Week Four Blogpost

March 30, 2019 · by · in

Choose at least 3 different documentary structures and write a short description of your idea for each one.

Issue-Focused

AN issue focused documentary follows an issue at hand involving humanitarianism or food related issues. For examples, veganism, animal welfare, gender, welfare etc. Issue-focused documentaries follow the greater idea, as well as touching on personal stories throughout the development of the ideas and the discussion of the issue that is being addressed. For example, the idea of culture as a developmental element for a restaurant is something that I would potentially explore in my documentary, through discussing these ideas with a head chef or executive chef about their background and how they came to Australia. By putting these ideas with a personal issue, the audience can have a greater understanding of the issues in Australian culture and the food industry which might not be addressed on a normal scale.

Personal Profile

A personal profile would focus on an individual’s life and the elements, similar to Chefs Table. By using interview and montages, the personal profile follows someone’s life and their daily routine. They also use outside and third-party interviewees to provide an insight into someone’s life – either a colleague, friend, worker or family member to allow a richer documentary experience. For my documentary, I want to use this style through speaking to workers about the restaurant as well as have an interview style segment of the series to provide some background information to the storyline. Furthermore, this allows the viewer to gain a deeper understanding of the history of a restaurant, as well as the background that each chef is going into the restaurant scene with.

Observational 

Focusing on the food and the elements of food making, rather than a storyline. An idea for this could be a ‘silent’ film (similar to tasty or buzzfeed food) where there is text on the screen or a voice over to portray my ideas. I would use observational elements of film during the cooking scenes of my film, especially for close-up elements. By using observational for filming, it allows the contractual elements of the food to be at the forefront of the production, which can be used to a film-makers advantage. By using close-up scenes (with voice-over of the chef) it allows a richer filmmaking experience to be formed.