lots of archive footage used

What went well?: 

• Student - Anonymous recount scene
• Use of the images from the CCTV system

What need improvement?:

• Sound wasn't as clear as it could have been at multiple times and the actual content and quality of editing was poor in comparison with the other 3 A2 documentaries we watched.

Documentary Type: 

• Expository
• Participatory

Last Year's A2 Level Documentary - Secret Surveillance

 Conventions Used: 

• Reporter speaking to Camera
• Slowed down footage

Editing, Sound and Use Of Archive Footage:

• Dramatic yet suitable soundtrack
• Fast paced, jumpy editing cuts used throughout and fades at certain points
• No archive footage used

What went well?: 

• Anonymous victim scene
• Use of titles

What need improvement?:

• Some shaky shots where a handheld camera had been used can be identified and the sound of a person adjusting the camera or a tripod can be heard in the documentary.

Documentary Type: 

• Reflexive

Last Year's A2 Level Documentary - Skin Deep

Conventions Used: 

• Voiceover
• Sped Up Footage
• Interviews
• Images with Ken Burns applied

Editing, Sound and Use Of Archive Footage:

• Fast paced (non-diegetic) music
• Jump cuts used throughout and fades at certain points
• Editing made documentary seem fast paced
• Used efficiently - lots of images of women who had tattoos

What went well?: 

• Sped up footage
• Knowledge/research of background information about topic
• Title Sequence
• Music and Images were in time with each other

What need improvement?:

• The lighting in some of the interviews was quite poor but this could have been easily sorted out by changing the direction of filming or using a basic desk lamp/light to give the right lighting effect.

Documentary Type: 

• Observational

Last Year's A2 Level Documentary - Wikileaks

Conventions Used: 

• Voiceover
• Sped Up Footage
• Interviews
• Reporter speaking to Camera

Editing, Sound and Use Of Archive Footage:

• Suitable soundtrack and effects
• Jump cuts used throughout and fades at certain points
• Used efficiently - images of websites and pictures linked to subject matter

What went well?: 

• Computer screens turning on when presenter states facts
• Effective voiceover
• Opening Sequence

What need improvement?:

• The sound in the interviews on the bridge was pretty poor and the wind could be heard which is a shame because altogether the documentary was very well constructed. Although this is problem which is hard to avoid, a better location for the interviews could have been chosen.

Documentary Type: 

• Expository
• Participatory
• Performative

History Of Documentary

1877: Eadweard Muybridge takes sequential photographs that show a horse in motion. Muybridge invented the zoöpraxiscope in 1879, a device for projecting and animating his photographic images.

1883: Etienne Jules Marey starts work on chronophotography - the photography of people in movement.

1895: Auguste and Louis Lumière carry out the world's first public film screening on December 28, 1895 in the basement lounge of the Grand Cafe in Paris.


Above: Lumiere Camera


1919: Russian filmmaker Dziga Vertov issues a manifesto which calls for a new style of cinema that documents real life. Vertov says that the future of cinema depends on reporting the truth. In 1922, he begins to produce Kino Pravda (literally "Film Truth"), a series of news reportage films that foreshadows both later newsreels and later documentary styles, including cinéma vérité .

1920’s: European experimental filmmakers start working in styles that use avant-garde cinema filming and editing techniques and abstract narratives to create impressionistic, visual poems. Examples of this are: Walther Ruttmann’s Berlin: A Symphony of a Great City (Berlin, die Symphonie der Grosstadt) (1927) and Alberto Cavalcanti’s Rien que les heures (1926).



Nanook


1922: Robert Flaherty films Nanook Of The North, generally cited as the first feature-length documentary. The film uses many of the conventions of later documentary and ethnographic filmmaking, including use of third-person narration and subjective tone, and a focus on an indigenous person as the film's hero.

1925: Sergei Eisenstein films Battleship Potemkin, a fictional recounting of an uprising again the Czar that combines documentary elements with experimental editing and narrative techniques.


John Grierson

1928: John Grierson joins the British Empire Marketing Board (EMB), a governmental agency, and organizes the E.M.B. Film Unit. Grierson gathered around him talented and energetic filmmakers, including Edgar Anstey, Sir Arthur Elton, Stuart Legg, Basil Wright, Humphrey Jennings, Harry Watt, and Alberto Cavalcanti.



1930-37: The Worker's Film and Photo League is formed in the US (transformed into Frontier Films in 1937) with the outset of making independent documentaries with a politically and socially progressive viewpoint.


Leni Riefenstahl


1935: German filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl is commissioned by Adolph Hitler to film the annual Nazi Party rally of 1934. The resulting film, Triumph of the Will, is a extremely importnat both in documentary technique and in the use of film as a powerful propaganda medium.

1938: John Grierson visits Canada on invitation to consult on the possibilities of a national Canadian film organization. He is appointed Government Film Commissioner in October 1939. Within six years of accepting the job as head of the National Film Board, Grierson gets a team of more than 800 filmmakers.


1950-60’s: Using newly developed, lightweght, hand-held cameras with synchronized sound, a new generation of young filmmakers in the US and Europe attempts to redefine the nature of the documentary film.

1953: National Educational Television (later the Public Broadcasting Service is founded.)

1955: Armstrong Circle Theatre is first broadcast on American television. The program is generally considered the first continuing sixty-minute series to utilize the form that would come to be known as "docudrama"—dramatic recreations of real events.


1958: The National Film Board of Canada begins production of The Candid Eye—thirteen half-hour films, many of which demonstrate the new ideas of what will come to be called Cinéma Vérité, or Direct Cinéma .

1959: Drew Associates developed the first fully portable 16mm synchronized camera and sound system.

 
Robert Drew


1960: In 1960 Drew Associates produces Primary, the first film in which the sync-sound motion picture camera is able to move freely with characters throughout a breaking story. Primary is widely regarded as the earliest example of American "Direct Cinéma ."

1962: Canadian filmmaker Wolf Koenig produces Lonely Boy, a profile of pop singer Paul Anka, and one of the earliest pop concert films.

1965: 

• Sony introduces the first consumer 1/2-inch video tape recorder. 
• Philips introduces the compact cassette for consumer audio recording and playback on small portable machines.

1968: Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) established

1970s: The late 60’s and 70’s saw a shift in the narrative approach of many documentaries. Although cinéma vérité, third-person narrative and other earlier documentary forms continued, first-person video storytelling, fueled by the flood of camcorders into the marketplace in the 1970’ and after, starts to emerge as a new genre.



1973: PBS series, An American Family, is created an early version of what would later be called "reality TV". It provides a close-up view of the Loud family. It captures the most intimate details of the family's life, including the parents' divorce proceedings and the New York lifestyle of their gay son.

1975: Sony introduces the Betamax consumer videocassette recorder (VCR) (cost: $2295)

1976: JVC introduces the VHS format VCR (cost: $885)

1980: Sony introduces the first consumer video camcorder.

1982: Sony's Betacam, a single-unit broadcast-use camera hits the market.

1984: Release of This is Spinal Tap, a hilarious vérité-style "mockumentary" about a fictional heavy metal band. Credited for popularising mockumentaries in the mid-1980's

1988-1991: Congress passes legislation allowing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to negotiate with a national coalition of independent film producer groups to establish the Independent Television Service so that diverse voices be championed on public television.



1999: The Blair Witch Project, a faux vérité documentary, grosses over $100 million in the US alone

2001: An enormous rash of television programs utilizing some of the techniques of cinema vérité hit the network and cable airwaves—so called "reality TV." These include MTV’s The Real World and The Osbournes, Big Brother, The Fear Factor, The Bachelor and The Bachelorette.


2001-Present: Box office analysts have noted that documentaries have become increasingly successful in theatrical release. Films such as Fahrenheit 9/11, Super Size Me, Earth and March Of The Penguins are all strong examples of that. The low budgets and high profitability attracts film companies much better than traditional films do.

Zeitgeist: The Movie

Synopsis: Zeitgeist: The Movie is a documentary film about the jesus theory, the attacks of 9/11, and the Federal Reserve Bank as well as a number of conspiracy theories related to those three main topics.

Background Info:

• It was produced by Peter Joseph, an independent filmmaker
  
• It received a fairly poor response with people ridiculing it and rubbishing the claims
  
• Dmitri Bushny, a russian filmmaker was one of few who praised the film. In the Russian Weekly Literaturnaya Gazeta he wrote "there is no distortion in putting forward rational questions and trying to answer them"
  
• It has 2 sequels, 'Zeitgeist: Addendum' and 'Zeitgeist: Moving Forward'
• It uses a 'voice of god' voiceover to address the audience

Style Of Documentary: The style of documentary for Zeitgeist: The Movie is expository due to the way the footage is used with the voiceover and the subject of the documentary but there is a slight hint of poetic because the situations are under developed and left unsolved.

Watch The Movie:

My Documentary Idea

My Documentary Idea

Fire in Babylon

Synopsis: The documentary film is about the record-breaking West Indies cricket team of the 1970s and 1980s.
Background Info:

• The film incorporates interviews with several former players and officials, including Colin Croft, Jeff Dujon, Joel Garner, Lance Gibbs, Gordon Greenidge, Tony Greig, Desmond Haynes, Michael Holding, Clive Lloyd and Malcolm Marshall.

Style Of Documentary: This documentary documents and observes the West Indian cricket team so most of the conventions fall under the Observational docuemntary mode.

Watch The Trailer:

Ross Kemp

Ross Kemp is a BAFTA award-winning British actor, author and journalist, received international recognition as an investigative journalist for his critically acclaimed and award-winning documentary series 'Ross Kemp on Gangs'.

Ross has starred in Emmerdale back when it was called Emmerdale Farm as Graham Lodsworth, he rose to prominence as Grant Mitchell in Eastenders.

He is well known for his investigative style of documenting.
He has created 5 series with several episodes, series range from 'Ross Kemp in Afghanistan' to 'Ross Kemp: Extreme World' and more.


Some examples are:


Ross Kemp on Gangs: Poland

• Ross travels to Poland to visit the Polish football hooligans who have become some of the most feared gangs in Europe. Ross joins an elite police riot squad as they escort a notoriously violent hooligan gang and travels to Gorzów, to meet the leaders of the brutal Stilon Fighters.
• This documentary gives the audience a look at what goes on with gangs in places they may not be aware has gang violence. It ''opens their eyes' to the football hooligans in Poland. 

Ross Kemp: Battle For The Amazon

• Battle For The Amazon looks into the socio-economic and environmental pressures facing the Amazon regions of Brazil and Ecuador.  The shows will explore the legacy of devastation created by a burgeoning global desire for energy, food and mineral resources.
• Once again Ross is back with a devastating expose!

Here is some further information on Ross if you're interested - Ross Kemp: IMDB

The Boy Who Lived Before

Synopsis: A young boy in Glasgow remembers his past life on a remote Scottish island.

Background Info:

• Cameron Macauley was 6 years old when it was filmed.
• He lives in Glasgow but since the age of 3 has reminisced to his mum about his life in the Outer Hebrides, the thing is, he's never lived there before.
• He talks about coming from a family before his own and coming down a black tunnel with a pass from God to his new family.
• The documentary then finds a boy called Gus Taylor in America who says the same thing about being given a pass and travelling to his new family down a black tunnel, he believes he is his dad's dad.

Style Of Documentary: It is a mix between expository and reflexive documentary style. The expository angle comes from the footage being played while a 'voice of god' voiceover speaks, explaining the on-screen footage. The reflexive side is the way the voiceover is questioning and relies more on implied meaning than solid facts. It gains an emotional response to Cameron's story throughout the documentary.


Watch It: 
Here is the first part out of five (9 minutes) of the documentary, you can then link to the other four parts via YouTube, Enjoy.

Mark Dolan

Mark Dolan

View more presentations from Toughieee.

Angry Boys

Synopsis:  the show explores the issues faced by young males in the 21st century – their influences, their pressures, their dreams and ambitions. In Angry Boys, Lilley plays multiple characters: S.mouse, a black American rapper; Jen, a manipulative Japanese mother; Blake Oakfield, a champion surfer; Ruth "Gran" Sims, a guard at a juvenile detention facility; and her grandchildren, South Australian twins Daniel and Nathan Sims.

Background Info:

• It's Chris Lilley's next series after Summer Heights High
• It includes characters Daniel and Nathan from 'We Can Be Heroes'
• Australian Television
• Follow on from 'Summer Heights High'

Comments from Critics:

• The result is a joy, excruciating but somehow also warm, the funniest thing I've seen for ages. I really did lol. - Sam Wollaston (Guardian)
• Pushing the boundaries of political correctness to breaking point, Lilley has delivered exactly what his fans expect - and why TV critics have hailed him an ``outrageous comic genius.'' - Holly Byrnes and Shoba Rao (Herald Sun)

Style Of Documentary: Mockumentary, fictitious events are presented in documentary format for comical effect.


Guidance: Some Strong Language

Ali G Indahouse

Synopsis:  Ali G is the leader of Da West Staines Massiv, a fictional gang composed of a group of wannabe gangsters from Staines (a small suburban town to the west of London); their chief rivals are Da East Staines Massiv. Ali and Da West Staines Massiv are heartbroken to learn that their beloved local leisure centre will be demolished by the local council. Ali and his friends decide to protest this injustice.

Background Info:

• Ali G is played by British comedian Sacha Baren Cohen
• Michael Gambon who plays Professor Albus Dumbledore in the Harry Potter films plays the Prime Minister
  
  
  
  
  

Comments from Critics:

• Delivers more than its fair share of saucy hilarity. - Neil Smith (BBC)
• A raw comedy that is intermittently hilarious as it attacks pretty much every taboo around. - Mark Adams (Hollywood Reporter)

Style Of Documentary: Mockumentary, fictitious events are presented in documentary format for comical effect.

Summer Heights High

Synopsis:  It is a parody of high-school life epitomised by its three protagonists: effeminate and megalomaniacal "Director of Performing Arts" Mr G; self-absorbed, privileged teenager Ja'mie King; and disobedient, vulgar Tongan student Jonah Takalua.

Background Info:

• All 3 main characters are played by Chris Lilley, he is also the creator of the series. Obviously this means that these 3 characters never interact.
• It lampoons Australian high school life.
• It followed on from Chris Lilley's last successful series (also a mockumentary) 'We Can Be Heroes'
• Australian Television

Comments from Critics:

• All in all, it's a rich work, full of detail and small moments, and grounded in reality by an utterly believable supporting cast partly drawn from the school where the series was shot. - Robert Lloyd, (Los Angeles Times)
• Lilley's script and performances are rife with recognizable personalities, neuroses and human absurdities. - Tom Shales (Washington Post)
• The only bad thing about Summer Heights High is that it makes a lot of American comedies look pathetically unoriginal and lackluster by comparison. - Heather Havrilesky (Salon)

Style Of Documentary: Mockumentary, fictitious events are presented in documentary format for comical effect.