Research

codes and conventions of documentaries:

a documentary is a recording of an event, generally based on peoples perspectives and opinions and general facts - the creative treatment of actuality.

in documentaries they generally have the conventions of:

actuality footage - this may be footage from an actual event which is documented with the real people involved not actors.



voice-over's - unseen commentator who explains or tells the story during the documentary, as an audience we are encouraged to believe what they say and claim it as the truth.



narrativisation - to communicate (events or experiences) in narrative form, in order to better understand them.



interview - this allows people being filmed to speak directly about the events prompted by specific questions. Interviews in a documentary give the audience a sense of realism. Interviews generally answer questions looking at the interviewer, this is done to gain emotion, it is proven that a person would provide more emotion looking into the eye of someone rather than a camera.



text - the insert of information, dates etc.
new programmes commonly use this to their advantage, its a quick way of conveying and reiterating information or can be used to give further information which may not have been previously been said.



sound - this can be used to give off a certain effect



dramatisation - this is the reconstruction of an event played by actors which is used to give the audience further insight into the real event which had happened.



realism - documentaries may achieve this by using archival footage, interviews, location shooting and following the action.



The Grizzly Man documentary analysis:


In class we watched the documentary, the grizzly man.

The time of which the documentary was made in 2005 which was two years after the death of Timothy Tread-well.

This documentary tells the story of Timothy Tread-well and how he spent 13 years with the Grizzly Bears in Alaska. 

Timothy had been documenting his life among the bears every time he visited during the summer, 
in the documentary the director Werner Herzog added this footage into his documentary made Timothy's journey more personalised and let the audience get to know the character/ personality of 
Timothy Tread-well.

These techniques in the documentary are used quite frequently in documentaries but most of the footage has to be staged since the events the documentaries talk about don't have there own footage so it is often recreated. But since this was all archival footage there wasn't a need for dramatisation.

In the documentary, it tells the tragic story of Timothy Tread-well who spent 13 years with the bears and lost his life along with his girlfriend Amie Huguenard in October of 2003.

In the Documentary there is a use of interview's to show how the family and friends of Tread-well feel's about how he spent his time to protect the bears from poachers and harm, and if they believe he was doing good by being there beside the bears.

The use of interview's is used frequently by documentary directors to give a personal opinion, and an experts opinion on the situation.

In this documentary they have the opinions from the family and friends about what happened to him as well the as the opinion from bear experts. The documentary directors used interviews in this documentary to create a sense of realism and to get the view and information from them.

The only other interview used in the documentary was the doctor to say what happened to Timothy physically after the attack.

In the documentary the people who were closest to him, and were nearby at the time of his death described how they found him as well as that after the event, they killed the bear who killed Timothy and his girlfriend.

beware the slender-man:

(i have only seen the first 15 mins or so)

at the beginning of the documentary there is a use of reenactment and shots of forest's, road's and lake area's.

in this documentary it gives an insight to how people are affected by creepy pasta's and the actions they may take to prove they are real.

a technique used in this documentary is archival footage and recreation of events.

the archival footage used is the interview's with the two girl's who attempted to kill their friend. this is effective because it gives the audience an insight to why they were going to kill their friend.

in the documentary they also interview the parents of the children and saying that there was something off with their behaviour from the beginning which tell's the audience that they have behaved unpredictably in the past.

also in the documentary they give the opinions and view's of people in the law and they state that the girls would be charged the same as an adult for what they've done.

one of the girls would be in more trouble since she is the one who stabbed her friend, and the other girl will be charged but not a severely as she just stood and watched.

they show the interview's of the lawyers to give the professional view of the situation and show the actual, real consequences of their actions.


research on Ticci Toby:


descriptions
main points/ story


Tobias Erin "Toby" Rogers, also known as Ticci Toby, is a serial killer from Denver Colorado who went insane after being bullied for his tics and the death of his sister, Lyra

I found the story of Ticci Toby on the YouTube channel Jordan Persegati where he told a more condensed story of Ticci Toby and in the background he draw a picture of the creepy pasta character.

In the video he used sound effects to emphasise the things he is saying and the scenes in Toby's story.

And the other place I found information on Ticci Toby was on 

https://www.creepypasta.com › ticci-toby

https://www.wattpad.com/55162427-ticci-toby-original-story/page/4     i got this main story from                                                                                                                           this website

What I gathered from reading about Ticci Toby (Toby Rogers) he has the following Disorders:

 - C.I.P.A (Congenital Insensitivity to Pain with Anhidrosis): Causes him to be numb to pain.

 - Schizophrenia: Delusions, bizarre behaviour, disorganised speech.

 - Tourette Syndrome: Tics result in cracking of neck and joints.

 - P.T.S.D (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder): After car accident. 
                                                   
And from having these disorders he was bullied at his school and the student's gave him the nickname Ticci Toby, due to the bullying Toby had to be home-schooled.

In the story of Ticci Toby he was in a car accident along with his sister, however his sister wasn't as lucky, as she didn't make it.

After he was released from the hospital he was described as having:

 messy brown hair, pale almost grey skin, dark eyes. 

He wore a white t-shirt and scrub pants provided from the hospital as the clothes he wore before were 'unwearable'.

The right side of his face bared a few cuts along with his split eyebrow, his right arm was bandaged all the way to his shoulder which had been shattered.

When he got home from the hospital, he saw his father outside of the house. As soon as Toby saw his father he was filled with anger because:

he wasn't there when Toby's sister died - because he was drunk (he's always drunk)

he had been abusive towards his mother, sister and Toby - Toby didn't care that his father beat him down as he couldn't feel it, but he couldn't forgive his father for hurting his mother and sister.

the story continues as follows:

When he goes inside his house Toby glares at his father for not being there when his sister took her last breath.
In the end Toby just goes to bed, but he cant get to sleep to he stands by his window and looks outside.
Toby see's a tall figure beside the street light only 2 ft shorter than it with long arms draped by its sides and had no features (no eyes, no mouth, no nose) yet Toby was hypnotised by it.

Before Toby saw this figure, he head a ringing in his ears, but after being hypnotised by the figure the ringing got louder and everything went black.

The next morning he woke up in his bed.

Day's went by where Toby never left his room, he saw the things around him but things just wouldn't register.

Before he could think twice, he would begin to chew his hands, tearing the flesh from his fingers, he would gnaw them until they bled.

When his mother walked in on him doing so she reacted horribly.

She rushed him downstairs to the first aid kit and demanded him to not leave her side.

He isolated himself so much that he grew to hate being around people, and his memory grew glitchy as well, and begin talking nonsense.

His mother grew anxious about his mental health, she decided it would be best for him to see a professional to see what he is feeling.

While at the meeting with the psychologist he is asked about the accident, his mind first of all goes blank and then looks at his hands and hears a faint ringing in his ears he then looks out the window.

he see's the feature-less figure again, the ringing got louder and the yell of the counsellor broke his trance, and it made Toby jump.

later that night, he heard footsteps and giggling, when he got up to see what it was, he saw his dead sister:

 - her eyes were clouded white, her skin was pale, her blond hair tied up in a ponytail

 - her right side of her jaw was dangling on by tissue and muscle, her legs were bent in a way they         shouldn't be 

 - glass in her forehead, her blood was black

 - wearing a grey t-shirt, athletic shorts covered in blood and dirt

 - she stood emitting a long croaking noise

Toby crawled away, he stopped for a second, it was silent except for his heavy breathing.

when he looked back up he met the blank face of a tall dark figure, behind it was rows of children from the ages 3 - 10, there eyes completely black and dark blood leaked from their eye sockets.

He fell onto his his stomach which knocked the wind out of him, he tried to scream but he couldn’t make a sound.

He wheezed out before it all went black.

Toby woke and screamed, it was just a dream, no ghost’s, no figures, nothing.

He saw his dad in the kitchen, he waited a second and watched him from around the corner before a burning feeling started deep in his chest.

Deep, boiling, anger took over him, he heard little imaginary voices in his head.

‘do it, do it, do it’ they chanted, the kept chanting clouded his complete thoughts, ‘kill him, he wasn’t there, he wasn’t there, kill him’.

The chanting continued, Toby trembled. No. No he wasn’t going to do it.

What, was he going crazy? No. No he won’t kill anyone he can’t. He hated his father, but no way he was going to kill him.

The voices became too much, he began to silently walk up to his father. 

He reached over to the counter to the knife holder as he gripped it in his hand, he felt a sensation take over his chest.

He let out a snicker, he began laughing, his father turned around abruptly before he felt a brute force shove him to the floor.

‘what?’ his father said as the air was knocked out of him.

He looked up at Toby standing over him with the kitchen knife.

‘Toby what are you doing?’ his father went to sit back up and had his arms in front of him for self-defence, but before he knew it Toby was on top of him

'Stop! get off me you little…’he yelled. Toby’s eyes were not sane. It looked as if a demon had taken control of him.

After a lot of struggling and punches, Toby drove the knife straight into his shoulder, his father let out a loud cry and went to pull out the knife.

Before he could pull out the knife, Toby began to pound his fists into his father’s head, laughing and wheezing, he cracked his neck and grabbed the knife and ripped it out of his father’s shoulder.

He drove it into his father’s chest repeatedly, blood splattering everywhere not stopping until his dad stopped moving.

It was silent until his mother screamed ‘Toby! Why did you do that!?’

Toby looked down at his blood-stained bandages and then back at his mother before running into the garage, before he ran out he saw his father’s two hatchets, he grabbed both before leaving.

Before leaving fully he saw box of matches and gasoline, he took them with him out of the garage. While on his escape he heard police sirens and saw flashing lights and he ran into the wood’s.

He began pouring the gasoline on to the ground and lit the match and put it on the gasoline which lit the forest on fire.

due to the smoke he passed out and was assumed dead by his family and the police however he was still alive as the featureless figure that has been following Toby saved him and that made Toby become one of slender-mans proxy.

people then found out he was still alive when on the news his mother see's a murder and Toby is suspected due to the police not finding his body.

The Essay:

How can creative choices affect our perceptions?

Filmmakers use a lot of creative techniques to make their audience think or feel a certain way. They can encode text’s and scenes with meaning through the deliberate choices they make mainly using the micro elements. 

This essay will explore how the filmmaker’s creative choices affect an audience’s perception of a scene and how their interpretations can be altered.

Music is an element that can be used to make the audience feel a certain way about a character or scene. 

In some famous films like Star Wars they used leitmotifs to represent a character or show good vs evil, an example of this is Luke Sky walker and Darth Vader.

Luke’s theme is in more of a higher pitch and is primarily in a major key, this gives the impression that this character is more heroic, and he is good character in the forms of the good vs evil.

Darth Vader’s theme is lower in pitch and has a primarily in a minor key which give’s the impression that the character is more on the evil side as the theme is more menacing and that’s what the audience would interpret from the theme.

Both compositions were composed by John Williams and he deliberately made both themes different in tone so that their themes are memorable and contrast with each other.

Music can also represent emotion, the main theme of an animated series called Fairy Tail, the theme is memorable and is an optimistic sounding theme, it sounds powerful and Convey’s hope and happiness. 

However, when there is a sad scene in the series or something upsetting happens the show, the main theme plays but is a different version of the song. 

It is different as the varied instruments in the original theme aren’t there anymore and the them is just piano, the tempo changes and becomes more minor but still has the same melody of the main theme.

In other scenes the music can emphasise a feeling or make a scene more dramatic for a viewer, for example certain techniques used by an instrument can show something is about to happen.

If the instrument was a violin for example if the violinist was playing it smoothly without any harsh changes it would make the audience feel that the scene is calm and less violent.

However if the same instrument was played shaky and had sharp/ harsh changes in the flow of the song, it would make and audience feel that something bad is going to happen in the scene.

Colour is an element that may affect an audience’s perception on a character or a scene in general, colours could also make a character feel a certain way.

In the film inside out, is uses colours to represent the characters and the emotions that the characters represent. 

In this film the character of joy is represented by the colour yellow, which suggest bright, energetic and happy. 

The character of anger is represented by the colour red, this colour either represents danger/ anger or I could signify romance/ passion, but in the movie inside out it represents anger. 

The character sadness is represented by the colour blue, as there is a saying of ‘feeling blue’ it suggests sadness, coldness and loneliness. 

The colour purple represents the character fear, the colour purple represents mystery and perhaps the fear of the unknown. 

Green signifies the character of disgust, and the colour green can signify a lot of things but in the film, it represents being ill due to disgust.

These aren’t the representations of these colours, red can also represent romance, passion, blood, hot (fire), royalty as well as anger.

Yellow can also signify warmth, happiness, hope, daytime, summer as well as joy.

Purple can also signify mystery, royalty, calmness, power as well as fear.

Blue can also signify the sky, the sea, intelligence, confidence, trust, coldness as well as sadness.

Green can also represent life, nature, environment, greed, jealousy, wealth as well as disgust.

In a narrative style film/ documentary the way it is presented could change the way the audience would perceive the scene drastically.

For example, in most of the documentaries Louis Theroux does, he often participates in some of the thing’s the documentary is covering.

In his documentary about the most hated family in America, the family did protests and church ceremonies which Louis Theroux somewhat participated in, not fully involving himself but he accompanies them to where they go.

Louis Theroux does this to show the audience what they do without any bias, he asks the questions the audience may be asking (he is like the audience as he is seeing all this in real time, so he is reacting to this which may be similar to how the audience of the documentary may be reacting to this)

This is sort of like the observational as well as the participatory documentary as you just observe what is going on as well as getting involved in it and participating in the events.

He does this to let the audience get and unbiased view or opinion on the situation without Louis’ opinion control the audience’s way of perceiving the topic of the documentary.

Another thing that can change the way an audience perceived something within a scene is the visual’s and music working together can make an audience think a certain way.

In the song darkness by Eminem it starts if in the perspective Eminem before his show but has different metaphors which can be associated with a shooting in Las Vegas 2017.

The video first follows someone with depression which the lyrics associate to, but then the video changes to the perspective of the shooter. This tries to show that the person who is suffering with mental health issues goes through things that can become metaphor’s for other things.

In the song the lyrics both represent the person suffering with depression and the shooter, which gives the song two different perspectives, so this does change the way the audience perceives the song as it could be seen in two different ways.

Williams, J . (Year published). Recording title. [Online] City published: Music Label. Available at: https://open.spotify.com/track/2p38ZGM8uXnGbfFjbbAQCh [Accessed Day Mo. Year].

Eminem, (2020). darkness. [Online] City published: Music Label. Available at: URL [Accessed January 17, 2020].https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skn7T_XPQnY