First seminar session

 Summary
This seminar consisted of a brief introduction to the module, the module brief and aims, a screening section of a different range of documentaries (including last years work), and finally an introduction to documentary as a concept including brief descriptions of its major advances in history.

Reaction to the brief
The brief is split into an initial exercise, to produce a 2 minute "Poetic Sequence", which will assist us in our main documentary group project which is to create a 5-10 minute documentary on a serious subject you feel passionately about within a group of 3-4.
My initial reaction to the brief was one of panic, because of how broad and unstructured it was I was unsure as to whether or not I could even come up with a creative idea or take on it. However upon talking to members of my group and seeing the time scale we had towards the deadline for the brief, I am confident we can come up with a really interesting piece of film. I was also somewhat confused when faced with the first exercise of the poetic sequence as I had no clue what it was about or what conventions would apply to it. After watching one piece last years students did however, I have a much better understanding of it and my take on it is that it's almost a trailer to our final film, which gives off an enigma code and mysteriousness to it, whilst applying various conventions of an experimental style film to it.
Although we haven't decided on specific roles within our group, I would very much like the role of cinematographer, especially considering the first exercise because I believe it would allow me to practice with a large variety of compositions and shot techniques of which I am very comfortable with and others that I am very eager to try out (use of track and use of a macro lens). However I am confident in the post-production side of things as well,  due to my experience last year being the main editor and sound designer for almost all projects I was in.
I am very excited to get started on this project as soon as possible as it seems to be incorporating my favourite genre of film, documentary, with a genre that interests me, experimental, and will allow a very open minded and creative approach that I hope I can execute professionally.

Seminar Content
After the briefing, the seminar touched on defining what a documentary is, their codes and conventions and the ethics behind them. My opinion on what a documentary is and does was originally a film that educates people and entertains them on various issues that may or may not concern them. However after the seminar I believe that as well as that, it also attempts to represent the truth in a factual way in its purist most unbiased form, but I believe more modern documentaries attempt to entertain more and to do this they sometimes represent the truth in a bias or altered way. An example of how they do this is with the use of reconstruction footage within a documentary which breaks some of the rules and ethics behind 'pure' documentaries by adding fiction and actors into the edit like they did in the British Movement 1930's and this was called 'The creative interpretation of actuality' John Grierson. Examples of this style of documentary are Listen To Britain (1942) and Man On Wire (2008).
We were also given a brief history of  documentary films which arguably began in the 1920's and a notable example is Man With A Movie Camera (1929) by Roger Ebert. During this time and earlier on, documentary was a grey area as most propaganda films used claimed to be representing the truth such as the Soviet Cinema, which supported the non-fiction genre massively.
Documentary then expanded from this expository form in the 1930's with, as I mentioned above,
The British Movement where more scripts and actors were but on documentaries to enhance its entertainment levels and so the film could represent the directors opinions or views which was seen as a poetic form.
Then in the 1960's and with the advances in technology with cameras, the Free Cinema wave was created which valued intimacy over all of the professional codes and conventions that traditional documentaries were using, to give a more accurate representation of truth. This caused a number of disputes between film makers and lead to rules being made up for different styles of documentary including Direct Cinema which was the most radical and least tampered with. Some of the rules for this style where that there was no scripting,  no actors, no additional  lighting and above all to record reality without influencing it as the film maker. The French however continued to argue that the film maker will always create a bias film because they chose what to film and what not to film, what to cut in the edit and what not to cut e.t.c. which is true and still holds relevance to documentary films today.

My Final Thoughts
My opinion on documentaries after this seminar have changed, as I will now always question the films representation of truth and 'the real' and how much they themselves have influenced this representation. However, as a film maker, I can also appreciate how difficult it is to have no influence at all on this, whilst still making the documentary entertaining for the audience. I have also learnt various techniques that separate one form of documentary from another, as well as understanding the forms themselves and I will take all of this into consideration when I make my own film.