3rd year Project: Pre-production - Case study Research - Part 3

The final case study that I researched was an American student documentary called 'Where will the frogs go', and told the story of a small town in Nevada that became a hotspot for local miners who were heading for Bev's Miners Club. It was a place that the people, both men and women alike, could drink their whiskey and stand together sharing gossip. Sitting like this, these “Friendly Old Retired Geezers” are able to escape the reality that their rural town is dying, withering away beside the Black Rock Desert.

I chose to watch this documentary for several reasons. The first is that unlike the previous two case studies that I have researched, this one is made by a student, so is relevant to what I am doing as there are going to be differences to how a student makes a documentary compared to an experienced filmmaker's techniques. I think that this is good because I can see what a documentary can look like what made by someone nearer the skill level as myself.

During the first few minutes of the documentary, it can be seen how important the bar is to the people who frequent it by the way that they talk about it. Your can hear the emotion in their voices when explaining things like why they come to the bar and experiences that they have had there throughout the years. This adds a lot of depth to the story as there is a real emotional connection between the people in the film and the bar. Because my film is a tribute to my nan, I did think of the idea of having an emotional connection with my film, however I eventually decided against it as I felt like I would be talking more about her rather than the importance of the Lunch Club, which is what I wanted to do.

Bev at her leaving party in the bar

There is also the use of archive footage of the bar in the past, which really adds to the overall tone of the documentary as it helps us to see what journey the bar and the people who go to it have been on. This is first seen during the interview with Bev, the bar owner, and is helped by the fact that she is a very likeable person, so the audience is interested in her and the bar, so are more likely to pay attention. I did not think of including videos or photos of the club in the past, but I wish that I had as I feel like they would have been a great addition to my film as I am sur that there would have been people in them who you would see in my documentary, which would strengthen the point of how important the club is for people. 

Melissa talking about Bev

In this documentary, there is an interview with a woman called Melissa Edgecomb, and she talks about how she met Bev and what she does for a living. I feel like including her in the documentary was a good technique to use, as it gives a bit of age difference between the people who are interviewed, as it is mostly older people that are the focus of the film. I could not do this as much in my documentary, however I saw some opportunities to interview people who were a lot younger than most of the people at the Lunch Club, so I managed to do a quick interview with the two of them. These interviews were very informative as they were able to provide a different angle to what the club means to people.

In this documentary, we see that Bev sells the bar after owning it for 46 years and retires, but the film carries on so that we see what life is like without the bar. It can be seen that retirement is something that Bev is not used to, as she mentions earlier in the documentary that she sometimes worked 24 hour shifts because the bar became so busy, so to go from that to slowing down like that is very difficult for her. I am not able to use this technique as the club was still going during the time that I was filming it, however if the club were to close down, which I hope it doesn't, I think that this would be a good piece to include in my documentary. 

Full documentary - https://vimeo.com/195720216

From watching these three documentaries, I can see that there are differences in the styles that they have and the techniques that they use. I feel like I have been able to see what works well for a documentary, and also what could work if used in my own documentary. I have also been able to see that some ideas that I had before filming would not work as well as I thought they would, and this is due to seeing how these techniques add to the story of the case study documentary that they are in.