Documentary - Talk with Jack Cocker (17/03/2021)

 Talk with Jack Cocker (17/03/2021)

Documentary maker, Jack Cocker, conducted a talk with us over zoom to help us gain some insight into the world of documentary making as well as how his work and career. 

Jack pointed out throughout the talk that you have to constantly be thinking why and have reasoning behind what you're doing as commissioners like to have a reason and often ask questions like "why them?" (Cocker, 2021) and "why now?" (Cocker, 2021). This piece of advice is useful as you're made to think about and explain why you have chosen to do something rather than making a decision and not knowing why you have made that decision. I will use this when going forward as I believe that it will help me in looking back at the things that I have done, the decisions I have made, and the decisions I am going to make and thinking about the reasoning behind them, ensuring that I don't drift too far away from the work at hand. 

When it comes to the talent/contributors, Jack emphasised the need for good characters. What Jack meant by this, is looking for characters who don't change in front of the camera, who have a good personality, who are interesting, and who would potentially appeal to an audience, amongst other things. In addition to this, Jack explained to us that personality of a documentary and film maker has a big role to play. Likability, respect and a clear vision are at the forefront, and can help you get further in life and with your work. People are more likely to work with you again if you are likeable, have respect, and hold a clear vision. It was also mentioned that charm is useful as it allows you to potentially gain access, work, build a rapport etc. however, it isn't essential. 

Another important point Jack made, was to ensure that you think about continuity throughout, especially when cutting as you want to make sure that the action matches. I will try to continually think about continuity with regards to this unit and future work so that my work is completed to a high standard. 

To conclude, I found the talk that Jack Cocker gave extremely useful and will be trying to incorporate what he put forward to us in my work going forward. 

Bibliography:

Cocker, J. (2021) Talk with Jack Cocker. [Online 17/03/2021]