Evaluation

For my practical production, I worked in a group of three, where we produced a short documentary called It’s a Woman’s World. The investigative documentary gives a brief insight into the topical issue of domestic violence, we followed a 16 year old girl who had been affected by this issue. We chose name “It’s a Woman’s World” as we wanted to create a feminist approach, juxtaposing to the infamous phrase of “It’s a mans world” and also to the whole issue of domestic violence. “It’s a Womans World also shows that we have challenged the typical stereotype of women, creating enigma, therefore appealing to the target audience.

During the beginning of the production, we agreed not to allocate any specific roles and responsibilities, therefore each member will have equal opportunity in all the tasks. However we soon learnt that the there was not always an equal input from all group members, due to differences in when each member was free and willing to do editing. Yet, my input into the group was constant, and I used all available time to progress with the production, this being the planning, editing, and making key decisions about the structure of the documentary.

The opening of the documentary is a montage sequence using images of victims of domestic violence. In order to create more of a shock effect to the audience, we decided to use a white dissolve instead of the usual dip to black; this put more emphasis onto the images, as well as enhancing the professionalism of the documentary. The background music of “It’s a mans world” by James Brown is parallel to the images reinforcing the message of patriarchy. This conforms to Barthes theory of enigma codes, due to the disparity of the name of the documentary; It’s a Woman’s Worlds. There was then a scratch put in between, where the music changed to “Man I feel like a woman” and consisted of various clips of girls smiling and posing. This showed a dramatic contrast between the two diverse representations of women, coinciding with Strauss’s theory of binary oppositions. Immediately the audience is made aware of the issues dealt, and identifies the primary target audience of young women.

As all documentaries, It’s a Womans World was shaped and constructed to show a certain viewpoint, and reinforce our own messages. We used the convention of the “talking head” where someone talks directly to the camera, in our case, the main protagonist Amrit. By acknowledging, the presence of the camera when she turns it on conforms to the genre of the documentary being investigative. The talking head gives an impression of authenticity and presentation of facts, because we had not edited the scene, shows that we had used raw footage, creating a more realistic approach.

Furthermore, we paid attention to detail, by ensuring the mise en scene was a feminine colour representing a fun atmosphere, however contrasting this to the emotional scene of Amrit crying. We realised that Amrit’s talking head was a long scene, and would be appropriate to cut down to engage the audience through out the whole documentary, however we decided not to edit the scene to accentuate the authenticity. On the other hand, we then constructed the vox pops with the aim of creating a definition of domestic violence by selecting certain words and phrases, ensuring that the information was accurate, therefore educating the audience.

To engage the audience, we constructed a phone call, where Amrit had called a domestic violence helpline when being abused, she sounded very distraught and traumatised, giving the impression of actuality, and reinforcing the seriousness of the issue. The background was also kept black to ensure the audience focus on what is being said, creating an emotional tone. Similarly, to “Bowling for Columbine” studied in module 2, where Michael Moore shows raw footage of the shooting in the school from the fly on the wall cameras to enhance an emotional attachment to the documentary. The documentary is based on juxtapositions of various sequences, which created irony, for example the opening contrast of women, and the juxtaposition between the two ideologies of feminism and patriarchy. This is similar to “The Man with a Movie Camera” by Dziga Vertov. He used juxtaposition of different ideas and images together such birth and death in order to create more impact.

We employed Todorovs narrative theory by having Amrits story finally come to an end, where she decided to go to the police and report the crime. By doing this the documentary had progressed from the equilibrium of Amrit going out with her friends to the disequilibrium when Amrit had been abused, and then the new equilibrium, where Amrit decided to stand up for herself, which again reinforced the feminist view. This also conformed to Rabigers theory of telling a good story, which helps narrate and structure the documentary. The representation of Amrit was shown in a heroic light, which challenges Propps theory of character roles, as a make is usually the hero. However, we did employ this theory in one aspect, by including a hero and villain, this being the boyfriend who abuses Amrit. We finished the documentary with a number of statistics such as “one on four women are abused” which brings the documentary back the to the issue of domestic violence, with non diegetic, parallel music by Alicia Keys – “A Woman’s Worth” coinciding with the focus on women. Conversely, we could have included more factual information about domestic violence, which would educate the audience and raise more awareness of the issue.

It’s a Womans World will be broadcasted on Channel 4, which is a commercial institution, who often target a similar audience to ours. It fits into this category, as the main function is to inform, thereafter education and entertain. Furthermore, it would be appropriate to show the documentary after watershed, where most young girls will watch television.

In conclusion, It’s a Women’s World fulfils the purpose of entertaining and more importantly education the target audience. We aimed to communicate to the audience the consequences of domestic violence, and encourage women to stand up for themselves. The documentary followed a narrative structure and told a good story which is essential, as said by Rabiger. We explored the issues of domestic violence while still challenging the stereotypes of woman, creating a successful and unique documentary.

Pooja x