Evaluation

Evaluation

At the beginning of my documentary project, I conducted research into the different codes and conventions of documentaries such as voiceovers, archive footage and interviews and how different documentaries used these different conventions. This research was useful to me because it gave me an idea of the sort of things that I should include in my documentary and how to use them in a documentary format. Secondly, I researched into the different types of documentaries such as poetic, expository and observational and looked at different examples of each type of documentary. This research was useful to me because I was able to get an idea of how each mode would create a different documentary and how lots of different documentaries used different modes. After researching into different codes of documentaries and modes of documentaries, I watched two different documentaries to look at the way they have structured their documentary with typical conventions of documentaries such as interviews and archival footage. Conducting this research was advantageous because I was able to take inspiration from the way these filmmakers constructed their documentaries with interviews and footage of events.  

After researching into documentaries, I chose to base my documentary on men’s mental health because it is a subject that I am passionate about. After choosing a topic, I researched an additional documentary that tackled mental health, in order to get inspiration for how to construct my documentary with conventions such as interviews. This research was useful to me because it gave me an idea for what sort of documentary I should make for this topic and what my documentary should feature. After watching a mental health documentary, I began to write up a structure for my documentary and decide what sort of people I would interview. This phase was important because it gave me the structure for my documentary which became presenter dialogue, reconstructions and then interviews and it allowed me to create an audio-visual script. After developing my ideas, I conducted research into facts and statistics regarding men’s mental health and counselling waiting time. This research was effective for my documentary because it helped me to construct my interview questions and it inspired me when I was writing the reconstructions in the visual audio script. If I was to improve on the research stage of my project, I would have researched more documentaries based around the topic of mental health. 

After conducting this research, I began to create separate sets of interview questions for males, females and a professional counsellor. I had to make sure that the questions for each set of people were different because the questions I’d ask a woman would be based around them encouraging men to talk whereas I’d ask a man if he felt comfortable talking about their mental health and the questions I’d ask a counsellor would be more based around men seeking counselling and different statistics about men’s mental health. For me, it was important that every question I asked was asked for a reason. If I was to improve on this part of my project, I would ask more direct and personalized questions to my interviewees. 

After completing the planning and research stages, I began production on my documentary by filming interviews with two men and women, one younger and one older, and then I filmed an interview with a counsellor. It was important for me to get an opinion from two generations and two genders because an older generation may have a stronger belief in the male stereotype than the younger generation and the opinions between men and women may contrast each other, as well as an opinion from a professional counsellor because they specialize in mental health. I think I was successful in getting contrasting opinions from men and women because of the different ways I asked questions to men to the way I asked questions to women. After filming the interviews, I began production on my reconstructions, which involved a man dealing with loss, contemplating suicide and suffering a panic attack. I made sure I directed my actors well by describing the mood and answering any questions they had about the scene so that they could portray the subject they were portraying as truthful as possible. I think that I was successful in portraying different subjects such as loss, suicide and a panic attack because I made sure that I did a lot of research into how someone can feel when they are in that situation by watching how different TV programmes such as EastEnders, which portrays the lives of real people, to get inspiration when writing and performing the reconstructions. The reconstructions were effective because it would provide the audience with an insight into how a male can feel if they were suffering from a loss, how trauma can lead to a male to have a panic attack and how the buildup of traumatic events can lead to a man wanting to commit suicide. Finally, I filmed dialogue against a blank background where I, as the presenter, speak to the camera, giving facts and statistics about men’s mental health and counselling waiting times, introducing reconstructions and each of the interviews. It was important to me that I appeared serious because it is a serious subject to my audience. This part of my documentary was effective because it will provide the audience with facts and statistics, that will hopefully shock them into doing something to prevent the issue, which is one of the best things about portraying a taboo subject like men’s mental health in a documentary because more people will act upon the issue.  

After completing production, I edited the whole thing together using Adobe Premiere Pro. I opened with recordings of men’s voices and emotional slow music playing over a shot of a man sat on the floor, looking emotional. This opening was effective because it would immediately make the audience realize that men not being able to open up about their emotions is a big issue. I structured my documentary by having presenter’s dialogue, reconstructions and interviews. This was effective because it makes my documentary more serious because of the nature of the subject and it helps to show my passion for the subject.