Generic research- aspects of documentary to think about.

John Grierson called documentaries "the creative interpretation of actuality".
These aspects are key to the mediation of the documentary.
Actual- would an event happened if the camera was there?
Creative- was the sequence made more entertaining?
Interpretive- Decisions made may affect the audience's interpretation.


I also need to consider ethical issues with my documentary, as with any documentary because there is always something being revealed due to the factual nature. There is privacy to consider, because my documentary is quite personal. I am going to make sure no personal details are revealed, even though this is not a full length documentary and is not being broadcasted there is still as risk and concern for privacy. An example of privacy in my documentary is one of the people I am interviewing does not want to be on camera, so I recorded his interview and I will edit it over pictures, illustrating what he is saying. I used my iPhone 6 to film, partially because it is readily available and has good quality, but also partially due to the unobtrusive nature of it. Most people are familiar with iPhones and come in contact with them everyday, but if I had used a large DSLR camera this would have made my interviewees uncomfortable as DSLR cameras aren't as common as iPhones. I wanted my interviewees to be comfortable and relaxed while talking as it is a relaxed and informal tone I wanted to have in my documentary.

An aspect of technology was brought to my attention that I could possibly bring up as a topic in my documentary is voyeurism. Should it be encouraged? Is it feeding a social need because it is a natural occurrence in human beings or did it come with the rise of social media and increasingly smart pieces of technology? I will research into this further and maybe add this topic into my documentary.