During this project, I have watched a lot of documentaries in preparation from my editing role. I wanted to discover lots of different features and styles so I would be able to create my own clear style when I came to edit.
My Phone Sex Secrets was a one-off documentary on Channel Four about women who work on sex phone lines. It was composed of mostly interview footage mixed with footage of the women "at work", there wasn't much else to it. I noted this was similar to our documentary - very focused on one specific thing. However it is pretty formal in a way, and I want our documentary to be more whimiscal and fun because of the subject.
Coppers is one of my favourite TV shows at the moment, it's brilliant. It's light-hearted while still being serious, and you really get a feel for the character of each officer they interview. Again, it's composed of interview footage and footage filmed while the cameramen are out with the officers. As it's on Channel Four, it cuts to an ad break every so often, and this means the show is cut up into smaller sections; it has to make a point in a shorter length of time, just like our documentary has to. I think this show was really helpful in teaching me more aspects of documentary structures to help me in editing.
I watched Big Fat Gypsy Weddings the first time it was on TV, but I re-watched a few recently because they popped up on 4oD online (where all students watch their TV because they refuse to pay for a TV license). I find them interesting for the way they portray their subjects; it brings out the snob in me and I look down my nose at them, but after watching a few I do have a newfound respect for the characters. They are enjoyable for the wide variety of shots they use, and the fast pace of the show; it covers a lot in an hour.
While not strictly a documentary, the first half of each episode of The Apprentice has many features a documentary would have - perhaps it is a documentary-gameshow hybrid? A docugame? No that sounds rubbish. In any case, I enjoy watching it for the way they cut an entire day or two into half an hour, I find it very impressive. I also like the way they edit what everyone says to their own ends - it always makes me giggle a bit inside knowing that people's words have been all jumbled, and I know exactly how they did it.
The Devil Inside is on here because it showed me how not to make a documentary. It's bloody terrible. The sound design is all wrong for a solely handheld camera film, to start with. It struck me as a documentary made by somebody who had never actually seen a documentary - a weird, found-footage, docu-drama that really didn't work as a whole film. Parts of it did work very well in the style they chose - but not all of it. I was also very annoyed by the insistent shaky camerawork and vowed to use only tripod shots from that day forth.
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