Narrative Theory

Narrative Theory involves how stories help how people can view and come to terms with the world and the human experience as a whole. It explores how narrative in stories can help the reader relate the story to their own lives, and how deeper messages and meanings can be birthed from the story in relation to ones own story and life

Narrative Structure is the content of a story and the form used to tell the story rather than how the story is formed. Narrative Structure shows how the text generally describes the order and manner in which a narrative is presented to a viewer or listener.

A story arc (narrative arc) is a term for the plot pf your story. It is a continuous line from beginning to end, highlighting the rising, peak, and falling action. Story arcs can be shown in different forms, such as the most common form which would shown a mountain like structure, with the line rising due to the amount of action and suspense that is present in the story at particular times. Other story arcs show how happy a character in the story is, and consequently, how happy or sad the reader is. The work of Kurt Vonnegut shows this theory. It shows how every story can be put into one of these arcs, and tough many stories are vastly different, they can often be matched together as the majority of stories follow the same narrative arcs, such as the boy meets girl arc.

Understanding of bias in documentary

There will always be bias in documentary no matter how hard the creators try to avoid or deny it. This is because there will always be decisions about what to include in the documentary and what parts of the story to tell and further explore. This can be a problem, as certain documentaries about things that no one making it knows the true events of can shine negative or positive light on people that dont deserve that light.

An example of bias in documentary is the documentary about Michael Jackson, and the allegations against him, names 'Finding Neverland'. In this documentary, negative light and harmful allegations are thrown towards Michael Jackson, from the family of a boy that was supposedly affected. The reason there is so much bias in this documentary is because from the offset we are shown this boys life story and how innocent this little child is. Michael Jackson is portrayed as the Antagonist even before we see his side of the story, which we never even do get to see due to the fact that Michael Jackson, at the time of the making of this documentary, has already passed away. We never see the other side of the story, and this documentary is all about painting Michael Jackson as a very bad person, and not about finding the truth, which is what a documentary of this nature should be about.

Through watching this documentary, I understood that there will always be bias in documentary films, however there are things you can do to try to avoid this, such as tell both sides of a story, and play the devils advocate some of the time. This is why I attempted to approach my interviews as a completely unbiased individual, however I noticed in the editing process that I was keeping certain moments in due to how I felt about them and how they would sway the audience, and what emotions they would provoke. This wasnt dangerous to my documentary, however for topics such as the one in 'Finding Neverland' and also the R.Kelly documentary, bias can be very harmful.

Codes and Conventions of documentaries

The majority of documentaries are shot in a very similar way. There are some particular codes and conventions that documentary filmmakers use to create something that is recognisable are a documentary. One of these things is a narrator. Most documentaries make use of some sort of archival footage to tell the story they are trying to show. Alongside this footage there would almost always be a narrator giving information on what the audience is being shown. This narrator is almost always a man, with a deeper voice, speaking in a more serious tone. I have seen this in many documentaries, such as mini documentaries from news channels, crime documentaries and many others. The archival footage is used alot in documentaries about the past, or about things that the filmmakers themselves cannot go and film first hand, such as wars and a-list celebrities past and present.

Furthermore, interviews are a big part of documentaries. They usually entail the subject sitting down using a still camera, one directly facing the subject and another off to the side. There is usually dramatic lighting that allows us to see the subjects whole face depending on the genre of documentary, and a lot of J cuts, where the subject will be speaking whilst archived footage will be playing over the top.

Other examples of codes and conventions of documentaries are reenactments, which are mainly used in crime documentaries, music that often provokes emotions that the filmmakers want the audience to experience, which can drastically change the feel of an interview or segment of the documentary, and talking heads, which is when specialists will be interviewed, who may not have any relevance to the story at all, and are often used mainly for a more professional feel and for validation from the audience that the documentary is factual and researched

Beautiful Losers analysis

LIFT analysis

Potential Ideas and Finding Narrative

There are a lot of different genres of documentaries. Most of these documentaries follow a very strict and similar formula that makes them very recognisable. To prepare myself for this documentary project I watched a number of documentaries, such as 'Last Chance U Basketball' and 'Stutz'. I loved the way that Stutz was shot, as it is entirely in black and white, and very simply shot, but it makes use of the space in a way that creates a very intimate conversation between Stutz and Jonah Hill (Stutz is the documentaries' subject and Jonah Hill's therapist). I wanted to create this same kind of intimate, emotional conversation during my documentary, and so I found this documentary very helpful in my pre-production process.

Flat Earth, the untold truth

Sonder - a documentary

Memories

Keyword Definitions

Bias - prejudice in favour of or against one thing, person, or group, compared to another, usually in a way considered to be unfair

Agenda - a plan or goal that guides someone's behaviour and that is often kept secret

Stock footage - pre-filmed footage that can be purchased and used in a variety of projects and films

Archive footage - video clips that have been captured in the past

B-roll - all of the footage that isn't the main action

Interview - a meeting of people, either face-to-face

or online, especially for consultation

Vox Pop - popular opinion as represented by informal comments from members of the public, especially when broadcasted or published

Fly on the Wall - the factual, journalistic presentation of an account in a book or other text.

Infographics - Infographics are graphic visual representations of information, data, or knowledge intended to present information quickly and clearly

Font Creation

Seeing as I had already chosen my font that I would be using in my documentary, and I didn't see anything that I wanted to change about it and alter to create my own version of it, I decided to create a font that was completely different. I had an idea to make a font that was inspired by New York graffiti lettering. I chose a shape to set as a base for all of the silhouettes of the letters (I decided upon a triangle, as I was a fan of the base of the letters being disproportionately bigger than the top). I began to use the pen tool to manually draw out the shapes, using the mouse. This was a hard process, however I took my time, and was still able to create a font that I was happy with. The imperfections that came with attempting to draw with the computer mouse added to the graffiti effect, and I was overall satisfied with my alphabet.

I exported this template, that I had filled out in Adobe Illustrator, and submitted it onto the Calligraphr website. From there, I adjusted the lettering, which didn't require much altering, and I allowed Calligraphr to make my font come to life. I then downloaded my font and installed it to my computer. From there, I could use my font and type with it.

Job Roles in a small film crew

Media Researcher

Camera Person

Media Researchers support producers by finding information, people, and places for television or radio programmes

Media Researchers can earn from around £16000 - £40000, and usually work 38-40 hour weeks. This, however, is variable, and they can work over evenings and holidays if required

A camera operator films the actions of the actors and can have some say in where the camera sits and the way a scene is captured

A camera Operator can make from around £20000 to £32130

Director

A director controls the artistic aspects of a film and visualizes the screenplay whilst guiding the cast and crew to create and fulfill that vision

Editor

The editor receives the footage and cuts the clips together to bring the piece to life. They manipulate the plot, score and sound to refine the story and achieve the desired product overall

Lighting

Production Assistant

The production assistant assists the producers and directors by passing messages throughout the crew and running errands to assure that the production as a whole runs smoothly. Their job is very important within the crew.

Sound Operator

Sound technicians/operators are responsible for recording the voices and background audio, and deciding which microphones to use and where the best positions for the microphones are. They also need to monitor the audio level/gain to make sure that the audio isn't too loud or quiet.

Lighting technicians/gaffers are responsible for setting up lighting equipment, carrying out tests and positioning lights. They also create the perfect lighting to create the given emotion the director wants to portray in the scene.

Elements of a pre-production folder

Pre-production folders include all of the documents that are made in preparation for the filming of the documentary. These documents can help the cast and crew to understand what needs to be done and when. The pre-production folder will be very important in the actual production of the project, as it allows the director to focus on the present, as everything has already been planned out in depth and recorded in documents.

Some of the main elements of a pre-production folder are:

Budgets - how much money has been provided to create the project, and how that money will be allocated

Call Sheet - tells each crew member everything they need to know about a given shooting day, such as locations, scenes that need to be shot, weather details and more

Risk Assessment - Highlights all of the potential risks for all of the locations and elements of production and how they can be avoided

Treatment - contains a detailed play-by-play plan for how the project, when finished, will look and be created

Pre-production

SONDER - a documentary

The idea for this documentary was that I would look into and research the idea of sonder. Sonder is the feeling of the realisation that everyone around you, every stranger that you pass on the street, has a life of their own, as complex and important as your own, no matter how insignificant their role is in yours.

This idea has interested me before, as I feel that it is something that seems so obvious at first glance, but upon further thought, it opens up so many doors and allows for so many questions. For this documentary, I wanted to try to answer some of these questions that I have, and open up the audience to the idea of Sonder.

Whilst planning this, I realised that I was becoming more interested in other peoples lives, people who I would never normally even think about. I was passing people in the street and imagining the kinds of things they would tell me if only I spoke to them. With SONDER, I wanted to make the ordinary extraordinary, and take these strangers lives and experiences and create something that could potentially unite people.

I, along with a few classmates, travelled to Stratford to film interviews with members of the public. During this day of filming, I got 2 interviews with 2 strangers. I was happy with these interviews, but wanted them to feel more natural. Also, both of the subjects, despite me asking a wide variety of people, were both older. This was not so much a disappointment, but more a realisation, that older people feel more comfortable sharing things about their life, and were more trusting of us approaching them. I felt that this was necessary to include in the documentary, but I did want a wider variety of subjects to include.

For our second day of filming, we chose to travel to Camden Town for some more interviews. I also wanted some b-roll to add into any gaps in my documentary. We chose Camden, as it is full of interesting people, all with unique stories to tell. Whilst planning this trip, I highlighted to myself the fact that I was looking for some diversity for the interviews. I wanted people from all walks of life and all ages and cultures. We filmed with our phones, and recorded audio with a Tazcam. I found the phones to be easier to transport and more convenient when trying to capture spontaneous moments. There were also some cons to not taking a camera however. The main issue was that the Black Magic camera that we had used before could shoot in Raw, which allows for more freedom and much wider editing opportunities in post-production. We didn't allow this to stop us though, and I was still able to edit this footage to a good standard.

I also went out to film by myself. I went out to a local park and recorded long shots to use as b-roll and for my introduction. I had planned out what I wanted my introduction to look like, taking inspiration from the song of choice, which I had chosen at the beginning of the planning process for the project, and from two music videos that I have seen. I made sure to hold these shots for at lest 10 seconds so that I had enough footage in every shot to avoid having to alter or loop any footage.

First Draft (Master Cut)

I started a Premiere Pro project and began to add some of my footage to make an introduction. I edited it to the music of "Crown" by Kendrick Lamar, as the piano keys allowed for a natural but sharp cut between shots. I wanted the introduction to leave the audience thinking about what the documentary could be about. (I had already edited the introduction, but decided to change the aspect ratio from 16:9, to 4:3, for nothing other than a creative decision)

For the editing style during the introduction and throughout, I layered videos over the top of other videos. This was inspired by the music video for "East" by Earl Sweatshirt, edited and directed by Realest. It. was also inspired by the music video for "Family Ties" by Baby Keem, where the effect is used in a more streamlined manner.

The aspect ratio being at 4:3 was propelled by me seeing the work of Christian Waite, where he often uses this aspect ratio. I feel that the aspect ratio 4:3 eliminates a lot of space on the screen, and therefore allows you to draw the audiences focus even smaller, and gives even more meaning and effect to every frame that the viewers see

I added in the credits during the introduction, as I had planned for the documentary to end quite abruptly. I made sure to credit my classmates that helped me out, and state which job roles they undertook. For one part where I showed credits, I added a vertical video to the left hand side of the screen. It shows a billboard that states, "U GOTTA LOVE YOURSELF". It is a subtle nod to upcoming themes in the documentary, but may go unnoticed by audiences. Every clip that I show in this documentary has meaning, but it is up to the audience to assign them that meaning, as every viewer will interpret the documentary differently.

The actual title card is in the font, "Crazy Killer", which I downloaded from DaFont.com I like this font as it is very rough and handwritten, but is also readable. It gives a nice sense of being messy and rough, and I feel that it fits well with the very formal font that I have paired it with.

Once I had completed the introduction (which I did make changes to) I added in the 4 interviews that I had gotten. I had an idea that I wanted to edit them into three chapters, each named after an emotion or thing that their stories related to. This was what connects these strangers.

The first chapter would be titled, LOVE. I downloaded a template of a vintage projector, and added an overlay of light leaks and. dust particles, along with another overlay of damage and scratches. I used the song "PRIDE." by Kendrick Lamar, as it mentions Love, and has a nice beat drop, which I cut off by adding the sound of a camera shutter.

I edited the word LOVE to appear at the beat switch that the song includes, but made sure to cut the song off soon after with the sound of a camera shutter, as if the projector had been turned off. I did this in After Effects, then imported it into Premiere Pro.

I began to cut the interviews together according to what questions they were asked and what they said. I compiled all of the clips that were about love, and began to think about how the viewers would be experiencing their stories and what emotions they would be feeling.

I then made the second chapter, which would be called LOSS. I picked out a song that I would edit the chapter intro to, which is 'Pretty Sweet' by Frank Ocean. I think that it is very fitting that the song begins very wildly, but changes to a very calm and serene, bearable state, much like the stages of grief once you lose someone close to you. I reused the After Effects project I had already edited for the first chapter, but changed elements to make the introduction for the second chapter.

I once again compiled all of the clips that resembled loss, and edited them together, being mindful of their emotional stories, and trying to keep the order in which I show the people talking easy to understand for the audience.

I used the exact same process as I had for the second chapter intro for the third one. This chapter was called LIFFE, and would be the last chapter of the documentary. Coming off of a very sad note, the second chapter had ended in silence, so the third chapter would begin in silence also. I used the song, 'Count Me Out' by Kendrick Lamar for this one, as the beginning of the music video version of the song begins with Kendrick saying the word, 'life', and I made the. chapter's title appear when he said these words. The rest of the song is uplifting and hopeful.

I compiled all the clips about life to create the final chapter, and with that, the documentary master cut was finished

I colourgraded all of my clips and interviews, and made them look as close to my vision as possible. I was attempting to achieve the look of Donald Glover's Atlanta, with deep browns and somewhat heavy contrast, with the whites seeming almost yellow in most shots. I achieved this look with my footage that I had shot on the Black Magic camera, as it had been shot in Raw, which is easier to colourgrade to your liking, but the mobile phone footage was harder to match, but I tried my best, and overall acheived a look I was aatisfied with.

I got some feedback on my master cut, and it was overall quite positive, however, I did receive some criticism from this feedback, which I had recognised with my previous watch-throughs. I would amend these things in my Final Cut, but for now, my Master Cut was complete. I find that criticism is what I look for when gathering feedback, as criticism allows you to recognise flaws that you couldn't see prior, and in the loner term, criticism can be an artists best friend, as it allows for a better overall piece.

Final Cut

I copied everything from the Master Cut Premiere Pro project, and pasted it all into a new project. This would be my final cut, and I would amend everything that was wrong with the Master Cut. One of the main things was that the introductions for all of the chapters seemed too long. The issue with this was that I wanted the songs that they were paired with to go on for the amount of time I had allocated for them. I decided that instead of cutting them down, I would add to them. I added a new text layer and added quotes that included the titles of the chapters.

I also adjusted the volumes of all of the individual clips, so that they were all roughly the same level, and to make sure that the audio stayed consistent throughout. I did this by manually adjusting the audio gain of each of the clips, and by fading out the ends of certain clips by adding keyframes and adjusting how the volume changes throughout the clips. Once I had gotten to a consistent level, I made sure that the volume was loud enough when the computers volume was at 50%.

I adjusted the timing of some of the clips, made sure that everything seemed naturally transitioned, and even added. some b-roll to fill in spaces where people talk for an extended period of time. With this, my documentary was all edited nicely and I had fixed the mistakes that were present in the master cut. I had to be somewhat brutal wot my editing, as it was hard to cut out certain clips even though they would affect the viewers experience, as I had spoken to these people personally and didn't want their stories to go unheard.

I rewatched this final version many times before being happy with it, and I made changes all the way up until I was satisfied.

I also added a dust overlay and noise on top of the documentary and lowered the opacity, so there is a subtle but effective weathered effect as it it was shot on old film. This really consolidated my piece as a whole and was the finish touch to my finished documentary.

Reflection

Overall, I am happy with what I have done. I feel that I achieved what I set out to do, and created something that I can say that I am proud of. There are things that I know that I could have done better, and I realise that if I had more time to work on my documentary I could create something even better, though that is the point of the project. I am happy with the interviews that I have gotten, even though I know that I could have gotten more, which could have made for a better viewing experience, however