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Lesson: Actuality

Actuality.

Today we learned about how actuality can be portrayed and how much, as a crew, we can script. 

Chasing Dad: A Lifelong Addiction

Chasing Dad is a documentary that a son makes about his father, who's been addicted to heroin and alcohol since before the son was born. It's shot entirely by the son and no other crew, which makes the documentary very unique and far more personal.
Their relationship has existed but has been strained because of the father's addiction, which means the pair have fairly distanced relationship. This relationship level means that they have enough emotional separation that the son is able to get balanced answers from his dad and feel comfortable interviewing him, but also the son knows he can ask more pressing questions, and really get to know his dad's situation, because it's his dad and he's able to be much more personal with his situation, and even challenge him more.
This also benefits his dad as he's able to open up about his situation and his emotions in front of his son, meaning we're able to see that connection between the two despite their emotional distance.
The viewer is made to empathise with both the son and the father. This is reinforced with the father being referred to as 'Dad' throughout the show rather than his name, which leads the viewer to make the connection between the character and their own family and how their family could be affected by the same situation. They also use the camera as the son's eyes, in a way, as the son doesn't present the show or appear on camera for very long at all, and the eye line is very close to the camera lens. This further makes the documentary more personal with the viewer, as we feel the father is looking at us.
As we aren't introduced to many of the father's friends and the son doesn't know who they are, this reinforces the idea that the son and father have a distant relationship, but the way they talk to each other (in an informal way) proves they have met at some points in the past, enough to be comfortable with each other.

About Actuality

In class we learned about how we can shoot actuality and the dos and don'ts of it.
  • Keep the narrative going with cut-aways; make sure they're relevant to what is being said. They're also good for the viewer as it gives them a moment to take in what they're seeing.
  • Empathise with the characters, don't focus on facts and figures too much
  • Sequencing
    • You can create sequences that represent reality.
    • Close-ups are key, but you need to be aware of continuity.
    • Ensure it's interesting and relevant.
    • Try to shoot your sequences with a tripod, except actuality
  • Let the subject know what you're going to want to see in advance
    • Use research meetings to discuss what they do in day-to-day life
  • You are able to sequence actuality, just don't interrupt it.
  • Place the camera in a position that is most likely to get all of the action, so that you don't need to disrupt the action or move around too much. (i.e. framing the doorway in the interview shots in Chasing Dad; this meant we were able to see visitors coming and going)
  • A pan should reveal something
  • Coverage is really important, ensure you're getting too much footage rather than not enough
  • There should be at least 3 close ups for every wide shot.
  • Cut aways (general views- GVs) are usually of something static. Ensure they're always relevant!
  • Actuality is doing little if anything to control the action
    • Not directing but responding
  • Let things enter and leave the shot, don't just follow everything
  • Remember your wild and buzz tracks
  • Create a sense of "To Be Continued" with every narrative, and wrap it up in the end.
This lesson was really useful to be able to understand how documentaries are constructed in different ways and how we can take these techniques onto set to create a documentary with enough context in each shot.
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