What are Documentaries?

 ‘There is no absolute definition of documentary, they come in lots of different forms, for example'
Documentary's on a whole are all about showing off something to the masses that people wouldn't necessarily learn about on a day to day basis, That can be anything you deem worthwhile for others to know, people,animals and very commonly historical events. Documentaries are great ways to get information to the masses that necessarily don't have the time to read books of information. "often includes narration of written documents from a historical period, with music and images shown on screen to help the past come alive for the audience."-(http://www.wisegeek.org/what-is-a-documentary-film.htm 25th March 2014)

To me Documentary's are a form of education first and a form of entertainment second but they tend to excel in both senses. Some of my favorite Documentary's are from my childhood, For example Walking with Dinosaurs while not strictly real and mostly CGI they combine the animation feel with lots of information about the dinosaurs the world around them that educated those who watched it. They use the CGI to reenact some examples that younger audiences might not have gotten through just verbal explanation. "music and images shown on screen to help the past come alive for the audience."-(http://www.wisegeek.org/what-is-a-documentary-film.htm 25th March 2014)


Different types of documentary range from the purely factual to the almost completely fake Mockumentarys like that of The Office that are for entertainment only and hold very little education information. Historical Documentary's are pretty much self explanatory. It teaches the viewers about specific bits of history or a general frame of time etc the 17th century or the Crimean War. A documentary is something that's so broad that you can virtually do anything as a subject. People, Time, war, animals...the list goes on, If you can make it interesting you can make a documentary on it. Its that simple.

Review of another "THE TAKING SOMETHING EVERYDAY AND MAKING IT INTERESTING PROJECT"

The documentary I have chosen to review is the Micro Doc by Liam Woodridge, Joe Callaghan-Lynch and Joshua McDonnagh. The title of the micro doc is "The Chessboard" and features a glass chess set at that is the main focus of the documentary from a visual point but the focus of the documentary is the history of the board-game itself. 

The Video starts off with a few different shots that showcase the Glass Chessboard set up in the center of a table. It then transitions into the title screen and revealing the name and the creators of the video. After the title the chessboard is again revealed and over the course of the next few minutes a chess game is played out in a stop motion animation style after each turn. As the game progresses the narrating, done by Joe, explains the history and origins of the game itself. Its a great explanation and really gives a good depth of information about chess and is interesting enough that you don't feel bored.

Looking at the video itself the lighting is a little harsh and does make some of the pieces hard to see but that's the only qualm but overall the lighting effects give the pieces some very outlined shadows and does make some pieces look impressive.

My Intentions

I intend to make this a Mockumentary and make it a more entertaining video then a factual one. The object I chose has a particularly boring and even mundane because it is nothing special. It was a limited offer object but mass produced in the hundreds of thousands a few years ago. I intend to make a few jokes about how it is more of a toy then a piece to keep for value.

I am going to have a voice over as well as someone holding and using the object to back up my points. One of my jokes I want to use is "how fast can it go? well how fast can you move your arm?". This is a very cheesy joke but totally worth it.

Finding out any particular information on the Truck has been fruitless and has turned up very little information. Because of the lack of information we decided that the mockumentary idea would do a little better then spouting gibberish for 2 minutes straight in a documentary so Mockumentory lets use speak nonsense for comedy.

My research into my Cadbury's Truck.

I am afraid that the Tin itself is of no real special origin and was used primarily as decoration and storage for the Mini Fingers. Other then that it was modeled after a old fashioned van of an unknown origin.

(http://www.britishshopabroad.com/product_images/n/631/c__41837_zoom.jpg)

9.30 REVIEW - THE WORK OF RICHARD HUNTER.

Micro Documentaries are a very interesting concept in practice and theory. The idea that you can concentrate a documentary into the space of a few minutes is an impressive feet. Richard Hunter is someone who can use the time to his advantage by summarizing very key phrases and speech's to create really poignant short pieces that can either make someone out to be one thing or another. For example in the Toy Maker short Doc he made Ron Fuller to be a nice person...if not a little creepy and obsessive. But even then it plays to the strength of Ron and makes the Documentary a bit of a Mockumentory while retaining the normal strengths of a Documentary like showing genuine emotion.

http://asylumfilms.co.uk/directors/richard-hunter/ This is a link to the work of Richard Hunter

When it comes to the Pro's and Con's of Micro Docs its evident that a Pro is that you necessarily don't have to keep people interested for a long period of time. Shortening it to a few minutes means you can throw it out there and not have to worry that people will be bored halfway. Especially if you choose a topic that's as bizarre as the Taxidermi that will grab peoples curiosity and give them the dose within a few minutes. A Con of making Micro Docs is that you rarely get the chance to put any really substantial information about the target. Having to summarize everything or just leave it out can make a subject seem relatively out of place and weird.

Within the space of a few seconds the Amanda's Autopsy I could sense that Amanda was going to be made out to be a weirdo. The opening statement "Taxidermy is calming to me..." really just freaks me out. Its perfectly spliced with a clip of Amanda dissecting a rat which REALLY makes the sentence seem creepy. The sentence itself screams scary but adding the clip is a really good way of driving it home into the viewers mind. Its a very clever way of making the viewer want to watch is to "peak their curiosity" If you can make someone curious about a subject then they may be quite likely to look into the subject at a later date even if it scares them. Curiosity killed the cat and what not.

Do You Think SCIENCE?

The video is a great at showing of the thinking process and the initial reaction to the question. The body language that the scientists convey is the real answer to the question. You can see that they have their own belief mixed in but they have to go with what they have and can rely on which is that the evidence points to no. A lot of life's questions cannot be answered by science alone which is where belief has to step in. Belief and Religion are for those who worry about the unknown and need something to guide them when they don't understand.

(http://semiconductorfilms.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Do-You-Think-Science-1-Charles-Townes-960x724.jpg)

What I love about this type of interview is that it specifically puts pressure on other peoples opinions. Much like the Bowling for Columbine the interview forces the participants to think of their response in a very overall sense. Like one said in the interview. If science does explain everything then there is no longer any mystery in the universe. That is deep and very true. To know everything destroys one of the key things of our being. Curiosity. Anyway this was one of the best responses they got from the interview in my eyes. Its was all because they gave the person the little amount of time to prepare and he showed his true belief.

Some of the other interview participants reacted in a fairly common display. They spent a good portion of their time uming and ahhing.Which shows that they had to think either very carefully about their answer or they were stumped by the question. Either way it affects their judgement in the situation an proves many varieties of answers.

Charlton Hestons Interview with Michael Moore

(http://kellimarshall.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/bowling_heston.jpg)

Watching the interview from Bowling for Columbine you can see that straight from the get go that Michael Moore is attempting to pressure the response he wants from Charlton Heston by giving him questions that have to get a personal or emotional response. Michael Moore has obviously came to the talk in an attempt to try and reveal some of the darker thoughts and feelings inside Charlton Heston. Evidently Charlton Heston does start to feel the pressure of the interview bearing down on him as some of his replies become half hearted and at one point possibly racist. 

I have to say that Michael Moore is definitely twisting the way Charlton has to respond to him. Michael started to force and try to pressure Charlton on any slip-ups he made in an attempt to force either a deeper meaning or possibly even infuriate him into more mistakes. One he focused on was when Heston said roughly "more ethnicities in the us" In an attempt to pry out information that Charlton might be partly racist in his excuse for gun crime he forced more questions on him before he had finished explaining his point. The only problem with that tactic is the answers can never really be considered sincere.

Its a certainty that Michael held alot of the power in the interview. At the beginning it was a fairly neutral and relaxed environment for both but as it progressed Michael took a much more aggressive stance and it became fairly one-sided. Charlton managed to remain calm pretty much to the end of the interview until he ended it which gained back some power in his favour.

Our Own Time Lapse Doritos Advert.

Well the title says it all. Very simply we created a short time lapse advert of Me, Liam Woodridge and Josh McDonnagh eating Doritos. It may be so very simple but it certainly looks and feels professional. It to me seems very reminiscent of adverts that play in the break of a movie on T.V. that act as sponsor to that particular film production. 

When it came to creating the idea for the advert it was pretty much an instant idea for Doritos as soon as we mentioned the name. It was originally going to be a stop motion but we developed it into being a timelapse that returned to normal speed at parts and returned to a faster speed. This gave the idea and effect that it was at a party. 

As the idea developed we started to think about making another advert to go alongside it, which is currently on Liam Woodridges Vimeo, so it would be used on T.V. breaks with an alternating pattern so it doesn't seem overused at breaks. A few more adverts would make the effect even better but we would have rather made two well made and thought of ones then 5 somewhat thought out ideas.

What I think makes this video so simple but effective is that it is just easy to understand and puts across a clear message. The motto we chose was "Never Throw A Party Without Doritos" which I think felt so natural and easy to show in such a clear video about people eating Doritos.