January
13
ELA A10 Jan 13/17 Watching Your Selected Documentary
You should naturally have a habit now of thinking of a text in stages of Before, During, and After. You’ll have to submit evidence that you used strategies for each step to help you make meaning and connections to the text you chose to study.
Some options of what you can review/analyse/write out to prepare yourself for viewing include:
Before Studying/Viewing the Documentary:
- setting a purpose for why you’re going to view the film
- reminding yourself of what the characteristics of a documentary are
- consider the style you observed in watching The Cove and how they constructed their argument and their methods to persuade the viewers
- Set certain questions for yourself that you hope are answered by the text
- Look up some background information about the documentary you’ve chosen
During Studying/Viewing the Documentary:
- make jot notes of things that stand out to you as you watch the film
- record the questions you find yourself asking as you’re watching that you may later look up the answers to
- keep a list of elements of the film you’re critical of or find suspicious
- monitor your own reactions, mentally and emotionally, to the storyline and images you view
After Studying/Viewing the Documentary:
- write a personal reflection of how you feel/your thoughts immediately after viewing the film
- write out questions you have, now that you’ve completed watching it
- read reviews of the film to check if your reaction is similar to how others received it
- Tweet comments/reflections out about the documentary
- make a T-chart and list some of the things you wrote down During Viewing on the left and on the right side expand on why they stood out to you
To prepare for your final assignment, a presentation and informal talk, you’ll need to review and possible rewatch parts of the film for the following:
so you’ll first need to develop a fair understanding of what sets this type of film apart from other video texts, like movies. While a movie has the purpose of entertaining, documentaries have the purpose of convincing audiences of something. For that reason, a viewer needs to be aware of that agenda and monitor what they view with a critical eye.