To begin with I watch this 11 minute video with the purpose of understanding what I don’t know and examining what I see. Then afterwards answering questions set by my lecturer about the film.
What do you notice about the style of it? Explain the format. Does it work? Why? So I’m aware out of my own experience there are a few types of documentaries, them being Observational, which is a documentary that the filmmaking aims to be as realistic as possible recording everyday life activity without intrusion. An Expository documentary, which is when it’s set up with a specific point of view where the narrator is often speaking directly to the viewer with verbal commentary to highlight the relationship between what’s going on on screen that the viewer is seeing. Finally the third type of doc is the Participatory, which is when the filmmaker is involved directly with the films subjects, this is good for making stories. So this video was actually an interview with the film director Jonny Owen and the style of it is quite relaxed almost like a conversation with the environment it’s filmed in being a pub table Jonny answers the questions and goes into detail on telling a story almost for some of the questions. The format is Jonny speaks then once he’s finished his point a question is put on screen in writing leading on to Jonny’s next point. It is simple but effective and I believe it does work because as a viewer you are engaged by the way he answers the questions and Jonny doesn’t drag out his answers for too long before the next question is up on screen.
Who is Jonny Owen? Jonny Owen is a Welsh actor, producer and writer who’s appeared in many successful tv shows over the last century. He was born and raised in Merthyr Tydfil and even won a BAFTA in 2007 for his documentary the Aberfan Disaster.
What references or terms does the interviewee use that you are unfamiliar with? In the opening 30 seconds Jonny said the word philisophical which stood out to me, after looking up what it meant I found it’s another word similar to composed meaning he showed a calm attitude towards disappointments. Another term I wasn’t familiar with was industrial psychodelia which is later found out meant an array of experiences or changes of perceptions to industrial things.
What are the stand-out lines for you as a journalist?
If you were going to write a story for your website, what would it be? Why? Some of the standout lines for me would have to be I think it would be the words he had to say on his father and that generation of people being so different to us in the way his father died with asbestos in his lungs and other health complications but this was what men of that generation had to deal with in their tough environment growing up which for them was normality. Also the make sure an 18 year old can watch this film line, because that in itself is so important to bear in mind when creating content for anything that first you hit the younger generation because that is where the majority of engagement comes from. It is important to be original with your story as a journalist like with this interview Jonny is saying a lot of things to do with the doc that the viewer might have already known so as a story I would pick from Jonny’s answer to the “what stories didn’t make it into the film?” question.
I then watched the following video podcast
Who is the target audience here? The target audience is of course Celtic fans but also fans of Jonny Owen’s work and the younger generation.
What do you notice about the types of questions being asked? I noticed that the interviewer before leading on to his next questions acknowledges what Jonny had previously said and shortly adds his own opinion or thoughts towards it leading up to his next questions and I feel that is important in a sense that Jonny is then more obliged to answer when he can see his interviewer is engaged in what he’s saying if he’s speaking more about it and also in that sense for an outside perspective as a viewer you then see that the interviewer isn’t coming off as robotic merely just asking questions.
How are they different from the first interview? I think they are on a more personal level because this style of interview you can see the interviewer is speaking with Jonny and not just questions edited in on a script which because of this you get a lot more of a raw response or flow to what is being said.
How important is the presenter to the interview in this instance? Why? This is a podcast format so the interviewer is very important in the sense he runs the show and is also in charge of the questions and depending on how well he connects with Jonny determines how good of a response he’ll get and the better the response the better his podcast is to watch so the presenter is very important.
What did you learn about the film from this interview that you didn’t hear about in the first one? I learnt that Jonny had thought about doing a trilogy or a series rather than one film since it was such a task to fit all three Kings into one documentary movie.
Beside the film, what other lines (story angles) stand out from this interview? I think there are many little avenues you could go down in terms of stories that aren’t based off just the film because the interviewer asks a lot of questions which aren’t solely based around the film but more so football as a such so maybe Jonny’s opinion on Scottish managers and how he has such a good relationship with Celtic as a club despite being Welsh.
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