Sarah Polley is a filmmaker from Canada, she is also a known for writing, acting, where she was first recognised as a child actress on a show titled 'Quimby'. Polley's directing style focuses on a more intimate and personal stories, which comes into play, when producing 'Stories We Tell'. She uses conversations to build a film, which creates the idea of intimate.
Polley would use camera shots, where they would focus on emotion, showing vulnerability. This could conclude;
Close ups/medium shots,
Handheld camera work,
long footage takes/camera movement.
https://filmandmediaportal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/stories-we-tell.pdf (04.11.2025).
https://www.500daysoffilm.com/storieswetelldocreview/#:~:text=In%20her%20blog%20post%2C%20Polley,Which%20story%20should%20we%20believe? (04.11.2025).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GepFTH7X1xE (04.11.2025).
https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/stories-we-tell#:~:text=Chan/flickr%20cc.-,Background,post%20on%20the%20NFB's%20website. (04.11.2025).
This documentary was directed by Sarah Polley, who wanted to investigate for the truth behind the conflicting stories her family told her about her mother, after learning her biological father was not he one who raised her. Polley also wanted to produced this investigation in a film documentary way, as she learned about a journalist was going to publish her story without getting her perspective.
This documentary became an observation on how people remember narratives between their relationships and their lives. This story plays with this by recreating scenes, making it feel like footage from the camera the dad used to record her mother. This is shown, where the mother is on the phone, which is after one of the family members recalls this event. This is a sneaky way, which could draw the viewers into the film, visually, as it is almost to perfect of moment in time, where the dad happens to record the moment, one of the family members is talking about.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1185616/ (04.11.2025).
Air Folman is a film director and screen writer from Israeli. Folman is known for his written work and directed documentaries for tv, from feature films like 'Saint Clara (1996)'. Folman would often work on events he has passion for. Folman went on a different route for his documentary, Folman went for a recording from a bar of a interview and would animate over the audio to create a visual outcome, which could draw viewers in his documentary.
Folman decided to make this documentary in particular to oppressed his memories of his time in the Lebanon War as a soldier, to show his participation in the Sabra. Folman was also inspired by his friends recurring nightmares, which prompted him to work through his own amnesia for that time. It was created to shown as a anti-war movement from people who worked thorugh the warzone.
Ron Fricke is a film director, born in America. Fricke is known for his cinematography, specialising in time-lapsing and cinematography, which he is known for his none narrative feature films, often like a moving pictures style.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vAiAjw0720&rco=1 (04.11.2025).
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103767/ (04.11.2025).
https://britishcinematographer.co.uk/ron-fricke-samsara/ (04.11.2025).
This documentary was directed and filmed by Ron Fricke, who is a known cinematographer, who produced the first time-lapse, where he would mix this with slow motion to create a strong visual observational film with no narrative ('Baraka'). This film emphasis the word 'where'. This allows the viewers to interpret his work in the viewers way, creating a more personal film without breaking someone's personal space/privacy. It starts with natural landscapes in the morning establishing the time of day by using still shots of the mountains before closing up on wildlife, like monkeys, which establishes the location of where this film could be set, teasing the viewers into the film, without jumping straight into the film.
I picked these three documentaries for this purpose of them all having a unique spin on documentaries. 'Stories We Tell' uses handheld cameras with soft colours for lighting, which could convey the viewers to be part of the family and draw them into the homemade film aspect they wanted to go for with a faked b-roll clip and adding behind the scenes footage at the start. Which could be used to get the viewers to investigate with them, using mainly close ups and wide angle shots to to capture the family's emotion and as a group and as a solo shots. However, 'Waltz with Bashir' plays a more documentary style we use today, by using cold colours to create tension, which could get the viewer hooked as the scripts builds more and more going from flashback to flashback, increasing the music. Bashir also puts his spin by animating over a tape recording. This creates a visual idea behind Bashir's documentary over the 'Stories We Tell', as Polley uses home footage to add a personal touch, whereas, Bashir uses animation to represent their intended target demographic. Bashir could be targeted at teens to give them a visual guide to the story, as they will normally have a shorter attention span compare to adults. Polley uses homely-like style, which could target towards a more mature household, 'when the kids are asleep' and they have nothing else to watch. When comparing Baraka by Ron Fricke, he uses visuals to document different places with no narratives to allow viewers to interpret his documentaries in their own way, which could get the viewers to want to watch but also don't want to watch , almost like look away, but can't sort of film. If I was to pick one to watch, I would watch Bashir's Waltz With Bashir', as I enjoy a good visual documentary, recreating certain scenes, such as the dream of the first guy they interviewed with shooting the dogs, recurring in his dreams from when he was in the military.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stories_We_Tell (05.11.2025).
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1185616/ (05.11.2025).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baraka_%28film%29 (05.11.2025).
Ali Tabrizi is known to be a British filmmaker, best known for his documentary 'Seaspiracy'. This documentary focuses on Tabrizi passion for dolphins and whales. Tabrizi started his obsession for dolphins and whales by watching people like Jacques Cousteau, David Attenborough, and Sylvia Earle. "Watching their films opened a whole new world for me, filled with an abundance of beauty, colour and life." After college Tabrizi would work on many documentaries before focusing on his own, exploring the sea at age 22.
Tabrizi uses whimsical music at the start of his documentary, underscoring his narrative of a monologue about how and why he wants to explore his passion for Oceans, following with facts after. Tabrizi would use graphic overlays of text with the colour red. This could grab the viewers attention to read first, if they don't pause to read the text and would use white colour font under the red to display more information, if they wanted to. Tabrizi would use a extreme close up of his face, seeing the reflections of his glasses of the screen. This could act as a filler to change how a scene feels, as he goes to talk about how learning about Oceans, changed his perspective of the romance of the Ocean. Following this, Tabrizi would use the same graphics as before, but to display news headlines with news-ankers over scoring the music, which could suggest Tabrizi wanted to build up suspense to tease the viewers into the documentary. Tabrizi would use primary audio from clips to, as well as Broll to create a professional-like style without losing the personal reason behind the documentary for Ali Tabrizi.
This documentary starts with one question and ends with the same the question "do fish feel pain?" This same question mades me wonder what I could do to help the planet and the Ocean. This documentary is so impactful, that I became vegitarian because of this. They also question "What is sustainable fishing?" and try to get an answer from big corporations that promote sustainable fishing, like MSC, who profit on selling blue ticks to fish brands (which is 80% percent of their revenue).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Q5CXN7soQg (05.11.2025).
https://www.seaspiracy.org/ (05.11.2025).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seaspiracy (05.11.2025).
Performative - The filmmaker behind the documentary, is the subject of the film.
Poetic - Abstract form of documentary storytelling.
Expository - A third person viewpoint, adding context to the story with a 'God-like' voice over.
Observation - Removing narration, make the viewer feel like they are part of the story, often using cinema variety (hand held camera).
Participatory - The subject is actively working on the storytelling process on a subject they are passionate about (third person storytelling).
Reflexsive - The subjects and the audience are aware the documentary being made e.g., true crime, artist (One Direction: This is Us) documentaries.
'Performative' documentaries are often used for when a documentarians want to explore an area personal to them, where they are the focus of the film. An example of this is 'Supersize Me', directed by Morgan Spurlock, where he explores/experiments (month-long) in eating only McDonald's food. Whereas, 'Participatory' documentaries have an similar style but the documentarian is working on a story that they are passionate about. An example of this is 'Seaspiracy' directed by Ali Tabrizi, where his love for dolphins and the Ocean, forms an investigation into the fish industry. Tabrizi would be the focus in the documentary, while actively working on the narrative/storytelling, often voice overring himself. 'Observation' documentaries remove the narrative, which could draw the viewers attention in, as it allows the viewer to feel apart of the story and fill in he gaps, to create their own vision/why the documentaries was made. This type of documentary is used for directors like Ron Fricke, who is a well-known, famous photographer, who goes around the world, exploring places viewers only dream to visit. Fricke underscores music in his documentary, which helps the viewer to create an immersive imagination. (Shahram Heshmat, Ph.D.). Music and Imagination | Psychology Today United Kingdom (20.11.2025). 'Expository' documentaries uses a third person viewpoint to add context to the story that is being told, with a 'God-like' voice over, overscoring above the music. David Attenborough is known to use this type of style to create a calm environment. This is to make the animal appear less frightening. 'Poetic' documentaries are an abstract form of storytelling, often used to prioritises the mood/feel over presenting a traditional narrative like David Attenborough. Godfrey Reggio uses this type in 'Koyaanisqatsi', which uses this type of documentary to draw "life out of balance" story. This explores how humanity has drifted apart from nature. Reggio uses landscapes, mixed with footage of elemental forces to film modern-day civilisation. 'Reflexsive' documentaries is where the subjects and the audience are aware they are being filmed and made into a documentary. This type is the most used today, as of 2025. This style is mainly used in true crime documentaries, as they host and show the viewers a lot of interviews to get their import and help build a backstory for the audience.
I was tasked to merge text and photographs in photoshop to add depth to the photograph. I did this by adding a text layer to my chosen photograph, capitalising the letters and swapping the margin around to match the face shape of the photograph. I would select the text (ONLY) and hide the text layer to copy the photograph then paste it onto my photoshop workspace. I would then add a black box around the text layer to show half of the photograph on the right, without impacting the readability.
I wanted to create a purpose to my work, I found this famous photograph of a man, dressed as a woman, smoking. My main point was 'an addiction can be replaced with a new addiction'. If I was to do this again, I would flip the photography to balance the overall product.
ref: https://thephotoacademy.com/en/magazine/20-famous-portraits-photographers-you-need-to-know (12.11.2025).
Gnomes' origin from a Europeon folklore (United Kingdom). Gnomes are typically described as small, bearded and humanoid and often with long pointed hats with heavy builds. Gones are often described as, elderly/drawf-like.
Gnomes are often drawn to the Earth, being deeply connected. This is why people would often place them in their gardens, next to flower beds. Gnomes also have a personality of being guardians of hidden treasures, such as plants and precious metals, which also plays into the 'Gnomes in Gardens' stereotype. This also plays into the stereotype, as some people believe, that they help with household tasks and can help plants grow.
https://mythus.fandom.com/wiki/Gnome#:~:text=during%20the%20winter.-,Appearance,the%20boast%20rosy%20red%20cheeks (19.11.2025).
'Portraits and Dreams' by Wendy Ewald
Wendy Ewald is a rural schoolteacher, teaching children photography. Ewald has worked in the United States, Labrador, Colombia, India, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Holland, Mexico and Tanzania. This is where she would document, investigate and question the probe of identity and cultural differences between different countries.
Ewald mainly taught children and encourage them to use a camera and capture their lives, families and their communities. This was to create and inspire them to capture their dreams and fantasies. https://wendyewald.com/portfolio/portraits-and-dreams/ (26.11.2025)
After researching Wendy Ewald, I have decided that I want to use the acorns to show a trail for the Gnome. I would like to shoot in a forestry area, as Gnomes are often found to be around plants to let
them grow. The forest area, I have found is the garden within Preston College grounds, where they have a flowers growing and trees, heading into the forest.