Introduction
- In this assignment i will be discussing the issues that factual documentaries
face and the risks they have to talk to make such programming. many
documentaries have faced risks when being made and i have listed two of
thoughts to explain and show examples of this. The documentaries i
will be writing about are Supersize Me and Brainwashed by the Westboro
Baptist church which are an expository documentary and
observational documentary which have similar aspects but have a lot of
differences.
Bias - When making documentaries you need to make sure that the opinions and information you are using to back up your points are accurate and not one sided. This will cause you being called bias in your opinions and facts unless you cover both sides of the argument and facts.
Representation - Other issues are representation for example when covering a certain people or group. The viewers watching may see that everyone who are similar to this group are like them and this can create problems when looking at groups such as the west bro baptist church as people watching may believe that all christians are like this and this is not the case.
Accuracy - One of the issues when talking about documentaries accuracy is a very important thing to factor in. When using facts and statistics they need to be accurate to prove that your points are valid and verify your argument. If facts and statistics are inaccurate it can make the creator of the documentary look bad and it will spread misinformation.
Access - This is another issue as getting access for things such as music or stock footage can be important in the making of the documentary. you may have problems acquiring such things as facts to add to the documentary so that you can back up your arguments and this can be a problem if you need your documentary to show accuracy.
Privacy - privacy is very important in making documentaries as it can be damaging to the private information you have released. Examples of this are not blurring a persons face even when they have requested you to do so as this can cause problems for you and them because they didn't want to be connected to the documentary. One other example is information being used without the providers permission.
Balance - A good documentary always needs to have balance when talking about arguments and showing facts to prove there arguments. if there is no balance then the documentary can be shown to be bias and this can cause problems and credibility for the documentary.
Contact with the viewer - This is the last issue for documentaries. when a director or the documentary itself tells the audience that this documentary is factually accurate it must be all proven evidence and be 100% proven and accurate otherwise this puts the documentary in danger for being criticised and showing the audience inaccurate information.
One of such examples of issues that can happen with documentaries is the 2004
documentary film Supersize Me which is a a film about the effects of eating
McDonald's food for a full month and no other sources of food. This documentary
falls into the issue of being inaccurate which the facts they display in the
film. One of the main critics of this film is Tom Naughton who is the creator
of the documentary Fat Head which shows the problems with Supersize Me. one of
the main criticisms are that Spurlock (the creator of Supersize me ) calorie
and fat counts don't add up and noted that his refusal to publish the food log
for his experiment add to these suppositions. there is even evidence to suggest
the people have lost weight consuming McDonald's for longer than a month for
example John cisna who is a high school teacher who lost 60 pounds in 180 by
eating McDonalds and also dropped his cholesterol level from 237 to 197, John
cisna was quoted saying "I
mean, a guy eats uncontrollable amounts of food, stops exercising, and the
whole world is surprised he puts on weight?". this evidence shows us
that some documentaries can effect the companies such
as McDonalds and damaged them under facts that could not be correct. The issues of this documentary have damaged its credibility and the film maker Morgan Spurlock. Many schools and universities advise against using this documentary to show the problems of fast food because of Spurlocks unwillingness to show his food logs and his diary that he used during his experiment, many people including John Cisna that i mentioned earlier Hate the documentary for the lies that where uncovered by Tom Naughton when he did calculations to see if Morgans numbers added up which they didn't and where well off the amount Morgan claimed. This means that the issues that Morgan Spurlock created with his documentary not only damaged the credibility of his film but also him as a film maker. Supersize Me - Link
Another example of how documentaries can cause problems are is the film documentary Blackfish which was created in 2013 by Gabriela Cowperthwaite. The film talks about SeaWorld and the effects in can have on its killer whales after Dawn Branchear died because of the whale Tilikum while doing a show for the audience at SeaWorld. The issues with this documentary are that SeaWorld retaliated this film with claims about how Blackfish uses emotional manipulation showing footage of the separation of killer whales. Seaworld claims that Blackfish used stock footage and video mismatched to the narrative to make it look like Seaworld collects killer whales from from there mothers as the are young which is not true. the film depicts that Tilikum himself was collected by Seaworld and the other collections for killer whales where done 40 years before and conducted with federal laws with federal permits at the time meaning the Blackfish lied about the collection of the whale to fit there narrative about the way they are collected. one of the other big problems it faces are that the film uses former SeaWorld employees however the people who are being interview haven't worked for SeaWorld in 20 years meaning the factual information on the way SeaWorld is run during the time of the incident is very inaccurate, the film shows Samantha Berg as she is talking about her experiences at Seaworld. This part of the film is very misleading as it shows footage of Samantha says he had experience with the whales but the video that was shown is footage from 10 years after she left and on top of that the video footage isn't even Samantha but a current SeaWorld employee. this evidence shows that Blackfish used footage without permission from SeaWorld as well as being bias and factually incorrect. The issues that Gabriela Cowperthwaite created with her film BlackFish where pretty impactful towards SeaWorld, its trainers and the general public. Many people at SeaWorld and some of the public belive that this film was a propaganda piece to attack SeaWorld and its trainers by using Dawn Branchear's death as a way to damage SeaWorlds reputation and it was a success making millions have hatred for the SeaWorld organisation and having them to go into damage control because of Gabriela Cowperthwaite, the trainer at SeaWorld where also very angry with the film with former SeaWorld trainer Bridgette Pirtle saying that ''the final film was a complete '180' from what was originally presented to me'' as well as Mark Simmons who worked with the infamous Tilikum was not impressed with the film and said that he did not suport what Gabriela did which was manipulative to Mark and Bridgette when telling them that the original interview was something different and using there words out of context to enhance there agenda. BlackFish's issues have damaged SeaWorld and its employees making them be frowned upon and shamed for there job because of the film that Gabriela created Seaworld have shown the problems with BlackFish on there website and although many people feel animals should not be in zoos and places for amusement in is not right to create a film that can damage innocent people and use the death of there friend to push there agenda. The views on Gabriela are very mixed with people congratulating her but also people on the opposition who are hurt and angry by her actions.
Blackfish - Link
Part 2
Observational documentary
The
most hated family in america is a documentary by Louis Theroux
about the westboro baptist church and what goes on inside the
church to get a better understanding of its members and the sorts of activities
they do to spread the controversial message about god.
this documentary is an observational documentary as it
follows the conventions that this type of documentary would
follow . One of these conventions are that Louis is a neutral observer
although he is there to ask questions about the goings on within the church he
never interferes into there affairs when they are doing things they
would naturally such as picket street corners and how
they live there day to day live at home. This shows that he is a outdoor
observer looking in and seeing what this family does. One of
the other big conventions this documentary follows is that
nothing is rehearsed or scripted when filming this documentary,
this means that the film crew and the presenter are
just watching and filming as events unfold, this is shown by
the shaky camera movements and certain shots that are
taken for example at the picket display when they are protesting at
a soldiers funeral the camera shots on the drivers passing by are very awkward and
blurry because they do not have time to get the shots ready. The conventions
where used in this way to get a better view of the family and why they are
so controversial without interrupting the things they do.
This is so we can get a accurate representation of there organisation that is
factual and not effected by outside forces such as Louis or the camera crew.
Participatory documentary
Fat Head is
a documentary that discusses and takes apart
the arguments the Supersize Me made when a man ate nothing but
McDonalds for a whole month to see the results on his body. This film shows the
problems with that interview and also tries the challenge as well but
with a very different outcome. This documentary is a
participatory because it follows the conventions
that most typical participatory documentaries follow. These
conventions include when situations are effected and influenced by the
film maker such as tom the director of Fat Head going out there using himself
as an example to prove his facts and arguments that he
makes throughout the film showing that the food he eats and with it monitored he will
loose weight rather than the documentary he is discussing
about which has an opposite effect. one other convention is that he
is talking to the audience directly about his findings to show
us exactly what information he finds so we can learn and use
this. these are the sorts of conventions that are used in
participatory documentaries such as Fat Head and Supersize Me.
Part
3
News
programming
News reports use conventions to get there
information to the audience a lot easier and to appear genuine one of
the conventions that all news channels use is a presenter. the presenter needs
to be formal and serious other wise the audience will not take
there information seriously. they do this by having a very clear and
formal way of speaking as well as the clothes they where which is
formal suit. this is because if they where wearing very
casual clothing they would not be taken
as seriously as someone with formal clothes so the audience
would not listen and the news report would not be as effective at telling
the audience the report. One of the other conventions that news reports
use are a video clip with a narration to tell the audience more about the news
story. In this case they show various clips from around the
world to show how each culture has been gathering for
the supposed end of the world with a voice over informing the
audience of each area. the reason they do this is because it is a very visually appealing way
to tell you the whole report rather than just the presenter telling
you everything the clips with narration can tell you all thats going on as
well as video clips to show exactly what they are talking about. In
the news report they even have a small interview with a modern druid
to get his comments on the end of the world and the stonehenge ceremony,
he talks about the winter solstice gathering which is used
to give the audience a more believable and formal reason why people
thought the world was going to end, they do this interview to get a
quick outside opinion to talk to the news reporters as to relate
to the audience and to give a better understanding of the
situation that is not the professional news reporters. One last
convention are the camera shots in the news room, they are static and place the
news reporter directly in the center of the screen looking at the audience.
This is so they can be talking to the audience at home directly rather than
just the presenter talking to other people about the subjects she is talking to
the audience so it is easier to get the information across and
more pleasant to watch . 
No comments:
Post a Comment