Analysing a documentary

 - Little Pyongyang 

I decided to analyse 'Little Pyongyang' as it is in the biography style which is a documentary style that I have the opportunity to be able to make. Little Pyongyang, focuses on the life story of a refugee who was finding it hard to adapt to his home life in London, he expresses what it was like integrating into British Culture as well as what his life was life growing up.

 The opening starts with a 2minute and a half master interview that zooms in from a mid shot to a medium close-up.Which is continuously throughout the documentary filmed from the same angle. A shallow focus is used with a plain background so that we are focused on the speaker being the man. The audio is diegetic and is undisturbed by background noises so that it is clear however it is translated with subtitles as the original dialect is not in english. 

Scene 2,  same use of colour is used to make an easily non disturbed transition. Title is presented in transition on the can. Diegetic audio is continued listening to the dialogue of the person being interviewed, with a voice over. Cut away shots from the main story, can be used when the audio is not matching/ syncing with the person talking this idea helps smooth out the continuity of the documentary.The shot then returns to the master interview of the man talking. 

 

Scene 3, We transition, to a mid-shot establishing the mans work and his day to day life. We hear the now non-diegetic dialogue overlaying the story that is being shown.Multiple quick cuts to establish the area the man is in. In the first clip we see the man in costume establishing that he works in the building behind him being B&Q.We are shown a mix of mid and close-up shots of the mans daily life including him shopping with who we can assume is his wife. 

Scene 4, The next shots present his family with mid shots as well as close-up shots of the wife preparing food for the family. By showing the home we are invited into his personal life as the viewer giving a more personal insight to the mans life, it also shows the audience that they are a working-class family as we get to see the living conditions which by the mise-on-scene we can see is working-class though the fact that there is a box in the back corner holding folders etc that seems it has been sitting there for a while. In these scenes we can hear the non- diegetic voice over of the man speaking.  With the plain subtitles being presented in English as the main language of the original documentary is Korean. The audio has been made during production it is not post production. In the middle of the shot of his daughters and wife there is a quick transition back to the master interview zooming out of the mans face from a close-up shot with shallow focus before another quick jump cut to his wife's hand laying traditional Korean food on the table with a close-up shot with shallow focus for a smooth transition. 

Scene 5, The scene shows the family enjoying their family dinner, with the only sound that can be heard which is the diegetic sound of cutlery hitting the bowels as they are eating, we can also hear the sound of the family chewing.The family dinner is presented in multiple shots including, mid-shots, over the shoulder shots and close-ups shots of the family eating, we can also hear a diegetic example of a family conversation.This scene allows the audience to be taking part in their day to day live, giving the audience a sense of participatory culture, it allows the audience to sympathise with the mans story. A jump cut is used to transition back to a close-up of the mans face in the master interview setting. Foley is used to increase the sound of the chewing on the table we are taken back and forth between these two scenes with the addition of post production non-diegetic music playing in the background.

Scene 6, Much like scene two same use of colour is used to make an easily non disturbed transition, showing cut aways to different items form the master interview. Non-diegetic audio is heard of dramatic music to build up the tension of the documentary. Cut away shots from the main story, can be used when the audio is not matching/ syncing with the person talking this idea helps smooth out the continuity of the documentary, we then come back to the master interview. 

Scene 7 comes back to the master interview with an extreme close up shot zooming out from the mans face. The diegetic dialogue can be heard again. When then jump with a quick cut transition to a table presenting sea food with use of a mid shot at symmetrical placement of mise-on-scene then after with a birds eye view zoom in shot of fish. The scene continues like this jumping between the master scene and close-up shots of the food.

Scene 8, uses the camera technique rostrom using a small zoom into an old image, after a jump cut away from the main master interview. Over the top we can hear the mans non-diegetic dialogue with the same use of subtitles at the bottom of the shot. We then jump back to another big close-up shot of the man talking with a different new camera angle. Non-diegetic music plays loudly over the shot of the master interview.

Scene 9, In scene 9 we are transitioned to a different type of shot and scenery, we are shown a low angled close-up of the man in his car, the shot is in shallow focus and we can hear the diegetic sound of the street around him as he gets out of the car. A quick transition is used to show the man inside of a building with close-up shots of him/his hands looking through news papers. The non-diegetic sound of the over the top dialogue from the interview can be heard.

Scene 10, In scene ten the master interview location is changed to the man being interviewed in what can be assumed to be his living room.A quick cut is used to show the man talking using the master scene method, the dialogue from the man is diegetic. The camera shot is hand held as the camera is shaking, in a mid-shot.The rule of thirds has been used in this scene as he is positioned to be in the first left side of the third. A jump cut is then used to show a mid shot with a different higher camera angle with the man in the left continuing to use the rule of thirds.  A jump cut is then used again to show a close up of the mans face from a side angle. 

The final seen i will be talking about scene 11, we are shown a mid-close up of the man at an event, we can hear the diegetic sound of the man on the phone as well as the diegetic sound of the children in the background. We are taken through quick cuts back and forth of the event and its food to relate back to scene 3. You can tell the event is a celebration by the lights and stage, and it is an important event as everyone is dressed up for the occasion e.g the man is wearing a suit.Quick cut are used to show different angled mid shots of his family enjoying the event. Joyful, upbeat non-diegetic music begins to play. Shallow focus is used throughout the scene to focus on the individuals being presented. The documentary ends with a quick jump cut back to the man in the pink master interview setting. 

 

  

catch up with Phil

After discussing with Phil the research I had completed he asked me to go over it again and analyse how the research has influenced my decisions such as, what documentaries are a possibility and what documentaries are not a possibility. I therefore went over my research and added a short paragraph explaining the possibilities of particular types of documentaries. 

In further discussions of progress Phil asked me to analyse a small 20minute documentary, to develop my understanding of how documentaries are made. 

Research

 As discussed with Phil I needed to be able to understand the conventions of what is expected from a documentary and how do we categories them. I decided to look at a list of the top documentaries and categorizing them into different subgenres e.g sports documentaries, music documentaries, biography, etc. 

I decided to look at a website that lists the top 43 documentaries that are around so that I can categories them into what genres I believe they are a part of as part of my primary research into documentaries. 

Sports: 

- for a sports documentary it is important to focus on what is happing within a game and its player's sports documentaries will usually follow a given player or a given sport explaining its origins or how the player got to where they are today. Sports documentaries can also simply be videoing a game that is taking place. 

- Sir Alex Ferguson: Never give in would be an example of a sports documentary. 

In this documentary, they focus on the manager of a British football team. They discuss his successes and what he has achieved throughout his time as manager of the team. Discussing personal never heard before aspects that engage the viewer. 

- Maradona 

- Maradona follows the life of a footballer who has made his way to fame. Maradona focuses on the life of an Argentina football player and his time within the club of Napoli in the 1980s. The common convention of these documentaries is that they take a person with a large pre-existing fan base and give insights into their lives and how they got to where they wanted to be. 

-Free to play 

 - Professional gaming has now become a widely watched sport that now has a large fan base and is shown worldwide with documentaries on people competing against each other for the title of the best gamer and for a cash prize. 

 - All or Nothing 

- This docummentary looks into Manchester City's 2017-2018 premier league season as it was record breaking and included the most wins (32). Players talk about the match giving the audience an insight into the game. 

 
After looking at these types of documentaries it was made apparent that this type of documentary would be quite hard to achieve as I do not have access to the contacts required to document a team and access the players to talk about their up and coming sporting events.Restricted access to games. This type of docummentary is domminated by famous celebrities that are hard to get a hold of. With this type of docummentary it would be complicated to get the managers and team to trust me and be convincing with the docummentary. As well as the fact i have not got experience in the field or a distribution company, all together this type of docummentary in my case would not be the best choice.       

Expository Documentary/ current affairs documentaries: 

Documentaries that tell the story of what is happening in society globally. In an expository documentary, it is used to persuade or inform its audience on certain topics. While I was discovering the concept of this I stumbled upon the camera technique known as Ken Burns effect / Rostrum camera which is commonly used in this type of documentary, this effect includes zooming into specific areas of an image to show something e.g like a person in a crowd. 

- The Social Dilemma 

-It discusses how the media influences us and how its algorithms are designed to keep people logged in. It talks about the most damaging aspects of media algorithims, it has a compilation of interviews with people who were a part of the creation of the algorithim who speak about their views and the internet.

- Human Flow 

-In this docummentary they focus on the movement of humans due to famine,climate change and war. It focuses on Lesbos and Syria to explain human 'displacement and seperation'. Directed by Ai Weiwei.

- World's scariest drug 

- This dicummentary looks into the world of drugs focusing on a drug called Scopolamine, known as 'The devils breath'.It looks into people with horror stories of people using this drug and peoples first hand experience of the drug.

- An open secret 

- An Open Secret focuses on the issue with sexual harassment, it looks at the alleged instances of child abuse of young boys by talented agents. It focuses on the grooming of child actors.

This type of documentary is a possibility on a much smaller scale as there is access to current affairs in the area, especially as seen as Madrid is a capital city their is pleanty of opportunities to film, and celebrity access is not required.

Music: 

Music documentaries talk about the different elements of music and different artists and how they have made it to where they are today or how they developed their musical talents and what instruments and marks they use. 

- Amy 

- This docummentary focuses on the life of Amy Winehouse ,created after she had passed it looked into the hidden parts of her life by talking to her family and people who were involved in her life. The documentary looks into her struggles with addiction as well as her influences.

-The Go-Go's 

- The Go-Go's is a documentary on a predominantely girl run band from the early 80s it explains the story if how the band rised to fame, it recieves hidden insights into the insights of the bands life.

This type of docummentary I am unlikely to achieve as I do not have the access to the celebrities that are needed for this type of docummentary. I also lack the distribution company to seem professional.

Art: 

Art documentaries talk about the different elements of art and different artists and how they have made it to where they are today or how they developed their art and what they use. 

- Art and craft 

- This documentary looks into the game of art forgery. Art and craft looks into the work of art and forgery commited by Mark Landis.It looks into the life of Mark Landis.

-My kid could paint that

- The documentary looks into the family with a 4 year old that could paint, Marie Olmstead paints canvases with paint splatters, however this idea was challemged by art critics that didn't believe she was able to paint the pieces she had.

- This type of docummentary I am unlikely to achieve as I do not have the access to the celebrities that are needed for this type of docummentary. I also lack the distribution company to seem professional.

Natural history: 

A natural geographic documentaries conventions are to show people what there is in nature and what lives in the world amongst us, national geographic documentaries are informative on the nature that is around us. More often than not this type of documentary uses very high-quality camera shots of the natural world around us as well as uses voice-overs most commonly voice-overs using David Attenborough. Very cinematic. 

- Seven worlds one planet 

David Attenborough voices over the natural life that exists looking at different types of life on earth. It is a landmark documentary focusing on the seven continents around the world. This type of documentary usually takes the most amount of time and patients to shoot as for this documentary alone it took 1,794 days including 91shoots globally. 

- Blue planet 

Voiced by David Attenborough, this documentary looks at the natural life of creatures that live under the sea. Looking at a multitude of different types of species. 

This type of documentary is not a possibility as it consumes alot of time which is not avaliable and requires very high end camera equipment and sound equipment that I will not have access to. Not to mention the budget required to preduce this type of documentary, I will not have access to a wide enough budget.

 

Biographies: 

Biographies are interviews that focus specifically on one individual or a small family and their life story. Usually has someone for the most part talking into the camera with a mid-shot.  

- Little Pyongyang 

An interview covered by the Guardian that focused on the life of a refugee who was finding it difficult to adapt to his home in London. He talks about what it was like integrating into British culture as well as what his life was like growing up. 

- Three identical strangers

- This documtary looks into the lives of three men who were tripplets that were seperated at birth, who one day re-met eachother, it unclovers the story of their lives and why they were seperated from eathother. The story consists of story that quickly turns south.

This type of documentary is a possibility as I do have access to people with interesting life stories.Usually using the masterr interview method to look inside to of the stories with elements that people don't know it brings to light new elements of a story. Usually including voice overs with quick cuts back and forth to tell a story of someone.Using voice overs over different section of film to paint an image. Usually background sound is there in this type of docummentary so that the  contunity glitch effect could be achieved.

Coming up with ideas

 After having a conversation with Phil we discussed what were the best ways to move forward with a project due to my current implications. We discussed the elements of the documentary course and spoke about aspects that make a documentary good and enticing. We began by saying that it would be worth coming up with ideas that are available in my area so I went away and brainstormed events that were taking place in my local area as well as things that would be a possible option. 

I came up with four separate ideas including : 

- Madrid's LGBTQ community in Chueca. 

- Drag queens lives a sort of biography 

- A documentary on the food market in Madrid as it holds a lot of history and areas open for discussion. 

- And simply what it is like to be a drag queen in Madrid. 

After discussing these ideas with Phil we agreed that these were all possible options but that I would need to be careful with interaction, however, I was lucky enough for my mum to say she has friends who could possibly take part that are drag queens in Madrid. 

Changing

 Due to unfortunate personal medical implications, I have had to re-alter my course and start on a personal documentary. As I had to return home and was unable to make progress with my group. I am looking forward however to developing a very impressive documentary. 

Organic vs Synphetic

 Organic vs Synthetic is a theory created by Keith Negus. He believes that there are two types of artists that exist. 

Organic artists:

Ed Sheeran would be an example of an artist that is organic. He is an artist with a pre-existing talent that has been improved and more publicised with a record company that helped him, accelerate his carrier. The organic way is a long term strategy that is set up using albums instead of single release songs. Ed Sheeran started his carrier by street performing songs he has written, he was then found and established for his musical talents. Ed Sheeran was first signed to Asylum / Atlantic Records and released his album plus, his albums have stuck with the same genre of symbols i.e. divide, x and now =. Plus was released in 2011, x was released in 2014, divide was released in 2017 and = was released in 2020, he leaves three years gaps between releases to develop himself as an artist longer time used to create albums suggests that the artist is more organic. However, Ed Sheeran is starting to become more Synthetic as he is changing his naturalistic acoustic persona to a more marketable and outrageous persona as expressed in his latest album =. Organic artists usually are profitable off of their authenticity which synthetic artists lack. Before his signing, with Atlantic records, he hit 2# on iTunes without assistance. 

Synthetic Artist: 

With synthetic artists, their image is usually created by the record company. Executives of these types of artists use the songs they have available and release singles. This approach focuses on short term profits. This type of artist is mainly aimed at younger audiences.

 Kanye West would be an example an example of a synthetic as he does not write his own music he instead he only releases singles that have been developed by a large record label. He has a massive pre-existing audience and has sold over a 21million albums. 

Auditions practice

 Audition 1 : 

This was our first audition by Matteo, he had great energy however it felt that there was a little too much movement and may not be the correct person to cast as the main role, however, he had a good aesthetic that could possibly coincide with Peach. I personally liked the energy that he was using and I believe it would be effective in a music video.  

Audition 2: 

This was Jake's audition, I liked the character and facial expressions he was presenting however in some areas of his audition it felt very stiff and forced which may not be what we want on a music video, however, I believe that Jake is a viable candidate to take into consideration as he matched that aesthetic of the song in my opinion. 

years and Genre research

After choosing Peach to be our song we decided to do research into the years of music with the same genre as Peach being Pop. We liked the idea of having a varied color palette with extravagant things happening around it as well as we liked the idea of using symmetry. We want to achieve an eccentric aesthetic with our video potentially using green screening and outdoor shots. Underneath in my research, I have examples of this predominantly being  Arlie's work. Underneath the pop examples also the expected conventions of a pop video which we will try and achieve with our piece. 

  Indie Pop Examples through the years 2016-2021

Arlie, ' The winsome college indie band taking on the world'

Arlie is an up-and-coming pop artist, climbing up the chart ladder in 2018. 

Au/Ra - 2018 

track : pop , Panic Room 

Class feedback on song choice

 After letting Phil and Matt listen to our song, they agreed that 'Peach' was a good idea that matched the casting pool we had, Matt agreed that we could make a strong and convincing music video and media campaign. We demonstrated some other options that we also had as options however he was most on board with the idea of 'Peach' as it catches a cheeky young essence which our other options did not present as well. Phil then asked us to verify that the artist was undiscovered on any page which we safely confirmed with him about as the original artist had very low streams on all platforms including youtube and Spotify.

We asked the class if they had any comments to our song choice, and the class stated that they enjoyed the song and think it's a fun choice to choose that matches the things we have access to within the school.  

The artist is unestablished which was excellent news for our group.

Choosing the song

' Take it or leave it' or 'Peach ' 

In today's lesson, we discussed our options of songs after listening to Daisy's four-song choices which overall we decided were a bit too old-sounding which could be an issue for casting. After discussing all the songs we had left we narrowed our selection down to two songs being 'Take it or leave it' and 'Peach', we found this decision to be rather difficult as we liked both songs very much. We decided it would be beneficial to re-check how many streams each song has. Since last looking the views of 'Take it or Leave it' had increased quite a bit as it was now at 25,470 listens on Spotify due to the fact it was on the increase we decided it may be beneficial to go with Peach which only has 6,303 views and it also gives us the opportunity to do a relatively colorful and quirky video which we were excited about. In the end, we decided to go ahead with  Peach as it has more creative freedom to play with compared to 'Take it or leave it'. Another reason we went with Peach was because this way we didn't have to find the people who can play the instruments as this year there is a limited pool of drummers to choose from which may of been an issue for 'Take it or leave it'. 

Listening to each others songs

 

Today we went through each other's songs, crossing out ones we believed to be too complicated to achieve with the facilities we have. We started by looking at my songs and crossing out 2 that had exceeded the view amount allowed,  overall out of the selection that I presented we liked the country song 'Drive by' as it was slow however had the opportunity for casting, was available for cuts in the editing that would correlate to the pace of the song as well as we liked how the set is quite achievable to match the tone of the song. We were not a fan of the 'Fortuna Pop' song as it was too high pitch and we agreed that the song was not going to be pleasant to record with. However, we liked how lively, youthful, and castable it was it had a child-like spirit that would have matched the people we had available to cast. After listening to Ben's songs we had quite a few songs that we had the potential to use. we started by listening to a song called Aquarium which we as a group liked very much as it was upbeat, youthful and gave us plenty of ideas for a music video. I personally liked the overall tone of the song as it had an element of teen rock that would be highly castable at Hurtwood. We also listened to a song called Gone, which we considered being too slow in pace and a little uninteresting to the ear therefore due to this we decided it was not the song that we wanted to use and therefore crossed from the list. Ben's third song showed to be very interesting and was definitely our top pick out of songs we had listened to so far being ' Take it or leave it', the voices were a bit more mature however were still a possibility for casting, the song was also framed around a band which would give us a wider range of things to point the camera at whilst filming, which for us was a huge positive. The other aspect that we liked about  ' Take it or leave it', was that it was fun and therefore gave the opportunity to shoot an interesting and fun video, however gathering a band to create a song for practice is much more complicated, than having a singular singer. Our major overall issue with the song was the fact that the views were on the rise which could pose a problem by the time we create the video. Ben's final song 'Sunshine in our life'  we decided was again too slow, however, we liked the opportunities for filming and transitions the song represented such as water transitions. After this, we moved on to Georgia's songs her first song choice was 'Lips' we decided that it wasn't going to work as the artist was pre-known and the song itself as a group we were not a big fan of. Her next song choice was called 'Peach', Peach as a whole we really liked as it had youthful elements, and it captures the teenage essence.  Georgia's next song was ' Questions'  which we saw as lacking personality which made it a difficult type of song to market for because of this we decided not to have it as an option. Georgia's final song was 'Witch'   we liked however found to be less castable within our potential candidates. In our lesson, we ran out of time to hear Daisy songs and therefore will hear them tomorrow.                                 

Georgia's song :

Peaches: 

This song seemed as the most interesting to the group, as it was childlike and playful which matches our casting pool. Personally, however I preferred Ben's song Aquarium as it was something I believed to match our casting pool as well as had a musical tone that would not become over baring to listen to on repeat on the shoot day.  

Getting put into groups

 Today we were placed in our groups for the music video, I was teamed up with Ben, Georgia, and Daisy. In today's lesson we discussed what we would like to gain from this course, I suggested that I would like to have more and developed more practical skills that I can use in the future for business and marketing. We discussed what grades we are looking to achieve, overall as a group we had the same target of grade in mind which set us off to a good start in our discussion of what song we should be using. Each of us throughout the summer holiday went away and did research on songs with artists who aren't incredible known that have songs with less than 10K views, each of us returned with 4 songs by 4 different artists and were ready to analyze them together and suggest which song we preferred overall. 

4 song ideas

Song 1:

 Band Name Cold California - Song - Drive-By 

http://richerunsigned.com/album/coldcalifornia/

Genre of music: Country

Artist: Cold California 

Song: Drive By 

- Things I liked about it: I liked how it was slow passed and had non-repetative lyrics. This meant that if we choose this to be our final song we will have a lot of choices in how we want to portray its image. 

- Things I didn't like : There are not a lot of things i disliked about this song I believe it has potential to be turned into a very interesting western video however my one concern is that we may have an issue with casting of this song. 

Views: 

 

song 2: 

by Regard

https://soundcloud.com/dj-regard-1/deep-house-music-3-best-deep-dope-chill-out-music-mix-by-regard

Genre of music : deep house 

Artist: Regard 

Song: Best deep and dope chill out. 

 - Things I liked about it: The tone and beat I like a lot I believe that it has potential to have very quick and smooth cuts between edits if it was turned into a music video. 

- Things I didn't like : I did not like the pace of the song as it could make a video more complicated and has a tone that needs a setting we don't have access to such as a beach. The views on this song have increased a lot since it was found and is now an unusable track.

Views: 

song 3: 

https://soundcloud.com/fortuna-pop/you-can-hide-your-love-forever

Fortuna pop 

Genre of music: Pop 

Artist: Fortuna Pop 

Song: you can hide your love forever 

- Things I liked about it: I like the pace of this song for a video as it is not too fast and has a tone of setting we would be able to create with what we have available, as well as the voice sounds young which would make it easier for casting. 

- Things I didn't like :  I did not like the pitch of the song,  as it was very high pitch and could be irritating for filming with. 

Views: 

song 4: 

All Night Don't Stop (Icona Pop X Kiely Rich X LOO and PLACIDO)

https://soundcloud.com/brendanjamestracy/all-night-dont-stop-icona-pop-x-kiely-rich-x-loo-and-placido

Genre of music : Pop remix 

Artist: Icona 

Song: All Night Don't Stop

- Things I liked about it: I liked the pace and beat of the song as it gave plenty of opportunities for video ideas, such as a party setting which we have the potential to set up. 

- Things I didn't like : The view number recently jumped up on the video to 733K views which means it is un able to be used. 

Views: