What is a Documentary Film?
Everyone can make a documentary film, but not everyone can make a quality film. A quality documentary includes preproduction, production, and postproduction. A documentary film includes a lot more than people think. Without preproduction, production and postproduction a quality documentary film cannot be created.
Preproduction mode is a step that many inexperienced people don’t acknowledge. Within this mode comes a lot of thought. Pre- meaning before states that before you jump right into your movie think it out, know exactly what you want to do. In knowing what exactly you want to do comes a film proposal and a criteria rubric. A film proposal states, in detail what your film is going to be about. It is a preplanned statement as well as sort of a copyright for your idea. A criteria rubric is a list of important things, in which to include in your film. Some criteria includes, camera skills (panning, focus, angles), editing (volume, music, good footage), and the film telling a story. Preproduction is an important step that should not be left out when making a documentary film.
Production mode is the most important step in a documentary. It consists of filming and editing. When filming it is important to keep in mind copyright. Copyright is the act of publishing something as your own and no one else can take that idea or name. When filming you can not use a copyright idea and you should copyright your idea so no one else takes it. Also when filming visual evidence is key. Visual evidence is using visuals to back up your story or idea rather than words. When editing your film there is a motto to remember: when in doubt, cut it out. If something looks like it doesn’t belong or you are unsure don’t include it in your film. It’s also important, when editing to add voiceovers or sound. Voiceovers give some sizzle to your film, like you know what you are doing. Music is key in not having a boring film. It gives the audience a sense of emotion and dramatic qualities in your piece. Some songs can help in sequencing your clips together effectively. The sound levels should all be the same volume throughout your film as well. The last thing to be aware of while editing is verisimilitude. Verisimilitude is the truth or reality to your film. Is it believable? Or is it just something completely made up? Documentary films should be believable.
Postproduction mode is the least important step in producing a documentary film, but still very much needed. This mode has only two key points involved with it, a film statement and PR. A film statement is a statement about the documentary that you created stating how your film went, why you did what you did, why you chose a specific title, and just overall a personal statement about your film. PR stands for public relations. It means that your film should be public oriented and you should be aware of the public image your film will give you.
When creating a film three steps are important. If you forget those your documentary will be lacking key information. A quality film has preproduction, production, and postproduction. Don’t be an amateur and forget what a good documentary is.
Critique Your own Film
Recyclable is a very unique documentary, unique in a way that each and every documentary is unique. This film includes evidence of mastery of camera skills, evidence of master editing skills, and design.
My film shows evidence of mastery of camera skills within panning, focus, and angles. Throughout the film there are scenes with panning of nature and different angles of nature and trash. The focal point of my film was trash and how it is everywhere on the streets. I put an emphasis on trash on the ground and nature to show a difference in what the world is supposed to be and what human’s do to it.
Editing was a key concept of recyclable. I used editing to change and organize slides. I put the slides every other (trash then nature) and put the trash scenes in black and white to show the dullness of it. This documentary tells a story about how the earth started out all nature and then how trash took it over and goes into scenes of trash cans and a garbage truck to show where the trash should be. I feel that my footage accurately supports my idea in a way that can show others what I was thinking. Without editing my film would have been very poorly done and the concept of littering would not been affectively brought across.
This documentary lacks design. It does not have a DVD insert, disk design, cover design or credits. Because it lacks these things it brings the appearance of the documentary down a lot. The only thing in the category that was a very strong point was high-resolution images. The images in this documentary were of very good quality and really brought out the main ideas.
Overall this was an average documentary. It was not amazing but it was not terrible. Recyclable was missing only a couple of key things, which brought it down. But what was there was of great quality and evened it out from being terrible. This was a very unique film.
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