Tyson

More4 showed the James Toback film Tyson (2008) on Tuesday evening. The film is an example of amazing access to an individual who's career has been at incredible highs and lows over the last two decades. Using original interviews with Mike Tyson, and archive footage of fights and news reports, Toback examines these highs and lows with the first hand account.

At times the audience can sympathise with Tyson as he breaks down in tears whilst recollecting time spent with his coach and mentor Cus D'Amato. However as fame and fortune takes hold of one of the worlds greatest boxers his career takes a roller coaster ride of ups and downs. Toback shows the full extent of Tyson's outburst against a member of the audience at the weigh in before 2002's heavy weight fight with Lennox Lewis. Tyson's homophobic and racist barrage is it seems born out of three years spent in jail, however it also shows that as a man he has difficulty with control and aggression whilst outside of the ropes.

The film serves as a brilliant insight into a man who many believe never fulfilled anywhere near the true summit of his potential. Towards the end, it is clear that Tyson only took on bouts as a way of paying the bills, a fact that he himself seems deeply ashamed by.

Toback uses some interesting stylistic devices concerning the interview. One thing I thought worked very well was the delayed and overlapped audio of Tyson speaking. The build up of multiple voices, delayed and layer behind the dominant soundtrack in my mind brought about questions of mental health. The use of partitioned/windowed shots also brought some fantastic closeup shots humanising such an aggressive and hardcore personality

The Documentary Blog

Not to be confused with Adam Mulcahy's Documentary Blog, The Documentary Blog is something I have just found this very moment and will obviously be keeping a close eye on and hopefully my blog will one day as comprehensive as this. I may also print out the Top 50 films of the decade and work my way through.

Puritan Fellowship.

Before Christmas as a group we have to hand in a short (6 - 10 minute) documentary of our choice. Working in a group we have decided to look at making a film about open air street preachers. There is one specific area in Manchester City centre, Market Street which attracts huge crowds and in turn also attracts plenty of people performing, protesting and of course preaching.

Having spoken with a few preachers we have settled on Kevin, who is a pastor with the Puritan Fellowship church and who also visits Market Street about three times a week to preach for a couple of hours.

Throughout this film we want to uncover the reasons why someone would impose there religious beliefs on a seemingly unreceptive audience. Kevin has a well managed online presence including videos, social networks and blogs which he has used to build up a following, and as we experienced while watching him preach, people are familiar with his work and want to get involved too. We are also fascinated in the conflict encountered in the street as well as Kevin's conflicting opinions and beliefs.

At this stage we are meeting Kevin and hopefully making him comfortable with our presence. We are looking to film next week over a few days and at a few different locations. The picture is of Kevin with his trusty step ladder.

Into Eternity

I recently watched a new film by director Michael Madsen, Into Eternity. The film follows the construction of the Nuclear waste storage facility Onkalo in Finland. Scientists at Onkalo have determined that the best way to store nuclear waste is under the ground. The facility allows waste to be stored approximately 5 kilometres under the earth and then sealed off and covered so that no one will ever find it.

With the believed lifespan of nuclear waste being about 100,000, Onkalo has been built with a vision to withstand the years, and considering the pyramids we built approximately 4,000 years ago, this is some feat. Of course, civilisation could be very different in 100,000 years and throughout the film Madsen is constantly asking questions of how to inform poeple of the whereabouts of the waste so that care can be taken when approaching the area in the future.

Stylistically the film looks stunning, the use of slow motion and Kraftwerk-esq music portrays a careful and clinical process which cannot be bound by time. Madsen uses interviews with scientists and Onkalo directors who at times are comical in their apparent complacency, almost as if the question of warnings and future generations has never even been contemplated.

Tony Palmer

We had a guest lecturer the other day named Tony Palmer who has created some fantastic Music documentaries with the likes of Leonard Cohen, Frank Zappa as well as some great popular music documentaries for the BBC and many many more! This really got me thinking as for a long time I have enjoyed music documentaries and it is a challenge I would one day love to tackle.

Through his discussions he talked about how he was allowed complete access while working with Leonard Cohen, with no industry figures or PR even present for the majority of the filming. In this day and ages, this kind of access would be close to impossible to achieve, nevertheless I do feel that there is still the capacity for some truly amazing music documentaries.

Dan of Geek discusses some really great docs here, with each one have a a true depth that really pushes the boundary of simply following the band around while on tour. Finding and getting access to individuals who are places on such a commercial pedestal and seen as so important is undoubtably a tough challenge. EVen cutting ones cloth on lesser known acts requires such a huge amount of luck, I think the music documentary will be a goal of mine for some time to come.

The Lindow Man

This is a project that I am involved with for the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland called Vanishing Boundaries. A piece of music has been composed about this fellow you see here. He is approximately 2000 years old and was discovered in 1984 in Lindow Moss bog in Cheshire.

Similar remains have been found throughout northern Europe, and several more have been found at this particular location. The Lindow remains are widely regarded as the best examples of peat bog remains found in Britain and at the time cause such a big stir and level of excitement among archaeologists and the general public.

I am still awaiting to hear the piece of music but already I am thinking about some visual styles that can be used. As these ideas and research develops I will post more on here. Picture courtesy of The British Museum

Connect 4

We were set a small task today which proved useful but sounds a bit silly! We were tasked to film a game of Connect 4 in order to think about sequences.

Whilst planning a shoot, we have discussed planning specific shots that we wish to see in the edit. This of course helps to make the shoot more efficient, ensuring that you don't forget to get footage but also that you don't get too much footage.

However we started to talk about piecing these shots together and building stories in individual scenes. Each scene needs to act as a micro film, introducing characters, narrative and any conflict. This is what we were essentially trying to do with Connect 4, bring in the scene, establish tension and or conflict and then the conclusion of a win or defeat. I am going to hopefully edit the piece together this week and should be posting it on here soon.

Afghanistan's Child Drug Addicts

Following on from the lecture we had from Sophie Chalk and One World Media, I made an attempt to look at some more examples of documentaries concerned with developing countries. One series of documentaries available on 4OD is Unreported World. From 2010 I watched the episode entitled, Afghanistan's Child Drug Addicts, as I had recently watched a similar doc concerning the abuse of children in the war torn country.

As you can probably guess from the title, the content was pretty heavy indeed, with reporter Ramita Naval exploring the effects of heroin and opium on youths and children throughout the country, from Kabul to the rural opium rich areas of the North.

Drugs in Afghanistan appears to be a massive problem and kudos to Naval and director Matt Haan for the access and harrowing examples they captured. Images of young boys under a bridge in the capital smoking Heroin discussing how they are forced to sell themselves to men for money are truly shocking accounts. So too are the toddlers in rural areas who are given opium by their parents because it is cheaper than food and prevents hunger.

Sadly, I feel the problem is much bigger and requires much more insight than a half hour documentary. Naturally, visions of war and the death of family members are a main catalyst for such young people finding an escape in drugs such as these. In such a poor and troubled country the effects of war will have so many deeper and damaging effects for so many generations. Full credit to the makers of this film, but I cannot help but think that so much more is needed to inform people of the problems that exist in Afghanistan.

The Yorkshire Clamper

I watched this last night on 4OD and thought it was a great example of a a half hour film with relatively easy access, similar to the films that I will be making over the coming twelve months.

Leon Dean Directs and shoots the film and takes a interactive approach with his subjects asking questions from behind the camera. The film follows the controversy surrounding the issue of private parking regulations and Ted Evans who owns a car park in Howarth, North Yorkshire.

Dean has casted a great character in Evans, whose own drive and desire for publicity even if negative is at times worrying. Conflict is built in not only with local people and traders who are at times furious with Evans and his staff but also with two MPs who are also outraged at his aggressive clamping tactics. (Knowing what we know now, any MP referring to someone as a shark is somewhat amusing.)

Unfortunately however the films does not seem to be able to tie in a conclusion. Evans is clearly not willing to change his methods, and parliamentary reform of any kind is a long way away. This does affect the film in that in someways it simply trails off towards the end. Nevertheless it is an interesting insight and one that I shall look at again to examine what similar processes I will be taking.

Newsquest

I saw this interesting little piece on the way home the other day on Roy Greenslade's Guardian blog. It is basically Gracia Martore who is Newsquest Media's chief financial officer claiming that Newsquest has "constantly made money throughout the years." Mortore claims that even in 2008 when things where going down to the wire in terms of advertising revenue, Newsquest was never as bad as people believed.

During the tough times of 2008, Newsquest imposed a company wide pay freeze for all employees that was supposed to be 12 month only, however as we sit here and hear Mr Mortore gloat about the fine state of the Newsquest books the pay freeze is still in place... Not surprising then that today Press Gazette reports as follows, Newsquest Hampshire Journalist Vote for Strike. ( http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=46172&c=1 )

Obviously this subject goes a touch off my blog content but I just thought it was interesting to see how little the company was reinvesting in personnel who have worked extremely hard over a very difficult few years. In a wider context it begs the question as to weather the private sector can adequately fill the gap left by the massive cuts to the public sector when the emphasis on people is, in this case anyway, clearly so low.

Job Advice

We had a fascinating lecture today with Sophie Chalk from One World Media who was encouraging us to get involved with making documentary films in developing countries. This was an incredible insight into the sheer amount of planing and production management that it takes to go into somewhere like Afghanistan with a camera. Also Sophie gave us some advise on job hunting and networking which I thought would be interesting to post here so in a years time I can look back and remember a less stressful time!

• Research broadcasters and independent companies and watch the films they have made.
• Produce a taster tape with contact details and skills on the cover of the disc.
• Work experience, production companies, post production houses, facilities companies, anywhere!
• Build relationships in the industry, also look out for a mentor
• Be persistent, send letters (not emails) every week and pester with phone calls!

Lets see how it goes!

Parks

I discussed ideas for a short documentary concentrating on the role of the park within local communities and today I have been looking at some information about a couple of local parks, council websites and also news articles from archives about various news stories relating to specific parks, (notably Towneley park in Burnley and Corporation Park in Blackburn.)

I also found this short documentary about called "Our Park" (Emil Langballe & Maria Samoto le Dous) about a park in Tokyo which has been bought by Nike, who are currently trying to evict a homeless community that has built up in order to develop the park into a skate park. Obviously tents and filthy people aren't good for Nike's image.

Should a park be available to be bought and sold to corporate entities? I Nike sponsored skate park within Miyashita park is one thing but to buy the whole space.? I think a public space such as this should remain just that, public.

Boogie Woogie Pappa (2002)

I have just finished watching "Boogie Woogie Pappa" in which Erik Bafving uses old 35mm photographic images shot by his father. Bafving infuses the images together to visualise the early part of his life and his relationship with his father. Narrated with english subtitles, the images and narration combine to tell the story of being a young child hearing his father play Boogie Woogie music on the family piano. As the film progresses however, the relationship deteriorates as Bafving's father, a workaholic struggles with alcoholism and and eventually commits suicide.

Only 13 minutes long the film is a great example of a short similar in length to that of my minor project plus it uses stills to portray a story in a different but extremely effective method.

We got introduced to some of the kit that we are going to be using at uni yesterday. There was a bit of buzz about the Canon D5 Mark II for its HD video capability. I have been scouting around for examples and found this video which was apparently shot using the Canon. The image quality is brilliant, and I'm now very excited about having a dabble with this little beauty as well!

Little Comets - 'The Isles' from Agile Films on Vimeo.

The Unseen Sea from Simon Christen on Vimeo.

Simply Stunning

Started uni course today at Salford and it seems good, am highly excited about getting going, plus the cameras and equipment look awesome! hopefully will start to step up my game in terms of watching and reading more and more and more... and of course this blog as well as twitter which Im hoping to start really utilising to get as much as I can from this year (and for my money!!)

Watch this space...

Eye of the Leopard

Caught the back end what looked to be a fantastic doc last night, Eye of the Leopard (2009) on National Geographic channel. The narrative followed a solitary leopard, Legadema in Africa for three years from birth, to adulthood. The footage was shot by husband and wife team Dereck and Beverly Joubert who have lived in Africa for over 25 years and have spent the last three years following Legadema. The film captures some truly remarkable and at times astonishing events as the cub's relationship with it's mother fades and Lagadema has to learn skills of hunting and surviving alone. Will defiantly try and check out some more of the Jouberts' work as they have particular focus on the plight of African big cats.

Some Dumb Stuff

Discussions at the Edinburgh TV festival this week focused on documentaries, in particular whether or not reality television and overt - attention grabing characters have hindered filmmakers as they offer a cheap and but ever increasingly popular alternative to "serious documentaries." I think there is always a case that popular culture dumbs down society on the whole. Popular music, Hollywood blockbuster and celebrity magazine are just some dumb examples.

Brian Woods, argues that fewer and fewer commissioners are wiling to fork up £40,000 for a serious journalistic piece, (of course never actually having asked anyone for £40,000 I wouldn't know!)and that channel heads aren't willing to take a chance to give the docs "prime time" making them inaccessible to the a majority of viewers. I do think this is wrong, as there are now so many opportunities to catch shows, More4, C4 and the BBC4 have done great work airing documentaries. With regards to the investment issue, with so much talk of cuts in the government and the media, (UK film council and the current BBC issues to name but a few) it is no surprise that such projects get side lined.

In my opinion the bottom line lies in the fact that there will always be sufficient numbers of people who crave intellectual and serious program making, but there will always be more Pineapple dance studio fans...

Theatre of War

Theatre of War from Richard Mosse on Vimeo.

Just been checking out this video from Richard Mosse shot in one of Saddam Hussein's hilltop palaces. I think Mosse uses angles and parallel lines really well to get some awesome static shots. The sound of prayer and the shear scale of the backdrop really gives a sense of magnitude of the operation and even the boredom that the troops in frame are going through

The Cove

So in September I will be commencing my Masters degree in Documentary Production at Salford and I think it's about time I get back into some thinking and analysis about media text, particularly documentaries. What better place to start than with a wonderful documentary The Cove. Louie Psihoyos produces the film which attempts to uncover the hidden secrets of a tiny piece of coastline in the Japanese village of Taiji. In an attempt to highlight the slaughter of thousands of dolphins every year Psihoyos and veteran activist Ric O'Barry form a crack squad of ex military, special effects professionals and world champion free divers to covertly expose the sinister truth.

The film has all the tension of a great Hollywood thriller. Scenes shot in the dead of night with the use of thermal imaging and night vision ads to a sense of unease with the ever present sonar clicks of the captive and doomed creatures. Just like a good heist movie, the Japanese police are ever present in a menacing way, constantly following and monitoring members of the team. Certain characters too play the roles of bad guys, non more so than Sergent Space, armed with a video camera, recording every move and constantly hounding anyone who dare visit and query the goings on at Taiji.

At times the film feels a little too definitive in good and evil, the Japanese being portrayed as a problematic society of lies, bribery and oppression. Empathy however is difficult to find as graphic images of slaughter and blood stained ocean emerge from the groups endeavours.

Who are you?

I found an interesting article in The Guardian a week ago. New York university lecturer Clay Shirky was discussing the online social sphere. I thought it actually had echoes of what I was trying to say in a previous post regarding comment sections and how often annonimity promotes negative and sometimes vulger discourse. Shirky goes onto to discuss the potential emmergence of social norms such as the use of true identity, again this is something I discussed earlier and I think but I suppose, As the article highlights, "people were saying those nasty things to one another on the pub!"

In Print

It occured to me the other day that while newspaper and magazine circulations are constantly falling, I have never bought or consumed more print media that I currently do. While I still use online media content, I throughly enjoy the methodical processes associated with newspapers or the anticipation and excitment of the next magazine. Don't get me wrong, I'm not claiming some miraculous revival is on the cards, my belief is that while figures will level out but will always ever so slowly be in decline. Maybe it's too little to late, but there is definatly a more interesting personal connection with print. More on this later!

Adam

Something to Say?

I enjoy reading comments. I honestly believe that I'm not alone in that and that comment sections actually for the large part enhance digital content. But some sites do seem to attract absolutely rubbish comments ranging from pointless to truly derogatory. Stephen Fry actually brought this point to light with what I feel is a fantastic description, "bottom feeders." The position of the comment section along with the ability for contributors to hide behind avatar and alias has meant that this is a fitting term. Don't mistake me here, sometimes I throughly enjoy reading pointless arguments about poor grammar, or conflicting opinions on MPs expenses. 

What is good to see though, is positive constructive discussion, praise and indeed criticism. Also what is brilliant to see is interaction within the comments by the author. I saw this on Vimeo recently and it got me thinking about other comment sections on other sites. What if local press journalists engaged with local people by involving themselves in the comment sections. I actually do believe that properly moderated and respectable places for people to offer their opinion especially in the local sector can become an way to engage people with their local news sites. I think it is this engagement that is crucially lacking from local sites. 

Pay Walls

It seems that The Times has been the first to take a giant leap into the unknown as its plans for the much debated "pay-wall" are starting to take shape. Although this is an issue I am as of yet undecided about, admittedly the re-designed home of The Times looks great as the use of dominant image and columned text with the classic Times header really brings the great elements of conventional page layout to a digital space. (I have often felt dismayed at the "busy-ness" of online news sites, but that is for another post) 

News today also emerged that Sky Sports News will also follow suite, soon to be removed from Freeview and also to be hidden behind the NewsCorp guarded pay-wall online too. Again, it is interesting to see how this venture will pay off, I have always seen Sky Sports News as a fantastic platform which deservedly gets viewing figures of around two million and serves to promote the paid for content which has been the backbone of BskyB's business model. Pay Wall... Watch this space.

Adam

First Post

Here is my first foray into blogging. I have seen how effective this process can be for recording and mapping ones thoughts and feelings. 

My goal? To use this space as a archive of my thoughts and opinions for myself and on the off chance that anyone else is interested in my thoughts and opinions then it can serve as an archive for them too.  

Adam