An Unexpected Inspiration

Hi again! For this blog post, I am going to talk a little bit about some inspiration for my documentary as well as some shots/ other elements I want to include in my documentary.

  I just finished watching the serialized documentary or "reality docuseries" (as Hulu likes to label it )“Unexpected” on TLC. This documentary is about teen parents and their journey through pregnancy as well as the first couple of years of their child’s life. What made me think of this show as a good example for my documentary is that they show the teen parents’ story but from many different points of view, in order to avoid bias. The producers also did an amazing job of not focusing on negative or positive aspects but rather related them to one another and showed the REALITY of it, which is exactly my goal.  As everyone knows, TLC shows are quite odd and dramatic, but I specifically liked this one because it did a good job of showing the negatives and positives of the subjects’ lives. The reason I am taking this show as inspiration is that I like the way they formatted it; it made the narrative clear, cohesive, and entertaining as well. The episodes consisted of indirect interviews in which the subjects and their families were talking about a specific situation in their point of view. Sometimes the producers included a question if the subject said something interesting which I also liked because it continues to build the narrative and it is raw and an “in the moment response”. Within those interviews, they would also sometimes include b-roll over the original audio or also include footage of the moment or scenario the subject was talking about in the interview. The reason I am taking this into consideration is simple: interviews create a coherent narrative that also makes it NOT biased (which was one of my goals). I also like that the producers did not just rely on b-roll over the audio, they would cut to the actual moment in order to further build the visual. One thing I did not like from the show was the way the interviews were set up; they seemed awkward and too staged. The way they were set up was a mid-shot (I would have even considered it a long shot) and it would randomly switch to close-ups. Although I like the idea of different shots, the contrast in how far each shot was dramatic and not aesthetic. I also did not like how the background was clearly a stage, so it was the same for every single subject. That does not bring any personality to each subject and their story at all. 

  To sum up what I took from “Unexpected”:

I want to set up my documentary similar to it (narrative, use of b-roll and “in the moment” footage) BUT I want to add more personality. I want to make sure I interview my subjects and their family and friends somewhere that has meaning to them, whether it is the subject’s house, a park they like, etc. Obviously, I will keep technical elements in mind to make sure the backgrounds are not extremely distracting, but the main focus is personalization. 

This video will hopefully act as a good representation of what the show looks like in terms of structure. When watching this, please remember how dramatic TLC is!:) 

Here is an example of the interview set-up that I mentioned earlier. It is obviously all about opinion, but for my documentary, I do want to create a little bit of a more formal or serious tone. This looks too informal.

Check out "Unexpected"! (it is available on Hulu)