Documentary, Location, Characters and Props

Introduction

Our documentary ‘What The Cluck’ has been produced to resemble a Channel 4 documentary and therefore is going to be quirky and have comedic elements, we have also decided to make the documentary participatory as we think this is the best way to engage with the viewer. We have four members in our group, me, Charlie, Jamie and Alannah and we often take part in certain sections of the documentary. For instance I guide the camera around a chicken farm showing the production of eggs as well as the chickens and animal safety features of the farm. Charlie hosts the cooking in the documentary, we chose him for this as he has a good sense of humor, this part of the documentary has comedic elements and is designed to engage younger viewers. All participatory parts of our documentary have been edited to resemble an episode of Louis Theroux (a BBC documentary) i.e. informal, informative and with handheld camera (generally) however we have then used elements of a Channel 4 documentary to make the extracts more quirky, as well as trying to make the any important messages clear. The documentary may come across quite opinionated or biased at points, this is similar to a Channel 4 documentary; however any emphasised messages will reflect the majority verdict from our audience.

Alannah Smith:Audio Specialist

Adam Kirby: DirectorJamie Smart: Cinematographer

Charlie Hockin: Editor

Characters

Our documentary consists of four main characters/documenters and these are me (Adam), Charlie, Jamie and Alannah, you will see each of us at various times throughout the documentary. We decided to make our documentary mainly participatory and performative, meaning that we at least one of us is present during the recording. I have placed a photograph of the entire team on the front page of this PowerPoint.

External Characters

During the filming of our documentary we often used external character, this was often during interviews and this is evident in the filming at Cabot Circus and at our school. People subjected to interviews were asked a relevant set of questions relating to our documentary, they were not involved in the documentary for long and were guided through there time on the recording by either me or Charlie. Me being directed also told the cinematographer how to film each person simply to make them more comfortable, and Alannah (sound recordist) followed our cinematographers timing.

When we filmed in the Kitchen we did have two external characters, these were my sister who joined us in trying the food and added to the comedic elements of the documentary. We felt that this also allowed the audience to engage with the documentary as they can see how we are normal people who lead normal life’s as well. My mum was filmed briefly at some points, this was mainly on the way to and from the egg farm, this was in and around the recording at the house and kitchen. My mum was just helping the filming process along by transporting us, however we felt that adding her into the documentary for brief amounts of time added to the style of documentary, also making it easier for the viewer to digest.

Props

During our entire documentary we rarely used props aside from the usual camera, tripod and mic. However in the kitchen we did use cooking utensils, these were required for us to cook and eat the food and we would not have been able to create this part of the documentary withought them. We also required a permit to film at Cabot Circus, this was not a prop but was required for us to be able to film this section of our documentary.

Documentaries

As a group we looked at two channel 4 documentaries, these were ‘The Angels Of Mercy’ and ‘Supersize vs Super skinny’. We chose to look at these documentaries, because one presented a very serious case of animal cruelty. And the other takes a comedic approach towards serious health problems. I started by looking at The Angels Of Mercy, this documentary follows one lady as she explains the circumstances and reasons why animal cruelty occurred where she lived. I thought this documentary related very closely to our documentary and how we explain battery farming. The Angels Of Mercy used a combination of archive footage and professional interviews on a select few people who were there to see and understand the event. This documentary took a very serious approach, by using professional filming styles, the cinematographer would have been using a tri-pod and image stabilization, as well as a boom pole and mic for good quality sound. I also noticed how, when people in the documentary were interviewed, they had a good background that did not affect picture or sound quality.

Supersize vs Super Skinny takes a much more comedic approach towards two serious health problems. For What The Cluck we also had comedic elements, however for the battery hen scenes we took a much more serious approach. We wanted to make our opinion that battery farming is wrong, clear to the audience. The result of this is a documentary that contains both comedic elements and serious scenes, this is a ploy to help us target more audience members.

Here are two photographs from the channel 4 documentaries ‘Supersize vs. Super skinny’ And ‘The Angels Of Mercy’.

Locations

The Farm

On the farm we used a handheld camera to create present affects as well as ambient noises and natural lighting, we did this in order to help viewers engage with the documentary, this section of the documentary is also participatory meaning viewers are constantly aware of the make; who in this case is me. I guided our cinematographer (Jamie) and our sound (recorder) through each section of the farm explaining all the areas and there significance, I outlined all the animal safety precautions as well as the work stations and chicken housing, my explanation was formal however we are going to add subtitles to the final edit as parts of the recording were quite loud due to the chickens. I wore informal clothing for the recording as I wanted to wear similar clothes to what I would usually use when I am actually working on the farm. I told all the other members of my group to wear old clothes as they were likely to get dirty (this is visible in our behind the scenes footage).

Photos From The Egg Farm

The Kitchen

For the cooking show we used my house, we set up one camera on a tripod in the dining room, and the other was handheld in the kitchen as our cinematographer (Jamie) followed Charlie our cook around. This recording had many present affects as it involved all members of our group interacting with the cameras and food. The kitchen scenes were mainly performative as Charlie was cooking and the rest of us were subjecting ourselves to his cooking. At the location we filmed with ambient sounds and natural lighting, however in the final recording we will use non diagetic music and place it over the top, this will coincide with the time-lapses that will shorten the extract and skip any irrelevant or unimportant filming. During the filming we were all humorous, and made sure the recording had a lot of comedic elements, we also wore informal clothing. We wanted to make this part of the documentary fun, informative but also like having friends round my house. We felt that this would help the audience to engage further. During the filming ‘cookery cam’ followed Charlie as he explained what he was doing and cooked food. The freestanding camera in the dining room recorded our opinions of Charlie's food and allowed us to give our opinion on different things that can be made with eggs.

Photos From The Kitchen And Eating

Cabot Circus

Filming at Cabot Circus was slightly more formal, we had to get a permit to film and we wore smart casual clothing. This extract was participatory and involved three members of our group. I questioned people, Jamie was in control of the camera and tripod, and Alannah held the boom mic. For the filming we used ambient sounds and natural lighting, we also chose our filming location in Cabot Circus making sure it was aesthetic, during editing we then montaged the footage cutting out irrelevant scenes. We wanted to look professional on location, this is why we used relevant props such as a tripod and a boom mic, our questions were also mainly formal however they did also have some comedic elements, this can be scene in our final edit.

Photos From Cabot Circus

Churchill School

At Churchill we used both handheld camera and free standing tripod camera, we did not do this in order to make present and distant affects but to make our documentary more interesting. We were able to show our ability to use a different variety of filming styles. During the handheld recordings we used natural lighting and ambient sound, there was a lot of background noise, this added to the style of filming as it helped to show the kind of location we were filming in (the sixth form common room). We used private classrooms and offices to interview slightly more important people, from higher economic groups in the sixth form center e.g. the head of sixth form. We used a free standing camera on a tripod for this, we also made sure that there was no background noise and lighting was perfect. We also angled the camera so we could make the interviewee look slightly more imposing. During editing we montaged this footage and added some non diagetic music, we used some time-lapsing similarly to how we edited the kitchen footage.

Photos From Around Churchill Academy