What is a documentary? How do we start?
doc·u·men·ta·ry
/ˌdäkyəˈment(ə)rē/
noun
noun: documentary; plural noun: documentaries
1. a movie or a television or radio program that provides a factual record or report.
Picking a topic (excerpts from http://www.wikihow.com/Create-a-Good-Documentary-Film):
A documentary is any non-fiction video or film that informs viewers about a real-life topic, person, event, or issue. Some documentary films provide us with educational information about things that aren't well-known. Others tell detailed stories about important people and/or events. Still others try to persuade the audience to agree with a certain viewpoint. Whatever subject you choose, filming a documentary can be a serious undertaking.
Your documentary should be worthy of your audience's time (not to mention your own). Make sure your topic isn't something mundane or universally agreed-upon. Try instead to focus on subjects that are controversial or not-well known, or try to shed new light on a person, issue, or event that the public has largely made its mind up about. In simplest terms, try to film things that are interesting and to avoid things that are boring or ordinary. This doesn't mean your documentary has to be huge or grandiose - smaller-scale, more intimate documentaries have just as much of an opportunity to resonate with an audience if the story they tell is captivating.
Though documentaries are educational, they still have to hold the audience's attention. Here, a good topic can do wonders. Many documentaries are about controversial social issues. Others are about past events that stir up strong emotions. Some challenge the things that society views as normal. Some tell the story of individual people or events to make conclusions about larger trends or issues. Whether you choose one of these approaches or not, make sure you pick a subject with the potential to hold an audience's attention.
Good documentaries almost always have a point - a good documentary may ask a question about the way our society operates, attempt to prove or disprove the validity of a certain point of view, or cast light on an event or phenomenon unknown to the general public in hopes of spurring action. Even documentaries about events that happened far in the past can draw connections to the world today. Despite its name, the purpose of a documentary isn't just to document something that occurred. The objective of a documentary shouldn't just be to show that something interesting occurred - a really good documentary should persuade, surprise, question, and/or challenge the audience. Try to show why an audience should feel a certain way about the people and things you're filming.
Box office analysts have noted that this film genre has become increasingly successful in theatrical release with films such as Fahrenheit 9/11, Super Size Me, Food, Inc., Earth, March of the Penguins, Religulous, and An Inconvenient Truth among the most prominent examples.
Acclaimed director Col Spector says that, along with not choosing a worthy subject, not asking any serious questions and not choosing an overriding theme are two of the most serious mistakes a documentary filmmaker can make. Says Spector: "Before filming, ask yourself, what question am I asking and how does this film express my worldview?"[1]
Topic Selection Exercise: Excerpts from "Teaching Youth Media" by Steven Goodman
You are media literate.
Media literacy- The study of media produced messages and their effects on mass audiences.
Class discussion point: What effects can you observe from media messages? Does media influence your culture? How?
Example
(Observation: This is a controversial social issue that might stir up strong emotions (provoke). This might challenge things that society views as normal. The following point can lead to people telling stories (or filming events that have a story/point) to make conclusions about larger trends or issues.):
"Media uses culture for sales."
Popular culture is infatuated with the delinquent teenager.
This can be traced back to the 1950's "Rebel Without a Cause": Teenage Terror Torn from Today's Headlines. Popular culture is infatuated with gripping stories that advertise a way of life for teenagers to emulate, a youth culture of alienation, rebellion, and style.
Disposable income allows teens to buy their identity and participate with youth culture. Fashion, music and automobile industries advertise to the youth market. Kids ages 4 to 12 spent $2.2 billion in 1968 and $4.2 billion in 1984. By 1994 the figure climbed to $17.1 billion and 3 years later reached $23.4 billion. Teenagers spent $155 billion in 2000. Teens influence parent spending. There is no age group more involved in trends than teens. Teenage trendsetters effect the national economy in a big way.
The disaffected minority teenager is the most influential trendsetter. The raw and irreverent hip hop culture has a major impact on consumer preferences in the general market in the United States and worldwide in a wide range of industries including apparel, footwear, soft drinks, packaged foods, personal care products and all facets of the entertainment industry.
Marketers stalk teens for trends. Massive amounts of research helps sell products. Make it cool, don't let marketing show. Plaster your brand name on every surface, create promotional media kids won't see as commercials; and infuse the message with antiestablishment attitudes.
Each time teens create a new unprocessed expression of pleasure and angst-such as rock, heavy metal, punk, rap and hip-hop-these expressions are appropriated and sold back to them in malls as products to consume. The commercial machine they try to escape is always right behind them, ready to sell a new rendition of cool.
Media teaches kids to preoccupy themselves with the consumption of what is selling to them: a cultural triangle of of fashion, music and sports-and not necessarily to think critically and express themselves articulately about life. That job, in theory, falls to the other system of education: public schools.
Media teaches consumption and literacy of images and products; schools must teach literacy in everything else to prepare students for work and citizenship.
Communication Technology class teaches the skills needed to deliver a message with popular media. This gives students the power to produce messages to influence and entertain mass culture.
A producer, author and artist can be fluent in multiple literacies and frame their own place in society.
Shift your role from a participant in culture to that of a participant-observer. De-familiarize the familiar taken-for-granted conditions of life around you.