Presenting my research project was an interesting experience. I ended up adjusting my assignment, trying to also focus on what Robin calls “facsimile documentaries” – which, from my understanding, are a synonym for docudramas and mockumentaries. I could go for TV series like The Office or Parks and Recreation, though I might look at the “classic” mockumentary film This is Spın̈al Tap.

Robin introduced me to a filmmaker called Peter Watkins, who seems to have popularised the “facsimile documentary”. From a quick look at him, I’m looking forward to watching and analysing at least one of his films. I feel like some of his works have foretold the future, particularly Punishment Park. It would also be interesting to see his shorter films in contrast to his longer – though I think it will have to do it in my own time, as I don’t feel like it would be particularly relevant to this studio. I will take a look at one of his films for this assignment though.

We all presented our ideas for our research projects, and the others in my group all had interesting ideas looking at a variety of different topics. To be honest, all of the presentations in my group – yes, including mine – weren’t particularly polished, which meant that we all had to use our words to portray our ideas, rather than some fancy, polished presentation. The worst thing was that I panicked a bit during the session and had to finish the presentation a bit late. I probably didn’t have to worry about it in hindsight.

Looking back, I feel like my project has suffered a bit of “scope creep,” so I could probably cut it back. Perhaps just focusing on the docudrama/mockumentary side of things would make things leaner and more relevant to the unit. The fact that a large amount of the cinematography in The Blair Witch Project was improvised would mean that there wouldn’t be much to research, even if I looked at other similarly shot films.