Documentary Project

Our next assignment is to create a 5 minute Documentary during our residential trip to Liverpool. After we got into groups I spoke up first and said that I wanted to be director, luckily getting in there just before Sophie who then voiced that she also wanted to be director. Camera was then taken by Alex and Clarice who was already going to be around Liverpool took Producer as she could do some research before we arrived. Hannah took sound thus leaving the role of Editor to Sophie.

My personal view on documentaries isn't a positive one but that's due to my way of thinking,n I much prefer documentaries about animals. If I ever do watch a documentary of peoples lives it is because I am with a friend and I cannot leave or for educational purposes, I never actively seek out to watch them.

To give us a better idea of the style and type of the documentary that we wanted to produce we look a range of documentary types including....

The Making Of Dark Days
Skateistan: To Live and Skate Kabul (2010) by Orlando Van Einseidel
The Archive by Sean Dunne
King Of Laughter by Nick Hillel
Erics Secrets by Lucia Ashmore
Pockets by James Lees
The Apology Line by James Lees

The two of which I am going to look at in more detail are The Archive by Sean Dunner and The Apology Line by James Lees

The Archive



I didn't like this documentary solely for the reason I thought that it was made as a bout of sympathy for the people portrayed. I didn't really give the audience anything they could take away, it may have been informative but nothing I feel you could go away and retell to someone else. I think to make it better they could have a removed a few elements such as the crying wife, or to stretch the documentary out over half an hour so that you didn't feel overwhelmed with guilt. If it was spread over time then it would have felt as though it was your choice to feel for characters. Having  it only being seven minutes then it felt like the emotions were forced on you.

The Apology Line



I felt that this was unlike any other documentaries I have seen before. The concept itself made it a documentary, it's a chronicle of real peoples confessions. The dialogue spoke volumes and the added imagery I felt slightly added to that in the sense that it was all at night giving that mysterious and secretly element whilst the characters they used during certain confessions I felt that they were metaphors for the confessions. It was defiantly the most interesting and more unique documentaries I have seen giving me a more open mind towards a subject that I thought nothing of initially.