Mobile Phone Documentary

This work was to introduce us to documentaries, we needed to know what was involved and try out small projects so that we could gather a better understanding of what we had to do. These documentaries above, were given to us not to break down and analyse but to to simply watch and gather a better understanding of what codes and conventions involved with documentaries.






Our Mobile Phone Documentary.

Planning
In the planning off our mobile phone documentary we set out to gather information about the use of mobile phones, the ways in which they impact our day to day lives. We set up a questionaire with general questions about mobile phones. With this information that we gathered from the questionaire we made a basic in which to set our documentary, the questions in the questionaire were used in the documentary so we built the documentary around these questions.

Editing
To edit this documentary we used Abode Premier, this program has become a big part of our media work. We transfered the footage via video casettes and captured all the bits which we thought were the best for the documentary, using the footage we had we created cut aways in between interviews and narration. The editing process didn't take to long as we were very clear in the order of our documentary.

Filming Process

To film this documentary we took video cameras and tripods provided by the college and used the college grounds to film. Using the students and staff we managed to create a range of sets and ages who all talk about, and have mobile phones. The filming was done in the matter of hours and we didn't have to re-film any footage.





This was my first attempt of making a documentary, we were set a goal for the topic mobile phones and their impact on peoples lives. We chose to open with a extreme close up on a pile of mobile phones, showing the audience straight away about the topic without a word being said. This shot is slightly in and out of focus, this could be seen that there may be controversy within the subject. The presenter walks onto screen with the question "input question" to then reveal further to the audience the specifics of the documentary. I thought the match on action in the first scene worked well as the presenter walked through the college entrance and then into the lobby; although it worked I would still try to improve with some better angles.

Creating this mobile phone documentary was a ground basis for us to learn how to make documentaries. This short documentary helped me understand better what was involved with creating a documentary and some of the codes and conventions. The filming was difficult in places due to space and noise inside the college however these issues are good for understanding what is involved and what needs to be done next time. Although this documentary is not up to a high standard it gave me a stepping stone to understand how a documentary should go together and also editing techniques. Our group looked into such techniques as match on action in the beginning of the documentary using the main entrance doors and extreme close ups to show the audience what the documentary contains.

Noticing that this documentary we made was about current affairs there is plenty of thought by the public on the subject, because nearly every single person owns a mobile phone and has there own opinions on them. Watching this documentary back now I realise how many things are wrong; for example the framing on a lot of the interviews is really poor and uneven, making a the piece inconsistent in framing. Also the volume levels, there is far to much background noise on a lot of the interviews making it very hard to hear what is being said at times. However noticing these mistakes and problems sets me up for the next time, now I will be looking at the background noise levels, making sure all the framing is even and having the right frame of mind. All in all I don't believe that this documentary is a good piece of work but in that sense it gives me a much clearer and solid understanding for our next documentary.