General question: What makes a film a documentary?
Give a brief definition:
Informs, real world, facts, explanations, events, documentaries are films
Feel real. Not imaginary things.
Super Size Me, Omnibus 174 - Jose Padilha 2002
Try to formulate three golden rules film audiences hold about documentaries?
1. Events in the documentary must have happened
2. Objective view point
3. Events shown on the films must continue on. The documentary you have made is part of the real world.
WATCH these 3 extracts from 3 different styles of documentary
Coalface (1935) dir: Alberto Cavalcanti
Streetwise (1984) dir: Martin Bell
A man with a movie camera (1928) – Dziga Vertov
What is the content or theme of the documentary?
Coalface- Coal industry and the people working in there.
Streetwise- lifes about people on the street, homeless.
Who do you think is the intended audience?
Coalface- adult white collar members. Educated audience
Streetwise- people that don’t live in the street.
Discuss the choice and sequence of images, portrayal of the characters and setting, use of diagetic and non-diagetic sound, type of narration used.
Coalface- non- diagetic sound. Characters are shown as generalized miners. Maps at the beginning, but it’s not clear were it is. The story is being told by an external narrator, educated, white male. Voice over, to focus more on what he is explaining. Omniscient narrator. Classic mode of documentary.
Streetwise- narrators are the same people of the streets. People wondering in the streets. Color mostly comes from the clothe of the people of the street. Diagetic sound, at the beginning the first voice was non diagetic. The voice just shows us, feels more honest. Good continuity editing.
What does this documentary style make you feel or think about the content?
If you are British you would feel patriotism, because of the great mines, achievement. Publicity for the whole business of mines, they only show the good things. At the end they show us a tree which represents nature, so it show us that they don’t pollute. It also shows us the houses of the workers, to show us that they have a good job.
Streetwise- depends on the viewer, some might want to change the life of the people that live there.
Why do you think these film techniques were chosen by the director?
What do you think is the overall message or aim of this documentary film?
Coalface- Romantic, workers work inside the earth and then they come out of there and we have a tree which represents nature. Poetic.
How would you describe this style documentary and why?
Coalface- Optimistic, romantic, informative, descriptive.
Streetwise- Realistic, camera being used like an ordinary point of view,
Make notes on each of these ‘modes’ or styles of documentary developed by American documentary theorist Bill Nichols, who created a conceptual scheme which seeks to distinguish particular traits and conventions of various documentary film styles.
Poetic = Definition and Examples
Expository = Definition and Examples
Observational = Definition and Examples
Reflexive = Definition and Examples
Performative/Participatory/Interactive = Definition and Examples
Which of these modes do you think is likely to give the most accurate picture of ‘real life’ and why?
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario