Sadly, I’m still on a training course with the Army so I wasn’t able to be apart of the group filming exercise.
However given that there isn’t much to do in this small rural town, I did have time to read FORTY SIX pages on the movements and modes of documentary film-making. Although the chapter title described the text “a brief history”, by the final page I felt exhausted! All jokes aside, I learnt allot from this reading. Two things that stood out to me were:
- The idea of a ninth mode of documentary film-making
- The influence of video technologies
The Interactive mode is one that the author of the text suggests. It caters for content that encourages audience participation. “Activists using mobile technologies and social media platforms.” What I realised after reading this is that every time we take a Snap Chat or record an Instagram story, we are documenting something, then allowing our audience to interact with it. I thought, this in itself could be a form of micro documentary film-making. Any and all uploaded content is freely accessible, this means the digital environment is slowly becoming over saturated with videos and images. Some of this content could have inaccuracies or document opinions about the truth rather than the truth itself. While I believe this mode gives everyone the opportunity to be included in the given conversation, I think it will also cause some conflict surrounding ethical film-making.
The text suggests that the introduction of video recording technologies allowed groups to “challenge corporatized network television as the predominant mediator of reality.” What I learnt from this is that technology made a gateway for a societal power shift. This meant the general public was given voice within the wider community. In more recent times the internet has provided content creators even more reach and influence.
Reference:
Fox, B 2017, Documentary Media : History, Theory, Practice, Routledge, Milton. Available from: ProQuest Ebook Central. [26 July 2019].