Documentary analysis

Documentary analysis

• 1.
  Albert Casals｜ Howto Travel the World in a Wheelchair presentation analysis By Owen Maers
• 2.
  Exposition – introducingthe character In this documentary, we follow the story of a wheelchair bound Spanish man called Albert and how he fights against Leukaemia to live his life long dream of travelling the world. This shot shows us the standard documentary style shot which is a slightly side on angle as the character speaks diagonally across from the camera (I will use arrows to help explain this). This is combined with voiceovers to provide the standard documentary style. This is a narrative technique used to keep documentaries interesting and the image will often link to the subject of conversation. Angle of speaking Angle of CameraIn our short film, I think we will apply this technique if we work with a single artist as it is most effective at filling the space and providing good shot composition. However, if we document a band then I feel a front on approach is more applicable as it is more effective at filling the space on the screen and gives equal importance to each member (as it is face-on).
• 3.
  Landscape establishing shots Theselong shots show us the extent of his travelling while also providing an impressively beautiful shot to watch. It’s also used a transitioning shot for a change in topic conversation as at one point it moves from how he repairs his wheelchair to where he will travel in the future. This gives the documentary a sense of journey which helps us apply it to the narrative triangle. This an example of a narrative technique in the documentary genre
• 4.
  The genre conventionof a voiceover has been used very effectively as each shot is individually brilliant in explaining the story. This shot is effective as it pans around the wheelchair as we see him through the spokes of the wheels. This shot then rotates round the wheelchair so we can see the man sitting on the hill. This has provided inspiration for our own film as these voiceover shots will be used frequently in our documentary. Examples of this could be – at a gig, in the studio, walking around town, meeting people etc. These will constitute for the main shots in our short film as we want a 70% voiceover – 30% interview style as our balance.
• 5.
  Relating his storyto a book he has written, this is a form of promotion and opens up pathways for the audience to find out more about the main character in this story. As this is a short film, I imagine they had to keep this part brief – if it was a feature length they may have had more time. In our short film documentary we could use the artists music in the background or record a gig and studio session so that this could be used throughout the film as a form of promotion for the artist/band. I feel that this would be part of the attraction of making a short film with us as they could use it as a promo film to show to companies and to promote their band in the MacMillan to 200 people. I picked out this shot specifically as I really liked the way the sun glare was used and the silhouettes present make it a beautiful shot. The composition is also good as it applies rule of the thirds meaning there is no “dead space” in this shot. This is something we will have to take into close consideration with out film as the best documentaries have good shots that are appealing to the eye and sometimes they can lack emotion, conflict and suspense. This is something me and Greg have struggled to create, a strong narrative within a documentary and I feel like good shot composition can help to achieve this goal.
• 6.
  Old footage ofeither the character as a child/their family/or old friends and allows more emotion to be inserted into the film and adds more of a journey to the narrative. Time must be compressed in short films so these quick parts of old footage allows the creator of the film to tell a lot about a character without a complete flashback and explanation. The phrase an image can say 1000 words comes to mind here. This short section of old footage tells us the character is caring for his family, that he used to travel with his dad and that he sees him as a role model. This is something I would really like to try in our short film. And here is how I would do it. What I would like to do is explore the backstory of the band/artist, if they have footage of a concert the played when they were much younger we could use that or footage of them to show their passion for music. We could even use footage of the band as friends messing around to show their tight nit friendship between them – this would add a lot to the narrative