UNIT 9
Characteristics and Contexts in Media and Communication
History Of Documentaries:
1967 - Don’t Look Back (USA) – directed by D.A. Pennebaker, this documentary showcases star Bob Dylan. It captures the singer transforming on camera into ‘Dylan’ using many artistic conventions to depict his iconic rock story.
1975 - Grey Gardens (UK) - directed by Albert Maysles (producer), David Maysles (producer), Ellen Hovde, Muffie Meyer. “This film explores the daily lives of two aging, eccentric relatives of Jackie Kennedy Onassis. During the course of the documentary, they discuss their habits, desires and former loves with filmmakers Albert and David Maysles.”
2012 - The Act Of Killing (UK) - directed by Joshua Oppenheimer. This hard-hitting documentary brings to light the horrifying mass executions of accused communists in Indonesia and the honouring of those who committed the crimes in their country. It has been called a “brutal, unrelenting cinematic experience” and goes against the stereotype of the styles that a documentary usually contains.
2013 - Blackfish (UK) - directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite, produced by CNN Films, “a documentary following the controversial captivity of killer whales, and its dangers for both humans and whales.” - IMDb. The music and underwater camera footage helped to build tension.
2015 - Amy (UK) - directed by Asif Kapadia, ‘Amy’ uses a single-strand narrative to tell the story of the talented singer/songwriter, Amy Winehouse. The documentary follows a linear narrative as it goes through Winehouse's life chronologically and the level of detail included means the audience can develop a much clearer understanding of her as a person and her dangerous habits.
2019 - Diego Maradona (Spain) - directed by Asif Kapadia, this documentary takes a closer look at the career of celebrated footballing icon, Diego Armando Maradona. Asif Kapadia transforms Maradona's life into a ground-breaking documentary that will go down in history, highlighting the juxtaposition between the highs of sporting greatness and the lows and human fragility that this can lead to. The high-level cinematography and narration went a long way to achieve this.
1989 - The Thin Blue Line (USA) - directed by Errol Morris, the eye-catching documentary used a range of raw interview segments and intense close-ups to build tension, a style that has since become very popular, to tell the story of the wrongful conviction of one Randall Adams, following the 1976 roadside shooting of a Texas cop.
1982 - Sans Soleil (France) - directed by Chris Marker, this iconic documentary encompasses a range of thoughts, images and scenes, from many different countries and showcases them in the style of collage. The unique use of fictional content delivered in this narrative style covering subject areas such as memory, technology and society, helped expand the documentary/film industry further.
1955 – Night and Fog (France) – directed by Alain Resnais, commissioned to mark the tenth anniversary of the Allied liberation of Auschwitz, Night and Fog conveyed the archive war footage in colour. The film runs chronologically and set the example for future films and documentaries on how to cover this extremely challenging topic.
1941 – Target For Tonight (UK) - directed by John Grierson, feature-length dramatised documentary conveying the undertaking of a British mission to bomb a strategic German facility during World War II, produced by Crown Film Unit. Grierson was one of the first directors to give women the opportunity in the producing and directing of the film, which helped lead to further equality in the film industry in the future.
1961 – Chronicle of a Summer (France) – directed by Jean Rouch & Edgar Morin, a documentary about the everyday lives of ordinary Parisians, done in the style of cinéma vérité, it used classic shot-reverse-shot techniques to captivate the audience, inspiring future documentaries to employ similar editing styles.
2010 - Senna (UK) - directed by Asif Kapadia. Ayrton Senna became a three-time Formula One racing champion and Brazil's national hero before his untimely death at age 34. The documentary/film uses cinematic conventions that stem from earlier ground-breaking documentaries such as ‘Nanook of the North’ and ‘Drifters’ through the use of its encaptivating inception, narrative, staging and advanced characterisation techniques.
2007 - My Kid Could Paint That (UK) - directed by Amir Bar-Lev, this mysterious documentary provides an insight into the unique success story of a four-year-old girl whose paintings have been likened to artistic greats like Picasso, and has made hundreds of thousands of dollars. Amir Bar-Lev used various engaging editorial angles to retain the audience's attention.
2003 - Touching The Void (UK) - directed by Kevin Macdonald. This documentary depicts the story of two young climbers, Joe Simpson (Brendan Mackey) and Simon Yates (Nicholas Aaron), on their ambitious journey to be the first to reach the top of Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes. They succeed in their mission but the way down the mountain evolves into a life or death scenario after a leg breaking accident and stormy weather. The stunning choreography of the steep mountain climb made this documentary one of the best in recent years.
1994 - Hoop Dreams (USA) - directed by Steve James. Hoop Dreams focuses on the journey of two local Chicago boys who fight to become college basketball players on their challenging route to going professional. Also, it covers a range of issues such as race, social class, economic division, education, and values and how this can affect those living in the USA.
1938 - Spanish ABC (UK) – directed by Sidney Cole, Thorold Dickinson. A documentary regarding the Spanish Civil War, produced by Progressive Film Institute. Covers the work in the Spanish Ministry of Public Instruction, education of children, of adults in civil life and in the trenches, care for child refugees, research and care for art treasures.
1937 - : Children at School (UK) – directed by Basil Charles Wright, this documentary draws attention to the conditions in Britain’s schools shortly before World War II, directed by produced by Realist Film Unit, unique filming styles and poetic visuals such as the empathetic camerawork to highlight the long–vanished schooldays for the children, helped inspire other directors in the film sector.
1929 – Drifters (UK) – focuses on industrialism and the theme of conflict between tradition and modernity, directed by John Grierson, it had a significant influence on the development of British Film Culture, helped form the new GPO Film unit, which later was renamed to the Crown Film Unit.
1939 – Peace and Plenty (UK) – directed by Ivor Montagu, focuses on the opposed government policy on the appeasement of Hitler and fascism, produced by Progressive Film Institute. The innovative montage techniques used inspired other filmmakers in the industry.
1922 – Nanook of the North (France) - directed by Robert Flaherty. It was an Inuit documentary, containing slapstick comedy featuring scenes such as him straining to land a seal with a line dropped through a hole in the ice, beautiful photography captured the audience and inspired other documentaries and further development of comical films and documentaries in the industry.
Examine the funding/distribution/institutional side of documentary contexts:
Documentary Characteristics & Conventions (Visual & Verbal Language) Infographic:
Documentary Modes Analysed Examples:
Which documentary clip do you think best represents ‘actuality’? That is, which do you think is the most ‘real’, ‘authentic’ and ‘truthful’ clip?
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In my opinion, after watching the four examples of documentaries, I believe that the "Metallica - some kind of monster" felt the most authentic, as the use of observational mode provided the style of the "fly-on-the-wall", giving a clear insight of the dynamics between the different members of the band and the refreshing normality of the way they operate behind the scenes.
Bill Nichols 6 Documentary Modes Infographic:
Week 5 Reflection / The Pros and Cons of Bill Nichols's Modes:
During week 5 of Unit 9, I have greatly expanded my knowledge on the different modes and styles of documentaries, particularly through researching and studying the 6 modes identified by Bill Nichols: expository, observational, participatory, poetic, reflexive, performative. I now understand the different features of the six modes and how they have an impact on the style of the film and the audience’s experience and perspective.
Additionally, I have learnt several new terms to identify the different verbal and visual language modes used in documentary, for instance reactive observationalism visuals and testimony verbal language. This will help me during the process of making my own documentary as I will be able to identify exactly which style I am aiming for during visual planning in pre-production. Furthermore, it will help me reach my intended vision and attract my target audience through the styles and advanced techniques used in my final product, for example, direct address to the audience.
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There are pros and cons for each of the different documentary modes:
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Different filmmakers have may have their own preferences on the modes that they like to incorporate into their work. This can be based on their background of working in the industry and their main areas of expertise, or due to the topic of discussion of the documentary complimenting a certain mode. For example, in a documentary created in poetic mode, the filmmaker may focus on using associative visuals to symbolise messages and create expressive metaphors through the film.
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Whereas, a more factually based documentary such as one filmed in expository mode, may focus on using reactive observationalism to capture their intended subject, alongside exposition mode to narrate over the footage, for example Blue Planet (2001). These non-fictional styles of documentary focus on educating the audience in an impartial way, through using a voice of authority such as David Attenborough.
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My Documentary Proposal:
My documentary will investigate how the suspension of grassroots sports due to lockdown has impacted negatively on young people and the economy of thousands of clubs across the UK. Structurally, the film will consist of a range of relevant filming locations to demonstrate the damage to local clubs and grassroots sports businesses. I will also incorporate an interview with a young footballer, which will highlight how the loss of weekly grassroots sports can have a detrimental effect on the well-being of young people, particularly in deprived areas. I will base the documentary in expository mode, as this will allow me to incorporate illustrative visuals and symbolism to support the spoken word of the narrator, which will help the audience become more knowledgable of the situation and feel emotionally moved by the damage to local grassroots sports communities.
Treatment:
Every week, thousands of children and young people across the UK enjoy participating in grassroots sports. It is the highlight of their week, it motivates and stimulates them and is the perfect outlet from their daily struggles, particularly in deprived areas. Taking this opportunity away as a result of corona virus, where maintaining good physical health is all important, is in my opinion, a big mistake. Moreover, removing this point of mental stability from a young person’s weekly routine, could lead them down a dark path to spending time in more dangerous environments, as a substitute. Furthermore, the government’s decision has caused a multitude of grassroots clubs across the UK to collapse, as they are not able to run fundraising events and many have lost sponsorship deals as a result of no fixtures.
I will be producing an approximately 5-minute expository documentary, targeting the sporting audience, with the aim of providing awareness on how this issue could cause a negative impact on the wellbeing of local communities and businesses. Additionally, I aim to positively impact the younger sporting audience by providing them with new hope and goals that they can work towards whilst grassroots sports are still on hold. News articles and sports presenters such as Robbie Savage have spoken on the issue of postponing grassroots sports, however turning this into a short documentary, and looking deeply at the effects that the government’s decision will have on young people’s welfare, could change the opinion of those outside of the sporting world.
As stated in my proposal, I am looking to incorporate aspects of the documentary mode: expository. This is due to the fact that it will allow me to use my narration skills and include illustrative visuals and symbolism to support the emotive script. I will take appropriate safety precautions and pre-plan this shoot to ensure correct social distancing throughout the filming process.
The first scene of the documentary will open with a short montage of empty grassroots sports locations, juxtaposing previous weeks where these areas would allow local communities to come together and enjoy themselves at the weekend. I will be taking a visit to my local team’s ground Worthing FC to investigate how stopping grassroots sports has affected the economy of clubs in local communities. My script will contain relevant statistics from my secondary research to demonstrate this further.
The second scene will be taking a closer look at how it has impacted the grassroots sports players directly. To encourage a feeling of sympathy from the audience, I will include emotive visuals such as a football player training on their own, conveying this through the use of extreme wide camera shots to establish the scene, as well as slow pan and tilt camera techniques to give the feeling of a fly-on-the-wall scene and reactive observationalism. I will ensure that there are some objects and elements in the foreground of the shot giving a sense of distance between the cameras and the footballer, making the audience feel as though they are hiding and watching the unaware subject actor. I will then use a zoom to focus on the player and to transparently highlight his downcast emotions to the audience. Moreover, following on from the zoom I will dynamically enter a POV camera angle to show the ball at their feet from the direct perspective of the footballer, to allow the audience to feel empathy – an example of associative mode. Furthermore, I will use downward still shots to symbolise the emotional vulnerability of the player, now that their main passion has been indefinitely put on hold.
Moreover, during the post-production edit I will alter the colour balance and saturation to provide the opening scene with a melancholy atmosphere, exemplifying the negative mental effect that the government’s decision will have on young people and local communities further. Also, I will add narration in the form of exposition, over the opening scene to explain the situation to the audience. Also, I will incorporate a soundtrack which will match the downhearted tones of the scene. I will ensure that it is copyright free and available for use so that I am able to upload the documentary on YouTube as this platform is extremely popular, which could help draw more attention to my work and the issue in discussion, promoting a positive change.
The documentary will then smoothly follow on to the interview scene. I will be taking a visit to my local football field to interview a player of the U18s Worthing Town Football team, this will bring the issue my documentary is based around to life, as we can see how stopping grassroots sports such as football has directly affected a young player in the local community. I will have to factor filming outdoors into my planning as the wind could cause sound issues; filming in a sheltered location with appropriate equipment will help reduce this background noise. I aim to use multiple camera angles to provide a dynamic interview scene, including a medium close-up, side-profile shot to break up the main frontal medium shot. Also, I will include relevant cut-away shots to help illustrate the words of the interviewee and to retain the attention of the audience
Lastly, for the final scene of the documentary I aim to end the production on a more positive and uplifting note, through demonstrating way young grassroots sports players can still stay motivated and enjoy themselves under the current lockdown rules. I will be the presenter for this scene, walking towards the camera from a wide to a cowboy shot and then holding a medium shot as I explain how there is still hope for young grassroots sports players. I will support the more positive messages at the end of the documentary using brighter lighting and vibrant colours, to create a hopeful atmosphere. My script will cover the idea of having a socially distanced training partner, and how you can still find ways to train and improve within these challenging circumstances, so that when grassroots sports return, you will be ready to play again. Also, I will discuss ways that people can help financially support their local grassroots clubs and communities to keep them alive so that they can return after the lockdown. I will once again use a carefully selected range of dynamic cut-away shots during this final scene to illustrate my ideas, before ending the documentary on a cinematic extreme wide shot of the football field, with two players training together in the distance.
My main aspiration for this documentary is to raise awareness on how the government’s decision on postponing grassroots sports could cause a lot of issues amongst the wellbeing of businesses and young players in local communities, whilst simultaneously offering advice to these players on how they can stay safe and motivated during these unprecedented times. Additionally, I will discuss the available methods to continue financially supporting local clubs to allow them to stay afloat and return successfully after the suspension.
Lastly, I will cover the funding of the documentary as I believe I already have the majority of the equipment, skills and software necessary to produce a high-quality final product.
Script Planning:
What is the main statement that you want to emerge out of your documentary?
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I believe that my documentary will showcase the impact of stopping grassroots sports during lockdown on young people’s wellbeing and the economy of clubs all over the UK.
My documentary will show this by exploring the damaging effects of stopping weekly grassroots sports training sessions and matches can have on the overall health of young people, through interviewing players, online surveys, and researching into the statistics of grassroots sports, to back up my argument further.
The main focus is demonstrating the importance of grassroots sports on young people, particularly in deprived areas, and to convey how taking this away can have a detrimental effect to their wellbeing.
Ultimately, I want the audience to feel emotionally moved and more knowledgeable regarding the importance of grassroots sports and the issues the government’s decision has caused economically amongst local clubs, and the impact on the physical and mental health of those involved.
And to understand that during these unprecedented times, there are still methods to continue financially supporting local clubs and ways for players to continue to train effectively and keep their spirits up throughout the course of the lockdown.
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Documentary Context:
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There are more than 20,000 clubs and 90,000 grass-roots football teams in England, many of these are struggling to cope financially with the suspension of fixtures as a result of corona virus. Within my documentary, I will be taking a visit to my local team’s ground Worthing FC to investigate this further, and to understand first-hand how the economy of clubs and sporting businesses in my local community have handled this perilous situation. Furthermore, to highlight the subsequent issues of stopping grassroots sports during lockdown, I will be focusing on Archie Warner, who plays for Worthing Town Football Club’s Under 18’s squad. Archie looks forward to training and playing with his teammates every week, and taking this cornerstone out of his life for an indefinite amount of time has been challenging for him to deal with mentally, the same goes for young grassroots players all over the UK. I will be interviewing him at my local football field, to find out his thoughts on the situation and how he is coping.
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Moreover, I will be discussing the situation with the nutrionist and fitness coach at Goring Ladies FC, Jordan Whiting through an online meeting, to understand how continues to monitor the physical and mental health of the players during a lockdown, and how this altered his role and the situation of the club. This will emphasise the difficulties lockdown has caused in another sporting community.
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My Main Characters / Interviewees:
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Archie Warner, who plays for Worthing Town Football Club’s Under 18’s squad, is extremely passionate about training and playing with his teammates every week. For this reason, I have chosen him to be interviewed as I believe he will be able to represent how the majority of grassroots players across the country feel without their beloved sport each week, due to the governments restrictions.
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Jordan Whiting, nutrionist and fitness coach for Goring Ladies FC, I will be interviewing him online to find out more from someone with more knowledge on the science behind sport, and how lockdown will affect him and the players he coaches and trains.
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What are the issues in this film?
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The main issue in this film is that the people involved in grassroots sports: club owners, coaches, staff, players, etc., have conflicting lifestyles with the government’s current rules and regulations. The grassroots sports community want to return before any further financial damage is caused to their clubs as a result of the suspension of fixtures. My film shows multiple sides of the argument, and I will be understanding of the severity of the pandemic we are facing when carrying out this documentary and through the messages the production conveys to the audience. This will be seen through the discussion of how players can continue to train in a safe environment throughout the lockdown, which will be brought to the forefront during the conclusion of the film. However, I will also put forward the idea that the sport could theoretically be allowed to continue if the correct safety measures are put in place. The government’s views will also be discussed by the narrator to create a clearer understanding of the situation as a whole, and the reason behind the conflicting perspectives.
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Documentary Structure:
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I will structure my documentary in a fairly linear format. This will be conveyed through setting the scene in the opening of the documentary, with an overview of the situation and statistics surrounding grassroots sports in lockdown and how it has affected club’s financially. I will use illustrative and cinematic visuals of Worthing FC’s empty ground, Woodside Road to bring the narration to life. I will handle the progression of time in my film through filming the first scene at Worthing FC’s ground in the morning, and then following on from this I will record the interview scene and end scene in an afternoon, to give the documentary the feeling of it being filmed across the course of a day. This in turn will complement the linear format that I am aiming to achieve. Moreover, the shocking statistics surrounding the economic damage to thousands of grassroots sports teams across the UK will provide a climatic sequence to capture the viewer’s attention from the outset.
Following this the location will change to the local park to show how it has impacted young players through the interview scene with an Under 18’s local player. This will act as the emotional apex of the documentary and will be important factor of developing a story in my documentary, as the audience will be able to see how the government’s restrictions have impacted a player directly. Consequently, this will allow viewers to build sympathy and an emotional understanding of the documentary’s main topic, captivating them in the production.
In addition to this I will be interviewing Jordan Whiting who is the nutrionist and fitness coach for Goring Ladies FC, to understand more about his role in the grassroots football community, and how lockdown has affected his job, the club's situation and the players of Goring Ladies FC.
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Finally, the falling action will follow, and in juxtaposition to the atmosphere of previous scenes, hope will be restored to a degree as positive ideas are discussed that could help players and clubs during these difficult times. For instance, the methods that could allow grassroots sports to safely return in the future, and ways that the audience can support local clubs and grassroots communities. Additionally, the players themselves watching this documentary will hopefully walk away feeling inspired after effective approaches to training under the current rules and regulations are discussed at the end of the film.
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Shooting and Editing Styles:
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I aim to incorporate dynamic and illustrative visuals into my film through using a range of filming techniques. For example, pan and tilt shots and manual focus to highlight the depth of field. Additionally, I will incorporate an appropriate selection of manually built creative transitions to seamlessly enter the next scene, during the post-production editing process. The use of exposition narration will be very important to provide context to the documentary and a voice of authority for the audience. I envision the combination of lighting during filming and the adjustment of colour balance and saturation within the edit to combine in creating a bleak atmosphere. This will complement the words of the narrator as they discuss the issues of suspending grassroots sports. However, in juxtaposition to this, I will support the more positive messages at the end of the documentary using brighter lighting and vibrant colours, ending the film with a sense of hope for these communities. Lastly, during the interview scene I will be using several cut-away shots to provide evidence for the points being made, and to keep the visuals engaging to retain the young audience’s attention.
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The documentary's ending and how this will impact the audience:
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The film will end on a more positive note to how it begun, as although the suspension of grassroots sports has caused damaged to the wellbeing of players, the staff involved and the economy of these clubs and communities, there is still hope. I aim for the audience to come away with a realistic perspective on the situation, and with the end scene providing knowledge on how they can help the grassroots sports communities financially and how players can continue to train safely and effectively.
Risk Assessment:
VIDEO PRODUCTION RISK ASSESSMENT
PRODUCTION GROUP: James Guy PRODUCTION TITLE: The Suspension Of Grassroots Football
LOCATION / STUDIO: Woodside Road Worthing FC DATE OF SHOOT: 16/11/2020
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POTENTIAL HAZARDS:
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Access requirements
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Cables - trailing or slung
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Children
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Noise and high level sounds
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Removal of litter
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Vehicles - moving/static
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Weather
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Slips, trips, falls
Contacts:
Chichester College: 01243 786321
Worthing FC: 01903 233 444
Emergency services:
999
The Suspension Of Grassroots Sports - By James Guy
Evaluation:
Throughout the course of the production process during the making of my documentary for Unit 9, I aspired to use a wide range of dynamic and stylish angles to encapsulate my audience, and to compliment my expository narration. The variety of camera angles extending from establishing and wide shots to set the scene of my various locations, to medium-shots and close-ups to capture the emotion of my interviewees, went a long way to achieving an engaging production for my sport-loving target audience. Furthermore, I successfully experimented with different pan and tilt techniques to help transition between shots and scenes. Additionally, I created an exciting sense of movement by filming camera shots as I was walking through the football stadium. When editing these clips I was disappointed to discover that they were very shaky and unstable, consequently I researched into the usage of the stabilisation effect before successfully applying it to these clips, which assisted in building a very smooth and effective first-person perspective.
Within my planning and editing process I had to make a multitude of creative decisions in relation to the audio production of my documentary. For example, I included added “punch” sound effects when hard-cutting to the artistic still visuals I edited and incorporated to introduce the interviewees. This was really effective as it gave the documentary a snappy and exciting impression, engaging my audience. Moreover, for the backing soundtracks I included instrumentals from the newly released football video game, FIFA 21. This effectively provided a modern feel to the documentary and related well to the ongoing theme of sports, and would be appreciated by the younger sporting audience who are likely to play FIFA 21 themselves. I matched the cutting of the clips to the beat of the music during the opening scene, this really helped to improve the flow of the visuals and create a great first impression to my production for the audience.
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I had a few issues regarding the recording of vocals, as I was unable to hire the additional sound recording equipment from college that I was hoping to. This led to background noise and wind becoming an issue, especially when interviewing Archie Warner outside at his local football field. I was able to improve the quality of the audio in post-production, by following online tutorials and using the sound editing program of Audacity to help form a noise profile of the wind and reduce its sound levels during the filming of the interview, providing me with a much clearer and uninterrupted audio track for this scene.
Additionally, when recording the narration for the opening scene, my microphone caused my vocals to have a high-level of bass. This caused the audio to be slightly muffled; I reduced the bass in Audacity and increased the treble to rectify this.
Due to issues with the weather I had to go against my plans of filming the final scene outside, instead I tidied up my office and set up appropriate lighting around me to allow me to film inside, hence reducing background noise and removing the issue of high winds, improving the sound quality of the vocals. Although this was not what I had originally envisioned during planning, I still feel as though the visuals of the final scene seamlessly fitted with the overall style of my piece, the framed football posters in my room helped accomplish this!
Personally, I would say my documentary mainly reflects an expository style; the use of voice-overs/narration clearly describes the action in the documentary, the relevant visuals of grassroots sports locations support the points being made. This can be clearly seen in the opening of my documentary at Woodside Road, where I effectively integrated this documentary mode to help set the scene and current scenario to the audience.
Additionally, my documentary depicts elements of other modes such as participatory mode, as I, as the film-maker, feature within the documentary itself as the role of the interviewer of Jordan Whiting, and during the closing scene. This allowed the audience to get to know me and to visualise the narrator, bringing the documentary to life. Also, through filming the closing scene in my office, the audience are able to see my work station for where I edited the documentary, subtly incorporating a sense of reflexive mode into the final scene.
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During my planning and production process I was inspired by the short film/documentary, “300KG DEADLIFT (661LBS) at The Gymshark Lifting Club” published by popular YouTube and fitness creator “MattDoesFitness”. I really enjoyed the use of exposition mode which allowed him to act as the narrator and voice-over the video, and also include direct address to the camera during some scenes. I incorporated a similar method of communication to the audience in my own documentary, as I included a voice-over over the course of the first few scenes, and rounded off the documentary using direct address to the camera. Furthermore, the dynamic filming techniques using smooth and stable panning techniques helped create a very cinematic feel, something that I aimed to achieve in my own work, particularly during the opening, where I set the scene of Worthing FC’s stadium at Woodside Road.
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Additionally, the Anthony Joshua documentary, “Rumble Young Man...Rumble” used testimony techniques during the recording of interviews. I really enjoyed the use of manual focus on the close-up interview shots to allow them to focus on Anthony Joshua, clearly showing his emotions of determination to the audience. I attempted to create a similar style and emotional connection with the interviewer through close, accurately focused camera angles, during my meeting with Archie Warner.
Overall, I am really pleased with the outcome of my documentary, I believe the creative editing styles and dynamic filming techniques worked together seamlessly to achieve my intended vision. I would like my documentary to be able to positively impact those involved in grassroots sports to give them a sense of hope and aspiration that their beloved sports and their communities will return. As well as this, I would hope that hypothetically, if my documentary was seen by a member of government that they would think twice about the suspension of grassroots sports during times like these, and find new methods to allow the sport to continue safely, as in my opinion suspending training and fixtures causes more harm than good. I believe the statistics and emotional examples used would be an effective way to change their perspective.
The research into different documentary modes and styles during the research and planning process really helped broaden my knowledge on this subject, and understand the reasons behind the unique styles of different production. It also provided me with new ideas and techniques to help benefit the structure of my own production, such as the different ways of expressing verbal language - direct address to the camera being an example. This new understanding will help me in future media education and employment as I will be able to pinpoint different styles using the correct media theories during projects; the extended knowledge will be attractive to the employer, and will allow me to understand the production process in media workplaces more clearly.
I have improved my camera skills by setting up multiple camera angles during interviews, and experimenting with different focal points and new pan and tilt techniques, to create dynamic and cinematic scenes to engage my audience and match the sombre atmosphere of the topic. Also, my editing skills have improved by expanding my styles of media I am producing, as this is the first documentary I have produced, and after researching and learning the different documentary modes, I believe it was a great success. This will help me in my media employment as I will be comfortable working in more areas and different styles of productions.
This project has greatly helped me in improving my time management, through working on a production independently, it helps you to understand and create the schedules necessary to film at all your approved locations, record interviews, edit your work, before the given deadline. It also helped me improve my interviewing and communication skills, which could be useful as I am looking to go into journalism in higher education. Furthermore, I had to put myself out there and network with new people such as Callum at Worthing FC, who said he would pass my details to the media manager and hopes to work with me on future media projects for the club, providing me with valuable work experience and exciting new opportunities.
On the whole, this project has reaffirmed my passion for working in the media industry. I gain enormous satisfaction from producing, creating and editing videos and witnessing people's positive reaction to my finished product. I look forward to growing and progressing my skills further, as I approach higher education and employment into the industry.
