Link to the documentary: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b04kntlk/danny-macaskill-riding-the-ridge
The first part of this documentary that really stood out to me was the use of its drone shots. Obviously, the landscape they are filming in is incredible, but the use of a drone shot in a documentary is one that allows the viewer to ease into a section of the film. The drone shot helps set the scene and that is very important when showing a journey with so much meaning. In this documentary we are based in the same area for the majority of the documentary, however, in our documentary, we have planned a number of locations which I will be visiting along my journey. I think we could use the drone we have available to capture a number of stunning openers to allow the viewer into each scene both cinematically as well as more naturally. After watching "Danny Macaskill - Riding The Edge", I have incorporated in drone shots into a number of our upcoming shoots, but highlighting the fact that they should all be unique so it does not feel similar from scene to scene. I also think we should be very selective of the drone shots we actually use in "DreamChaser" as we do not want to overuse this tool.
The voiceover used in "Danny Macaskill - Riding The Edge's" introduction allows the viewer into the story and gives them a brief overview of who Danny is, as a lot of the people watching will not know his background. I think this is also essential in our documentary as well as I doubt most people will know why I am going on this journey. Therefore, as shown in "Danny Macaskill - Riding The Edge", I will ensure that my opening voiceover is concise and to the point but also making sure it says enough about the importance of the journey. After all, this voiceover is what engages people with our documentary and I need to make sure it is right. This voiceover is also used to set up the documentary for the normal viewer, as they may not understand what the presenter is doing. In the case of Danny, his journeys around the world get crazier and the viewer needs to know why he puts himself through the pain and effort to make these movies. Typically, I will need to do the same for my documentary as, without set up, the general viewer may be confused about why we are going on this journey. This shows the importance of a voiceover and other specific pieces of information throughout, as without these the documentary is not opened up to the wider audience who won't know a lot of this information, unlike Danny's fans or my family for example. Once again, it is important that these voiceover sections do not drag on too much otherwise it starts to feel too factual and guided by the voiceover, which could lead the viewer to have a lesser connection with the person on screen. We need the key information from the voiceover, but a lot of the emotion and feelings come through the actuality seen in the documentary. This balance is key in making our documentary appeal to a wider audience.
One element which will be vital in our documentary being a success is the use of action cameras. I noticed that they were used quite heavily in "Danny Macaskill - Riding The Edge" as, without them, we are not able to get the perspective of the main contributor on screen. Danny uses a few cameras on his person when attempting his challenges. This point of view allows the viewer a very unique and somewhat terrifying perspective of what is happening. The use of these cameras allows the viewer to get somewhere they probably would never be able to go themselves, making these shots particularly powerful. These cameras also heighten the drama as the view shows us almost what the contributor is seeing and allows us to completely understand the risks he is taking. These shots allow the viewer to immerse themselves in the story. This shows me we need to utilise these cameras in our documentary to fully bring out the excitement of the sport. I hope to have two cameras inside the cars in every single track experience I take part in. These action cameras will hopefully be able to show the struggles I will have gone through in this process as well as my reactions or feelings in the car when driving. These shots will give us a very unique angle on the sport and used in conjunction with our exterior cameras, we will have a lot of fantastic footage at our disposal.
The backing track used in "Danny Macaskill - Riding The Edge" allowed the viewer to understand what we should be reading into the scene. Although the music backed up the emotions we were supposed to be feeling in this documentary, I think the creators did not spend much time on this aspect because it did not lead me to better relate to the piece. It feels as if the makers left the audio until the last moment, which means that the music and backing audio does not quite match what I would have expected for this documentary. This shows how hard it is to get the right audio for the documentary, which has led me to ensure that this is of high importance through our edit. The audio is half of our film and if we do not optimise this, then we could easily set the wrong tone. We aim to be working on the audio for our film in the next month which will allow us to have an idea about what sounds we should use to set the correct tone. I am excited to work on this aspect as I have often not paid as much attention to audio in my projects as I would have liked. This challenge will be one to test my skill set and that's very exciting for me.
The actuality in "Danny Macaskill - Riding The Edge" allows the documentary makers to craft a genuine events cycle in this documentary which allows the viewer to feel much more connected with Danny. This actuality shows Danny for who he is, without a lot of the editing which goes into his YouTube creations. I personally felt this actuality allowed me to understand Danny and think about why he keeps going on these crazy missions. This connection kept getting stronger throughout the documentary and I realise how important authentic actuality is in a documentary like this. Therefore, my plans for "DreamChaser" going forward are to record as much actuality as possible on the shoot dates. This footage can be used to show my journey in the most authentic way and I am sure it will allow the viewer closer to me because of it. I personally feel the camera operators should be recording as much as they can as it allows us to have options in the edit. We have the batteries and SD cards to ensure this is possible, so it is down to the camera operators to ensure we get all the shots needed. My plans as a director are now going to be more in-depth and stress the importance of capturing these shots as well as the structured parts in which I speak to the camera operator about my experiences. They can be used together to allow a wider perspective on this story.
Some of this actuality includes the crew in the shot, in "Danny Macaskill - Riding The Edge". I was unsure if this was planned but I think it worked for this documentary. This is because the documentary is as much about its creation as Danny's adventure. I had thought about including the crew in my documentary, in scenes where they are clearly in the shot, but after speaking to Simon in pre-production I took it out of my plans. I understand why Danny has allowed the crew to be visible in this documentary but I personally feel it takes away from the journey he has been on, as this 30-minute documentary includes as much of the crew as it does of him. This somewhat subtracted from the story for me as it took the emphasis off the challenge Danny is completing. I think I made the right choice not to include the crew in my plans, at least on screen. I think it is important that we hear both the D.O.P as well as the producer as it allows questions to be set up and for me to answer those in the most natural way possible. I am going to stick to my original plans, even though "Danny Macaskill - Riding The Edge" did tempt me to reconsider my plans from pre-production. Without being vain, the documentary is about my journey and if we introduce too many characters into it, we may lose the story and the meaning of it. Therefore, we will keep me as the main contributor and include a few along the way, but it is better for the documentary if we keep the crew out of shot at all times.
Finally, the sense of danger really comes across in "Danny Macaskill - Riding The Edge". This is thanks to breathtaking visuals as well as powerful audio. It is clear to me how important it is to mix these two together to create a strong piece. Missing one or the other will detract massively from the story and I want to ensure both are given as much thought. This controlled danger is thanks to time spent before the shoot working out the angles which make these scenes as visually interesting as possible. This puts pressure on me to go out and scout locations as well as complete test shoots where possible, to ensure the visuals we get are powerful and heighten the drama in our project. This danger comes through also thanks to the music, as it heightens the messages being shown in the video. The importance of music is unparalleled and without this, our project will surely have less impact. As explained, I will be ensuring we have the right audio for our project and I have decided, thanks to this research, that we ought to plan further test shoots to ensure we are in a good place for each sequence. This requires much more effort, but I feel it is definitely worth it to ensure we have a documentary with both stunning audio and visuals.
This documentary research has been great in enlightening me about how we can ensure our documentary is one with power and meaning. I have realised the challenge ahead of us and have dedicated myself to ensuring that we partake in extra practice days as well as more location scouts. This will allow my plans to be more detailed and allow the crew to understand what is required of them. It certainly highlights that this project is a team effort and I am excited to get to work with the rest of our filming. After reviewing this documentary I have taken onboard a lot of advice and changed my workflow which has been spoken about above. This will allow this documentary to be one which we are all very proud of.
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