Music Interview

You don't need to like the music, but appreciate the screen effects used in the video

Parkway Drive - "Sleepwalker"

"Ghost Hunters" Documentary Review

Ghost Hunters is a "sci-fi" series which investigates areas with paranormal activity. The Atlantic Paranormal Society travels around America investigating homes, jails, ships, and other buildings in search of any paranormal activity. The show is set up in a documentary style. The beginning consists of B-Roll of the travel to the destination. On the way the investigators speak to each other about the history of the building and the reported activity in the building. Once the team arrives, the film-makers shoot footage of a tour of the building. Whenever the interviewee states an area that has activity, the shows moves to B-Roll of that area. All the "hot spots" are filmed with a darker light setting, as well as in slow motion to set suspense. The show features interviews of each person in the location who has witnessed paranormal activity. Once the tour is over, the team sets up equipment, again utilizing B-Roll. Then team then begins to investigate the building, primarily the "hot spots". The team uses many types of equipment. A team member will explain what each piece of equipment does as he uses it, and what it is believed to show a presense of something paranormal.
The interviews are set up according to the environment the people are in. Generally, the interviews are in the most "active" locations of the building. When the interview begins, a title will appear in the lower third of the screen stating who the person is, and their connection to the building. It is usually a transparent block with a dark grey colour to it, with white text inside. The inverviews during the investigation are always done in the dark where the is no light being emitted from anything. In order to see the person, the crew uses Infrared Cameras. This creates an oportunity to see into another light spectrum. The team, and many other paranormal investigators believe using infrared cameras allow an entity to appear. I think this is effective in two ways. The camera provides an interesting view, giving the person looking at the camera bright white eyes, similar to red-eye, but without the colour. Also, with the infrared cameras on, it allows the opportunity to see activity which may go on behind the interview.
Once the investigation is finished, two technician crew members analyze the footage and pick out parts which may be paranormal, if any. The film maker include footage of this, but only parts where something sparks interest in the investigators. This is effective because if this was shot too long, it would become incredibly boring.
Two of the crew members, Grant and Jason, work as plumbers for a living, and every once in a while, show footage of them at work as more B-Roll. Essentially, the B-Roll in the documentary is very well thought out and effective. It's not too long and shows only interesting shots.
As this is one of my favourite shows, it requires excitement, mystery, and a bit of comedy, and this show pulls all of those aspects together. One last tool the show uses is strange sound effects and slow music to provide a suspenseful environment. In my opinion, this show is flawless. Any aspect a critic could pick at is very small and insignificant.

Documentary Review of "Straight Outta L.A."

Straight Outta L.A. is a documentary narrated by Ice Cube, about the hip-hop group N.W.A and the Raiders of the NFL. This documentary is one of the first docs I have seen with a style pertaining to its content. The documentary is based from L.A., and at the beginning, the interviews and videos are done in a film tape style. The film tape rolls down the screen and as it does so you see the first interview. A great aspect of the documentary that is a strong hook right from the beginning is when "Ice Cube" says that it doesn't matter if you are a fan of hip-hop, or a fan of football, you will appreciate what the documentary has to say. Something that the film maker does that not many film makers do is put himself in the documentary. Celebrities such as Snoop Dogg and John Madden are put in the documentary as a hook for viewers because they are easily identifiable. An interesting thing done in this documentary is the use of animation. This is not often done in documentaries to maintain realism, but the technique of the comic strip style of Ice Cube to illustrate a picture of his past is very well done and does not risk losing the realism of the documentary. Several of the interviews are close ups, which is not a bad idea, until the interview with Al Davis appears. He is one of the interviews where a distance shot is better used. Another idea for when he is being interviewed is shoot straight to B-Roll, that way the interest is maintained.
In a few shots, Snoop Dogg has a planted prop, possibly used to incorporate the topic of the Raiders with his impact on the hip-hop world.
The film maker has a lot of great idea for hooks and incorporates them in the right places. The final hook that was fairly successful was the insertion of old music videos from N.W.A. and Ice Cube. The insertion of the Raiders football footage was a great idea as well. The only problems with the documentary are Al Davis' interview close ups and the background used in the interviews. Several of the interviews incorportated a black background for those who were caucasians anda white background for those who are African-American. This may be done as a strategy but I think it is more likely to offend those who notice. The only interviews which did not use this technique were those of Al Davis and Snoop Dogg. In a few of Davis' interviews, he appeared to be in his office or a part of the Raiders' stadium. Snoop Dogg's interviews took place in parts of the football field and up high in the bleachers. This is done, not just to provide easy lighting for his interview, but his background is a sky view of the football field, showing the architecture of the building and the rest of the stadium.

Un-F****** REAL!

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