2. Typical Conventions of a
Documentary:
• Length – 5 – 35 minutes long
• Around 2 – 3 main characters
• Editing – minimal editing usually just cuts and fades
• Dramatization
• Narrativation
• Expository style filming
• Observational style
• Reflexive style
3. What we have included and
why?
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• We have following general convention such as the length of our short
documentary is around 7 minutes which fits in the broad 5-35 minute boundary
• All the editing in our production is minimal, cuts or fades between shots
connote the calm and intellectual tones to the documentary.
• Observational style filming –This was achieved through unique
cinematography were we filmed cinematic long and wide shots as well as
including postmodern close ups of coffee cups for example in our B roll footage.
This targetsVAL type experiencers who will want to see more than just an
interview.
• Reflexive style filming was included through the staged interviews such asToby
Moore’s in front of a white backdrop which is clearly and intentionally a
reconstruction of reality.We adopted this style to help portray the educational
side to the documentary as it gives direct information to the audience,This
targets our secondary audience who is older wanted to gain information and
surveillance as a gratification
4. and why
• we slightly stretched the convention of 2 – 3 main characters as we included
5. However we don’t feel this is an issue as it allowed us to cover all aspects of
creativity and doesn’t over crowd the production.
• We didn’t include any dramatization in our documentary as we wanted to
keep it as minimal and realistic as possible we felt that if any dramatization
was too take place it would be covered trough cinematography and
montages which was just a reflection the theme of our documentary –
creativity
• We didn’t use ay narration, we felt the narrative was clear enough without it.
Furthermore with emphasise on a reflexive style filming it was easy to let the
camera and the subjects do the story telling
• Finally we didn’t adopt an expository style filming as Expository
documentaries speak directly to the viewer, often in the form of an
authoritative commentary employing voiceover or titles, proposing a strong
argument and point of view .This goes against our more subjective narrative
inviting the audience to make up their own mind on what creativity is to
them.Which targets are more active intellectual audience using Morley
reception analysis
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5. Form and Genre
conventions;
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In Genre research we established that our documentary should include values of education
and entertainment.This was based onGrieson’s film-making evidence who defined the
documentary as “the creative treatment of actuality”. I feel we have met this genre
convention as we have incorporated both a observational style filming with many
cinematic shots and artistic montages, as well as adopted a reflexive style filming where
we have provided a reconstruction of the truth and added an educational value.This is
evident in our interview with Jeff Kindleysides, for example, where he is filmed drawing
and ‘working’ however we still include footage of an interview where he provides an
education for the audience.
In terms of cinematography all interviews should be static on a tripod with the interviewee
sat still on a chair .We used montages as archive material, this was used with a handheld
camera to connote the action juxtaposed to the stillness of the interview.The montage
footage was directly linked to what the interviewee was talking about. Our archive
footage would also incorporate relevant mis-en-scnene which adds a personal touch to
the footage and allows the audience to immerse themselves into the lives of the creative
experts.We can see this in the Paul Bennett interview where as he talks about him as a
child dressing up as the “predator” from the film franchise there is a cut to his action
figures illustrating how this was a key memory for him, the audience understand and
6. To improve on…
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On evaluation there are a few conventional attributes that we could have included
but haven’t…
• Narrative – although we explore different ranges around creativity on reflection
we do not necessarily include a clear Equilibrium, Disequilibrium and New
Equilibrium we could maybe have achieved this by laying out our interviews
differently or re designing the questions to offer a more constructed narrative
arc.
• For example for the first interview we could have focussed on creativity as a
general introduction, which we did, then for the interviews in the middle focus
on the negatives of creativity and finally bringing back to the new equilibrium
giving the audience the ideology that everyone is creative and it is different
within each person.
