Charles Ferguson | Documentary Film Maker

Charles Ferguson is a producer and a director and he is mainly known for his documentaries. He is mainly known for his work on 'Inside Job', 'No End in Sight' and 'Time to Choose'.

Inside Job [2010]

This documentary presents a complete breakdown of the global financial crisis of 2008. This event caused millions of people to lose their jobs and homes during the worst recession since the Great Depression. This nearly resulted in a global financial collapse. Through intensive research and interviews with important financial insiders, the film follows the rise of the industry which has corrupted industries such as politics and more.

Ferguson directed this documentary while also writing it alongside Chad Beck. The well-known actor Matt Damon narrates it.

This piece of work is quite interesting as he interviews a lot of different people, meaning that there are quite a few different personalities being shown on the screen. The whole documentary itself is more of a debate between the interviewer and the interviewee as he questions there answers to keep the conversation going.

No End in Sight [2007]

This documentary is a look into the problems in Iraq, in order of time, mainly about the decisions made in 2003. It also looks into the backgrounds oft those decisions being made. This immediately follows the end of Saddam. In this documentary he interviews many different people who were involved like reporters, soldiers, military brass and former Bush-administration officials.

This piece of work is quite interesting as he shows the problems America faced around that time with the president and the situation. It makes you feel sorry for the people that are being interviewed as the tone they are being portrayed in is quite a sad one.

Time to Choose [2015]

This documentary looks into the worldwide climate change challenge and solutions. It leaves the audience understanding what is  wrong and also what can be done to fix this problem. He interviews many different people involved such as innovators, leaders and individuals living on the front lines of climate change.

This piece of work is quite dark and quick paced, but it's interesting as it explores the problems in away that you feel sorry for the people involved while also wanting to change the world. It's quite a dark piece, but it quickly changes to something positive and calm to change the audiences' perspective of the problem.

Ferguson's Style

• Uses archive footage from the TV.
• Factual.
• Sat down interviews.
• You can hear the questions that are being asked, but you can't see the person asking them.
• It's more like a debate or an argument.
• To create some conflict and interest for the audience.
• Interviews a large amount of people.
• To get a lot of different opinions.

In our documentary we will be using quite a lot of archive pictures from the farm to show the history of it, and to inform the audience how long the farm has been run. 

Elizabeth at Ninety | Review

A documentary special that I have watched recently is 'Elizabeth at Ninety'. It was aired on BBC One on the 21st April - the Queens actual birthday - and it was appreciated by numerous amounts of the public.

Content

• In this documentary, we watch various never before seen clips of the Queen growing up - both as a child and an adult. Not only do the public get to see these clips, but so do the Queens relatives and herself. 
• Various royalty members are shown within this documentary, such as Prince Charles, Prince William, Princess Kate and many more. The main person who carries the story throughout the documentary is Prince Charles, the Queen's oldest son. 
• The main pieces of content within the special is archive footage of the Queen's life and members of royalty watching them on a big screen.

Interviews

• There aren't too many formal interviews in the documentary as some of the royal family members are sat watching the old footage and talking through it. The few interviews that are shown within the special are quite formal. 
• The interviewee is sat talking to the camera or slightly to the right of the camera, with their name shown on either the bottom right or left hand side of the screen - it depends on whereabouts the interviewee is composed. 
• The questions cannot be heard so they have the interviewee answer the questions like they would say a normal sentence. This is done to make it seem personal and not forced, which adds a sense of normality and makes it quite natural.

• The interviews are usually about what they've just watched or what they think of the Queen as a person. Usually, over the interview, you can see some cutaways of the archive footage that they have found. 
• This archive footage is varied from when the Queen was a baby to when she was a teenager, then when she was an adult with her own children, and then more recent events. An important bit of archive footage that is featured is her coronation. 
• Seeing this makes the public appreciate the Queen a bit more, and makes them realise how young she was and how long she's been doing the job. When you see people like Churchill, it makes the audience think a lot about the duration of her reign.

Sequencing

• The sequencing of the documentary usually starts with archive footage which then leads on to relatives watching the footage and talking through their opinions on what is happening. 
• For Example; the first bit of sequencing you experience is Prince William and Harry looking at footage of their father as a young child, and they're talking naturally about what they are seeing.

The three main pieces of footage that are sequenced together are:

• Archive footage
• Relatives watching the footage
• Interviews from the relatives

The different type of shots that we see within the interviews and mainly the watching the footage scenes are:

• Wide shots
• Mid shots
• Close up shots

By using these different type of shots the audience gets a real feeling as to what their emotions are which adds to the personal tone of the documentary.

Sound

The documentary starts by Prince Charles narrating and he carries on at various times within the special - he carries the story. Some of the other sounds you can hear within the programme are:

• The relatives talking over the archive footage while they watch it
• The interviews
• The sound from the archive footage

• Hearing the footage from the archive footage before and after the sounds of the interviews makes the audience realise how old the footage is, and what the shows used to look and sound like. 
• This gives the documentary an old feeling and again it makes them think about how long the Queen has reigned. It's interesting for the audience to hear what the relatives thoughts and emotions are when watching the  footage and makes it personal and natural.

• The Queen eventually comes onto the screen and watches the old footage with Prince Charles. You can hear their chat over the footage and it adds a family tone to the documentary while also creating a natural feeling, which is something the audience really enjoy especially when watching royalty.

My Thoughts

• I really enjoyed watching this documentary because it makes you realise that the royal family are quite normal, and it's nice seeing them laughing and enjoying the old footage. 
• It's very fascinating watching the archive footage because it's never been seen before and you feel like you're seeing a bit more of the royal family than you usually do - especially the footage of the Queen as a baby.

• With our documentary, because it's based on nature and wildlife, we won't be using a lot of archive footage. However, we will aim to find some archive pictures of the farm to show the difference between then and now.

The Secret Life of The Zoo | Review

I have recently started watching 'The Secret Life of the Zoo' on Channel 4 every Tuesday at 8pm. This is a documentary series based on Chester Zoo and the animals that live there. Not only do they document the animals, but they also document the zoo keepers and they're emotions towards the animals.

Content

• Throughout the series they document various things, such as the animals growing up and moving into bigger enclosures, animals meeting new animals of their kind for the first time, and babies being born which is quite fascinating to watch. 
• Not only do they show the positive side of the zoo, but they also dwell on the negative sides and they sometimes mention when one of the animals has passed away. 
• This gives the director a chance to show the emotions of the zoo keeper which creates a really nice friendship between the animals and the keepers. 
• They show a mixture of interviews with the zoo keepers, CCTV footage of the animals when they are alone and when the zoo keepers are off duty, and footage of the keepers interacting with the animals when they're feeding them or cleaning their cage. 
• They use a variety of these shots within each episode and they help make a connection between the keeper and the animal. You definitely see and understand the relationship between them when watching each episode and it creates a family tone to the series.

Interviews

• Within the interviews, you can't hear the questions being asked, so the interviewees have to start their answer as if it was an opening sentence. They also make sure their answers make sense through the editing of the show. 
• When you see the interviews, you can clearly see the interviewee in front of a dark background, and it's clear that they are talking to someone off the camera. 
• This leads to the possibility that the interviews are shot in a studio type environment. 
• The producers could have chosen to do this in order to help the sound of the show, but also to clearly show the difference between the interviews and the actuality of the show. 
• The shots they use within these interviews vary from mid shots and close up shots depending on what they are talking about and their emotions towards the topic. 
• When they film actuality shots, they tend to let the zoo keepers do what they usually do which makes the show seem very natural and not forced in anyway. 
• The zoo keepers don't tend to answer many questions while actually working which suggests that the interviewer doesn't ask them any questions while they work which adds to the natural sense and feeling of the shot.

Sequencing

The content they cover within the opening sequence usually consists of:

• Clips of the animals in their habitat.
• The public watching them and experiencing them first hand.
• Footage from the zoo keeper's office's.
• Interviews from the keepers.
• Landscapes shots of the zoo.

• These are all used to set the tone of the program and also to set the location of the series. By using a mixture of animal footage and keeper footage they are covering two of the most important aspects of the show - the animals and the keepers relationships.

• Over these clips, they have commentary which introduces the show and explains briefly what the content of the show actually is. As well as the commentary, they include clips of some of the interviews that are shown within the show, and this helps towards the transition between the opening sequence and the narrative of the episode. 
• Within the opening sequence, they not only show the positives of the job, but they also show the negatives. They do this to prepare the audience of the different emotions that will be shown within the series.

• When the episode has officially started, the commentary describes the history of the zoo, while birds eye view shots of the zoo and wide shots, long shots and close-ups of the animals are being shown on screen. 
• Once the commentary is over, they go straight into the interviews from the keepers. When the interviews are on the screen, they add the keepers name in the bottom left of the screen. This adds a personal tone to the show and makes the audience get to know the keepers  on a personal type level. 
• Depending on what animals the particular episode is centred around, they usually have a sequence of the animals doing what they do at the zoo. The shots they tend to use in these sequences are close ups, mid shots and long shots. They will use a mixture of footage from the cameras in their pens or footage from the cameras outside in the open.

• Not only does the show focus on particular animals, it also focuses on particular topics. These topics help the narrative of the show develop and they create a link between the different animals that they show in the episodes.

Sound

• In the opening sequence, other than the presenter doing the commentary, the sound you can hear is the natural sounds of the zoo, and the sounds of the animals that are being displayed in the clips being shown. 
• There is also a soundtrack in the background which carries on throughout the sequence and ends after the title.

• A different soundtrack then begins after the title, and that carries on throughout the episode. Whenever there is a break within the different animals shown, they tend to change the music so it adds some variety. The music will also change based on the mood they want to create and the emotions that the keepers are showing within the sequences.

• Commentary is also carried throughout the episode after an interview has been shown. They usually have a few seconds of music and the animal, but to keep the audience interested, they start the commentary. 
• This usually contains information on the zoo or the animals that are being presented on the screen. It also ties in the topic of the episode by linking the episode and the animal together.

My Thoughts

• One of the things I like about this documentary series, is the humour that they show through the animals. The way the series is shot gives the animals their own characters, which is really nice as the audience can almost relate to the animals and they can find the ones that they love the most. When you see the same animal, you start to understand them and get their character type which makes the series better to watch, and makes it funnier than normal.

• When starting to think of our ideas, my idea was similar to this series, but even though we didn't choose that idea, we could still use the same sort of style.

Location Recce - Ashtree Farm | Research

The other location we will be filming in for some of the shots is Ashtree Farm.

• The type of shots we are hoping to capture within this location, is mainly shots of the quadbikes moving around the farm. We want to get a variety of different shots like close ups, wide shots and midshots of the public riding the bikes and going around the field.

• One of the key shots we want to get some close-ups of are the wheels turning in the mud to create a messy type of atmosphere and also to link it into the commentary that will be in the documentary.
• The commentary will be informing the public about how the public will sometimes invade private land and ride their quad bikes, destroying the crops on the farm land.

• The sound that we get from the quad bikes we will use within our documentary to make it more realistic and to create a different type of atmosphere for the topic.
• Some of the risks that might occur within this location are similar to the farm.
• Fall in the mud or trip over.
• To stop this from happening we will wear the correct clothing and make sure we care for the equipment by putting in places that are dangerous.

Location Recce - Broadditch Farm | Research

The main location we will be filming at is Broadditch Farm.

• It's very large and we are hoping to get some shots of John walking through the land showing the presenter what he is doing to protect nature and what he grows on his farm. With a little farm shop welcoming the public, it's a very pretty location. We are hoping to film outside of the shop, but also get some footage of what is inside the shop itself to show the business side of the farm. 
• Although there is a possibility that the weather won't be too nice, we will try and capture the beauty of the area to create the atmosphere of the farm for the documentary. 
• We have talked to one of the owners of the farm and he told us that we are more than welcome to walk around the farm when filming the wildlife and nature, so we have access to the majority of the farm when we need it.

• Due to the location being a farm, there might be some danger hazards that we will have to keep into consideration when filming in this location. Some of the dangers that could occur are the mud, especially if it's raining or has been raining previously. One of the crew members or cast members could fall in the mud and hurt themselves doing so. 
• To keep them safe I'd advice them to wear appropriate footwear like wellies. This way, not only do they look suitable to be on a farm, they are also being safe. Also to keep them from falling we will make sure we find an alternative route to walk, so they don't have to walk through the mud.

• Another aspect that we will have to think about when filming at the farm is the lighting. Due to most of the shots we wish to get are outside, we will have to think carefully about the time of day and we will have to check the weather before hand. 
• In terms of where the camera and cast will be placed, we will look at the direction of the sun and make sure it is behind the camera, so we don't get any backlighting. We can keep changing the aperture based on the brightness of the sun. We could also use the ND filters on the camera if it gets too bright, and also it could help towards the focus of the footage.

• Another issue that may occur is background noise which could effect the sound of the interviews. When filming wildlife it will be good to have background noises of birds chirping and the wildlife natural noises, however it might be a little bit off putting during the interviews. 
• If some of the machinery is being used in the background of the interviews, the look of the interview would be effective and good, but the sound might be a bit distracting. We will have to make sure that we choose appropriate sound equipment to pick up the interviews better than the background noises. 
• Also in terms of being outside we will have to be prepared for airplanes flying ahead and the wind, and also from the public as well. 

Here is a little video of our visit to the farm, and a few test shots that we are hoping to capture on the filming days.

Interview Practise - Sound Part 1 | Workshop

We had a sound workshop recently and within this sound workshop we were given a recap on what we already knew about the sound, but we were also given new information to help us with the sound of our documentary. 

• We were told about the multiple use of a clip mic and a boom mic, and we were given instructions and advice on how to make the most out of our sound and what settings they should be on. 

• We split into groups of 4 and we were given the task to ask someone questions and film a short documentary on them. We started by giving everyone roles in our group; I was the interviewee, Ellie was the interviewer, Nisserin was the camera lady, and Ellen was the sound person. 
• I was asked some questions about university and my personal life outside of university but Ellie, and the others did their jobs by making sure the sound sounded good, and the camera framing was good.

• From Fergus, we were told that we shouldn't be afraid to getting in to close with the boom mic. The clip that was on my scarf was a nice sound element, but we should have a back up sound on the footage just in case. 
• Ellen was given the advice to get as close as possible to me with the boom mic and Nisserin would tell her how far to move so she was out of shot. This taught me how to make the most out of the sound, and why it's so important to be close to the person on the screen.

• As well as single shooting, we decided to start double shooting with two people in the frame; myself and Ellen. We were then asked questions by Ellie about our friendship and how we met at university. 
• Through this experimentation, we all learnt that it's very hard to shoot actuality of two people because it's spontaneous. You need to decide who you are going to focus on with what question, and what shot size you will have it on, but this needs to be decided on the spot, which is quite a hard decision to make.

• Afterwards, we watched all of the clips as a class and discussed the good things about it and the bad. We were told that our framing was really nice, and there were some nice transitions between different shots.

Pitch | Development

• We decided that the title of our documentary will be 'Nurturing Nature'. 
• We all liked this title as it fitted in with our subject and we liked the alliteration within in. 
• Sammi went first and introduced us and the basics of the subject. 
• Nisserin then went next and went on to explain the problems that we want to solve. 
• Then it was my turn. I discussed the expected outcome of the problems, how we're planning our documentary to look like, and theme & premise of the film. 
• Nisserin then finished with why we are doing this, and Sammi answered any questions that were asked by Simon and Helen.

• The outcome of our pitch was good and Helen and Simon were very pleased with what we presented to them. They liked our idea and thought the outcome would be terrific.

Writing the Pitch and Treatment | Development

To prepare for our pitch on our chosen idea, we decided to meet up as a group and write the pitch together. While we were together, we also decided it would be a good idea to write our treatment as that was something we had to get done as well.

• To start the pitch, we looked through our notes on our previous lectures and came up with a list of points that we needed to include, while also making a list of points that we wanted to include to make our pitch sound interesting and informative. 
• We found a guideline online to help us with both the pitch and the treatment, and it give us some direction on how to start each slide and each paragraph.

• We all decided what we should include in each slide and how we wanted to explain our idea.
• We added a few images to help sell the idea and we decided that we would say more during the pitch, rather than adding it all on the slides.

• Once the pitch was done, we decided what slides everyone would present. 
• We all had roughly 3 slides each to keep it equal, and we made sure to look through the presentation a few times to get used to what we were presenting.

Countryside Stewardship Scheme | Research

As part of our documentary, we are talking about something called the 'Countryside Stewardship Scheme'. Before going any further with the development of our documentary I decided to do some research on the scheme.

The Scheme

• When talking to John in our first encounter, he mentioned the scheme and told us what there aim is and how they help his farm, while also giving us some negatives on it to create an argument which will help us when writing the script for the documentary.

• On 'GOV.UK' it has a whole section on the countryside stewardship scheme and what it basically is -

The Country Stewardship [CS] provides financial incentives for land managers to look after their environment through activities such as:

• conserving and restoring wildlife habitats
• flood risk management
• woodland creation and management
• reducing widespread water pollution from agriculture
• keeping the character of the countryside
• preserving features important to the history of the rural landscape
• encouraging educational access

The scheme is:

• open to all eligible farmers, woodland owners, foresters and other land managers
• suitable or many types of land use (eg conventional and organic farmland, coastal areas, uplands and woodlands)
• competitive
• scored against local priority targets to maximise environmental benefit

• The CS was put in place in June 2015 and the organisations who were involved were Natural England, Forestry Commission, Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs and others. The scheme was last updated, recently, on March 14th 2016.

Idea Choice | Development

Neither me or Nisserin got any replies from our emails, which is quite disappointing, but Sammi did get a reply, which is really good.

The Chosen Idea

• She had previously contacted Broadditch Farm in Southfleet in Kent, and she managed to get a reply from one of the two farmers, who's name is John Harris. 
• She had asked him if we could come and talk to him about his job, in order to get some information on the farm and the way the climate is changing too rapidly. We arranged to meet up with him and put together some questions that we wanted to ask him.

• After speaking to John, we learnt a lot about the farm history and how it's all run. Through this we learnt about a scheme that they are apart of which is called 'The Countryside Stewardship Scheme'. 
• John told us about the scheme and what effects, both positive and negative, it has on the farmers and we were very interested in the scheme, as we hadn't known about it before. 
• Throughout the talk, he mentioned the fact that the scheme changes quite a lot and they have quite a lot of random inspections, similar to Ofsted in the education career. 
• We were quite shocked by this and the different restrictions that John mentioned, and we wanted to find out some more on the scheme.

• We then decided as a group, that we should base the video on the farm but also base it around the scheme and whether it's a good thing to have or not. 
• We were possibly thinking of having the meaning and/or the thesis of the documentary as 'What is the point of the scheme?'. 
• Through this we can pin point the positives of the scheme, explore those within the documentary, and then pin point and explore the negative points of the scheme.

Eden | Research

The documentary film that we will be producing is being made to suit the UKTV wildlife and science channel 'Eden'. I decided to do some research on the channel to help when deciding on a story and deciding how we are going to present the documentary.

What I Found

• The first thing I noticed about this channel is that it's aimed at a very niche audience, meaning that not many people have heard of the channel or watch it. 
• This suggests that our documentary can have quite a unique and original style while also making sure the content and information in it are up to the standards of the channel.
• The programmes featured on the channel range from "10 Things you didn't know..." to "Forecasting the End". To me, this means that the channel is quite experimental and they like having a big variety of documentaries that focus on a whole bunch of different topics. 
• The time slot our documentary will hypothetically cover is 8pm. I had a look to see what sort of programmes are on at 8pm, to give me a sort of idea on what our documentary should be based on, and how it should look in terms of style.

Saturday - Human Planet [Artic - Life in the Deep Freeze] (1hr)
Sunday - Human Planet [Rivers - Friend and Foe] (1hr)
Monday - World's Wildest City [Monkey City] (30m)
Tuesday - World's Wildest City [River Icons] (30m)
Wednesday - World's Wildest City [Urban Vultures] (30m)
Thursday - World's Wildest City [City of Giants] (30m)
Friday - World's Wildest City [Reptile Central] (30m)

• This told me that there is a variety of themes and subjects that they usually talk about at 8pm. This means that we can either focus on talking about animals and wildlife or nature, or even both. All of our ideas that we have come up with would suit this time slot very well.

Ideas | Development

The First Thought

• When I first heard the brief, my thought process went straight to my favourite type of animal which are Giraffes. I have recently started watching 'The Secret Life of the Zoo' on Channel 4 and on the programme you not only see the development of the animals but you also see the development of the zoo keepers.
•  The programme shows how the animals are looked after and what the zoo keepers have to go through to keep the animals safe. The keepers go through a lot with the animals - from seeing births and deaths - and the programme shows their emotions realistically.

• This programme gave me the inspiration for my idea but I want to focus mainly on the Giraffes and how they are looked after. 
• After discussing this with Helen she suggested that I contact Howlett's Zoo and ask them if there was a possibility that we could potentially film a documentary on their Giraffes.

Research

• Before I contacted them I decided to do some research on the zoo itself and see what kind of experiences they provide to the public. 
• I found out that they have a overnight stay where the public are treated to dinner and then the next day they can go on a safari and experience the animals up close. 
• I talked to my group and we discussed that we could possibly be able to do this experience if they let us film. We placed a 'Booking Inquiry' for the three of us to get the price of the overnight stay, but the result we were given was fairly high. 
• We discussed as a group and decided that we would directly contact them and see if they could gives us some sort of discount if we were to film there.

I emailed the zoo's media contact:

Other Ideas

Within our group we had two other ideas:

• Nisserin thought about doing our documentary on the Peacocks at Leeds Castle and how they get looked after. This was a good idea as it's something that not many people think about and it would be quite interesting to find out what the staff at the Castle do with them. She also contacted the Castle about the possibility of filming there about that specific subject. 

• Sammi thought about doing our documentary on how the climate change is happening faster than it naturally should. This was also a good idea as it's something that, again, not many people think about and it would be a large subject which means we would have several Segway's that we could venture into. She also contacted a local farm shop about talking to one of the farmers and filming our documentary there.

Documentary | New Unit

Following on from our second unit, directions, we have started our third unit of the year, which is documentary. In this unit we have been given the task to create a documentary.

Documentary

We are working in a group of 3 - Me, Nisserin and Sammi - and we will need to produce a 10 minute documentary on wildlife and nature. The documentary will be part of a strand with the working title of 'Doorstep Wilderness'. It must be suitable for viewing at 8pm on UKTV wildlife and science channel 'Eden'.
The series aim is to engage and inspire a diverse audience with science and wildlife stories. We must be surprising and we should look beyond what we imagine wildlife and nature to be like. Consider contemporary, relevant stories and try to think beyond the obvious.

The 5 main things we should consider are:

1. Consider the information given carefully
2. The duration of the video, transmission time, the channel and the intended audience
3. What format, style and mechanisms we will decide to go for
4. All films must include appropriate planning for shooting sequences, set ups, GVs and actuality.
5. The film is delivered within the specified time frame.