Prior to this project I wasn't very aware of any major/well known documentaries that had been shot on a DSLR or if they had then I myself wasn't aware of any that I've seen personally. So knowing that I was going to be shooting our Mocku-mentary on my Canon 550D, I thought that it would be worthwhile doing some research into the world of documentary film making with DSLR cameras and after browsing the net for many hours I found some very helpful and useful information in this field and below you'll see the 3 videos that I found the most useful.
What I found particularly helpful with this DSLR tutorial above, was that it really pointed out the clear challenges of shooting documentaries with a DSLR camera, the focus issue with regards to wide open aperture didn't occur to me originally and this is something that might come in handy knowing that recommended f4-f8 stop for focus during interviews might come in real handy when shooting some of our interviews, especially with the planned interview with our Hippie character. Though this video points out the use of zoom lenses and the recommendation of non-use of prime lenses, I feel that because our project is a scripted mocku-mentary that we will certainly be able to use primes for the shoot as everything will be pre-planned ahead of the shoot days.
Again from watching this interview with Vincent Laforet on DSLR documentary work, the main thing that I got out of it was the negative side of filming with a DSLR with regards to documentary work, he points out the lack of good quality microphone for the audio and the ability to hear the quality of audio recorded, this certainly makes me feel that maybe my Canon 550D might not be the best camera for the job, but for this I feel we can get around the audio issue by using a Zoom h4n with a ME67 mic. Laforet does point out the time code issue and 12min cut off for video, I personally would feel that this could be a huge problem within the world of documentary, but looking at our project, we are dealing with a scripted mocku-mentary that will have controlled parameters and this issue really should effect the project.
Laforet does though point out that the DSLR does work great in low light, which might pop up in our project depending on how the interviews and locations play out; he also points out that most people are unaware that the DSLR cameras can shoot video and even though this interview is 2 years old, I still believe that most people are still ignorant to the fact that these cameras shoot video and that there is a large body of film makers out there shooting on DSLR cameras, this I think is a potential massive plus for our project, we might be looking to exploit protesters by shooting in-front of their cause for our film and might even look to shoot guerrilla style at the Registry Office and the fact that people might not be aware that we are filming could be helpful in capturing footage without attracting too much attention from the public.
Above is a short documentary called Mr. Smith's Peach Seeds; this documentary really stood out for me as it was solely shot on a Canon 7D and captured the audio using a Zoom h4n with an external mic. The documentary itself has some quite stunning shots that are so visually pleasing to see and really adds to the beauty of the story of Mr. Smith; after seeing this film, I was sold that the DSLR was the correct format for our project, seeing those beautiful shots said to me, if we are going to shoot something why not make it as good looking as possible and there's no better way to do this for me than by shooting in HD. It's really the films cutaways that stand out and is something that I really feel can add to a film whether it be drama or documentary, if you can get the correct cutaways to add to the feel of your film then you can really make the film itself much more powerful; so that is something that I will spend a good amount of time on shoot days, trying to find those cutaways that can really add that extra element to our film.This film also shows that in a controlled interview environment then you can really get beautiful crisp focused images of your interviewee which really should be a problem for us considering the fact our film is going to be scripted and have full control of where the interviewees will be position in the frame.
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