Documentary Film
Includes the usual 3 and : critical debates, filmmakers' theories
Sample question: [20]
Apply one filmmakers' theory of documentary film, how has this increased understanding of the film?
'Portable, digital cameras, digital sound recording equipment and non-linear digital editing have had a very significant impact on documentary film'. How far has digital technology had an impact on your chosen documentary
a film which documents real events, using real footage
Documentary sub genres according to Bill Nichols:
Poetic - shares a common terrain with the modernist avant-garde. This mode sacrifices the conventions of continuity editing and sense of a specific location in time and place. These films are allusive and often surprise and challenge students in what they think documentary are. They use associative editing in order to create a mood or tone without making an explicit argument about a subject.
Expository - speak directly to the viewer with voice over. Explicitly use rhetorical techniques in order to explore points of actuality. They use voice-over and have a straightforward show and tell structure where the viewer is guided through the material. Often television documentary falls into this category.
Participatory - The filmmaker interacts with his or her participants. The relationship between the filmmaker and the person being filmed becomes more direct and complex. He or she directly participatory in shaping what happens before the camera, especially in terms of conducting interviews.
Observational - the camera looks on as the participants in the film go on with their lives as though he camera wasn't present. The filmmaker steps back from the material he/she is shooting taking a neutral stance from the subject matter. Of course this may well open up debates about selection of material, lack of voiceover and editing devices.
Reflexive - this mode calls attention to the convention of documentary filmmaking in terms of a direct acknowledgement of the filmmaking process.
Performative - This mode emphasises the expressive quality of the filmmaker's engagement with the subject of the film and addresses the audience in a vivid way. This is where the filmmaker is not aloof from the subject matter but who actively engages with the material, where they are a seen participant.
Personal - Generally autobiographical and combine interviews and voiceovers with archive footage, photographs and artefacts to explore a person's life. This mode is closest to Amy.
Critical debate - digital:
Film starts in late 90's at the boom of digital technology
allows individuals to film for more personal stories, rather than film which would only be used for big productions.
Feeds narcissistic desires.
paparazzi - the impact of digital technology on her life which
Possible points in favour of the motion:
Everyone is a potential filmmaker, previously denied due to cost or technical ability.
Can document key events of our lives
Can reflect feelings at a particular time
Potential to use the internet as a means of distribution
Equally aesthetic decisions can be made on how the films look and how they are subsequently
Possible points against the motion:
Devalues actual memories
Documenting our own lives can be seen as narcissistic
What viewpoint is this actually giving
Cannot create a coherent narrative without
Can it be truly objective
Who is going to want to see what we have filmed
Is it too easily disposable, and too quickly consumed to last. What is its ultimate value artistically.
Filmmaker's Theories:
Moore:
Politically motivated, controversial documentaries
Populist assault on what he viewed as the injustice of american capitalism
His first documentary was an 'in your face' effort to gain an audience with GM's chairman, who's downsizing policies were causing unemployment in Flint, Michigan. The doc mixed humour and poignancy with indignation.
Other docs about healthcare, gun laws, 9/11
He is also central to the films in terms of seeing him interviewing people and his everyman persona disarms and encourages a range of interesting responses. This is also underscored by his physical appearance. He wears casual clothes, a baseball cap and is overweight. However this seemingly, laidback persona does hide a sharp and incisive line of questioning which he uses to good effect.
Kim Longinotto
Observantional filmmkaer. Observational cinema, also known as direct cinema, free cinema or cinema verite, usuallly eschews cetain documentary techniques such as advanced planning, scripting, staging, narration , lighting, re-enactment and interviewing. Longinotto's unobtrusiveness, which is an important part of observational docummentary, gives the women on camera a certain voice and presence that mat not have emerged with another documentary genre.
Her unobtrusiveness means that the film is very much in the control of the subject. Where kapadia uses hundreds of hours of footage from all different sources and therefore has enough to create completely different narratives, Longinotto's films can be argued to be less manipulative as she has less to work with.
Both are observational in the respect that they don't take part in the film other than bringing everything together. She feels like she makes films with people whereas kapadia makes them about people with little to no interaction between them. They share the lack of planning in an approach to the film, as Kapadia said he doesn't have an agenda going into the production.
Amy's father said in an interview : 'I didn't think she should've gone to rehab at that time'. Kapadia edited out 'at that time'
Chris King (editor) : 90% of the rushes were digital files, in the most dizzying array of formats. Asif and I added layer after layer of effects to make a video that seemed linked rather than a random collection.
Sample question: [20]
Apply one filmmakers' theory of documentary film, how has this increased understanding of the film?
'Portable, digital cameras, digital sound recording equipment and non-linear digital editing have had a very significant impact on documentary film'. How far has digital technology had an impact on your chosen documentary
a film which documents real events, using real footage
Documentary sub genres according to Bill Nichols:
Poetic - shares a common terrain with the modernist avant-garde. This mode sacrifices the conventions of continuity editing and sense of a specific location in time and place. These films are allusive and often surprise and challenge students in what they think documentary are. They use associative editing in order to create a mood or tone without making an explicit argument about a subject.
Expository - speak directly to the viewer with voice over. Explicitly use rhetorical techniques in order to explore points of actuality. They use voice-over and have a straightforward show and tell structure where the viewer is guided through the material. Often television documentary falls into this category.
Participatory - The filmmaker interacts with his or her participants. The relationship between the filmmaker and the person being filmed becomes more direct and complex. He or she directly participatory in shaping what happens before the camera, especially in terms of conducting interviews.
Observational - the camera looks on as the participants in the film go on with their lives as though he camera wasn't present. The filmmaker steps back from the material he/she is shooting taking a neutral stance from the subject matter. Of course this may well open up debates about selection of material, lack of voiceover and editing devices.
Reflexive - this mode calls attention to the convention of documentary filmmaking in terms of a direct acknowledgement of the filmmaking process.
Performative - This mode emphasises the expressive quality of the filmmaker's engagement with the subject of the film and addresses the audience in a vivid way. This is where the filmmaker is not aloof from the subject matter but who actively engages with the material, where they are a seen participant.
Personal - Generally autobiographical and combine interviews and voiceovers with archive footage, photographs and artefacts to explore a person's life. This mode is closest to Amy.
Critical debate - digital:
Film starts in late 90's at the boom of digital technology
allows individuals to film for more personal stories, rather than film which would only be used for big productions.
Feeds narcissistic desires.
paparazzi - the impact of digital technology on her life which
Possible points in favour of the motion:
Everyone is a potential filmmaker, previously denied due to cost or technical ability.
Can document key events of our lives
Can reflect feelings at a particular time
Potential to use the internet as a means of distribution
Equally aesthetic decisions can be made on how the films look and how they are subsequently
Possible points against the motion:
Devalues actual memories
Documenting our own lives can be seen as narcissistic
What viewpoint is this actually giving
Cannot create a coherent narrative without
Can it be truly objective
Who is going to want to see what we have filmed
Is it too easily disposable, and too quickly consumed to last. What is its ultimate value artistically.
Filmmaker's Theories:
Moore:
Politically motivated, controversial documentaries
Populist assault on what he viewed as the injustice of american capitalism
His first documentary was an 'in your face' effort to gain an audience with GM's chairman, who's downsizing policies were causing unemployment in Flint, Michigan. The doc mixed humour and poignancy with indignation.
Other docs about healthcare, gun laws, 9/11
He is also central to the films in terms of seeing him interviewing people and his everyman persona disarms and encourages a range of interesting responses. This is also underscored by his physical appearance. He wears casual clothes, a baseball cap and is overweight. However this seemingly, laidback persona does hide a sharp and incisive line of questioning which he uses to good effect.
Kim Longinotto
Observantional filmmkaer. Observational cinema, also known as direct cinema, free cinema or cinema verite, usuallly eschews cetain documentary techniques such as advanced planning, scripting, staging, narration , lighting, re-enactment and interviewing. Longinotto's unobtrusiveness, which is an important part of observational docummentary, gives the women on camera a certain voice and presence that mat not have emerged with another documentary genre.
Her unobtrusiveness means that the film is very much in the control of the subject. Where kapadia uses hundreds of hours of footage from all different sources and therefore has enough to create completely different narratives, Longinotto's films can be argued to be less manipulative as she has less to work with.
Both are observational in the respect that they don't take part in the film other than bringing everything together. She feels like she makes films with people whereas kapadia makes them about people with little to no interaction between them. They share the lack of planning in an approach to the film, as Kapadia said he doesn't have an agenda going into the production.
Amy's father said in an interview : 'I didn't think she should've gone to rehab at that time'. Kapadia edited out 'at that time'
Chris King (editor) : 90% of the rushes were digital files, in the most dizzying array of formats. Asif and I added layer after layer of effects to make a video that seemed linked rather than a random collection.
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