My documentary is just over 5 minutes long. The reason why I decided to do my documentary on gay animals is because it’s a serious topic that doesn’t get spoken about a lot. It was an interesting topic and I enjoyed making it. First things first I had to research the topic that I wanted to do my documentary about, followed by creating a proposal and filling out production paperwork. These are all necessary requirements so I know what it is I am doing. I filmed my documentary on a college's Canon Eos 1200D and my Sony Handy Cam CX405 (full HD camcorder) and I edited the footage in Adobe Premiere Pro cc (2015).
While away on holiday in Spain I managed to film some exotic footage. I filmed the rest of the footage in my house or my local area of Ashton-Under-Lyne and Millbrook. I tried to stick to the brief, my production paperwork and any other planning that I did in order to make this documentary. However saying that I wanted my documentary to be serious in the paperwork it ended up having more of a mockumentary feel to it due to the humor used. Despite this, I manage to stay on topic and deliver my aims of informing my audience on homosexuality in the animal kingdom. This meant I had to keep coming back to the inevitable question of “Are animals gay?” I managed to interview a few different people to get different opinions (both negative and positive) on the topic. I emailed WWF and Manchester Metropolitan University to try and get an interview with an animal expert however none of them got back to me and with the deadline approaching fast it was making it near impossible to get an interview with an expert anyway. In order to improvise, I did my own secondary research by using the internet to find out some facts. I then recorded a voice over of me saying these facts over relevant images and had sound effects in the background of birds chirping. I then did more voice overs of relevant facts which I placed over the top of footage and background music. To add to the professionalism I included opening titles which included a series of cutaways that I filmed of different animals/related to animal footage that I cut to the beat of some music. This was then followed by an introduction to me, the presenter and saying the name of the show. I needed to grip my audience, so I made sure the opening titles were visually appealing, yet inspirational. Something that I could have done better in regards to this is animated the writing using a program. I would have also made the transitions of the text run more smoothly and used more appropriate background footage. I included a montage of different animals I had filmed and added voice-overs and background music. I sped up the horse clip of the montage by double as I found it too slow and didn’t want my audience to get bored. There are two pieces of footage that weren't filmed by me, one was of the Earth turning; I downloaded it from YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mu7lYTXP-hI). The other clip was of three sheep and a dog which I added royalty free music in the background; here is the clip that I downloaded https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1Xmtn4TM9Y. I removed the music from this video and cut it to suit my opening titles. My ending credits are rolling because I prefer them too, as it's more popular than still or crawling credits. I ensured to credit everyone who was involved in any of the footage of the documentary; I also added music to the credits. The only time when I didn’t operate myself was during the scene where I was walking to the Anthony Seddon Trust to interview Diane King, as I needed someone to walk with the camera while I was in the scene. My friend, Amber Winspear, operated the camera during this clip since it wasn’t physically possible for me to do it myself. I added a voice over to this footage explain where I was going and what I was doing. To add more emotion and atmosphere to this I added some upbeat background music. This piece of footage was quite dark so to improve it I could have filmed it during the daytime. I could have even adjusted the brightness during editing but I wanted the clip to remain natural. I tried to make the transition between every part of the media smooth where necessary. I used captions to identify the names of the people I was interviewing and their job titles etc. I adjusted the audio per clip using "Audio Gain" to make sure it's all level, as before some volume was too quiet and some were too loud; now it's even. To improve this documentary it would have helped if I had the better quality equipment, seen as my college didn't always have what I needed as they didn't have enough. During when I filmed the clips of my dog I should have used a tripod as they are quite shaky. I tried to improve these clip by stabilizing them, however, when I applied the "Warp Stabilizer" effect it added white noise to the clips which made the picture quality seem worse. My picture quality seemed grainy and therefore poor quality and shaky when using my hands to film at times. Sometimes during the voice overs, you could hear my breathing which annoyed me. This is because I used my phone to record as it was easier, next time I will use an H2 recorder from college. Every time I used music in my documentary I made sure it was relevant to the mood. I should have made sure all my narratives match my visual for example when I was talking about dolphins I had footage of ducks. The reason for this is due to lack of footage, I was able to get any of dolphins. I conclude that for my first documentary I did well, as I tried to have an equal balance throughout the show. I tried to make sure all my footage wasn't blurry despite not having the best quality camera due to lack of college equipment. I made sure it was all relevant and the documentary would fulfill its purpose of being informative, yet entertaining.
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I will stick to the brief, proposal and other planning of my documentary in order to fulfill its aims. I aim to educate my audience and at the same time entertain. I will deliver my knowledge through a variety of different methods to make sure people don't get bored of it, keeping my target audience in mind. I will ensure it is visually appealing yet everything included in this is relevant to the topic and I will keep on referring back to the question of "Are Animals Gay?"
As part of my research, I decided to analyse a relevant documentary about animal homosexuality before I created my own. This way I had an idea of what my documentary should include etc. The documentary that I analysed in called Animals Like Us, here is the link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5I5N34Q1Bio.
In the beginning of the documentary rhetorical questions were asked to make the audience think. In terms of subjectivity, there was lots of archived footage used throughout this documentary. This is so the audience gets more of an idea of what the animals look like when the voice is talking about them. There were facts and information used to educate, this is then backed up with evidence. There were some experts bringing their knowledge to the show in interviews. The narrator remained monotone through the show so that confusion with speech isn't caused, as they don't want anything to be misunderstood. Another reason for the monotone is so the narrator delivers the information on the topic without having an opinion along with it, therefore they don't appear biased. The narrator is a calm male voice. Calming music is played at various points during this documentary which makes me feel relaxed. I feel very informed after watching this, there was a lot of information within this documentary. It makes me think about things that I don't normally think about and it opened my eyes. It made me want to know more and research the topic after I watched it because I became so interested in it. This is what I expect from a well-made documentary, I hope to achieve this when I create mine. The first step of planning what photos to take involved brain storming ideas in a easy to read mind map format. I then based my proposal and production paperwork around this by expanding or improving these ideas. Lastly, once the planning was done, I was able to actually get on with the filming, trying my best to stick to the plan.
In this essay I am going to talk factual TV programmes, I’m going to talk about the news and documentaries as a way of comparing them, referencing codes and conventions.
The news happens at a set time of day at various times throughout the day, unless you tune into a dedicated news channel where the news gets repeated all day so if you have missed it when it first got read out then you can always catch it again. In a news team, you normally have a news reader, a field reporter, sports fixture presenter and weather presenter. You will also have people working for them who don’t get shown on TV such as the journalists that find out the news stories and the script writers who put this all together in a formal format for the news presenters to read. Then, of course, there are the people that without we wouldn’t have the show in the first place such as the camera operators, sound and lighting engineers and the observational footage editors when they aren’t recording live. They often include interviews with experts or witnesses of a certain topic or situation; they may also use statics so people can get an idea of the bigger picture. I watched BBC Northwest tonight to get some examples. This is a news programme is regional is, therefore, is broadcasted to the Northwest of England and is broadcast from Media City in Salford Quays. News readers at a desk (or sofa in the mornings for the breakfast show accompanied by a cup of coffee or tea) and normally sit in pairs, there being one pretty young female and maybe a slightly older male (sometimes accompanied by a glass of water each). However when I watched it was just one woman sat at the news desk. She had a small microphone attached to her clothing so her voice can be picked up better thus making her sound louder so the audience can hear. There were also faded computer monitors in the background as well as you could also see Salford lit up through the windows directly behind her. During the intro of the news programme there is normally pulsating music played and sometimes it can still be playing in the background when the headlines are first read out. The intro consists of a montage of footage, which in this programme are landmarks of the Northwest. When the news reader/s are shown on screen at the end of the intro their names appear on the screen. When news readers are reading the headline standing up there is normally just one of them. When the interviews took place they sat directly in front of the person so this would happen on chairs and not at the news desk. This way they could get a direct view on them to observe their body language and make eye contact. Experts and witnesses sometimes give a different side to the story and balance the story out. Something that I noticed while observing Northwest tonight was Sky news using a lot more graphics and narration compared to presenters. Graphics are good in a news report to show statistics since facts and figures are a lot easier to take in if they are in front of you as opposed to a presenter reading them out. They are also good for maps for example as a way of the news readers showing you where a certain situation happened or when the weather presenter shows you the forecast. They are a figure of authority that the nation watches, therefore they have to ensure they are hygienic and smartly dressed which means if they are a male then they need to be clean shaven and if they are a female then they must brush their hair so it looks neat. News readers use multiple types of discourse which I am going to talk about now. They use a serious and therefore formal tone which is rhythmic, while looking directly at the camera with a neutral facial expression while sitting up straight and their hands out in front of them. The serious tone what they using during reading the headline is known as monotone. They do this to deliver the news without an opinion to make sure it’s impartial, that way each individual viewer is left to make their own judgement. That way the news readers and reporters can offend anyone because everyone’s views are different. However depending on if the news is hard or soft depends on the seriousness of the monotone used, also the news readers tone tends to soften during the news report as opposed to the headlines. Therefore the tone will go up and down throughout the show. Weather presenters are more enthusiastic as they have to don’t have to deal with news so they don’t have to worry about being biased because it’s not a topic that people can be offended by. Hard news is more serious news which is at the start of a news report, such as terrorist attacks and murders. Soft news which is shown at the end of a news report, this is typically happier news such as the birth of a royal baby or less complex news like the sports fixtures. Therefore the news is ordered so that the most important news comes first, which is current affairs that are relevant. Impartiality contributes to the right and left wing in politics. They get to the point rather than beating around the bush; they use short, snappy titles and the brief outline of the story to summarise it while grabbing people’s attention. Whereas unlike the news reader the field reporter will usually use more complex language as they give us a more in-depth insight. The field reporters in BBC Northwest tonight dress in a more relaxed formal kind of way because they need clothes that they feel comfort in while put and about but they still give a good impression. They have an earpiece in so they can communicate with any questions that the news readers back in the studio might have for them. Sometimes when the headline is shown, actuality footage can be shown instead as sometimes it’s easier for the audience that way if they see it visually. Another way is graphics for example to display fact and figures. If the voice over is done by a different gender to the person talking in a piece of footage then it adds contrast. Also if it’s a softer news story then sometimes it helps by a woman read it/voice over since it gives a less serious feel, instead it can give a warmer feel. Documentaries are factual TV programs with a purpose to educate. There are 6 main types of documentaries we are: expository documentaries, poetic documentaries, observational documentaries, participatory documentaries, reflexive documentaries and performative documentaries. Expository documentaries are the most popular; they explain or describe a certain topic, therefore informing the audience. The codes and conventions of this type of documentary are usually a voice over, observational footage, realism, dramatisation and naturalisation. This type of documentary will just have a voice over without a presenter so the narration is key. Like all narrators, we must be able to understand what they are saying and the tone must remain the same throughout. An example of this type of documentary would be a documentary about nature such as David Attenborough programme like Planet Earth. He acts as the voice of god describing what is happening in certain clips of footage while explaining it. This type of show is educational and therefore might be watched by students (potentially in a lesson) since it might help them for a certain topic that they are studying. Poetic documentaries as implied use the power of poetry to convey feelings across which in turn makes people think about what they are watching. They do this by using images and interpreting them as well as people's experiences. Observational documentaries consist of observed information of the world, which are usually private moments that are vital parts of history; sometimes this can be done discreetly known as secret filming. It’s impartial as all sides of a situation are heard so is not biased and therefore fair. A good example of this would be a documentary about animals such as Nature’s record breakers. Participatory documentaries are made up of a mixture of expository and observational documentaries; they also consist of the filmmaker’s voice somewhere within the documentary, such as included somewhere in the narration. This is so they have a little bit of input in their own show thus influencing it once they have their research; with this, they try and help the audience. Reflexive documentaries the filmmaker stars as the presenter and narrator so they have a lot of input and control over the show. Realism is added to the truth of a certain topic that is being addressed, however not all area may be looked at, just certain points. We watched a reflective documentary in class starring Louis Theroux, he did quite a lot of on the spot interviewing everywhere he went to the point where he brought up questions in a general conversation. His tack tics would sometimes humiliate the person to the point where they look crazy or stupid. In one episode Louis visited the Westboro Baptist Church in America; they are a cult type of religion that didn’t believe they were brainwashed by their leader. However, there was evidence to suggest otherwise such as their ridiculous beliefs that can’t be backed up with science or any other logic. Louis asked basic questions to the leader of this religion and he refused to answer the majority of them. All throughout the show, he challenged the family that attends this church that he was staying with for a short period of time. One particular family member he saw as weak since she sometimes would hesitate of changing her answers to the questions he would ask and he used that to his advantage. He would ask her loads of questions to the point where she felt uncomfortable and then once he had enough information he would challenge her answers. This is an expert interview technique and if you know what you are doing is very effective. Louis was quite subjective as he has strong scientific beliefs which he interpreted into the programme. There is a lot of observational footage filmed of the family who he stays with and some other people who belong to that religion. This is so we get an inside look at what is really going on in order to be educated. Therefore there is a lot of naturalisation and realism since none of it is dramatised as it’s all true to life. Performative documentaries are quite emotional in terms of world experiences and are usually personal. The presenter’s personal opinions of a topic are put forward during their research and are therefore subjective and biased. Things to research:
What I found out during research:
Links to information that helped me with my research: I created this survey as primary research to try and find out a little bit more about what my potential audience would think if I was to make a documentary of gay animals. I collected 11 responses from a wide vareity of people to make my answers fair. Some of my questions was linked for example I asked the question "Do you think that animals can be gay/bisexual?" I asked if the person completing the survey was homophobic because that fact would have an impact on their answer.
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