Thursday, 30 September 2010
Documentary Research - (Abigail Odum)
Documentary
A documentary is a media text, which deals with "real" issues in the world today. Unlike a drama or a soap opera it does not have a continuing storyline. For this a voiceover/narrator or presenter is used to link one part of the programme to the next. All documentaries use this convention or else they would not be able to flow from scene to scene.
There are several different types of documentaries however the 2 most common are; the classic documentary that presents facts and evidence on a particular subject and the docu-soap that focuses on several "characters" or a specific place. In addition to this there are many companies today who produce and broadcast documentaries such as BBC one's recent documentary 'Ban the Burkha?'.
Genre
The documentary genre has a range of purposes, from the simple selection and recording of events to a polemic text that attemps to persuade the audience into a specific set of opinions. Audiences must identify that purpose early on and will therefore decode documentary texts differentlt to fictional narratives.
Modes
Identifying modes of documentary is a way of categorising different types of documentary. There are ova laps in the different modes and documentaries will often feature conventions from more than one mode. Bill Nichols (2001) defines 6 modes of documentary:
Expository/direct address :- This uses a narrator to address the audience directly and to present an interpretation of what they are seeing on screen. Because of the disembodied nature of the narration, this form of documenatry is sometimes known as the voice-of-God mode.
Observational (fly-on-the-wall):- As technology advanced by the 1960's and cameras became smaller and lighter, people were able to document life in a less intrusive manner.
Participatory:- The encounter between film-maker and subject is recorded as the film-maker actively engages with the situation they are documenting.
Reflexive:- This demonstrates consciousness of the process of reading documentary, and engages actively with the issues of realism and representation, acknowledging the presence of the viewer and the modality of their judgements.
Performative:- This mode acknowledges the emotional and subjective aspects of documentary, and presents ideas as part of a context, having different meanings for different people. This is often produced in an autobiographical nature. This is the mode which suites our documentary.
Poetic:- The film-maker gives a subjective view. There is also a particular mood which is created and enhanced with music, unrelated shots are edited together and also linked by a mood or music
http://www.mediaknowall.com/Documentary/definitions.html
A documentary is a media text, which deals with "real" issues in the world today. Unlike a drama or a soap opera it does not have a continuing storyline. For this a voiceover/narrator or presenter is used to link one part of the programme to the next. All documentaries use this convention or else they would not be able to flow from scene to scene.
There are several different types of documentaries however the 2 most common are; the classic documentary that presents facts and evidence on a particular subject and the docu-soap that focuses on several "characters" or a specific place. In addition to this there are many companies today who produce and broadcast documentaries such as BBC one's recent documentary 'Ban the Burkha?'.
Genre
The documentary genre has a range of purposes, from the simple selection and recording of events to a polemic text that attemps to persuade the audience into a specific set of opinions. Audiences must identify that purpose early on and will therefore decode documentary texts differentlt to fictional narratives.
Modes
Identifying modes of documentary is a way of categorising different types of documentary. There are ova laps in the different modes and documentaries will often feature conventions from more than one mode. Bill Nichols (2001) defines 6 modes of documentary:
Expository/direct address :- This uses a narrator to address the audience directly and to present an interpretation of what they are seeing on screen. Because of the disembodied nature of the narration, this form of documenatry is sometimes known as the voice-of-God mode.
Observational (fly-on-the-wall):- As technology advanced by the 1960's and cameras became smaller and lighter, people were able to document life in a less intrusive manner.
Participatory:- The encounter between film-maker and subject is recorded as the film-maker actively engages with the situation they are documenting.
Reflexive:- This demonstrates consciousness of the process of reading documentary, and engages actively with the issues of realism and representation, acknowledging the presence of the viewer and the modality of their judgements.
Performative:- This mode acknowledges the emotional and subjective aspects of documentary, and presents ideas as part of a context, having different meanings for different people. This is often produced in an autobiographical nature. This is the mode which suites our documentary.
Poetic:- The film-maker gives a subjective view. There is also a particular mood which is created and enhanced with music, unrelated shots are edited together and also linked by a mood or music
http://www.mediaknowall.com/Documentary/definitions.html
Tuesday, 28 September 2010
Weekly Updates - Abigail Odum
Week 3
This week we discussed the ways in which we were going to carry out our documentary, we also discussed the possible people we would use in our interview. We have already been in contact with a woman who works in our college as a sexual health advisor, we plan on interviewing her sometime next week, In addition to this we carried on with more work on our blog.
By next week we hope to contact a list of all the possible people we are going to interview and also ideas of how we're going to format our interviews.
This week we discussed the ways in which we were going to carry out our documentary, we also discussed the possible people we would use in our interview. We have already been in contact with a woman who works in our college as a sexual health advisor, we plan on interviewing her sometime next week, In addition to this we carried on with more work on our blog.
By next week we hope to contact a list of all the possible people we are going to interview and also ideas of how we're going to format our interviews.
Monday, 27 September 2010
Questionaire Graphs (Victoria Nwaeze)
After giving out questionaires and having a voting poll on our blog, i took the results and made graphs out of it, so that it was possible for us to see what our potential target audience are interested in. This will enable us to know what to improve on, add and what not too emphasise on.
Questionaire Graph
Questionaire Graph
Potential Target Audience (Victoria Nwaeze)
As a group we have decided that our potential target audience will be both male and female between the age of 13 to 19. We chose this age range as we feel that the topic we chose 'contraception' is an arising matter that affects everyone especially young people between these ages. We also choose to keep the gender both male and female as factors relating to contraception effect both genders.
Below are examples of people that we will be targeting.
potential target audience
Below are examples of people that we will be targeting.
potential target audience
Saturday, 25 September 2010
Weekly Updates - Abigail Odum
Week 2
This week me and my group members had several discussions on who our possible interviewees could be and came up with many suggestions but narrowed it down to five people, although we do not have exact names, this is just the type of people we were thinking of :
This week me and my group members had several discussions on who our possible interviewees could be and came up with many suggestions but narrowed it down to five people, although we do not have exact names, this is just the type of people we were thinking of :
- Pastor/Vicar
- parent of a 13-15 year old boy/girl
- Young People Friendly (YPF) representative
- sexual health speaker
- Nurse
- group of boys and girls between the age of 13 - 16 years old
- pregnant girl or teenage mother
Friday, 24 September 2010
Thursday, 23 September 2010
Tuesday, 21 September 2010
How To Frame A Good Interview (Abigail Odum)
We researched how to frame an interview correctly and this was the most useful video. As the camera person I feel this will be very helpful especially when we start filming our interviewees.
The Rule of Thirds - (Abigail Odum)
My role in my group is camera person, for this reason i have decided to do some research on 'the rule of thirds'.In order for us to achieve great footage it's essential we follow this rule.
While it's easy to explain why other compositional rules such as "look space" or "chin room" work, it's extraordinarily difficult to understand why composing with the Rule of Thirds works. For some reason, people simply find it pleasing. This is borne out by more than a hundred years of cinematography. But don't take my word for it - after reading this article, try an experiment.
What is the Rule?
As complicated as its history is, the Rule of Thirds is extremely simple to follow. Divide your video screen into three horizontal and three vertical segments - like a tic-tac-toe grid. The Rule of Thirds dictates that points of interest should land at the intersection of two of these lines or, in the case of lines, like horizons or pillars, they should fall at either the 1/3 or 2/3 level.
Why should the Rule be used?
While it's easy to explain why other compositional rules such as "look space" or "chin room" work, it's extraordinarily difficult to understand why composing with the Rule of Thirds works. For some reason, people simply find it pleasing. This is borne out by more than a hundred years of cinematography. But don't take my word for it - after reading this article, try an experiment. Go set up some shots with your video camera. In one, have the subject centered, and then shoot a second, following the Rule of Thirds. Watch the shots on your television and see if one of them seems inherently "right" and the other inherently "wrong" - try to quantify your own reactions.
Friday, 17 September 2010
Location Notes (Kafayat Shonubi)
This is the location we interviewed the youth worker in. We used this room because she works in a school so we thought it would be a good idea for her to be interviewed in a class room .
This is the location we interviewed the teacher/father, because he is a teacher we decided to interview him in his work place because our documentary talks about teenager an because he works with them we thought this would represent him well enough.
Thursday, 16 September 2010
Equipment List (Kafayat Shonubi)
VIDEO CAMERA
A video camera is an electronic device that combines a videocamera and a video recorder into one unit. We are using PD170 because it produces good quality as it is high definition (HD) and because it has better sound quality.
TRIPOD
Tripods are used for both still and motion photography to prevent camera movement.
XLR CABLE
XLR plugs and sockets are used mostly in professional audio and video electronics cabling applications, for microphones and line level signals.
HEADPHONES
Headphones are a pair of small loudspeakers with a way of holding them close to a user's ears and a means of connecting them to a signal source like mp3, and in our situation PD170.
TIE CLIP
A tie clip microphone is a small microphone used for television, theatre, and public speaking applications in order to allow hands-free operation.
PAGLIGHT
Paglight is used when filming and location is too dark to capture the right image and colour.
TAPE
This is a mini tape that would be inserted in the PD170 to format recording and playing back digital video.
Wednesday, 15 September 2010
Summary of our documentary (Victoria Nwaeze)
For our coursework we have decided to produce our documentary on contraception. The main focus of our documentary is to seek different opinions on if young people between the ages of 13-15 should recieve advice on contraception or actual contraception itself.Also this documentary will be informative as we will be informing our target audience about how to use contraception and the different places were they can get it.
Roles (Group)
There are four roles which need to be allocated to each team member, however there are only three people in our group. So we have decided to share the last role as a group.
These roles are:
Editor: Kafayat Shonubi
Director: Victoria Nwaeze
Camera Person: Abigail Odum
Sound: Shared between all group members
Weekly Updates - Abigail Odum
Week 1
Today we got told on what we we had to produce as a group for our coursework. Firstly we had to choose a topic, so as a group we started discussing and we came up with 3 possible ideas :
At the end of our discussion we came up with the title " Young People and Contraception - Is it right ?"
Today we got told on what we we had to produce as a group for our coursework. Firstly we had to choose a topic, so as a group we started discussing and we came up with 3 possible ideas :
- resession
- contraception
- teenage pregnancy
At the end of our discussion we came up with the title " Young People and Contraception - Is it right ?"
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