In our Tuesday class, we were shown a number of documentaries, each with different structures. There’s ‘The Heat’ which is a linear narrative following the life of a female boxer and her struggles, ‘Sriracha’ took on the essayistic/autobiographical approach by exploring what ‘sriracha’ is, and ‘Food’ which is a compilation of interviews around a topic, creatively paired with food animation as the visual.

If I were to chose three documentary structure, those above would be interesting to approach.

With interview style, I would have three to four person answering questions on a topic, in my case, around conscious eating and sustainability. I think it’s always fun to have varying opinions around one topic from a group of people without being biased and I guess is a great way of being transparent as a filmmaker. I personally see this kind of interviews a lot on youtube, most of the time it’s street interviews where random people in the streets of Tokyo for example being asked about a certain topic that’s currently in discussion or just any random day-to-day topic people might be interested to know the answers to. For this approach though I’ll probably interview people that I already know, that way it’s easier to schedule a time and set up the equipment and I guess have more control of the set. Street-style interviews definitely takes more courage because we have to approach strangers and handle being looked at by other people.

Next, I think linear narrative is one of the most basic form of documentary which is always safe to do but doesn’t mean it’s going to be boring. If i were to do this, I would probably make it about an interesting character, perhaps a food blogger in Melbourne which I had just recently worked with. I’d do an interview with her, how she first started and why she does it, to the hardships and downsides of doing what she does. I’ll follow her around for a day doing what she does, reviewing eateries and making content for her food account, just getting lots of shots really to be overlaid with her voice.

Lastly, the approach I would most likely to do would be autobiographical. However, instead of making it just about myself, it would be about me and my sister. The topic would be conscious eating and basically focuses around practising the mindset of choosing food that are more healthy not only for ourselves but the environment, as well as reducing waste in general, especially food. It would be a little experimental and fun, recording ourselves talking to the camera and then shooting one another doing things we always do. I would include tid-bits of only observational moments. The concept is basically us talking to the camera (the audience) and just really breaking the fourth wall, as if they are there with us. There would be a more serious part in the interview part where we talk about how we cope with our different food diets, and maybe if possible have a clip of us arguing. So if i do end up with this approach it would be the most abstract and experimental, fun type of documentary since it’ll be about myself and my sister and what we care about.