Question 1:
I found this exercise to be hugely interesting. Because we were unaware that we’d be piecing together the audio recordings and video recordings, we captured really raw and essentially meaningless, disconnected material. However, after a bit of weighing up, I was able to extract some form of very mild narrative from the material and cut it together in a way that didn’t seem completely irrelevant. I was initially a bit concerned over the relationship between the visuals, so decided to apply a black and white effect to the clips, adding a bit of uniformity between them, and helping to tie the whole exercise together.
All in all, the quality of the recordings was decent. If anything, I’d say the levels in the audio could’ve been monitored and adjusted more scrupulously, but the video footage was what we set out to achieve. By layering the audio and video together, there was an interesting relation that took hold and the initial discomfort I felt about the exercise disappeared. What I learnt from this exercise would be to monitor the audio levels more closely, to think more carefully about where the mic is pointed and perhaps to be adventurous with the filming of abstract material on the camera.
Question 2:
For this question, I chose to look at the wk 4 section of the ‘Rabiger, M. Directing the documentary’ reading.
- I was drawn to the point about recognising dramatic units whilst filming documentary. Rabiger makes the argument that it is important to look for a ‘change in consciousness’ (or beat), in your participant, recognise it, then respond to the change and capture it on film. Rabiger states that this is where the skill in documentary filmmaking comes into its own and when truly great, dramatic tension is created.
- The point on exposition of facts throughout the documentary raised by Rabiger was also compelling. I think the reason many of my previous films mightn’t have had the strongest narratives is because I didn’t consider the knowledge of the audience carefully enough. I had understood its’ importance, but never really paid much attention to the fact. The idea of using a list of all the facts that the audience will need to know in order to understand the film and bringing them out through the participants is something I’d definitely like to consider more carefully in the film project this semester.