Month: April 2016

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In this week’s lectorial on non-narrative film form, we were introduced to the work of Frederick Wiseman, a documentarian whose work often exposes corruption within power relations; whether that be between teacher and student, police and the public or doctor and patient. 

We were shown the below clip from Law and Order (1969), which appears to show police being incredibly violent towards an unarmed woman. In a similar vein, Wiseman’s 1967 film, Titicut Follies, is based in a psychiatric institutions, and, paralleling Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the film works to reveal the potentially warped doctor/patient relations apparent within the ward. 

Wiseman’s works greatly remind me of one of my favourite films; Man Bites Dog, which is a fictional documentary film, in which the camera crew follow and document the actions of a serial killer. If this were a true film, it would be a documentary filmmaker’s dream.

However, it’s purely fictional, and rightly so, as it features scenes of complete abhorrence, which, I assumed it would not be ethical or legal for a documentarian to film without intervening. Wiseman’s work, particularly evidenced in the chokehold scene from Law and Order, does just this however, as a woman is filmed being choked by police. Perhaps the situation here is slightly different, as the subjects are policeman, as opposed to normal citizens that would commit acts of violence, but still, the filming of this raises many questions, namely:

• Is it ethical to film such things?
• When does the filmmaker have to intervene?
• What are the legal implications of filming without intervening?
• What are the legal implications of using such footage?
• Did the filmed participants give their permission for the footage to be included in the film?
• If not, how has it been used? Is it safe to use?

These are things I have always wondered when documentaries are made that show illegal activities; gang violence, theft, vandalism, drug deals etc. and I would very much like to get to the bottom of it.

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Narrative structure exercise for PB3 – Documentary.

1. What is the ‘controlling idea’ (Robert McKee) of your portrait?

   Olivia is a transgender woman, steering away from the expectation of hyper-femininity.

2.  How is your portrait film structured?  

   The documentary will be structured around an interview with the subject, however will carry into the film as a fully subject driven exploration of femininity and transgender identity. Based on personal experiences, it is fitting that the only voice heard throughout is the subject’s.

   Beginning with archival footage of a 1950s instructional video, the film’s current (loose) structure is:

   1. Current expectations of femininity what it means to be a ‘woman’ conventionally/stereotypically.

   2. How that definition of femininity impacts you as a trans woman, that already has body dysphoria and issues with body image.

   3. The expectation for trans women to ‘pass’ even though that passing definition of femininity may not suit everyone, just like it doesn’t fit cis women – talk about clothes, makeup etc aspects

   4. Changing femininity, embracing diverse definitions, what the future looks like etc

3. What do you want your audience to make of your interviewee? 

   Illustrating the complex nature of human reality the film will be personal to one individual, allowing a more personal connection to be developed between the subject and the viewer. By shooting mundane/everyday objects and scenery, the normality of trans individuals will be conveyed to the viewer. The main goal of this documentary is to create empathy within the viewer so that a deeper level of understanding of transgender people and issues is gleaned from the film.

4. How is your portrait being narrated? 

   I hope to make a relatively intimate film, as it goes into a revealing and vulnerable area for the subject. Consequently, I want the film to be entirely narrated by the subject, from their perspective.

5. What role will the ‘found footage’ play in your portrait?

   The found footage used will be done so in order to contrast the modern day with the 1950s; changing attitudes towards and perceptions of gender, with older, strictly delimited definitions of gender that were so succinctly expressed in 1950s culture.

6. Does your portrait have a dramatic turning point?

7. When does this turning point happen in your portrait and why?
   
   It is difficult to determine as I am yet to film the interview. However, as it is based around someone’s lived experience, as opposed to a retelling of a specific story, I doubt it will have a dramatic turning point in the traditional sense. It will be structured in a way that moves between highs and lows, explanatory and poignant moments, in order to retain viewer engagement and allow for the film’s main messages to bear adequate weight within the film and sufficiently impact the viewer.

8. How does your portrait gather and maintain momentum?
   
   By structuring the film to begin with explanation of concepts and then move through to how these concepts impact the subject’s personal experience of life. Editing will be key in creating momentum in this piece, as, as I’ve stated, it’s not simply someone retelling one specific experience.

9. Where will your portrait’s dramatic tension come from?
   
   Dramatic tension will be built gradually throughout as the subject’s personal experiences, thoughts and feelings are related to the audience. Music may also be used to enhance this.

10. Does the portrait have a climax and/or resolution? 
    
    Again, it’s hard to say prior to interviewing the subject. However, the resolution is likely to speak to the current perception of transgender people or the subject’s current state, and how life may be improved for them moving forward.

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In preparation for creating my own 2-3 minute documentary, I thought I would first look to other short documentaries. What I found here, was an incredible diversity in the structure; all had similar timeframes, all focussed on people as their subject, painting a portrait of their lives as it were, however, they were all vastly different and played with conventional documentary techniques to create pieces as unique as their subjects.

OFFLINE DATING from Samuel Abrahams

Mirroring the style of television documentaries, Offline Dating follows the presenter/subject throughout the day as he searches to find a date in real life, showing his trials and errors. Contrasting with My Mom’s Motorcyle, this film has little to no script, and little planning in regards to the other participants, who are met on screen, and interacted with for the first time all in front of the camera.

 

Hotel 22 by Elizabeth Lo from Short of the Week

This is a beautifully crafted film, documenting the 24 hour bus route in Palo Alto, where the homeless have been taken refuge for years. It does so whilst employing no interviews of any kind, and interestingly, they aren’t necessary. The story tells itself through the visuals, and occasional interactions of the passengers. It also features some impressive cinematography, using a still, mounted camera to capture moments of silence and stillness, at the end of the film especially, to reflect the hardships the passengers face, as they are isolated from society and help.

 

Copycat from Charlie Lyne

This short documentary is a fully found-footage film, whose story is told through a unique combination of narration and subject recording, wherein the narration is used to link together pieces of the original interview recording. This strange combination can be a little jarring at times, but it’s a very unique way of putting together a documentary piece, and is a resourceful way of connecting interview clips into a coherent whole.

My Mom’s Motorcycle: My Rode Reel from Douglas Gautraud

This is an example of a fully scripted documentary, which also interestingly is a self-focussed, self-reflective documentary. The film is centred around the narrator, his connection with his grandfathers, and by extension, an older time and his search for the authenticity that came with it.

 

The Bowler from Sean Dunne

The editing is the main thing to be noted in this piece, as it sets the fast pace of the film, in line with the subject’s speech pattern. The film’s colour grading and general tonality also reflect the subject’s character.

 

The Heat from Chris Eversole

This film is a combination of found footage and original recordings. Following the remarkably uplifting story of a forensic psychologist turn mum turn boxer. It’s a great example of the way in which simple, unimposing music can be used to enhance the tone of a film, used here to afford the film a reflective, optimistic tone.

 

 

 

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In today’s tutorial, one of the pieces of recurring advice that really stood out for me regarding the editing of our documentaries was the importance of leaving space within a film. That is, allowing space between speech so that it doesn’t turn into a bombardment of talking; something that people will begin to tune out to.

A great example of this can be seen in many of Hayao Miyazaki’s films, which contain long stretches of film with little to no dialogue. Indeed, this may be said to be a staple of Japanese cinema, particularly in animated films, as similarly noted by Scott McCloud in Blood in the Gutter. The effect of this varies, but often it sets the tone of the film, and allows peace between shots. The sample below is from the 1988 film My Neighbour Totoro, in which the long stretches of silence within the film go a long way in creating an incredibly intimate scene, as the films ensures that the smallest things are noticed; whether that be the croak of a frog, or the sound of a raindrop falling onto an umbrella. The scene also serves to establish and characterise the relationship between Totoro and the little girl Satsuki. It almost seems counter-intuitive, that stretches of audial absence could create an intimate experience and connection between the viewer and the subject, but this is something that I have seen recurrently as an established technique for doing just that. Films must be allowed to breathe.

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This week’s lecture focussed on narrative storytelling. It also happened to coincide with my rewatching of The Jinx: a documentary series following the infamous life of Robert Durst.

The connection with narrative storytelling?

Even though this series is the exact opposite of a narrative, the notoriety that surrounded the case for so many years made it seem as such. Due to the level of surreality that surrounds the life of Robert Durst, the series drew largely upon narrative story-telling techniques and cinematography to create the series.

A few notes on the series:

• Makes use of many flashbacks/re-enactments- all highly stylised and dramatic, like in fictional films.
• Still follows conventional storytelling structure – e.g. introduction, complication, body, climax, denouement, coda
• The way the story is told reads very much like a narrative voiceover – it’s as though a narrative is being read aloud
• As the series progresses, the documentary becomes less planned out visually, as the cinematography loses presence. This coincides with the turning point in the series, wherein the crew have to adapt to unforeseen circumstances and the action begins to unfold on screen. The series from thereon out has a far more conventional documentary style to it.
• Lines between narrative and documentary styles and conventions are often blurred – intentionally done to highlight the surreality of the case as something close to what would have been written in fiction.

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Tony Scott’s 1998 film Enemy of the State is an action film centred around the deviances of surveillance technology. The film’s editing throughout serves to enable and reinforce these aspects respectively; creating a fast-paced film with voyeuristic shots which reinforce the film’s narrative through employment of rhythmic relations and continuity editing.

As an action film, Enemy of the State employs the use of rapid jump cuts in order to facilitate its genre. Used more obviously in high action sequences, such as chase scenes, this editing style is used to ensure the viewer’s engagement whilst impressing upon the audience a sense of urgency and involving them with the narrative; immersing them in the feeling of being chased. This form of rhythmic relations is used throughout to ensure the film’s central elements of tracking, pursuit and danger are directly related to its audience.

The film also employs continuity editing, specifically in the form of a variety of crosscutting techniques, which work to enhance the film’s pace, tone, and importantly allow telecommunications links to be established across differing locations. The use of crosscutting throughout lends itself to the idea of an omnipresent force; used to subtly impress upon the audience the idea that everything can be seen at all times. That is, that the NSA is watching, thereby further engrossing the audience in the film’s main theme of surveillance paranoia.

Enemy of the State thereby serves as an excellent example of the way in which editing may be used to enhance, even drive, narrative and reflect and reiterate a film’s main themes, creating a cohesive whole.

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In this week’s tutorial, we were told to get acquainted with our equipment; the SonyMC50 video camera. So, for the last half hour of class, we were tasked with creating a ‘uni survival tips’ video. Mainly an exercise to get familiar with the equipment, and ask any questions we had following this, the footage we recorded was pretty silly, and the resulting cut reflects the mood of this. We didn’t really shoot enough for the video to become a professional looking piece, so instead I left it as a fun exercise.

We did however get to play around with the features of the camera and test out the two different mic options (built in vs lapel) in preparation for the documentary. The footage shot is a good indication of the type of quality the camera and microphones produce, as well as issues that we will have to look out for, such as background noise being picked up, and the strange yellow/green bars that slowly move across the screen in some shots. In addition to this, we had difficulty sending the original files for these to each other following the class, as the camera produces exceptionally large files (hence why the footage is in 720p and not 1080p, as we were unable to transfer 1080p quickly).

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While researching different sound techniques, I came across something called binaural 3D sound. When listened to properly, using quality headphones, the audio replicates the way you hear sound in real life; i.e. a sound from someone whispering in your right ear, is heard through the right earpiece, and is low and close. This can be really disconcerting when you first hear it, however is such an exciting recording medium, which as you can see from the examples below, has amazing potential for use in horror films, art installations and the like. Definitely something I would like to experiment with one day.

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A little post on aspirations.

As an aspiring documentarian, I hope to make documentary artefacts that are not only interesting, evocative and empathetic, but also content that is visually appealing; as this is something that is quite lacking in the industry, especially in television documentaries. The lack of attention dedicated to documentary film aesthetics (cinematography, lighting, mise en scene etc) may contribute to the common attitude towards documentary film being a more crude medium with less artistic integrity than narrative film works. Understandably, it is often difficult to plan shots in documentary film, as it is so often an organic process, dependant upon the subjects, however it can be done. Below are some stills from documentaries which I’ve found succeed in creating beautifully crafted works that remain content driven films.

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David Fincher’s 2007 film Zodiac, employs a range of classic cinematographic techniques to manipulate the film’s tonality and reflect the tale’s mysterious and often sinister nature.

The first sequence in the film serves to set this tone up for the entire film. It is shot predominantly using medium close ups, allowing relatively subtle changes in emotion to be conveyed by the characters, as it is possible to notice changes in breathing and demeanor, thereby allowing suspense to be built gradually throughout. To enhance this, the camera is often positioned in a voyeuristic manner around the car, enhancing the film’s eerie nature as the characters seem as though they are being watched, followed, stalked.

Low-key lighting reminiscent of film noir is also used in this first sequence, as well as at numerous other points throughout the film. This contributes to the mystery of the sequence, as it is used to conceal the Zodiac’s identity. This is mirrored in the way his victims have been lit, as their eyes are in darkness whilst attention is drawn to their mouths to highlight their reactions to the imminent danger. In combination with this, and to similar effect, the film uses a shallow depth of field when the Zodiac is shown in this scene, as the gun is in focus, whilst his body is concealed by both the shot’s shallow depth of field and its dark exposure; a combination that works to create mystery and alludes to the challenge that is to come.

Due to the importance of the deaths in this scene in establishing narrative, and ultimately directing its resolution, the film employs a change in the speed of motion here. The sequence is portrayed in slow motion, ensuring that additional poignance is placed upon these first murders. Ultimately, this opening scene is paramount in establishing tone and orienting the film’s narrative, aspects that are largely tasked to the subtleties in Zodiac’s detailed cinematography.