Location: Camden Town

Ellen, Claudie and I decided that Camden Town would be the most appropriate location to explore for our project, as there are multiple tattoo parlours down the high street and the general atmosphere is perfect. We not only gained a lot of knowledge about people's reasons for getting tattoos, but also a large amount of initial footage and location images.

We interviewed a promoter for a tattoo parlour, who allowed us to film him and ask him questions about his tattoos (which he showed to us whilst we filmed him). We also got a lot of footage of Camden Town itself for our final documentary, as well as many still shots of the surrounding area.

We left the camera running as we walked through the market and out the other side, as we thought the idea of over-saturating and contrasting the footage as well as speeding up the clip and putting fast paced music over the top would be a very interesting opening to our documentary. This will really express how vivid and exciting Camden is as a place, and reflect the individuality of the people living there, as well as being an engaging opening for the audience.

Tattoos Presentation

Here is our presentation on tattoos that we created to explain our ideas:

Tattoos presentation

View more presentations from Ellen Crane.

Miami Ink

Miami Ink is a documentary/reality show which revolves around the lives of 6 tattoo artists and their work. Miami Ink isn't solely about the tattooing, but also the artists themselves and their lives. The documentary proves that tattoos are not solely about appearance, but often have memorial value to a person, and this theme continues from episode to episode. Each of the artists has a different style, for example, Ami (who owns the shop) specialises in cartoon style tattoos including a large amount of vivid colour, whereas Kat Von D works better with black and white tones and working into portraits, with particular attention to detail.

This documentary is very different to others featured today, because of how controversial the topic of tattoos are; they are either loved or hated, and this is reflected in what Ami and Chris named their shop in Miami, 'Love Hate Tattoos'. The concept of tattoos can be considered in many ways; some people see tattooing as scarring someone's body, whereas others see it as the perfect means of self expression. The intention of the documentary is to expose the importance of tattoos to individuals and also the lives of the tattooists - the viewer gets an insight in what tattoos mean to them, and why they decided to get involved in the tattooing industry.

Secondary Idea: Tattooing

We decided against the idea of subliminal messaging, as when we did a survey for our year group to find out about their opinions on subliminal messaging, many people did not understand what it was, or couldn't relate it to things in every day life. We then did some more brainstorming, and decided on a completely different idea - tattooing. We really liked the concept of doing a documentary on tattooing and tattoo artists, as we realised that it would be a topic that would be easy to get footage on as asking for filming permission would not be difficult, and we could show different extremes of tattooing (for example, people who are obsessed with tattoos and body modification, and those who simply want a memorial tattoo that means something special to that person.)

I have been looking into one extreme version of tattooism in particular. The 'Cat Man'. Dennis Avner claims that he follows the 'Huron' Traditions, one of which is turning yourself into a cat aesthetically. Therefore, Avner has had facial modifications and tattoos, along with having silicone implants in his forehead and cheeks, tattoos covering his face and body, and whiskers all on his face. This is a prime example of people who take tattooism too far, and do not use it for memorial or personal reasons.

The predominant reason behind many tattoos due to memorial reasons, where people get their body inked in memory of a person, pet or other. Other reasons behind tattoos can be simply because of an addiction to the pain, where people get tattooed simply because they find the pain enjoyable, or purely for aesthetic reasons.


Here is a link to a documentary, LA Ink, which focuses around tattooing and the lives of the tattooists in a parlour in LA:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=at148-GVvNE

Initial Idea: Subliminal Messaging In The Fashion Industry

My final group for our project consisted of myself, Ellen and Claudie. We spent a long time brainstorming and planning our initial ideas. We landed on the idea of the use of subliminal messaging in relation to the fashion industry, looking at how the models, designers, magazine editors and the public are affected by the representation of women through these subliminal messages that encourage people to be slim.

We investigated the way that billboards and magazine spreads present people and how the subliminal messages that are incorporated influence the view that the public have of themselves. We also looked into the way in which model's are edited to make them look more svelte and beautiful, therefore giving an unrealistic appearance to the public, and creating a vast number of self conscious children and young adults, as they feel the definite need to be slim and attractive.

Here is an example of the way in which Subliminal Messaging works:

9/11 Faker

I have been looking at another expository documentary, this one revolving around the 9/11 terrorist attacks and their survivors. The documentary i have been analysing was based around a woman who had claimed to be a survivor of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and one of only 19 people who had been above the point of impact and survived the incident.

Head had claimed that her fiance had died in the tragic terrorist attack. Her dramatic story was highly convincing, and she even managed to create a fundraiser of the 'World Trade Centre Survivors' Network, set up to support victims who were still suffering after the attacks. Tania Head even gave guided tours around Ground Zero, giving a detailed description of her so called experience, and fooling the nation entirely. She managed to retain this facade for over 6 years, before being discovered as a liar and a fake by the New York Times.

The importance of a documentary like this, is to expose stories that are relevant and important to the public, as well as being controversial and interesting. The way that this documentary in particularly was presented, was as one where the main focus was a particular person, rather than a topic. This added interest to the documentary, as it is shocking that a person could have a mindset to behave the way that Tania Head did.

Cutting Edge: Cotton Wool Kids

This 'Cutting Edge' documentary is of an expository format, and it focuses on children who are being suffocated by their protective parents. The documentary exposes the lives of a few children in particular, who's parents stop them getting vital life experience and enjoying their childhood due to their obsessive nature regarding safety. This behaviour does not regress as their children get older, if anything it gets progressively worse.

These parents buy their children expensive gaming software, mobile phones and computing equipment such as new laptops, gaming chairs, iPhones and various other new items to retain control and encourage their children to want to stay at home rather than play with their friends from school. These children aren't even allowed to play outside the front of the house, as these parents are terrified that they might be stabbed, kidnapped or worse.

The documentary focuses on three parents in particular; Adel, Toni and Jenny. The expository nature of this documentary reveals the way in which technology now allows parents to be protective over their children, by microchipping and GPS tracking, for example, which is the means of protection that Toni was particularly interested in. 'Cotton Wool Kids' gives us insight into the way that some families live, which allows the audience to analyse their own and compare, therefore making this particular style of documentary interesting.

Link to the documentary: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebGOl_G3jes&list=SL

The Rise Of The Documentary

The term 'documentary' was not introduced immediately, so before the 1900's, there was minimal exposure to the concept of film. This meant there was very little, if any knowledge of the documentary. The documentary equivalent was referred to as 'actuality film'. The term 'documentary' did not originate properly until 1926.

Pre 1900:

- Single shot films were made. Documentaries were focused around novelty things happening, such as a train moving etc.

- Storytelling did not originate until the 20th Century, and the majority of short films (such as those by Auguste and Louis Lumiere) were shorter than a minute due to the limitations of film.

1920s:

- Romanticism: Robert J. Flaherty's documentary film in 1922, Nanook of the North, embraced romanticism as a documentary concept.

Newsreel Tradition:

- The newsreel is important in the history of the documentary. They were often re-enactments of events from the past that were filmed. They were sometimes staged, and events that were currently happening were not often filmed.

1950s - 1970s:

Cinéma Verité: Cinéma Verité is essentially 'truthful cinema'. It is a style of documentary making which includes the combination of stylistic techniques alongside naturalistic devices. The camera is used to provoke it's subjects, and it is famous for this technique in particular. It is commonly observed that the intention of provoking the subject is to reveal the truth in the best way in cinema. The camera is always acknowledged by the interviewers and the subjects.

Modern Documentaries

Modern documentaries are considered to be very successful in today's society - they are one of the predominant ways of exposing the truth about specific, and often controversial topics to the public. Modern documentaries usually have a fairly low budget, which makes them attractive to many film companies as they can be highly profitable.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Documentary_film

http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/

Analysis of 'Louis and the Brothel' , 'Louis Theroux: Under The Knife' and Louis Theroux: The City Addicted To Crystal Meth

I have taken a particular interest in Louis Theroux's expository documentaries, and recently watched a few of the most famous and analysed them in detail. The three i was particularly interested in were 'Louis and the Brothel', 'Louis Theroux: Under the Knife' and 'Louis Theroux: The City Addicted To Crystal Meth'.

Louis and the Brothel:

Here we see Louis looking at a legal brothel in Nevada, and he brings a fairly sympathetic aspect to their careers on board. Where he initially tries to be emotionally detached from the prostitutes, he eventually forms a bond with one in particular, Hailey, who has had a particularly traumatic life as her husband tried to shoot her, leaving her partially deaf, before shooting himself. We see how her emotional instability due to her horrible past relationships forces her into the life of prostitution, and Louis spends a lot of time interviewing her.

Louis' expository format of his documentaries is put to the test as he attempts to expose the life of prostitutes, and when Hailey attempts to negotiate with him - asking him to pay her for more of her time. We also see a young woman of just 21, who, having been in the porn and escort business in the past, has now resorted to prostitution. She looks very young for her age, around the age of 12, and states that she is certain that 'some of the men who hire her are paedophiles' and hire her solely for her young appearance. It is evident through Louis' style of documentary, that these women are essentially business women, and we see the turn of events with their 'strictly business relationships' over the 6 week period that Louis stays with them.

Louis Theroux: Under The Knife

In this documentary, we see Louis analysing the importance of plastic surgery in the USA. Louis hunts to find a valid reason for their obsession with the 'perfect body', and in order to try and relate to the characters we see, he goes under the knife himself and has liposuction on his midriff, and becomes completely immersed in his topic.

Louis joins surgeons and patients in their consultations, and tries to understand the obsession for the perfect body. When undergoing plastic surgery himself, he experiences the pain and discomfort that these patients go through, and how they begin to get addicted to the feeling of pain and go through repetitive surgeries to allow themselves to be 'perfect'. Louis interviews a man who is pushing 50 years old, and has had pectoral and bicep implants to make himself look more 'muscular'. His face has been so distorted by plastic surgery that he looks emotionless, overly suntanned and very 'plastic'. The patient, however, believes that he is essentially perfect in every way, but due to Louis' expository documentary style, it is evident to the viewer that he has taken his obsession too far.

Louis Theroux: The City Addicted To Crystal Meth

Another of Louis Theroux's more famous documentaries is his one revolving around the Crystal Meth addiction that plagues Fresno, a town in Central Valley, California. Louis discovers that due to the cheapness of the drug, the majority of the town is addicted, or has at least tried Crystal Meth, even those as young as 15 years old have drug issues.

Louis exposes the reality of this addiction and the way in which it ruins lives. One couple, Diane and Karl, are focused on in particular. They have had their 5 children taken away from them due to their 25 years worth of drug addiction, and only the Diane seems to regard this as an extremely regrettable incident. Louis visits the homes of addicts other who have been taking the drug prior to his arrival, and when he does arrive, he witnesses them taking their daily hit and is very disturbed by the fact that children are in a such a close radius to the highly addicted drug. Louis learns about the Westcare Centre, the only place in Fresno that focuses on rehabilitation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Theroux#BBC_2_Specials
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0387361/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2007/06_june/26/theroux.shtml

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00m572d

Full Video of Louix Theroux: Under The Knife

Morgan Spurlock

Morgan Spurlock is an American documentary film maker who focuses on participatory documentation. He is best known for his documentary on McDonalds fast food in 2004, 'Super Size Me'. He, like many other documentary makers, got completely immersed in the subject and decided to eat nothing but McDonald's 3 times a day for a 30 day period. Before he started the project, he had above average fitness levels, and after eating excessive amounts of McDonald's for the 30 day period, he gained 25lbs, suffered from liver dysfunction and depression. It took him a little over 14 months to return to his normal weight, and he was put on a detox diet to help him get his normal build back.

Spurlock proceeded to make other documentaries, such as 'Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden? Spurlock looks at terrorism, and presents both sides of the argument regarding terrorism. He tries to find Osama Bin Laden, obviously without success, and this therefore presented more negative reviews than positive ones, as it was perceived to be a pointless documentary.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgan_Spurlock

Pyschological Documentary Presentation

I was particularly inspired by the psychological documentaries I have been looking into, such as 'Louis Theroux: A Place For Paedophiles' and Nick Broomfields 'Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer'. Due to my interest in this topic, I created a presentation to show the style of psychological documentaries, with given examples.

Psychological Documentaries

View more presentations from LGBA.

David Attenborough

Sir David Attenborough is a naturalist and a broadcaster. He is most famous for being the voice and face of documentaries for the BBC, predominantly those regarding nature such as 'Blue Planet' and the 'Life' series. He usually narrates his documentaries rather than presents them, therefore they are shown in a poetic nature more than any other style.

Over the last 25 years he has established himself as the world's leading natural history programme maker with several landmark BBC series, including:

Life on Earth (1979)
The Living Planet (1984)
The Trials of Life (1990)
The Private Life of Plants (1995)
The Life of Birds (1998)
The Life of Mammals (2002)
Life in the Undergrowth (2005)

Attenborough worked on a multitude of documentaries, one of his most famous being the 'Life' series, where he looks at evolutionary history of animal species and the like. He is also famous for his narration of 'Planet Earth', and has a knighthood for his famous voice and passion for his subject.

Due to Attenborough's interest in the subject, he has gained up most respect for his work in the natural documentary industry. Recently, warned and informed the country of the climate change issues surrounding the planet, and warned of an 'ecological disaster'.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Attenborough

http://www.davidattenborough.co.uk/biography/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/7631314/David-Attenborough-warns-of-ecological-disaster.html

Nick Broomfield

Nick Broomfield is a British film and documentary maker, who films with as minimal a crew as possible, giving his documentaries his signature style which is very easily recognised. His style is very much on the reflexive side - he is usually seen dictating to the camera at some point. He has won a multitude of awards for his documentaries, such as the BAFTA Lifetime Achievement Award for Contribution to Documentary, and honorary doctorates from the University of Essex and the University of Surrey. Broomfield's earliest documentaries are prime examples of his use of Cinéma Vérité - the juxtaposition of observed scenes, with minimal use of voice over, text and dialogue.

Kurt and Courtney: Possibly one of Broomfield's most famous documentaries was on Nirvana's Kurt Cobain and his suspicious suicide. He looks into Courtney Love's lifestyle, accusing her of supporting the suppression of free speech and much more. This is one of his many reflexive and controversial documentaries.

Other films/documentaries:

• Fetishes
• Biggie and Tupac
• Heidi Fleiss: Hollywood Madam
• Ghosts

And many more...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Broomfield
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cin%C3%A9ma_v%C3%A9rit%C3%A9

Michael Moore

Michael Moore is an acclaimed American film maker, who uses his documentaries to portray his political nature in the most expository format he can. He is a Liberal political commentator and an author, and he has spent his life directing, producing and occasionally acting. He has made a number of famous controversial documentaries and films, criticising and analysing globalisation, the ownership of assault weaponry, large co-operations and the like. Moore started his life in documentation after having dropped out of university, starting his career in film after creating the short documentary 'Roger and Me' in 1989, which displayed his neo-liberal view of globalisation.

Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004): Possibly his most famous documentary, Fahrenheit 9/11 looks at George W. Bush's presidency in a critical manner, analysing the 'War on Terror' and the situation in Iraq. The documentary attacked George Bush, and was consistently critical, leading to a massive controversy and a huge reaction from the public and the media. Fahrenheit 9/11 is, to this day, the highest grossing documentary of all time, and received a 20 minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival of 2004, showing an enormous support from his audience. Moore wrote a formal letter to Bush, encouraging him sarcastically to watch the film that directly insulted him. He writes:

" I write to invite you to the inaugural showing of "Fahrenheit 9/11" in
Crawford at the Crawford Peace House, Wednesday, July 28 at dusk...
If you graciously accept my invitation, I will also have the chance to thank you personally for being one of my Axis of Actors who star in the film (along with your Vice President and your Attorney General). And let's face it -- you've got the funniest lines in the film! We may even have an audience reading of "My Pet Goat" to celebrate "Fahrenheit 9/11" breaking through the $100 million mark at the box office."

Sicko (2007): This documentary of Michael Moore's recognises the issues within the health and pharmaceutical industry in the USA. Moore received an Acadamy Award Nomination for his efforts in Sicko, and it was very popular with so called 'Health Care Activists' who commended him for his successful attempt in exposing the corruptness of the American healthcare system.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Moore
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahrenheit_9/11
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sicko

Louis Theroux

Louis Theroux is a British - American journalist who creates in depth and engaging documentaries. Some of his most famous and successful documentary series are 'Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends' and 'When Louis Met...', where Theroux travels around the world to experience and report unusual and often very disturbing ways of life. For example, having travelled to South Africa, Theroux interviews a Boer separatist leader; the leader of white South African inhabitants from a Dutch background, who still believes in the South African apartheid and have arguably racist views.

Louis Theroux uses reflexive and expository forms in the majority of his documentaries, as he is always in front of the camera, discussing his topic of choice, and exposing situations as they develop around him. He is well known for his use of 'Gonzo Journalism'; where the reporter has the ability to be so involved in the report that they are almost part of the story through using a first person narrative.This technique is so engaging for the audience, as there is direct communication between the reporter and the audience.Theroux uses this technique as it presents his documentaries to be 'gritty' and hard-hitting. Some features that commonly feature in Gonzo journalistic documentaries are themes such as use of profanity, sarcasm and dry humour.

The Louis Theroux documentaries usually revolve predominantly around human interest with an expository format, aimed at a more educated audience. His documentaries are very controversial, as he reports on mostly 'taboo' subjects; those that aren't commonly discussed. Theroux has developed an almost 'cult' following, where his audience admire him for exposing the truth about multiple cultural aspects of the world. In the past, he has looked at religion, the porn industry, body building and muscle worship, Black nationalists, White supremacists, plastic surgery and many more aspects of culture that is considered to be abnormal and undiscussed.

Some of Theroux's documentaries have experienced a disapproving reception due to their controversial nature. His documentary on paedophiles in a Californian mental hospital called Coalinga State Hospital showed the patients to be having a much too positive a lifestyle considering they had such serious convictions and mental conditions. The patients were allowed soft porn of young adults in the rooms of child molesters, a gymnasium to keep fit and a shopping mall and DVD library for recreational purposes. The exposition of such a sensitive issue was both commended and reprimanded, as for some people they felt that seeing the life of such mentally ill people was disturbing, despite being warned of the content at the beginning of the documentary.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Theroux

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0857621/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boer

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gonzo_journalism

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_Louis_Met%E2%80%A6

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Theroux%27s_Weird_Weekends

Forms and Types of Documentaries

The concept of the documentary contains four predominant ways of presentation to the audience. Here is a brief description of each one:

• Reflexive - In which the film-maker makes their presence known to the audience. They are shown to be presenting and giving narrative guidance in front of the camera.
  
• Poetic - Artistic narrative is constructed. Usually more human interest (celebrity documentaries and the like) rather than current affairs.
  
• Observational - Being there as events unfold. Observational documentaries follow a person and document their journey as events unfold.
  
• Expository - The exposition of a topic or potential analysis of a person throughout the documentary.

Advanced Portfolio - An Introduction to the Documentary

A documentary film is one which aims to literally 'document' real events and situation in an informative and engaging manner, with the aim to interact with the audience and be educational at the same time. Documentaries are usually shown in either film or television format, presenting informative facts about a specific person or and event.

These films can be based on any non-fiction situation, meaning that documentaries can be aimed at any audience to an extent. The aim of such programs is to present a non-fiction narrative in an analytical way to showcase important real life events or people. A prime example of a documentary which is representative of a real life story would be Channel 4's 'Katie: My Beautiful Face', a documentary about a woman who's face was burnt by sulfuric acid.

There are sub-genres of the documentary, such as a 'mockumentary', also known as a 'pseudodocumentary'. This sub-genre of televised documentaries are essentially fictitious story lines, presented in a format which presents them as fact, or in a non-fiction manner. This technique can also be used to comment on real events but in a way which presents them to be fictitious.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Documentary_film

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mockumentary

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/katie-my-beautiful-face/4od