In this module we looked at Multiple types of documentary film-making including styles created by John Grierson & others, exploring their different forms and modes.
Elevator Pitch.
During this module we explored different types of non - narrative filmmaking and were asked to come up with a short treatment for a small documentary set in the Redmonds building. For this, I chose the location of the Starbucks the Foyer of the building. I chose this place because it a busy environment with lots going on and lots of socialising that occurs frequently throughout the day.
For the documentary I am focusing on this element because of the growing amount of people that use the cafè as their primary source of socialising with their colleagues and classmates. For the documentary I will look into how popular the cafè is with students and whether its placement within a mainstream university brings in more purchases to the franchise and how much this affects the sales of its products. The documentary would also explore how the cafè's placement within the building affects integral aspects of the company such as pricing and stock availability amongst other factors.
The Style.
The documentary mode that I would decide to execute this film in would be the performative mode. This would mainly be sue to the fact that it would inevitably put a political spin on the factors such as financials etc... that would affect students working in the cafè area and would investigate factors such as stock differences, popularity with students, sale records & pricing compared with a high street counterpart & how many students use the facilities for work without purchasing products compared to those who do.
Going into the documentary, the performative mode would allow me to make predictions to each of the topics raised earlier and would allow those predictions to be compared against other opinions via extra interviews being conducted with the students of the university. Furthermore, the style would also allow the audience to make up their own informed opinion on the matter by its conclusion by having multiple viewpoints. The performative style would also allow me to pull from available facts and figures for instance comparing prices and sale numbers to that of a high street equivalent to push an opinion in the piece.
The type of documentary that this would be constructed as would be a rhetorical type of documentary. This is because I would aim for the piece to openly address the viewer, pitching rhetorical questions such as would you pay this amount usually or how many sales are made here each year.
Filming for this documentary would take place from many different angles including handheld shots from within the cafe and overlooking it from above floors as an overlooking sweeping shot. Hidden cameras could also be setup within the facilities to show with a montage style, how many people use the cafè each day. This would give the documentary a refined tone, making it feel like it was recorded over a much longer period of time that it actually was. As well as this, the interview sections would be scattered across the film at intervals where the questions would be asked by a narrator / presenter. The interviewed sections would typically cycle through answers to the same question made by multiple students rather than repeating an asked question to allow for more answers to be explained and to also make it seem quicker in pace. B - Roll shots would also be used for this documentary for instance using techniques such as pans, tilts and focus pulls on relevant objects such as working students, coffee cups and people socialising. The same types of shots would also need to be recreated in a high street location for a comparison.
Documentary Resources.
To make this documentary I would need resources that would fulfil the criteria set out above. To do this I would require:
Multiple students to interview
Cafè products such as Coffee for B - Roll shots to overlay
Facts and figures for information given to the audience (Sale Numbers, Profit Margins etc...)
Students to possibly act on camera for specific scenes such as working or socialising in the cafè
Regular people to act for high street location