Unit 9- Social Issues

Documentary reviews analysis

Planet earth 2 BBC (2016) - Iguana vs Snakes

In this review they have included their own experiences and feelings towards the documentary which is quite obvious as you would write what you experienced when watching something, they have also used used many words which contain terminology which shows how passionate they felt about this documentary, another thing to mention is that the reviewer has brought up the point about snakes and iguanas which suggests that this is what the main story is about and that's the title of the documentary and each documentary includes a narrative/s and story/ies.

The reviewer has mentioned that the BBC 1 version of Snakes vs Iguanas in the nature documentary show "Planet Earth 2" is better than the original version of the documentary about Snakes vs Iguanas. 

Constructivists

Solomon Telingater

Solomon Telingater was born on 12th May 1903 in Tbilisi, Georgia and died on 1st October 1969 in Moscow, Russia.

Telingater spent his years of education at the Vkhutemas school where he studied Higher Arts and Technical Studios from 1920-1921.  

After school he started off producing advertising types and hand letters then went on to become a book designer and illustrator. 

The word belongs to Kirsanov,  This is a painting produced by Solomon Telingater which was made in the year 1930,  

Portrait de lenine,   This is also another work of Solomon Telingater which was producing in the year 1923,      

                                                                                     

Pioneer! Be Ready to Become an Active Member of Trade Union,   This is one of the many works of Solomon Telingater which was designed in the year 1924.  This poster was created to inform and persuade people to join a campaign that promoted change in government and to rebel against the current government to create new ideologies for a new and better government.

 

Elements of identity

The definition of identity describes who you are and how you represent yourself,  examples of  an identity is the name, age, gender, race, religion and personal beliefs.

The purpose of identity is to give you an idea of which type of social group/audience will be when presenting or promoting a product and this can include age, gender and race, it is also important to know what type of product a certain type of social group/audience will be interested in and you can this by planning surveys.

This social group organisation includes people beside the logo and the logo itself includes the number thirty eight and the word degrees next to it which suggests that all the people behind the logo have something in common and they're campaigning for fairness/equality, also to promote peace, to take care of or preserve the planet, to defend the rights of vulnerable people and to publicise or widen democracy across the United Kingdom.  

They have also added the word "you" to promote to people that come across this organisation to join or to support them in their campaigns, there is also a power of three in the organisation logo which just means that there is three words that a make a stronger meaning and this is useful to use when promoting something as it makes the audience remember better and it stands out very well.  

A lot of the text is written in capitals and the text is large which is needed when promoting something or when the audience is reading. 

B-roll introduction (bullying/Beautiful)   

Bullying documentary

In their documentary they have made many interviews from people who have different backgrounds and different ages which is to say that this topic affects anyone and everyone. The way that they have carried out the interview is standard like any interview is done, the interviewer of this documentary has even allowed the interviewees to share their own opinion/s.

They have asked a sufficient amount of questions to interviewees and the more answers they receive the more research they will have, the interviewer has also included some B-roll footage and when the topic of the documentary is talked about in the interviews he uses B-roll to reference the topic that is being talked about.

They have framed the interviewees from the side and the front using the camera to capture footage of what they are saying and how their emotions are shown when answering, also for example if they use any hand gestures.  The three point lighting used in this documentary is key light and fill light and the styles of lighting used is rembrandt lighting and natural lighting.  The questions asked by the interviewer were very clear and straightforward, the interviewer asked many questions and in return had lots of answers from the interviewees which gave him more research to use.  

The interviewees are looking towards the interviewer as they are having a conversation except for one interviewee as he was looking at the camera and the camera was over the shoulder of the interviewer so the interviewee was still looking at the interviewer but the camera was over the shoulder of the interviewer so it makes it seem like that.

The producer adds presentations of the questions in the documentary in between the interviewer finishing off asking a number of questions to an interviewee and moving to asking another interviewee. It does change the flow of the documentary as it gives a break in between one interview and the next interview.

 

Beautiful Documentary

In their documentary they have interviewed people from different backgrounds also different shapes and sizes as the topic in this documentary is universal and affects everyone.  The interviews carried out in this documentary are standard they include everything that an interview requires and lets that interviewees express their own opinions while answering the questions.  They have also included some B-roll footage which is real life footage that gives relevance towards the topic of the documentary.

They have framed the interviewees from the front and the side to get footage of them answering and to see their expressions of how the feel about this topic especially when answering and also see their hand gestures if they make any. The have included three point lighting such as key light which focuses on the subject and fill light which adds emphasis on the subject for example it can be used for facial expressions or reactions, they also used types of lighting such as natural lighting and high-key lighting.

The interviewer asked a multiple amount of questions that were really good in which they got great answers to use for their research and that way they will have a lot of research and in depth research depending on how specific the questions are.  The interviewees are all looking towards the interviewer but they would look away for a few seconds when they are thinking and then look back towards the interviewer and this is natural reaction as many people do this.

The producer includes presentations of facts and statistics in between one interview and another interview when there are breaks and also adds a few quotes by celebrities and famous people.  It does change the flow of the documentary as it gives a break for audience to look at something else while transitioning from one interview to another and it is more interesting.    

Type Poster Illustrator

This is a poster experimentation that I produced to explore what I could do when making a poster such as changing and practicing on using different types of font types and changing the colour of the text and  trying out different effects on the text such as making all the characters capital not just the first letter of the text.  The reason why we created posters was to create and experiment with text on a poster to see how we produce a poster and how we would use text when we create a poster for our chosen topic.

Surrealism

Surrealism is an artistic movement founded in the 20th century which revolves around the idea of producing artwork that uses realistic places or objects but is expressed in an imaginative way which doesn't fit in reality or isn't realistic. 

Surrealism is used in campaigns to promote their idea by making creative designs that are out of reality to promote something out of the world as people would like to use their imaginations sometimes and it also promotes the idea of using object or image and to depict and opposite meaning.  

The purpose of this poster is to inform people about the differences between poor people and rich people and how poor people go to bins and look for stuff and rich people throw away things that are even sometimes necessary.   I was intrigued by the designers use of two designs on the poster one of them which is large and the other little on the top right of the poster and he used both of his designs to create a contrast between them because two people are using the same thing but for different reasons.

Demographics and psychographics definition

Types of Research Part One

Why is research important when making a documentary?  Research is essential in documentaries as the purpose of a documentary is to tell real life stories with facts and the audience would mostly want information as well as a little bit of entertainment as people would like to have knowledge about something they are interested in.    

What are the different types of research?   There is primary research and secondary research for primary you have to research by yourself where you make questionnaires, surveys and interviews.  Secondary research is research where you find about something through someone's research.

  

Types of Research Part Two

What is a Vox Pop? Vox pop/Vox populi is a latin word which stands for the voice of the people. What is

Why do we enjoy documentaries? We enjoy documentaries because it is entertaining but most importantly because it tell us facts and statistics about 

What are Psychographics?

Documentary Codes and conventions

Task 1

What makes a documentary a documentary?

What is a documentary?  A documentary is a film about real life situations which consists of interviews or A-roll which is footage that focuses on the main subject where at the end you receive different narratives from different people who have their own opinion, as well as research of facts and statistics of people who have witnessed an event or events forehand about the topic that you are researching and it also consists of real life images and footage which is called B-roll which essentially relates to the topic of your footage and is included in editing when placing in between one interview and another, it also makes the documentary more interesting.

How do you expect a documentary to be constructed?  I would expect a documentary to be constructed of interviews and images or footage of real life issues in between interviews when there are breaks between one interview and another, I would also expect that the questions that are going to be asked to the interviewee to be included in the documentary and facts and statistics that you have researched as secondary research as the interviews will act as primary research because you are interviewing people who have or who know someone who has experienced a certain issue.

What events often happen in a documentary?   The events that goes on in a documentary is an introduction to the documentary then we see footage of the first few questions that are going to be asked then the interview begins the questions are asked the interviewee answers.  After that there is a short break and in that break there is B-roll footage then we return back to the interviewee answering the rest of the questions then there is a longer break than the short break where you can include more B-roll footage, images or footage of the questions that are going to be asked and you can overlap them with B-roll footage you can also have facts and statistics in that break from you secondary research then you move onto the next interviewee and ask them the same questions in the short breaks you can use B-roll footage or footage of the next set of questions then you return back to interviewee answering the rest of the questions.  Then when you have made a number of interviews and have received primary research from your interviewees from their answers and you have you used B-roll footage to give a break to your audience and to remind the audience of the topic of your documentary and have used footage of the questions that you would have asked the interviewees then you can end the documentary with the title of your documentary and the credits.   

Task 2

Case Study 1: Happy - A Mental Health Documentary

What is the documentary genre for this television documentary?  The genre for this television documentary is biographic/autobiographic

What conventions of a documentary does it use and why?  The conventions used in this documentary are talking heads which are referring to the interviewees, there is also another convention which is voice-overs this uses the narrator's voice to explore and go into depth about a certain topic or facts that were researched about a story that happened and can include images, it also uses archive footage which is basically facts/statistics of files/documents which include information about a certain subject of case.   

What documentary modes are used and why? Give evidence that includes screenshots to confirm your answer(s).   

Give one specific area that this student documentary could be improved? It could be narrative structure, camera/sound recording or editing.

Case study 2: Just Skate - A Skateboarding Documentary

What is the documentary genre for this television documentary?  The genre for this television documentary is biographic/autobiographic.

What conventions of a documentary does it use and why?  This documentary uses re-enactments as we can see actions of people which relate to the topic of this documentary,  it also uses another convention which is voice-over narration which describes details of the images or footage that is playing which only uses the voice of the narrator.

What documentary modes are used and why? Give evidence that includes screenshots to confirm your answer(s).    The mode used in this documentary is performative as it includes people who express their ideas and opinions based upon their life experiences and how strongly they feel about the topic, this affects the director as he would have brought in people who have similar feelings towards this topic and the director holds this very close to him as it is personal.

Give one specific area that this student documentary could be improved? It could be narrative structure, camera/sound recording or editing.  I would say the editing because as I watched the documentary there were many gaps, in terms of the transitioning of one scene to another the screen is blank. 

Extension Task - Case Study 3

What is the documentary genre for this television documentary?  The genre for this television documentary is crime.

What conventions of a documentary does it use and why?  The conventions used in this documentary is archive footage and this is footage that has been recorded of documents or files that are old, the director has also used police interviews, expert testimonials and voice overs

What documentary modes are used and why? Give evidence that includes screenshots to confirm your answer(s).   The modes included in this documentary are reflective 

Give one specific area that this student documentary could be improved? It could be narrative structure, camera/sound recording or editing.

Designers and Social issues

Adbusters is a Canadian non-profit pro environment organisation founded in 1989 and it is based in Vancouver, Canada.  It was founded by man called Kalle Lesn and the other man who is the co founder called Bill Schmalz. 

This organisation focuses on making media products such as posters which relate to society where they produce a design to do with society and they use text with their design or images they have used on their poster to create meaning to their works and promote a message to the audience who see these posters to get them to think and question themselves.      

This is one the posters of adbusters which displays a really large burger with text at the bottom the message of this poster is asking a rhetorical question regarding the image on the poster and the designer of this poster went to look for an image that is large as it will create a lot more of an effect on the audience and he has also gone for an image which most people can relate to.  The designer is trying to get across to the audience that don't we have enough food to be satisfied why do we want more and the designer is also trying to get across that don't we food with big portions why do we want food with bigger portions.  

 

This poster displays four different images from four different companies which include text on them and the designer has managed to figure a way to use these for different images to create a message out of them which says work, buy, consume and die referring to one of the most commons habits we have in society meaning that we go to work get some money then we buy products and consume them which makes us addicted to it and die interns of not actually dying but dying inside with our physical health, mental health and our immune system. 

Planning a documentary

6/10/23

Chosen topic: Covid-19

secondary research:

https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/   

gov.uk for data of coronavirus shows 149,398,324 of vaccinations have been given in the uk and only 3,854,903 booster vaccinations are given in the uk. 

Val

https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/coronavirus

what is covid-9? How did it spread? what are the symptoms for covid?

Covid-19 is a virus which emerged during the end of 2019. Coronavirus first started to spread in Wuhan, China, although it was it always around in the labs during the 1960s. It can be spread by sneezing, coughing and breathing when around other people.

After effects experimentation

https://youtu.be/5D-47QqBgwI

This is a short video I created to practice on adobe after effects where I made a new project, then included a mask and I changed the opacity of the mask between every few seconds, I also added key frames to the mask between every few seconds and what this did was make the mask appear then after a few seconds it disappears and so on and so forth.

Free solo

I do not believe it was ethically correct to record Alex Hannold's free solo climb of El Capitan as it is life risking and can influence other people to climb without the safety equipment.  Alex is risking his life however this is something he enjoys. The directors/filmmakers of the film can be seen as taking advantage of the situation to make money. I believe this is highly unprofessional and unethical because if Alex died they may have still released the film to make money and would probably have got sued by his family.  I wouldn't film a documentary like this as it could influence young people and children to partake in dangerous activities like this. Also I do not think this is entertaining to watch.  There are far more entertaining activities to talk about to influence children and young people to do great things.

Experimental Jetset

Experimental Jetset is a graphics design studio based in Amsterdam, Netherlands and it was founded in 1997.  Their works revolve around the idea of turning or transforming text into an image to create meaning.   

This poster has large bold text which every design requires so that any individual who sees this poster will be interested in it and it is also spaced out and isn't overlapping with other text which may confuse the person.   They have also used two colours to let the person read it in many ways not just from one angle for example they have used green for the word "anti" and blue for the word "bodies" which can make you read it as two words instead of one.

Blackfish analysis (DDS)

Documentary topic survey/primary research 

Campaign pitch feedback

This is the feedback I got from my campaign pitch it says its clear what my campaign is about, it says that 

Campaign name feedback

This is the feedback I got for my campaign name one person said the second option although many other people said the first option face to face.

Campaign name

Campaign logo

Doc - risk assessment

Call Sheet

Questions for documentary

1. What covid is and how is it spread?

2. Lockdown and how it affected people's lives such as work?

3. Vaccines and have you got vaccinated if yes why? if no why?

4. Did you wear a mask and do you think was effective?

5. Social distancing and do you think it was effective?

Storyboard for Documentary

Social Media videos

The requirements for social media videos varies depending on the platform for example YouTube

shorts the length is one minute, for Instagram reels the length one minute thirty seconds, Facebook fifteen seconds, Twitter two minutes twenty seconds.   The structure, the slogan, message of the video and the music.

Infographics

The content on this page is mostly images that display graphs and statistics, they also include text with the graphs and statistics to give information about what the topic/sub-topic is about and where the source is from, they have also used different colours to capture the audiences attention and it is well structured.   It is for research if someone was interested in researching this also for a person who just wants to learn about it and keep it in their knowledge

Topic research

https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/   

gov.uk for data of coronavirus shows 149,398,324 of vaccinations have been given in the uk and only 3,854,903 booster vaccinations are given in the uk. 

Val

https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/coronavirus

Covid-19 is a virus which emerged during the end of 2019. Coronavirus first started to spread in Wuhan, China, although it was it always around in the labs during the 1960s. It can be spread by sneezing, coughing and breathing when around other people.

https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/covid-19-epidemiological-update---24-november-2023

Deaths around the globe from the beginning of the covid 19 pandemic

According to WHO, between 23rd October - 19th November 2023 there were half a million new covid cases.  Since 19th November there have been 772 million cases, with 6 million in deaths.

Region: Americas    Country: United States of America   There has been a total of 61, 942 hospitalisations in the past month.

Region: Americas    Country: Honduras    There have been a total of 70 hospitalisations in the past month.

Region: Africa         Country: Mauritius    There have been a total of 24 hospitalisations in the past month.

Region: Africa         Country: Burundi       There have been a total of 0 hospitalisations in the past month.

Region: Europe        Country: Estonia        There have been a total of 355 hospitalisations in the past month.

Region: Europe        Country: Lithuania     There have been a total of 340 hospitalisations in the past month.

Documentary Script

Documentary Rough Cut Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwPNNAJKytg

Documentary Final Cut Video

https://youtu.be/VRrxBBzlKdo

Documentary Evaluation

 

The aim of my documentary was to spread awareness about covid and to educate people who don't know about and new news and updates coming up about it and send a message to the people to stay safe and take measures in order to become safe.  The components of my documentary are made up of an introduction, interviews, b-roll footage, music, voice over and ending/credits. The genre is factual and the convention is autobiographic/biographic as it uses real-life experiences and statistics.  I chose this topic as everyone around the world could relate to this issue especially in the UK as I had to pick a topic which was one of the issues happening in the UK.  I gathered secondary research from websites like the NHS and WHO organisation and for primary research as I did a survey and got the rest of my primary research from the interviewees. The skills I used for this documentary are filming skills and editing skills such as the positioning of the lighting and what type of light also the positioning of the camera and the microphone. Also the cutting and trimming of the footage and the titling of the documentary with the text of the credits of the music and the people involved in the filming of the documentary.  The strengths I had was the planning of the documentary such as the call sheet, risk assessment and the questions. I made a storyboard and illustrated the order of how I want the events of the scenes to play in and followed it the whole way through and stuck to it.  

The tools I used for editing was the move tool, the cutting tool, the text tool and to colour tool. The techniques I used was the gaussian blur, frame size/s and audio gain/control. The programs I used were Adobe Premiere pro, adobe audition and adobe photoshop. The research I carried out was both primary and secondary research and it influenced my production and final product by informing and educating the audience about topic they might not have heard much about and even younger generations as they grow they might be interested in reading about this topic, my primary research was surveys and interviewes as for secondary research it was looking at statistics from the NHS website and WHO website. The purpose for research in my documentary to give context of what the overall topic is about and the information about the facts and statistics of the topic to give the audience knowledge about the subject whether they are seeking it or not.  The problems I faced was that I had less time to prepare because I was researching at the time and planning the documents but I overcame that by shooting my documentary outside of lesson times. The time it took to research was good also the time it took to produce the documentary in terms of the time plan and how long each scene lasted for.  I completed the documentary very well even for my rough cut. It communicates my ideas very well as my documentary covers everything I was aiming to include in my documentary.  The things that went less well was the scenes in one of the interviews where I couldn’t resize the image to fit the frame because one of the interviewees top part of the head was trimmed off due to the cameras positioning and zoom and the quality of the rough cut wasn’t that great because it looked a little bit grainy and blurry.  If I was to produce this again I would improve on repositioning the camera and the settings on the camera I would also probably improve on the repositioning of the scenes in terms of adding more B-roll footage in between the scenes of each interview to create more and spread out B-roll footage.  Also improving on techniques video quality, the framing of my scenes and the voice over.

Campaign Poster

Evaluation of Social Issue Campaign

 

My campaign includes everything that other campaigns have such as a title, logo, slogan/message and a background image.  The secondary research sources I obtained from are well known websites such as the WHO and the NHS. The primary research was based on or obtained from a survey and interviews.  The main research sources that have inspired my work was the NHS, the WHO and the survey that was carried out.  The reason I have chosen to do a poster and a documentary is because they are both very effective forms of media and to explain that posters include elements which draw the audience in such as a big title, interesting background image/images and an effective message.  As for the documentary the audience would want to find out or know a topic and this explains it through the use of facts and statistics as well as interviews and images/footage.  The purpose of my poster was to promote my documentary. The purpose of my documentary was to educate people about covid and the spread of it.

 The campaign item that best communicates my campaign is the documentary as it includes facts and statistics which plays a role in promoting my message and the voice over in my documentary is the message of my campaign.  I do think my campaign gives a clear message as it gives a strong message and is effective because it includes one word per line or per space which the audience would feel engaged to as one word messages or short phrases is a very great way to communicate with the audience.  My message is informing the audience to protect and take measures to prevent or reduce the spread of the virus. This message is stated on my poster near the bottom and it is also mentioned in my documentary close to the starting of the credits.  My target audience could be anyone but specifically people who can relate to this a lot and is interested in learning about these subjects and topics.  The media item that would appeal to the audience is the documentary as there are more than just images as some people like to know about something through videos which includes images and sound and this is one of most effective ways to grab the attention of the audience.  The difficulties I faced were for example time management and issues with filming such as the camera positioning and settings.  I would need to set out a number of tasks to do in a certain time period and I would need to test out the positioning and settings and modes on the camera. The best part of my campaign was the production of the documentary and the overall outcome.  The reason why I think it was successful is because it included all the basics of a documentary such as B-roll footage, interviews, facts and statistics and voice over.