RESEARCH SUMMARY
The synopsis of my documentary is to explain that perception changes how people behave and interact, from body language to different upbringings. I explain in the documentary how different factors of life can change the perception of one person compared to many others, not all seeing the World in the same way because of the factors mentioned above. I plan to make an documentary that is 5 minutes long and in the mode of a poetic documentary, my target to provoke emotions in the audience and to talk about issues in society and how people see them. My target audience is for people between 16 years old and 20 years old as I will be able to provide content to suit this target audience better, and to provoke the emotions needed to the audience, as I am a part of the target group in age.
'Doing a documentary is about discovering, being open, learning and curiosity.'- Spike Jonzem director of 'Being John Malcovich.' Documentary research is important to help understand issues for the film maker and the audience. By experiencing and filming a documentary, you learn a lot about the topic you focus on and will learn multiple views about the subject. This is what I want as an element in my own documentary for myself, the film maker, and the audience watching as everyone will get a different meaning out of the topic and feel different emotions from each other. The quote given above applies to this and can show how important research is as I may of not been able to apply the knowledge I have gained through research to my documentary and could miss out on a strong opportunity to make my documentary unique and powerful.
When given the task of making a documentary, the first step I will take in research is to understand what a documentary is and the context behind them. I will do this research to gain better knowledge and context of the kinds of documentaries that I will have choices from and to understand the basis of a documentary. Documentaries originate from the early 19th century from early photography. People used to go out with a camera in every day life and film the people around them; capturing the everyday life of those around them. Documentaries have justifiable reconstruction and are made to widen the human knowledge and understanding of economics, culture and human relations. Documentaries have developed over time from their celluloid film to being recorded digitally and have developed different modes of documentaries. By understanding the context of documentaries, I will be able to apply the general knowledge into my own film making and to understand which topics would fit under documentaries and which would be considered a film or something different to what I wish to create.
I will next research the modes of documentaries to understand the six types; poetic, expository, participatory, observational, reflexive and performative. I will find documentaries that fit under these modes to understand the exact meaning and techniques of each mode of documentary so it is easier for me to decide to which mode I want for my own documentary. I also will watch some documentaries during my own time although I have already watched a few documentaries such as "My Brother the Terrorist" and "Scientology" by Louis Theroux. By watching documentaries it will help me understand the tones of documentaries and how to present to an audience. It can also provide me with more detailed information for documentary modes and context to include in my pre-production for my documentary and to take into consideration while performing.
Although some research has been done, I will be researching into camera techniques in documentaries to see what methods I could possibly use in my own to get across the imagery I want to show to the audience and how to provoke emotions. I will continue to watch more documentaries, specifically poetic documentaries, to understand the mode much better and what I can apply to my own documentary. This secondary research will allow me to analyse how documentary film makers want to present their documentary topics to the audience and how they do this through camera movements and music choices. This will furthermore work in my favour as I can apply some of the applications of the other documentaries into my own but in my own fashion and alter the techniques to provide me with the emotions and the style that I wish to create for the documentary topic I am focusing on.
My research has or will impact my project in many ways. The first way is that I understand documentaries and their types to a better understanding, knowing the modes, context and techniques. I planned to help widen the audiences knowledge and mind but to also provoke an emotion in them that inspires them to see the World and others with a different perspective, the research helping me to understand how to do this by researching perception. Being able to understand perception to a better knowledge than I already had helped me to understand what I could include in my documentary to make it stay related to the topic. Another way it will impact my project is that I will be gaining new ideas and information throughout the whole process, myself being able to apply new information later into the filming process and to help make my documentary a lot more impactful to the audience.
References
BrainyQuote. (2017). Spike Jonze Quotes. [online] Available at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/s/spikejonze487107.html?src=t_documentary [Accessed 3 Oct. 2017].
