Harry Cripp

 My aspirations for the future revolve primarily around writing, as I plan to be a screenwriter. Whilst this does not directly pertain to documentary, the study of life and the intense focus on a singular subject is an incredibly useful set of skills for a writer to have. The observational, fly on the wall, idea of following a subject is directly related to writing as that is how the majority of film and tv exist. It has therefore been incredibly useful for me to study different documentaries and to see the different ways that different filmmakers have utilised the observational style in so many different ways. Documentary is also relevant to screenwriting because most documentaries are character-based, and the idea of doing a deep dive into one specific character and exploring a subject through a singular character is a very transferable skill and can definitely help with the quality and realism of my writing in a big way. 'Real-life people' or at least people who act like ...

 I felt that my contribution during the pre-production and production of our documentary was extensive. As I was the producer, I was in charge of the majority of the pre-production paperwork. I did all that I was required to do and I felt that I did it to a high standard. I did receive some help from Ben, the director, with the pre-production paperwork, mainly with the distribution of forms for people to sign. Just because at the time I was doing the pre-production I had to spend a lot of time isolating, so he was a great help in distributing release forms. Hamdi and Tristan were also helpful in acquiring locations and our subject, each of them contributing significantly in this regard. In production, I was also very involved. I attended every time we organised filming, just me and Hamdi, the cinematographer, attended every session of filming. Attendance was one of the main issues with our production, nobody but Hamdi and me attended every session, even our subject, Sam, was not at...

 The film I have chosen to analyse is 'Louis Theroux, Law and Disorder in Johannesburg'. The narrative of this film is very linear and chronological, you really get the sense that Louis Theroux has been sent to Johannesburg and the film just follows him around as he tries to speak to as many people as possible. It follows him day to day, it gives the impression that as it goes through it starts at the start of each day and progresses through to the end, with no cutting away to different times or cutting away to interviews with the cast that breaks the fourth wall.  It is very much a film from the perspective of the filmmaker, Theroux is incredibly central to the narrative and every character in the film interacts with him as the filmmaker. In terms of secondary characters, however, it is incredibly varied and focuses on a few key characters all with different perspectives on the documentary's subject. From that key cast of central characters, more characters are explored bu...