Many year 13 students were right in the middle of filming and editing their short documentary films for the Factual Programming BTEC unit when the lockdown happened. However some managed to finish production just enough so that the results can be shared with you.

This was a new unit for us, and a fascinating one to get into – I love documentary film making. With so many different genres and subjects available, and the ease of which, thanks to streaming, we can watch them , overall it made for a really interesting unit.

We all love to watch real drama unfold on screen, whether about people, our local community, or sporting events. These examples cover all of the above.

Fortunately, no tigers were harmed in any of these films – so I guess Netflix has nothing to worry about just yet. However these two young film makers are definitely future factual videographers to watch out for.

Hector Ziegel – Park Run

A short documentary about the Park run organisation – filmed on location in Richmond Park and featuring some great interview techniques and establishing shots.

Scott Valentine – Andy’s Armoury

Scott’s short film is a fascinating interview with Andy, owner of a Militaria shop in Liphook. He makes excellent use of 3rd party images to illustrate his documentary, and the conversation almost evokes Louis Theroux at times.

Yves Madoc-Jones – Classic Films

This video by Yves is a well organised exercise in how to re-think your filming plans during a social distancing lock-down. Making good use of talking heads on computer screens and zoom style interviews, Yves documentary discussion into classic films has a feel and style not unlike lots of the media we are watching on TV right now.