Viewing and learning about documentaries

The first major project that we were assigned to create a documentary and to do that we needed to watch documentaries to see what kinds of rules we would need to follow (or break). As a class we watched American Promise (2013), Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010) and Abstract: The Art of Design (2019). We also watched two New York Times opinionated documentaries. I chose to watch Modern Goose, and Christmas, Every Day. 

The first documentary that we watched together in class was American Promise (2013). Its about two black boys in New York City who attend the elite Dalton school. The film shows how stressful high-pressure schools can be and what's it was like growing up black in New York. An interesting thing about this Doc was that it was entirely filmed by the parents of one of the boys, although additional people were hired later it was primarily filmed by the parents. The use of handhelds shots and everyday cameras make it feel real. Most of the interviews happen on the spot giving the documentary an honest feel, with people saying things that others might not say on camera. When I watched this it wasn't exactly the style of documentary I wanted to do but I still thought it was a pretty cool concept to film your kids entire childhood.

The second documentary we watched was Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010). This was a documentary by the street artist Banksy and it is about a "videographer" named Thierry Guetta. It shows the footage Guetta filmed of other street artists and Banksy. Halfway though the documentary it starts following Guetta as he tries to become a street artists himself. I liked that this documentary had a lot of handheld shots, jump cuts and fast montages. After watching it I wanted to make my documentary with more natural feel with included a street like aesthetic.

We watched an episodic documentary Abstract: The Art of Design (2019). Its about the costume designer Ruth Carter, her career, her background and what she does. The documentary uses a lot of staged B roll to make the narration. This idea would be very interesting and I would like to include some elements such as the graphic styles for my documentary. Overall I thought the documentary was well made and I really liked the use of the bright colors to develop the story. Although the B-roll that was staged was very obvious and looked kind of weird

The final documentaries we watched were two New York Times opinion Documentaries. We got to chose which ones I chose Modern Goose and Christmas, Every Day. The modern goose didn't use any words and only showed the story of how the modern world is taking the world of nature away from them. This is completly different to Christmas, Every Day which focused on two pre teen girls that are forced by their parents to be influencers and promote products. With the parents thinking they are doing there kids a favor the kids do not seem to be enjoying it too much.

With all these documentaries watched im ready to create my documentary

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