Documentaries defined

Documentary film, according to the Encyclopaedia of Brittanica, is a motion picture that shapes and interprets factual material for purposes of education or entertainment.

A documentary theorist named Bill Nichols, claimed that all films can be called documentaries based on the principle that all films provide information about the culture that produces them.

Nichols divided documentaries into 2 sub-categories: Wish fulfilment, which references all fictional films, and Social Representation referencing what we denote documentaries as. However, distinguishing between these 2 categories is made difficult by the fact that they feature similar conventions. For example mise-en-scene is used in both categories but in fiction films it is fabricated whereas in documentary films it is found in reality, filmmakers and filmmaking equipment are used to produce both but regularly appear on-screen in documentaries whilst staying passive in fiction films.

The main idea behind Bill Nichols theory is that the distinction between fiction films and documentaries is a sliding scale and whilst he separated them into the categories of wish fulfilment and social representation, in between these opposing sides is a large grey area that many films cross into resulting in difficulty to define and categories films as a whole.

Cops (Buster Keaton, 1922)

Realism

• A level of authenticity is achieved through the background activity that can be seen in each shot. In a lot of the shots In this film, cars can be seen driving past in the background as well as people walking around the streets. The presentation of  everyday lives taking place parallel to the events we are focusing on highlights the idea that the film exists in a reality of sorts.
• Multiple aspects of the lives of 1920s American citizens are presented in this film. One man who appears to be unemployed and struggling to earn money tricks Keaton into giving him money; not only does this highlight the rising levels of unemployment in the 1920s, it also hints at the corruption of the contemporary society. Similarly, Keaton’s character appears to be on a quest to become a businessman in order to win the heart of a woman in a higher class than him, the prospects of social mobility that are presented reflect the growing ideals of economic prosperity in the 1920s and the American Dream of becoming successful.
• The parade that is showcased in the film is made more realistic by the masses of crowds surrounding the marching soldiers. The extreme scale of the event presents it as a more public and therefore authentic setting. It also portrays the patriotic values of America.
  

Expressionism

• On a couple of occasions during this film, Keaton uses a fade to black to show the passage of time; this is used when we see the man begin to pile furniture onto the cart before the screen fades to black only to open again to a shot showing the cart completely full. The technique is used to avoid the audience becoming bored but even so is expressionistic as we are not given an authentic display of time passing and instead uses editing to develop this understanding in the audience.
• A running joke throughout this film is the chase between the cops and Keaton and it is noticeable that the incompetence of the officers is exaggerated for humorous effects. In multiple scenes the cops seem to fall over each other, in one scene two officers hit each other accidentally instead of hitting Keaton and in another he outsmarts masses of cops by hiding inside of a building causing them to run straight past him and each other.
• One aspect of expressionism that differs to realism is the use of editing for effects, in Cops the frequency of the edits increases as the chase sequence progresses in order to increase the pace of the events. Editing is specifically used to encourage a specific response from the audience.

The High Sign (Buster Keaton, 1921)

Realism

• The High Sign focuses on “The Blinking Blizzards” who appear to be a 1920s gang. The representation of gangs in this film is realistic to the time period as the disillusionment felt by ex-soldiers after World War I led to many taking on violent and corrupt lifestyles as they struggled to re-join conventional society.
• Early 20th century social conventions are also portrayed accurately in this film through the juxtaposition of the exterior surroundings of the poor and the rich. The upper class elderly gentleman and his daughter appear to live in a rich home that carries a luxurious essence due to the posh furniture and butler working for them whereas the working class men hideout in the basement of a shooting range in a room that is scarcely furnished and dusty.
• The gentleman’s house is full of moving walls and trap doors which is undoubtedly unwonted; however, these traps cannot be deemed unrealistic or expressionistic as we watch them get constructed and are shown how they work. The traps and moving walls, whilst unusual, have been achieved authentically rather than through expressionistic film elements such as editing or effects.
  

Expressionism

• Exaggerated mise-en-scene is used in a sequence showing Keaton struggle with a newspaper that appears to be never-ending as it continuously unfolds for comedic effect.
• After the butler tips an unknown substance secretly into Keaton’s drink and he sips it, he looks into the cup and sees a reflection of a horse kicking its rear legs. The post-production effect is extremely expressionistic and is used to present the idea that the substance is causing Keaton to experience hallucinations.
• Towards the end of the film as the Blinking Blizzards members chase Keaton through the house, a shot appears to show 4 rooms at once. The frame is split into 4 quarters each showing a room in the house; the characters switch from one quarter of the frame to another by moving into each room. This unusual technique is being used to emphasise the gag of the house’s traps and also the repetitive routine the characters take from one room to another.

The Scarecrow (Buster Keaton, 1920)

Realism

• The costumes in the film strongly resemble the clothing worn by working class American citizens in the 1920s. The female in the film wears a dress whilst the men wear suit jackets and trousers.
• The world of the film mirrors reality to present it in a more authentic light. Throughout the film, the control of the patriarchy is shown. The woman in the film, despite being grown up, appears to still need her father’s permission to be involved with men; which is shown when he gets angry and Keaton and his co-star Joe Roberts for talking to his daughter and sends her back inside the house. She reflects the patriarchy in other ways including her participation in traditional female roles such as dancing, baking and being longed for by multiple men.
• Throughout The Scarecrow, an accurate portrayal of poverty and agriculture in 1920s America can be seen. Multiple empty Californian landscapes are seen as well as a wheat field full of various farming equipment such as a machine to thresh corn being operated by multiple working class men.The characters living conditions also reflect poverty as pigs eat their scraps and they life in a self-sufficient way. The dry dusty environments represent the growing presence of poverty and agriculture in 1920s America and realistically reflect the contexts of the world at the time.
  

Expressionism

• At the beginning of The Scarecrow, a title card with the words “Slowly and majestically the sun steals gradually over the hill-tops” and shortly after an extreme long shot of the sun rising is shown. The sun is clearly rising at an unrealistic, and astronomically incorrect, speed thus showing that exaggerated mise-en-scene is being used to manipulate reality.
• Several iris shots are used throughout this film such as when Roberts looking in the mirror before flipping it to reveal a photo of the woman next door. The iris shots focus the audience’s attention on one specific aspect thus controlling our interpretations as the shots are not subjective.
• Keaton uses exaggerated film elements to emphasise the gags made in the film. This is seen in the wide shot of Roberts sitting on the back of a car with two other men in the front, as he sits on the edge of the car it begins to tip backwards which is an example of expressionism as this would never happen in real life and is clearly being used to make a joke about his weight.

One Week (Buster Keaton, 1920)

Buster Keaton’s films feature aspects of fictional realism whilst also including expressionistic approaches for comedic effect.

Realism

• The opening wide shot of the film shows Keaton and his wife coming out of a church after their marriage is a static long shot; the lack of editing avoids controlling the audiences’s response.
• The editing that is used in the film is all for functional purposes rather than to create meaning; for example the opening shot cuts briefly to a close up of a new character before cutting to another long take of them getting in the car. Therefore the edits are used to advance the plot rather than have an effect on how the audience view the events.
• Keaton’s wife in the film is presented as the stereotypical American housewife through her costumes and performance as she makes breakfast in the morning for Keaton.
• The stunts performed in One Week, whilst extreme, are realistic in the sense that they are all carried out by Keaton himself rather than relying on editing or special effects to make them appears more impressive. For example when the ladder he is climbing comes away from the wall; his wife’s performance shows her to be shocked which furthers the realist portrayal as her reaction mirrors that of the audience.

Expressionism

• In the first sequence, we see a wide shot of them leaving a church after being married. Keaton uses the vignetting technique to act as a transition to the next sequence; the faded edges make the shot resemble a wedding photo. The use of editing to create meaning and provide information is an expressionistic technique.
• Exaggerated mise-en-scene is used to emphasise the fact the house they have built is badly constructed. For example when the house starts spinning or when the floor of the upstairs room begins descending as Keaton pulls with a wire from below until he releases the wire and the floor springs back into place thus presenting a disproportionate reality.
• Realism is abandoned entirely in a sequence showing the wife in the bath; she looks directly at the camera before climbing out before a hand covers the lens to suggest that we shouldn’t be watching her in this private moment. The scene breaks the fourth wall.

I, Tonya (Craig Gillespie, 2018): My Thoughts

I, Tonya is a biographical drama film that tells the true story of Tonya Harding, a competitive figure skater, who in 1991 became the first American skater to land a triple axel in competition but saw her world crumble in 1994 when her ex-boyfriend and a team of individuals conjured a plan to injure Nancy Kerrigan, a fellow Olympic skating hopeful. Tonya Harding has been, and probably forever will be, associated with one of the most infamous sporting scandals; however, what this film attempts to do is shine a light on her life and experiences and provide viewpoints that may change how we view the scandal.

This film was nothing like what I expected it to be but in the best kind of way. I loved the innovative filming style. The interviews with the characters, shown in a mokumentary-style, were intertwined with sequences taking us through the key events of Tonya’s life. Although at first the breaking of the fourth wall caught me off guard, it didn’t take long for it to feel natural. What this film was able to do is take something that is naturally avoided in filmmaking and use it in a way that worked effectively to capture the essence of the film and the overall messages that were being portrayed.

Whilst this film has been widely criticised for making Harding appear to be the victim rather than Kerrigan, the main thing I admired about it was the complexity of the many sides to the story that were presented on screen. The writer, Steven Rogers, decided to “put everybody’s point of view out there, and then let the audience decide” where they stood after interviewing Tonya and her ex husband Jeff separately and realising their versions of the events were nothing alike. The creators claim that the film is unbiased but it is clear that Tonya is supposed to be the protagonist. Even so, they successfully presented the imperfections of everyone involved thus allowing the complicated nature of the entire scandal to shine through. After looking over the features of realist and expressive cinema in our recent film studies lessons, it is interesting for me to see how the rules of cinema have evolved. I, Tonya is quite obviously miles and miles away from realism due to its use of film elements to manipulate the audience (used by almost every single film nowadays); however, it does claim to mirror reality through its retelling of events and the idea of showing reality through the use of expressionism and artistic manipulation is one that is becoming increasingly more present in cinema of the 21st century.

One scene in particular that stood out to me was that of Tonya successfully completing a triple axel during a competition, an event that went down in history as one of the more joyous skating achievements. Tonya, played by Margot Robbie, is visibly excited whilst recalling the event before composing herself and saying in a bitter sweet tone that “no one really asks [her] about it anymore”. The line left a pain in my heart and perfectly showed the scary reality of the media’s impact on our lives. It’s no secret that the media is able to manipulate information to gather a broader response and this was a great example of that; rather than focusing on her achievements and work, interviewers after 1994 decided to focus solely on the incident with Nancy Kerrigan and repeatedly ask Tonya for her side of the story which remained the same every time she answered: she had nothing to do with it (or so she claims). It seems that the media nowadays are more focused on the image of the “celebrity” and Hollywood scandals than the actual talent and work coming from the people themselves and whilst the film doesn’t explicitly make this a standout theme, its presence is undeniable.

(Above: The real Tonya Harding and Margot Robbie)

Overall, I, Tonya was an amazing film complete with innovative techniques, jaw dropping scenes and amazing performances from Margot Robbie and Allison Janney, who played Harding’s mother in the film and bagged an oscar for best supporting actress in the process. The film was a tragedy mixed with humour and bias that provided an insight to an event that dominated the media in the 1990s and, thanks to the creative works of Craig Gillespie and Steven Rogers, is able to be perceived by a new audience through different perspectives.

Netflix Original Films: My Thoughts

It is becoming increasingly noticeable to me that new films released today tend to attract people through intertextuality. Take Marvel films for example, they typically do well in the box office and this is undoubtedly due to the extent of the fan base surrounding it who will commit to going due to their love for other films made within that realm. In a cinematic world full of these sequels, prequels, partner films and other films set out to become a franchise, it must be hard for lone films to reach an audience of the same size. Put it this way, a casual cinema goer is more likely to pay to see a film connected to others they know and like in order to increase the chance of them enjoying it.
In comes Netflix. A wonderful entertainment streaming media that allows you to watch films without leaving your home!

As Netflix grows (and begins its journey to world domination), it is producing and releasing more and more original films. I think the reason Netflix films are able to be successful without the added benefit of intertextuality is the fact you are able to watch them in your own home without having to go to the cinema and pay for the film at the risk that you don’t enjoy it because if you don’t enjoy it you can simply turn it off. In light of the many new Netflix films, and a free month Netflix subscription, I decided to watch a few and see how I liked them. Here they are in order of most enjoyed to least enjoyed.

OKJA (Joon-ho Bong, 2017)
Okja tells the story of a young girl who puts her life in danger in order to save her beloved super pig from a multinational company wanting to use Okja to produce high quality meat for consumption.

I thought this film was absolutely incredible; it was touching, gripping, disturbing and very hard hitting to the point where I was fighting back the tears. A couple of the characters were hard to swallow however, not to the point where they were unwatchable. And whilst the film didn’t quite convince me to abandon eating meat, it does now make me feel a lot more guilty when doing so. Definitely one of my favourite films of 2017, I think everyone should watch it.

Before I Wake (Mike Flanagan, 2016)
Before I Wake is about a couple who, after loosing their son, adopt an orphaned child whose, unbeknownst to the couple, dreams and nightmares becoming physically real when he sleeps.

This film was recommended to me by a friend and because I’m not a huge fan of horror films I was admittedly hesitant at first. However, I was pleasantly surprised. Before I Wake was incredibly chilling and suspenseful but also complex and imaginative. The leading performances by Jacob Tremblay (one of the best current child actors) and Kate Bosworth were brilliant and really sustained the entire film.

To the Bone (Marti Noxon, 2017)
To the Bone follows Ellen, a young woman dealing with anorexia, as she meets a doctor who, with great difficulty, teaches her how to face her condition and embark on a new journey to embrace life.

Any story about something as hard hitting as an eating disorder is bound to cause a stir, lots of criticisms have suggested the film glorifies anorexia or acts as a trigger for those who are suffering. I could not disagree with this more; the film for me does the opposite of glorifying the disorder. It deliberately causes extreme discomfort in the viewer so that we are presented with the hard-to-except reality of the dangerous nature of the disorder, just as Ellen herself is. I can only speak from the perspective of someone not personally affected by anorexia and I understand how it may cause upset amongst those who are; however, I hold the belief that we have to discuss topics like this in order to widen our knowledge and shine a light on the problems within our society. Whilst there are flaws to this film, it was very moving and left me with lots to think about once it was over.

What Happened to Monday (Tommy Wirkola, 2017)
In What Happened to Monday, a set of identical septuplets search for their missing sibling whilst avoiding the government trying to punish them for disobeying the one child policy.

The original idea of this film is one that has been explored before; however, I thoroughly enjoyed the modern twist put on it. One of the most enjoyable things about this film for me was the fascination of how it was made seeing as Noomi Rapace played all 7 of the siblings and it was done incredibly well. There were moments when the film began to loose my interest or following although these were quickly replaced with intense action scenes and partially unpredictable plot twists.

André Bazin: the realist vs. the expressive

There are two main film styles that dominated the film industry from 1915-1939: Realism and Expressionism
Timeline:
1915-1930 -> Imagists and Expressionism dominate
1931-1935 -> Realist style is introduced and is level with Imagists
1936-1939 -> Realism dominates whilst Imagists fall behind (Realism was able to takeover because most cinematic technical innovations like colour and camera movements had been established meaning that the next evolutionary advancement was likely to be a thematic one)

Andre Bazin (1918-1958)

• Andre Bazin strongly argued that cinema should reflect reality, he was a humanist and therefore saw cinema as an “idealistic phenomenon”. He presented a new take on cinema to compete with German Expressionism and Soviet Montage. Bazin also introduced the auteur theory that suggested the director should be the true artist of the film and the content should be a reflection of the director’s style.
• Bazin often used the long-take and deep focus to maintain the unity of time and space more realistic and create a fixed relationship with reality. Long-takes encouraged more audience participation as they were forced to pay more attention to understand what is happening, they couldn’t rely on the form of the film to give them impressions. A long-take also makes the audience question the relevance of the shot (due to the contract between a director and the audience that states that what we are being shown is important) so we anticipate the meaning and importance.

  

  Ida (Pawel Pawlikowski, 20140

  An example of a long-take is seen in Ida (Pawel Pawlikowski, 2014) in which a wide shot of a window being opened by a character before she leaves the frame and then returns is shown to us for a long time to create anticipation until the final moments of the shot in which she jumps out of the window. The use of long-take increases our shock at her suicide. Other examples can be found in Citizen Kane (1941) and Rebel Without a Cause (1955) that include shots encouraging the audience to participate by ‘cutting with their eyes’.

• Bazin categorised directors of the silent period (1920-1940) into 2 groups:
  – The Imagists (those who base their integrity in the image, e.g. German Expressionists and Soviet Montagists)
  – The Realists (those who base their integrity in reality)
• Bazin disagreed with the montage technique emphasised by the soviet montage movement. He described it as a “series of either logical or subjective points of view of an events” and believed that editing invents meaning through the juxtaposition of images rather than the actual images themselves and therefore it removes the freedom for the audience to select; however, he was not against editing that joins scenes or is there for necessity.
  Henri Bergson’s duree (duration) theory heavily influenced Bazin. Bergson associated duration with freedom, self-awareness and authenticity.

  

  Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)

• Bazin was also concerned with phenomenology (the study of essences). Whilst Eisenstein’s theory of essence stands in the idea of dialectic, Bazin’s theory of essence sees “faith in reality” and deems Eisenstein’s “faith in the image” flawed. However, both Eisenstein and Bazin attempted to answer how film could show the essence of reality and both agreed that it can’t happen by showing reality as authentically as possible, instead films should select what facets of reality to show.
• Bazin saw the ‘idealist theory’ as a spiritual or ambiguous reality that overlooked social and political reality and favoured accurate portrayals of life than encouraged audiences to think and interpret scenes.

 

Creating Meaning: German Expressionism and Soviet Montage

The Hunger Games: Finished Film and Evaluation

One of the strengths of my project is the use of different editing techniques as I had never attempted most of them before and definitely will in the future. Another strength is the pace of my editing during the rush to the canteen; I think for the most part I was able to slow the pace at the beginning in order to increase the pace as the characters began to run to the canteen and by increasing the frequency of edits for the chase scene. Whilst I think we produced a decent film during the time allocated to us, there are clear weaknesses and steps for improvement.

To improve the filming process:

• Make sure to re-watch takes after filming each one in order to establish if more takes are needed and what we need to do in the re-shoots to improve the mistakes made. For example in every take we did for the end shot of everyone coming around the corner, someone would laugh and fall out of frame before it finished so when editing it was difficult to use any of these shots.
• Organise what shots we need to film before going out as there are scenes we had discussed but were not filmed such as more shots of the characters running without facing obstacles. and a shot clearly showing the canteen to be closed.
• Technicalities also should’ve been established before filming such as making sure the shots of the characters running were filming from left to right as some were filmed with them running right to left so I had to reverse the clips to fix it. We also could’ve filmed more ‘progress’ shots to show the characters getting from one location to another to avoid jupiness and allow the audience to follow their movements better.
• We had a lot of problems with the settings on the cameras we used when filmed. One camera had accidentally been set to a lower quality so the clips are visibly different and less refined. Another camera wasn’t kept still during a shot that was crucial to showing the characters’ journeys which made it difficult to use. In the future before filming settings on cameras should be checked and the equipment should be kept still during filming.
• For future projects, I think better organisation will be needed prior to filming including making sure we know all the shots we will need to fulfill all of the requirements such as the different editing techniques etc.

To improve the editing process:

• Make the parallel edits easier to follow (this is also due to lack of variation of shots avaliable to editing) as some people will find it difficult to distinguish betweeen the two storylines.
• Introduce a wider variety of editing techniques, such as a graphic match, to make the sequence more interesting and effective for the audience.
• Introduce a wider variety of editing effects, such as slow motion, for greater emphasis on comedic moments especially the scene with a character slipping over a banana peel.
• Make the end of the composed score more gradual rather than having it end abruptly; I attempted this by fade it out towards the end and add a concluding two beat sound however, a larger and longer fade was probably needed.
• The order of my shots could also be improved to support greater coherence as well.
• Make the jump cut technique more deliberate and jarring to use it to its full effect rather than creating a subtle jump.

Overall, these are all improvements that are doable for future projects and are definitely things I will take into account.