Documentary Evaluation

Documentary Style
The documentary style that I chose with my documentary was an expository documentary. This is when there is usually a voice over included in the documentary and the documentary filmmakers presence isn't compromised to the view of the audience. In my documentary I did this by including a voice over and avoiding myself to be on camera but let the interviewees only speaking. I did this by interviewing them while I was off camera and asking them the questions. After the questions were answered I went back to the clip on Adobe Premier Pro and I cut the clip so that my voice wasn't included in the actual interview. However I did include my voice when I used some gaming footage as a voice over.

Why I chose the Topic
I chose the topic of computer gaming because gaming is a part of my life and i thought it would be interesting to discover the points of view on this topic including teachers,parents and the youth. In documentaries about gaming we never see any parents discussing them accept in news articles and studies. Also I included the youths opinion on gaming to create a sort of debate between the older generation and the new generation.

Use of Camera
In my opinion I think I did this aspect of my documentary most effectively as most of the shots flowed smoothly and the choice of shots in the interviews were effective as the close ups of the interviewees made the documentary more serious and important. I also felt that I did the framing of the shots as best as I could as it is important to use the rule of thirds when shooting a documentary. After I had done the interviews I felt like the framing of the shots turned out a lot better than I thought.

Use of Sound
One aspect of sound that was mentioned was the music at the end of the documentary was cool that it finished on beat. Also I thought that I balanced the dialogue in interviews and gaming well as to much of one I thought could make the audience lose interest and not listen to the documentary. At some parts I was given some feedback on how the sound had ended well as the soundtrack had ended on beat. I was pleased with this as I had also noticed this which sounded professional in my opinion. Also I made sure that this soundtrack didn't interfere with any of the interviews so I made the soundtrack fade in and out of whenever their was somebody talking. I wasn't really sure how this would turn out however during the feedback this didn't bother anyone which also pleased me as I wasn't overall confident about this part.

Use of Editing
In my opinion I considered this to be the feature I did the most effectively. This is because I learned some new techniques including the lower third graphic that I incorporated into my documentary successfully through the positive feedback from the audience who saw the documentary. I also found this aspect the most enjoyable because I could see all the footage coming together which felt skilled and professional. The only part of the editing I thought I could have improved on was the timing of the music. As I conclude the documentary instead of the audio fading in from the previous clip it starts within the middle of the next clip. This doesn't sound right as all the other audio fades in from the previous clip. Next time I should make sure that all the audio sounds the same compared to the others.

Use of Mise-en-scene
The use of mise-en-scene in my documentary wasn't use as much as the other aspects however there were some bad and good sides of the mise-en-scene of my documentary. At first I didn't realise the colours in the background of the interview with Fiona Whyte didn't go well with each other, I had to change this because I wanted to make the lower third graphics look the best as the possibly could. However one part of the mise-en-scene I think i could have improved on was the lighting. In some of the interviews I can see that the lighting looks dull which can be important overall because

How am I happy with the finished product and why?
To conclude I was quite pleased on how the product turned out because I did have some time of due to personal reasons. Further more I feel I worked to the best of my ability on the assignment despite some little errors I thought my documentary was produce effectively and professionally. I also was happy with the finished product because I received some good critical feedback which will help me with other productions in the future.