Week 5 - The Documentary Mode

My documentary focuses on visual military simulation, and how doing so gives the viewer a knowledge and understanding on how a soldier and enemy soldier would interact and manoeuvre in the certain conditions and environments.
Using the three masteries I have chosen to emphasise the movement of soldiers and their impact on the surrounding spaces being large or confined.

I chose to film my Machinima documentary from the observational and expository modes. From documentaries I have studied, they all use the same types of angles and subjects before getting onto the actual theme. For instance, documentaries will start off with shots depicting close up and/ or off centred landscapes or objects. Then start to get long pans of the surrounding area before focusing on the main subject. This is done to introduce and get the audience to feel the surroundings and subjects, to feel like there they and experiencing this first hand, allowing them to get into the film on a more personal level. I found that using a combination between these two documentary styles is the key for demonstrating military simulations in order to show how soldiers would react and navigate through environments in battle conditions.

When making this documentary, I wanted it to be factual, relevant to the idea of the porosity lens but also be really exciting and entertaining. Which is where I got the idea to create a military simulation which would brief soldiers on battle strategies and also give them a vicarious experience on how to navigate through certain terrain.

In today’s age, simulations such as this one allow for soldiers to gain a understanding of how to navigate through areas and environments. This allows for the soldiers to already have a knowledge base even before they have been in that certain situation. A great way to find out how someone will react or behave in a certain situation or environment is to create a test or simulation. Giving the viewer a visual ‘What If’ outcome.

In my documentary I have constructed 3 platforms with ramps inside the Town Hall train station foundation. I then placed 100 enemy AI’s around the platforms and got them to run around and interact and navigate through the environment.
After viewing the enemy AI’s on their own, I then bring in the squad mates AI’s and see how they, the enemy AI’s and the environment all react to each other. Watching how the squad mates navigate around the terrain and how the enemy fights back.