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Help with Documentary Homework

Lucky CynicLucky Cynic Registered User regular
edited May 2007 in Help / Advice Forum
Hey there guys, I have been actually having a pretty damn hard time getting footage for this one documentary film I am trying to make and it just seems impossible to find video clips that aren't on YouTube or Google Video. I am doing about a 5min documentary on how the Media portrays the country of Iran. I'm sure you guys are all aware right now, whenever someone on CNN talks about Iran, they show clips of people burning effigies in streets and terrorists handing guns to children and shit like that. My aim of this short documentary type film is to explain to people that the country itself isn't all "Death to America!"

Right now, I'm planning on getting an interview from my mother, and someone down the street and depict on what they think/know Iran is like. (My Mom, btw lived there.) Anyways I am really having trouble finding good clips that are WMV or other standard video types. I need to be able to import them into Windows Movie Maker. I also need the clips to not be from Iraq, meaning no US troops since they currently do not occupy Iran, despite what some conspiracy theorists believe.

I understand how a true documentary has to be all footage I have shot myself but my teacher has okayed me doing this, just so long as it isn't other people's images and video for 5min.

The breakdown (so far) will go like this:
Intro -> Brief history of the Country -> Leads into Current day -> Leads into opinion about current day -> Leads into Interviews -> and then into conclusion. So for the intro, I only need credits and such, and the brief history can be depicted with short video clips of the revolution in '79 or if need be, I can narrate the history using words. For the Current Day section, I'd really like to use actual video of Ahmadinejad and such if I can find some good sources. The interviews are no biggie, and the conclusion is just a closing monologue by myself. Thoughts? I probably sound really lazy but I have only a few good video clips and I'd really be grateful if you guys can help. :^:

EDIT: Alright, this is getting neigh impossible, if you guys can help me rip a video or two from a website, I guess that can be a fairly okay substitute.

Lucky Cynic on

Posts

  • ElectricTurtleElectricTurtle Seeress WARegistered User regular
    edited May 2007
    ...it just seems impossible to find video clips that aren't on YouTube or Google Video.

    Why do you care that they not be from that source? Are you unaware of the means of extracting said videos from those sources?

    My grandfather worked for Boeing in Iran under the Shah, and my interpretation of their accounts was basically Iranians are bipolar. They're each individually capable of being very friendly and hospitable but can just as easily become mean to the point of atrocity at practically the drop of a hat. Beyond that, documentaries that go looking to prove any premise are usually bad. If you're trying to prove something, you're very deliberately going to include some things and exclude others, producing a very skewed and artificial picture. In effect, going out of your way for positivity is ethically just as bad as the news media going out of its way for negativity.

    ElectricTurtle on
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  • witch_iewitch_ie Registered User regular
    edited May 2007
    Most documentaries in this day and age do set out to prove a point. I can't even watch documentaries on the History channel without seeing the the spin. Anyway, it sounds like the OP has already done his research and just needs clips to fill in stuff. I don't have any help for you here, but just wanted to say I see no problem with your methods.

    witch_ie on
  • PongePonge Registered User regular
    edited May 2007
    One of my favourite sites ever is archive.org, and a quick search brings up these clips

    http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=iran%20AND%20mediatype%3Amovies

    I've not looked through to see if any of them are particularly relevant to your documentary, but some of them might be. Theyre often available in pretty high resolution formats, though I don't know how many of them will work with Windows Movie Maker.

    Ponge on
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