Product Research...

In my product research I watched several documentaries related somehow to mental health or other things around it...

The main documentary that I watched was The Secret Life of a Manic Depressive, which was a BBC documentary made by, and featuring Stephen Fry, about life with Bipolar Disorder.
I also watched True Stories: The Bridge, on More4 which was about suicides from the Golden Gate Bridge. And a low- budget internet film called True Sancturies.

From these I found some conventions of documentaries focusing on mental health. I found out that there is generally very little music used, or if there is, it tends to be quite quiet and slow- piano or violin-y. I also found that a general convention is that there tends to be a lot of extreme long shots over a explaining voiceover at the start and that the title doesn't come up until a couple of minutes into it.

After doing my Product Research, I found that most full-length documentaries on the subject of mental health are really really serious, and tend to have a lot of first hand accounts of people with mental health issues. So I'm thinking that I might do the whole of a short 3-5 minute documentary, rather than a section of a long one. I also won't be able to get any first hand opinions from people, except for a doctor, but not from any one with a mental health issue. So I'm going to focus on young people's opinions on it. I think by doing this then I might be able to make it more suitable for my target audience (13-21) and by doing this I might also not have to make it so formal and serious, which I might not be able to achieve properly.


NOTES ON DOCUMENTARIES.

1. THE SECRET LIFE OF A MANIC DEPRESSIVE (BBC)
SOUND-
* Music- correlates with mood being described at the time- when discussing mania- lively, upbeat, repetitive. vs. slow, quiet calm piano/violin music to represent depression.
*Voiceover- Stephen Fry- also maker (?)- recognised face/ voice + upper middle class voice.

NARRATIVE STYLE-
* Stephen Fry talks to camera and does voiceover- makes presenter and subject and voiceover.

SHOTS-
* Long shots- orientating (eg. Hollywood sign, beach, boat, private school... etc.).
* Close ups of Stephen Fry to explain importance of place/ person...
= orientation + explanation

TITLES-
* No official opening credits.
* Name of documentary comes up after about 4 minutes- over camera shots of a plain room- but not plain black background.

2. True Stories: The Bridge (More4)
SOUND-
* Little Music- slow & calm- but mostly silent (music-wise). Lot's of completely silent times.
* Voiceover to explain backstories of what interviewees didn't elaborate on- aka. where they were, when.. etc. Also voiceover says some facts about the Golden Gate Bridge- what it's made of etc. Voiceover- upper middle class male- very formal.

NARRATIVE STYLE-
* Little said by voiceover/ narrator- stories mostly led by interviewees.
* Narraot used to complete stories and make them understandable- simple but formal language.

SHOTS-
* Mid-shots, still camera on people being interviewed- simple camera shots- no distractions from what they're saying.
* Shots of Bridge- extreme long shots or moving point of view shots (often from cars) - put in perspective the setting that's being discussed- shows height of bridge etc..


OPENING TITLES-
* Black background, very long, silemt/ almost silent. Very calm and sombre.

LOCATIONS/ SET-UPS-
* Natural lonely environments in some interviews- contrasts with half- reconstructed wind-surfing, lifeboats etc... ('danger' shots) shows how dangerous/ normal the situation is- audience get to know the area by the end.

3. TRUE SANCTURIES (Un-offical- never distrubuted)
SOUND-
* No music- background noise- cars etc.- natural (but also- documentary not made by an offical production company- low budget- low production values???)
*Voice-over- woman talking- explaining what camera is showing as it goes (aka. different mental institutions). Ordinary woman- quite informal & relaxed.

NARRATIVE STYLE-
* Entirely explained by woman- documentary subject (& possibly creator???)

SHOT-
*Mid/ close ups of woman/ long shots of places she's discussing- hand held camera. Woman explains as camera shows what she's discussing.

TITLES-
* Background info at start- no credits- balc background + white text.
* Ending- balck background + white text again- simple end credits. Silence. Very few names- small production.

EDITING-
* Little editing- correlation between what woman is talking about & where she is- long shot of places she discusses- CONTEXT!!

LOCATIONS/ SET-UPS-
* Nothing staged. No reconstructions.
* Locations- valid areas to story. Where she is discussing- psychiatric hospitals.