Storyboard

This video contains the initial storyboard drafted by Joe and Ceri Beth

Website Map

This flow diagram illustrates a map for our website, with the boxes representing titles embedded to links to other pages of the website. the various different pages have been embedded under the 5 main titles accessed through the home page, allowing for easy access to users. The about and trailer page both provide visual and written information on the video, aiming to promote and encourage users of the website to watch the video.

Website Draft

Our homepage will feature a looped GIF image of brightly coloured ping pong balls being dropped onto a skateboard. This will be both an aesthetically pleasing image as well as effectively conveying the dynamic nature of the activity which we hope to capture in our documentary.

This page will clearly feature the main character of our film, Kamel Zara, as well as crediting the three members of our group (Joe Griffiths, Ceri Beth Miseroy and me) as directors.

Our website will also include a brief synopsis to complement the trailer in offering information on the product.

Shot List

Plot Summary

summary of plot

Location Planning

For the main body of our coursework we have chosen to film at Qatar Foundation. We made this decision as it is home to the only skatepark in Doha. This location not only contributes to the primary focus of the documentary (skateboarding) but also allows us to capture footage of Kamel skateboarding in an ideal environment.

We have chosen to shoot the conclusion of our video in the singing sand dunes. This location fits the theme of our video as it provides the audience with an easy to recognise feature of the region. The desolate nature of the sand dunes is juxtaposed the warm, golden lighting often occurring at dusk

generating an inspirational atmosphere, fitting to the emotional narrative of our documentary.

Conventional Modes of Documentaries

Observational Mode:

In the 1960s, the cinéma vérité style of observational filmmaking gained attention. These types of films used portable equipment (which was new technology in the 1950s) to put the filmmaker “in the thick of things” as events took place.

This mode of documentary uses the observations of an unobtrusive camera to create direct engagement with the everyday life of subjects.

Observational documentaries are often associated with ‘fly-on-the-wall’ type documentaries. They appear to have been filmed in ‘real time’, as if the camera has happened upon events while those involved are seemingly unaware of the filming going on. The filmmakers correspondingly attempt not to interfere in what is underway. The audience does not hear their questions and does not see them. There is no voiceover telling the audience  what to think or what conclusions they should draw.

Expository Mode: 

The primary purpose of the Expository mode is to make an argument. This is the model that is most often associated with documentary in general. The conventional expository documentary follows a structure that is grounded in a series of assertions backed up by evidence. These assertions are portrayed through verbal commentary from a voice-over narrator, while images provide the evidence. This form is often associated with wild life or historic documentaries, in which the viewer might feel in need of objective information and evidence provided by images. The audience is unlikely to be ‘empowered’ by this kind of approach, finding itself in a subordinate role listening to the version of events that the filmmakers choose to prioritise.

Participatory Mode:

This mode primarily captures the interaction between filmmaker and subjects. These films usually take the form of a series of interviews or other forms of even more direct involvement from conversations to provocations. Participatory documentaries follow the concept that it is impossible for the act of filmmaking to not influence, or alter the events being filmed. What these films do is emulate the approach of the anthropologist: participant-observation. 

Not only is the filmmaker part of the film, the audience also get a sense of how situations in the film are affected or altered by their presence. The filmmaker steps out from the role of voice-over commentary and becomes a social actor like any other. The encounter between filmmaker and subject becomes a critical element of the film. 

Reflexive Mode:

All filmmaking practices the manipulation of reality, no matter how much it may try not to. Reflexive documentaries (similarly to the participatory mode) expose the filmmaker, their character and opinions, and even the process of filming itself. Reflexive documentaries don’t see themselves as a true and objective portrayal of the world; instead they draw attention to their own constructed nature, as well as the fact that they are representations. How do documentary films represent the world? This question is central to this sub-genre of films. They prompt us to question the authenticity of documentary in general. It is the most self-conscious of all the modes, and is highly skeptical of realism. The reflexive mode is often defined by a series of characteristics; the film itself is created based upon the making of the film, including the filmmaker’s research and pursuit of knowledge and the filmmaker’s relationships with the subjects they film change the nature of the story being filmed.

Poetic Mode: 

Poetic documentaries offer a subjective view of reality as seen fit by the director. This abstract approach to documentary filmmaking emphasises visual associations, tonal or rhythmic qualities, description, and form. These films often bear a close resemblance to experimental and avant-garde film. This mode follows several conventions such as flouting continuity editing and usually lacking a narrative or diegisis. Composition, colour corrections and a non diegetic soundtrack become the fundamental instrument in conveying the emotive meaning of this mode of documentary. 

Performative Mode:

Performative documentaries aim to portray subjective experience and emotional response to the world, rather than seek objective ‘truth’ or ‘realism’. They are very personal and unconventional (compared to more traditional documentaries), perhaps following certain conventions of the poetic mode and experimental films. The performative mode might include hypothetical enactments of events designed to allow the audience to experience what it might be like to possess a certain specific perspective on the world that is unfamiliar. Often, various conventions, many borrowed from fiction or avant-garde films, are used. Performative documentaries often link up personal accounts or experiences with larger political or historical realities.