1. In this piece of writing I will be evaluating my documentary. I will be discussing what I feel
was good about my documentary and what I feel was bad. I will also include what I would
do differently if I was to do this again. My task was to create a 5-7 minute documentary on a
subject of our choice. My idea was to base it on my stepdad as he recently left the army a
few years ago and had to adjust to civilian life after being in the army for over 17 years. He
has also recently joined the reservists and I wanted to find out more on how this change has
affected him and also if he thinks that there is enough support for soldiers leaving the
armed forces. I thought that this would be a good idea for a documentary, as I didn’t come
across a documentary like this when I was carrying out my research. I feel like my target
audience of a more mature age would find my documentary beneficial as they would have
an insight into a soldier life through the army.
After reviewing the process of my documentary, I feel like there were a few good outcomes
that I happened during the process. The first thing I found that went well was my planning
and research. I found that when researching about my target audience, I found that I should
aim my documentary at more of a mature age. This is because I feel like it something that
will interest an older audience rather than a young age. The thing I particularly found that
went well was my interview questions for my stepdad in particular. I found the research I
carried out was beneficial and helped me build a strong set of questions. In link with this,
due to having a strong set of questions, I managed to get detailed answers which contained
a lot of information that I worked with to get the best in my documentary. The answers I
received from my interviews will give my audience a detail on the life of a soldier/veteran
and how it affects them and also their family life. My documentary brings lots if emotion to
the surface.
Also, when reviewing my documentary I feel that there many things that I find are not as
good as they could have been. When it was time to begin filming my documentary, due to
both my stepdad and mum working full time, it was hard for me to film them when I needed
to, due to both of their busy schedules. Another thing that I found when coming to edit my
documentary is that I didn’t have as many clips of more Armed Forces related places or
things. I wanted to film at the Reservist centre in Manchester where my stepdad is working
in the Reservists. Unfortunately, I was unable to get to go and film there due circumstances
that occurred.
In conclusion, if I was to do this task again I would make sure beforehand that I always have
an opportunity to film. This is because due to not having that much time to film I couldn’t
reach my full potential I wanted to reach when creating this documentary. Secondly, the
reason I chose to work on my own for this documentary was because I felt due to it being
quite personal, I wanted to work on this alone. If I was to do this again with a different topic,
I feel like working as a team would be more suitable – especially for time management in
this case.
