Subliminal Messaging:

A starter into our research for our new documentary.
We are interested in the ideas of subliminal messaging within the media, focusing around the ideas of size zero and the effect this can have on teenagers growing up.

Here are a few links to youtube videos I have watched as inspiration. They are rather useful when developing a wider knowledge into the ideas and the fasinations with subliminal messages:

Derren Brown:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJ1fyOWsrFY&feature=channel


Subliminal Messaging Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoOuXHlNErI&feature=fvst

The September Issue:

An observational documentary exposing the chaos, work and effort which goes into the production of Vogue's September 2007 issue. This film documentary, directed by J.R. Cutler documents the life surrounding the editor-in-chief Anna Wintour and her staff.

The documentary is seen as a literal version of the film 'The Devil Wears Prada' starring Meryl Streep, and written in 2003 by a former assistant of Wintour, Lauren Weisberger.

This is a good documentary to watch based on our early ideas for a documentary, as we are thinking of a subject concerning size zero and subliminal messaging in the media (magazines.)

Dispatches: Britain's Witch Children:

I didn't watch the whole documentary however, this is an influential documentary, especially when looking at the styles of expository documentaries as it incorporates the use of hidden cameras and uses techniques such as anonymous interviews and voice-overs.

I would love to use such techniques in our documentary if necessary as they are effective when uncovering any controversial issues for the viewer.

A good shot which was used in this documentary was a long-shot of an estate in London. In the very foreground just in front of the camera was a metal fence, yet the shot firstly focused on the building and then the focus changed to be focusing on the fencing. This shot was effective as a symbol for the imprisonment of these people who are trapped by their religion/beliefs.

Louis Psihoyos - The Cove

A True Stories Movie-Documentary that describes the illicit slaughter of 23,000 dolphins, annually at Taija, a rural Japanese cove.

This chilling film surrounding the topic of whaling was directed by former National Geographic photographer Louis Psihoyos and won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 82nd Academy Award.

The two hour long film is such a poigiant and eye opening documentary which exposes such tragedy and devastation.

It is an Expository Documentary, however it is also Observation.

This documentary is also unique as at times the people being interviewed are tricked or there are secret cameras used to undercover the footage, which makes it more engaging and intriging to the viewer who almost feels privaliged to be a witness to the evidence.

There are some good shots used in the documentary such as many sped up shots to show the passing of time and the credits are engaging through the use of music and editing techniques such as blur transitions.

An effective shot constantly used was of an area such as a busy city centre or a cloudy sky. The shot would be sped up to convey the passing of time and also how time is running out for their issue.

It is different to other documentaries I have watched as it is more like a film through the use of editing and shots at times.

Trailer >>>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYKNCN1ESZM

Mockumentary

Here is a Mockumentary Zoe, Calum, Jack and I made yesterday about 'The Boy Who Carries Around Personal Information Around In A Tube.' Mocking a boy's obsessions with a cardboard tube which he hides secrets inside. (Jack's idea.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEttmAcfNrg

The History of The Documentary:

The term documentary has evolved over the years as a 'film-making practise' and a 'cinematic tradition' which enhances audience feedback, before, during or after filming.

The word DOCUMENTARY was first originated in 1926 in a review of Robert Flaherty's Moana, published in the New York Times.

Pre 1900:

The beginnings of film development began prior 1900. People were beginning to test shots and single shot movements were being created and captured such as a train entering a station or a boat docking.

Very little story-telling commenced before the twentieth century due to technological difficulties, so in a way making it difficult to have audiences respond in feedback as little comment could be made.

Throughout the beginnings of the 1900's, documentary films were almost being made subconsciously, without being labelled.

• The french surgeon Eugene Louis Doyen started a series of surgical films, saying that even his own films helped him to correct professional mistakes/errors.


• Between 1898 and 1901, the Romanian professor Gheorghe Marinescu made several science films. The professor called his work 'studies with the help of cinematograph'

Romantisism:

With the help of Robert J. Flaherty's Nanook Of The North in 1922, documentary film embraced Romanticism. The documentaries usually showed how his people lived 100 years earlier and not how they lived right now.

This draws a link to the films made by Marinescu and Doyen as they are created in order to educate or inform audiences.

Here is a short clip of the documentary Nanook of the North (1921):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLERFRQl5EY

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Russia's developments in documentary film flourished in the 1920's with the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks party (1917) when heavy propaganda and controlling regimes were implemented.

Dziga Vertov was a Soviet Pioneer Documentary Film-Maker who worked central to the Soviet-Kino Pravda ("cinematic truth").

• He believed that the camera could render more of a reality than the human eye, yet his work completely juxtaposed this philosophy due to the propaganda used to brainwash the public.

A similar influence would have been Joseph Goebbels who worked as the Reich Minister of Propaganda under the ruling of the Nazi's throughout Germany.

He used his documentary propaganda, along with other sources to psychologically prepare the German people for aggressive war as well as accusing many German ethnics and national minorities (such as homosexuals, The Jews, The French and The Pols) of trying to destroy Germany, claiming any unjust actions as self-defence.

Here is an example of Goebbels's work:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-19ZztG13kg

Here is a clip from the film 'The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas', there is a good example of a remade example of a Nazi Propaganda film, promoting concentration camps in a documentary style.

(Skip to 1 minute)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lrCfyfukgA&feature=related

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Cinema Verite: (1950's-1970's)

Such technology advances meant there were not as many constraints against studio based film production. This meant that smaller crews could film on location where film-makers could take advances in technology allowing smaller, hand-held cameras.

This could almost be seen as the time when documentaries were split into sub-genres concerning degrees of involvement with the subject.

There are important differences between Cinema Verite and the North American 'Direct Cinema' concerning the ways in which it is shot with the use of interviews, observational styles, hand-held movement, on screen presentation etc.

Mockumentary

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