RTS Futures put together a panel talk on Observational Documentaries which students and film makers could attend at the BBC Television Centre. Myself, Jemma and Victoria attended the panel talk. On there were documentary makers Peter Dale (Head of Documentaries at the Channel 4) and Documentary makers Havana Marking, Lizzie Kempton and Pete Beard.
Through the talk we watched small extracts from each of the film makers works, Lizzie had produced a documentary called How to Die: Simon's Choice following someone who was undergoing Euthanasia:
Pete Beard is a Director, Producer and Self shooter for documentaries and had worked on many projects. One of the main which caught my interest was Bedlam which follows individuals with mental disorders and sees them for how much they struggle through life. All of this is very fly-on-the-wall style of following the contributors but also there are times when they'll speak to the camera while moving or taking on a task. Below is episode 3, in which we saw from 32:00-36:00.
Finally there was Havana Marking who is best known for her award winning film Afghan Star which won her the Best Director and Audience Award at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. The documentary is like a behind the scenes of the Afghan X-Factor/talent shows, below is the film, the extract we were shown was 26:00-30:00:
We were able to ask questions through the talk, most of which were about access or story development. After the talk I was able to talk to Pete Beard who I had the most interest to talk to as he self shoots. I asked him how he goes about choosing the camera and the style of filming and he explained with Observational documentaries it's all about getting the story, you need to go handheld almost 99% of the time because a tripod holds you back. He also explained that rarely do you need more than 1 camera, with filming actuality you can do it all with 1 unless there's more than 2 contributors, then you'd want to think about another camera or doing pick-ups. In regards to interviews, Pete explained that he'll always try and shoot in 4K as it allows him to cut in without losing quality and change the type of the shot with the interview.
Pete also explained that when shooting with a Director, although it's good to over shoot so you have a lot of footage. The Director and DOP need to have a good relationship and communication, as often the Director or DOP needs to point out whether or not it's worth getting the footage or getting something else as he worked with a Director on an episode on Bedlam who decided against following one of the contributors as he felt it wasn't needed as he had everything he needed.
We also spoke to Pete about locations and how to get them. We explained that we've been trying to get a theatre or club for the performance, but the charge for them keeps getting worse and with the budget we couldn't afford it. Pete's response was "I would never pay for a location regardless of budget" (Pete Beard) and this is because he says it's just a rip-off charge and you can always find a location for free or by offering something different, such as a video, promotion through the film, etc.
We were also fortunate to speak with Havana Marking, although very brief she was able to tell us that the important thing to consider is how to tell the story. She said that getting footage is great but if you can tell it with archive footage/photos and have that at your disposal then use it. Use all the tools to build up the project. The more access and content you have the better, although it'll make the edit larger it'll benefit the project much more.
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