Documentary- Analysis of The Lost Tribes of New York City (Andy and Carolyn London, 2009)

The Lost Tribes of New York City is a brilliantly captured documentary playing with the conventions of what the genre is. Similarly to the ideas of Creature Comforts the London's use animation to play with the genre and create new view of New York City. It references to individual groups in New York such as racial minorities and builders etc and uses the typical views expressed by them turning the everyday objects such as post boxes and drain pipes into the speakers. I really enjoyed this piece as it mixed entertainment with serious issues that the documentary genre expresses. I thought the shots used were very simple and the animation used was fairly basic therefore it was more interesting as a short piece. I will use this as inspiration as it gives the genre a twist and creates entertinment for the audience.

Documentary- Analysis of The Ice Tribe (Heidi Vilkman, 2006)

The Ice Tribe is an interesting piece as it shows a simple routine that people have in Finland but due to the cultural differences we have with them this is seen as phenomenal when we watch people do this. The documentary is about people who swim in an ice lake daily to give themselves the wonderful feeling that it is supposed to give you. I enjoyed this film and chose to analyse it because of its difference to our lifestyle and the new knowledge it has to offer. The documentary makes the lake swimming seem like a positive thing and is creating an interest in the viewer to try ice swimming. The filmmaking is also interesting as it is centered all in on small place, around the ice lake mostly and in the house during some of the interviews. This is again a simplictic way of filming but works in the context that it is describing. The documentary is focused more on the event that it is showing than the filmmaking it is creating. This is relevant to the documentary we will be making as I want to identify something that is subtly different and interesting in Liverpool that will be out of anyone's normal daily routine.

Documentary- Analysis of The Archive (Sean Dunne,2009)

I have chosen to analyse The Archive due to a combination of it's filmmaking and it's emotional depth that Dunne has gone to to show the unacknowledged victory that Paul Mawhinney has achieved by collecting these Vinyls. I think this combined with the statistical understanding of his collection gave ma an emotional attachment to Paul.
The filmmaking throughout this piece is interesting. Dunne's use of cutaways especially at the end are cleverly juxtaposed with the music in the background as clarified when the lights turn off to the music at the end of the piece. I also think his choice to extend the shot of Paul upset by his unacknowledgement is extremely helpful in gaining the audiences emotional attachment as Dunne puts stastics about the Archives worth and selling price which allows us to understand the gutting feeling that Paul has. This combined with the music in the background creates a successful mood and was something that I found interesting when viewing. The statistics used are in Pauls interest as it helps us to realise his loss and the interviews of both him and his wife help to make us realise the determination that Paul has for his records. I enjoyed this piece and could appreciate the choices of filmmaking that Dunne has used in this documentary. I think the use of simple shots that stay in the same room throughout is also good as there is a lot of things to focus on in the room and Dunne identifies all of this individually. The ideas used in this piece will be useful when creating our final documentary.

Analysis of The Apology Line (James Lees, 2008)

The Apology Line is an interesting piece due to it's originality within the documentary genre. Similarly to Pockets it looks at many different peoples identity however this is really the only thing that connects these two films. In this documentary Lees has juxtaposed cutaways of a city estate with the shocking but interesting confessions heard on the Apology Line. As the film short progresses we dig deeper inside different peoples lives which is cleverly contrasted with the relevent shots seen on screen which get closer to the people who's faces he has hidden off screen.
At first I was sceptical about this documentary as it didn't seem to show any relevance on screen however on realising it is the conversations that is truly the basis of this documentary I found it a lot more interesting and can appreciate the simple but cleverly constructed shots that have relevence in singling out the identity of certain individuals who call the Apology Line. Lees is trying to say that it could be anyone, anywhere and that we all have confessions to apologise for. From a production perspective I could appreciate Lees simplistic use of filming and sound to create the documentary as he uses in Pockets. I will take insiration of this simplistic filming when creating my documentary in Liverpool and focus more on the story than the filming.

Documentary- Analysis of Pockets (James Lees, 2008)

Pockets by James Lees is a thought provoking documentary showing the identity of people through what they hold in their pockets. We are taken through lots of different Londoners that are interviewed and ony briefly discuss the item they are holding and it's significance. Through the combination of seeing the item, the face of the items holder and hearing what they have to say about it we can find out a lot about the identity of the individual. For example the woman with the crack pipe and money is seen to be a typical crack addict however when we see her face we can see the regret in her eyes as she describes something she cannot attach herself from.
The documentary kept my interest and allowed me to think about each person as an individual instead of just the population of London. I have taken some inspiration from this short film as it is created with simle shots and simple sound editing that does not have any complicated editing or shots. As a whole I enjoyed what this documentary had to offer and will use some of the techniques when filming in Liverpool.

Experimental Film- Final Thoughts

Altogether the project was a success. We were able to grasp the idea all the way from the initial response to the assignment. As a team we closely collaborated all the way through the production process and because of this we were able to create a completely original piece. This even included the soundtrack of the film which was created in sync by Tom Newsham, this is a strong piece about our film as we did not have to worry about any copyright and can say that this is our own original work that is inspired but not copied from any other experimental film. The planning process was a little rushed due to the time contraints that we had but we still met up 4 times before shooting to collaborate on all the ideas and note down a finalised script, shooting schedule and storyboard to create an image ready in time for shooting. I think the editing was my strong point personally as this is where I contributed my main role and I was able to create the image that we all wanted to have for the finished piece. Hopefully the film will be up to the standard of the Level 4 Film and Media Production class.

Experimental Fim- Editing Stage

Today we edited the Experimental film. We began very early and finished, as you will realise, very late. However 13 hours of editing allowed us to carefully consider each individual clip and edit with the story. Not just the quickest and easiest order. In my opinion the edit was the most difficult obsticle in the production stages for this experimental film. This is because there were a lot of changes that I made when editing and some of it was improvised to try and capture the best outcome to share with the audience. We had loads of choice when it came to deciding on shots for the scenes we captured due to the use of multiple camera set ups throughout shooting. I really favoured this idea as I knew the editing would be better if we had choice as continuity and emotion could be captured in the scenes we planned. The only problem we had was trying to get 5 mins of video. However after trying numerous different cuts we decided to leave it without unneeded filler as it would spoil the overall mood that we had grasped in the final cut. We have called our experimental film 'Monotony' as we felt this outlined the feeling of the video and what the character we represented would feel.