OCD
Find someone with severe OCD and see how the cope with everyday life. Talk to health experts as well as psychoanalysis to learn all the facts of how people get OCD. Be filmed in a way that the camera and the viewers seem to have OCD.
Witchcraft
There is a witchcraft camp over the summer, which means it would not be able to be filmed. However we could interview the speakers from the festival. Film their homes and have them speak about their lives. Find the history of witches, how they were treated, different beliefs, etc. Could also bring in Christians and their view on Witches.
Getting Over Phobias
Using a few primaries that all have different phobias and follow them on a path as they try to overcome their fears. Whilst following them also interview people who have such great fears it makes leaving the house difficult, people who have very strange fears and psychologist to see why people have fears.
Depressed Comedians
People always believe comedians to be the happiest and funniest people both onstage and off. This would show a comedian that still performs and makes others laugh whilst suffering from depression. Get their take on the illness and how they are still able to work.
Tough Guy Competition
Follow the men as the train for this crazy competition, see what makes them want to compete in something like this and then film them as they compete. Interview the winners past and present. As well as the wives of the competitors, are the proud or worried?
‘Bathroom Talk’
Using the effect of ‘hidden camera’ see what it is that women talk about whilst in public bathrooms. Show the difference between nightclubs and pubs to restaurants and coffee shops. Have photos of all the different graffiti that is written on the walls.
Fire Dancing
A documentary about what fire dancing is. Showing its dangerous side as well as its beauty. Showing where it came from and the people that perform it today.
Documentary Ideas - Michaela Farr
Super Size Me
Super Size Me is a performative documentary where Morgan Spurlock directs and takes part in a experiment where for 30 days he will only eat MacDonald’s, for breakfast, lunch and dinner. During the beginning of the documentary Spurlock uses Voice of God to introduce the meanings of the film and to set up why he made this documentary. The titles of the film come after this to caption the audience’s attention first. Before the experiment starts we are shown experts and doctors tell Spurlock (and us) that this is a bad idea and it will not be good for his health. The experts are put into a montage, to make something that could be quite boring more interesting. There are a lot of handheld shots within this documentary on some poor equality cameras, such as a phone. This gives the audience the impression that they are with Spurlock at all times during the 30 days. Drawing a form of relationship between the primary and the viewers. So that they are not just showing Spurlock and his experiment, they use street interviews, getting their opinions on the topic of MacDonald’s. They done these interviews outside of a MacDonald’s, this links what they are talking about with the background, staying with the theme of the documentary. During the documentary they use montages of MacDonald’s, fast food and people with a music background giving the audience time to ‘breathe’. When Spurlock ends his experiment (and feels awful for it) they have a celebration of his accomplishments however ends with a voice of god saying ‘Who do you want to see go first, you or them?’ leaving the audience with something to think about even after the documentary is over.
Food, Inc.
Food, Inc. uses the observational mode with the use of Voice of God throughout the entire film, with a narrator talking over footage and images. They use the shock factor within the first few moments of their documentary by juxtaposing footage of nice, organic farms to chickens in a disgusting factory. The documentary is broken into separate segments such as meat, corn etc. However throughout each segment they have the same primaries saying their opinion on it, with a new primary coming into full focus on their category. One section takes on a whole new look by the narrator becoming the primary. She is telling her story therefore it makes it more personal and captures the audience. An on going theme of the documentary is that there is consent music, which changes its mood with what is being said and what is happening. Unlike Super Size Me, Food Inc does use archive footage to show how fast food companies first came about and how the food/animals were treated. Food, Inc. ends with titles on a black screen with nothing but music behind trying to convince the audience to make a change to their eating habits and to know what’s in their food. The last title says “You can change the world with your food. Hungry for a Change?” This leaves the audience thinking that they should want to change for the better.
