Class
Today Linda Server took the lecture as her expertise is in fact documentary filmmaking.
We learned about all the different modes of documentary. These modes were created by a man named Bill Nichols. We’ve already learned about documentary modes in Mandy’s AV1032 but she failed to tell us who first came up with the idea so I learned sometime new from Linda.
You know the modes and I know the modes so I’m just going to briefly mention documentary filmmakers that regularly use each mode and a few of their films.
Expository Mode
This is the first and most identifiable mode that people usually apply to documentaries. Uses voice of God narration. A lot of the nature documentaries that come on BBC 1 and the discovery channel use this mode. Some say it’s boring but I say it’s traditional. You can never go wrong with expository documentary.
The Poetic Mode
Documentaries of this mode can be very abstract. They “move away from the objective reality of a given situation or people to grasp at an inner truth”
Robert Flaherty’s ‘Man of Aran’ is said to be poetic because of the way he presents the subjects of his documentary as men in harmony with nature.
I personally don’t think I have ever watched a poetic documentary.
The Observational Mode
A non-interventionist fly-on-the-wall type of documentary and one of the modes I prefer. The camera should not at all disturb the action so that subjects can behave naturally. There should be no interviews because the filmmaker should just be analysing that person’s world through the camera. People say seeing is believing and I guess that’s usually true. The truth is mostly seen and hardly heard.
Frederick Wiseman’s ‘Hospital’ is a good example.
Another documentary of Wiseman’s is TIiticut Follies which is about the treatment of inmates/patients at Bridgewater State Hospital for the criminally insane.
We watched a clip of this in the class with Linda and I really couldn’t watch it because of the way the inmates were being treated. I understood that they were criminal but some of them clearly had mental disabilities and did not deserve to be treated the way they were by the guards. I could see that the guards had a lot of hate as well and I did not understand that. I felt sorry for the inmates where as some of the guards were purposely hurting them. What the guards failed to realise is that hurting someone with mental disabilities who has committed a crime makes you worse than them. Some were not even aware that what they had done was bad. There is so much hate in this world.
It has some conventions of the observation mode such as the fly-on-the-wall camera technique but it also has interviews in it.
The Participatory Mode
Direct interaction between the filmmaker and subject(s) which leads the filmmaker to become involved in the events being recorded.
I had heard of kind of heard of Michael Moore before we started learning about documentary filmmaking, but I didn’t know any of his films.
After watching Bowling for Columbine I became a fan. I understand that he twists plots and sometimes creates events but I have no problem with that. Everything he talks about in his films is absolutely fantastic and the fact that he does it in an entertaining way makes it even better. Whether or not his films should be referred to as documentaries is an issue. I haven’t quite made up my mind yet. His films do contain truth but he likes to twist the truth in order to make it entertaining. I think his should just make up a new style of filmmaking for himself because he is brilliant.
I just had to include this picture
The Reflexive Mode
Self aware documentary filmmaking which usually discusses the problems of making the documentary.
We watched a clip of Dziga Vertov’s ‘Man with a Movie Camera’ in the class.
I really don’t have anything to say about it except that maybe I should watch the whole film but I’m not really interested to. I doubt I will watch it this semester but maybe in the future.
Nick Broomfiled also uses the reflexive mode in most if not all of his documentaries. I was tempted to watch his documentary ‘The rise and fall of Heidi Fleiss’ as I am a fan of the woman but I couldn’t find a decent copy on the internet. It has definitely gone into my ‘Films to watch before the end of the year list’ though.
The documentary we watched in full in class was ‘Lift’ by Marc Isaacs.
I thought it was amazing. I sat through the whole thing completely mesmerized. How does someone come up with the idea to make a film about a lift ? haha
I loved the-fly-on-the-wall technique. It shows how interesting normal people can be.
I would definitely watch it again.
Technically, the sound levels were good. He couldn’t do much about lighting because he was in a lift. But it’s really the people who made the documentary. Marc Isaacs is just a genius for coming up with the idea.
We also looked at getting your ideas to the screen and the requirements raised by different channels.
Production meeting
In this week’s meeting with Luke we discussed exactly what we needed to film to fulfil the lighting/ camera requirements. I decided that we definitely needed shots of both camera and lighting equipment. I haven’t really used lighting equipment before so this is also kind of a way for me to learn some new skills while shooting the ‘making of’. I sent an e-mail to Dan Hutchinson and asked him who the cameraman and the lighting technician are, therefore I already know who to look out for when I get on set – instead of asking around and disturbing everyone.
I’m pretty sure the shoot days are going to be very busy which is expected seeing as it’s a feature film and I don’t really want us getting in the way which might lead us to create a more ‘fly-on-the-wall’ type documentary.
I also can’t wait to see all the really cool camera equipment – I’m pretty that because it’s a feature, the dollys and jibs and other pieces of exciting equipment (in contrast to the tripod) will be coming out.
Documentary of the week
‘Dreams vs nightmares’ Joe Berlinger
Short documentary because I was short on time. Someone close to me suggested I watch this because of my obsession with dreams and reality. However it wasn’t quite what I was expecting.
Turns out the documentary is really about dreams such as aspirations and dreaming good dreams that somehow help you in reality. I more interested in nightmares – the sinister side of dreams – because of my own experiences in the subject area.
Technically it was a weirdly well done documentary. It has close ups of side profiles first then showed full on faces which was unusual but I liked it.
All the interviewees were placed on the left side of the screen. I know we’ve been told in class to never do this and to always alternate but the filmmaker made it work by using different shot sizes for each interviewee.
Overall it was a good documentary, not quite what I was looking for but it was shot well and it looked nice.
Also turns out Joe Berlinger is the guy who directed the ‘Paradise lost’ documentary that I heard someone mention in class once so I might need to check that out.
Thoughts of the week
Sorry for the dodgy background noise
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