{"id":95613,"date":"2017-10-05T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-10-05T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.premiumbeat.com\/blog\/?p=95613"},"modified":"2017-10-03T14:38:45","modified_gmt":"2017-10-03T19:38:45","slug":"netflix-future-documentary-film","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.premiumbeat.com\/blog\/netflix-future-documentary-film\/","title":{"rendered":"How “American Vandal” Shows Us the Future of Documentary Film"},"content":{"rendered":"

This Netflix original series\u00a0relies on vertical cell phone footage and animated social media conversations, giving us a glimpse of future\u00a0documentaries.<\/h2>\n

All images via Netflix.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

In a mockumentary investigation series about spray-painting genitals on cars, Netflix somehow manages to show us the future of documentary films and docu-series<\/strong>. American Vandal<\/em><\/a> is a true-crime spoof series that investigates the whereabouts of teenagers during a high school prank.<\/p>\n

\"How<\/p>\n

I just finished binge-watching every episode<\/a>. Not only was it\u00a0incredibly funny in the most juvenile ways, the series is\u00a0very well done. The fact that they could stretch the premise to eight episodes and keep me captivated was astonishing. Not only that, the show is beautifully shot, edited, and colored<\/strong>,\u00a0capturing the purest form of adolescence: acting\u00a0like an idiot with your friends.<\/p>\n

I can go on\u00a0and on about the show, but I’ll let you\u00a0dive\u00a0into that yourself. You can watch the (NSFW) trailer here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What I want to break down is how the mockumentary perfectly makes fun of the true-crime drama while making a legitimately\u00a0well-crafted series. From subtly poking fun at the overuse of sliders and drones<\/strong>\u00a0to using vertical<\/strong>\u00a0cell phone footage<\/strong>\u00a0and social media<\/strong>, this series has it all. I’m also going to show you ways you can create social media interfaces<\/strong>, so you can\u00a0animate conversations and use\u00a0these techniques as well.<\/p>\n

\"How<\/p>\n

In the show, I found myself relating most to the high school students shooting, editing, and narrating the series<\/strong>. In what may come as a shock to you, I also was not very cool in school, was not good with girls, and spent way too much time with a camera in my hands.<\/p>\n

The reason I bring this up is that cinematographer Adam Bricker<\/a> perfectly captured the series in the way a high schooler would, though in a much more professional manner.\u00a0High school filmmakers would use mirrorless\u00a0cameras<\/strong>, and in the series it looks like a Sony a-series\u00a0body inside of their camera cage. In addition, the students would have\u00a0captured b-roll with sliders and establishing shots with drones<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

(If you haven’t already watched our video tutorial on\u00a0not overusing\u00a0drones, by Zach Ramelan<\/a>, I highly recommend checking it out. He makes some great points about the overuse of drones and sliders in today’s filmmaking world.)<\/p>\n

\"How<\/p>\n

Above is a glimpse of episode six, in which we see the feaux-filmmakers prepare to\u00a0shoot undercover by using an iPhone camera placed in a shirt pocket<\/strong> \u2014 a trick that obviously isn’t very sneaky. You can also see the camera rig they used to capture most of the other footage in the show.<\/p>\n

In reality, American Vandal<\/em> was mostly shot in 6K on the RED WEAPON DRAGON<\/strong>. Bricker lensed the series with the Leica Summicron-C primes and a Fujinon Cabrio zoom lens<\/strong>. But that’s not all. Too keep up an authentic teenager scenario, the crew really did use the mirrorless camera, iPhones, and GoPros to capture party footage and prank videos.<\/p>\n

As for the aerial footage in the show, that\u00a0is the work of the\u00a0very talented crew over at Drone Dudes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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A post shared by Adam Bricker (@realadambricker)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n