Monday, 30 September 2013
Louis Theroux- By Jodie O'Neill
Documentaries
Theroux started his career as a journalist but he is best known or his creative, ground-breaking and sometimes humorous documentaries. Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends started of his independent documentary career and received popular success. The expository style helped Theroux to endorse himself into the different culture while implying a hidden message to the audience. Theroux commented on the series stating, "To me, it's almost a privilege to be welcomed into these communities and to shine a light on them and, maybe, through my enthusiasm, to get people to reveal more of themselves than they may have intended." This interesting series lasted from 1998-2000 and contained episodes focusing on different cultures, societies and beliefs in America, including "survivalists, black nationalists and white supremacists." - (Wikipedia)
Theroux started working again on this project in 2003 due to his deal with BBCTwo, where he went back to America to expose other aspects of cultures and societies such as the Neo-Nazi community and The Most Hated Family In America episode.
An example of Theroux's expository exploration. A serious
yet humours style.
When Louis Met
Theroux's series of meeting British celebrities and following them in their daily lives caught great media and audience attention. The series started shortly after Theroux's Weird Weekends and ended in 2002. When Louis Met Jimmy was a great success for Theroux and had a significant role in career, being that critics have regarded the documentary as "one of the top fifty documentaries of all time in a survey by Britain's Channel 4." (Wikipedia) Theroux changed the opinions of many when he exposed Max Clifford's attempts to "stitch Louis up" and the disgrace of MP Neil Hamilton during the period of assault allegations. Throughout the making of the series Theroux had planned to investigate and expose the life of Michael Jackson. However, this fell through but it did not stop Theroux from reusing the footage to make a documentary about his experience trying to gain and interview with Michael Jackson. It was named Louis,Martin&Michael.
Books and Filmography
Theroux's novel, " The Call of the Weird: Travels in American Subcultures" focuses on several families lives who he had interviewed in various past episodes. It was an up-to-date account on the developments since the audience and Theroux had last seen them.
Theroux has also had a minor role in Take a Peek, where he acted "as a ranger in search of a criminal." (Wikipedia)
Awards and Nominations
| Year | Category | Show | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | Richard Dimbleby Award for the Best Presenter (Factual, Features and News) | When Louis Met... | Won |
| Flaherty Documentary Award (TV) | When Louis Met... The Hamiltons | Nominated | |
| 2001 | Richard Dimbleby Award for the Best Presenter (Factual, Features and News) | Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends | Won |
Emmy Awards
| Year | Category | Show | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | Outstanding Informational Series | TV Nation | Nominated |
Royal Television Society Television Awards
| Year | Category | Show | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Best Presenter | A Place for Paedophiles | Won |
| 2002 | Best Presenter | When Louis Met... | Nominated |
Tables sourced from Wikipedia
Conclusion
Theroux's expository stylistic mode was very important to research as my own documentary will expose a culture and society. However, the humour aspects will not be present. Theroux's individual style and interesting content is the main factor for his global success.
Saturday, 28 September 2013
Target Audience - By Jodie O'Neill
Our target audience is for young adults between the ages of 16-18, as it focuses on the affects of online culture and how it can become obsessive. It is also relatable to 19-25 year olds. On the whole, the age group is not restricted to just this but can be viewed by anyone who is interested in the affects of online culture and in specific, Tumblr.
Psychographic Information
Most teenagers and young adults enjoy documentaries that include entertainment and educational values. Most young people watch documentaries on less-formal channels, such as BBC Three and MTV. Our target audience would like to see other young people within the documentary and would like humorous aspects to be included. This could be included by the content of the interview. The content on the screen must appeal to young people, so shots of popular websites, such as Tumblr will appear so the audience can relate to it. The attitudes of young adults are that they want a lot of information displayed quickly but in an interesting and up to date manner.
Our documentary could include screen captures of popular sites. The topics discussed must be controversial and interesting for our audience, issues over phandoms may be a popular subject to include. Young people are usually open minded so interviews crossing over different opinions may be usually to put into the documentary. A mixture of formal and informal interviews may help to keep the documentary flowing and sustained. The majority of young adults enjoy using the internet and use it very often in their everyday lives, so the topic of online culture and hysteria, if created effectively, would be perfect for our target audience.
Demographic Information
Our documentary wants to hit different areas of demographics, from people of different locations, to both genders, regardless of educational ability and/or class in society. Our documentary is not subjective to a certain type of person but is objective to young people, as regardless of race, sex and ability, the internet affects most young peoples lives. However, most young people in the UK are on low incomes, which could relate to why the internet is so popular, as it is an affordable hobby. The demographic trend is that soon, internet culture and online hysteria will be an avoidable part of everyday life. Online culture can emerge with various cultures across the UK, as the internet and social networking sites are so widely used.
Psychographic Information
Most teenagers and young adults enjoy documentaries that include entertainment and educational values. Most young people watch documentaries on less-formal channels, such as BBC Three and MTV. Our target audience would like to see other young people within the documentary and would like humorous aspects to be included. This could be included by the content of the interview. The content on the screen must appeal to young people, so shots of popular websites, such as Tumblr will appear so the audience can relate to it. The attitudes of young adults are that they want a lot of information displayed quickly but in an interesting and up to date manner.
Our documentary could include screen captures of popular sites. The topics discussed must be controversial and interesting for our audience, issues over phandoms may be a popular subject to include. Young people are usually open minded so interviews crossing over different opinions may be usually to put into the documentary. A mixture of formal and informal interviews may help to keep the documentary flowing and sustained. The majority of young adults enjoy using the internet and use it very often in their everyday lives, so the topic of online culture and hysteria, if created effectively, would be perfect for our target audience.
Demographic Information
Our documentary wants to hit different areas of demographics, from people of different locations, to both genders, regardless of educational ability and/or class in society. Our documentary is not subjective to a certain type of person but is objective to young people, as regardless of race, sex and ability, the internet affects most young peoples lives. However, most young people in the UK are on low incomes, which could relate to why the internet is so popular, as it is an affordable hobby. The demographic trend is that soon, internet culture and online hysteria will be an avoidable part of everyday life. Online culture can emerge with various cultures across the UK, as the internet and social networking sites are so widely used.
Friday, 27 September 2013
Various Documentary Modes- By Jodie O'Neill
Expository
There are many typical conventions of an expository documentary, for example, a voice over is used to directly address the audience which can also create a relationship between the audience and film-maker. The voice over may be a commentator, who is heard but not seen or the voice can be seen and heard. A visible commentator is usually an expert in the topic being discussed. The images, representations, voices and content on screen usually helps to link to the film-makers message, however, this is not always the case.
There tends to be a strong sense of continuity throughout an expository documentary. This helps to develop the message being presented by the documentarian. The use of visual and verbal content is used to support the view of the film-maker by using relevant and objective material. Finally, expository documentaries attempt to persuade the audience to agree with the viewpoint of the documentarian by using facts and a realist approach.
Reflexive
A reflexive documentary usually contains methods used in fictional films for an emotional and expressive response from the audience. The film-maker tries to achieve this by highlighting the issues of the documentary in an "anti-realist" way by using dramatic and expressive music and lighting, as well as a questioning voice over who is often uncertain in approach. The reflexive style contrasts with the expository style, as the reflexive tone implies meaning and various viewpoints in comparison to the authoritative and strong nature of an expository tone.
Poetic
A poetic style creates a subjective view in an untypical manner of presentation. The narrative structure has a certain mood which can be enhanced by lighting, music and subject matter. The story is never concluded and there is a sense of non-continuity. These types of documentaries are experimental and are ground breaking due to the nature and message behind the documentary.
Observational
The documentarian usually takes part (but is not visible on screen) in the current situations by using a hand-held camera in a location shot. There is a rare presence of a voice over or interview, as the film-maker allow the documentary to flourish in its purest way. Those who are present in the documentary pretend to ignore/dismiss the role of the film-maker and act as naturally as possible. The synchronous sound helps to explore the realist viewpoint.
Performative
The subject content and the documentary maker communicate and interact in order to establish a moral and a specific point throughout the documentary. The documentarian usually comments on the process of creating the documentary and is often crafted into an investigation which does not always produce a fulfilling conclusion. The audience usually has an emotional and direct relationship with the journey of the documentary due to the content matter which targets emotive subjects such as identity rather than factual and scientific topics.
Participatory
The documentary team interacts with the subject matter and the interviewees. The informal interviews usually lead the documentary journey. These questions are usually created "on-the-spot." Participatory documentaries may use archive footage in the past to relate to significant events documented throughout the episode. The location shots may be hand-held while the synchronous sound takes place in the background. Voice overs are created by the documentary maker but may include outside input. The visible documentary maker is involved with the on-going events.
Saturday, 21 September 2013
Britain's Youngest Grannies - BBC Three Documentary Research- By Jodie O'Neill
This documentary focuses on the rising percentage of young Grandmothers due to the rise of teen pregnancies. The subject matter is serious but is expressed in a humorous way, which is the typical style of BBC Three documentaries, as they are usually light-hearted.
The voiceover is present from the beginning while the camera pans over the mother and baby group, while stating and interesting point, that one of these young women are grandmothers. This immediately captures audience attention.
There is a mixture of asynchronous and synchronous sound. Synchronous sound is used during the mother interviews and when the young teenage mother is moving into her new apartment. Asynchronous sound is used at the very beginning of the documentary, while the narrator is introducing the subject matter and when the fast-paced shots of the nightclub are included. This asynchronous sound immediately drives a light-hearted tone throughout the documentary.
There are many shot reverse shots used throughout the grandmother and mother interviews in order to show the different reactions and facial expressions between the different generations. The use of the interview of the young man outside the nightclub emphasises the humorous approach that BBC Three has undertaken with this topic. The close up shows the young mans opinion and shock that the woman was a grandmother, which the editor chose to include to help entertain their young target audience.
The use of props, costumes and locations are appropriate the content and organically develop as the show continues. These aspects have been naturally chosen and not staged by BBC Three. Editing shots are quite basic in relation to other documentaries. Fast paced shots are used when the characters are moving and slow paced shots are used during sit-down interviews. The duration of each shot is usually medium paced on a whole, as the documentarian is attempting to portray his meaning of high level teen pregnancies while creating humours entertainment and report with his audience.
The target audience for this documentary would be for young adults and for those who are young grandmothers. However, the target audience is not restricted just for these categorises but would be suitable for anyone who enjoys light-hearted and fun documentaries.
Friday, 6 September 2013
Wednesday, 4 September 2013
Monday, 2 September 2013
The History of Documentary- By Jodie O'Neill
Prior to 1900
Documentary has advanced incredibly over the past hundred years, due to the growing developments of technology, different topics and new ordeals and the way documentary is presented. I thought it would be useful to understand the journey documentary has undertaken and to see how documentary has gone from being a few minutes long to now being a few hours long, with stylistic idea embedded, such as the new wave of Twitter hash tagging.
The length of documentary in the early days was extremely limited due to the lack of technology and film development. Documentary was produced by using photographs or short snippets of film all in one to prevail the filmmakers meaning or research results. Early films concentrated on workers and everyday events in which the public could relate to. Moving images began to gain audience attention as many individual wanted to see themselves on screen. This has now developed into sub-genre documentaries of reality documentaries, such as TOWIE. Arguably this may be part of human nature to see how we appear on film and to other individuals.
Enoch J Rector revolutionised the game of Boxing by filming the events by using film-looping technology that was responsible advance in 1897. The fight was The Corbett-Fitzsimmons Fight and lasted an hour an a half, which was an incredibly long "actuality" film prior 1900.
Professor Gheorghe Marinescu, created several early documentaries by 1901 focusing on his scientific findings of the human body, such as the issues with muscle pain. Again, film-making has been used in a specific field, revolutionising future research and the layout of results, in which Marinescu said, ""studies with the help of the cinematograph".
Below is Marinescu's work
Post 1900
Post 1900 documentaries diverted away from the topics of everyday life and moved away from moving images of people, workers and trains. The early 1900 witnessed the popularity of Travelogue films that concentrated on unusual scenes, like the arctic and locations that contrasted with working environments such as London. A well-known documentary was the Moscow in Clad in 1909.
This camera was popular amongst
early documentary makers
1920's
The 1920's witnessed the development of various topics being documented into short films. Topics had developed from everyday life, to environment locations and now to a more romantic setting which suited the literature of the time. Robert Flaherty's work of "Nanook of the North" in 1922 incorporated romantiscm within his documentary as he ensured that the indigenous people lived in the manner of generations ago, in order to create a shocking contrast between Flaherty's society and the people of the documentary. The length of the documentary is quite impressive of its time, being 1hour 18minutes long.The staged events, such as killing a walrus with a harpoon instead of gun, is relatable to today's documentary, instead the people in the documentary are staging arguments, parties and various events. This is common in reality documentaries such as Made In Chelsea but less common in documentarian, Dan Snow's work.
1930-1940
By the 1930's documentary was becoming more popular and soon enough politics grabbed hold of this new medium to display and portray their parties ordeal and beliefs. However, documentary was manipulated into propaganda opportunities to attack minority groups, for example, Adolf Hitler accepted the publishing of anti-Jewish documentaries in order to display the racist attitudes of the Nazi Party.
The British movement in documentary really became heard in the 1940's with the establishment of John Grierson's "Documentary Film Movement" which concentrated more on the poetic and expressive side of politics and beliefs.
This was one of the most popular documentary from the Documentary
Film Movement. It concentrates on the process of sending mail from London
to Scotland.
Direct Cinema 1950-1970
Documentary advanced once again during the next twenty years as many studios and documentarians wanted to move away from the staged and planned documentaries and wanted to create something more organic. The stylistics used within new documentaries included on-screen documentarians and shooting directly on set with the camera on screen to create a sense of realism, while naturally following the subject matter. This was part of the French New Wave in film-making as they incorporated synchronized sound and cameras as part of the documentary.
Nevertheless, there are variation of direct cinema, being that the French and North America's direct cinema contain different stylistic devices and methods. They disputed over whether the documentarian should be on or off screen. Documentary maker Pennebaker thought that non-involvement was best to let the situations naturally flourish, where as other documentary makers, such as Rouch, believed that on-screen presence was better and even to provoke those on screen to make matters more interesting for the target audience.
Direct Cinema documentaries tend to have moving interviews and take a direct role in present conflicts. "Salesman" is a popular direct cinema documentary made in 1969. The subject matter follows four salesman in New England USA as they try to sell Bibles.
Modern Day Documentary
Modern documentaries have done very well in cinemas and have created huge profits for film company's, especially if the documentary is a low-budget film. Al Gore' "An Inconvenient Truth" was incredibly successful as Gore sourced PowerPoint's, graphs, contemporary footage and his own opinions on his environmental beliefs, while establishing the shock factor. There has been critical disputes over the reliability of Gore's information but it cannot be taken away from the popularity and box office hits it has achieved.
Documentary's such as "Eyes on the Prize" focus on different views and opinions from the past and focus less on the on-screen and active documentarian. Also, nowadays, documentaries have become widely available due to modern technologies, such as DVD'S, Netflix and catch-up sites, such as 4oD.
New documentaries now include hash tags at the bottom of the screen in order for the topic to be discussed on Twitter, which helps to improve the popularity of the documentary. This allows the documentary, the viewer and Twitter users to debate and criticise the content. Also, modern documentaries now use 1080p quality and impressive camera definition in order to display the reality of the current location. Most modern documentaries attempt to shock the public, such as "Sun, Sex and Suspicious Parents."
Documentary has advanced incredibly over the past hundred years, due to the growing developments of technology, different topics and new ordeals and the way documentary is presented. I thought it would be useful to understand the journey documentary has undertaken and to see how documentary has gone from being a few minutes long to now being a few hours long, with stylistic idea embedded, such as the new wave of Twitter hash tagging.
The length of documentary in the early days was extremely limited due to the lack of technology and film development. Documentary was produced by using photographs or short snippets of film all in one to prevail the filmmakers meaning or research results. Early films concentrated on workers and everyday events in which the public could relate to. Moving images began to gain audience attention as many individual wanted to see themselves on screen. This has now developed into sub-genre documentaries of reality documentaries, such as TOWIE. Arguably this may be part of human nature to see how we appear on film and to other individuals.
Enoch J Rector revolutionised the game of Boxing by filming the events by using film-looping technology that was responsible advance in 1897. The fight was The Corbett-Fitzsimmons Fight and lasted an hour an a half, which was an incredibly long "actuality" film prior 1900.
Professor Gheorghe Marinescu, created several early documentaries by 1901 focusing on his scientific findings of the human body, such as the issues with muscle pain. Again, film-making has been used in a specific field, revolutionising future research and the layout of results, in which Marinescu said, ""studies with the help of the cinematograph".
Below is Marinescu's work
Post 1900
Post 1900 documentaries diverted away from the topics of everyday life and moved away from moving images of people, workers and trains. The early 1900 witnessed the popularity of Travelogue films that concentrated on unusual scenes, like the arctic and locations that contrasted with working environments such as London. A well-known documentary was the Moscow in Clad in 1909.
This camera was popular amongst
early documentary makers
1920's
The 1920's witnessed the development of various topics being documented into short films. Topics had developed from everyday life, to environment locations and now to a more romantic setting which suited the literature of the time. Robert Flaherty's work of "Nanook of the North" in 1922 incorporated romantiscm within his documentary as he ensured that the indigenous people lived in the manner of generations ago, in order to create a shocking contrast between Flaherty's society and the people of the documentary. The length of the documentary is quite impressive of its time, being 1hour 18minutes long.The staged events, such as killing a walrus with a harpoon instead of gun, is relatable to today's documentary, instead the people in the documentary are staging arguments, parties and various events. This is common in reality documentaries such as Made In Chelsea but less common in documentarian, Dan Snow's work.
1930-1940
By the 1930's documentary was becoming more popular and soon enough politics grabbed hold of this new medium to display and portray their parties ordeal and beliefs. However, documentary was manipulated into propaganda opportunities to attack minority groups, for example, Adolf Hitler accepted the publishing of anti-Jewish documentaries in order to display the racist attitudes of the Nazi Party.
The British movement in documentary really became heard in the 1940's with the establishment of John Grierson's "Documentary Film Movement" which concentrated more on the poetic and expressive side of politics and beliefs.
This was one of the most popular documentary from the Documentary
Film Movement. It concentrates on the process of sending mail from London
to Scotland.
Direct Cinema 1950-1970
Documentary advanced once again during the next twenty years as many studios and documentarians wanted to move away from the staged and planned documentaries and wanted to create something more organic. The stylistics used within new documentaries included on-screen documentarians and shooting directly on set with the camera on screen to create a sense of realism, while naturally following the subject matter. This was part of the French New Wave in film-making as they incorporated synchronized sound and cameras as part of the documentary.
Nevertheless, there are variation of direct cinema, being that the French and North America's direct cinema contain different stylistic devices and methods. They disputed over whether the documentarian should be on or off screen. Documentary maker Pennebaker thought that non-involvement was best to let the situations naturally flourish, where as other documentary makers, such as Rouch, believed that on-screen presence was better and even to provoke those on screen to make matters more interesting for the target audience.
Direct Cinema documentaries tend to have moving interviews and take a direct role in present conflicts. "Salesman" is a popular direct cinema documentary made in 1969. The subject matter follows four salesman in New England USA as they try to sell Bibles.
Modern Day Documentary
Modern documentaries have done very well in cinemas and have created huge profits for film company's, especially if the documentary is a low-budget film. Al Gore' "An Inconvenient Truth" was incredibly successful as Gore sourced PowerPoint's, graphs, contemporary footage and his own opinions on his environmental beliefs, while establishing the shock factor. There has been critical disputes over the reliability of Gore's information but it cannot be taken away from the popularity and box office hits it has achieved.
Documentary's such as "Eyes on the Prize" focus on different views and opinions from the past and focus less on the on-screen and active documentarian. Also, nowadays, documentaries have become widely available due to modern technologies, such as DVD'S, Netflix and catch-up sites, such as 4oD.
New documentaries now include hash tags at the bottom of the screen in order for the topic to be discussed on Twitter, which helps to improve the popularity of the documentary. This allows the documentary, the viewer and Twitter users to debate and criticise the content. Also, modern documentaries now use 1080p quality and impressive camera definition in order to display the reality of the current location. Most modern documentaries attempt to shock the public, such as "Sun, Sex and Suspicious Parents."
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