Phenakistoscope

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Documentary mini-task

What is a documentary?

A documentary is a film, TV or radio programme/ show that consists of factual footage and interviews on a particular subject. However there are different types of documentaries such as expository, observational, interactive, reflexive and performative.

Expository:

Consists of playing back clips and photos with a narrator explaining/ informing you of the information and situation. A good example of this would be Planet Earth with David Attenbourgh as you don't see him in some episodes. He clearly gives the viewers information to whats going on and why the birds are doing what they're doing. The viewer is being educated and is being immersed with the knowledge, and is also seeing the evidence of whats being taught to them.


Observational (Poetic):

These documentaries consist of not being shown the presenter or camera crew, as for obvious reasons, it's observing something, whenever its animals, nature, transport, people, etc. An example of this would be Super Nanny (USA) as the house is being filmed and observed for the sake of the programme.



Interactive:

An interactive documentary would consist of a presenter taking you along the journey through the documentary. This will include face-to-face interviews and exposure based on what the documentary is about. As you can see Louis Theroux's documentaries are an excellent example of this as all of his documentaries are interactive. In the clip below hes taking to the staff and clients and asking questions, through his voice overs he tells you whats happening next and in conclusion.
 


Reflective:

This consists of exposing the conventions of the documentary (purpose) to the audience, and is also experimented with. These documentary shots consist of capturing everyday life (like the in the documentary below when they're creating street art). These are then used as 'bricks', and they make a very different experimental/ unique film.
Exit through the gift shop if clearly a reflective documentary as its clear that they wanted to make a documentary, about street art. In this clip you see them explain their goals and their attempts to do it.



Performative:

Can be seen the same as the interactive as the interviewer is asking for information however the difference is that in these documentaries your hear of the presenters opinions whereas with interactive its seen as helping overs (whenever physically or on an understanding level). These documentaries are more subjective and personal.
In this documentary you can see and hear Karl Pilkinton's opinions on typical Chinese food, and how it's weird. He really expresses how he feels about the subjects just by saying it bluntly and with a bit of humor. This does give some of the audience some persuasion and what hes saying is correct however it's all to do with ones interpretation.



Conclusion:

My philosophy as a filmmaker would be to present correct, factual information due to me liking to stay as honest as I can, plus it's unfair to viewers as I don't want them receiving incorrect information. I think when it comes to ends justifying the means, that I'll still to being honest and factual due to wanting to remain unbiased.

3 Minute documentry, West Caister

This is the production schedule that I followed.

The talent releases were not filled out due to the actors not wanting to sign to anything however once I explain the rules and their and my rights and each talent verbally agreed to be in my project.

I also do not have any need for a location release due to it being public property.

I did scout the area and took some photos to ensure that I was capturing West Caister in the best way.

 

My 3 minute wonder

Research

TV advertisement evaluation

The brief

We first had to look into the company Unilever and had to pick a brand which belonged to them, for me it was Cif. We then had to make a presentation on its demographics, psycho graphics, existing target audience (primary and secondary) then try to re-brand it to a new audience. Making an advert will be a well accomplished way of doing so and all we had to do was base that product to the new audience of our choice.

Our chosen product to re-brand was Cif, specifically, the Cif active frizz spray.This was decided based on the presentation that was based on this product and how to re-brand it (it already had a story, concept and a re-brand target audience- however this was based for men and not teenagers, which will be explained later).

The current target audience for Cif is to women, from which we decided to re-brand it to men. Our advert was going to be based around the man pleasing the women with his cleaning after having an argument. The result of this was to want to make men please their partners by cleaning, in addition them buying the product. However this is did not happen due to not being able to find a male actor with the time we had, so instead we had to think on our feet and came up with the new audience being teenagers. Our new advert concept was for the teenager to please their parent(s) by them cleaning so they could go to their party.



The finished product and feedback

The method of collecting was by hearing an online survey (thanks to survey monkey) and by showing our advert in class and hearing the feedback of others afterwards. The main points in both methods was:

• are you tempted to buy the product?
• Who do you think the target audience is based on?
• What were the positives of the advert?
• What were the negatives of the advert? 

I believe that our advert that we made is appropriate to the audience because of the main message in our advert. Our advert is about a teenager being punished by making a mess, not tidying up and leaving it for the mother to clean later. However she's punished into cleaning which she then enjoys halfway through by the small dance when cleaning, smiling, by the music becoming upbeat and fun and by behaving to her mother in a respectful way and not complaining about the cleaning that she just did. When showing the class our advert people replied saying that teenagers where the target/ primary audience however unknown to use we had also made a secondary audience, the parents. This was made because the mother had the spray in her possession-addition she usually cleans and for parents to buy for their teenagers. This advert can also lead to encourage children to clean to get a reward or a way for parents to encourage their children to clean in order to allow their children to get/ go where they want. 

Our use of mise-en-scene (I think) was well. You could obviously tell that we were filming in a proper bathroom and not a set, that the teenager was a teenager and that when cleaning we was actually cleaning with the product. However I felt that the 'mother' played by myself didn't looked like a general mother however we had no time to get an older actor and had to make me look older with my hair and clothing. However in the bathroom we had many copyrighted material like labels on products like shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, creme and a cleaning product. However because of the time limit we had no chance of getting our own used bottles and making our own labels/ not using them at all as we needed a mess.

 The camera was a standard camera from the college (a Panasonic handy cam) however in the scene at the end with the parent and teenager talking the camera slightly blurs between focusing on each one. This is due to the camera not knowing who to focus on, so next time or if we had time to improve, we would use a camera which wouldn't do this or stand in different positions so it will focus on both of us. The tri-pod which we use was broken, the top bit that the camera rests on was loose so the camera would slightly wobble and you can see this in some scenes. 

Even after we finished editing I still feel like some shots should be cut away to make it shorter as either the beginning or the end of that shot is lagging before cutting to the next scene. The music however was more successful as it showed the audience the journey of the cleaning and it relates with the pace and the mood of the teenage character (bored and slow at first to getting into it and enjoying it).

I believe that our advert is effective in the selling the product in general and to a new audience. Through story line and the narrative it will tell parents to encourage them to clean and teach teenagers to get something you should give something. The product is the 'savior' of this situation and got the result that everyone wanted.

The effective persuasion techniques that we used to sell the product was showing, again, that Cif solved all the problems and will in your household. We know that this worked because the majority of the class raised there hands when they said after watching this they'll buy it.  

   The message that we were trying to send to the target audience was that teenagers can clean as well and that Cif does an excellent of doing so. We did this by making the teenager clean because of making a mess and was going to leave it for mum to clean when going to a party. Reluctantly the teenager cleans with Cif quickly an enjoyably in order to go the party. This is telling teenagers to give something back and that cleaning isn't that bad (this is why we made her enjoy it afterwards and added a small bit of humor at the end).   

Overall, I believe that our advert is fit for purpose. Although it doesn't look professional filmed due to the shaky tri-pod and not fitting in a dolly, the story line and narrative is a clear and delivering concept. However because of the BCAP and ASA code we have to be careful because an under 18 is using a chemical spray and the advert is encouraging it. Here are the                                                                                     codes that we had to be cautious of not violating:

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Viewers response

We had many positive reviews about the advert however were aware of the mistakes that we made, however most people in the class 15/20 said that they felt that they would buy the product after the advert. There was a very positive response from a survey I conducted (from a female student) about who it was aimed towards: "It was relatable to a different target audience (teenagers) rather than the usual target audience of middle aged women / mothers. This means it applies to more people so it is good."
Others comments like this really ensured us that although the filming and editing wasn't the best we still had the main message being broadcasted loud and clear: aimed towards teenagers, then adults.

Personal reflection

The final product was what I expected, a bit of a mess, and this wasn't the original intention however due to time frame we had to act quickly. Unfortunately we hadn't got all the pre-production paperwork finished due to time and the constant change of locations, actors and story line. However the audience (despite seeing and pointing out its flaws- which we needed to see) seemed to enjoy it and one person said 'I found it a bit addicting to watch' which made me very please.  

If I were to this project again I would have made sure that our actors could be filmed in the lesions that we had and that we had a completed story board to make filming easier. I would also have used the time that we had more wisely.

However overall I'm just happy that we have a finished product and a watchable one.

My involvement with the project was writing the storyboard, acting, help filming, editing and creating the score for the advert.

Δεν ξεχνώ - I never forget

Δεν ξεχνώ

My 3 minuet wonder is based on the how the Cypriot war is still affecting the Greek communities today in Britain, specifically in my area. I've been exposed to this due to learning Greek, in a Greek church and meeting members of the Greek community. This is what I want to do, expose to people that the war is still effecting Greeks today and that they will never forget. 

I want to present this documentary by hearing the account of a refugee of the Cypriot rule

• Identify the genre and format of the concept, i.e., how will it be presented? (Format; expository, interactive, observational, performative, reflexive. Genre; docudrama, docusoap, infotainment, ‘reality’ TV, educational, wildlife, special interest, makeover).

My target audience 

• Who would be your target audience? (remember primary and secondary divide and also to use terms such as demographics etc.)

My aim of the documentary and what I hope to achieve would be to educate the audience (as some people are not even the aware that the war took place) of the Cypriot war and how it still effects Greeks today. Specifically used-to-be refugees in Great Yarmouth with a large Greek or Cypriot-Greek population. I'm doing this by centering the documentary of a witness account telling the audience of their experience. I will also include footage of the church where independence of Greece and the final end of the Cypriot war was celebrated and when a presentation took place based on the education and witness account of the war took place because of it now being in the Greek teaching spectrum. I will also include facts, statics, photos and maybe video footage of the war.    

• Where will you need to film? Will you need to travel to a location / various locations?

• Who will you need to be part of the production? Will you need other crew? Will you need experts / witnesses?

• Write some sample interview questions (only applicable if you intend to have interviews - this includes talking heads where the interviewer is not present on screen).

• What equipment, props and costumes will you need to produce your idea? Do you already have what is needed? What will you need to buy in?

I have no proposed budget for this production.