The Runners - Example of a Short Documentary

The Runners, is a short documentary, which explores the lives of runners by asking them questions, similar to that of our documentary. 

By using this as an example I hope to learn more about how it is best to film our documentary both through camera shots, editing and talking to people. 

 

In these shots shown below The Runners are placed roughly centred in a medium shot, this is conventional to a short documentary and a code that we will use when filming. However these shots have the subjects running in them so the image is often shakey, to prevent this happening we will use a tripod where possible. It will also be easier to film because our subjects will be standing still. 
Medium shots are brilliant for capturing emotions without getting too in the subjects face, allowing for natural emotions to be conveyed, especially if the subject is not used to talking to a camera. 

The Runners also uses conventions such as establishing shots that show background information related to the subject in the documentary. In this case it is shots of the park, trees, running feet. When we film in Camden we plan on using grafiti, people, traffic and the market in general to establish the busy and vibrant atmosphere. Hopefully these shots will also help to engage our audience as it gives them an insight into the area we will be filming in.

Titles are simple and clear, in fact this is the only title that is presented not in the credits. It concentrates all the attention on what the runners themselves are saying. 
However when we produce our documentary we plan on including a description before the main body of the documentary gets underway to explain the theory and purpose of what is going on so that the audience understand. The Runners throws you straight into the action, we want to ease the audience in. 



The credits are unusually long for a short documentary, conventionally some of these titles would be integrated into the beginning of the film.
We plan on using a similar structure to these credits but letting them roll faster, on a clean background so as not to detract from them, making them look clearer. 

Audience Theory - Part Two

Two Step Flow

Analysing voters' decision-making processes during a 1940 presidential election campaign, Paul Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelson and Hazel Gaudet suggested that the information does not flow directly from the text into the minds of its audience unmediated but is filtered through "opinion leaders" for example Rupert Merdoch. 

These opinion leaders then communicate it to their less active associates, over whom they have influence. The audience then mediate the information received directly from the media with the ideas and thoughts expressed by the opinion leaders, thus being influenced not by a direct process, but by a "two step flow". 

This has diminished the power of the media in the eyes of researchers, and caused them to conclude that social factors were also important in the way in which audiences interpreted texts. This is sometimes referred to as the limited effects paradigm. 

The Uses and Gratifications model

The uses and gratifications model emphasises what the audience does with the media presented to them, here influence lies with the consumer. 

Laswell and Wright

Two theorists, Lasswell (1948) and Wright (1960), identified four basic functions of mass communication:

Surveillance

Correlation

Cultural Transmission

Entertainment

Surveillance 

Surveillance of the environment refers to the media's collection and distribution of information e.g. we know who was elected Mayor of London because it was in the newspaper; we know whether to wear a sweater to school/work because the radio weather forecast said it would be chilly today.  

Correlation

Correlatoin of parts of society refers to the media's interpretive or analytical activities We know that the current recession has had a hugely damaging effect on small businesses up and down the country because of the feature on Newsnight and the photo news story in the Guardian's business section. e.g. natural disasters would be shown on the news like the hurricane in Haiti, adverts for aid donations from the red cross would also mean you correlate. e.g. Blue Peter addresses issues that children learn in school, but also acts as entertainment. 

Transmission 

Transmission of the social heritage relates to the media's ability to communicate values, norms, and styles across time in between groups. What were typical attitudes towards file sharing in the noughties? Hundreds of online editorials news features, dramas and documentaries produced during the decade will give you the answer. E.g. Downton Abbey tell us what things were like 100 years ago, what people looked like, what was important to them etc. About our culture, our society. 

Entertainment

Entertainment means the media's ability to entertain or amuse.

(John Reith, first General Managaer of the BBC, summarised the BBC's purpose in three words: educate, inform, entertain; this remains part of the organisation's mission statement to this day.) So the BBC puts on shows like Strictly Come Dancing. 

Uses and Gratifications 

In 1974, Katz, Blumler and Gurevitch make five basic assumptions which provide a framework for understanding the correlation between media and audiences. 

 1. The audience is active.

An important part of mass media use is goal oriented. 

Patterns of media use are shaped by definite expectations of what certain kinds of content have to offer the audience member. 

For entertainment or to be informed, you look at media because you want the entertainment or information. 

2. In the mass communication process audience to a significant degree use their own initiative when linking their need gratification to the media choices they make.

This places a strong limitation on theorizing about any form of straight-line effect of media content on attitudes and behaviour. 

3. The media compete with other sources of need satisfaction. ]The needs served by mass communication constitute only a segment of the wider range of human needs, and the degree to which they can be adequately met through mass media consumption varies. 

The media has to compete with other things such as meeting friends, eating so a TV programme really has to sell itself to you, otherwise you won't watch it. 

4. Many of the goals of mass media use can be derived form data supplied by individual audience members themselves. 

People are sufficiently self-aware to be able to report their interests and motives in particular cases, or at least to recognise them when confronted with them in an intelligible and familiar verbal formulation. 

5. Value judgements about the cultural significance of mass communication should be suspended wile audience orientations are explored on their own terms. e.g. the X factor is trash, to watch the programme you withhold that opinion, otherwise you wouldn't watch it. It is the study of why people watch the trash anyway. 

Blumler and Katz

The uses and gratifications approach emphasises motives and the self-perceived needs of audience members.

Blumler and Katz concluded that different people can use the same communication message for very different purposes. 

e.g. boyfriend and girlfriend going to a movie, girlfriend typically interested in the romantic story, the boyfriend watching for the action or crime in the film. They want different things from that media. 

The same media content may gratify different needs for different individuals, we are all unique. 
There is not a single definitive way that people uses media. 
There are as many reason s for using the media as there are media users. 
e.g. one person feels down so they watch a comedy, one person is looking for entertainment of their favourite sort, one person is watching it to make fun of it. 

Basic needs, social situation, and the individual's background, such as experience, interests, and education, affect people's ideas about what they want from media and which media best meets their needs. 
e.g. You have a strict upbringing, you watch a movie that you don't identify with as a form of escapism. 


McQuail

McQuail's classification provides the following 4 groups of reasons for media use:
Information
Personal Identity
Integration and Social Interaction
Entertainment

These four catagories can be broken down even further, e.g. entertainment can be broken into escapism or mindless entertainment etc...

Information
finding out about relevant events and conditions in immediate surroundings, society and the world; it is human instinct to know what is going on... 
seeking advice on practical matters or opinion and decision choices; you have a broken bike and you go on youtube to watch a tutorial on how to fix it...
satisfying curiosity and general interest; more like documentary, maybe you're curious about veganism...
learning; self education; I want to know more about the animals in the world so I'm going to watch a David Attenborourgh documentary. 
gaining a sense of security through knowledge.

Personal Identity
Finding reinforcement for personal values; who you are, e.g. you wear Doc Martins all the time because that is who you are - you may use some form of media to reinforce that that is a who you are.
Finding models of behaviour; 
Identifying with valued others (in the media); McFly fans like meeting other McFly fans, identifying through their passion through the band. 
Gaining insight into oneself. 

Integration and Social Interaction (Personal relationships)
Gaining insight into the circumstances of others; social empathy; you might want to find more about whats going on in the world because you want to empathise with the people there this could then be the reason you watch a documentary on the event. 
Identifying with others and gaining a sense of belonging; people identify with McFly because they feel a sense of community with other fans.
Finding a basis for conversation  and social interaction; Watching Stranger Things or Football because its really interesting and you need to talk to someone about it. Using the media to create a social interaction when there was none before. 
Having a substitute for real-life companionship; Siri. Using the media for relationships rather than real life people.
Helping to carry out social roles: People watch different things to what others watch, a teenager to a business person.
Enabling one to connect with family, friends and society; giving you something to connect to people with.

Entertainment
escaping, or being diverted from problems; you choose based on your mood.
relaxing; mood. 
getting intrinsic cultural or aesthetic enjoyment; listen to music you like, or music from around the world because you're interested and curious to find out about it. 

Mission Selfie - Example of a Short Documentary

Mission Selfie is an example of a Short Documentary that has influenced me when filming my short documentary.

I will discuss the codes and conventions of short documentaries, using this as the example, and how this has influenced my own piece.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/p044wdn0?suggid=p044wdn0


Here are some examples of side profiles, although in Mission Selfie the cameras are hand held by the camera men themselves, facing them, our shots aim to be similar to these.
Side profile shots used in this documentary allow the audience not only to focus on the narrator, but also their surroundings which are relevant to the content.

As well as side profiles we also plan on some of our subjects talking straight into the camera lens, through media close up shots, so that the audience concentrate on what they are saying and not the environment surrounding them. This concept is shown to the left, although a side profile shot, it takes in both of the narrators, because they are the only subject of the shot, as outside it is dark.





To the left is an example of what it looks like when the narrator is talking into the camera lens, face on.

Mission Selfie also uses subtitles, as shown above, to aid the audience at times when the audio is not as easy to understand because of diabetic sound interference. 

These subtitles are basic, yet easy to read. They do not detract form the shot, but also the text is big enough for all audiences. 

We plan to do the same in our documentary in parts where background noise is disrupting, some of our footage already shows signs of this, as we film in a typically noisy environment. 

These are two examples of how subtitles can be used to introduce people, or subjects into the
documentary. Here we see two different peoples names and their association with the content of the documentary. These kinds of titles are conventional to documentaries because they are a simple and informative way of displaying and reinforcing key information to the audience.

Main titles, such as the one shown on the left, are typical to modern short documentaries such as this one. The text style is minimalistic, basic, yet also pleasing to the eye. This is meant to engage the audience because they would not be drawn to watch something they did not like the look of. We must replicate this idea in our short documentary so that we can catch the audiences eyes as well.

Mission Selfie also uses a variety of different titles, this helps the audience differentiate between information, the finer details, such as peoples names do not obstruct the shot, whereas the key information, essential to the understanding of the content of the documentary is placed centrally and presented in a less passive way, shown below.  

Mission Selfie also uses shots to establish the location of the documentary by using natural signs, this shows the authenticity and realism of the documentary, a key code of documentaries. 

Codes and Conventions of Short Documentaries

In our short documentary we will be using some of these codes and conventions, for example the realism that is the basis of all documentaries. This means everything is original, the sound, lighting, no actors, instead we will film people in the street, and we will be filming outside. Filming these people we will use the technique of 'talking heads' asking them a question, and then letting them discuss their answer, into the camera lens. The realistic approach to the documentary will also be supported by text and titles, such as the questions we asked our audience.

Our documentary is a Reflexive Documentary, because it is a reflexion of what the subjects discuss with us.