Documentary Evaluation

Documentary Evaluation

 

 

Documentary Style:

 The documentary style that my documentary is, is an observational documentary as the audience are observing what the cats are doing. You can also say that my documentary is an expository documentary as I interview the cat owners and use their voices over the footage of the cats. I decided to do this because I wanted to make sure that my documentary was as real as it could be and because the expository and observational were the close's documentary to show the true way of life.

 

Topic:

I chose to do a documentary about cats and their owners because I have a cat myself and wanted to learn more about cats. As I had a cat myself I could feel personally connected to the documentary when making it. Doing the research before I started filming I found some information about cats that I didn't know like finding out there were 80 different kind of cats.

 

Camera:

I used a lot of close ups when filming my documentary as I wanted to see what life was like from a cats perspective. I think my documentary was a fly-on-the-wall documentary as sometimes the cats don't realise I'm filming them. I then had a medium shot of the cat owners for when they are talking about their cats.

 

Sound:

I made sure that I used a lot of ambient sound in my documentary because I wanted it to be real as possible. I did use a backing track of music which was on throughout my documentary but when we got feedback from our peers they said that I didn't edit the sound very well and that I should choose another backing track as it was too sad that it didn't fit with my documentary.   

 

Editing:

Editing is my favourite part of documentary/ filmmaking as you get to create how you are able to tell a story. Before I started editing I already had some ideas about how I would start the beginning of my documentary and when I made all the other part of my documentary I then worked on the beginning and it worked out exactly how I saw it in my head so I was most pleased with this part. What I did have trouble with when editing was transitioning to the next person. I think it ended up okay with how I transitioned into the next scene but some people didn't like it so I hope to change it when I re-edit it. When I was editing I found that I tried to relate some footage of the cats to the information that the owner was talking about.

 

Mise-en-scene:

When I was filming the cat owners I decided to film them in their natural surroundings, like on their sofa because I wanted them to feel relaxed so that when people watched my documentary they felt relaxed watching it. I also just wanted them to wear whatever they put on that day that I filmed then because it was more natural and felt more real. I had different types of people I interviewed for instance Ellie who was in her 20s was filmed on her own, Harry who was 17 was filmed on his own and then I filmed a couple, Hannah and Carl. I done this to show that cats are for all ages.

I am very happy with the finished product because I think that other than the music I edited all the other pieces I edited together fitted well. I'm also happy because I found working on my own a challenge and didn't quite know how I was supposed to do things but I without help I managed to do everything independently, so doing this unit helped me boost my confidence.