Choose a documentary that is a reference point for you in thinking about your own work and deconstruct that. Make general comments about why you have chosen the film and how it might relate to your work. Then select a scene or sequence and deconstruct it on its representation of place or character by a close analysis of shot construction, camera movement, sound, production design, performance and any other facets of the production you would like to discuss.
While conducting the initial research for our documentary one of the first platforms we sourced was Vice, a youth-oriented news and pop culture channel that publishes content on a range of topics, including skate culture. ‘Skate World’ is a sub-channel of Vice featuring a documentary series consisting of 25 minute shorts that explore skate culture across several countries including Germany, England, Sweden, China and France. I chose to use the episode ‘Skate World: England’ (created by Winston Whitter, 2013) as a reference point for making our film as it relays the same kind of tone that we want to achieve through using raw and honest footage of their subjects. We want to emulate that rawness through our technical approach by taking shots and editing together sequences that aren’t perfect in order to accurately capture the rough and rapid paced environment. By honest we mean in terms of the actual content, as we will aim to include as much footage as possible that effectively represents what skaters and skate culture are all about.
The sequence from 12.05-13.36 appeals to me because it is most closely aligned with the kind of approach that we want to take for our film. It begins by situating the interviewee in his neighbourhood before exploring his early origins with skating and his current relationship with it. We see some establishing shots of Bath which are achieved through the use of still shots that emphasise the calmness of the city. The interviewee describes the ‘oldness’ of the Bath, and how that makes it a very ‘nice, mellow place to live’ while the camera pans over the city from afar, and it is within this shot we see much of the traditional architecture he describes, which sets up a strong sense of the neighbourhood for the audience. The interviewee is then shot in his home, where he and a friend are filmed interacting with his dog. We hear him observe how the dog ‘looks aggressive but he’s really not’, while his friend calls out to the dog ‘oh you pussy!’ I think this is interesting in that on one hand we see the uncensored, brash side of a skater that many would assume is an inherent characteristic of the skate community, though this is contrasted by his friend who speaks warmly of his dog and in a way reflects the perception of skate culture that we’re trying to explore; how having a rough exterior isn’t necessarily indicative of who people are. In just a few seconds, we get a very clear sense of the characters personalities as this scene acts as a smooth segway between establishing the neighbourhood where the subjects grew up, to representing their characters and opening into their experience with skating. The interviewee begins telling his story while the camera uses a tracking shot to follow him into the skate park and from here there is a mix of hand-held shots, still shots and tracking shots that are rough and unpolished, similar to those that we will utilise in our film. One shot depicts the skater through a fish-eye lens which is also something we want to experiment with. The variety of shots here effectively draws the viewer into the action as we follow the skater from different angles that are cut together in rapid succession. This footage is then overlayed by some head shots of the interviewee and his friend who speak to the interviewer about various aspects of skating. While initially I thought that most skate documentaries should include music that reflects topic, I think the deliberate exclusion of background music here works well. What we get is a more composed and authentic representation of what skating is at its very core; something that youth can enjoy as an activity that is both exhilarating and therapeutic in nature. In this case I think music would be too much of an embellishment and detract from what the film is trying to communicate. This led me to consider that perhaps the use of background audio may not be necessary for the whole duration of our film, but it’s something we will play around with and ultimately decide whether to include or not through the editing process.
While I think this sequence is successful in establishing the city, representing the characters and creating a sound depicting of the nature of skating, my only criticism is of the repetition of one particular scene where the two skaters are filmed doing the same motion in a skate bowl. I think this section could be made more visually engaging if the skaters themselves were changing up their tricks or if they edited it by cutting in more varied footage of them skating.
Link to documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrBrpgQ-rps
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