Koyaanisquatsi.

Today in class we watched the documentary Koyaanisquati, which means life in turmoil, it was made in 1982 by Fracise Forcoppia, The director kept to the forms and conventions of a poetic mode documentary as he produced the documentary using a non linear narrative, and did not include any dialog, it was simply visual view. the rhetoric of the documentary is also not clear. I found this documentary nice and relaxing to watch due to the visuals involved and the range of pictures used. I especially enjoyed the scene in which you could see the cars and then they speed up to show an array of lights.

Assessment Record For Assignment Four.

SELF ASSESSMENT	N/A
PEER ASSESSMENT	N/A
TEACHER ASSESSMENT
GRADE	The grade I received for this task was  C3 .      This is    below   /   on   /   above my target grade of a     C .
TARGETS TO IMPROVE	To improve this work I need to:  Pick less cliche topics Use pictures for audience interviews  Try and avoid using existing documentary ideas

Assignment Four; My Three Topics For A Documentary.

Here is my assignment four; in this assignment we had to pick three topics in which we would like to do our A2 coursework based upon and explain the ideas.

Assignment 4. from michaela123456

Documentary Terms

ocial actors - people as themselves in documentaries

back story - information that helps flesh out the skeleton story of a screenplay.  i.e. an accident in a character's past to inform the person's actions in the present.

re-enactments - production that re-creates an actual event

voice of authority - someone whom we hear whose narrative voice represents the film

commentary - narrative voice in documentary which articulates an explicit argument

demonstrative proof - emphasis on making evidence persuasive, although not necessarily accurate 

masked interview - an interview in which the filmmaker is both off camera and unheard

perspective - in documentary film making  the selection and arrangements of sounds and images tacitly convey or imply the filmmakers point of view about a subject

Inter title - text which periodically appears on screen to provide info such as the date, time and location of an event or identify the person on screen  (previously known as ‘titles’ or ‘credits’)

compilation film - a documentary that consists exclusively of archival footage, photographs, and sound

direct cinema - a movement in documentary film that privileges the capturing of reality as it happens and with minimal interference from the filmmakers

dubbing - process of recording dialogue and other sounds after production and adding them to the soundtrack

evidentiary editing:  type of editing that uses evidence in order to support an argument

fly on the wall - phrase by Richard Leacock that refers to filmmakers role in documentary as unobtrusive observer

freeze frame - a single image repeated over and over to create effect of a still shot

Lighting Terms:

flat lighting - lighting that has no shadows  (high key)

frontal lighting - lighting that originates near where the camera is positioned 

practical lighting - a lighting style that closely resembles how the lighting in a scene would appear in real life

three point lighting - system of lighting that uses 3 sources (bright = key.....behind = backlight......fill)

Super Size Me.

At the weekend I watched the documentary super size me directed by Morgan Spurlock (2004) , I found this documentary very interesting and influential as the director used himself as a case study. This documentary shows Spurlock only consuming McDonald's for a month long period (February 1st - March 2nd 2003)

Self Assessment Of A2 Blog.

Here is my self assessment of my A2 blog so far. 

Assignment Three; Evaluating Example A2 Coursework.

Here is my assignment three task in which me and my group had to evaluate past A2 media students documentaries and list what we thought went well, what they could improve on and say what we would award the piece or work.

Assignment 3 draft 2 from empressnae

Riot From Wrong.

Questions For The Director Before Watching The Documentary.
1) What inspired you to chose to make a documentary surrounding this topic?
2) Who did you have in mind as your target audience whilst producing this documentary?
3) How long did it take for you to fully film and edit your documentary?
4) What was your given budget?
5) What sort of equipment did you use whilst filming this documentary?

I think this documentary took 6 months to film.
I think there was around 20 hours of footage before editing began.
I think there was around 10 total interviews which took place for the documentary.
I think there was around 9 hours of editing in total.

This documentary took 4 months to film.
45 hours of footage was produced before editing took place.
60 interviews took place for the documentary.
200 hours of editing in total.

Questions For The Director After Watching The Documentary.
1) Was it hard to get people to take part in public interviews?
2) Has producing this documentary taught you something?
3) What documentaries were inspirational?
4) How did you gather footage from mobile phones etc
5) Was you personally effected by the London riots in August 2011?

Peer Assessment Of Documentary Ideas.

In the lesson today I spoke to Pamela about my documentary ideas in which are shown in a simple mind brain storm below, Pamela gave me some valuable feedback on my ideas and said that they were very interesting ideas in which cover truly problematic things happening in modern day society.

Pamela also said she liked that fact I was exploring controversial issues which are happening in society today and are rarely awarded media coverage such as mental health issues among teenagers and eating disorders. 

Here is a picture of Demi Lovato showing her support for mental health among teenagers.  

This is a iconic picture surrounding eating disorders. 

Documetary Topic Mindmap.

Here is a simplemind mindmap exploring some possible documentary ideas I would concider completing my A2 coursework on.

Class Peer Assessment Of Assignment One.

In lesson, my peers have presented their presentations on a range of documentaries they watched.

The three presentations/documentaries I enjoyed the most were 

1) Name of documentary - Food Inc 

    Name of person who presented - Rosie Zein

    WWW - 1) Good presentation 

                 2) Good use of screen grabs 

                 3) Good identification of a wide range of conventions and forms

Food Inc is a documentary which explores food and what goes into the food we consume, this documentary looks at food in which is surved in supermarkets and fast food chains such as Mcdonald's and Taco Bell.

 2) Name of documentary - 74 stone babysitter 

     Name of person who presented - Rianne Wright

     WWW - 1) Good use of images and screen grabs 

                 2) Unusual documentary topic 

                 3) Good presentation

This is a documentary in which a woman is accused of murdering her nepthew, this documentary explores her court case and the struggles in which she faces.

3) Name of documentary - Transgender; Pakistan's open secret 

    Name of person who presented - Jhanè Ormsby 

    WWW - 1) Good of documentary due to different cultures being represented

                 2) Good identification of different conventions 

                 3) Good use of trailers and video clips

This documentary shows a rare insight into Pakistan's transgender community.

    

Documentary Trailers.

Justin Bieber; Never Say Never, Released on 11th February 2011.


Michael Jackson; This Is It, Released on 28th October 2009.


Bansky; Exit Through The Gift Shop; Released on 5th March 2010.


An Inconvenient Truth; Released on 24th May 2006.

Documentary Log.

Here is a simple mind brainstorm consisting of the titles of all the documentaries I have watched before starting my A2 media course.

Catfish Trailer.

Catfish Post.

In lesson, we watched a film documentary called 'Catfish' by Henry Boost & Ariel Schulman.


I did enjoy the documentary because it showed an insight into social media and the problems in which can evolve  from popular social networking sites such as facebook, twitter and chat sites.


Here are some interesting screen grabs from the documentary:

Here is a picture of the main female character in catfish.

Here is a picture of the main male character Nev, holding a picture of Megans mother.

Some forms and conventions in the documentary are: 
1. Cutaways 
2. Point Of View Shots 
3. Voice Overs 
4. Archival Pictures 
5. Quoted Material 

Assignment One; Draft Two.

Here is the second draft to my first assignment.

Assessment Record For Assignment One.

SELF ASSESSMENT	Better time management  Better research on forms and conventions   Explore a more challenging documentary
PEER ASSESSMENT
TEACHER ASSESSMENT
GRADE	The grade I received for this task was C2.      This is    below   /   on   /   above  my target grade of a  C .
TARGETS TO IMPROVE	To improve this work I need to: Ensure my work is titled correctly  Indentify more forms Fix my title page

Assignment One; Forms And Conventions In Documentaries.

Here is my first A2 assignment, based on the forms and conventions present in the channel 4 documentary, 'whats my body worth?'

Conventions.

I think the conventions in documentaries are..
1) Use of presenter or narrator
2) Archival still photographs
3) Archival footage
4) Sense of realism
5) Public interviews (talking heads)
6) Expert Interviews (talking heads)
7) Case Studies
8) Credits
9) Rule of thirds composition
10) Non diegetic background score music
11) Cutaways
12) Sound bridging
13) Statistics
14) Quoted material
15) Animations
16) Montage editing

Sicko Post.

Documentary Research

as a starting point of my research for A2 coursework, I have watched the documentary called 'Sicko' by Michael Moore.

What I found interesting about  this documentary is the huge difference between the health care system in the United Kingdom and the United States. One of the leading powers of the world, America are allowing innocent people to die because they don't have the desired support from their insurance companies. We can also see the noticeable difference in Canadian and American health systems, with Americans who are being failed by the health system travelling to places such as Canada to receive medical treatment.

The conventions in this documentary are
1) Expert Interviews
2) Talking heads
3) Voiceovers
4) Public interviews

AS Marks.

In AS coursework I received ___/100 marks which is a ____ grade.

In AS exam I received ____/100 marks which is a ____ grade.

In total, I have ____ /200 marks which gives me a total ____ grade.

To achieve my target to grade of ____ at A level, I need _____ more marks in A2.