My task is to produce a comparative analysis of at least two documentaries with screen grabbed analysis of codes and conventions.
This documentary is from the One Show. It is about the gardens of celebrities.
The presenter introduces us to the world of Lisa Gerrard’s garden and her personal life. It is made by Christine Walkden who also shows us what to plant. It was broadcasted on Tuesday 20th September at 19.00 on BBC One. It is funded by BBC One. The documentary is for 30 minutes.
The mode of address for this documentary is light hearted, optimistic and celebratory because the garden of the celebrity is beautiful, spacious, and natural. As the celebrity had breast cancer the garden has been very important to her. In other words, take good care of your garden so it takes good care of you with its natural beauty, peacefulness and purity.
This documentary wants to educate the viewers about what we need to do in our gardens.
In addition, the conventions of the documentary is non fictional, cutaways, archive, voice over, deep focus about gardening, documenting an aspect of reality, expert opinion from the presenter being an expert in gardening, location shooting with handheld camera work for realism. Cutaways are quick. Edit creates a rhythm, narrative, use of 5 shot rule.
The style or mode of the documentary is participatory, historical as it has used an archive picture from the celebrity that the presenter was visiting in her garden.
The target audience for this documentary is men and women aged 30- 50 middle class from White backgrounds who has got gigantic posh gardens in the UK.
Conventionally, there is a voice over at the start of the documentary. Followed by a close up of the plants or flowers, instantly, connoting to us that the short temporary will be about nature and the insects accompanied with the natural world.
Similar to the Ghost village Project documentary, where we are, instantly, introduced to someone talking about an aspect relevant to the documentary.
In comparison to the One Show documentary, The Ghost village Project that I have chosen is from Film Network. This documentary is about six graffiti artists that transform an abandoned 1970s village on the west coast of Scotland into a giant art installation. They employ their artistic expertise to make the village much more exciting, interesting and appealing to the residents who live there. The significant difference to the One Show Documentary in comparison to the Ghost village Project is that the Ghost village Project is actually a documentary that is set to achieve their tasks at the end. For example, at the start of the documentary there is nothing on the walls but at the end of the documentary the graffiti artists have actually achieved their planning of the art installation on the walls of the building where they are. The viewers had to watch the documentary till the end to see what the artists have produced in the walls of where they are. Whereas, in the One Show documentary, the topic wasn’t really interesting and nothing exciting occurred as the aspect of the documentary was mainly about gardening and a celebrity which wasn’t very well known. The story wasn’t developed enough for the viewers to maintain interest.
The Ghost village Project is a 10.10 minute documentary. The URL is: http://www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/films/p00fqktp
Also, the documentary is produced by Tim Daly.
The Ghost village Project was created over 30 days on the west coast of Scotland.
At the beginning, text and narrative has been used to provide us with more background information of where we are at in the setting and what the documentary is all about.
Contrastingly, the documentary has got a mysterious, yet also, quite scary soundtrack and entrance creating atmosphere and mood. However, the viewers will start to wonder what the documentary may be about. This sort of entrance may create the ‘edge of the seat’ effect.
Wheras, the One Show documentary is an ordinary show that isn’t really targeted at a wide range of audiences and it hasn't used any sound effects to create athmosphere of mood. Unlike, the Ghost village Project is, primarily, targeted at men and graffiti fans who are aged 16- 25, from a diverse working class background.
From the beginning there is a male voice over introducing us to so called ‘Ghost village’ and that the voice over is of a graffiti artists involved with the Ghostvillage Project. The cutaways are of the building with the art installation will be based at. There is long takes dominance; it is documenting an aspect of reality and non-fiction depicting realism and the beauty of art. In contrast, there is a female voice over in the One Show documentary who introduces the topic about the nature and its habitats.
The convention that the One Show documentary has used but the Ghostvillage project hasn't is archive footage from the old pictures of a celebrity that the presenter was talking about in the documentary. In comparison, the Ghost village had only primary footage where they actually went and filmed the documentary in three days.
As you can see from the screen grabbed pictures that the village at the beginning was very historical, it posed a lot of Health and Safety Risks as nobody every visited the buildings before.
At the end the village was turned into a modern art installation for the resident living in that Scottish village. Whereas in the One Show documentary, at the end, it was all about gardening and the story of the celebrity that the presenter visited at her house. The One Show documentary had no purposes or objectives similar to the Ghostviallge Project as it was a very short documentary dicussing gardening as an aspect.
In addition, there is an expert opinion from the graffiti artists about the overall project and the village in the documentary. Similar to the One Show documentary where the presenter bases her expert opinion about gardening and what is the best way to keep you flowers alive.
The Ghost village Project documentary seems to be a documentary that has used a wide range of media techniques. For example, at almost the end of the documentary there is twice time lapse used where a long video footage is being narrowed down to a smaller video footage which speeds up the activity that is going on in the video footage that is being filmed. This type of technique is very useful as it denoted the designs made at speed on the walls of the abandoned buildings as we were looking at the documentary.
A variety of shots and cutaways are used to create a rhythm and to emphasis the historical sides of the walls and the building itself with the modern and detailed design on it.
The One Show documentary is scripted by a presenter and a gardening expert. Whereas, the Ghost village Project documentary does not have a presenter, except for the graffiti artists, experts who are discussion the subject matter to the viewers.
It is made by Tim Daly. It is produced in October 2009. It is funded by System and Stormie Mills.
The mode of address is informal, celebratory, yet also, optimistic, similar to the One Show documentary.
The conventions of the Ghost village documentary is that it is nonfiction, documenting an aspect of reality just like the One Show documentary, cutaways, are mainly used in the Ghost village project documentary but not the One Show documentary/ Voice over narration at the beginning of the Ghost village documentary making it sound authoritative, expert opinion has been used in both documentaries, deep focus on the village and the graffiti artists in the Ghost village but not in the One Show documentary, both documentaries have depicted realism, a presenter section (intro and outro) in the One Show documentary but not the Ghost village one, more than 2 experts in the Ghost village documentary, Rule of Thirds has been used in both documentaries, indirect mode of address where the artists talks away from the camera not directly, captions are used in the Ghost village documentary, whereas, the one show hasn’t used any captions at all/ In the Ghost village documentary images are relating to the subject matter, similar to the One Show documentary. In the Ghost village documentary there has been irregular long takes dominance used to create a form of rhythm.
Narrative is told by the use of text and voice over where the graffiti artists are providing us with their opinion and views of the village and the project.
Whereas, the One Show documentary is told as a participatory, where the presenter is in the documentary talking directly towards the camera and it also an investigative documentary where the presenter is finding out the personal information or background information of the of the celebrity about breast cancer.
Unlike, the One Show documentary, the Ghostvillage documentary is awarded as the Best Short Documentary in the Renderyard Film Festival 2010. Interestingly enough, the One Show documentary didn't contain any further detailed information about the production details like The Ghostvillage Project.
Voice over narration in authorisation, deep focus, no hand held camera work at location shooting at all as it keeps the framing of shots such as the designs produced on the walls straight and precise.
leaving the historical place abandoned, celebratory of the finished art installation, optimistic and light hearted.
We can easily tell from the shots or the pictures that has been taken that the documentary will take place in a very mysterious, moody and dull location but it is going to be about graffiti artists and their amazing designs.
The way the pictures are taken connotes to us how the building in the village has been there for many years in comparison with others. That makes it so unique and unusual that the art installation takes place in a setting like this combine with a graffiti painting of R&B artists or comical characters.
Here it is showing from a close up shot and a long angle shot how the building where they will be establishing their art installation is dangerous and worthless. It shows a contrasting image of the surrounding in the village at the start of the documentary till the end where everything changes and things are made more fascinating and gazes attention.
The Rule of Thirds is used here to show where the abandoned village is located around. It gives an inside point of view from the residents perspective of what they see every day in the village. By the hands of the graffiti artists, the village is now an interesting open art installation.
Most importantly, it provides us with a biased opinion that graffiti artists are using their skills to make from something that is left abandoned and useless to something that is more eye-catching and attracts more audience to the village that used to be abandoned.
The above image is showing that the documentary is about an aspect of reality and the use of captions and text is used to explore the narrative to the target audience and the viewers. Additionally, the text is telling the viewers a historical or rather background information about the village where the documentary will be taking place. It makes us familiar with the key concepts of the settings and what has happened to it then and now.
No presenter or narrator has said this, instead text is used so that the viewers remember the historical information provided to them.
This is an established shot and the Rule of Thirds is used to demonstrate where the Ghostvillage is located. What the graffiti artists will be dealing with on a large scale. The picture of the location would be more appeal to the villagers as they live there. It gives us also a sense of realism.
In fact, the documentary is really about showing at the start how the surrounding and the village itself are really dull, quite and mysterious. At the end, the graffiti artists transforms the whole village into a vibrant, exciting, colourful and units the village together through the use of the large graffiti designs produced on the walls of the abandoned village. With won’t be abandoned anymore once the art installation is open and people of the village or around the country can come in and visits the village who was once nothing but an historical, unattractive and deprived village.
The difference between the One Show documentary and the Ghostvilllage documentary is that I was able to discuss the conventions or talk in detail about the Ghostvillage documentary than the One Show documentary as there wasn’t a lot of complex strategies or techniques used in the One Show such as the Time Lapse or different but relevant photos has been taken from the work of art or the building to emphasis their collaboration with each other.
Full long shots are taken from the graffiti artists and their designs to confirm to the caption and the purpose of the documentary.
Different illumination techniques are used in the documentary too to shed light on the most significant designs produced or on the way the building or the walls in the village enables them to use or develop their graffiti skills. Full shots established shot and close up shots are required to illustrate it to the viewers.
Often, the conversations of the graffiti artists took place around the building, but it was also filmed differently. For example, one of the artists was talking directly to the camera. Whereas the other one look over the camera away from the viewers to denote that different artists had their own different opinions.
The use of close up demonstrates the way different artistic strategies are used to make a full master piece. For example, the use of lines, colour, texture, shapes, tones and formats.
The designs are perfectly produced in great depth and different tones on the textures of the walls. The use of long shot emphasises the expertise of the artists and the detailed work it has been done to change the usage of the historical building in the village for its residents.
A variety of different but unique shot has been taken from the designs in collaboration with the walls of the buildings in the village. Again, through the use of the techniques a daunting and terrifying atmosphere around the village is created.
As the title or the caption is called the Ghost village it reflects the designs that are made on the walls as an art installation. The majority of the designs are made very spooky, mysterious and creepy.
Time Lapse with a blurry effect denoting the speed and the amount of work the graffiti artists have done in different working conditions. As you can see from the image above the picture is taken from a paranormal point of view creating more effect.
Overall, the comparison between the One Show with the Ghost village documentary has been very interesting as both of the documentaries where based on realistic aspects of life and the reality behind them explored in the documentaries.
By contrasting the two different documentaries I have acknowledged that by producing a documentary about gardening or about an abandoned village which was turned into an art installation requires high media skills, knowledge and adequate planning.
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