Next film activity: Make a 3 minute pop video - some examples from Michel Gondry and Chris Cunningham

WHAT IS SPECIAL ABOUT DOCUMENTARY FILM?

Documentary deals with fact, not fiction. Most importantly, documentaries delve into a non-fictional world with real events, real issues, real conflict, real people and real emotions. Everything seen and heard on screen is grounded in accuracy and has no element of fiction.

Documentary is flexible. Unlike fictional films, documentaries have no fixed

visual and conceptual guidelines per say. It’s impossible to concretize events or

decide one way or the other about how the film will turn out eventually. There are

fewer ‘rules’ to be followed, which reflects the fact that there are few rules in the

real world as well. This makes it more challenging but infinitely more exciting.

Documentary inspires movement and action. At the very heart of documentary, there is an issue and a message at hand. The passing on of this message to the audience is usually the reason that the film was made in the first place. Documentaries have long been used as an instrument to inspire change in their audience, be it social change or inner change.

Documentary involves less control. Unlike fiction films, documentaries must be

shot in the real world and show real events happening. Often, the filmmaker is

unable to control the event he is shooting as well as the circumstances

surrounding the event. It’s difficult to think about lighting when in the middle of a

sniper shootout! There is less control over the subject in documentary; however

this unmodified, improvised element is often the very charm of non-fiction films.

Documentary subject is paramount. Documentaries are inherently bound to their subject matter. Since their purpose is so issue-specific and their circumstances are non-fictional, the subject is the most important aspect of documentary films and is given precedence over other aspects, for example: entertainment value. In fact, until recently filmmakers scoffed at the idea of a documentary being entertaining. This attitude has, of course, changed now but subject still remains the dominant element.

Credibility is key in Documentary. The emergence of the documentary as a

recognised cinematic genre in the 1920’s inherited the trust of the audience in the

veracity of the image as an authentic representation of the real. Today, we are

much more skeptical, even with documentaries. Audience trust, once lost is gone

forever so a documentary, in this day and age, must always provide credible

information and sources to put a suspicious audience at ease.

Form is more important than formula. There are no recipes in documentary

films. Every subject and issue is specific and is showcased on film in its own

appropriate manner. Form and the layout in which a subject is showcased in a

film are important as they add value to the film, but there is no one tried and

tested way to do this.

(source: Trisha Das, How to write a doumentary script)

When We Were Kings (Leon Gast, 1996, USA)

WHAT IS SPECIAL ABOUT FILM?

Film is visual. The words that a screenwriter writes will never be read by anyone. They will only be seen and heard as images on a screen. The most important skill of a screenwriter is that he must be able to write visually. Theorizing or explaining a concept in a script is pointless; if the audience can’t ‘look’ at the theory, it’s not worth writing. A screenwriter must think, ‘Is what I’m about to write visual in nature? If not, then how can I make it visual?”

Film shows motion. Most of the images you see on screen have action. It’s what separates moving images from photographs. Stories for film must be translated by a screenwriter into active images.

Film reveals what the eye often can’t see. A tiny cell in our bodies, a country

we’ve never been to, details that we would normally miss. The screenwriter must

bring things to life for the audience who may have never before experienced what

they see on screen.

Film transcends time and space. A film doesn’t adhere to our dimensions of time and space. Once made, it continues to exist in a little bubble of its own,

transcending the limits of our present lives. A screenwriter must understand that

writing for a film means creating a being that should have a life of its own long

after the writer has moved on from it.

Film is Subjective. By simply pointing the camera in a specific direction, a

subjective choice has been made. The very nature of film, like our eyes, is to

focus on what is considered to be the object of interest and eliminate what lies

beyond the lens, thereby losing all sense of objectivity.

Film chooses audience. The screenwriter must always keep in mind that each

film chooses its own audience depending on how he chooses to tell the story. By

varying a script, he may be showing the film to very different people in the end.

Film repeats accurately. Film footage doesn’t discriminate between objects,

doesn’t hide, cheat or lie. It consistently reproduces what the camera sees in full

detail. It is the filmmaker who must shoot objects in a particular way to include or

eliminate details.

Film may have colour and audio elements. It’s not only about moving images.

Most films, unless the filmmaker chooses not to use them, have the elements of

sound and colour. These elements are always, if present, incorporated into the

script.

Film emphasizes and emotionalizes. Films can evoke different kinds of reactions in the audience, from grief to anger. They can make the audience think and send powerful messages across to them.

(Source: Trisha Dash, How to write a documentary script)

French New Wave

Remember to include the following aspects in your work on the French New Wave (you'll probably want to include more than this, though):

People:

• André Bazin
• Claude Chabrol
• Jean-Luc Godard
• Francois Truffaut
• Charlie Chaplin
• Alfred Hitchcock
• Orson Welles
• Howard Hawks
• John Ford
• Nicholas Ray
• Bob Rafelson
• Quentin Tarantino

Themes, ideas, inspirations:

• Italian neo-realism
• Challenges to the social order
• Auteur theory
• Cahiers du cinéma
• Une Certaine tendance du cinéma français
• Existentialism
• New Hollywood
• Absurdity of existence

Films and techniques:

• Le Beau Serge
• Les Quatre Cents Coups
• A Bout de Souffle

• Tracking shots
• Playing with audience expectation
• Low budget
• Jump cuts

Please remember that you also need to get across a 'feeling' for the French New Wave (imagine what is was like to be a part of it), not just a dry definition of the different ideas, people, and techniques that it involved. The movement was more than just an expression of artistic concepts - it was a whole way of life!

Invitation to screening of El Bien Esquivo (2001) - Thursday 23 June 2011 in Baker Hall

El Bien Esquivo (2001)

The Old Markhamian Association is happy and proud to invite Markham's IB Film department to our first 2011 Cultural Week in which we will project the Peruvian film El Bien Esquivo (2001) , directed by Old Markhamian film maker Augusto Tamayo (Promotion 1969) and featuring actor and Old Markhamian Diego Bertie (Promotión 1985).

This event will take place on Thursday 23 June at 7:30 pm at Baker Hall. After the film projection, a cocktail will be served. Both Mr. Tamayo and Mr. Bertie will be present and students, staff and attendees will have the chance to speak to them.

DRESS: Formal and elegant

SHORT DOCUMENTARY SCRIPT: Alfred Hitchcock – A true auteur?

 Alfred Hitchcock - a true auteur?

The Pitch: Your production company has been asked to produce a short 6-7 minute documentary script that explains the general concept of auteur film-making and the director as auteur by using the career and work of Alfred Hitchcock – concentrating on two of his Hollywood films: Psycho, North-by-Northwest.

Your documentary script must be written in the Video/Audio format shown in the IB Independent Study handout: (“The impact of German Expressionism on Modern Horror Films”)

You must include these 7 PARTS:

1. Basic definition of auteur film and auteur director

2. Historical/Cultural context of the auteur concept

3. Alfred Hitchcock – the director – what makes him special?

4. Recurrent themes in Hitchcock’s films – storylines

5. Stylistic unity in Hitchcock’s films – consider mise-en-scene, mise-en-shot

6. Narrative techniques

7. Conclusion – so is Hitchcock an auteur and why?

    Is this a useful way to think about him?

Some useful sources:

http://www.sensesofcinema.com/2005/great-directors/hitchcock/

http://gillonj.tripod.com/alfredhitchcock/

http://www.crimeculture.com/Contents/Articles-Spring05/Hitchcock.html

Film authorship – the director as auteur (handout)

Think about which clips from Psycho and North-by-Northwest you want to use to support your narrative.

Film Authorship: Director as artist or 'auteur'

Jean-Luc Godard -  film 'auteur'

§"The director is both the least necessary and the most important component of film-making. He is the most modern and most decadent of all artists in the relative passivity toward everything that passes before him. He would not be worth bothering with if he were not capable now and then of sublimity of expression almost miraculously extracted from his money-oriented environment." §(Andrew Sarris, The American Cinema, p.37)

 

Lesson 5: Film Authorship

Look at three of the directors we have looked at so far: Alfred Hitchcock (North by NorthWest, Psycho), Quentin Tarrantino (Pulp Fiction), Steven Spielberg (Jaws, Jurassic Park, ET)

Answer the following questions in your group:

What is distinctive about this director? – What raises him or her above the crowd?

Discuss in relation to:

Mise en scene and Mise-en-shot

Key structures of narrative (cause/effect logic, key narrative devices, ordering of events)

Narration (omniscient/restricted, voice-overs)

Themes (subject matter)

Dialogue

Sound (diagetic and non-diagetic)

Any other distinctive qualities in their films

“The auteur policy values the personality of a director precisely because of the barriers to its expression. It is as if a few brave spirits had managed to overcome the gravitational pull of the mass of movies.” (American Cinema)

So - What are the implications of viewing the director as an artist or “auteur”? Think about this in terms of the film industry and also in terms of film as ‘significant form’ – the Formalist view that films should be seen as a serious rival to the other established visual arts.

Put all your notes on your BLOG !!