For those that feel like they might need to
take a different theoretical angle or are simply
finding that the readings don’t quite fit the
particular focus of their doco, I suggest you
read McMillan’s highly informative paper.

Just click on the link below, You can also download
a pdf from the same website.

“Sense of Community: A definition and Theory”

Hi TSers,

It’s time to jump into the serious
business of planning and making
your doco. You should have a good
idea what you require, based on the
what you have outlined in the learning
contract.
Firstly, you need to be very methodical
about the collection and storage of your
digital data. It doesn’t come natural for
most of us, so try to get into the habit
of storing content in folders. Label all
your folders eg; audio, photos, video, etc.

Keep track of everything and know exactly
where you have stored your files. Having a
well organised approach will save hours
when it comes to making your online doco.

When I resize images for online use, I copy
my originals into a folder called 72dpi
and then proceed to resize the copies. I do
this so I will always have my original photos,
as well as my resized images.

I have looked online for suitable video tutorials
and I have compiled the following playlist of
videos that cover imovie (video editing),
Garageband (audio editing), Photoshop (image
editing) and uploading videos to youtube.
There are also some great tutorials on the
apple ilife (imovie, garageband, etc) website below.
http://www.apple.com/ilife/tutorials/#iphoto

My youtube playlist link is below.
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=1A2D722735BFF35D

We will go through these production issues in
this week’s tute. Enjoy!

I have confirmation of the submission
dates for your TS assessment tasks.

1. Your Learning Contract (Friday April 3rd)

2. Your Social Media Doco (week 12 tute)
Please note rough cut due week 11 tute.

3. Your TS blog (week 14)

Note: The criteria for the assessment of your doco
will be based upon the objectives outlined in
your TS Learning Contract. Of course, your
engagement within the course is always important.

Happy blogging and researching!

cheers,

Dean.

It is essential that your talent sign a release form.
A release form may set out the terms and conditions
of publication, or may simply provide a broad outline
of how the content will be used in the project, but most
importantly it is a document that provides clear proof of
permission to use material containing the signatory.

A release form is accepted practice and industry
standard. It also protects you, as you and the signatory
know the conditions of participation and usage of material
in relation to your TS project. It helps you to plan, knowing
that your participants have agreed to give permission to use
their image, interviews or views.

For a copy of a release form click on the link below.

http://dotsandloops.wordpress.com/category/relaease-forms/

Hiya, I just thought it might be a good idea
to list down a few texts that may be of interest.

A copy of Bill Nichols “Introduction to Documentary”
can be found online. Just go to the link below and
type the title in the search field.

http://www.netlibrary.com/

For those of you who are interested in art, narrative and
new media, you may want to check out the texts below:

Frieling, R (ed) 2008, The art of participation:1950 to now,
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Thames and Huson, U.K.

D’Alleva, A. (2005) Methods and theories of art history,
Lawrence King Publishing, U.K.

Leishman, D 2001, Does Point and Click interactivity
Destroy the Story? The convergence of interactivity with
narrative, viewed July 30, 2005,

http://www.6amhoover.com/destroystory.htm#section1

Lunenfeld, P (ed) 1999, The Digital Dialectic: New Essays
on New Media, MIT Press, Cambridge (Mass)

Manovich, L 2001, The Language of New Media,
The MIT Press, Massachusetts London, England.

Rieser, M & Zapp, A (Eds) 2002, New screen
media: cinema/art narrative, British Film
Institute, London.

Ryan, M (ed) 2004, Narrative Across Media:
The Languages of Storytelling, University of
Nebraska Press, U.S.

Theory is almost impossible to escape, so better
that you work with it and integrate it into your
research. You don’t need to frame every interview
question with Toennies says….so what do you
think? But you can use theory to set a direction
for your investigation. Eg; set out to explore or
challenge Toennies’ theories of Germeinschaft
and Gesellschaft. Think of theory as the backbone
which supports your argument, or the framework
on which you can devise your questions and
overall approach to making your doco. Theory
can just sit quietly in the background, but it offers
another level of complexity for the reader.

Jenny offers some great insight into the integration
of theory on her blog. So why not check out her post
how to add theory.

Hi TSers,

Well the time for submission of the learning contract
is this Friday April 3rd. Yes, this Friday! But before
you try to stick your head in the toaster or madly fill
in each section, remember that you do have until
week 8 to finalise your learning contract. Phew!
I will look over each Learning contract and provide
feedback. Remember, this contract is to help you plan
and maintain focus, so think of it as a tool to guide
you through the entire process of conceptualizing,
planning and producing your social media doco.

What to submit?

You need to send me an email with the
url (permalink) to your learning contract,
which should be a post on your blog. A good
idea is to have  a separate category on your
blog to house the contract. If your not sure
how to do this, just ask me in the tute and I
will help you.

cheers,

Dean.

Sometimes being a couch potato can be a good thing.
Pull up a seat and  a look at some of these useful video
tutorials on social media. Learn all about twitter, or
find out how to make a podcast. Plenty of food for thought
here. Click on the link below to checkout my playlist.

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=D5D3D10A52137D4C

If you find something else that might help out the
TS crew, then simply send me the link or blog it
yourself. Happy blogging!

My understanding of a documentary is that it is a non-fiction
factual narrative that explores a central idea or research question.
Of course I am sitting here writing this off the top of my head, and
all I have to base this definition on is a handful of related texts and
previous docos that I have watched and listened too. But let’s not
get bogged down in a search for a watertight definition, for I do
believe that most of us have an understanding of the expectations
that accompany the documentary form. Rather, lets look at the
form itself, and how we can develop or find new ways to present
and construct innovative and engaging forms of documentary
storytelling.

I just read over the last line above, I think the key word here is
storytelling. A story involves characters, locations, structure
and above all, an audience. An understanding of these story
elements and how they fit into the puzzle is vital to the telling
of any tale. As documentary storytellers, our role is to inform
and inspire others to further investigate the issues and
questions that we raise.

So what of these questions and how should we incorporate
theory into the documentary. I think a good example of here
is the work of Michael Moore. On watching one of his films,
one is immediately aware that Moore is exploring theoretical
questions regarding notions of social cohesion and community.
I would argue that his approach to his interview questions and
technique, and the filmmaking itself, requires an engagement
with theory in order to determine the correct approach for such
a project.

Although Moore may not literally ask his interviewees
“What do you think of Toennies theories on ‘community and
society’? He may very well be exploring these issues within the
overall framework, and this may be reflected in the nature of
the questions he does ask in his interviews and the types
of communities he chooses to document in his films.

I would argue that theory is part of our daily lives, it shapes
the systems that we live in and may help us to gain a better
understanding both ourselves and our environment.
Personally, I believe that an engagement in theory is not
just about dithering bespeckled old men, dusty books and
outmoded concepts. Whether we agree or disagree with
a particular hypothesis, we are in the process of actively
thinking about a question and a solution. For me,
theory is just about opening our minds to greater
possibilities and a better understanding of the
human condition.

Okay, that’s enough ranting for me. What do you think?