Eduqas A level Film Studies,Component 2:Amy (Kapadia, 2015)

• Most of the film consists of archival footage
• Types of archival footage used

  • Stock footage
  • Unseen footage captured on video or DV by people close to the singer
  • Mobile phone footage
• 90% of the footage used is digital
• Amy Winehouse's friends and family provided analogue and some early digital recordings of her
• These reveal a personal perspective on Amy's childhood and early career
• There are a number of montage sequences using the amateur digital archival footage that lend great power to the film's narrative
• Kapadia: ''This is more personal because this is becoming home movies, and by the end of it, it's camera phones.''
• Kapadia: ''Strangely enough, the older formats of film last longer than digital, because (now) we delete photos, we delete video, we delete our audio interviews. People used to keep everything because they had a cassette tape. Now when you interview somebody, how often do you keep that audio once you've used it?''
• Kapadia's approach

  • Shoots little original footage - only digital drone aerial shots
  • Doesn't have a treatment, logline or script - lets the story form from the archival footage
  • Records interviews in audio only to capture more emotional response
  • Manipulates the audio digitally for emotional impact
• Digital technologies

  • Have made the filmmaking process more democratic - cheaper and easier to make a film
  • Allow for capturing reality - amateur quality of 'little cameras' goes hand in hand with this
  • Have grown the repertoire of archival footage available to documentary filmmakers
  • Have opened up a world of possibility through non-linear digital editing
• Some filmmakers still choose to shoot on film, preferring the texture and aesthetic of film to digital
• In documentary film, archival material shot on film may be enhanced or restored digitally, e.g. by removing grain and scratches and even colourising black-and-white
• Types of footage used in the film

  • Archival footage
  • Stock footage
  • Unseen footage captured on video or DV
  • Mobile phone footage
• 90% of the footage used is digital
• Analogue and early digital recordings

  Reveal a personal perspective on Amy's childhood and early career
• Montage sequences using amateur digital archival footage

  • Lend great power to the film's narrative
• Kapadia: ''This is more personal because this is becoming home movies, and by the end of it, it's camera phones. Strangely enough, the older formats of film last longer than digital, because (now) we delete photos, we delete video, we delete our audio interviews. People used to keep everything because they had a cassette tape. Now when you interview somebody, how often do you keep that audio once you've used it?''
• Kapadia's approach


  • Shoots little original footage - digital drone aerial shots
  • Doesn't have a treatment, logline or script - lets the story form from the archival footage
  • Records interviews in audio only - to capture more emotional response as people react differently in front of cameras
  • Manipulates the audio digitally for emotional impact, best exemplified in the Back to Black sequence
• Digital technologies have made the filmmaking process more democratic - it has become much cheaper and easier to make a film
• We are now all potential filmmakers and can produce some amazing footage using just our mobile phones
• The amateur quality of 'little cameras' goes hand in hand with the idea of capturing reality, which is a major concern of the documentary filmmaker
• The diminutive size of 'little cameras' allows for easier access to remote or difficult-to-film locations
• The repertoire of archival footage available to a documentary filmmaker has grown exponentially since the beginning of the digital era
• Non-linear digital editing has opened up a world of possibility to the filmmaker, further democratising the documentary format
• Some filmmakers still choose to shoot on film, preferring the texture and aesthetic of film to digital
• In documentary film, archival material shot on film may be enhanced or restored digitally, e.g. by removing grain and scratches and even colourising black-and-white
• Asif Kapadia's 2015 documentary on Amy Winehouse

  • Distinctive in many ways
  • Follows the same filmmaking techniques as his earlier film on Ayrton Senna
  • Has a similar overall effect
• 'True fiction'


  The style the director likes to label the film
• Narrative construction


  1. Uses a variety of archival footage sources

  2. Lacks any guiding voiceover

  3. Uses interviews from Winehouse's family, friends and people that worked for her

  4. Uses captions and her music, alongside a specially developed score
• Positioning the spectator


  The techniques used work to position the spectator in a particular way
• The film was well-reviewed
• The film became the highest grossing British documentary at the UK box-office
• The film received a number of awards for Best Documentary, most notably gaining an Oscar and BAFTA in 2016
• The degree of the impact that digital has had on film since the 1990s is a developing debate
• Perspectives on the impact of digital technology on film

  • Some film commentators argue that although digital technology could potentially transform cinema, so far films, especially narrative films designed for cinema release have changed very little from pre-digital times
  • Others consider that the impact of digital filmmaking is only beginning to emerge, both in high concept Hollywood filmmaking and in much lower budget experimental work
• This section hopes to explore how we can look at this debate in relation to documentary film
• All five films in this section of the specification have utilised digital techniques with a wide variety of results
• Task One - Everyday filmmakers


  1. Discuss in pairs: Have you ever used your smartphone as a filmmaking device? If you have - what did you film? If you haven't why not - give reasons for this

  2. In teams of four: In terms of the films that have been captured on these devices - what have these been of: you, friends, family events, real-life incidents, gigs/concerts/other events? Have you shared these via social media sites or YouTube and what has the response been? Why did you do this? Have you manipulated the raw footage captured on your smartphones e.g. in terms of editing, changing the sound, changing the colour palette or adding other techniques? What is the most important film that you have on your smartphones? Give reasons for your choice
• Class debate


  1. One side of the class can be positioned in favour of the motion and the other side of the class against the motion. Possible points in favour: We are all now potential filmmakers which gives us access to the medium, This may have been denied in the past because of cost or a lack of technical ability, This type of filmmaking can capture our reality, We can document parts of our lives – especially key events, These films can reflect how we were feeling at a particular time, There is the potential to use the internet as a means of distribution of these films, Equally aesthetic decisions can be made on how the films look and how they are subsequently received

  2. Possible points against: Whatever happened to use of our memories – shouldn't this be enough to document our own reality, Does the filming of what we determine as our key events be possibly seen as self-obsessed and narcissistic, What viewpoint of reality is this point of view actually giving?, Can this sort of filming ever be truly objective?, Who is going to want to see what we have filmed?, Without technical manipulation (such as editing) can these films ever create a coherent narrative?, Is digital technology too easily disposable to last? What it is ultimate value artistically?
• Task Two - What is digital filmmaking?

  1. Whole class debate or in pairs/small groups: Does this really matter to audiences? If it does what have they gained or lost as a result of this revolution in the film industry? Evaluate the advantages for film producers in terms of budget considerations and also in terms of the filmmakers themselves, aesthetic decisions on how the film looks

  2. Small group research task: What have been the key developments in digital filmmaking process in the following areas: Cinematography, Sound, Editing, The creation of mise-en-scene. Evaluate if these developments have enhanced the audiences experience of watching films.