As Leni Riefenstahl’s Wagnerian epic The Triumph of the Will (1935) demonstrates with unsettling assurance, visual manipulation and the reconstruction of reality may be used successfully with catastrophic consequences. Indeed it was he who first used the term Documentary when talking about “Nanook of the North”, a film by Flaherty. It has an excessive usage of specialists and uses other common conventions such as jiggly cameras, archival footage and real people. The Convention itself was planned as spectacular film propaganda, so that while, as Riefenstahl’s asserts, nothing in the film did not really happen, it was the advent of the film that caused the events to occur, in a staged spectacle planned meticulously in order to facilitate the creation of what would become one of the Nazi’s most important pieces of propaganda. ( Log Out /  It was wonderful to work with Laurence and hear some of his stories from his time with Grierson – their meeting in the ’60’s with Leni Riefenstahl, Grierson’s habit of frying fish on a portable gas stove in the edit suite. His specialist interviews with doctors and dieticians also add more authenticity and make his evidence seem more reliable to the audience so that the information and argument he presents seems more valid.

To prove the truism of being in the right place at the right time, I was in the edit suite of Hopscotch films when John Archer, the producer there, asked me if I would like to spend a couple more days in the edit suite helping to finish a project about John Grierson. (Ray Kroc – McDonalds’ founder. ) Both documentaries show 2 very different but very effective ways of documenting . The genius of Grierson was to create the conditions for a flourishing of creativity and innovation inside government. Change ), You are commenting using your Google account. It gives focus to his arguments; he tells us what we are looking at and directs our focus rather than only giving us unaccompanied visual images.It helps the audience feel more involved and gives us a better understanding as he speaks directly towards us and keeps us informed and I think that it is probably the most important code. Consisting almost entirely of interviews, interspersed with archive footage, the film provides a powerful reanalysis of a crucial period in modern history. Broomfield is hence more of a medium between us and the real world investigation of Biggie and Tupac, interviewing everyone involved and not being to eager to come up with a conclusion like Spurlock who wants us to stop eating fast food.The audience would thus feel that Spurlock’s film is more biased and that he is trying to force opinions on us than find the truth to an unsolved mystery; however he achieves more than this and is able to influence people and eventually getting the McDonalds Supersize meal banned. The first of these seasons looks at ten documentaries from different parts of the world whose impact affected a measurable change upon the societies they examine. ( Log Out /  It completely contrasts every single other film genre. Ophüls quietly dismantles the established view of the heroic anti-Nazi resistance, exposing collaborative fascist and anti-Semitic sympathies. Most documentaries about modern events and people also use real people in it. If a film is to comprise of little more than impressive crowd scenes and speeches, there must be a design and structure to underscore its treatment of reality: Grierson knew what he was talking about. Pick 2 of the 3 readings and describe two points that you have taken from that reading that intrigue you. To prove the truism of being in the right place at the right time, I was in the edit suite of Hopscotch films when John Archer, the producer there, asked me if I would like to spend a couple more days in the edit suite helping to finish a project about John Grierson. In these films, the sense of actuality prevails – artistry seems irrelevant when the evidence of such horrendous reality is unravelling before our eyes. These different conventions all add to his distinctive and unusual style which is more similar to a criminal investigation about an event in the past that hasn’t happened instead of an ongoing, than Spurlocks film.Broomfield’s documentary is seemingly less structured and unprofessional with talking heads and footage that are less likely to provoke a certain answer than in Spurlocks film as reliable specialists are not used. Change ), You are commenting using your Twitter account. Of course I did. For Freedom lacked the persuasive power imparted by construction and creativity. These films use different styles with both similarities and differences (they use the same codes except symbolic which Broomfield doesn’t use).

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Its aim is to document the events of the outside world and present the truth even if it’s right in front of our eyes or obscured from view and covered up. To me it adds good authenticity and makes his presentation of information more cutting edge and up-to-date. I think that it is a good way of presenting information and often better than using graphs and pictures created by the film makers.

Broomfield on the other hand provided a quicker paced “whodunit” investigation and used his talking heads, music and archival footage aswell as technical codes to great effect. Despite the customary feelings of fun associated with clowns, these represent something more sinister. Our thirst for the detachment of a cinematic experience portending to represent, if not be reality, is growing. Given documentary’s roots in time based media (film and video), we have historically thought of the crafting of such an argument through artistically arranged fragments of filmed reality as a linear enterprise. Some of the main conventions are archival footage, of film and photography, and talking heads (including specialists) that are interviewed in order to comment on the documentary subject and add extra viewpoints and information. The McDonalds clown is the main image presented, though usually as a small child. Get access to this section to get all the help you need with your essay and educational goals.

The documentary, which sparked numerous miscarriage-of-justice films, concerns the murder of a Texan policeman and two suspects, one guilty but acquitted, the other innocent but scapegoated under the shortcomings of a corrupt justice system.

The face of every subject is filmed with unsettling scrutiny; whilst revealing uncomfortable truths, we are allowed to understand the impossible circumstances with which each individual was confronted, in an account that exposes the truth without condemning it.

“Look after the customers and the business will take care of itself. Grierson deÞned documentary as Ôthe creative treatment of actualityÕ. On the other side of the spectrum lies Erol Morris’s The Thin Blue Line (1988). Change ), Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window), A “remarkable profile” that could “completely redefine how Gray is perceived”…, A brief description of how I came to work with Alasdair Gray and how it was brought to some kind of conclusion, That time of year when I get anxious about work and write a blog…, New York, so good they named it the site of the Fourth International Teacher Artist Conference. We use cookies to give you the best experience possible. Rabiger, M. Directing the documentary Pawel Pawilkovski Richard Leacock In ‘Rabiger’s Directing the documentary’, John Grierson’s (aka the founding father of documentaries) called it the ‘Creative treatment of actuality’.

These add to the sense of adventure and danger that Broomfield carries around in his investigations especially since he carries very little security and unprofessional filming (he even says that at one point the amateur cameraman was afraid) and so makes the audience feel a lot more involved than in Supersize me. By continuing we’ll assume you’re on board with our cookie policy. In some documentaries re-enactments are also used to show past events to give the audience an idea of the aspects of the subject the documentary is presenting. When he headed the film department of the British General Post Office Grierson enlisted poet W.H. The investigative nature of the film assisted in the eventual reprieve of the innocent suspect: the artistic power to unsettle and provoke indignation should not be underestimated, and Morris’s film is a crucial example of the importance of documentaries in addressing issues that have been silenced by bureaucracy. But the lack of craft was all too evident; I didn’t feel I had learnt anything, and found myself uncomfortably bored even whilst I knew I was watching scenes from a crucial moment in recent history. They use the same conventions; voice-overs, archival footage, talking heads, jiggly camera etc but the differing styles affect the way that these are used with Broomfield’s crime investigation style offering a less biased argument but more bias from the opinions of the people he interviews and less visual affects like bars and graphs to relay information about a serious issue/event. The documentaries selected to form this season have ‘shaken’ the world by means of skilful persuasion, demonstrating the ways in which film may be used as a powerful and immediate propaganda tool. Jiggly camera and the voice over narrative have both become almost synonymous to the documentary genre; the Jiggly camera is a convention developed as on-location filming and more portable cameras were needed. John Grierson, widely considered to be the ‘father’ of the documentary, defined the form as ‘the creative treatment of actuality’.

Change ), You are commenting using your Facebook account. Both styles used their conventions well and were good in their own ways; Spurlock provided a good argument (like a prosecution case in court) and used his visual codes, specialists and unusual Mcdiet to back it up with good evidence. Some documentaries are memorable for their captivating aesthetics; others purely for their compelling story and the weight of their argument. Of these the most prominent is jiggly camera; an important convention as it makes the audience feel more involved in some kind of unplanned, unadulterated adventure alongside Spurlock at an almost personal level.