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.