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.

Wednesday 31st January

In todays lecture we looked at the beginnings of the documentary film. Eadward Muybridge,Thomas Edison and Louis Lumiere are considered the pioneers of documentary filmmaking. Muybridge is responsible for stop frame sequences. Edison invented the kinetescope and talked of the importance of having archival footage. Lumiere invented of the kinetescope effectively showed glimpses of everyday life to an audience. We looked at the decline of documentaries this was due to the invention if the newsreel and audiences growing interest in fiction. We then focused our attention on the documentary maker Robert J Flaherty. We looked at a clip of his film Nanook Man Of the North. Where he documented the life of a an eskimo named Nanook. We analysed this clip of footage. Robert J Flaherty has often been accussed of romanticising an old way of life. He is also criticised as not as fictionalising his documentaries. We also looked at the Man Of Aran and this film was furher proof of Flahertys tenedcy to create fiction as the family are not a real family were classed as a family for the Man of Aran. At the end of the lecture the class had a debate on whether Man Of Aran could actually be classed as documentary or a fiction film. This concluded the lecture.

Tuesday 30th January

Today in our tutorial class we looked at two documentaries "Useless Dog" and "Here After". Having watched the two documentaries we discussed and analysed them as a group. We aslo discusssed what exactly is a documentary and learned that there are no set guidelines that are followed when creating a documentary. Today we were told about a documentary pitch that we would have to do for our continous assessment. We were informed of what issues we must address when doing a pitch.
-What is the main idea for the documentary
-What sources will you use(images,video clips,voice over,interviews)
-How will you get access to the sources
-Why is it important to make the documentary.
The best four ideas as voted by the class will be made into documentaries.

Thursday 25th January 2007

Thursday 25th January 2007
Today we looked at three documentaries that were made by the cultural students in the previous semester. We analysed these under the following headings
• Concept
• Camera
• Sound
• Editing to include titles
Having watched each of the documentaries we discussed our opinions on the documentaries. I learned that you should only use red tiles if it is for a stylistic reason. We were also advised that if we want to do a mockumentary you must be very precise in the subject you are dealing with and to make your characters realistic eg Rats in Paths of Freedom.
This exercise was gave us a good insight into what you should do or not do when making a documentary. What we learned in this class was quite beneficial as we will soon have to pitch our ideas for a documentary/mockumentary.