MPVS Process Book Blog – Tasks and Guidance

Week 1- Blog task

Write about what you have learned with reflections on the experience from the seminar and workshops from Week 1 – What is documentary?’

1. We watched the example short documentaries on the Canvas page, consider what we discussed and the questions posed on the page –  e.g. What did you learn about the different ways of presenting information to the audience in the documentaries we watched on Canvas? Which were your favourite ones and why? How did they make you feel?

What I like is the documentary that records shipbuilding, because the documentary itself is based on real life as the creative material, real people and real things as the object of expression, and the artistic processing and display of it, emphasizing respect for the original ecology of life, in order to show the truth. The essence, and the film or TV art form that triggers people’s thinking with reality.

• Write up your notes and what you have learned from the Core reading for this week and our discussion about ‘What is documentary’?
• What is a good definition of documentary?
• What are some of the key characteristics of a documentary?
• What things distinguish it from other forms of nonfiction?
• What are some things that successful documentaries do?
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• As in the definition of documentary, we can definitely see a feature of documentary-documentary. To put it simply, documentary is the pursuit of realism in time, space, characters, events, and details. This reality is not only true for shooting in creation, but also for post-editing. For example, in the early stage of shooting, the photographer may have taken three scenes of medium shot, close shot, and close shot for one thing.
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• Creation characteristics The documentary uses news footage to truly record social life, objectively reflect real people, real events, true feelings, and real scenes in life, focusing on showing the original form and complete process of life, and rejecting fictional and acting news TV programs. In the creative process showed some common characteristics.

Documentaries are mainly based on reality and documentary. It strives to record real people and real things happening around us with real means to express a thought or theme. The drama is already a documentary that penetrates the form of artistic representation, not a documentary in the true sense. A novel is a work created by a writer.

I think the thoughts revealed by successful documentaries are incomparable. It can not only broaden the horizons to a certain extent, but also inspire wisdom.In a sense, the essence of documentary is the essence of truth-seeking science. For example, a documentary I like very much; Salt of the Earth. This film tells the story of photographer Sebanstian.He accidentally came into contact with the camera, and from this he became a world-renowned social documentary photographer. His shots are full of documentary impact, especially the records of famines, wars and low-level people. Through the photos, it seems that the life state of the subject can be seen. And during the filming process, Sebanstian also began to think about the world. Thanks to his economics professional foundation, he constantly began to pay attention to the vision of mankind on a larger level, such as eliminating global hunger and eliminating wars full of hatred. If you have seen these photos, you will feel the humbleness and cruelty of life on earth, happiness and peace, after all, human beings are the salt of the earth. Brazil, the shocking scene of 50,000 people panning for gold in a huge pit at the same time. There are dense numbers of people climbing on a 90-degree vertical wooden ladder. Once they fall, they may lose their lives and cause other people to fall.In Ethiopia, due to the famine, the number of refugees increased sharply. On the way to flee, death became a part of life. Everyone is used to death. People here are either dying or on their way to death. In Mali, there are only children and women. The men all go to work in other places, and they promise to make money and come back to support their families, but few people come back.In Kuwait, 400 oil fields were ignited at the same time. The fire was so bright that day and night were indistinguishable. Firefighters from all over the world extinguished the fire in this purgatory on earth.

• Short Filming Task – Upload your completed storyboard and short 30 second film task to your blog
  • Write some reflections about how the task went – e.g. how successful was it (be honest)? Were there some difficulties that you experienced in making it? What did you learn about shot types, filming and story telling when you were making it? What would like to do differently next time you make a film?

If you cannot upload the film directly to the WordPress blog, then post it to another video site and then add a link to your blog. For example YouTube, or Vimeo. (Open a free YouTube or Vimeo account, upload your work there, then embed the film or put a link to it in your WordPress blog.) 

Think about your first ideas for possible documentary project subjects and which medium you might choose – remember the project theme is ‘The Story of an Object’.

https://padlet.com/jz3792/k48yw6foxeukbxbh

This documentary is just a simple shot of disabled people doing rehabilitation training in the swimming pool and rehabilitation center.  The reason I filmed is because the disabled in China are really a group that is easily forgotten.  Most people with disabilities may spend their entire lives at home. It is difficult to make friends and go to school. Until now, I still don’t understand why this happens.  I haven’t decided what I will shoot next time, but I hope I can make some very complete publicly exposed documentaries about some disadvantaged groups.