CONTEXT ESSAY
PROJECT CONCEPT
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What’sYourStory.com / The Art of storytelling Documentary
My project concept involves a website called, What’s your story, where it is a collective website for people to share stories & to be told to a wider audience. Where I will interview a range of creative people in different art area's to understand what storytelling is to them and the way their art impacts just that, with the ways that others can do the same.
But in order for the site to work, it needs an opening film, a trailer almost & my aim is to launch the site, produce a trailer for the documentary. Prior to this I will be left with a load of interviews what I can also submit as individual films. As I won’t use a complete 20 minute interview in the film but rather small sections, so why not use the interviews as content/behind the scenes for this project.
Anything from, Film, music, dance, business’s missions and really just anyone. Anyone that has a story & has a mission in life are the people I want to talk to, I want to interview high end people but also re-visit people I’ve previously worked with before & to make the project even more of a task I want to try to combine all my year projects into one, if this means finding creatives to work with me for example I want to include stop motion/animation I have little experience in this so finding another creative to collab with me, will make it much of fun project & also allows me to build my confidence further and meet new people.
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AUDIENCE
From this my audience reaches everyone, but to scale it down from 15 - 75 because these are the types of people who can not only get involved but also the type of people who will view these documentaries & it's film. I'ts also the age range that a lot of the side creators I may work with will be. It's always hard to put a target audience on a project that focuses at all ages because its about art and storytelling and all the different arts have different age ranges, but it will be based at the type of arts in the documentary and the people in those sectors.
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The key things for my final project is that people have a platform where they can view, a trailer, full complete interviews with creative people & a documentary that explores ''The Art of Storytelling'' in detail, all placed on one website - meaning the documentary shall be 20+ minutes, possibly more & should have that final view of engaging people to learn more about the different arts and how each of the artists in it tell stories & the ways the audience can equally do the same no matter what age.
But for me it's a project that's about ambition, it's about aiming big, trying something new, trying to create a documentary, a trailer and a website that is watchable & interesting while being 20 minutes or more. Im trying to step up my film length and try something new. It's also about stepping away from the usual style I have, I feel working with so many people will not only change the way I approach filming but also build my confidence more & overall filming ability & knowledge
PRESSPAUSEPLAY
A documentary that covers the digital revolution of the last decade, that has unleashed creativity and talent in an unprecedented way, with unlimited opportunities. But does democratised culture mean better art or is true talent instead drowned out? A film containing interviews with some of the world's most influential creators of the digital era
This film has to be my biggest inspiration towards the project, although I came across it when researching into documentaries a lot of the idea’s that I was building upon came from this documentary. This documentary almost follows a similar story with story telling but tells the story of how different artists and media outlets have changed over time & how storytelling and being a artist is much more easier.
However the style that this documentary takes out with interview set up and overall shots is a very similar vision to mine, with the idea and shots of animation being used in this production it also sparked the idea that my documentary could easily include a similar section & this would also allow me to collab with other creatives and combine all previous media projects I’ve worked on.
The way it uses important people in different types of industries is also something im aiming to do, to get all these creative & collective views to me is really inspiring, to hear voices & idea’s really gets to me & my understanding of the world a little more.
I find it really powerful that each speaker almost has a section & the footage is always relating to that topic & industry of the person.
DESIGN THINKING
Another key part of my project alongside the documentary is the trailer for the website, and although the documentary here is paid to be viewed, the trailer gives such a style that I want to achieve & almost a similar out look on story line that just one had to be included, as mentioned in the website research too, it checks all the boxes.
This documentary is clearly very similar to PressPausePlay, in the way with interviews - it's that sense of personal thinking & the way that the camera is fully focused on the speaker sharing their thoughts, that style of focus will be used in my experimentation for this project.
I love the way that, everything that is being said is being matched to visuals & even the most unusual visuals of design, it's creating me to think while the voice overs & interviews tell us the story. The music equally builds up that sense of thinking about design with it's up beat & steady progressing sound.
in conclusion both of these films are very useful to me because of the similar out look on things, it will allow me to plan out my shots more, the way I capture a documentary feel to my project, & overall the way that different music & colours will effect my production. My project is about understanding & creating a emotional but engaged feeling for the viewer.
TYPES OF DOCUMENTARIES?
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1) Poetic documentaries - ''A documentary that has a topic which is personal to the people involved, usually the presenter and interviewees. It emphasizes some aspects of the person’s life and presents these via music, camera shots and angles and the editing. It can also be quite artistic in the way it is presented.ï‚— Music is key as it develops the mood and tone of the story being told including the messages and values hidden within''
The man with a movie camera, uses all these different types of shots, including fast pace motion & slow motion, creating a rather poetic documentary, where he films from dawn to dusk. Soviet citizens are shown at work, interacting with the machinery of modern life. To the extent that it can be said to have "characters," they are the cameraman of the title and the modern Soviet Union he discovers and presents in the film.
2) Expository documentaries - ''Documentaries in this style are usually non-fiction films. There is direct access to the audience. There are social issues assembled into an argumentative frame with a narration voice-over emphasizing what is happening with argumentative logic'
With the voice over, explaining everything about the panda, it brings out information & understanding to the audience, becoming a form of a expository documentary. It brings out the issues, in a augmentative way to bring out points.
3) Observational documentaries - ''A documentary where the filmmaker is a neutral observer. (from the outside looking in)ï‚— Life is lived and observed. It can then be seen how people/animals react in different situations. The filmmaker is normally out of shot so they cannot influence what is happening. Nothing is rehearsed or staged, this means the camera crew have to rush around, resulting in poor shaky looking footage''
Observational documentaries are simply documentaries that, watch. A single frame that observes whats happening & then follows another shot for a period of time. There's no real story, or acting or speech - just the simple outside look. As shown above it simply watches animals and objects to see how they react & what they do.
4) Participatory documentaries - ''A participatory documentary is where the events and situations presented are influenced and altered by the presence of the filmmaker''
This is a simple form of a participatory documentary, where the presence of the filmmaker/presenter asks questions, to get a certain answer - it creates the mood & answers he wants to get for his video.
5) Reflexive documentaries - ''A documentary where the audience engages with the content of the documentary as it happens, they acknowledge the issues of realism and representation and modality judge them when they arrive. It shows the constructive nature of the documentary showing not necessarily the truth, but a reconstruction. (‘a’ truth, not ‘the’ truth).ï‚— The audience are made aware of the process throughout and the audience are made aware of the editing, sound and recordings''
Reflective documentaries are almost like behind the scenes, the show the process of the making, and with the example above it does it beautifully in a way that shows us different angles while still showing the main frame view that will be used officially.
6) Preformative documentaries - ''A preformative documentary acknowledges the emotional and subjective aspects of documentary and presents ideas as a part of a context having different meanings for different people and are often autobiographical in nature''
Tongues United is a film that gives a voice to communities of black gay men, presenting their cultures and perspectives on the world as they confront racism, homophobia, and marginalisation. It's preformative in the sense of music, & actions.