Category: Planning

Making of a documentary

Bill Nichols book: introduction to documentary (2001)

Modes:

Expository

Observational

Poetic

Participatory 

Reflexive

Performative

The expository mode:

Use of a narrator to address the audience directly and to present an exposition, or explanation, interpreting what they are seeing on screen.

The observational mode:

The observational mode (as technology advanced by the 1960s and cameras became smaller and lighter, able to document life in a less intrusive manner, there is less control required over lighting etc.

Rules or conventions: 

No music 

Not interview

No speech

The participatory mode:

The participatory mode (the encounter between filmmaker and subject is recorded, as the filmmaker actively engages with the situation they are documenting 

My Idea

Target – broadcast sports journalist

Three video segments about different London based football clubs.

Could work with Thaddeus to create a web base platform for print and video based journalism.

Going to pubs to interview the landlords about match day business.

West Ham, Crystal Palace, Arsenal, THFC

Look at Soccer AM. Football for fans not for news headlines.

Could still ask questions about drinking, violence lack of women. Is it child friendly?

Documentary – What is the role of football in the local community?

Your local community is Chingford. Might be a starting point?

Start with a vox pop asking who people support in your area and why?

Tribalism? Or common love of the game?

Cutaways, experts, talking heads? Ask A Sociology Lecturer and Psychology Lecturer their expert opinion