Documentary Analysis.

 James Lees 2008 short documentary, 'Pockets'

http://www.4docs.org.uk/films/view/7/Pockets

The idea for this documentary is simple but very effective, the film makers are interviewing members of the public about the contents or their pockets. The film crew are not in the film and the only dialogue is that of the general public. This actually manages to create an emotional response from the viewer as the contents of another pockets can be quite personal as we find out within the film. for example we are faced with one girl who's response is that she has a lighter and a crack pipe in her pocket, her reaction is quite disturbing as she looks genuinely upset by this, and as an audience member for me personally what was a sweet and simple documentary about peoples pockets became relevant on a different level, as it sort of reinforces that the contents of a persons pockets are very personal on occasion to that person, and can be a defining part of their personality. This happens again when another character gets out what appears to be a religious picture and then opens it and it is actually a memoir from a close family members funeral that he keeps with him every day. The documentary is extremely stylised and uses well composed static shots of the subjects smiling with their voices cut over the top, this gives the impression that it is the subjects inner thoughts rather than a staged interview, a lot of thought has been put into achieving a certain aesthetic, using pull focus and strange angles that cut out part of the subjects face. The observational style makes this documentary look carefree and effortless, these are elements that i would like to incorporate into my own documentary.

'Dont Look Back'  D.A Pennebaker 1967 

This documentary is a fly on the wall documentary of Bob Dylan as he goes on his european tour, This is another documentary where the film maker is not present in the final cut of the documentary, it is also interesting as the documentary offers the viewer some light on the real Bob Dylan, who at the time was at the height of his career, the documentary portrays him as a everyday guy who we see is still very young and almost immature. It shows him in interviews with the media who he famously despises, rambling on about philosophical concepts trying to make the interviewer look stupid. The documentary does very well to give an unbiased view of the star, while watching i felt very much under the impression that i truly was making my own assumptions about Bob Dylan, the camera follows him around unnoticed and it almost gives the impression that he barely notices the camera itself, lending to the assumption that the camera is in no way influencing Bob Dylan's actions. This style requires less planning for the documentary as it is just giving the subject free reign, but the edit would be significantly harder as you have to conjure a story that flows out of footage that you have captured almost by chance, and because I dont think as a group for our documentary we could find a subject interesting enough for this style of documentary and as a result i am in favour of a more stylised and planned piece as i feel it will be easier and more achievable for us to make. 


'Grizzly Man' Werner Herzog 2005

Grizzly Man is a documentary that combines footage from Timothy Treadwell, a man who for thirteen years went every summer to Alaska, to live and 'study' bears in the hope of helping them to survive. Unfortunately he was killed on the thirteenth summer along with his girlfriend who had come over that year, the documentary is based on his own footage of the bears and himself. The final film is composed of the original footage that Treadwell filmed, and that of Herzog narrating the film and also gathering interviews from friends of Treadwell, and also from officials that were involved in the enquiry for his and his partners death. The documentary gives a slightly lighter tone to what is actually a tragic story of an individual who did not feel like part of the general society so chose to take solace in nature and formed his own cause, to save the bears. The documentary has two narrators in a sense, both talking about entirely separate things, on the on hand you have Treadwell, talking about his love for bears and commenting on their actions, and shooting his own documentary, then you have Herzog who is making his own documentary commenting on Treadwells actions, in a sense its like a documentary within a documentary. This unconventional form is captivating to a much wider audience, as it is comical but also thought provoking, it explores quite a few issues within the film, for example not fitting into society, the anthropomorphising of nature, and ethical issues surrounding the making of the final documentary. It works on so many levels but it also serves to encapsulate and preserve the spirit of this individual. This documentary has inspired me to think outside the box on my documentary and try find an alternative narrative form to make my finished documentary stand out. 

'Religulous' Larry Charles 2008, starring Bill Maher

After watching 'religulous' i realised this was a very biased documentary, the way the presenter Bill Maher leads in with questions, it is with the intent to make religion look ridiculous, which makes sense with the name of the documentary. It is heavily cut into to give the audience the response that they want to see, such as an interview with an american sennet, who claims he believes in christian creation theory, it then cuts to him saying "you don't need a phd to be a sennet" intentionally reinforcing the idea that his flaunting of modern day science with religion is a trait of low IQ. It also features interviews with extremist religious leaders, who are cashing in on religion, the editor has undercut their speech with text, outlining the truth of these religious claims. While being quite funny, the less than elegant editing gets quite annoying as it has been brashly overused, featuring clips from slapstick cartoons, to emphasise stupid comments. This documentary was worth watching though because is showed to me that while editing can be a powerful tool to emphasise speech and to change the tempo of a narrative it can also be overused as a whole. The fast paced tongue in cheek style of the film was quite intriguing, following the anti religious crusaders as they get kicked out of the vatican, was quite thrilling, it has opened up the possibility of including the film crew in future documentaries, but as a student i do feel this is a bad idea, unless you have a presenter with a certain charisma who doesn't end up looking silly on camera.