For our opening we went out onto the street and asked pedestrians for their opinions on our chosen subject. We put this a the very beginning of our documentary to introduce the idea using people from our target audience - everyday people. Because it was filmed outside, next to a road, there is a lot of ambient noises such as cars, which makes it harder to hear what the people are saying. Although this adds to the naturalistic feel, if we did this part again we would have chosen a quieter surrounding.
After looking at Louis Theroux's style of documentary making, we decided to create ours in the style of taking a journey of discovery. We filmed a few establishing shots such as our time on the tube to illustrate when we went to interview Sharon Ferguson. The shot of Elliott and Alex walking towards the camera introduces the idea of the interviewers being part of the learning experience. An establishing shot of Oxford House is the last of our journey filming which allows for a smooth and simplisitic transition into Sharon's interview.
While the setting of Sharon's interview looks like an office, it is actually the headquarters of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement. It contained lots of leaflets and pictures in relation to her cause, which meant we had some relevant cutaways by filming around the room. Its unfortunate that the monitor of her computer is on in the background as it is slightly distracting. We kept to the rule of thirds by placing Sharon slightly to the right of the frame and asked her to answer our questions looking to the left.
To introduce our second interview we used a slow low-angle panning shot to film a church which is obviously relevant to our subject. We had Julie's voice over the shot before seeing her to connect what she was talking about with the church.
During Julie's interview we had a quick succession of cutaways that we researched on the internet to quickly illustrate her points. There is also a screenshot of what she is talking about to support her speech and show that it is a widely talked about issue.
For the interview with Julie we placed her to the left of the frame and asked her to speak looking towards the right again to keep to the rule of thirds.
We had a lot of trouble choosing music for our documentary, but eventually decided to use a neutral melody that is simple and calming - keeping with the mood of our documentary.
We cut between the two interviews because they are answering the same question and so we juxtaposed their answers for contrast. During the interviews we zoomed in on Sharon's face to amplify her emotions towards what she is talking about.
At the end of our documentary we justified our lack of an opposing view. We used an over-the-shoulder shot of Alex and then a zoom into the computer to show our research into churches. The voiceover makes it clear to the audience what we are trying to get across and this is emphasised by Alex crossing out church names and numbers, all being numbers we had previously tried and failed to interview. We used an extreme close-up for this part so that the audience can read what is written on the paper and a cross-dissolve transition to illustrate time passing. The end is in slow motion because it properly portrays our disappointment which is a feature taken from other documentaries that we have looked at. We used a fade out t the very end to give an unfinished 'end of part one' feel.
First Draft of Evaluation
Possible print advert Publications
The Guardian newspaper. This is a left wing newspaper that is very liberal and middle class. This newspaper would be read by our target audience of maturer people interested in controversial current affairs.
The Church of England Newspaper. This newspaper would be advertising to the people that our documentary is about - Christians. This is not 100% our target audience, but would definitely be relevant. If our print advert was printed in this newspaper it would reach the people who are directly affected by the issues raised in our documentary.
Feedback from Advert
Our class listened to our first draft of the advert and gave us some invaluable feedback on how to improve it. Before they listened to it we asked them some questions, just to get specific responses on some things that we were not sure about. For example we asked whether they liked my voice as the voiceover and also if they had any idea what type of music we could use for it.
The feedback was as follows:
- Clear voice over
- Turn up the volume on interview clips
- Good idea to disperse the voice over - retains awareness
- The clip about homosexuality being a 'taboo subject' is a good clip because it explains what the documentary is all about.
- Good fade out of clips
- Nice ending
- Good information
- Needs a punchier beginning that is more catchy
- Maybe have a male voice over because all the clips are female - perhaps somebody older as well?
- Use church bells
- Don't need Elliott's voice at the beginning
- Music could be something classical and calm, e.g. piano, orchestral
- Quality of audio at the beginning is sketchy
- Volume needs equalising
- Sharon's clip is too long
- My voice over should be a bit slower
- Voice over should maybe come in sooner at the beginning
Radio Advert
The script for the radio advert is as follows:
Voice over: Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; it is an abomination
(clip from Sharon)
Voice over: In an hour long documentary on Channel 4 we explore the opposing views of homosexuality in the church
(Clip of Julie + Sharon)
Voice over: Join us on January 10th at 7pm for The Divide of Sexuality Within the Church
Sharon: I say God Bless You