Director: Style and Genre

http://diydoco.nfsadl.com/style.htm

Types of Genres/ Themes

Genre

Genre is groups of films that use similar conventions

Documentary Convention = Styles of interviews, different narration and voice-over, different shooting techniques, achievable materials

Styles and Genre

1. Observations
2. Propaganda and Advocacy
3. Personal Journey
4. Using Archive
5. Using Drama
6. Social Issue
7. Using Comedy
8. Doco Essay

Observations

Fly on the wall

• Location Shooting which uses hand-held camera
• Direct sound recording
• No voiceover - Using its original clip
• No interviews
• Director - Documentary maker = presence is hidden
• Actors and subjects present they’re not being filmed

Example Documentary:

Saturday

Rats in the rank

0:09 - Set up the story with series of shots (places around the town inside the building)

0:40 - Text is used to show details of the story and background of the story

1:00 - Introducing the main characters by a phone call - Showing what happens inside

2:42 - Tension is built with two characters interrupting each other - arguing

Propaganda + Advocacy

• Explicit purpose of influencing an audience to a particular point of view
• Only shows one side of the story
• Often commissioned by organizations to get their message across

Menace 
0:01 - Talks about good things about the country or place - Using shots of the place and people
0:36 - Narrator using positive stereotypes - Lots of smiling people shots

2:00 - Stereotypical negative insults - helps make narrators point


Personal Journey

• About individual or group of people
• Biographical or autobiographical story
• Often features a specific event or an aspect of their life
• May use archival footage and interviews with those who knew the subject

Using Archive

• Story is developed through use of still photos, documents and footage from television, newsreel, and fictional films
• Most of the material already exists
• Music and sound used to set the atmosphere
• Use of interviews and voiceover narration

Using Drama

• Actors, sets, and props to recreate historical events 
• Based on eyewitness accounts, historical evidence, transcripts, or even hearsay
• Used when actual footage of the event is hard to find, expensive to use or simply doesn't exist
• Critics debate the extent to which this blurs the boundaries of fact and fiction

Social Issue

• Focuses on issues that are important within a local or global community
• Filmmakers who are passionate about an issue believe their documentary could be a powerful tool to influence change

Using Comedy

• Filmmaker makes their point using humor
• They do this by using surprising characters, unusual locations, parodying other styles of documentary, or by using satire - often use humor to convey a serious message

Documentary Essay

• Stylised film representing a filmmaker's strong point of view on an issue, problem, or argument
• Presents a thesis, informs audience by putting forward developed arguments
• Forms these arguments by research into a wide range of source material
• Filmmaker may use narration or even be an active participant

Codes and Conventions

Voiceover

Voiceover usually must be clear, confident, and authoritative. Doing this will encourage the audience to listen and think about the video.

The style my group and I used was Documentary Essay and Social Issue. We thought that this was the best style for us to use and follow as we were trying to inform the viewers the social issue which was How has the introduction of technology affected our exercise and health?. We wanted to also pitch in some outcomes so others, the viewers can join in too which was a no technology day.

Director: Video Project Monitoring

Group Project Monitoring

We used a google doc to track our progress every week.

Director: Group Project Plan

Plan

Advanced Editor: Visual Effects

Advanced Editor: Improving Video

Colour Correction

Colour correction is changing and altering shades, hues, channels, the contrast and the amount of colours to improve the quality of the video and image.

Many editors use it to add contrast to the highlights and shadows and mid-tones. Doing this helps make the video and image more vibrant and richer in colour - saturated. It can also be used to correct white balance and match the videos while editing that are taken in different angles by different cameras.

Advanced Editor: Refining Audio

• Improving Audio

• Background Noise

• Removing Crackles, Clicks, Hums

• Audio Compression and Balancing Audio

• Cutting video to Music