John Grierson, a Scottish filmmaker, was one of the first to create a documentary film and became the pioneer of the ‘British Documentary Movement’ in the 1920s. Before the making of documentaries they were classed as ‘actualities’ due to them showing the truth. Although during this time the truth had to be remade by actors for the cameras in a studio and after the 1920s on location. This was due to the constraints of technology.
Luckily now technology has come such a long way that our cameras are small and light making them easy to transport and to film on the move. It also makes it easier to film people without the knowing or evening forgetting that the cameras are there. This makes it easier for us to show the truth to our audience.
By the 1950’s and the 1960’s filmmakers were looking for a more truthful and direct approach. This lead to the Free Cinema movement in Britain where filmmakers were being more subjective about there work and making them very political and meaningful. For example Jean Rouch documentary on African Tribes where there were no actors, staging or editing. In 1960s technology was starting to become more portable where the Fly on the Wall effect started to take play.
The Fly on the wall effect is now used either for humour purposive, such as mockumentaries or for investigative work. Hiding the camera to try and find the real truth.
This mode of documentary is Observational (voice of God). This mode was the one that created the Direct Cinema movement in America at the end of 1950’s and beginning of 1960’s. During this time there was the Interactive mode being used by the French in the Cinema Verite movement. The Interactive mode shows the audience that there is a camera and crew making the documentary. The French movement wanted to show the ‘real world’ or cinema truth, which translates to cinema verite.
Documentaries are seen as a genre however within it there are many separate genres; Instructional, educational, travel, arts, historical, investigative, expressive, biographical, observational, wildlife, dramadocs, docudramas. After the 1990’s this list kept growing with ‘live’, video diaries and soups to name a few. This was due to the growth of the Internet and what people wanted to see.
With all of these genres to chose and mix together it makes it difficult which one to aim for or which one we will be making. We wish to use primaries within our documentary therefore hopefully making it slight biographical. We would also like to explore the possibilities of sports, health and educational.
Critical Readings - Michaela Farr
Since John Grierson, documentaries have changed from a public service giving the audience lots of information to a form of entertainment. There have been a lot of debates saying that they are ‘dumbing down’ recent documentaries with a stronger emphasis on “sensationalism and voyeurism” so that they appeal to a mass audience. I agree that there are a lot of voyeuristic documentaries being released that appeal to a wider audience however this does not describe all documentaries in the 21st century. To ‘dumb down’ a subject does not always mean that they are getting rid of the meanings behind what they are saying. To dumb it down will bring in more viewers however what is the point in not wanted the world to see your film.
There are times when narrowcasting is better for the documentary, audience and broadcasters. To have a certain style within a broadcaster sets them up for a consent audience for what they make. I believe this only works if you are planning on making a lot of documentaries.
For our documentary we will be looking to aim at as wide as group as possible however due to the subject we are aware that a lot of people won’t be interested. Our main aim is at Bronies and at people who have no idea who they are but want to know more. To do this we are showing the nicest side of Bronies so that they will want to watch it and to give as much information on what it is they do as possible for people who have no idea who/what they are.
Reality Bites: Documentary in the 21st Century
The yin and yang theory is about having juxtaposed elements next to one another within one image. This puts in the contrast to make a meaningful or shocking photo. Within the juxtaposition there are two main point locations, which fits with the four-point location rule. This leads the viewers eyes around the frame. We can put this into our own work by juxtaposing a grown man with merchandise of My Little Pony. This would pull the viewer in to wondering why this man is with a little girl’s toy.
In the 1930’s and 1940’s photojournalism changed with James Stewart with Rear Window. This created a stereotype that would last through the 1970’s. This then changed in the 1980’s when the war journalist evolved. Photojournalist only really made it into films by the last decade of the 20th century and the mid 2000’s. In the 1979 one of the main stereotypes held by people were that photojournalist had unethical behaviors and work habits. We obviously want this view and stereotype to be gone so that our subjects will open up to us without fear of mockery.
Photojournalist Representation in Film
Yin/Yang Visual Theory
What Third World?
This is a discussion about how third world countries were given news and how it was censored before it got to them. This is due to the main news agencies were based in the west, Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France Press. This meant that all the news around the world was coming from New York, London or France in the 1970’s. The news wasn’t coming from the places where it was actually happening. Over time when Slovene became independent it made its own daily newspaper, Delo, in 1991. This became an all-new way for third world countries to read the news coming from their perspective. They also took a new approach to show an equal amount of positive news that may not have made it into our news with negative news. We could take this approach with our documentary. By keeping a mixture of upbeat and negative information you are keeping the viewer on the edge as well as getting an overall view of the primaries. For our topic this would work well as a lot of Bronies became a fan of My Little Pony due to bad or sad things happening during this time in their lives. This means we can show their happiness for the event they are at and on being a Brony yet speak about why the became a Brony and if they have had any negative feedback from it, such as bullying.