Narrative

What is a narrative?


A narrative is not a story (beginning, middle, end) it is a passing or flow of information which can have a beginning, middle and end but it is not necessary as they do not need to be linear. They incorporate a set of episodes/ events which are linked to each other in order to create a story.  
Narratives are normally portrayed from a persons point of view of (i.e. writer or director). They include plot, setting, characters etc... This is similar to stories and therefore people find it hard to separate stories from narratives.They don't have to be set in a linear structure like in stories and therefore can have the ending at the very beginning. 

I have displayed an example of a narrative below:

Anything can have a narrative such as a process of buying a product. 


1. The customer will look for the product 
2. They will purchase it
3. They will receive it
4. They will use the product 




References
http://hercules.gcsu.edu/~mmagouli/narratives.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narrative
http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/de/pd/instr/strats/narratives/index.html

Proposal

For my audio visual assignment 2 I am required to create a documentary focusing on a subject matter which I feel is interesting or important. The documentary has to be up to 3 minutes long, therefore I have to make sure that I include the most important bits as the time frame is very short. Creating this documentary I also need to take into consideration the fact that I can't incorporate my own opinion on the subject as the audience has to be able to determine this decision for themselves. 


I have chosen to focus on social networking but mainly Facebook as it is the most used (popular) social networking site. I wanted to focus on why people post their personal details for the world to see as they wouldn't go round the streets telling strangers these things. I also want to look at how effective the privacy setting are on Facebook and if user make use of these features. 


In my documentary I would like to include the following:

• interviews with Facebook users in their own homes and some in the studio to show a contrast
• display a preview of Facebook's privacy settings
• positive and negative aspects of these settings

Now that I have set my proposal the next stage is to plan my documentary, practise using the lights and video cameras and further my research in order to produce and interesting piece. 

Lighting

Lighting

Lighting is important in photography, films etc... The way the lighting is placed will also determine the mood of the documentary. The types of lighting used all depends on the what is actually being filmed and the mood they would like to set it 

Hard and Soft Lighting 

In lighting there is hard and soft types of light which are used depending on the topic, location etc...Here i will look at the differences between hard and soft lighting. I will also look at when these types of lighting are used. 


Hard Light
Hard light shows shadows as it is normally a bright light directly pointing at the person, object, location etc... The reason for the shadows is that there are no light reflectors used to bounce the light therefore the images which appear have a contrast of light and dark. It also creates hard edges which defines objects unlike soft lighting. 

As you can see from the image above hard light is when the light is smaller than the object it's targeting therefore it creates dark shadows with sharp edges. 




Soft Light
Soft light is the opposite to hard light as this type of lighting doesn't create any shadows in the images. The light used is bounced around in different directions therefore it is not directly hitting the subject matter. The edges of this type of lighting are very soft even in the shadow areas as this will depend on the distance and the size of the light being reflected. An example of soft lighting is the sun, it's light is reflected through the clouds and therefore creates a soft light.

As I mentioned previously soft lighting is created from bouncing a light in different directions in order to not shine directly on the person, object, location etc... Light can be bounced by using reflectors these reflectors have a silver and white side in order to bounce lighting differently and produce a variety of soft lighting. Light can also be bounced by white walls or ceilings anything white for example during the summer months people tend to wear white clothing in order to bounce of the light and heat of them. 

As you can see from the image above soft light is created when the light is larger that the object being reflected. The shadows aren't defined therefore edges appear softer than in hard lighting.  

3 Point Lighting

3 point lighting is used in photography, films and documentaries in order to add light to the shots and create a mood whether it is positive or negative. This type of lighting consists or lights placed in three positions around the room. The light used directly on the person or object is known as the key light, this is the main light of the entire shot as it is the strongest out of the 3. It is placed on one of the sides of the subject which creates shadows on the person or object.

i.e. the sun is used as a key light when shooting outdoors during daytime 

The fill light is another light used in the 3 point lighting which lights the person or object, it is placed opposite to the key light. This light tends to be set at a lower height than the key light. The purpose of this is to be able to illuminate the areas where the key light has created shadows and therefore fills them with more light to create a softer effect. The use of the fill light makes the lighting look more realistic as the hard edge shadows from the key light are illuminated and therefore appear softer. 

The back light is the other light used in 3 point lighting, this light is placed behind the object or person. It doesn't focus so much on lighting the person or object but rather defining and highlighting their outlines. This also separates the person or object from the background used.

Below is an example of 3 point lighting:

Below is a 3 point lighting simulator which shows how the object or person would look if one of more lights would be switched of.

http://www.mediacollege.com/lighting/three-point/simulator.html

Resources 

Below are sources which I have used to research this topic area:

• http://www.illustratedphotography.com/basic-photography/hard-and-soft-light
• http://www.shortcourses.com/tabletop/lighting2-8.html
• http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d8/3_point_lighting.svg/729px-3_point_lighting.svg.png
• http://www.mediacollege.com/lighting/three-point/

Tuesday 7th February- Lesson 1

For my second Audio Visual assignment I'm required to come up with a documentary regarding an issue which I believe is important. 


Even though i'm at the early stages of thinking about the topic for my documentary one of the areas which I might focus on is social networking. I would like to document on how people expose themselves on the internet for everyone to see. I would also like to raise the question-"Would you tell a stranger on the streets about your life?? Then why tell the world through Facebook! People won't go around the streets telling strangers about their life and exposing themselves therefore why do it in the internet where you target a very large scale of people who are capable of harming you. 

Documentaries


What is a documentary?

They are films based on factual events and issues going on around the world, these films inform viewers and record important issues giving them a visual experience of an event or life story (biography). Even though documentaries aren't scripted they still select scenes carefully and put them together. 


Documentaries contain sound such as voice overs these are played in the background of the documentary, it's mainly a person informing the viewer on what is occurring in the footage or where the footage has been recorded etc...Even though voice overs are facts about the issue or event being discussed the footage displayed sometimes says it all as viewers are getting a visual experience.


Interviews are used in documentaries, these interviews allow victims of the event to describe what happened to them, their families and how it's affected their lives. These people aren't actors just people who had experience the event and were willing to share their life story.  


Stock or archival footages are clips gathered from other sources which are also incorporated into the documentaries. This avoids having to film new material and also adds extra sources to documentary. 


Expositions are used in documentaries this is were the narrator providing the voice over describes what is the documentary is about, theme, location etc...

How documentaries have changed over the years?

The earliest documentaries which were first recorded were news, current events etc...These had no narrative or voice overs (explaining what was occurring). They consisted of single camera shots of events of very simple things. Other forms of documentaries which were first created were for propaganda i.e. Leni Reifenstahl film- Triumph of the Will. This documentary was about Adolph Hitler and the Nazi Party's influence on Germany. It has extracts of speeches made by the party. Hitler was even an unofficial producer therefore what was displayed in this documentary was the events that he wanted people to see. 

Nowadays anyone with technological devices can record a documentary, you don't need a video camera or recorder as many small devices have the ability to record i.e. mobile phones (smart phones), digital cameras, iPods etc...Due to this factor this period in time  can be referred to the documentary age as anyone with some form of equipment can create a documentary. 

Technological advances have helped to improve documentaries as cameras and equipment used are better quality than they were previously. Film recorders are more practical and can therefore be placed in different areas to capture elements which are hard to capture from a normal angle. Also other equipment such as camera stands can be used to hold cameras in places allowing the footage being recorded to be stable and not have any unwanted movements (i.e. camera shaking). Cameras also have the ability to shoot footage at night time as many technological devices have night vision software, this allows people to record events that happen at night time. Security cameras can also be used to record events especially unexpected ones as these cameras run 24/7. 

Drawbacks of documentaries

Documentaries have progressed over time and are very interesting pieces of footage because of the fact that they are real and not biased. Although there are some draw backs to these factual films.

Even though documentaries tend to be quite factual a lot of times the opinions of the author of the documentary is incorporated. This can lead the film to be convincing viewers of someones opinion on the issue being discussed instead of the factual elements. Even though factual events are being displayed on screen in many occasions things have not been included on order to no inform people on how bad the situation was, this therefore is giving a false impression of the event, issue etc...

Resources

http://www.desktop-documentaries.com/what-is-a-documentary.html

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