The first half of the semester has been wrapped up and I have a much clearer idea of what I’ll be doing over the coming weeks. Good Shepherd has proposed that we come to them and film a sewing class that they run in one of their community houses, interviewing them and asking what kind of impact the group and Good Shepherd has had on them. As a first step, Kim suggested we check out the location that we’ll be shooting at so we can work out the different factors that will come into play such as framing etc. We’ve e-mailed Ruby and we should be able to work a time out with them where we can scout the house next week.

Going forward I need to start thinking about what else can be done to prepare for principal photography: questions we can ask during interviews, what we want to get out of the participants, as well as what kind of footage can be used to cut away from the interview itself. I also want to ask what action I want this film to take, seeing as this was my primary motivation for choosing the studio. I suppose the action is in spreading awareness about Good Shepherd and what they do, in turn perhaps helping others at risk, but I think this can be taken to a deeper level. As I learn more details and develop the project I can delve into this matter a bit more over the coming weeks.

As for what else I can do over the break – I’ll continue to research Good Shepherd, begin to prepare my pitch for week 7 (it was useful to watch a pitch today so I have a general idea) and prepare some of the necessary documents such as an outline, personal and location releases and a director’s statement.

I declare that in submitting all work for this assessment I have read, understood and agree to the content and expectations of the assessment declaration.

My final project for the semester will involve me working with Good Shepherd – what exactly that will entail I don’t know for sure yet. After meeting with Ethne and Ruby, I know we’ll be filming something between now and the end of semester, perhaps video portraits of people and their stories, but other than that it isn’t completely clear. I can’t definitively connect what I’ve done over the last few weeks to a documentary idea. However, I’ll talk about the techniques I’ve learnt and how they can translate into situations where I may be working with participants for Good Shepherd, as well as how the readings and other material has influenced my thoughts on documentary and its purpose.

Working as a media student with Good Shepherd there will be a certain expectation that I will have at least basic knowledge of whatever equipment I am using, if not thorough. Having a couple of weeks to learn my way around the camera will not only allow me to be more efficient when working on a production, but will also give me the flexibility to experiment and change different settings to create interesting shots. The week 3 homework exercise allowed me to play around with these ideas a little bit, but I think I may continue to use the cameras in my spare time to get a better feel for them and improve my skills.

Looking at Michael Renov’s four functions of documentary, my purpose is to persuade and promote – Working with Good Shepherd will hopefully allow me to do that, no matter how small the impact is. As I tried to find inspiration for my project over the first few weeks I looked at other documentaries which fell under this function. An Inconvenient Truth was one example of this type of documentary. While well known and a commercial success, it didn’t necessarily have a profound or visible impact on the issue it covered. On the contrary, Blackfish, which I covered in my week 4 blog post, created a rippling effect which eventually led to change as Seaworld stopped breeding orcas in the US. Both were interesting examples that had achieved different levels of success and impact, yet researching them reassured me that this was the direction I wanted to take.

Something new that has piqued my interest over the last month however, is experimental film and how techniques seen may be used in documentary. As I mentioned in my video, if I for whatever reason don’t end up working with Good Shepherd, I have discovered several other things I may enjoy. Our brief look in class at experimental film inspired me to look elsewhere, which brought me back to a film I looked at in my first year Introduction to Cinema class, Ballet Méchanique. An extremely unsettling and odd experience that revolves around strange moving shapes and images, I’m not sure I still completely understand it. However, I found it engrossing, and I believe I would really enjoy creating an experimental documentary that conveyed an important message in a subtle way. I feel confident that I could take off in a different direction if I needed to for this project, or even try something like this as a side project.

References

An Inconvenient Truth, http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=inconvenienttruth.htm.

Renov, M (1993), Theorizing Documentary.

Blog links

Week 1: http://www.mediafactory.org.au/matthew-kennedy/2017/07/22/week-1-blog-documentary-as-action/

Week 2: http://www.mediafactory.org.au/matthew-kennedy/2017/07/29/week-2-blog-documentary-as-action/

Week 3: http://www.mediafactory.org.au/matthew-kennedy/2017/07/31/week-3-blog-documentary-as-action/

Week 4: http://www.mediafactory.org.au/matthew-kennedy/2017/08/11/week-4-blog-documentary-as-action/

During the class on Monday a couple of people from Good Shepherd came down to talk to us about working with them, which gave me a general idea of what I’ll working on over the coming weeks. We discussed what Good Shepherd does and what the organisation’s values are and they sound great. They’re committed to helping at risk women and children in various ways, and aim to provide them with a community they can confide in. Ruby and Ethne presented us with a project to jump on board with next Wednesday, however it isn’t the best day for either Jess or myself. We talked about other potential projects, particularly short portraits that could be filmed about people who have volunteered for, or been assisted by Good Shepherd. They said they’d stay in touch over the next week or two and try to set something up for us, so there isn’t too much we can do apart from become a bit more familiar with the equipment we’ll be using when we film. Overall I’m happy we’re somewhat on track and working with such a great organisation!

Just to preface this post quickly, our last week with Robin involved us playing around with the Sony EX cameras some more and conducting a short interview to test our technical skills a little bit more – framing, exposure, focus etc. I thought this was great preparation for our production; we can have all the ideas but if we can’t execute them properly we won’t have a final product we’re happy with. I’m feeling pretty confident about being able to use the cameras properly now, so hopefully I won’t keep any participants in my video(s) waiting around while I’m changing settings.

The main topic of this blog post, however, is documentary impact. After reading up on the Documentary as Action blog, the recent trend of impact being an important factor in documentary has piqued my interest. Caty Borum Chattoo’s article on ‘The Blackfish Effect’ was an interesting read. The different factors that are factored in when determining the impact of a film are numerous and varied, and some of them are perhaps out of the hands of the filmmakers themselves. Blackfish gained traction not just due to the quality of the documentary itself, but also huge amounts of media coverage and word of mouth. Few documentaries get to see this level of exposure.

The impact of documentaries ties in directly to this class and why I chose it. I’m not a documentary fanatic and never have been, so being able to take action is the main reason I chose the studio. Working with a not-for-profit organisation will allow me to use my skills to aid people that are helping to make change, so even if I make just a tiny impact I’ll be glad to know I’ve done something beneficial to others. As for my opinion on documentary in general and how ‘impact strategies’ are affecting the landscape of the genre – I believe more documentaries being made and funded to have an impact on society is a great thing, only if other documentaries aren’t excluded because they aren’t larger scale and have less potential to spread nationally or globally.

Chattoo, C (2016), Anatomy of “The Blackfish Effect”, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/caty-borum-chattoo/anatomy-of-the-blackfish-_b_9511932.html.