I have focused recently on what cut away shots we can use by looking at modern documentaries and how they use them and what they use for them. I have noticed a few things about how they use them, for example they have to be used for a purpose (relevant to the subject) so if the documentary is about how someone dressed differently to other people the cut aways would be focused on their clothes. Also a key use of cutaways is to open up the viewer to a location of where the documentary is being filmed. So if it was being filmed in the interviewees house, there would be cutaway shops of the local area and ultimately the house itself. I believe that this is important as it helps tell the story, shots such as these are used in fictional productions also that aren't documentaries. An interesting use of cutaways that I have noticed being used in a documentary is ones used in the BBC Three documentary 'Life and Death Row'.
This documentary focuses on the capital punishment in the US i.e. criminals being sentenced to death. The documentary shows both sides of a criminals execution, the side of the criminal who is going to be executed and the side of the criminals and the victims family. This thought provoking documentary uses original ideas for cut away shots, such as shots of the interviewees looking into the camera, far away shots of interviewees standing in the location where the crime took place and more simple basic shots like filming cars driving in the night, focusing on their rear lights. These types of cut away shots keeps the audience member interested in what is happening on screen; in my opinion that is what the cut away shots should be used for. I am going to look for opportunities to get shots like this in our documentary, there will only be so much we can achieve with the time that we have with the interviewees but if our group plans ahead we can certainly obtain these shots.
