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Documentary Drama
27/11/06
Types of DRAMA…
Activity # 1- In your own words, write down a definition for the ‘Documentary’. Give an example of a documentary and describe what it is about.
A documentary is a movie that is actually a combination of ideas, facts, and opinions that are all based on one particular issue, topic, or theme. These are all videoed and then compiled into a movie. An example would be ‘Uncle Saddam’. This documentary features the works and praises of the Late Saddam Hussein, while he was still alive. The documentary showed us what Saddam Hussein had does while he ruled Iraq and the different attractions and also the education levels in the country. The documentary was named ‘Uncle Saddam’, because that was the affectionate nickname of Saddam Hussein, often used by children of Iraq.
04/12/06
Activity # 2: How do you think a documentary drama is different and/or the same as a documentary for film?
v Documentary drama is for stage while a documentary for film is made for movies.
v The impact of a documentary is instantaneous while a documentary for film can be slow and instantaneous at different points of the film.
v The making of a documentary drama is different from a documentary for film.
v A documentary drama gives the audience information or entertainment live, while a documentary for film can be seen and realized again and again.
v When we watch a documentary for film we stare at one screen for the whole time, but while watching a documentary drama, the audience has to watch and observe everything that happens on stage, and has to be focused the whole time.
05/12/06
05/12/06
Idea#1
v Having peer pressure
v Depression
v Drugs/Alcohol/Cigarette
v Extreme situation-friends/parents come in.
v Rehabilitation
v A viewpoint from a person who really has gone through something like this.
Idea#2
v 7 emotions-jealousy, love, hate, fear, betrayal, foolishness, happiness, and sadness.
v All will be seven mini scenes
v Tie up all scenes/incidents together.
v “To be a complete person, you have to feel all emotions.”
05/012/06
Techniques that we can use for our documentary…
ü Songs
ü Dance
ü Lighting
ü Video
ü Sound Effects
ü Acting
ü Poetry
ü Mime
ü Newspaper/Media
ü Animations
ü Speeches
Reflective thinking: :-)
From the brainstorm we did earlier, I think I liked the ‘incident which crippled someone’. I think that this will be a good topic to work on, for a couple of reasons:
1) Everyone goes through something which could cripple their life. It’s the confidence, strength and self will, which will hold them together.
2) ISD is an environment where people can easily be subject to such an incident.
3) We need to encourage people that there is help when you need them, and that you shouldn’t be ashamed or afraid to ask for help.
4) We could make educational, so that our peers will know that we can be serious when we want to be!
11/12/06
Choose an idea for a documentary drama
1) Describe the drama
2) Break it up into 5-6 scenes
3) Describe each scene and what types of techniques you will use.
4) How are you going to join the scenes?
1) The drama will be based on the seven basic emotions that a person has to feel before they can become a matured or complete person. Jealousy, love, hate, fear, betrayal, foolishness, happiness, and sadness are the emotions that I will be using. It can start off in a classroom full of kids around our age, who will be the focus of this play. Throughout the play, specific characters in the classroom will experience different things and emotions, and at the end of the play, they will be asked by the teacher to have a discussion on growing up. They will all randomly talk about their feelings about growing up and maturing and the play will end with many questions hanging in the air for the audience to reflect on.
2) I have decided that I will break my entire play into 8 scenes. This is a basic outline of what it will look like:
- Scene #1- Jealous
- Scene #2- Hate
- Scene #3- Fear
- Scene #4- Love
- Scene #5- Sad
- Scene #6- Foolishness
- Scene #7- Happy
- Scene #8- the result- The questioning.
- Scene #1- The teacher will leave the class, saying ‘I’ll be back in a minute.’, and the prominent students of the play will act smug and talk about various things, including their own personal interest. A student (let’s name him Jim), will feel jealous in this section. A very rich kid in his class will bring a very expensive mobile. The student, who is from a middle class family, knows that it will take him months before he can scrape up enough pocket money to afford a mobile like that. He addresses the audience and talks about his problems and his feelings. He becomes very jealous and angry, and concocts a plan so that he can steal it. At the end of the scene, he is caught in the act, and the rich kid insults him.
- Scene #2- The rich kid grows an intense feeling of hate towards Jim, and mumbles about his feelings to the audience. We will see a short piece of monologue from him, until he is suddenly interrupted by one of his friends, and he appears normal to his friends, like nothing happens, but during idle chit chat, he looks at the audience to shoe that he is not at all happy with his feelings, and is confused about them.
- Scene #3- The students of that class have a surprise field trip to the zoo. One of the students, Julie, was especially frightened of the lions, and when one of them roared. She got scared. She confessed her feelings about the lions, and the results were a range of reactions. Some people comforted her, but the majority chided and teased her. Feeling ashamed of herself, she speaks her mind to the audience about her fear, and her feelings. She is prompted back to reality when she hears their teacher telling them that it was time to go back home. She comforts herself by sitting next to one of the people who had sympathized for her in the journey home.
- Scene #4- The person Julie sat with was a boy named James. He was a boy who was always falling in love with one girl or another. Everyone called him ‘Lover Boy’ James. So, when Julie sat next to him, he developed a crush on her. He talks to the audience about his feelings about her and this will be funny, because he will gush all kinds of things about her, which though he believes to be true, but are just exaggerations that he made up.
- Scene #5- The next day- we see another character enter the scene. This will be a girl named Mary, who can get very angry very easily. She sees immediately that James, on whom she secretly has a crush on, has a crush on Julie. She gets very angry, but at the same time, tells the audience that she is very sad. She says that she was being selfish, but at the same time, she couldn’t help, what was she to do? She didn’t like being in this situation, and yet here she was, being all sad. She suddenly stops, when she spots James giving a rose to Julie, and rushes offstage, hands on her face.
- Scene #6- Mary rushes onto the stage and suddenly is confronted by Bill, who was standing in front of her classroom. He smiles at her, without realizing that she was crying. Mary, thinking that he was being impertinent, slapped him across the face, and said: ‘How dare you laugh at me?’, and runs offstage again. Bill, dumbstruck and embarrassed at the same time, tells the audience, ‘where did I go wrong?’
- Scene #7- Today is Suzie’s birthday, who is a very popular girl in class. She enjoys herself thoroughly, and there is a typical birthday party in the short lunch time that they have. After the party is over, she addresses the audience by saying, ‘I have-like-the most perfect life in the world. I am so happy!!!’ She continues to say something along those lines, but is also interrupted by the warning bell for period 7. She says ‘Even English class can’t ruin my mood today’. She rushes to class singing ‘Happy birthday to me’.
- Scene #8- During English class, the teacher starts off by saying: ‘Happy Birthday Suzie. Since you’re all growing up so quickly as the days fly by, I thought maybe we could have a discussion about ‘growing up’, what are your views? Go on!’ This prompts each of the prominent characters to talk about their feelings more openly, and they each ask a question at the end. The class ends as the 7th person finishes, and the teacher, thoroughly embarrassed by the display of feelings that the class had presented, shoo-ed them off the stage.
We went on to writing an essay, on which we spent a whole week, just for writing the essay. This is the final product.
What makes a good documentary?
- Anushka Rahman
An Intro to Documentaries…
A documentary is a production that has a particular or miscellaneous issue, topic, or theme, which puts forward all the important points related to the said issue/s. These productions are made with various different motives. While some are made for entertainment, others are made for awareness and education. These productions are made according to what the theme is. If the theme is, for example, ‘Animals’, then the majority of the cast will probably be animals.
Different techniques are used to hold the audience’s attention, as well as to increase authenticity and quality of the documentary. A documentary is not necessarily a movie full of people talking about an incident, or of people acting out a person’s life in brief. It can involve all kinds of things, and this is where techniques, and most importantly, imagination, are getting involved.
A particular example of a certain type of documentary called “9/11 Fahrenheit”. This documentary was made for video, and the name is based on the destruction of Twin Towers, the numbers ‘9/11’ is actually the date on which the this happened and ‘Fahrenheit’ probably signifies all the sensation, not to mention disaster that it caused around the world, not only in America. The director, producer, script-writer and camera-man, Michael Moore, led the audience through a series of events, incidents, that showed what the President of the United States of America, George W. Bush, had done throughout his years in office, and what impacts America had to take because of him.
It was biased, and was full of facts that would make George W. Bush look bad to all viewers. The facts were all contradictory to what George W. Bush promised or said, and they were shown in the documentary in the forms of interviews, pictures, clips, and actual videos of George W. Bush saying or doing extremely comical things. These were definitely authentic, if not original, and they definitely held the audience’s attention. Overall, it was a good documentary, but in my opinion, the editing of the film could be more refined, and if the different techniques were not so jumbled up, then it would be less overwhelming, and perhaps more enjoyable.
Of course, this is not the only documentary made for television, nor is television the only media for documentary. There are different mediums for documentary and each has to be made for a specific medium. Then only can a good documentary be made.
Variation in Documentaries…
When documentaries are made, many things have to be taken into account.
1) What is/are the theme/s, topic/s, or issue/s that is going to be explored in this documentary?
2) Which medium is the documentary being made for?
3) What type of age group is this documentary intended for?
4) Which techniques can be used in the documentary?
5) Which techniques will be used for effect and which techniques will be used for decoration?
There are two main mediums when it comes to making or presenting a documentary. They are:
- Documentary Drama (For Stage)
- Documentary (For Television or Video)
When the type and theme of the documentary is chosen and revised, the techniques are the next most important thing. The techniques however, have to be chosen carefully, and according to the media chosen. For example, if the theme is ‘Weather Forecast’, and the media chosen is documentary drama for stage, then the techniques used for this particular documentary will be different then if the same documentary was made for television or video.
How would they be different? They would have to be adjusted in the following ways:
v Script- for a documentary drama, the script would have to be a flowing, and relatively easy compared to a documentary made for television. This is because, a documentary drama has to be live and done in one go, and the script has to be strong, and can’t have any breaks. However, a documentary made for television can be re-filmed and edited in a much better fashion then a documentary drama.