1.3

 

Research Project

Case Study: Stacey Dooley 

Case Study: Louis Theroux

Case Study: David Attenborough

Case Study: Documentaries about People

Case Study: Why Are Documentaries Made?

Chosen ones:

1.2 Case Study: Stacey Dooley

1.3 Case Study: Why Are Documentaries Made?

Mark Scheme

UNIT 12
Specialist study in creative media production	1. Understand the principles and practices of a chosen discipline in creative media production.	1.1 Critically describe a range of contextual perspectives influencing a chosen discipline in creative media production.
		1.2 Apply knowledge of critical perspectives to inform own practice.
	2. Be able to locate and evaluate information from a range of sources.	2.1 Identify a range of relevant academic and cultural sources for a personal research project.
		2.2 Critically evaluate information from a range of sources to inform ideas.
	3. Be able to communicate ideas and arguments in a variety of forms.	3.1 Apply academic conventions in the production and presentation of ideas.
		3.2 Effectively communicate ideas in appropriate formats.

Context

1.1 Critically describe a range of contextual perspectives influencing a chosen discipline in creative media production

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

Documentaries have been around since 1895 however, the first documentary was not classed as a documentary as people would call it ‘actuality films.’ These were created by the Lumiere brothers as they would film very short clips of real-life events. No one had made short films like these before, so it was something new for everyone to watch and it might have inspired people to then make ‘proper’ documentaries. Then in 1922, Robert J. Flaherty produced a documentary called ‘Nanook of the North.’ This was the first ever ‘proper’ documentary to be made. Flaherty filmed this by having actors act out the scenes but as the audience have not seen documentaries before, they thought the scenes were real. The first documentary to be political is called ‘Triumph of the Will’ which was created by Leni Riefenstahl in 1935. The use of camera motion was never seen before which made it so popular with the audience, and the fact it was the first documentary to be about political propaganda. Ever since this documentary was made, people have been inspired to create documentaries that are political as it is very educational and popular to watch. This clearly shows that back when documentaries first started, they were all mainly about politics or the war. A man called Grierson created a documentary called ‘Night Mail’, which talked about how the mail from London gets to Edinburgh. The reason why Grierson made this documentary is because he strongly believes that ‘documentaries should be used to educate, as well as entertain’. From hearing Grierson stating, ‘documentaries should be used to educate’, it makes me realise that documentaries were made to educate the audience on stuff going on in the world and not many where filmed to have fun as most of them were serious topics. However, in the 1980’s this all changed as Mockumentaries came about. These were made to just entertain people in a comedic way. This style is created by having a fictional story and have actors pretend they are in a documentary when in fact it is all made up. It is filmed so realistically that the audience can take a while to figure out that it is all fictional and is meant to just keep them entertained not to educate. The first Mockumentary to be popular is called ‘This is Spinal Tap’. This shows the audience the lives of the band but as it is a Mockumentary, it is all fictional. Since the 1980’s, Mockumentaries have gotten even more popular as more have been made even as TV series. Some famous ones are: The Office  Summer Heights High Arrested Development Parks and Recreation Come Fly With Me People clearly find these entertaining to watch but it does go against what Grierson believes in as it does not educate people in the slightest. Even though documentaries have evolved by making them into mockumentaries as well, there is still a lot of documentaries being made to educate people. For example, the famous David Attenborough has made so many documents about nature and the planet. The documentaries David Attenborough makes are very popular across the world which means many people are being educated. Overlooking into why documentaries are made, back in the early 1900’s they were made to educate people but now they are made to educate people still but also to entertain. I think this is the reason why people are still interested in documentaries as over the years they have become more adventurous and fun which makes them more interesting to watch.

THEORETICAL CONTEXT

The question ‘Why Are Documentaries Made?’ makes me immediately think what they do for people. From researching the ‘historical context’ I learnt that documentaries have always been there to educate the audience but also entertain. I found a blog that is an anonymous author, that agrees with the fact that documentaries are there to educate people. However, on the blog they state that documentaries are ‘a great way to gather with friends to watch and engage around the important issues of our time’. This statement shows us that documentaries should be discussed with one another as it is good to hear other people’s opinions and views on topic’s, especially politics. By hearing other people’s opinions/views it can help people to realise that not just one opinion/view is right, so it helps educate the other possibilities that people have not thought of, but others have. This makes people more open minded.   I read an article in which another anonymous author also agrees with the fact documentaries are made to educate people. On the other hand, they also believe documentaries are there to ‘show some urgent troubles in the world.’ This opinion the author has is telling us that people should be aware of the stuff going om around the world like global warming, lethal diseases, sex trafficking etc. The author thinks that ‘you don’t really do anything about it until you get confronted with touching stories in documentaries.’ This clearly shows that when people are not being told or shown on what bad things are going on in the world, then they do nothing to help as nothing is persuading them too or they just are not educated on it. However, when documentaries are about issues in the world, they are made to aware people so that they can do something about it like donating to charity or cutting out plastic for example. The author Nick Frasor wrote on ‘The Guardian’ an article titled ‘Why Documentaries Matter’. He points out ‘the best are unusual, persuasive, seductive’ when talking about documentaries. These three elements are what Frasor believes to be the best elements to use if you want a good documentary. The term ‘unusual’ means, to create a great documentary, you will want it to stand out and be different to all the other’s with having a slight quirkiness to it. This will keep the audience interested. Whereas by using the element ‘persuasive’, it will make the audience believe in the documentary of what it is about, so they feel passionate about it. However, Frasor believes a great documentary should have the element of ‘seductive’ in it because it will make the audience feel connected and excited as it is having that type of feel to it.

 

Relate perspectives to FMP

1.2 Apply knowledge of critical perspectives to inform own practice.

HOW THIS MIGHT INFORM YOUR PRACTICE

From what I have researched, I am going to be taking away the knowledge to help input into my own documentary. I learnt that documentaries are made to educate people but also entertain. A lot of people believe in this and there has been many documentaries made that uses this convention. As I want mine to be as professional as possible, I will make it so that it educates my audience as my documentary will be about mental health. I want to also entertain my audience so they do not get too bored which is why I will use images/footage that is not part of the interviews, so it gives something else for the audience to look at. I found out other documentaries do this too which I have taken note on.

 

Sources (Harvard referencing)

2.1 Identify a range of relevant academic and cultural sources for a personal research project

SOURCE 1	Emerson, V., 2021. The Evolution of Documentary. [online] Slideshare.net. Available at: <https://www.slideshare.net/victoriadoesmedia/the-evolution-of-documentary-15930009> [Accessed 8 February 2021].
SOURCE 2	Towlson, J., 2021. A Short History Of Documentary. [online] Slideshare.net. Available at: <https://www.slideshare.net/jontowlson/a-short-history-of-documentary> [Accessed 8 February 2021].
SOURCE 3	Blogger, G., 2021. Why documentaries have the power to change the world. [online] ONE. Available at: <https://www.one.org/international/blog/why-documentaries-have-the-power-to-change-the-world/> [Accessed 8 February 2021].
SOURCE 4	StudyMode. 2021. Why Documentaries Are Important Essay - 340 Words. [online] Available at: <https://www.studymode.com/essays/Why-Documentaries-Are-Important-1122761.html> [Accessed 8 February 2021].
SOURCE 5	Frasor, N., 2021. Why documentaries matter. [online] the Guardian. Available at: <https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2011/mar/20/documentaries-brian-cox-nick-fraser> [Accessed 8 February 2021].

2.2 Critically evaluate information from a range of sources to inform ideas.

Evaluate sources and their use/relevance

EVALUATION

I found five different websites to help me research the historical and theoretical context sections for my FMP. I found each of these useful in their own ways and have learnt a lot from them. For the historical context section, I used two different website which where titled ‘The Evolution of Documentary’ and ‘A Short History of Documentary’. Both are from the same website called ‘slideshare’, this website allows people to upload their own slideshows they have created to share with the public as it might help educate them. The first one I found was ‘The Evolution of Documentary’. With this slideshow I found it helpful to find out how documentaries have changed over the years. This made me realise how much more popular documentaries have gotten recently and how many more types there are now than their used to be. However, with the other slide show it allowed me to discover how documentaries first started and by who. It also taught how different they were back in the early 1900’s which allowed me to compare to how they are now. I found the website ‘slideshare’ a very useful format to read articles because as they were in a slideshow, the paragraphs were sectioned off with a title for each part, so it made it easy to read and follow it and easy to find a piece of information again if I went of it. Onto the theoretical context, I found the article called ‘Why documentaries have the power to change the world’ because it made me think outside the box. It made me think like this because it explained how it is important to discuss one another views and opinions on a documentary as it would allow people to see it from a different perspective. This made me realise that documentaries can be a very strong talking point so making a documentary that is important and has an impact on people is effective to do. The next article I found explained that the audience should help and make a difference when hearing bad things going on in the world. People do not do this unless they are ‘confronted’ by watching documentaries the unknown author explained. This article is called ‘Why Documentaries Are Important Essay’ and it I will use this article to my advantage as my documentary will be about mental health so the audience might feel the need to help people suffering from this. This will show that my documentary will raise awareness which is my aim. This article was written quite bluntly so it got to the point quickly which made it easy and straight forward to read and understand it. The last article I found was from ‘The Guardian’ which was written by ‘Nick Frasor’ with the title called ‘Why Documentaries Matter’. At one point in the article, he briefly explained the three elements a documentary should have which are ‘unusual, persuasive, seductive’. In some ways I do agree with Frasor here that these elements are important as they do make a documentary good however, I do not think that all three of these elements are necessary to be used in one documentary. The reason why I think this is because documentaries should be personal to the person making it, so it feels rawer so if they do not want to include all these elements then they should not have too. Looking back on the research I have gathered up; I have learnt a lot from it all and will use it all to my advantage for my FMP.

 

Presentation of ideas

3.1 Apply academic conventions in the production and presentation of ideas.

3.2 Effectively communicate ideas in appropriate formats.

Here is where you need to bring in your research to present your ideas to your supervisor.

You might want to use a writing frame such as

My FMP idea is

A key quote is this

Which is useful/relevant because

I will be reacting against

I will be following the genre of ____ but developing it by ______

The main thing that interests me is

This relates to my research on

Where I found out

Some other practitioners disagree, and say

I would argue

The way I see this project is

I could relate it to the theoretical perspective of (eg) narrative construction because my character follows this arc, the story ends like this… the inciting incident is

To conclude, my research will be highly useful because

MY FMP IDEAS

My FMP idea is to create a seven-minute-long documentary where I interview three people. The topic will be mental health as I will be asking them all questions about how they are coping with Lockdown and with the current pandemic which has been going on for over a year. By having the topic mental health, it relates to my research on why documentaries are made as I learnt that they are made to educate people. My documentary will show the interviewee’s in a vulnerable place as they will be talking about their feelings and what they have been through so the audience will learn how much Lockdown and this pandemic has affected people and their mental health. A key quote from Source 4 ‘you don’t really do anything about it until you get confronted with touching stories in documentaries.’ Therefore, I want to make my documentary educational as there are people out there that need to realise the effects this lockdown/pandemic has had on people and they can help people from learning about it. As well as educating my audience I also want to entertain them. From Source 1, which is called ‘The Evolution of Documentary’, it taught me that back when documentaries first started, they were there to only educate but as years went on, they started to be more fun and creative which is the reason why I believe documentaries are more popular now than they ever have been. I will use this knowledge to my advantage to ensure that I make my documentary entertaining to watch by using images and footage that is not from the interviews. This will make it more interesting to watch. To conclude, my research will be highly useful to me as I now know documentaries are there to educate and entertain the audience so will make sure I do that. I also now know that documentaries are meant to be talked about and raise awareness so will make mine stand out from the crowd.