DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKING:: What You Need To Know First

[Music] [Music] you know I know it's the thing on YouTube to be riding a one wheel but who can ride an adult tricycle and do it with style although I don't really know how much style I have right now so where am i I am in Florida right now on a little vacay with my wife's family kind of in a geriatric vacation hub maybe I'll retire here one day not a chance I want to talk today about documentary filmmaking I guess we should define and what a documentary is right off the top what it is is a film that focuses on anything that's non fiction so real events and I did some research in the term documentary was actually coined in 1926 by filmmaker John gearson been around for a while and I love documentaries I love telling stories about real people real events because I just find it really fascinating to look into people's lives why they do certain things and how certain events unfold and you know there isn't just one type of documentary there's many and it's actually really good to know these different types of genres because each one of them has a strength and a benefit that could help your story so today let's talk about documentary styles and I should mention that this film is gonna be part of a long series of documentary youtube tutorials that I'm making I know a lot of you when I did that poll recently said you wanted to know more about documentary filmmaking so I thought this video was a great place to start talking about the different genres of documentary so that if I reference them in upcoming videos you'll know what I'm talking about so let's do this [Music] brakes don't work so well on this it is very hot out here so I'm going to change okay where was I excited sweating my balls off so the first documentary-style i want to talk about is ver tey and this is a classic style of documentary Verte means truthful cinema it's essentially where you let everything unfold in front of your camera as a filmmaker and you don't try to change the story you just let life happen and you observe it and there's some amazing films like this this is an incredible tool as a filmmaker to immerse your audience in a setting in a scenario in a story one of my favorite documentaries of all time uses a lot of Verte style and it's called the overnighters it's an incredible film looks at a pastor in this one city where there was an influx of workers in the oil fields looks at all the tension he has to fight as he tries to take people into his church and its might sound boring but man it is an incredible film there's a twist at the end you want to give it away but fantastic film really really enjoyed it another incredible Verte cinema filmmaker that you should check out is Alan King Canadian hello rest in peace but Verte is good to use sometimes intermittent throughout your film where you just let something happen in front of the camera just like two videos ago where I was talking about letting your edit breathe Verte is all about this the second documentary style I wanted to talk about today was reenactment or what you hear some people say docudrama and that's where you take an event that happened and you recreated as accurately accurately accurately as possible and this is a powerful tool when you don't have footage of an event an incredible filmmaker who uses this is Errol Morris he just did the Doc series on Netflix called wormwood highly suggest you watch it is one of the most beautiful reenactment docudramas I've ever seen and I think docudramas get a bad rep because there's terrible TV docudramas where they reenact like a plane crash and all this stuff and they use the fuzzy filter and black and white footage and it's just terrible but I think docudramas actually have a good place in documentary filmmaking and sometimes you could use a mini docudrama sequence in the middle of your film if you don't have the footage of an event there's enough to be ashamed about recreating things or sometimes taking someone back to a place and having them show what happened imoto Thalia okay with that as a filmmaker because for me it's about showing the audience what this person experiences and if hey I don't have the footage of that let's go redo it let's go recreate it if you're an athlete let's go back to the field let's see play the sport let's see you recreate the setting that you've been talking about so it's totally okay to recreate scenarios you just got to know the genre are you doing if you're trying to do a Veritate film and then suddenly you have reenactments in it and you're still calling it a Veritate film it can get confusing this is why I was saying it's good to know what genre of documentary you're making before you set out let's keep writing [Music] Florida is funny because it's so dang hot out here that no one hangs outside so everyone's at doors so these neighborhoods are like complete ghost town either that or the zombie apocalypse happen it's kind of nice rotting my man track around anyways as I was talking the next whoops bump so the next your honor of documentary I wanted to talk about is talking head and this isn't really a category but I made it one because you see so many documentaries done in this style it's kind of like the ESPN 30 for 30 style documentary where you just have a lot of interviews and you have a bit of accompanying b-roll and you tell a story about a person or about a topic and this can actually be really effective because when you have many people talking about one thing you get a lot of perspectives or you can reiterate one point that you're trying to make and I think ESPN does a great job another great documentary that's kind of talking head style is the corporation actually if you have any documentaries that fit these styles make sure to leave a comment below there are so many good documentaries out there and I think they need to be seen next documentary style is expository or exposed to Tori let me know if I'm pronouncing it right these styles of documentary are kind of like the Ken Burns you know his work that style documentary where you're trying to look into a situation and show oh geez tried to switch and it was as you're trying to show an event or place and less about talking heads but you usually have like a narrator and you put some footage and you can Burns effect with like the photos moving this is a this is your typical a any style History Channel style documentary where you're looking at an event it's kind of similar talking heads but I feel like talking edges just interviews and expose Ettore uses a voiceover the next tile is a performative style documentary that's where the filmmaker is actually involved in the film you see them trying to find out something trying to explore a topic and they'll often put themselves in the film and the most famous person for this of course is Michael Moore he's done Bowling for Columbine Fahrenheit 9/11 these times the films where he's in the film and he's looking at an issue or topic like expose pieces it's where you're trying to prove something and you want to put yourself in there as a filmmaker this is a great way for you to help bridge the gaps in your film if you're not sure how the foam is going to turn out sorry a little break here in the Edit I just realized I cannot talk about performative documentaries without mentioning one of the best ones of all time in my opinion which is finding Vivian Mayer it is an incredible film you need to see this it's about this guy who found these photos and an auction and it turns out that they're about this photographer who okay I can't I can't ruin it you need to see it finding Vivian Mayer I would be doing an injustice to documentary filmmaking if I didn't mention this film in this video so go watch that this thing is great it's like an office on wheels I can ride with no hands I'm over 1 wheels I'm gonna be doing my adult tricycle from now on it's gonna be my thing on this channel maybe I'll put a link below to one I'm just kidding actually I don't I think I'll look for one on Amazon XIV it's there the next thing I want to talk about was reflexive documentaries and this doesn't mean you have good reflexes or that you're an athlete it's about reacting to the world around you it's it's not really about a story or about an event it's about your experience and about you actually making the film the film is about the film being made and that's the way most you know youtubers will do their videos their five 10-minute videos is about you actually just creating the video you getting the shots it's about you reacting to the world it's reflexive you know you you're reacting to what's happening and the last one I wanted to talk actually no the second last one I want to talk about is my favorite and that's impressionistic documentary filmmaking and what that means it's kind of like a non-traditional style of filmmaking you'll use a narrator and you might use some Verte scenes but it's a bit more experimental it's not full experimental which I'll talk about in a sec but it's a style of documentary where you're letting the voice-over and the images all create and a tone and a sense of story I've been numb for so many years but that night was when I felt everything when my world became real [Music] and it doesn't necessarily follow the traditional rules of documentary you're not showing talking head interviews you're more so looking into the tone and the motion of someone's story and you can tell a linear story and it is important to I you know I've done a video a little while ago about knowing if you have a good documentary story and I'll put that link above right now that's important to know where you're going with the story but I love impressionistic style documentary filmmaking because it allows for more art it allows for more moments where you get to breathe and feel who the character is do some cool lighting I love cinematography so that's probably why I love impressionistic style of documentary filmmaking and it's probably why I am talking about it the longest right now because for me it is the most in line with who I am as an artist Who I am as a creative I love it and I think it's one of the most fun ways to make movies and the last style of a documentary I want to talk about was experimental a person we have a human eye cool they'll move they're like a t-rex if you move let's see here the last style is experimental documentary and this just follows no rules you kind of do whatever the heck you want Andy Warhol used to make a lot of documentaries like this and they're they're fun they're strange they don't always make sense it's like impressionistic on crack it just goes way to the other end of the scale and I think they're great and they're really fun to watch I think over 90 minutes like a typical documentary feature-length not my thing but in a short amount of time I think experimental documentaries are powerful and very cool wowsers it is hot out here but if you've been watching my channel recently I've been complaining about the cold in Canada so I will not complain about this heat just to recap everything really quickly here you have Barrett a which is letting everything happen in front of the camera and not really changing what's happening you just film what happens in life then you have docudrama or reenactment which is the complete opposite you reenact everything you control it as a documentary filmmaker then you have Talking Heads which is a lot of interviews you have expository which is looking into a subject trying to prove a point then you have participate documentary which is where you put yourself in there as a filmmaker and are trying to prove a point talk about a certain subject then you have reflexive documentary which is kind of a youtube thing where you just make a film about making the film then you have my favorite one which is impressionistic documentary and the last but not least it's the do whatever the heck you want to do it is the experimental documentary so there's so many different genres don't let them overwhelm you let them help you figure out what is going to help your story maybe it doesn't make sense for you to do a reflexive style documentary where you're in the film if you're trying to do it about a subject that you have no connection to or that maybe you just aren't an expert on and you want experts to talk about it it would be a great time to do a talking head style documentary where you have experts talking about the subject so it's good to figure out what genre and you can blend the two you can use a bunch of different ones if you look at again I was talking about earlier wormwood they used docudrama style scenes where it's this incredible filmmaking but then they also do a talking head style interview and it's actually the first one I saw they shot it with like eight red cameras it was incredible it's beautiful beautiful cinematography check it out even if you don't watch the whole series it's good to see a different style of documentary filmmaking but anyways make sure to hit subscribe leave some comments below appreciate again all the love you guys have had let me know what videos you want me to be making I'm gonna be doing some more about documentary filmmaking this is kind of the first part of a long series and a lot of you have been bugging me about doing a top handle film I will be making one of those and I will be making one about focus just been flat-out crazy busy and now I'm on a little vacation but yeah I'll see you guys in the next one [Music]

Channel: Mark Bone

Views: 244,553

Keywords: Mark Bone, Filmmaking, Documentary, Documentary Filmmaking, Directing, Education, Director, Sony, EoS, Canon, Canada, Vlog, a6000, how to shoot for youtube, how to color correction, premiere pro, how to direct, filmmaking tips, film school, DJI phantom, pre production, write a script, how to write a script, learn filmmaking, location scouting, a7III, DJI MAVIC 2, Matti Haapoja, Peter mckinnon, fuji, xt3, fs7, rescate, bone, director

Id: hqUuHCnVPMk

Length: 13min 36sec (816 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 08 2019