Michael Moore

Basic Facts

* Born in 23rd April 1954

* He is an American filmmaker, author and political commentator.

* He is the director of 4 of the top ten highest grossing movies of all time.

What makes his documentaries unique?

* In his documentaries he critizied globalization, large corporations, the Iraq War, George Bush and the U.S Government and healthcare sytems.

* He narrates in first person.

* He always puts his own opinions and views into his documentaries.

* His documentaries always shock as he often voices his views on subjects that nobody else would dare.

Some of his biggest hits include:

-Fahrenheit 9/11 - This focuses on America after the 9/11 terroist attacks, and explores the alleged links between the families of George Bush and Osama Bin Laden.

-Sicko - A controversial film exposing the American Health System. It is ranked the 3rd highest grossing documentary of all time.

This is a trailer for Fahrenheit 9/11

Louis Theroux

Basic Facts

* Born on 20th May 1970 in Singapore

* He is a British-American broadcaster

*He once worked on Michael Moores' 'Tv Nation'

What makes his documentaries unique?

* He is most famous for his daring documentaries on controversial topics - for example prostitution and paedophilia.

* He often puts people on the spot, often making them uncomfortable while he asked them very honest and personal questions.

* He is known for asking the questions that the viewers are thinking.

* His style is usually reflexive as he takes part in the documentary, and is seen on screen.

One of his most famous documentary series is:

'Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends'

This is a television documentary series which gives audiences a look into societies and situations they would never usually come in contact with. They explore very controversial topics, and usually feature taboo topics, and people with extreme beliefs who are frowned upon by the public.

There are 3 series, each with 4-6 episodes. Some examples are:

- 'Porn Stars' (S1E3) - Louis looks at the different sides of the porn industry.

- 'Black Nationalism' (S2E3) - Louis goes to New York to meet American Black Nationalist groups, who are branded by the media as misogynist, homophobic, anti-semitic and racist.

- 'Gangsta Rap' (S3E6) - Louis goes to the Southern states of American, known as the 'Dirty South'. He explores the world of gangsters and the rap scene, and he attempts to record his own rap lyrics and learns what it takes to brand yourself as a rap artist.

A clip from 'Gangsta Rap' :

Nick Broomfield

I have begun some research into influential documentary makers who I think would be beneficial to study.

Basic Facts

* Born 1948
* He is an English documentary film-maker
* He has been awarded the BAFTA Life Time Acheievement Award


What makes his documentaries unique?

* He is best known for his reflexive style of documentary making.
* He films with minimum crew - often just himself and a camera man
* Occasionally he can even be seen holding the sound boom

*He has has a great influence on the documentary world, inspiring other documentary makers such as Michael Moore and Louis Theroux who both use a similar style to Nick Broomfield.
*Some of his most famous documentaries include:
"Kurt and Courtney" (a documentary focusing on the death of Kurt Cobain)
"Biggie and Tupac" (a documentary exploring the mystery surrounding their deaths) and
"Aileen - Life and Death of a Serial Killer" (a documentary following the life of Aileen Wuornos on death row after being sentenced to death. Broomfields documentary was shown in court as part of her defence)

http://www.nickbroomfield.com/AWLD_trailer.html

Link to the trailer for "Aileen - The Life and Death of A Serial Killer"

The Rise of the Documentary Timeline

[Please click the double arrow button at the top of the timeline if you can't see all the posts.]

I wanted to create a timeline to show to history of the documentary. I looked at lots of different websites and to find the best one to make my timeline on.

- Time Toast (www.timetoast.com). I decided not to use this website as I didn't like the layout and found it difficult to use.

- http://www.teach-nology.com/web_tools/materials/timelines/. I decided not to use this as I thought the timelines looked too plain and boring and I wanted to make one which was more interactive, with pictures.

- I finally decided to use www.timerime.com as I found this the easiest to use, and I liked the layout. I also liked how I could put pictures with each event.

Word Cloud

I created a word cloud of all the words I could think of relating to documentaries. This helped me to begin my research and helped me remember what I already knew about the subject.

Word cloud made with WordItOut

Research

For my advanced portfolio I will be creating a 5 minute extract from a documentary.

What is the purpose of a documentary?

Documentaries are created for many different reasons:

-They can record, reveal or preserve events and situations
- Some are made to pursuade or promote
- Some analyse situations or interrogate particular people or situations
- They can also express the documentary makers' own personal views or opinions

What are the different types of documentary?

Reflexive

In a reflexive documenaty, the film maker would acknoledge their presence in front of the camera and give some sort of narrative guidance. Nick Broomfield is a good example of a film maker who makes reflexive documentaries. He is known for his controvercial method of film making, as he is in front of the camera and is a casual interviewer. Sometimes he takes part in the activities he is documenting, so he can get a real inside look but still remainins detatched and impartial.

This is the trailer for Nick Broomfield's documentary 'Biggie and Tupac' which investigates the conspiricy surrounding the deaths of the two famous rappers.

I created a powerpoint explaining a bit about reflexive documentaries.

Poetic

This is style which focuses more on a story, and are usually human interest stories rather than current affairs. They aren't usually in a typical documentary narrative style and are sometimes seen as 'avant-garde' - sometimes pushing boundaries and experimental. They usually try to create a particular mood by using music to provoke the audiences feelings. Channel 5 is known for it's poetic documentaries. At the moment Channel 5 is showing a series of documentaries called "Extrodinary People".
Below is a link to the Extrodinary People website, which allows users to watch all the documentaries in the series online.

http://demand.five.tv/Series.aspx?seriesBaseName=ExtraordinaryPeople

This is a clip from YouTube about a blind boy who sees through sound and smell, from the Extraordinary People Series:

Expository

This is consodored the classic form of documentary. They usually include a voice over which addressed the audience directly (often in the form of a 'voice of God', where the filmmaker can express their views and commentary without being seen or a hidden voice of authority - usually an expert in the subject who is seen and heard). As the name suggests, most aim to expose a situation or person so the viewer sees it/them in a new light and has their opinions swayed.

An example of an expository documentary is 'An Inconvenient Truth' by Al Gore. This is a classic expository documentary because Al Gore is the 'voice of authority' and uses a verbal commintary, supported with images and video clips to argue his views on global warming.

Observational

Observational documentaries are characterised by having a 'fly-on-the-wall' presentation. They usually include very long takes, which are intended to imply that it is uncut and true to life with very little editing. Often a hand-held camera is used to follow the action which make the documentaries seem more 'real'. The filmmaker doesn't intervine with the action - instead they just record what is going on. Interviews are not common in observational documentaries as subjects generally pretend they are not being filmed. This mode of documentary relies on the audience understanding implied meaning and suggestions and usually viewers are left to make their own decisions and form their own opinions about the footage they have seen.

An example of an observational documentary is 'What Katie Did Next' - a documentary following Katie Price.