For the pre-production of my project, I needed to watch some relevant documentaries to see what the techniques used in them were, and how they can be used effectively.Doing this is much better than reading about the techniques, as I am able to get a better sense of how to use them and the effects that they can cause. I also wanted to try and find some examples to watch that where spaced out in time, rather than being set and filmed near the same year. I feel that doing this can greatly help me, as it will allow me to see how the documentary genre has changed its way of filming over the years. I also want to find documentaries with a similar focus to mine, being a social issue or inspiration, because if I start taking notes on how a wildlife documentary uses certain techniques, it is not going to help me out as much as something more similar to mine.
The first documentary that I watched was called 'The Centre', and was released in 1948, and was a Central Office of Information film that was made for the Foreign Office. The documentary is about the story of the Pioneer Health Centre, Peckham. The Centre was designed and equipped as a community club where the whole family might enjoy their leisure together. This was a real place in Peckham, and was called the Peckham Experiment, which was designed to determine whether people as a whole would, given the opportunity, take a vested interest in their own health and fitness and expend effort to maintain it. I chose this because I wanted to watch documentaries that were not set in a more modern time in order to compare the techniques used in them, and also because it is a similar length to what we are allowed to have our documentaries. it is also about a community club, so is a similar subject to my documentary.
From the start, I can see some of the typical techniques used by documentaries, such as a narration of some of the history of the subject, with different shots being shown when the topic is changed, such as groups of people walking around when the narrator talks about the centre being for families, and various shots of the children playing while they are being talked about. One thing that I noticed was that while the narration is occurring, there is no background noise, from either the action in the shot or some overlay music. There is also the fact that the voice of the narration changes throughout the documentary. At around the 3:30 mark, the male voice of the original narrator ends, and then a female voice starts a few seconds later, when the shot changes to night time. I did not expect this to happen, as I do not often see this used in documentaries. This is done to change the tone of the documentary, as with the male voiceover, he was talking about the club overall, and what occurs there. However, when the female narration takes place, the documentary goes closer to the people of the club, and actually focuses on one family who are thinking about joining the club. It shows them walking around the club being shown what is available, and what each of the family members like the look of. Also, due to the audience being taken closer to the action, there is background noise heard over the narration, which immerses the audience into the story more.
At the 5:20 mark, there is an interview between two of the doctors at the centre and the new family, the Jones'. The interview is shot in a typical shot-reverse shot style, however the camera placement is slightly off. When the camera is pointing at the family, it is behind the right-hand side of the doctor. However, when the camera is pointing to the doctor, the camera is positioned between the mother and father of the family, so is slightly off where it would usually go, which just breaks the 180 degree rule. I do not think that I will be trying to break this rule in my documentary, as I feel that it would make some of the cuts between shots not look right, so mess with the flow of my film. I mostly plan for the interviews in my documentary to be single-shots, with action shots over the top of the interviewee giving answers. I want to do this because I do not plan on having a presenter, so the camera would have no need to change positions and focus on another person.
The documentary takes the audience through several different emotions and thoughts. We get to feel happy when we see what the family life is like , but we also feel sad when we are told that the mother of the family has a slight back problem, and that she may have a small operation to fix it. We feel this way in this scene because we are able to see the way that this news affects her, which is a really good technique to use. I have tried to see if there is anything occurring at the lunch club, such as a birthday or an event, as I felt that this would be a good focus point for my film, as it could introduce a few challenges that the volunteers have to overcome. However, there were no such things occurring, so I had to leave that idea.
This documentary also conveys the passage of time really well. The whole film takes place over several months, but connects between these times really well. This is done by keeping a decent amount of either action or information being shown to the audience, along with the narrators giving some hints at time passing, such as them saying that the father comes in every week to pay for the family's club subscription.
Overall, this documentary uses numerous techniques that make it engaging for the audience, while also providing a lot of information. I can see that there are some techniques that I may use in my film, but there are also some that I will not be using, such as the passing of time, as the club is the main focus of my documentary, and even though I will be shooting on two days that are a month apart, I do not want there to seem like time has passed. I will not need this for any other point in my film, as it will mostly be interviews, so time will not need to be shown to pass.
Full documentary at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6aiCK3PGfs
The first documentary that I watched was called 'The Centre', and was released in 1948, and was a Central Office of Information film that was made for the Foreign Office. The documentary is about the story of the Pioneer Health Centre, Peckham. The Centre was designed and equipped as a community club where the whole family might enjoy their leisure together. This was a real place in Peckham, and was called the Peckham Experiment, which was designed to determine whether people as a whole would, given the opportunity, take a vested interest in their own health and fitness and expend effort to maintain it. I chose this because I wanted to watch documentaries that were not set in a more modern time in order to compare the techniques used in them, and also because it is a similar length to what we are allowed to have our documentaries. it is also about a community club, so is a similar subject to my documentary.
From the start, I can see some of the typical techniques used by documentaries, such as a narration of some of the history of the subject, with different shots being shown when the topic is changed, such as groups of people walking around when the narrator talks about the centre being for families, and various shots of the children playing while they are being talked about. One thing that I noticed was that while the narration is occurring, there is no background noise, from either the action in the shot or some overlay music. There is also the fact that the voice of the narration changes throughout the documentary. At around the 3:30 mark, the male voice of the original narrator ends, and then a female voice starts a few seconds later, when the shot changes to night time. I did not expect this to happen, as I do not often see this used in documentaries. This is done to change the tone of the documentary, as with the male voiceover, he was talking about the club overall, and what occurs there. However, when the female narration takes place, the documentary goes closer to the people of the club, and actually focuses on one family who are thinking about joining the club. It shows them walking around the club being shown what is available, and what each of the family members like the look of. Also, due to the audience being taken closer to the action, there is background noise heard over the narration, which immerses the audience into the story more. 
At the 5:20 mark, there is an interview between two of the doctors at the centre and the new family, the Jones'. The interview is shot in a typical shot-reverse shot style, however the camera placement is slightly off. When the camera is pointing at the family, it is behind the right-hand side of the doctor. However, when the camera is pointing to the doctor, the camera is positioned between the mother and father of the family, so is slightly off where it would usually go, which just breaks the 180 degree rule. I do not think that I will be trying to break this rule in my documentary, as I feel that it would make some of the cuts between shots not look right, so mess with the flow of my film. I mostly plan for the interviews in my documentary to be single-shots, with action shots over the top of the interviewee giving answers. I want to do this because I do not plan on having a presenter, so the camera would have no need to change positions and focus on another person. The documentary takes the audience through several different emotions and thoughts. We get to feel happy when we see what the family life is like , but we also feel sad when we are told that the mother of the family has a slight back problem, and that she may have a small operation to fix it. We feel this way in this scene because we are able to see the way that this news affects her, which is a really good technique to use. I have tried to see if there is anything occurring at the lunch club, such as a birthday or an event, as I felt that this would be a good focus point for my film, as it could introduce a few challenges that the volunteers have to overcome. However, there were no such things occurring, so I had to leave that idea.
This documentary also conveys the passage of time really well. The whole film takes place over several months, but connects between these times really well. This is done by keeping a decent amount of either action or information being shown to the audience, along with the narrators giving some hints at time passing, such as them saying that the father comes in every week to pay for the family's club subscription.
Overall, this documentary uses numerous techniques that make it engaging for the audience, while also providing a lot of information. I can see that there are some techniques that I may use in my film, but there are also some that I will not be using, such as the passing of time, as the club is the main focus of my documentary, and even though I will be shooting on two days that are a month apart, I do not want there to seem like time has passed. I will not need this for any other point in my film, as it will mostly be interviews, so time will not need to be shown to pass.
Full documentary at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6aiCK3PGfs
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