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1. Contextual Research
Bailey Furman

2. Research Intentions
My main piece of research in context is going to be documentary makers.
Different documentary makers have their own ways of telling a story through
a documentary and that is what I want to talk about. I am also going to look
at little things that they do to create a style and what about their style makes
their documentaries so good. I am then going to look at the things that
makes their work good and see what aspects of their work I can put into
mine to make something unique whilst at the same time making my
documentary good and creating a style. I also plan on trying their different
technique in the pre-production stages so that I can understand how to do
them and see if I defiantly want to use them in my work. I am also going to
do this so that I defiantly know how to use the different technique when it
comes to filming.

3. Ken Burns
Ken burns uses manipulation as one of the main things in his
documentaries. He believes that all story is manipulation, this is
because you get a story and present it in a certain way with editing
elements added on top and you can manipulate people into having
strong emotions and feeling for a story that they would
never have cared about if it wasn’t presented in that way. An
emotion truth within a story is something that you must build, and
you can’t just present it to an audience because they need to
become slowly attached to it. His mother died at the age of eleven,
so his historical documentaries are a way for him to wake the dead
and bring them back to life. He believes that his historical
documentaries are there to remind that we are not going to live
forever and that is okay. This is because he mainly does
documentaries of Americas past and on people who are dead. This
is obvious in documentaries such as 'Thomas Jefferson – 1977' and
'Frank Lloyd Wright – 1998'.

4. His Works
• The war – 2007
• The Civil War – 1990
• Country Music – 2019
• Baseball -1994
• Jazz – 2000
• The Dust Bowl – 2012
• Prohibition – 2011
• Jackie Robinson – 2016
• Brooklyn Bridge – 1981
• The Central Park Five – 2012
• Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery – 1997
• Mark Twain – 2001
• Frank Lloyd Wright – 1998
• The Statue of Liberty – 1985
• Huey Long – 1985
• The Congress – 1989
• Thomas Jefferson – 1997
• The Shakers: Hands to Work, Hearts to God – 1984
• Baseball: The Tenth Inning – 2010
• Unforgivable Blackness – 2004
• Thomas Hart Benton – 1988
• Horatio’s Drive: America’s First Road Trip – 2003
• The Address – 2014
• Not for Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Candy Stanton & Susan B. Anthony
• Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio – 1992
• Defying the Nazis: The Sharps’ War – 2013
• The Mayo Clinic, Faith, Hope and Science – 2018

5. Dziga Vertov
• Dziga Vertov was one of the first documentary
makers. Dziga Vertov was from the USSR and made
his first documentary in 1918. The reason that I
have put him into my contextual research is
because I think that he is very important to present
day documentaries. He was one of the first people
to capture film about people's living standard and
problems in the world. For example, he did this in
his silent documentary called 'Nanook of the
North' from 1922. His documentaries were truly
unique at the time since he was one of the first
people to make them.

6. Wim Wenders
• The reason that I have chosen to look at Win Wenders
is because I like his creative approach to documentary
making. He originally started out as a painter but then
liked the idea of using a camera because to him it was
like painting but he could add more detail and it made
more sense to him. I like the way that he uses
travelling and the changing of locations to tell a story, I
think that this is a very good way for the audience to be
able to remember different parts of the story and not
have the whole documentary blend into one when they
think back to watching it. I would like to use this
technique in my documentary by travelling so that
there is distinctly different parts of the documentary
which makes it easier for the audience to watch and
remember.

7. Agnes Varda
• I have chosen to research Anges Varda because she
was so influential to documentaries and film making in
France and women in the industry. A lot of her
documentaries were important to the feminist
movement in the last 50s and the early 60s. Her films
such as 'One sings, the other doesn't (1977)'. Anges
doesn't view documentary story telling as her telling a
story to the audience, she views it as her taking the
audiences hand and talking them through the film, not
really telling a story, but telling the audience what
cinema means in her life. I like the way that she uses
documentaries and storytelling to educate people on
issues that they may not know about, I would like to
implement this into my FMP and show people issues
without focusing on them or directly telling them.

8. Michael Apted
• I have chosen to research Michael Apted, because he has
done a lot of documentaries on people and things and the
history of them, such as 'Bring on the night' where he talks
about the making of Sting's first solo album. I also really
like the way that he directs his documentaries. He makes
sure that everybody including the actors and the crew are
involved as much as possible so that everybody is enjoying
what they are doing. I would like to do this in my FMP
because I plan on making it with me and my friend and I
think if we communicate very well i will have a better
product. He also thinks that to have a good documentary it
must have a lot of information in it to keep it interesting. I
would like to do this in my FMP, I want to have a balance
of educational whilst also being entertaining and funny.

9. Theory

10. A film theory summery
• Film theory is the debate of different intentional and unintentional
techniques used from the history of film. For example, a close-up shot
in a horror film might try and portray fear, but a close-up in a comedy
might portray something completely different, but because this is
theory there is no definite answer. Film theory is based off facts and
history which makes the theory's backable whilst also being
subjective. Film theory is hiding hidden meanings and messages
within films that may or may not be intentional by the film makers.

11. Types of film theory
• Camera angles/shots
- The angle of the camera
-The focus of the camera
-Close up shots
-Wide shots
• Colour
-colour pallet helps set the theme and the tone for a film
-Black and white
-Colour grading is usually kept the same throughout the entire film to keep the theme
-Saturation is used to set the tone and mood in different scenes. It can also be used in POV shots to show how somebody is physically
or mentally feeling.
• Editing
-Editing is one the most important parts of a film because so much can be done in post-production that can't be done without it.
-The editor decides what is seen by the audience and what isn't
-Editing is how most of the other elements of film theory are put together.

12. • Lighting
-Lighting is one of the most imporatnt things in filming because it changes how a
shot looks.
-The intention behind lighting is very imporatnt because it can completely change
the tone and mood of a scene and can give your film a professional look or a home-
made look, even with a cheap camera.
-A lot of genres are determined by their use of lighting; such as horror.
• Mis-En-Scene
-Mis-En-Scene is one of the most important elements of film making.
-It is how you put together and compose a scene.
-Actors and props are both Mis-En-Scene.
• Sound
-Sound means: Sound design, sound mixing, music, sound effects and score
composition.
-sound sets the mood and the tone.
-sound and music can completely change how a scene is taken by the audience.

13. Different types of films
• Documentary
-Informative
-Lots of travelling
-Not many special effects if any
-Not a lot or no actors
• Fantasy
-the supernatural
-Generically not real
-Lots of special effects
• Realism
-Not a lot of editing
-No special effects
-Natural and not a lot of artificial lighting
-Locations are not on a set
My film is going to be a documentary, so I am going to follow the style of a documentary film, I am going to be filming on locations and I am going to have it be informative and not
havemany special effects.

14. Contextual Statement
• I have chosen to research all these people because they are all
filmmakers who were very famous for their documentary work, I
chose to research them so that I know what they did that made them
so good at making documentaries and how I can implement this into
my own work. I especially liked Ken Burns and Agnes Varda's
approach to their work and I think that I could use the way that they
make documentaries to make mine better. This also helped me to
understand the different types of documentary audiences and I think
it will help me understand how to implement all these elements so
that I can appeal to the biggest audience possible.

15. Bibliography
• Pewtrust.org. (2020). Ken Burns: 'America's Storyteller' on His Creative Process. https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-
analysis/articles/2020/01/24/ken-burns-americas-storyteller-on-his-creative-process (accessed 8/1/21).
• Kenburns.com. (2020) Watch Ken explain his process. https://kenburns.com/principals/ken-burns/. (accessed 8/01/21).
• Britannica.com. (2021) Dziga Vertov Soviet director. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Dziga-Vertov (accessed 8/1/21).
• The-talks.com. (2016) Tim Wenders: "Everything I loved I had to defend". https://the-talks.com/interview/wim-wenders/ (accessed (8/1/21).
• Bfi.org.uk. (2019). At home (and away) with Agnes Vadra. https://www2.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/interviews/home-away-agn-s-
varda (8/1/21).
• Nonfics.com. (2021). Michael Apted on '63 Up' and the Past, Present, and Future of the 'Up' Series. https://nonfics.com/michael-apted-63-up-
interview/ (accessed 8/1/21).
• Dga.org. (2018). An Aptitude for leadership. https://www.dga.org/Craft/DGAQ/All-Articles/1801-Winter-2018/DGA-Interview-Michael-
Apted.aspx (accessed8/1/21).
• Careersinfilm.com. (2020) film theory: a beginner's guide. https://www.careersinfilm.com/film-theory/ (accessed 8/1/21).
• James, W. (2011) Fantasy Film a critical introduction. https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Fantasy_Film/5G7LAyrpH4IC?hl=en&gbpv=0. Page 5
• Bill, N. (2001). Introduction to
documentary. https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Introduction_to_Documentary/tFLMar9GsjQC?hl=en&gbpv=0 Page 19
• Leigh, D (2015). The Movie
Book. https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Movie_Book/Hi5wCgAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=the+movie+book&printsec=frontcover page
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