We have just begin the second documentary task in my Art of Persuasion course. The guidelines are that the film has to have a political agenda and comply with three of the following constraints:

– No interviews

– No voice-overs

– Only found footage or other appropriated material

– Is non-photorealistic

Originally, this seemed close to impossible. How, i thought, could I possibly communicate with restrictions such as these that essentially disallow either clear spoken communication or photorealism?

A great example of achieving this is Santiago Alvarez’s documentary style and especially that of his 1965 film ‘Now’ which comments on the segregation between black and white people. To communicate his message his film consists of a collection of found footage from the riots and demonstrations of this issue in conjunction with a song by Lena Horne that creates an emotional commentary on the issues faced at the time. With no interviews, no voice overs and all found footage he demonstrates how to communicate something so powerfully and so i have decided to use him as inspiration in this project.

The biggest problem i thought we faced was communication and I thought if we can’t listen, why not read? To create something that is non-photorealistic  as well as achieving this i have decided to use speech bubbles as they ascertain both and are something that hasn’t been done before which then in conjunction with the right imagery and audio will create something worth presenting!