Major Project Pre-Production | Documentary Research - MANUEL - Short Documentary
While thinking about my own personal story I was looking online for some inspiration on how to film a documentary properly, how do I make it look personal? How do I catch the audiences attention? This specific documentary did just that. The second I pressed play I wanted to know who this 'Manuel' is and why do I care what he does? They way the documentary starts so softly and gently gives you the impression that someone will be discussing their personal story. It begins with a montage of the travel to Manuel, this is what I am planning in my documentary. The one the title sequence begins while the car is music gives you the impression that we are on a journey to find something out. The jungle aerial shot and water-fall shot gives you an idea of where we are placed and the atmosphere around us. That's exactly how I want to go about my documentary, I want to introduce the audience into the story slowly and beautifully. The uplifting music makes you feel some what happy, I had never thought about adding this type of music into my documentary - officially I want to add Tibetan styled music to fit with the scene of my documentary.
The titles are fairly simple, it really gives us shots of the location to establish where we are placed and the location ambient sounds. The text on-screen helps to set up the story and tell us the focus the documentary has. At the beginning of the documentary you can't really make out what the storyline will be but the second Manuel starts talking we can instantly make it out. There are subtitles in this documentary, this is what I need to focus on. Since my documentary will be filmed with contributors who cannot speak English, the audience will rely on me to translate the story for them. I really like the way Bruno Carnide didn't spend too much time making the subtitles look nice or interesting, he really focused on the storyline.
Another thing that caught my eye was the photo archives for Manuel, as someone who is watching the documentary it is important for me to know who's life/past I'm being introduced to. By having photo/video archives it gives me the information about the persons past, that's what I want to include in my own documentary. When I am introducing contributors or their own lives I need to make sure the audience are introduced to them well. The documentary also takes time in silence to appreciate the photos and close ups of items. Manuel himself is placed inside his own home feeling comfortable, for me this interview doesn't feel forced or fake, it's very natural like Manuel is speaking to one of his family members or even a friend. When I am filming my interviews this is how I want them to be set, possibly with an actuality shot. The slow motion follow shots are also very inspiring, I absolutely love the way this way filmed - it really makes me connect with Manuel. The entire documentary is around 7 minutes long but you learn so much in depth about Manuel, most of his story is seen through the establishing location shots. We can see he isn't rich and works hard to earn a living.
MANUEL | Short Doc from Bruno Carnide on Vimeo.
Director: Bruno Carnide
Producers: Cristina Barros & Rui Silva
Photography, Edition, Sound: Bruno Carnide
Award Winning.
The titles are fairly simple, it really gives us shots of the location to establish where we are placed and the location ambient sounds. The text on-screen helps to set up the story and tell us the focus the documentary has. At the beginning of the documentary you can't really make out what the storyline will be but the second Manuel starts talking we can instantly make it out. There are subtitles in this documentary, this is what I need to focus on. Since my documentary will be filmed with contributors who cannot speak English, the audience will rely on me to translate the story for them. I really like the way Bruno Carnide didn't spend too much time making the subtitles look nice or interesting, he really focused on the storyline.
Another thing that caught my eye was the photo archives for Manuel, as someone who is watching the documentary it is important for me to know who's life/past I'm being introduced to. By having photo/video archives it gives me the information about the persons past, that's what I want to include in my own documentary. When I am introducing contributors or their own lives I need to make sure the audience are introduced to them well. The documentary also takes time in silence to appreciate the photos and close ups of items. Manuel himself is placed inside his own home feeling comfortable, for me this interview doesn't feel forced or fake, it's very natural like Manuel is speaking to one of his family members or even a friend. When I am filming my interviews this is how I want them to be set, possibly with an actuality shot. The slow motion follow shots are also very inspiring, I absolutely love the way this way filmed - it really makes me connect with Manuel. The entire documentary is around 7 minutes long but you learn so much in depth about Manuel, most of his story is seen through the establishing location shots. We can see he isn't rich and works hard to earn a living.
MANUEL | Short Doc from Bruno Carnide on Vimeo.
Director: Bruno Carnide
Producers: Cristina Barros & Rui Silva
Photography, Edition, Sound: Bruno Carnide
Award Winning.
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