Louis Theroux Slideshow

Testing out the other widgets I found

'How to add custom fonts to blogger'

After taking a while trying to figure out how I could use edit my HTML template to incorporate new fonts I managed to work it out. Unfortunately the website which I got it from didn't give me enough information and actually all this widget could do was change the font of my whole blog, not just certain words or titles. This is a shame as I really would have liked to have been able to do this. I'm sure there are some widgets out there that do this so I shall have to do some more research closer to the time.

http://code.google.com/webfonts

http://www.bloggerplugins.org/2010/05/how-to-add-custom-fonts-to-blogger.html#google

'Numbered page navigation'

I followed the rules on this website (http://www.bloggerplugins.org/2009/09/numbered-page-navigation-for-blogger.html) and it was simple enough to figure out how it all worked. If you look to the bottom you can now see that you can choose which page you want to view, instead of having to click older posts, older posts, older posts.

'New advanced post editor'

This wasn't really a widget but a way of making posting easier! Here is a snapshot of the new post editing software in action.

Even uploading that snapshot took half the time that it normally would have taken on the old editing software.



'Picassa web album slideshow widget'
To use this widget you have to have a picassa account.
This is a screen shot of how I was instructed to use this widget:

I didn't think i had a picassa account so I thought i would have to make one but to my surprise when i got to the website it only asked me for my googlemail password. After logging in, i can see that all the photos i have uploaded to my blog are already there. This website is better than i thought! The practice slideshow I am going to do is just some pictures of some famous documentarists i have mentioned.




Unfortunately the website wasn't as easy as it first appeared and uploading a slideshow is actually quite hard. I'll need to find another program to help me do this.

Testing out the Word Cloud

WORD CLOUDS

Testing Out Different Types of Documentary

Today Olivia Cope and I were doing our blogs and thought that a better way of showing our understanding of types of documentary than writing it out, would be to film examples. We tried to incorporate the type of styles of those documentarists that we have been studying. We used our friend Helen Revell to act out a mini-documentary which consisted of;

1. Reflexive documentary
2. Poetic documentary
3. Observational documentary
4. Nick Broomfield's style of having filming equipment in the camera shot
5. Michael Moore's expository documentary style

It was fun to film and also gave us a little insight into what is it going to be like filming our main task. 

Louis Theroux's Wierd Weekends

In 1998 Louis Theroux made the decision to use porn stars as his latest idea for 'Louis Theroux's Wierd Weekends'.This documentary shows the two very different sides to the pornographic industry. Throughout this documentary Louis interviews many male and female porn stars. He reveals many graphic problems throughout the porn industry about gay and straight porn to name a few. 

Another one of Louis controversial topics was U.F.O. Hunters. The episode follows a few U.F.O. Hunters, one of whom is a man called Thor Templar who calls himself the 'Lord Commander of the Earth Portectorate'. It is his belief that he has killed over 20 aliens.

Proud to be British

Proud to be British was Nick Broomfield's first film at The National Film School. It started as a student exercise and became a film a year later in 1973. It only lasts 30 minutes but was still successful at the time. It is a mixture of black & white and colour. Apart from this there isn't much information about this film as the internet wasn't invented when it was brought out so unlike today when the media go crazy over a new film, there wasn't anything like that.

http://www.nickbroomfield.com/proud_trailer.html

These stills taken of the film were found on Nick Broomfield's official website.

Searching for Widgets

I wanted to make my blog look more fun and creative so I scoured google for some websites that would help me achieve this. I found two websites which told me a whole list of widgets especially for blogger.com. The particular ones which caught my eye were:

• 'How to add custom fonts to blogger'
• 'Numbered page navigation'
• 'New advanced post editor'
• 'Picassa web album slideshow widget'
• 'Word Clouds'

I'm going to test these programs and maybe use them later when I have more information to document and i don't want to have massive blocks of text that aren't split up at all.

http://www.mintblogger.com/2009/01/30-blogger-widgets-and-plugins.html

http://www.bloggerplugins.org

http://www.wordle.net/create

Top Documentary Films

topdocumentaryfilms.com was a website given to us to help our research. On this website you can search through over 1200 documentaries and watch them for free online. From going on this website and having a look around it is easy to see that without a doubt the most popular documentaries to watch are those with the most number of documentaries under the title. These are:

• Military and War
• 9/11
• Drugs
• Conspiracy
• Mystery

This has given me thought that maybe as these are the most popular I may like to do something along those lines for my main task as not only will it be entertaining for others to watch but also will be enjoyable to make.

http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/watch-online/

Nick Broomfield

Nick Broomfield is an English documentary maker, born in 1948. His distinctive style is created by his films not having very many members of crew, only himself and a one or two camera men. he is often the one holding the sound boom in the shot.
He was awarded the BAFTA Lifetime Achievement Award for Contribution to Documentary.
Broomfield's first documentary that was shown on television was Driving me Crazy. After arguing profusely about the nature and budget of the documentary it was decided that the documentary would only be made if he could film the making of it. Everything including the arguments, the successes and the failures.


http://www.nickbroomfield.com/bio.html

Michael Moore

Michael Moore is an American documentarist born in April of 1954. He is also the author of his work and a liberal political commentator. He directed, wrote, narrated and produced, 'Bowling for Columbine', a documentary film. It brought Moore much attention as an up and coming filmmaker and won many awards. He also directed Farenhet 9/11. This was about how George Bush launched the war onIraq instead of focusing on getting the real culprits who were behind the terrorist attacks of September 11. It also focusses on controversial issues like how some Saudis were safely flown out of America after planes were grounded because of the attacks. His overall documentary form is expository which we can tell from the issues he deals with in his cinematic works like the American heathcare system and the Iraq War to name a few.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/

Louis Theroux

Louis Theroux is a British-American broadcaster. He is known best for his Gonzo style of journalism. This style of journalism is similar to reflexive journalism. It is famous for sarcasm, exaggeration, humour and profanities and is written subjectively, in the first person narrative, including the reporter as a part of the story. This style of documentary uses personal experiences and emotions and is more partial to worrying that the style is appropriate than the actual accuracy of the facts.
Louis Theroux is famous for his show 'Louis Theroux's Wierd Weekends' which showed footage of everything controversial including 'Porn Stars and 'U.F.O. Hunters' in January 1998, 'Swingers' and 'Black Nationalism' in early 1999, and 'Thai Brides' and 'Gangsta Rap' in October of 2000. What made this more controversial was the time at which he did it. 10 years later in 2010 shows like this wouldnt be considered as daring as they were then. In 1998 this was very risky as people rarely spoke up about issues like these.

Here is an example of some of his work where he interviews one man during his filming of 'U.F.O. Hunters'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ko3t0RnkqBY

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0857621/

Introduction to Documentaries

At Heathside, the task that we have been set is to create a documentary aimed at a specific audience. Like our previous blog, we will research and document everything we do in this blog to show our progress.

What is their purpose?
Documentaries are shows on television that analyse facts in a way which is entertaining for people to watch and to express views and opinions. They aim to record real life footage of what is going on in the world. They can reveal truths that we didn't know and preserve facts so that people in the future can watch back and have a better understanding of the way we lived. But this is not the sole purpose of documentaries. Sometimes they are biased and used as a way of persuading people or promoting certain objects.

Types of Documentary
Reflexive - The maker of the documentary is seen throughout the programme. They are in front of the camera talking to the peolpe being interviewed.
Poetic - In poetic documentaries, the storyline is more artistic for example shows on Channel 5 like 'I am the Elephant Man: A Bodyshock Special' which was released in April 2008. They are more aimed towards human interest rather than current affairs.
Observational - These documentaries tend to follow a person on their journey whilst something is happening for example 'Tribal Wives' which follows the lives of English women living with Turkish no-mads.
Expository - This is an analysis and expoositiom or person or topic for example Michael Moore makes controversial documentaries about political corruption and makes points which the audience wouldn't have seen or known before.

Forms of Documentary
I am going to do some more research into these makers of documentaries:
Louis Theroux
Michael Moore
Nick Broomfield

by researching the Channel 4 website and researching former Channel 4/More4 documentaries.