Wednesday 18th April

Wednesday 18th April
Today in class we looked Lois Theroux and his documentary “Louis Meets The Most Hated Family In America”. Whilst watching this film we were asked to analyse it under the following headings
-Subject matter
-Style in comparison to other documentary makers
-Interviewing technique
-Directors on screen presence
After watching the documentary the class discussed this film. We noted that there were elements of Louis Theroux style that were like Nick Broomfields in regards to voice over narration while driving. In regards to his subject matter he deals with an unusual subject, that of a very strange religious group. However we also discussed the fact that his humour is very important to his appeal as a documentary maker, we said if Nick Broomfield made this documentary it would quite serious and less entertaining. In regards to his interviewing technique he asks quite bold questions however at the same time he is polite. So therefore people would tend to confide in him more than someone like Michael Moore that has a quite aggressive interviewing technique. Louis Theroux on screen presence is very important in this documentary his dead pan humour and facial expressions reacting to this family, add a comic element to a quite serious subject matter. We then got into our documentary groups and informed the lecturer on what we had done so far. We then received our results for our essays. This concluded our lecture.

Tuesday 27th March

Today in class we looked at the documentary maker Nick Broomfield. We looked at his two films about the serial killer Aileen Wuornose. We would then discuss the differences between the two documentaries. His first documentary was called the Selling of a Serial Killer. In this film Nick Broomfield tells the story of Aileen and focuses on how her story is being sold being by her friends and family in order to get money. The second documentary is called the Life and Death Of a Serial Killer. From its title we can see this film focuses more on Aileen Wuornose. Having watched these two films we can see Nick Broomfield has a distinctive style through his use of voice over narration, often used when driving his car. However there are differences between these two levels. Firstly it is important to note several years have past between the two films, we can see this visually through the better camera equipment. Another notable difference is that Nick Broomfield had developed a relationship with Aileen. This leads to more interviews with Aileen and also to Nick Broomfield being more sympathetic towards Aileen. This concluded our tutorial class.

Tuesday 20th March

Today in class we looked at the documentary called “Tell them who you are”. This documentary was made by the son of the cinematographer Haskell Weckler. Intially this documentary was about the career of the cinematographer Haskell Weckler. It showed clips of his films and included interviews with the people he had worked with over the years. However this documentary changed what it was about on Haskells suggestion that it be more interesting if it was about their relationship as father and son. This made the documentary far more personal and therefore more interesting to watch. The documentary showed the conflict between Haskell as filmmaker and his son trying to make his identity as a filmmaker. This can be seen when Haskell tells his son that the sound should be checked when recording, his son however does not listen and there is a long sequence recorded with no sound. By choosing to include his mistake Weckler is being humble and also honest as a documentary maker. This helps the audience have a greater understanding of their relationship, and also a greater respect for Weckler. An other very honest moment in this documentary is when Haskell goes to visit his sons mother in a nursing home. She is his ex-wife and has Alzheimer’s. We can see that he clearly see Haskell still loves her and for a brief moment the couple actually can communicate with each other. By choosing to leave this in the documentary it shows a more human side to his father and also the directors ability to keep himself distanced from such a emotional moment in order to capture it on film. This concluded our class.

Tuesday 13th March

Today in tutorial class we looked at the film “Roger and Me” by Michael Moore. In this documentary film he discussed how the General Motors factory was closed down leading to a major loss of jobs in his Home Town of Flint. His argument was with General Motors shareman Roger Smith and why he decided to close down the plant when the company had been making profits. His mission was to bring Mr Smith to see Flint. This documentary was very creative Michael used archive footage, and clips form movies even music to make this documentary more entertaining for the viewer. This can be seen when he uses Beach Boys music over an images of an abandoned buildings in Flint, showing his sense of humour. Originally this film was well received by critics as it was a quite unique documentary. However after a short while this documentary was criticised as being manipulating to the viewer. Michael Moore manipulated the events that occurred in flint by not showing them in the chronological order they occurred in. For this reason and other Michael Moore is also accused of being a quite biased documentary maker. This concluded our tutorial class.

Wednesday 28th February

Today in our tutorial we looked at documentaries in Ireland. We looked at the 1946 government sponsored historical documentary “A Nation Once Again”. This documentary was about the 19th century nationalist Thomas Davis. £3,000 was invested to make this documentary which was largest amount of money to ever be put into a documentary. It was important to have documentaries in Ireland as many Irish people were not happy about the way they were represented on screen. We then watched a clip of the documentary “Mise Eire”. This film was produced by Gael Linn and directed by George Morrison in 1959. It contains archive footage and deals with the period of 1896-1918 in Irish history. The narration gives this film a certain type of feeling along with the music of a quite bleak time in Irish history. However despite its commercial success this documentary was also criticised as it focused on the past.
We also looked at the beginning of the “Rocky Road to Dublin”. This film was directed by Peter Lennon in 1968. It looks at the state of the church in Ireland. The director filmed in the style of the French New wave. Although the film was said to be a masterpiece by Cahiers Du Cinema, it was criticised by the Christian Brothers in Ireland. The rocky Road to Dublins style inspired Alan Gilsenan who we will be looking at in the next lecture class.

Tuesday 27th February

Today in class we looked at the documentary series that is shown on RTE called the Hospice. This documentary was made in four parts and focused on people who were receiving medical care in a hospice. We looked in particular at one episode where a woman was terminally ill and had breast cancer. She is one of the many patients who receive care from the hospice. This documentary included interviews with the woman and also at times was a silent observer this can be seen when the camera films her funeral. In class we discussed the idea of whether the documentary maker should have filmed the funeral. Some people said that he was given permission by the family to do so and he had none this woman before her death so why should we not he be allowed to document her death. I personally think the funeral should not have been filmed and I felt as a viewer that he was intruding on a very solemn occasion. I think he could have ended the documentary by maybe showing her burial bench as I think it would be more respectful. This concluded our class.

Wednesday 21st Febuary

Today we had a talk by the documentary maker Neasa Ni Chianain and producer David Rane. They talked about making documentaries and what projects their production company “Soilse Films” makes. They also discussed that to develop a project you need twenty pages for up to six months for an ultra low budget €50,000. They gave a budget breakdown of “Today is Better Than Tomorrow” directed by Anna Rodgers. We were also shown the EURODOC script programme. We also looked at the trailer for both “Today is Better Than Tomorrow” and “Artic Doomsday Vault” and they compared them. They also gave advice about the documentaries that were being made by people in our class. One of the main points they gave students was to make their documentaries personal as they would be more interesting. This concluded our lecture.

Tuesday 20th Febuary

Today in our tutorial we were given a brief on our essay for documentary production. This would include us writing about three documentary makers from a prescribed list. We then looked at the work of one of the documentary makers Neasa Ni Chianain. We looked at her film No Mans Land.
We then watched her other documentary Brian Ag Bru. We also looked at the documentary The Poet, The Shopkeeper and Babul. We analysed and compared the various styles and content of these documentaries. This concluded our class.

Wednesday 14th February

Today in our lecture class we looked at the German director Leni Riefenstahl. We looked at her work and the films she made for Hitler. We discussed whether she was an advocate (have a belief but do not set out to gain anything) or a propagandist (portraying something in order to gain something) in regards to the movies she made for Hitler. We looked at her film that was about the Nazi party rally and was called Triumph des Willens/Triumph of the Will (1935). This film was beautifully shot with some very interesting techniques which are visually appealing. We also learned about her film about the German Olympics whereby she released rolling cameras on balloons showing her creativeness as a director. Leni Riefenstahl has been plagued all her life with accusations that was a propagandist filmmaker. To a certain extent you can see why she was accused by the way in which she portrays Hitler, filming him at low angle shots, which giving an emphasis on power. However on the same token she also insisted and was given creative control on her second film for Hitler. Whether people think she is guilty of being involved propaganda or not, I don’t believe you can deny her talent as a filmmaker and her influence on cinema. For example films like Stars Wars have been directly influenced by her work. This concluded our lecture class.

Tuesday 6th February

In todays class we had to do pitch for a documentary/mockumentary. Each person had three minutes to do their pitch. In this pitch we explained the main idea of the pitch, what resources we would use, how will we access the resources and what was the importance of making the documentary. When the pitch was completed the top four documentaries were voted for and chosen by the class. My mocukmentary was a spoof on Morgan Spurlock documentary Super Size Me, involving crème eggs. I decided to this mockumentary as I wanted to highlight the fact that documentary makers have to go to extreme lengths to bring peoples attention to something. My mockumentary was chosen I must now organise my documentary group.