Research

This blog contains my research on the documentary project

Context: This trailer doesn't contain the actual thumbnail of the documentary only trailer

    Worst Roommate Ever Thumbnail

Documentary Opening 1: Worst Roommate Ever
Before You Watch
Look only at the thumbnail and title. What are your expectations for the documentary? What are the connotations of the image, font, colour, or title? What do you expect to see or hear in the opening?	The documentary title talks about a roommate, so the documentary would most likely be about being in university or at the age considered as young adults. The music that they might add could be eerie music and low music which helps build the environment to be a serious and mysterious event that allows audience to be questioning what happen.  From the documentary thumbnail, it uses capital letters which connotes that this documentary emphasizes on the person / character experience to be very serious and it creates a lot of feeling of tension. The font colour being white makes it simple and it also creates the feeling of the documentary being serious. They also added a mug shot of a girl that isn’t smiling which shows that this person could be the one involved in the situation or the actual ‘worst roommate’ and may or may not feel remorse. I expect to see the person / character to at first talk about the state that she was in before everything happened and an introduction of the ‘roommate’, whether she was a kind one or an unexpected one.
After You Watch
Who is the target audience? Why do you think so? Give one example of each and explain the meaning: Camera: Mise-en-scène: Editing: Sound:	The target audience would be young adults to adults, but more specifically parents / mothers. The person / character in the documentary talks about her family which shows that this documentary is about the family. Camera: Handheld, makes the scene more personal with the shaky effects makes it look more unsettling which helps in creating the environment feeling and makes the audience have an effect on what the person / character was feeling as she was explaining about her family and especially the past that takes her memory back to the past. Mise-en-scene: They show the house multiple times, but with limited colour. They use this to explain how the house was the location where it all happened and it also makes it looks like it was sucking all the life out of the house as something traumatic happened. As for a family with children, it should've been all colourful to indicate that happiness was created in a safe place called ‘home’ which the house didn’t explain that feeling at all. Editing: There were numerous jumpcuts and flashbacks where using the flashback helps a lot in explaining or telling the story as it goes back and forth making the audience to relive the situation and as well as understand what has happened. Sound: There was a lot of unsettling music which helps in creating the environment to be mysterious and as well as hooks the audience. Other than that there were unsettling sound effects whenever they were showing the past / flashback which makes the image / staged footage to be more serious and makes it mysterious of what happened in the past.
Would you continue watching? Why/Why not?	For me I would want to watch it again as I was hooked with what the roommate did to her, but at the same time I am easily scared of watching documentaries so I might watch it with someone who also would be interested in this kind of documentary genre.

Context: This trailer doesn't contain the thumbnail of What Jennifer Did documentary only trailer

What Jennifer Did Thumbnail 

Documentary Opening 2: What Jennifer Did
Before You Watch
Look only at the thumbnail and title. What are your expectations for the documentary? What are the connotations of the image, font, colour, or title? What do you expect to see or hear in the opening?	The documentary thumbnail seems to give a mystery where they use a title “What Jennifer Did”, with the title being a question that makes the audience also question and become interested in what Jennifer did in the documentary. The choice of colour that they choose was a mix of old camera photo and a red colour where the picture is cut in half to show a difference of Jennifer all smiley and happy while the red colour face shows her face that looks like she's devastated and mad which can represent that the documentary showed / found out what Jennifer actually did and she is furious that they have found out. From the opening I expect to hear the back story of Jennifer being happy or her action being as far away as what she might have done in that situation. As this would allow the story to have a twist which can hook the audience. The thumbnail also contains a flicker effect which shows a not perfect image even with the normal old camera photo, this shows imperfection of Jennifer herself and this also tells how Jennifer may be known as a sweet girl but turns out she was nowhere as sweet as people think.
After You Watch
Who is the target audience? Why do you think so? Give one example of each and explain the meaning: Camera: Mise-en-scène: Editing: Sound:	Teenage to young adult, as the documentary is about Jennifer and from the documentary itself it shows her being interviewed and unsettling over her parents being killed by someone. This shows how Jennifer is still living with her parents and still under her parents supervision making her a teenager that majorly rely on her parents for money and support. Stage footaged was used in this documentary while having it as a scene with a background of the backstory and several 911 calls. This helps create the story more as it allows the audience to feel like they were in the situation as well. In the scene they also added a vignette around the staged footage which creates a feeling of a more gloomy and serious situation. The gloomy feeling from the vignette makes it feel like I'm isolated and trying to focus on the person or place being shown. Camera: There were many establishing shots that showed the area where Jennifer lived. They show a stage footage of a house inside of it that makes audience believe it was in the house when it is not and how they show this scene was by using a hand held movement that makes audience to feel that maybe that was how Jennifer was feeling like when the murderer was at the house, the movement was shown like a POV shot of someone trying to walk around the house and being in that room as the murderer. Mise-en-scene: Jennifer during the interview is shown to wear comfortable clothes and her attitude was shaking and was not calmed down at all this shows that Jennifer was a victim that is being interviewed. The comfortable clothes represent to make her calm down in order for the detective to get to know what happened that night / make her let them know what happened because she was there and the one who called 911. Editing: There were many flashbacks but they were shown by using a stage footage which helps create the environment of the documentary and relive the moment with the background sound of the 911 phone call which help create the setting of the documentary itself. Sound: There were many sirens that represented during this event police were in charge / in the crime scene when it happened and makes the whole documentary more serious and makes the audience feel what did the police find there and what did they do about it. They also added the 911 phone call that shows Jennifer being the one who called and being scared which makes this Jennifer the only person who was a suspect as well as
Would you continue watching? Why/Why not?	I would because with the thumbnail and title of the documentary not matching the introduction of the documentary as there was a twist this makes me interested in wanting to watch more of it and figure out why the documentary is named that when they weren’t showing anything about what she did.

A Deadly American Marriage Trailer and Thumbnail 

Documentary Opening 3: A Deadly American Marriage
Before You Watch
Look only at the thumbnail and title. What are your expectations for the documentary? What are the connotations of the image, font, colour, or title? What do you expect to see or hear in the opening?	The thumbnail shows a married couple still in their wedding outfit, the man showed an innocent smile that would match the situation which is him being happy on their wedding day as it was special but the woman looked not that happy as him where her smile looked forced. This tells that it might be something related with what the woman did to the man. The title of a deadly American marriage was right beside the wedding photo which tells us that even if they look happy from the image there was a twist behind that marriage. I expect to see the introduction of the crime itself about what happened to the man or the woman, I also expect to see anything to do with the crime being called to 911 and having real footage of the situation that happened.
After You Watch
Who is the target audience? Why do you think so? Give one example of each and explain the meaning: Camera: Mise-en-scène: Editing: Sound:	The target audience is young adult to adult as it was talking about married life, which would be a good target audience especially for those who are planning on marriage or may be in a relationship as those are the ones who would relate more or understand the whole story. There were many stage footage of a house, which can represent that this was their house and where it all happened. They added a close up of leaves and the surrounding which this adds on the focus to the audience for the sound that was in the footage which was the 911 call itself. Camera: There was a close up of both the daughter and the son in the car, the interview footage itself was also shown being above or a high angle shot which made the people who were being interviewed was small and it make it seems like they were intimidated / scared as well as the person who are the victims with no power. Mise-en-scene: The mise-en-scene that was shown were blood stains, the wardrobe of each character fits the situation as well such as when the woman showed her ‘night gown’ right after the situation that happen which helps to tell the story that it happened late at night and before bed where it happened unexpectedly. Editing:The editing itself was mostly flashback and cut with real footage from a cctv interview of the woman and the grandfather. There was also a flashback when the camera showed the close up of the daughter already grown up then cuts to the interview footage when they were still young and during that situation. This style of editing was also used when they were showing about their son from the past being a child and all grown up. Sound: There was a lot of eerie music which helped create the environment that makes it feel like it was during the situation. Other than eerie music, they added the 911 call which makes the scene feel like it was being in that situation and reliving it again, with the sound of the 911 call can be heard one of the being calm and composed while in the background we can hear someone screaming for help. This makes the audience wonder what actually happened and how it happened.
Would you continue watching? Why/Why not?	In my opinion I would not continue watching, because I don't really enjoy that kind of storyline that has anything to do with a family where I am a teenager. It would not fit with what my likings are. This documentary showed a lot of real life footage which is not what I usually would want to watch, but i would suggest it for people who enjoy documentaries that are in detail.

Context: This trailer of The Puppet Master documentary doesn't contain the thumbnail

The Puppet Master documentary thumbnail

Documentary Opening 4: The Puppet Master
Before You Watch
Look only at the thumbnail and title. What are your expectations for the documentary? What are the connotations of the image, font, colour, or title? What do you expect to see or hear in the opening?	From the thumbnail itself, it showed a guy whose face was blurred. This blurred effect was used to create a mystery where they are trying to hook the audience to know more or be interested in the documentary itself. The font that was used in the thumbnail is thin but all of them were capitalised, this makes the documentary talking about a serious matter. The font being thin shows a clean minimalism which can explain the story’s sensitivity about the topic they are talking about. The background of the thumbnail can be seen there might be a pier and it was somewhere near the ocean, this may look like someone in America and it shows how the story takes place in America. With the ocean as a background that looks bright blue and still, this may talks about the contradiction of the puppet master’s action as it the water being bright blue and still shows calm and From the opening I would expect to know more about the puppet master itself as it dives into the story immediately. This can allow the audience to be hooked and know a backstory of the puppet master to understand why the puppet master did.
After You Watch
Who is the target audience? Why do you think so? Give one example of each and explain the meaning: Camera: Mise-en-scène: Editing: Sound:	The target audience that they are trying to target are teenagers to young adults. I believe they are targeting this age group because the documentary starts off with the person being asked if her mother was there what she would say. This shows that the character still have relationship with the mother and feels close to her.  Camera: The documentary starts off with a behind the shoulder shot which is used to make the audience feel like you are the person itself being interviewed by the interviewer, this creates the sense of realism. There were also a couple of close up shots which showed the camera that was used to interview the person. This camera angle was used to show that she was serious, which means that the girl expresses her words very deeply and means it well. During this the guy beside her was blurred this shows that during this the girl was the focus. Mise-en-scene: The character was shown using comfortable clothes showing that they were. The lightings in this scene was high quality where it only spotlights the person who is talking and the other one gets dark, this is done so that audience will focus and creates a spotlight to the one thats talking and the one who didn't get the spotlight was in a darker lighting and not focused making them blurry.  Editing: The editing that was use was just normal cuts, which this was use to make the story goes forward and help adding different camera angle that creates story to be more emotional as it changes to focuses on the characters facial expression that shows feelings.  Sound: The sound that they added was unsettling music which this was added right after the person talks at the end, this sound was used to create a sudden confusion that make the audience wonder what is the relation with the mother and the title itself the puppet master. The sound also shows the discomfort of the sudden tension and prepares the audience for a turning point that might happen.
Would you continue watching? Why/Why not?	I would watch it when I have free time but I would not want to continue watching, it looks like it was fully just conversation and interview. They didn’t add any context of images such as real footage or anything about who the puppet master was or what they did. This makes the documentary not the kind of documentary I would watch but it still interests me in wanting to know more.

Context: This trailer doesn't contain the actual thumbnail of the documentary 

American Manhunt: Osama Bin Laden Thumbnail

Documentary Opening 5: American Manhunt: Osama Bin Laden
Before You Watch
Look only at the thumbnail and title. What are your expectations for the documentary? What are the connotations of the image, font, colour, or title? What do you expect to see or hear in the opening?	The thumbnail in this can be seen having red and orange contrast on top of the person picture, the colour red and orange also can represent fire which talks about how the picture is being burned that can also means with fire this situation has gone out of hand as the colour was almost filling the whole picture that means that it was stop on time.  The person can be seen using a religious outfit which this could be interpret that it could relate with something like a cult or something religious in this documentary. As it shows he is an older adult this can be shown that the person himself could be the cult leader.  With the image having a flicker effect which it looks like an old school camera and with the colour red and orange it represents the person itself wasn't a good person and with the addition of orange and red colour this also talks about  I expect to know a brief explanation of the person maybe there would be a twist that his actions isn't what is expected to be that leads to his action to be like this.
After You Watch
Who is the target audience? Why do you think so? Give one example of each and explain the meaning: Camera: Mise-en-scène: Editing: Sound:	They are targeting teenagers to adults who enjoys true crimes especially like this as this was an event that shattered the whole world and effects everyone not only in America.  Camera: In this documentary it shows a lot of real footage which most of them are hand held for example when the plane crashes into the tower. The use of hand held was use to create the feeling of being there on site as the situation happens and builds up the tension. High angle shot of someone walking up was shown to make the person look smaller this shows that maybe this person could be someone with no power, or it could be the opposite as the stair case look grand and could be the one working with the president.  Mise-en-scene: The real life footage seems old which this shows how the lighting and colour of the scene was sucked out making it a sorrow day. The president was shown to be wearing a nice suit, where as the people on teh streats such as the fire fighters in town was wearing a scuffed up uniform. This shows the difference between the job and what job was more grand and working with onsite events such as the plane crash. This shows that the president may not be aware of the environment of the country.  Editing: This documentary uses a lot of jumpcuts and flashbacks. The jumpcuts shows the real footage where the plane hit the building to the president being in a school, this creates a feeling of confused as why would the president be feeling normal.  Sound: The sound of explosion was added with the real footage which creates the sudden event to happen and creates the environment to be serious and chaos right after that.
Would you continue watching? Why/Why not?	I would continue watching, because this story involves someone historical that has done something to bali even not specific but this was related. I was curious on wanting to know more on what else did the person do and what happen to him.