I played this music video to the students as part of a Personal Learning and Thinking Skills lesson. (See PLTS Designs blog entries.) I asked them to think through where the Personal Learning and Thinking Skills would have been used throughout the creation of this video, from concept through to realisation. They came up with some brilliant responses and loved this film, which gave them inspiration for the music videos that they were currently working on themselves.
TV..sits in the corner of a room and produces pictures and sounds. But it's interesting that it can make you laugh, cry, etc. What on TV isn' t a Documentary? Sport? Adverts? Oxfam appeal? The News?
Inserts;..they are stories-in their own way. Little Documentaries. Big Brother; is it a Documentary?
Documentaries are not CCTV because...
A Documentary has a narrative. It is crafted. In CCTV footage, things either happen or they don't.
2) How many words does it take to describe a life?
A Documentary tells a story. A guide to success is finding a good story and telling it well. You are picking out little pieces from the story. 'MOCKUMENTARIES' play around with the boundaries around that. 'BIOGRAPHIES' are a form of Documentary. Whoever's written them has picked out the real good bits.
3) We as human beings are good at filling in the gaps.
'Lonely Hearts'; it's a NARRATIVE. It gets you hooked in. They' ve been selective. They' ve kept it interesting. Used the most juicy bits of information to hook you in.
Nowadays, for a Documentary they record 150 hours of film for about 1 hour of footage. It's about how much information you can fit into the time you' ve got. It's about being SELECTIVE. We as humans are really equipped to fill in the gaps in information with our imaginations.
4) Once upon a time...
You are creating a world that people can exist in.
FORESHORTENING; A technique you can use. eg, using a very close-up lens to exaggerate a fisherman's wrinkles. LONG LENS AND ZOOM IN; flattens image out and makes a really flattering effect on a woman's face.
DAVID LYNCH. Rules of how long it takes for a person to take things in.Editing uses tricks and associations such as this to enhance a story.
Choice of music. Choice of words and images. You are creating a little world people can exist in. TELLING A STORY.
COMMISSIONER; pays for you to work on a film. High level film making costs about £150,000/hour!
CUT-AWAYS and GVs
About a third of a Documentary film maker's time is spent taking what people have said and cutting bits out. Cut about 3/4 minutes of dialog down to about 30 or 40 seconds in order to hold people's attention. That's where CUT-AWAYS are really useful-to join the edited bits together.
techniquestoenhancetheaction? What music could illustrate this or make it more interesting?
example; Slyvania Waters film done in Australia. Duped the audience. Played with TRUTH and ENTERTAINMENT balance. Using cutaways of mother shopping with her daughter giving birth even though it was on different days.
Another example; Film about Playwright Nick Dark dying. 'The art of catching lobsters.' Used footage shot on home cameras and music drawing you in. The music and the way it's filmed really draws you into their lives. You get a sense that it's about love aswell as catcching lobsters. It's about an everyday existence. It opens up the world of the characters like a fairytale that you can step into.
Overall issue...
You have to get the balance between TRUTH and ENTERTAINMENT.
The first ever Documentary. It was a film about Eskimos. It was completely STAGED, but in the 20s / 30s, everyone believed it to be true. As soon as they heard the word 'Documentary', they believed it.
THE FISHING PARTY
A group of London stockbrokers in the early 80s. Wanted to make a documentary of themselves deep ea fishing. They got PAUL WATSON to make it. He stitched them up and painted a really bad picture of them, making them look like idiots.
LENI RIEFENSTAHL; Filmed the Olympics for the Nazis. Ruined her career due to this association. Was actually a really beautiful film maker. This shows that the CHOICES you make when making a documentary effect how people view it. Shows how pointing a camera at something and filming it can really effect the way that you view the world and how other people view you. She was a documentary maker that made other documentary makers realise the power of what they could do beyond just filming something. Did stuff like dug a huge pit next to the javelin throwers so that she could film them from below and make it look really dramatic.
MID TO LATE 70S; Observed Documentary. 'THE FAMILY' by PAUL WATSON and SYLVANIA SPRINGS. Went into a terraced house and just filmed a family, warts and all. Because technology and techniques had changed so much and it was so much cheaper they could afford to do it. People said it was more realistic.
90s; VIDEO DIARIES. IN BED WITH CHRIS NEEDHAM.
When cameras became more affordable, documentaries really started to change. Technology changed. Cameras got smaller. You didn` t need to be trained to make a film any more. now called VIDEO NATION.
MOCKUMENTARIES.
Other examples; Spinal tap Summer Heights High The Office
GREYERSON; Shot a lot of natural history stuff. Tried to make it all look like it was really happening, but he did make stuff up.
'A MAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA '; very famous one. All he wanted to do was just represent things that every day epople do. He used a lot of contemporary techniques;eg. filming from a car.
A Documentary is primarily telling a story; of a person, a place, a time. But it still has a job to do; it still has to ENTERTAIN.
MICHAEL MOORE; BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE
History of effects in film.
BLACK NARCISSUS
There` s scenes in the film where they` ve painted onto glass plates. It used to be a job; they` ve painted in the scenery. People used to paint onto the individual frames.
METROPOLIS - 1926
All the background ` s painted in, uses models of buildings, etc.
MATTE PAINTING; before Green Screen Technology was invented (1940s.)
When they used to make films with old film it would be 4 hours of film shot to every hour made.
Now it` s so cheap to make films on DV Cameras that it ` s about 100 hours shot to every hour shown.
Editing has changed over time. LINEAR EDITING; how it always used to be done. You stick bits 1 after the other. Not very easy to change once you` ve done it.
Arrival of computers; NON LINEAR EDITING was now possible. Meant you could keep multiple versions of sequences, change things instantly. This changed the post production process dramatically. Allowed film makers to be a lot more free and experimental.
The cost has dropped. The amount of time it takes has dropped. And the amount of expertise you need has also dropped. Means that 1 individual can just go and make aDocumentary.
Also means that the film maker is more INCONSPICIOUS, can blend in a bit more, therefore getting more realism into the film. BUT as soon as you start asking questions, making editing choices etc, you are controlling the reality that the viewer sees.
Dissolves; the way they used to make the image dissolve was to dip about 15 frames into chemicals so that the image dissolves a bit more in each one.
How many frames per second?
PACE?
DISTRIBUTION methods? eg; You Tube: has changed the way that many people view film and information.
DISPENSIBILITY of digital image.
MODERN DAY;
THE MILL
http://www.the-mill.com/A Post Production House in London. Do a lot of the high end CGI (Computer Generated Imagery) stuff. Known for being one of the best.
COMPOSITORS; the people which work on special effects.
MPC WEBSITE;
http://www.moving-picture.com/A London Post [Production house. Website feature films showing a breakdown of how they` ve made the Vissual Effects (VFX) for them
1 of the biggest casting directories for actors/dancers/performers.
You have to subscribe to it. Costs about £100 per year. You have a page on there with a photo and a bit of detail. Gives you validity. your agent can phone them and say "It's spotlight, page 106".
5. ‘Contacts’
The essential book.
by Kate Poynton. Published every October. Can buy from Amazon but make sure it's the most recent edition. Casters. Theatre Directors. etc
Private Audition. Your agent gets you a private slot. Maybe 10-15 mins.
How to get one:
What you need.....
These are quite often where the auditions are held. It's quite good for the students to get used to these different theatres so that it's not all completely new to them when they go for an audition.
The agent gets you feedback. they negotiate the contract. Take 10-12% for theatre, 12-15% for film. Rather than an open audition where there's 1000s of people.
they hold their own auditions. Or you can put on your own show and invite them.
resilience. You have to see it as a business. So ...we need to prepare our students with this in the classroom. Give them a realistic outlook and the skills to be able to deal with the industry.
This is an 'educational' pub quiz that me and Amanda put together as a 'livener' for our lesson to give the students a break and wake them up a bit. note the cleverly interspersed Diploma related questions with questions about popular culture...oh the genius of it!
Quiz Questions – Creative & Media L3 Year 2 – 12.11.09
Q1. In which classic horror film did Jack Nicholson type the words: “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”? (1 MARK)
A. The Shining
Q2. Name 4 of the 6 PLTS categories. (4 MARKS)
A. Team Worker, Creative Thinker, Self Manager, Independent Enquirer, Reflective Learner, Effective Participator
Q3. In the music world, how is Marshall Mathers better known? (1 MARK)
A. Eminem
Q4. Name 3 of the 5 strands from the Every Child Matters agenda. (3 MARKS)
A. Be healthy, Stay safe, Enjoy & Achieve, Make a positive contribution, Achieve economic well-being
Q5. What relation is Doctor Evil to Austin Powers in the 'Austin Powers' film series? (1 MARK)
A. Twin brother
Q6. What are 10 of the 20 disciplines of the C & M diploma? (10 MARKS)
