My group have produced a short part of a paparazzi documentary to experiment with interviews, lighting and other effects. From this i have been able to list all the good and bad points but also improvements so when we film the main documentary we will know how to make it look as good as possible as we have experimented before.

Shot 1
good -shows main title in a simple form so easy to read
bad -music of a film roll as it does not relate directly to the paparazzi
improvements -make the title stand out by making it bigger and brighter
-shorten the length of the title
Shot 2
good -sfx to look like a camera flash
-sound of a camera shutter to match the flashes
-relevant paparazzi pictures
bad -pictures are very quick
-only show pictures of paparazzi not celebrities
improvements -show pictures of both to show the documentary is not bias
Shot 3
good -sub title shows the name and profession
-idea of the lighting
-off centred to the right showing which side of the argument he has
bad -sub title takes up a lot of the room
-big gap between head and top of screen
-gap between him and right of screen
improvements -smaller sub title
-shine a light on one side of interviewies face
-position the camera better- to the right and lower
Shot 4
good -lighting, natural light by window-relevant to topic
-positioned to the left to show opposing side
bad -jolty zoom
-gap between head and top of screen
improvements -smoother zoom
-better positioning of camera
Shot 5
good -same as shot 3
-split up his interview to keep audience intrested
bad -same as shot 3
improvements -same as shot 3
Shot 6
good -positioned to left showing same view as celeb
-good positioning
-shows small amount of interviewee walking to show they are public
bad -to hear the question wastes time but is needed for approaching public
improvements -possibility of using sub titles when talking to public as speech is not always clear

Paparazzi idea and Star Documentary

Paparazzi- initial ideas of which we should include

• hand held shots- chasing celebrities
• location shots
• interviews-celeb, paparazzi, public, lawyer
• Current topics- Susan Boyle, Katie and Peter and Michael Jackson
• reconstructions
• special effects- public eye
• suspense built with music

The next stage in my research is to study any previous documentaries or clips on paparazzi to look at specific codes and conventions. I could also look at articles and other media texts to get more information.

Paparazzi related Documentary

I have researched into a past documentary on the paparazzi and have listed names of interviewies who i wil get more information on and maybe even try to contact them for some information on paparazzi.. the list includes John White, Darren Banks and John Roca.

Key conventions of the documentary:

• old footage
• zoom into pictures
• explore different types of paparazzi

1. spotters
2. car spotters
3. paparazzi spotters
4. red carpet
5. celebrity
6. people-razzi

• shots of chasing celeb
• advert of a celebrity publicising themself

This Documentary has given me an intial insight into the relevant style of documentary for the paparazzi, which has a fast pace with lots of interviews. As i am restricted in my time i will have to use a sufficient amount of interviews but also include other information etc.

The next stage is to produce an initial storyboard.

Sophie x

Ideas

Above i have created a mind map of initial ideas for our documentary. I was able to produce this eye catching and colourful mind map by using the website www.worditout.com
Initial ideas included documentaries on...

Fashion, Newspapers, Economic decline, abortions, a day in the life of..., Shepperton studios, Olympics, swine flu, binge drinking, drugs and media.

From media, we then narrowed it down to paparazzi. We have chosen this idea to research into further as there are many points of view on this topic, available information, current topic and is all round an interesting subject.

Research cont.

I have listed all the documentaries i have seen and noticed the wide scale of documentaries being broadcasting. I have also listed all the main conventions of a documentary:

1. Talking heads- direct to camera
2. Hand held cameras
3. voice of God/narration
4. obscure shots
5. audio not always clear
6. presenter
7. 2 sides of a story
8. realism- lack of glamour-people and setting
9. equilibrium/ disequilibrium
10. Interviews use lighting effectively and usually shot in 1/3

Michael Moore and Louis Theroux

Michael Moore
Michael Moore is an academy award winning American filmmaker, author and liberal political commentator. His most popular documentaries are Sicko, Fahrenheit 9/11 and bowling for Columbine.

Fahrenheit 9/11

• slow music to build up to the speeches to build tension
• extreme close up on eyes to show them jolting, which is normally related to someone lying
• uses a lot or irony, ends on Bush talking about a serious matter 'I call upon all nations to stop these terrorist killers...Thank You.. now watch this drive(golf)

Louis Theroux

Louis Theroux is an American broadcaster who is best known for Louis Theroux Wierd Weekends and When Louis met...

Africa(Racism)

• 'exposing'
• follows one person around
• lots of location shots
• interviewees take up 1/3 of shot
• as its a documentary, the public can be unpredictable and in this documentary they are filming an interview when a man walks in front of the camera then ducks.

From studying these two documentary styles i have been able to see that each documentary takes its own style in shooting and editing. I have also realised we must be prepared for the unpredictable public whilst filming. When relating these to the paparazzi documentary we are planning i think neither of the documentaries would be right for paparazzi.

Sophie x

Nick Broomfield

Background information
Nick Broomfield was born 30 January 1948, and is an English documentary filmmaker. He films with a minimum of crew just himself or on or two cameramen which gives his documentaries a distinctive style.
He has 8 awards and 10 nominations for his films. Broomfield has an idiosyncratic approach to observational documentary makes his film stands out. Nick Broomfield has explored topics such as urban blight, marriage counselling, unconventional sexual practices and the changing world of South Africa.

The selling of a serial killer by Nick Broomfield

• insert clips from old news reports
• shots of newspaper headlines
• police footage of her confessing
• interview with lawyer, lawyer doesn't talk to camera
• digetic music turns into non digetic
• Nick Broomfield is seen in the shot holding a microphone
• a lot of travelling shots from in car
• aim is to expose a shocking story

Nick Broomfield is an inspirational filmmaker and from this research i have studied the aim for a documentary, being able to capture an interesting or shocking topic but showing opposing views through interviews

Documentary research

I have researched into past documentaries to analyse the codes and conventions, to be able to apply these in my own documentary...

Cutting Edge

• Voice of God
• have subtitles for the interview as speech is not clear
• majority of shots on mise en scene as they want to set the scene and show the environment surrounding
• panning shot over map to show location
• out of focus shots give show viewer a distorted shot
• cross dissolves separate the different stories
• non digetic loud music represents youth and celebration of the boys release
• dialogue starts in interview but carries over other shots as they do not want to lose the viewers interest
• the interviewee is off set to one side
• distorted shot to hide identity
• include pathetic fallacy of weather

South Bank

• includes a presenter, left third of screen, shot of head to torso
• handheld cameras
• point of view shots
• more than one camera used to show different angles

The Hutton Enquiry

• split screen shows four locations
• narration sets the scene, voice over
• reconstructions

Arena

• Uses old footage
• text over pictures
• extreme close ups
• interviewee not looking to camera

From this research I have been able to identify some key codes and conventions of documentaries such as the positioning of the interviewee and the majority of shots being of mise en scene and location