What I've Learned from Documentary Storytelling

Documentary Storytelling from Skylar Brown on Vimeo.

This assignment has taught me a lot about documentary storytelling, first off you have to plan it, and it’s not just something you can jump headfirst into. Like all good films you have to have a message you are trying to convey or "the gift of the story" and a plan on how you will convey that story. Not only does a plan help you get organize to convey your story to the audience but it helps you convey your ideas to your partner or team during production. Another lesson that I have learned is that finding well lit area to shoot is your best call especially if you do not have your own lighting available to set up. I really had to think on my feet on how to light a dimly lit room which included borrowing lamps from other rooms that were accessible. Another thing I have learned from this experience is to trust your partner with the camera, since I usually shoot by myself and even when I am working with the production team I’m usually always camera operator. Working with someone else as the camera operator was a very new experience for me and it took almost all of my will not to touch the camera, I had to have faith that my partner understood me and what I wanted from the shots. The final thing that I had learned is when you have to consider what the audience will think, if there is an awkward pause in the middle of the film it may make sense to you but the audience may not understand also it is a good idea to put subtext of a person’s name who you are interviewing. Overall this assignment was a fantastic learning experience, I've learned what works, what doesn't work, I've made a few mistakes but the feedback that was provided by my peers will help me in the future.  

Blog #3 Motivated Camera Movement

1. Eurotrip (The Louvre)

This may seem weird to some people but when I was trying to figure out what scene of a film would be a great example of motivated camera movement my brain immediately thought of The Louvre scene of Eurotrip. Which was really strange because I haven't watched that movie in months. The director did well in this scene to use the high-speed pan with the camera to show the viewer the insanely long line the characters had to suffer through. Also the tilt used on the female tourist to give the viewer a good look of her body brought a bit of raunchy humor to the scene.

2. Fast and Furious Tokyo Drift (Garage Race)

One of the top reasons to use camera movement is to follow the movements of a subject on camera so that the viewer does not miss a second of the action. The best examples of this are sports and action movies, for instance race scenes in Fast and Furious Tokyo Drift the camera follows the cars and their motions tobring more dimension to the film.

3. Jackass  3 (Pin the Tail on the Donkey)

Another reason to use camera movement is to reveal something big to the viewers on screen by using pans and tilts. One of the best examples of this is during Jackass movies and episodes when they use movements to reveal a prank such as the Pin the Tail on the Donkey prank when they pan the camera to reveal the donkey.