Looking at docs

So this year we have a lot more options compared to last year, with the option of short film, music video, a film promo or finally a documentary. Documentary is the only one we hadn't really touched on at all in AS, so its the one we spent the most time on, watching different docs in class and getting exposed to the genre. The docs we watched in class we're the American Promise, Exit Through the Giftshop, and shorter episodic documentaries from the Netflix show Abstract: The Art of Design and New York Times' collection of Op-Docs. I found all of these super interesting (except Abstract, found it to be lowkey boring it was just like meh) and they all showcased and introduced different techniques and ways of approaching a documentary and helped me go about making my own later on. 

With docs like American Promise and Exit Through the Giftshop, they take a much more direct approach, I guess? Like they both used handheld and were mainly from the perspective of the subjects in that specific moment, such as when Idris from American Promise is getting scolded by his father for being bad at basketball in the car and the cinematographer recording the interaction from the passenger seat. 

Here is an example of what I mean with American Promise

I found these to be the most engaging and the pieces that interested me the most. I think since it was such a grounded and hands-on approach, it felt more real, I guess, like what I'm seeing is the real deal ya know. If I were to do the documentary for my final portfolio project, I would like to take an approach more like this.

I also really enjoyed some of the more abstract docs I saw on the New York Times' Op-Docs, which we were assigned to watch two of on our own and comment on. One I watched was archival footage of music videos that were choreographed by Louis Johnson. The footage was old old, like from 20-30's I wanna say, and although the doc was just archival footage I still found it really intriguing and interesting to get a glimpse into this whole different world. Another piece I watched was talking about knitting with little animals and objects that have been knitted, which was really cute and I thought was pretty clever. 

The one that I cared about the least was the episode from Abstract, which covered the costume designer Ruth Carter. I think I didn't really care all that much and liked it the least because it was just pretty basic, I guess, and didn't really have much character. The b-roll was all staged, which is needed for the subject matter, and the interview shots were all on a tripod and looked like a traditional interview shot, and there isn't anything wrong with that, but I guess it just lacked character and it made me not really care for it. Ironically this is a similar approach I took with my doc, but I think that it was necessary and I believe it worked, but I'll talk about that more later.