Documentary Film Director: Liza Williams

Liza Williams has a long catalogue of documentary films she has directed and produced over the years. Her most popular works are with BBC Three and Channel 4, where she captures raw moments on film, building strong relationships with her subjects and capturing their lives on film. The topics she covers are usually quite controversial, and she's not afraid to cross social barriers. She will usually cover observational/structured documentary and current affairs. On her page for thetalentmanager.co,uk she claims to gain "the trust of contributors in challenging and sensitive situations is central to the way I produce." This is well reflected in her documentaries. For example, in her BBC Three documentary The Drugs Map of Britain' she follows the life of various struggling drug addicts, finding their stories and how they got into their drugs; it mainly revolves around the use of legal highs: a synthetic version of cannabis, usually sold in smoking mixtures. The documentary shows how there are as many as five shops selling the substance in the city centre alone, and how dangerous and encouraging to addiicts it is. We find out to begin with how easy it is to get hold of the substance to give a balanced view of the people, and how its not just their fault, its the supplies, and the laws tat are in place which doesn't heat. The problem they establish is that because manufacturers constantly change the ingredients, and replace parts (more dangerous) its difficult to pin point laws. 

Something rather inspiring about Lizas work is that she self shoots, so she doesn't need a huge crew
to carry around, which may also be more intimidating to her subjects, and will tarnish the relationship/intimacy, and subjects may not open up as more. This is inspiring to our own piece. We have a small crew, which means our subjects/interviewees will feel less intimidated. We also accounted time to talk to our subjects before filming so we get to know each other and they are more inclined to open up. This is especially important when talking about a sensitive subject, so with the Holocaust Survivors we would speak to them casually before to get to know each other.

What also makes her a great documentary filmmaker is her knowledge and understanding of journalism and the law. Much of her work is very sensitive, so her knowledge on the law would be very important in getting the best coverage out there with our any legal issues.

As camera man/director of photography for our piece, I was interested to find out what she shoots on to give her documentaries a visually appealing, naturalistic look. She uses different prime lenses including the Canon C300 and Sony FS7. I will be using a cannon 60D, 70D and 7D with:

- x2 50mm f/1.8- 24-70mm f/2.8
- 70-200mm f/2.8
- Some standard lenses (f/4.5) and wide lenses

We don't always want to give off a naturalistic look, with our three camera setup, the interviews remain formal. When we want naturalistic I will film handheld, like with the memorial for example. I do use a stabiliser when filming this, just to secure steady shots, when having to capture things in the moment.
Liza's presenter-led films she's directed are equally as good, and have also been an inspiration to me.
Her documentaries have followed men addicted to Valium, twins going through mastectomy operations and police officers grappling with out of control teenagers.
She's comfortable cutting films made solely of her own material, which is great in terms of cost efficiency, convenience, reliability and quality in most cases.