Looking at Documentary Shorts

 

After deciding that we are going to do a Short in the style of a documentary I started to do some research into Short documentaries. I found this...

 

 

Due to budgetary and other constraints our film will be shorter than this documentary style into a report about Aliens landing in USA. However, it has been a useful film for shot analysis for our production work because the theme is obscure like our ‘sock man.’

On analysis of the shots this is some of things that I have noticed that I think we should include in our film on post production work:

Mis en scene is created with some external shots that seem interrupted on editing as though the footage could be intercepted by the aliens. The shots are short and cut quickly like a quick radio change. The film also uses sound of ‘changing radio stations’ white noise and flashing colour between the shots which adds to the suspense and sense of reporting style.

By using a mixture of close up shots on radio/hands the scenes are set well for the eye witness narratives which the audience can hear over the footage sometimes. Mixing these shots with wide shots/over the shoulder shots so that the audience feel that they were at the re-enacted event works well.

A combination of mid shots and reverse mid shots of the ‘eye witnesses’ after they have grown up are given credibility with reporter style typography detailing their names and the film production company. These shots are linked from previous film footage that seem to show a reconstruction of events. When interviewing the eye witnesses the shots are direct with the witness looking directly to camera as they talk. However, the reconstruction shots include over the shoulder footage and birds eye views which gives the audience the sense of ‘watching’ what happened. The juxtaposition of these shots next to each other, I think, is effective way of involving the audience in narrative.

Shots of ‘newspaper’ articles add support and reinforce to the idea of the alien invasion using ‘expert’ as does repeating some of the shots (e.g. the over the shoulder shot of the alien landing). The final important witness is shot with a detailed close up shot (zooming right up to his cheek at one point) this is effective in emphasising the importance of what they are going to say.

The narrative is also used effectively as a “talk over” at the introduction is a good way of scene setting the start of the film. I have also seen this in other short documentaries with the use of either typography or voice over real life footage and need to consider this for the opening and ending sequences of our films.