Reading – Documentary Storytelling by Sheila Curran Bernard

As I started planning my documentary for assignment 4, I purchased this book to get an over view of real world documentary film making. I was not expecting a text book on making a documentary films but I did find the sections on editing and narration useful. It reinforced the guidelines given in the course material and I had it with me as I planned my interviews with my fellow watch keepers, Jan, Simon and Alice. It was impractical to script the interviews so I asked my subjects to explain to the camera what motivated them to join the trip and how they were getting along. The idea to include a narrator alongside my footage to add some human interest to the story came as a result of reading this book.

Other Reading - “Understand Film Studies” by Warren Buckland

I chose this book as background reading. I found it a very useful introduction to film studies covering amongst other topics;

• Aesthetics, formalism and realism
• Structure, narrative and narration
• Film authorship, the director as auteur
• Genre
• Documentary types
• Critique and reviewing

As a result of having read this book, I have a new appreciation of the cinema and I hope that I will be able to get more from watching the films recommended for this course.