First A level blog! (yay)- Documentary Project #1Research

 Beginning our documentary lesson all I knew was that a documentary was a way to tell about a subjects life, or a short period of time, or maybe a project. I soon learned that although this might be true, there are so many different types of documentaries and conventions, it's hard to sum it all up in one go. 

For this project, we began our research by watching documentaries both in class and at home. One of the first documentaries we watched in class was called "American Promise". The documentary followed 2 young boy attending one of the most prestigious schools in the nation over the course of 13 years. Watching this documentary, it was hard to focus less on the content and more on the technique but I did notice a few things along the way. For example, for the majority of the piece, a hand-held camera is used which pulls the viewer into the their world as we follow their life stories. Another technique I noted was the fact that for the majority of the piece, the parents/adults are interviewed using an indirect interview technique while the boys (Idris and Seun) are interviewed using a direct interview technique. 

The next documentary I researched was an episodic documentary named 'Abstract', I specifically watched an episode about digital product design as it was something that immediately peaked my interest when scrolling through Netflix. I noticed a few key conventions and techniques about episodic documentaries. For example, they all start with the same theme song and opening, although the content is different to be able to develop different ideas based on the episode, they all start relatively the same. I also noticed that the b-roll included was a representation of a concept. For example, there were many clips of someone using a computer or a mouse moving across a computer screen, developing the idea of 'digital'. 

Screenshot of episode (min 17)

 Above, you can see this idea being developed through the multitude of digital devices and representations of modern technology and social media  that appear before the viewer. 

Using this research I found that for my own project I want to combine a mix of the two. I wanted it to look professional while also bringing the viewer as close to the subject as possible. This is where my brain storming began.