There are many issues of factual programming in television
which can make them quite difficult to make. Depending on whether or not you
get permission to film in a certain place, or film someone could make or break
the programme. You need to look at when making a factual programme the Accuracy
and balance, impartiality, objectivity and subjectivity, opinion, bias,
representation and privacy. All of these points will occur one way or another
when making a factual programme.
(A collage of the best factual programmes of 2010)
Accuracy and balance
Accuracy: (Web definition) 'The quality or state of being correct or precice'
It is important that we keep our work as accurate as possible
and not to twist our stories. However most of the documentary will be
interviews and we cannot tell the interviewee(s) what to say, you can ask them
to be as accurate as possible. You can take the documentary "Cocaine
capital of the world" for example; Stacey Dooley (the interviewer) spoke
with numerous people, both police and cocaine makers, and got them to give
their honest opinions on the state of their country and how cocaine has changed
it. The overall response she got from both law officials and outlaws was that
it has helped their country and brought families out of poverty. One of the
police even said "I do not like destroying the coca plants but it is my
job and is how I support my family." If a factual piece is inaccurate then
it can change the whole opinion of the story and lead people astray from the
point of the documentary.
Cocaine capital of the world (1 hour length)
Balance: To keep the argument/documentary fair on bot sides.
It is important we do not stick to one side and investigate
both sides of the story. The end is when we can choose a side to talk more
about. Sticking with the cocaine capital of the world example, Stacey Dooley
had managed to get opinions from people who were opposed to the drug and were
working on stopping it. She had not set out to get bad opinions but was trying
to keep it balanced so she could get the whole of the story, and it was highly
shocking to see how many people who work to stop the drug, wish they were doing
otherwise, by that I don't mean they wish to be making it, but they just wish
that they could allow it to continue so they could keep themselves and others
out of poverty. But the only way to keep themselves out of full poverty.
Impartiality
(Web meaning) An inclination to weigh both views or opinions equally.This links in with balance where it shows you both sides of the story where the documenter doesn't voice on opinion and tries to understand both sides of the subject. An example of an un-partial documentary is "Supersize me" where he is only focused on the fattening process. He does get the workers and customer’s opinion but overall it is about how bad the food is and mainly just shows him eating and being sick. When releasing a factual film programmers have to make sure what they have contained in the documentary will cause no offence to any religious group or racial/social groups because they will get loads of complaints. For example if you were to make a documentary on the slave trade and there is content in there that could be possibly racially offensive like the use of the "N" word, then it could upset any black people who watched it. Or if you were to make one on a religion from an atheist's view point, then what said atheist says could upset the religious people that it concerns.
Objectivity and Subjectivity
Subjectivity: Judgement based on individual personal impressions and feelings and opinions rather than external facts. Or in other words, not forcing your opinion. Interviews will have different opinions from one another and as the documentary film maker you will have to balance the opinions out. You could look at the Documentary Catfish for this. They start out with wanting to make a documentary about a little girl who is very talented, then it is to expose a lie of someone lying about who they are online, but they do not go and confront them right away, they allow them the opportunity of revealing themselves for who they really are, and through this do not force their opinion, but also do at the same time, when they finally stop lying and tell them that the people they were online were not real, the group who made the documentary learnt why they did it and it changed their opinions of the people. It is difficult to decide if this would be Subjective or objective, but in my personal opinion, after they meet the people face to face they stop voicing their opinion and let them tell the story, therefore making it more of a subjective piece.Objectivity: The objectivity of factual programming is when interviewing the person should consider the questions they present and the facts that they state. You should be open minded and get the point across as quickly and accurately as possible. In an objective factual film you are more or less forcing your point across. Going back to "Supersize me" the documenter was forcing on his opinion of how bad fast food (Particularly McDonalds) was for you.
Opinion
When producing a documentary you should ask the interviewers
to share their opinions to give more ideas which can help bring the message of
the film become clearer and understandable. When asking or stating a fact make
sure it is researched properly and you should research outside the subject too.
This will help the audience to have a different viewpoint to the subject. This
was done in Catfish when interviewing "Vince" it was placed towards
the end of the documentary where he uses actual Catfish as a metaphor for
"keeping you on your toes, keeping you aware" which is a big part of
why the documentary was called Catfish.
(Vince explains the meaning of catfish) (best video available)
Bias
(Web definition) Inclination or prejudice for or against one person or group, especially in a way considered to be unfair.
The Australian journalist, John Pilger, has made at least
three biased documentaries. First there is Killing Fields. He is supposed to be
interviewing a Cambodian but the person is speaking Vietnamese in two different
parts. When he did interview Cambodians, several of the translations are
incorrect. Several of the scenes in the film were shot in Thailand, and not in
Cambodia. He talks about locations but has the distances and directions incorrect.
Second he made a documentary on UN and International Red Cross aid in the late
1970's or early 1980's. He accused the UN and the ICRC of storing weapons for
the Khmer Rouge in their warehouses in Thailand. Finally he did a documentary
he did of a girl who had been kidnapped from her home in the Thai countryside
and sold into prostitution in Bangkok. John Pilger paid the girl’s parents to
use the girl for his documentary and the girl never was a prostitute. Through
these examples we can see that John Pilger wasn't interested in making a
factual piece for his project, but instead went looking for stories that he
thought would grant him the biggest view count, and went into them only to play
off of those rumours and not to get the actual story. This is a prime example
of bias Documentary.
Killing fields full documentary (Poor quality): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xH4kIqlGSiQ
UN and ICRC (Pilger's blog article): http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Pilger_John/Cambodia_Heroes.html
Other Pilger articles: http://johnpilger.com/articles
Representation
Representation is when you are stereotyping someone or a
subject by their cultural identities,
events, objects or places. The Documentary "Gun Control" is a prime example. In the Documentary several groups of small production teams travel around America, mainly in the South, and get the peoples opinions about gun control. They went in there expecting to have all the southerners saying that gun control was idiotic and took away their right to bare arms. They did get a few people like this but about 3 out of every 5 people they got to answer a vox pop about the subject said that they did think it was a good thing with and in some areas people replied, "With all the local shootings lately it will help to keep people safe by taking away their guns." In their research of gun control they discovered an article about a man who placed his fully loaded shotgun in front of his house for 6 hours and it didn't shoot anyone. He the then joked that he strangled to death the kid who tried to steal it. When editing this documentary they could have had all the "Gun nuts" response to the questions asked used, but chose to show the more rational minded people to allow the United States to keep some of its dignity. But just so people knew about those opposed to the subject they added a few of their responses also.
Privacy
Just looking back on all the examples previously given, all of these documentaries have different methods of privacy. John Pilger pays people to have interviews. The people from "Gun Control" and "Supersize me" had those who they interviewed or were going to interview sign a document allowing them to use the footage. "Cocaine capital of the world" Blur out the faces, don't show or say their names, and adjust the voices of whoever they interview who work as drug dealers/makers in order to protect their identity from both Police and their suppliers/buyers/bosses, it was the only way they would agree to be interviewed. Finally in Catfish they make no attempt to hide the identities that the people are lying about online. Upon first meeting them they do not get any permission to film them, go in with a microphone first while the others wait in the car with the camera on watching the house. Then soon after they have the people on camera along with their children and home. All throughout the documentary they were working on they didn't tell the family that they were doing a piece on their talented little girl. And also didn't tell them that they had found out who they were and let them come out and tell them eventually. There are many different ways to use privacy in a factual piece, and there are still a few that are usable that I have not listed with these examples. What all documentaries require is a permit for where they are filming and whom they are filming. They could go and film someone who gave permission at the time but with little evidence of that it is possible for said person to sue, so before filming always make sure you have a written permit with the owners or interviewees signature.
Copyright
Like all productions copyright can occur at any time with the finished work. The documentary team could have used some product placement without the companies approval, or it could be something as simple as the soundtrack used. There was even a case with an untitled Documentary made by an American film student who just took someone else's documentary and added her own voice over and claimed that it was hers.Similarities
In this post I have talked about Accuracy, Balance, Impartiality, Objectivity, Subjectivity, Opinion, Bias, Representation and Privacy. Now a lot if not all of these issues are similar to another listed. Take Subjectivity and Impartiality for instance. A quick sum up of what these two mean are Subjectivity is where you aren't forcing your opinion, and Impartiality is having no view point. Another two that go together are Opinion and bias as they are both in a way showing your view point in the subject and making a documentary this way would be persuading your audience to think the same. Opinion and bias are also similar to Objectivity.
My Documentary
In my 3 minute wonder I will be addressing the condition known as Autism, mainly a certain type of Autism known as Asperger Syndrome (Or Aspergers). I will be speaking to a professional on the subject who has helped many others who have the syndrome, and diagnosed some with it. Also someone who has Aspergers and how they deal with it. Issues I will face in this are going to be privacy, opinion, bias and objectivity. As I am someone who has Aspergers I have a bias view point on the subject and feel that people know little about it. but however this will work for my documentary as I am trying to get more awareness about Asperger Syndrome. The Doctor who I am going to talk to will require me to have permission to film him or her, and I am planning to have it filmed in his or her office so I will need written permission for both location and person.
http://www.slideshare.net/charlottejean/factual-programming-doctumentary
Accessed on 07/11/2013
https://www.google.co.uk/#q=cocaine%20capital%20of%20the%20world
Accessed on 07/11/2013
http://mbham-documentary.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/factual-programming.html
Accessed on 07/11/2013
http://tribecafilm.com/festival/events/tribeca-talks-industry-the-business-of-entertainment-truth-persuasion-and-bias-in-documentaries
Accessed on 15/11/2013
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110405005847AAe38UI
Accessed on 15/11/2013
http://tribecafilm.com/festival/events/tribeca-talks-industry-the-business-of-entertainment-truth-persuasion-and-bias-in-documentaries
Accessed on 15/11/2013
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110405005847AAe38UI
Accessed on 15/11/2013
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