After talking to them initially about being a part of the film, my grandparents went away and found some photographs that we could use in the film. To let me have a look my parents scanned them and sent them via email.
I looked through them all and picked two which I felt were the best, one of my granddad riding his bike in a race and one of my grandma working in the metalwork factory as she had described. Although the scans were low quality, I put the photo into my video editing software and created a slow zoom out as we are planning for the poetic film, similar to that we saw used in 'Gargantuan'. Without any voice-over at the moment, I added a music track of similar length over the top to try and create the tone and feel we're going for - which worked quite well.
At the weekend I am planning on going back to Manchester, getting the photo to scan it and interviewing them both individually about their photographs, which will hopefully make up the content for the poetic film. It will also give me chance to have practice asking questions similar to those I'll be delivering to other contributors at a later date. I said to my group members they could come if they really wanted but ultimately I felt that the travel cost and time would not be worth it as I'm only recording sound for voice-over.
Today I arranged to meet with my group to discuss finding contributors for the photograph film, which was identified as the favourite idea from our pitch last week.
We started by sorting out a shot list for the documentary filming exercise we are filming in Friday's seminar, choosing what video and audio recording equipment we want to use for that and for our actual film. After this Jamie informed us that, whilst his grandparents aren't wanting to be recorded for the film they are asking around their friends to see if anyone else is interested.
We will be using lapel microphone for the first time
Over the weekend I was at home in Manchester so I spoke to my granddad about whether he would be willing to talk about any photographs he has from when he was younger, as I was told that he has some of him riding his bike in races and when he was in the RAF. My grandma also has a photo of her working in a metal-work factory during the war which was put in the newspaper which might be an option too.
However, for the main film we are looking for contributors that we can include whilst writing the treatment. After last week's discussions about groups to approach, I raised the SheffieldHelpYourself website again with my group, which has a section for older people and sub-sections for social clubs, leisure and sports activities. We felt these would be ideal to get a range of people and stories and might better lead to us filming in their homes if they agree to be a part of the film.
For the rest of the meeting we went through the site and noted down a few potentials to contact, agreeing among us that we would each contact at least two over the next week and would communicate between ourselves to avoid the mistake of contacting people more than once. We also created a rough phone script to deliver telling them about our film, our intentions at the moment and any other details we thought necessary to include.
Although in early talks we thought about trying to find people of different ages and generations, after initial research I found it was much more difficult to get in touch with them, outside of youth clubs and word-of-mouth by our own family members. We also thought that older people would have more interesting stories to tell, would be more willing to be a part of the film, and that there was something special about showing them with a physical photograph and the difference in age if taken long ago. As a result we've narrowed our focus to finding older people, and then if possible through them perhaps contacting different generations within their family to add another dimension to the film.
Yesterday we pitched our two strongest documentary ideas to the group for feedback. Earlier in the week we met to create a presentation detailing our film proposals, which I structured similarly to the ones we created for last year's documentary project.
On the first slide we gave a brief description of the film's topic and our approach to the subject in terms of style and tone. For example, we identified the library film as a 'passion-piece' with a focus on personal and emotional connection to literature. On the next slide we created a collage of images referring to films we would take influence from and locations for filming. We then broke down our ideas for the piece's structure and content - what would be seen and heard and what kind of questions we would ask contributors in interviews. As the final slide for each idea we shared our considerations for each idea, the pro's and con's, such as having to rely on getting access to locations but at the same time being well suited to the poetic form.
During the pitch we elaborated on our stylistic influences for each film, such as the sound design in 'Blight' for the library film and the use of photo collage in 'Tarnation'. We also shared where we are at in terms of finding contributors for each film, to which I spoke about the difficulty of getting responses for the library film and the progress Jamie has had with speaking to his grandparents about the photograph documentary. One of the main pieces of feedback we and many other groups received was to include this detail in our pitches, which I will consider in the future.
Although we seem to be further with the library cuts film, when asking the group which of the two they preferred, the vast majority went for the photograph idea. We talked about our plans for the poetic film to have a slow zoom out from a photograph layered with other images, but it was recommended that we should embrace the simplicity of it and just use the single shot. A couple of films were suggested for us to watch as research with a similar approach such as 'Eric's Secret' which we watched last year, and one of which, 'Gargantuan', we watched at the end of the seminar.
After the feedback from the group we decided to shift our focus on to the photograph film, which we discussed with Debbie after the pitches. The main areas I wasn't sure about for that film was the structure of the second piece and also, as producer, how to try and find contributors and memories to share. We were strongly advised to keep the poetic piece simple but then for the longer film try and focus on separate portraits of 2-3 people - telling a story of a life through images. She also identified places such as gyms, social clubs and the SAGA radio channel as ways of finding contributors.
Following today's session and feedback I'll have to shift my research focus from the libraries to finding contributors for the photograph. We were told that for the first film it would be fine for us to use an older relative share their memories, so I will contact my grandparents over the weekend and try and see if they have any photographs that might lead to their contribution.
Over the past couple of weeks I have been trying to make progress getting contributors by researching and contacting groups that could be a part of the film. From the feedback we received during our tutorial, I went away and looked into our strongest idea that we are wanting to pitch, the library cuts story, as well as a backup of 'The Write Way' writing group.
I started by re-reading the article which led me to find out more about the story, and then reading other stories on BBC News, The Guardian and Sheffield Star. From here I got a list of the libraries that are now under threat of closure and are being ran by volunteers, as we aim to contact them first for interview and access to the libraries for filming.
With the names of the libraries to approach, I found another website which gave a list of active groups campaigning against the library cuts across the country. In the 'Yorkshire and Humber' section I found details of a number groups in Sheffield trying to save the libraries, with links to their own dedicated pages as well as Facebook and Twitter.
Before starting to contact them I did some light research into each individual library, of which there are about 11, to see which might be most suitable for filming or which groups seemed the most active and therefore most likely to respond. However, at this early stage of still trying to find contributors, I wanted to contact as many as possible to maximise the chances of getting a response.
The first two groups I contacted were BLAG (Broomhill Library Action Group) and SCALP (Sheffield Communities Against Library Privatisation), the two largest groups I could find. I sent emails, Twitter and Facebook messages to both, talking about the plans for the film, asking for contributors and giving my contact details for more information. Through following these groups I also found a couple of active individuals who I may contact too.
Through Facebook and an e-mail address provided on their site I contacted the 'Friends of Ecclesfield Library' and 'Save Walkley Library' groups saying the same thing, and received messages back from them within a couple of days saying they would bring up the film at their next meeting and get back to me. I did also look for any volunteer meetings being hosted that we could attend, but unfortunately could not get information. I also contacted Sheffield labour councillor Mazhar Iqbal as I'd seen him attached to many groups campaigning strongly against the library closures.
In looking for more ways to generate interest and find contributors, I found the 'Sheffield Forum' website. Here I made a post looking for contributors for the film, widening our search for anyone who uses the libraries or who has an opinion on the cuts as we were aware that we wanted to avoid putting forward an agenda in the film in favour of more personal stories and experiences.
We will also arrange a day to go and approach some of the libraries in person to try and get contributors and/or permission to film in the buildings, although this will now have to be after we have pitched. For the short poetic documentary we had the idea of simply showing an empty library with the voice-overs of people talking about them and reading book passages over the top, to create a thematic and topical link with the longer film that also fits the poetic form. For this we will look into approaching Sheffield central library, the largest in the city and just opposite the main university building, about filming there perhaps after closing time.
As our back-up idea I also found an email address for Matthew Colbeck, the person who organises 'The Write Way' group - and I sent a message expressing interest in potentially using it as the subject for a film. Although on the SheffieldHelpYourself website it says that the group meets regularly, I couldn't discern whether they are still meeting or not so will have to wait for more information.
For our other idea we will be pitching, about the memories behind a photograph, Jamie has talked with his grandparents to test out the viability of the idea and whether it yields any interesting stories. He told us that his grandmother was able to find a photograph right away and, although is not willing to talk on film, might know others of a similar age who would be interested. So, for now our main occupation is trying to find contributors for both ideas - and thinking about a structured approach to the photograph film should we pursue it after the pitch.
In this textbook Alan Rosenthal provides a guide for making documentaries, from initial research and proposal writing through to the final stages and distribution, with a focus on both directing and producing. As the producer for our film, I took particular interest in the 'Writing the Proposal' and 'Directing the Interview' sections, and I have summarised the main points from each below.
'Writing the Proposal'
'Aim for simplicity, clarity and brevity in your proposal'
Outline the background and need in your film - why the topic is interesting and importantly why it is important to viewers now
Describe your approach, form and style - where is the drama, conflict and emotions in the story. If, at this stage you're not able to provide a detailed structure, outline a number of different approaches you may take in the film - but be specific.
A director has a number of different duties and requires a breadth of knowledge: covering camera movements, continuity, cutaways, shot impact, lenses and sound.
A different directing mindset is required for films that aren't fiction or documentary features with scripts. Have to be immersed in the subject, respond quickly and effectively to change and follow the details closely to build and tell a story.
Clarity of purpose is very important. Need to have a strong idea of the finished film and a clear focus; what is it about, why are you making it and how will it be made?
Style - whatever stylistic choices, following or breaking rules, it needs to be maintained consistently throughout. Other crew members need to be aware of this (especially cameraman), so clear vision and constant communication is key.
Director needs to be a good decision maker - this is often difficult in documentary as decisions have to be made 'without preparation or warning'
Director needs to be able to respond to a scene and establish immediately what is important, focusing the camera there. Sometimes have to make fast decisions to save a film if original idea threatened. This requires courage to decide a new direction, 're-concentrating energies on a more feasible subject'
'Directing the Interview'
Conducting a preinterview, or just meeting the subject will relax them on the shoot.
Enter the interview with an objective, knowing what you want to get out of the session. 'You want some very specific answers for some very specific questions', whether its getting to know someone, or talking about a specific situation or event.
'Your questions must have a focus and direction' - make sure the main lines of questioning are pre-planned, from here it is encouraged to listen, diverge and respond in conversational manner.
Consider the location carefully, the most obvious might not be the most suitable. Where will the subject feel totally at ease? Might not feel comfortable doing it at work or around other people.
Compose the interview background, make sure it is not distracting or busy, that it eases the interviewee and importantly adds to the mood and drama of the story.
Some situations may be suited to group interviews, where discussions can add multiple different viewpoints and experiences to the story. These can be more difficult to control - add questions at times but for the most part let them respond to each other.
Be bold in holding the silence if following an effective soundbite - useful in edit.
Different setups have varying effects - looking into camera (authority, direct contact, close to experience), off-camera (more relaxed, anecdotal, and friendly, sympathetic connection with interviewer).
Two-person set-up used mostly for news or when aiming for or expecting confrontation.
Interview Cautions and Tips
'Stay away from gush' - don't need to demonstrate knowledge, it is unnecessary and off-putting.
Keep the questions simple and concisely worded. If a question has multiple branches of enquiry, participant will likely only answer the last they heard.
Keep questions open and unbiased - no leading questions. Show interest and acceptance of their opinion even if it differs from your own.
Avoid interrupting, it shows you're uninterested and ruins the pace of the interview.
Be aware of ethical issues such as sensitivity, fairness, politics and propaganda.
Must be a bond of trust and relaxedness between director and participant
People look most natural performing an action that takes their mind off the camera. These actions should be relevant to both themselves and the story, advancing the film and revealing something about their character.
Shoot for the edit - obtain enough cutaways to be able to get out of a scene quickly or immediately change the point of view.
Today we shared our ideas for the documentary project with Debbie, receiving feedback prior to pitching two ideas in next week's session. From our second group meeting on Monday we had chosen our 3-4 strongest ideas, and so we explained our ideas for each. Below I have listed the feedback we received:
Alzheimer's Music Groups
Sensitive topic - will have to be aware of informed consent by families.
A lot of content for 10-minute film, will have to pick one angle or aspect of the story and focus
Avoid becoming promotional video for the charity - who has editorial control?
Make contact with them immediately
Sort out actualities of filming - when do they meet and for how long, when can we film?
Library Cuts
Passionate volunteers make good subjects for the film - get story from them
Try and find the users of the library - any old people that can't access books if it shuts?
People might have competing agendas - move away from journalistic documentary and more about the people and story
Think about how a poetic segment involving reading passages would sit with the rest of the film
Ask pre-interview questions - tease out character and background
Maybe use book illustrations and covers for some interesting visuals
Look around a library to see what would be good to film
The Write Way
The idea is more specific and contained
Use the poetry to generate ideas for visual content
What part of the story are we trying to tell - and through who's eyes?
Have to have a balanced political view - complex
Perhaps work with youth group and schools - or people just turning 18 and looking to vote
Interview at different ages to get different views?
After sharing these ideas we also explained our idea for a film about someone's last photograph.
Last Photographs
At what age do we ask them - needs more focus at the moment
Different ages with different viewpoints - similar to '7 Up' series
Maybe ask someone in each decade the same questions?
Opportunity for a collage of images - similar to 'Tarnation'
Test it out on a small group or individual first to check whether it works
Think about keeping it from being static
Play with funny and cheesy ideas - maybe using cut-outs or green-screen to make last photographs
Lends itself to poetic well
Taking these comments on board we will now focus our efforts on making contacts for the 'Library Cuts' story, as well as 'The Write Way' and Alzheimer's groups - whilst testing to see if the photograph film could be feasible as our project. With the 'Disconnected Youth' story we currently don't have an angle specific enough to be able to approach such a broad and complex subject, and so we will exclude this and focus on the others - our current favourite being the 'Library Cuts' story.
After sharing our initial ideas and assigning roles last week, I went away to continue research into more ideas - adding them to the list we had created.
With the knowledge that we would have to create a poetic documentary with thematic or topical links to the subject, I filtered out many of the stories immediately which I felt would be difficult to suit the form. Some news stories about particular individuals I also avoided due to the risk of having the project hinging on one subject, and for the variety of content we want to include.
I booked a meeting room and we met up yesterday to discuss any new ideas and choose our strongest to take forward. The first new idea I shared was about a story I had read on The Guardian's website about many of Sheffield's libraries having to be handed over to volunteers following £230m cuts to the council's spending.
This emerged as one of our favourite ideas because of ideas for content: opinions from passionate volunteers, interviews with local authorities and filming inside libraries. We also discussed ideas for a poetic approach, which might include voice-overs of people reading their favourite passages and asking the question of the importance of books.
The next new idea I brought was about the 'Friends of the Earth' environmental campaigning group, which is marking its 40th anniversary in a week or so. I saw them on the SheffieldHelpYourself website but then found an article about their impact in the Sheffield Telegraph, which gave ideas for content such as archive footage from their protests. However, after looking at their website I couldn't gauge whether they would be doing any more marches or protests through the time when we would be filming - which we felt would be important to cover the story satisfactorily.
The last new idea I shared was about a creative writing group for coma/brain injury sufferers, called 'The Write Way', which was set up by a PhD at Sheffield University a couple of years ago. By looking at their webpage, it appears that the group's founder is trying to roll out the program nationwide, and an anthology of their work was recently released over the summer. What drew me to this as an idea for our film is the possibility of using their poetry and literature for the poetic exercise, and the creative potential of representing coma/brain injury through audio and video.
When discussing the idea, our main concerns around this idea were that the group itself is quite small, the approach to a personal and emotive subject, and the opportunity for content outside of interviews or filming at their regular workshops. However, with the strong links to other 'external agencies' and with clearly a very passionate, knowledgeable and supportive group leader, I think this is still a strong option to pursue.
As another idea, Jamie raised the issue of a string of shops on Devonshire Street which may be knocked down to make way for new buildings - raised by local band 'Drenge' on their website. Initially this seemed like a great idea, as a number of independent shops and pubs have a long history on the street, and we could envisage emotive interviews with them. That said, we ended up discarding this idea due to the simple fact that the plan to demolish the buildings is not confirmed yet, and probably won't happen whilst we are set to film - a part of the story we don't think we can exclude.
After this we went through our favourite ideas from the last meet-up, and thought about how we could approach each subject.
For the dementia music groups we felt that it had great potential for poetry, but we would have to be careful about our approach and style for it not to look like a news segment. I shared the documentary 'Alive Inside' with the rest of the group, the film that had inspired me to look further into the topic. Another concern would be that we wouldn't want to simply imitate that film, which covers a lot of topics around the disease such as nursing homes, medication and brain science.
We discussed the idea surrounding the disconnect between youth and politics, which we all thought was strong. The challenge with this would be to maintain a focus on youth and not get lost in the politics of the Scottish Referendum or the upcoming 2015 election. Bias is also something we would have to consider as we could be interviewing students with a strong political affiliation and also the articles leading us to the story are very much anti-liberal. However, if we find this to be a general consensus among young people then we could change our angle of approach to the topic.
A concept we had discussed initially but had abandoned was that of dreams. We thought about the ways in which we could approach the subject for the film, which would be well suited to poetic documentary but may lack focus outside that form. Jamie had the idea of perhaps recording our dreams over a few weeks, reconstructing some of the most bizarre ones or having someone else tell us about theirs, with an experimental approach to style. We decided to keep the idea mainly out of our fascination with it and our wish to find some kind of approach to the longer film.
Another more abstract approach to the project which I suggested last time was that of exploring the last photograph or memory of someone - and the complex feelings people hold towards it. This was brought up in discussion by talking about the WWI centenary and the photos of soldiers being re-enacted, and so we thought about different approaches to it. One interesting suggestion involved us even creating the last photograph for someone - Saul highlighted a link to the film 'The Act of Killing' - but this would depend so much on researching and finding a subject for the film.
Overall, we were left with 8 ideas to bring to our group tutorial on Thursday, with our 3-4 strongest being...
Alzheimer's/Dementia music group
Sheffield libraries ran by volunteers
'The Write Way' creative writing group for coma/brain injury sufferers
Youth and politics disconnect
Once these ideas are narrowed down to the two we will be sharing with the rest of our group, we will begin identify areas for further research, stylistic considerations and contacts to strengthen our pitch.
After this week's documentary seminar session I formed my group with Jamie, Alex, Elliott and Saul. We met up briefly afterwards to assign roles and talk about our initial ideas in response to the brief.
As the only member on the sound module, Jamie was given the role of sound recordist, with Elliott as editor. Although I have ended up taking on producer roles for other projects, I have never had the role officially, and so I chose to be producer for the project. With both Alex and Saul studying cinematography, we left the roles of director and cinematographer to be considered at a later date.
We each then shared our initial, undeveloped ideas for the project, of which Jamie had several. His first idea was around kids and gaming, exploring how young kids are playing older games, and how they are taking over the older generation in their technical ability. The second idea was to find a local musician or band who are trying to get into the industry, and asking them of their opinions on the state of current music. Lastly, an investigation into Sheffield's steel industry, and the impact its disappearance has had on the workers who were one part of it.
After this, I shared my initial research and list of potential ideas for the project (below).
I had started off the list with ideas for the poetic documentary exercise, which could be represented more abstractly with use of symbolism and metaphoric visuals - similar to the examples we were shown of 'Blight' and 'Sans Soleil'. These ideas, such as 'dreams', 'time' and 'memories' would work well for the first exercise, but would require significant work and a strong focus to be turned into a 5-10 minute documentary.
For more focused and topical ideas, I did some research into news articles and charities, for which the website 'Sheffield Help Yourself' was very useful, listing groups and community projects of all sorts and sizes in the Sheffield area - providing contact details and websites for further information too.
After watching 'Alive Inside' as part of Sensoria film festival, a film revealing the incredible effect music has on the lives of dementia sufferers, I was inspired to see if something similar could be found locally. I'm very interested in mental health and diseases affecting the mind such as Alzheimer's, and I feel it is an emotive topic that can be represented both through visual poetry and a more conventional documentary format. Whilst looking through the website I found two groups who sing to dementia sufferers and get them involved in music, a potential lead for if we base our film around such a topic.
I also remembered an article I read by The Guardian over the summer calling students at Sheffield universities to rally together and vote Nick Clegg out of power after his backtracking on tuition fees. Rather than centre a film around this, I thought about the wider issue of youth disconnected from politics, what has caused it and what needs to be done to fix it. At a time shortly after the Scottish referendum (which saw unprecedented levels of young people voting to change the future of their country) and the 2015 general election, I thought it would be an interesting and emotive subject to explore - and one that we could associate with.
Other topics I researched as potential directions for the project included young people with dementia, the WW1 centenary in Sheffield, a home for housing and rehabilitating refugees in Leeds, the momentum for change in Northern England following the Scottish referendum and the changing ways in which we now consume media.
For the rest of the meeting we discussed these ideas and suggested directions they could be taken for both exercises, with the topics of youth politics disconnection, Alzheimer's, dreams and music being our favourites at this time. Afterwards I set up a Facebook page for the group encouraging everyone to share any interesting articles, films or stories they found, and continually add to the list of ideas we've created.
In a few days we will meet again to pick and discuss our strongest ideas for the project, so that we can have our pitch developed by the time we share them with our peers and tutor.
In today's documentary seminar we looked at the poetic documentary form, and examples of films with poetic elements. After reading the brief in the last session I did feel that I needed to know more about the poetic form as I was having difficulty identifying the elements which place a film in such a category.
One of the most challenging aspects of this project is having a poetic piece which links to the later, 5-10 minute documentary that we will be creating. Some ideas that I have come up with would fit the poetic form well, but would be difficult to create a longer piece with, and vice versa. I think the most logical approach to this will be to find an idea for the second piece that has potential to be explored more abstractly for the poetic documentary, with opportunities for creative sound design, exploration of broader themes and visual symbolism.
We began the session by looking at actual poems, such as 'Still I Rise', 'The Poison Tree' and 'Do not go gentle into that good night' - the last of which was used on the trailer for 'Interstellar' (Christopher Nolan, 2014) for its links to the film's themes of hope and struggle. In my blog last year I wrote about how useful I have found poetry for generating ideas, and so I will most likely use it at some point during the project.
After this we outlined some of the most important elements that poetic documentaries share:
Rhythm
Aesthetics
Universal themes
Emotions
Non-linear (or playful) narrative
Lyrical imagery
Metaphoric and symbolic
Tone and mood
We then watched clips from a number of documentaries with poetic elements.
Regen (Rain) - (Joris Ivens, 1929)
In this short documentary we follow a rain storm in Holland from beginning to end. Influenced by avant-garde cinema, the piece is purely visual, with no titles or dialogue, accompanied by a musical score. As a piece from the 1920s, the film showcases montage editing following a broadly linear narrative.
As the storm picks up, the music builds pace and matches the action - the guitar notes synchronising with the sound of rain drops. The reflections and effects caused by the rain draw our attention to the small, everyday moments in our lives, presenting it in a memorable and meaningful way.
Night Mail - (Harry Watt and Basil Wright, 1936)
'Night Mail' follows the course of the mail as it travels overnight up the country. As part of the British Movement, we can see it as an attempt to make 'drama from the every day', and to represent ordinary working class men.
Similar to 'Regen', the music plays a large part in building and controlling pace in the film, speeding up to match fast-cut images of moving train parts and a quickly-delivered voice-over of a poem. Together, these elements create a sense of rhythm and urgency, creating action which rises and falls throughout.
With 'Sans Soleil', Marker uses a flurry of disparate images from multiple locations in combination with voice-over from an unidentifiable narrator. The film is essentially exploring the human memory, demonstrating our inability to recall events and our changing perceptions of history as a result.
Night and Fog - (Alain Resnais, 1955)
Made after WW2 and when the shocking truth about the Nazi concentration camps had been revealed to the world, 'Night and Fog' tries to make sense of it, with the predominant emotions confusion and anger. In narrative terms, the film follows the general chronology of Nazi Germany, from the construction of the concentration camps in 1933 through to their use as death camps in 1942 and their discovery at the end of the war.
The film uses a mix of archive footage and photos with newly filmed colour material at Auschwitz and Birkenau. The narration provided is at times poetic and accusatory, asking questions of 'Who is responsible?' for what we are seeing. As the film tries to make sense of what happened, the voice-over gives context to the images we see.
The one element of the film that did not work for me was the music - which was overly dramatic and often felt as if it had been made with little consideration for the footage it overlaid. Other members of the class felt that the music was purposefully jarring to juxtapose the images we see, but I felt it didn't serve this purpose at all and often undermined an incredibly sensitive and emotive subject.
Blight - (John Smith, 1996)
Made at the time when houses were being demolished in London to make way for the M11 link road, 'Blight' is an experimental documentary short that also comes across as a sort of protest film. The footage for the film is a mixture of the literal, men knocking down the houses, and the metaphorical, such as expanding lines on a tree stump, deflated footballs, broken plates etc.
The film's images are full of interior meaning, and the editing and sound design enhances this symbolism further. One of the most powerful and thoughtful elements in the piece for me is the way that the interviews with the local people we assume live there are broken up into fragments, linking thematically and visually to the destruction of their homes, brick by brick.
The lines of dialogue are clearly thoughtfully chosen to match the images. For example, in the opening section we hear a woman talk about how she thinks that houses have a spirit of their own. This overlays a sequence where we see the house falling to pieces but with none of the workers, as if it is destroying itself.
The music in 'Blight' is integral to the rise and fall of action and pace throughout, a result of director John Smith's work with composer Jocelyn Pook. Several fragments of speech and demolition sound effects are also used to build a rhythm in the film, adding a sense of urgency to the film's subject which is presented thoughtfully at the end of the film.
After watching clips from the films, we read an essay making sense of 'Sans Soleil', which raised the following points:
The film is a 'highly conscious miming of the involuntary process of memory'.
Its images have an 'undulating rhythm... rushing forward, stopping to gaze, following...'
The film raises its own questions rather than answering them. 'Where are we now? Why is he showing us this?'
The film has 'no subject but the consciousness, the memory of the man who shot it' - deeply personal.
We finished the session by reading the autobiography of Joris Ivens, in which he describes the process of how 'Regen' was made, offering insightful advice for documentary film-making:
The idea came about when filming another film 'Breakers' and it wouldn't stop raining.
He had to be pragmatic and adaptable, not sticking to the script and letting the rain guide the camera.
Ivens never moved without his camera.
He relaxed the 'rigid and over-analytical method of filming' he had used in earlier films.
Spectators commented on the film's identity with the simple things of daily life - 'revealing the beauty in these things.'
Everything in the film 'subordinated to the aesthetic approach'.
In the first seminar we were given the opening chapter of 'Introduction to Documentary' to read, written by Bill Nichols. In this text Nichols explores the foundations and principals behind documentary films, discussing their purpose, the modes in which they are created and the interaction between subject, film-maker and audience. Below I have summarised the most important and interesting points made in the extract:
Fiction films are really just documentaries of 'wish-fulfilment'. They offer 'worlds to explore' and make the things of our imagination concrete. Non-fiction films are documentaries of 'social representation', representing aspects of the world we 'already inhibit and share'.
Fiction films require us to suspend our disbelief (to accept its world as plausible), whereas non-fiction documentaries aim to 'instil belief' (to accept its world as actual). This notion of belief is of additional importance in documentaries as they often intend to have an impact on the historical world and must persuade or convince us of one point of view over others.
Documentaries draw our attention to timely social issues, current events, recurring problems and possible solutions.
Documentaries engage with the world by representing it in three ways. 1) Offering a world that bears a 'recognisable familiarity'. 2) Stands for the interests of others (documentary film-makers often take the role of 'public representatives). 3) Put the case for a particular view to make a case, win consent or influence opinion.
With non-fiction films, people are treated as 'social actors', continuing their life as without the presence of the camera. Similar to traditional actors, film-makers often favour those who's 'un-schooled behaviour' in front of the camera conveys complexity and depth.
Many ethical considerations involved in making a documentary film to minimize harmful effects on those it represents - risk exploiting them.
Difficulty for documentary film-makers is being able to inform their subjects of their intentions for the film before it has been made.
Film can become a 'second rape' for vulnerable subjects if not careful - turning people into victims so that we can learn about their suffering and misery.
Three-fold interaction between film-maker, subjects and audience can take many forms with different effects: 'I speak about them to you', 'I speak about them or it to us', 'We speak about us to you'.
Speaking in first person 'edges the documentary towards the diary, essay, and aspects of avant-garde or experimental film'. Emphasis shifts from convincing audience of a particular point of view to a representation of a personal, subjective view - perhaps from film-maker's own personal perspective.
Rhetoric is speech used to persuade or convince. It differs from poetic or narrative speech, which aims more to provide an aesthetic experience or involvement in an imaginary world.
Today was the first seminar for the documentary project module. We first went through the module guide, looking at the content we would cover each week, the schedule for work submissions and the project briefs: to create a two-minute 'poetic documentary' and then a 5-10 minute film linked thematically to that. After re-introducing each of ourselves to the group we watched clips from a number of feature documentaries, each with their own different styles and subjects.
Touching the Void(2003)
We first watched a clip from near the end of 'Touching the Void', a documentary about two climbers who get into trouble while climbing the Andes. The film uses the conventional talking head interview setup and voice-overs to allow the climbers to tell their story, but for the most part the film is a dramatic reconstruction of the events using actors, which raised the question of whether it could still be considered a documentary.
Other notable features in the film were the use of varied and interesting shots, such as time-lapses, which clearly become available when reconstructing events like a conventional drama film. It also had an inventive sound design which added to the tone of fear and helplessness in the particular scene we watched.
Grizzly Man (2005)
'Grizzly Man' follows activist Timothy Treadwell as he documents his life alone with the grizzly bears in Alaska. With a mixture of interviews and extensive footage filmed by Treadwell himself, director Werner Herzog provides omnipotent voice-over throughout. Similar to 'Touching the Void', the choice for Herzog to provide his own interpretation and narrative of Treadwell's footage was controversial with some people, but from the clip we watched I felt that it added a layer of deeper understanding and coherence to the images.
Tarnation (2003)
The next film we watched was 'Tarnation' a documentary about director Jonathan Caouette's upbringing with his schizophrenic mother. We watched a clip from near the beginning of the film which told us about his mother's own upbringing, told entirely through old footage, photos and on-screen text. The length of this section and the amount of text to read made me feel bored and exhausted whilst watching it. I thought that the entire film was made in this format, but later on it makes use of a much wider range of media such as video diaries and answer machine messages.
The Alcohol Years (2000)
The last film that we watched was 'The Alcohol Years' by Carol Morley, a Mancunian who returns to the city after some years to find out about a period in her life she can no longer remember due to alcohol abuse. I was expecting the film's tone to be somber and serious, but was surprised to find it refreshingly upbeat and funny, with the film's many interview subjects and friends of Morley's giving their honest opinions of her at the time and telling stories about her too - creating a like-able and eccentric persona.
In the clip we watched the film was mainly structured around casual interviews with her friends but also abstract reconstructions of some of the stories they describe, with Morley also visiting some of the old clubs she went to in that time period.
After screening and discussing the films we began looking into the history of documentary film, in particular a brief overview of the different movements, how they originated and what they involved.
First, we talked about early Soviet cinema involving such filmmakers as Dziga Vertov ('Man with a Movie Camera'). We looked at how the second Russian revolution had brought about the notion of the 'Art of Facts' as fiction film was too bourgeois, 'Kino Pravda' the cinema of truth, and the constructivist philosophy which was drawn to new technology and machinery. We watched a clip from 'Man with a Movie Camera', which displayed very advanced film-making techniques such as composites and montage.
The second movement we looked at was the British Movement in the 1930s/40s, led by John Grierson. Grierson defined documentary as the 'creative interpretation of actuality', and the movement believed that cinema has to fulfill a utilitarian purpose - educating people and allowing for social betterment. We were also given some examples of filmmakers part of the movement, such as Humphrey Jennings.
