Documentary History Research

http://www.scribd.com/fullscreen/74935374?access_key=key-2jingfpq7rrs30apyqxc

This link is to a Powerpoint of research I did into the history of the documentary and how this applies to what I will be doing in my A2 Coursework.

Institution research

Media Institution Research

Institutions can be described as a set of rules that regulates and organises the structure of society as well as having a constraining and controlling effect on individuals. In the context of media however, institutions that produce media texts are the ones that are being discussed.

Media institutions can come under the categories of;

Internet

Print

Film

Music

Broadcast (TV and Radio)

The UK Film Council is a very important institution in the UK, it is important to remember that it is government backed and this affects the way that the UK Film Council is run and the rules by which it follows.

Around £54 million is distributed by the UK Film Council to help fund things such as;

Script Development

Film Production

Film Exportation

Film Education

Film Culture and Archives

Film Festivals and Audience Support Schemes

By distributing money to these things, The UK Film Council aim to build a competitive film industry with the creativity and skills to succeed, to stimulate greater choice for film audiences, to widen opportunities to learn about film and encourage more people to use them as well as promoting UK film around the world.

Film4 Productions “develops ad co-finances” films and is another media institution, although this one is independent of the government. One of their most popular releases this year is the infamous ‘The Inbetweeners Movies’.

Documentary Brief

7. Documentary Brief

‘An extract from a new documentary TV program, lasting approximately five minutes, together with two of the following three options:

A radio trailer for the documentary.

A double page spread from a listings magazine focused on the documentary.

A newspaper advertisement for the documentary.’

For my AS, I elected to undertake the fiction film brief and feel that the experience of creating the opening for ‘Wuthering Heights and Werewolves’ inspired a love of every element of the movie image production process. In order to further my skills and understanding of this genre, I have elected to create an extract for a new TV documentary program for my main A2 task. The reason I have chosen to go down the non-fiction route this year is because I have already gained a basic understanding of the processes surrounding the construction of fiction films and wish to explored a new genre in order to gain new skills whilst expanding those I developed at AS. I feel that researching the documentary genre will allow me to explore journalistic techniques alongside practical filmmaking and editing skills.  

For my anxilary tasks, I intend to create a double page spread from a listings magazine focused on the documentary and a newspaper advertisement for the documentary. I selected these tasks as opposed to the radio trailer due to technological constraints – I have no access to a radio recording studio so would be unable to produce a high quality product suitable for A2. Technological restraints aside, I am drawn to the other two options because I did not have much opportunity during AS to develop my Photoshop skills because I went with the film brief.

  I think there is a good deal that I could learn from doing this sort of documentary, I would like to try using ‘Adobe After Effects’ and improve my editing techniques on ‘Final Cut Pro’ as the main editing that I did was on the preliminary task of my As media project in which I chose to do film.

There are so many different types of documentaries around I am looking forward to doing some research because I have not decided on the specific sort of thing I want to document although I would really like to do something that could actually be used in real life
As I live in Cornwall it would be quite practical to do a documentary based on natural things or costal life, but I don’t think that is the sort of thing that I would be interesting. If I do a documentary about psychosis, I think I could combine factual elements as well as creativity to a point in the way that I could briefly show the world from a sufferer’s perspective.