Inspiration Our inspiration for making a documentary, including key documentaries and presenters.
Key Documentaries ¤ Frozen Planet (2011) British nature documentary as a seven part series. Directed by Ray Dal and narrated by David Attenborough. ¤ Reggie Yates: Extreme Russia (2015-) Documentary TV series on BBC started in 2015 where Reggie documents different communities within Russia and the extreme conditions. ¤ Catfish: the movie (2010) Later created a TV series documenting different people’s experiences with online dating. Directed by Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman.
Presenters ¤ David Attenborough Attenborough has narrated many documentaries such as Planet Earth, Frozen Planet, Africa and other BBC series. He has written and presented the nine Life series with the BBC Natural History Unit. ¤ Reggie Yates Documentaries Yates has presented: Teen gangs, Extreme South Africa, Extreme Russia, Race Riots USA, Extreme Countries (and more) – All TV series on BBC Three
Micro Elements ¤ Sound Sound is important within a documentary, it is mostly non-diegetic for background music along with the narration. ¤ Editing The editing is minimal and simple. It is used to change shots between the presenter, stock footage, and the interview (interviewer/interviewee) etc. ¤ Camera Work The camera work , again, is simple and minimal as the shots are just of people talking about the subject or showing it. ¤ Mise-en-scene The location is related to the subject/theme. For example BBC’s Africa was set in Africa showing habitats, another example is a documentary about bullying would be most likely set in a school. The lighting is natural as interviews are meant to be personal therefore are most likely set in a house. Unless the interview takes place in front of a white background then there would be specific lighting to show the interviewee’s face.
Macro Elements ¤ Make Up There is little/no make up within most documentary as they are aiming to highlight how normal and real the subject is therefore if there was some make up it would be a natural every day look. ¤ Costume There is little/no costume within documentaries if the theme is real. For our documentary we would need some costumes as we need to use actors, for example a white coat for a doctor.