Ashif Alucin
Welcome to my blog
UAL Level 3 Creative Media
Documentary:
For this unit we were briefed that we will be working on a documentary and an animation.
Micheal Renov's purposes:
Record, preserve, reveal
Promote or persuade
Analyse or interrogate
Example:
Example:
Example:
Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief
Grizzly Man
An Inconvenient Truth
I interpret this as taking an outside perspective while documenting, in the purest manner, and revealing the found factual information as a whole.
You are more likely to skew information here, since the main goal is to promote or persuade. This will cause you to become less neutral, and remember the sole goal is to present an idea for the public that you hope they agree to.
This is a more like a mid point to the other two purposes: Your goal is to take a perspective and too look at things as a whole, however you are looking critically and in depth, while asking questions. You are liable to become prone to biases because of this.
Express
Example:
Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father
This purpose is an emotional one, therefore a lot of sophistication will be disregarded compared to other purposes, however it's clear the creator of the documentary is open to expose oneself, which shows a truthful, intimate side.
The audience will know what they are getting into. They will automatically lower their criticisms and watch from a humane perspective.
Forms of documentary:
Task:
•‘Man of Aran’ (Flaherty, 1934)
•‘A Day in the life of a Coal Miner’ (Kineto, 1910)
•‘Night Mail’ (Grierson, 1937)
•What seems to be the purpose of the film?
•- What different approaches can you identify? (use of narration, direct questioning, observational etc.)
•- What do you notice about the editing of the extract?
•- How is narrative constructed?
Man of Aran - From the clip i watched from YouTube the purpose of this film seems to align with Micheal Renov's "Record, preserve, reveal. The main, the most effective and extended, approach I see from this film is the observational element. Throughout the clip, I was shown a honest footage of people, I assume of Ireland, fighting against mother nature - predominately the sea and wind.
At the start music was used, primarily to set the scene and to show development. However, after the scene was set, the filmmaker relied on audio of nature, such as waves crashing and the wind.
There was a clear sense of the scene setting, to development, to a problem and a climax. What I found interesting was the filmmaker had decided to extend the the scenes that highlighted the problems, and at first I was thinking "it's hard to make movies this honest in the modern times". I admired how he showcased the true struggle against mother nature; I was reminded of a book I had recently read:"The Old Man and the Sea". However, The Old Man and the Sea did not get tedious with how it showcased struggle.
A Day in the life of a Coal Miner - The main purpose of this film is clear: to document how the life of a miner was like in 1910. I must add watching this made me appreciate the other film more because the detraction of sound made the good stand out more; the things I overlooked with the "Man of Aran."
The film had no soundtrack, therefore purely relies on what is on the screen. Text was used to guide the audience on what was being shown. Segments of the process of mining was shown. This is does suggest the filmmaker had the far future audiences in mind and believed in the longevity of his film. From the start to the very end of a miners days work was shown, In that exact order,
Night Mail - The purpose of this film is to show how people got their mail back in the 1930's, which is through a train, a special train. Audio was thoroughly used in this movie in a very interesting way. Background music was used to amplify the feel of the information that was given, which obviously helps attract attention.
For example, there was a segment where a poem was being said, and while it was being said back ground music was used. The poem was essentially used for narration, to explain what the purpose of the train was and, in overall, the whole process.
Night Mail
A Day in the life of a Coal Miner
Man of Aran
*Grierson’s ‘documentary’ vs Vertov’s ‘kino-pravda’
Grierson:
Vertov:
Task:
Watch and review ‘Kino-Pravda’
Naturally, it would be difficult to review something when you lack exposure to something that is comparable. However, towards Vertov's work reading, even just briefly about him or his contenders, was more than enough.
I personally am drawn into people that embrace change, and, therefore have the ability to innovate. Vertov innovated, which makes me slightly biased to his work.
However, it is very clear that his work was revolutionary, and what struck out to me was how he used audio. The video above is an example for that. Usually, during these times audio was not optimised in such a way. The non-diegetic sound told its own story that immensely related to what was shown in screen. Most importantly, it made us feel. I believe Vertov had a huge advantage in this area, compared to his rivals, due to his musical background. His musical background as a whole is some that are overlooked because something that teaches structure within art will teach you how to mould character into your creativity.
I also do believe that the time zone had influence over Vertov because it was the era where propaganda and censorship were predominant, therefore consciously or unconsciously the path towards poetic documentary was guided. What I mean by this is, naturally, there should be some comfort knowing you can embed controversial messages while bypassing scrutiny using "poetic" documentation.
I do see his view of the camera being "innocent" restricting his innovation: most his creativity shows through the post production. I do recognise that he uses unconventional shots, but I believe this to be a product of post-production, as in the unconventional shots would have been less developed if the thought of post-production existed less in Vertov's mind. This is just an assumption I got after watching this one video - it has near to no weight. What I was drawn to was Vertov's skill on making something cohesive from materials that should equate to chaos during the time period.
Task:
Read "Documentary Principles" and write a synopsis
The Documentary Disciplines by Ruby Rich brings exposure towards the growth of documentary as a median: "This is an extraordinary moment for documentary. The world of theatrical releases, movie awards, and popular journalism is in the grip of a much-remarked documentary renaissance." The "boom" of documentary is thoroughly highlighted through the exposure of "documentary movements" and "breakthroughs". The article starts with the emphasis of "Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11" being "highest-grossing documentary in U.S. history", and does not waste time crediting the film's distributor: "Miramax".
This brings attention of the value of documentary in the eyes of businessman, and raises the question is this the prime time for documentary, it is certainly suggested that documentaries are in a constant raise, which also is causes new breeds of documentaries. However, these movements are monitored to prevent stripping the identity of documentaries - the documentation of the truth: "documentaries that are born daily to do the work that an increasingly centralized and controlled media cannot, playing to that sector of the American public that has begun to realize that truth is no longer guaranteed, not by twenty-four frames per second (to parse Errol Morris), not by satellite dishes or hundreds of cable channels, not by any official channels in this time of corporate control." Instead, then, viewers might turn to the latest Robert Greenwald opus (Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers was released in September 2006) or peruse an imaginary "samizdat menu" to learn about election manipulations (No Umbrella, American Blackout, Street Fight), the manipulations of the media itself (Control Room), the manipulations of terrorism into conspiracies (Loose Change), the labor manipulations of cross-border globalization (Maquilapolis), the psychopharmaceutical manipulations of one's own brain (Tarnation), the digital manipulation of actual news into a fiction thriller (Death of a President), or the foreign and domestic policy manipulations by the U.S. government in Afghanistan, Iraq, and New Orleans (too many even to begin to mention). New improvised-budget, low-budget, and no-budget documentaries are pouring out of camcorders and Macs into living rooms and festivals near you, and it will be interesting to watch for the evolution of distribution mechanisms to connect them to audiences: Netflix, GreenCine, and Ironweed, already established, but also YouTube, MySpace, and the evolving microcinemas, vblogs, and next-technology transmission channels, pioneered on iTunes and other sites."
Task:
Provide an overview in your own words of these two different styles of documentary filmmaking:
Both Direct Cinema and Cinema Verite are popular in our time. Films that follow Direct Cinema usually do come across as more professional because of the simple fact they the rely purely on what goes in the screen: naturally, there is a more conscious effort on adopting an "outsider view" because it is expected that the audience is the outsider. However, with Cinema Verite, french for “film truth, it's accepted for some rules to be broken. The filmmaker "actively participates in the film as a subjective observer where necessary; combining observational AND participatory filming in the same breath." This will naturally cause a bias, but it is a bias that the audience is naturally aware of. We, in this age, are exposed to these types of films; you can just look at some bbc three documentaries. These documentaries usually have an active participator, that is usually not a filmmaker, with a clear motive. Is is stated in the article: "In its defence, famous vérité filmmaker Dan Kraus once said “no documentary can ever show you the truth, because there are multiple truths, but vérité can at least relay the truth as seen by a single observer." There is still the question that "are we able to trust the audience's awareness; do they know they are required to view in a critical fashion; not passively accept everything as the singular truth.
Task:
Screening: ‘Titicut Follies’
Comment on how the observational form allows the audience an insight into the hospital as though we can't be seen - there is no acknowledgement of the camera.
Frederick Wiseman's "Titicut Follies", a banned film, exposes the inhumane treatment towards the mentally ill at the State Hospital for the Criminally Insane at Bridgewater, Mass. In a observational form. It is clear why the observational form was decided for a topic that was in need of scrutiny. And, that is to take the most neutral approach. This is important for the audience since this is a documentary that reveals from the eyes of the camera - the whole picture is looked at from the eyes that holds no bias.
What makes this work is that Frederick Wiseman had little research done when going in making this documentary, and this information is far most important because it deters Frederick to hold control over the camera because he, like us, will want to watch what unfolds - he is the observer. This ultimately personifies the camera, therefore there should not be any acknowledgement of a camera as we know it.
As a filmmaker, I do believe Frederick had turned of any ego and, filmed as someone that could empathise with each individual including those that are inhumane. The ability to empathise is optional, and judging through Frederick's answers in the Q and A showed, I'd imagine he skipped this option. He purely came in terms with his role as a filmmaker that wants to find out what is behind the curtains. I believe this organic curiosity is what strengthens the observational form. The audience should be influenced by this curiosity, and watch as how a curious child would. However, clearly this film can cause disgust, which will make it hard to watch from a pure neutral point. The truths of this film is very hard to digest, but at the end I am sure that everyone could come to the conclusion that there are problems within the attitudes that goes towards "reforming" the criminally insane.
Task:
Screening: ‘The Thin Blue Line’
Year of Production, Director, Synopsis (use IMDb)
Consider:
What seems to be the purpose of the film?
What different approaches can you identify? (use of narration, direct questioning, observational, reconstruction etc.)
What do you notice about the editing of the film?
How do the re-enactments help to create the film's narrative?
How effective is the Philip Glass music score at driving the film's narrative?
How is the overall narrative constructed?
What are your thoughts about the end of the film and the impact it had upon the case
One night in November 1976, after his car breaks down on a road outside Dallas, Randall Dale Adams accepts a ride from teenager David Harris. Harris is driving a stolen vehicle and, later that night, when Dallas police officer Robert Wood pulls the car over to check its headlights, he is shot and killed. A jury believes Adams is the killer, but Errol Morris' classic documentary explores the role of Harris' perjured testimony, misleading witness accounts and police misconduct in the verdict.
Initial release: 25 August 1988 (USA)
The purpose of this film is to shed light to corruption within the whole process of the judiciary system. The films shows a real event of this using "Randell Dale Adams" and the gross treatment he received. This was shocking due to the little lengths that "Morris" had to go through to display the corruption during this time. It's almost humorous because just a little shade of corruption was shown, a shade that could even be justified, but It was still displayed as plain wrong.
The "little lengths" I was referring to was direct questioning done by Morris. I personally find it shocking that just through a few interviews, Morris was able to appeal to such a large audience in showing the mistreatment of Adams, in an entertaining fashion. I must credit the fictional reconstruction of the real events because this will help the entertaining factor of this documentary; this helps even the disinterested of this topic to passively watch what is being shown in screen. It's simply entertaining to watch and imagine what had happen, while or after audibly understanding what had happen. I have seen this formula adopted many times with modern documentaries, which makes it evident that it's a formula that works.
Phillip glass, whom i consider one of the greats, had scored this documentary in an intensive, grabbing fashion that interestingly worked well with what was in screen. Most definitely worked with the scenes that re-enacted the events that had taken place. During these scenes, the score audibly becomes more present, but does not overwhelm. This, i'd imagine, acts as a supplement when the audience uses their imagination on understanding what had occurred during the events that is being described to us. And, most importantly on understanding and debating the issues that were being addressed. I do hope that we, as a whole, scrutinise the judiciary system, as well as scrutinise everything that we are presented with. Also, if we are to take a step back, to reconsider the death penalty.
"Documentarian Errol Morris indirectly argues that, at the very least, this evidence should have presented a "reasonable doubt" to the jury, and near the end of the movie, the audience has little choice but to accept his unbelievable findings. And the film ends with a single scene of just a tape recorder and voices that should be recognized as one of the most powerful endings to a movie, ever. A documentary masterpiece." - IMDB reviewer mprins27 January 1999
Task:
Write a synopsis of what I had learnt from the interview: "An interview with Martin Scorsese."
Throughout this interview, Scorsese passively exclaims that he believes there is a blur between documentaries we see and fiction. He presents this idea, by first talking about one of his curiosities about movies in general: "Where do you put the camera? In other words, you have the ability to photograph something called 'life', to record it, but then how do you record it? From what vantage point? If you set up a camera on a street somewhere and a few cars pass by, that's recording. If you set up the camera on a particular corner and decide to wait until a particular type of person passes by or until the light is a certain way, that's interpreting." (Film History, Vol. 19, No. 2, Page 199).
Scorsese then asks the question what came first -"the impulse to record or to interpret". He believed "they both arrived at the same time."
This directly questions the honesty of documentaries as we know it, because this does remind us that documentaries are staged, like fictional films. And, this is acceptable. We are again reminded me of a blue between fiction and documentary by hearing a recollection of Scorsese's childhood - he could not see the difference between fiction and documentaries. Scorsese publicly denounces Herzog's films from documentaries, however he does explain that we could "call [Herzog's films] (as) documents of the human condition."
Through these views Scorsese shows that how much of a connection there is between documentaries and films, and this, in a way, amplifies documentaries in general - It deletes misconceptions of restrictions when creating an documentary: there are countless ways to create factual cinema! "Ultimately it's not about the technique, it's not about the style. It's the people, and what's revealed the moment they lose their self-consciousness and let you in. That's cinema. " - Scorsese. I have learnt that creativity and curiosity, that is interacted with, can transcend labels as we know it.
Planning and Pre-Production:
Documentary ideas:
A documentary usually, these days, requires extensive research. Therefore, I have firmly decided to make a documentary I have some knowledge on, and if for some reason i decide to get to make a documentary as a person that knows nothing about the topic, I should have interest and a little knowledge of the topic prior production.
Synopsis:
Ashif Alucin goes into researching dangers of gaming. However, he does not want to research the dangers that are traditionally talked about, but dangers that he is interested in. The dangers that are not traditionally talked about. He had decided to look at the dangers as a whole and from his own perspective. He will not try tackle the issues from a natural point, however he will find enough material that allows us to see variety of perspectives. The main issue he wants to look at is "escapism". Is this something that is healthy? Is it something that can breed problems, if unsupervised. He will be these issues with a former rank 1 "Talon" player in the game "League of Legends".
Logline:
A casual gamer had made a decision to investigate the dangers of gaming. But, not the traditional "dangers of gaming" we all hear, but the newer born ones. The more deceptive ones. There is even the question if gaming is what causes these dangers or is it something that we are not more of.
Treatment:
Text saying, "The Dangers of Gaming" appears with a typewriter effect. The background is black. The font is white. Snippet of an audio played in the background while the text is shown. The audio plays "first of all when I say the dangers of gaming I do not mean it in the way that is generally put - in the same loose way..." Insoy responds for clarification of my statement.
After, a snipped of a video of Donald Trump will be shown explaining that he can not believe the violence in video games, movies and the internet. He does in this disgust. An audio of Insoy is used again, but this it is put in after. The snippet will be relevant to Trumps statement; Insoy explains that he believes the parents are responsible of what their child watches.
Video of excess of social media usuage and gaming will be put in the background while Insoy speaks. A clip of Ben Shapiro is then used after as a supplement because he says that it's the parents choice on what their children watches.
I will cut to Insoy again to use audio that talked about violent game then transition into children playing violent game. A most notorious one will be used such as Mortal Kombat. The children will be casually playing, as there is nothing wrong, while brutal game play is shown. For example, like how Insoy says "skulls crushed", skull gets crushed through gameplay from the games the children are playing.
After this, I will introduce Insoy and what his achievements are. I will then cut up pieces of the the most relevant and interesting dialogue and add into the video. As background I will use forum discussions to further show the truth of what Insoy expresses. We will talk about issues that I am most interested in. I will present him with a hypothesis that there is a parallel between drinking with friends as social conduct with playing games. Both are now considered social and is bad in excess, but is acceptable in moderation. Both is very common. Both does link to escapism. However, they both cater tow wards different audiences - extroverts and introverts. I ask if the dangers are similar and what the he thinks of this.
After the discussion, I will end the documentary because I do not want to make it go into a length that exceed view able time. I will end it as part one. I will present myself in a light-hearted manner and summarise the discussion me and Insoy had and what I had learnt. Here I will also use my own anecdotes and express my own views. I will talk about the good in gaming such as individualisation. I will talk about the good in escapism. I will talk about what I had found interesting from Insoy such as Casino effects. I will talk about the overall goal of this documentary and what I now believe what the answer is.
Survey:
Survey results:
Interesting how the question that asks the "why" received responses with the idea of traditional dangers.
Questions:
I am going to interview a known player of one of the most successful games - league of legends.
I have written down a few important things I want to discuss.
One being my thesis - "do you think there are parallels of the attraction of gaming compared to more social activities such as drinking, but both having two different audiences being introverts and extroverts.
I will, of course, introduce him and allow him freedom to expand upon my introduction of him.
After this, I will discuss about dangers of gaming more in-depth.
Are there dangers that are more elusive?
How much does age group matter when it comes to these dangers?
What does he think are the solutions?
bibliography:
YouTube. (2018). Trump blames video games, movies for violence. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RKZn2Sf7bo [Accessed 29 May 2018].
YouTube. (2018). Should We Ban Violent Video Games?. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HXJDEnHV0w [Accessed 29 May 2018].
YouTube. (2017). How my World of Warcraft addiction ruined my life.. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGNgt_WXa_4 [Accessed 29 May 2018].
YouTube. (2016). China's Digital Detox: A Life Reboot for Internet Gaming Addicts (RT Documentary). [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z15enlhZLi8 [Accessed 29 May 2018].
YouTube. (2010). Gaming Addiction | CBC. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQMqpvR2ns8 [Accessed 29 May 2018].
YouTube. (2015). How Video Games Change Your Brain. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khpLlXwWBgs [Accessed 29 May 2018].
My Documentary:
Documentary Reflection:
Making an documentary was a fun task because it was like watching one, but a lot more interactive one. Throughout the process of the creating a video, I was able to explore ideas that I had, and be presented with new ideas and factual information that I was not aware off.
The cause also pushed me to interact with people that I do not speak to that often, such as Insoy. Me and him have communicated in several occasions, but we never held a verbal dialogue. Due to a documentary we spoke for nearly two hours, which easily could have been more, but the time differences between us makes that hard. He leaves work at 2am my time. There is a -7 time difference.
There are more than a lot of things I can improve on. I know what they are, therefore I know how to tackle to them the next time I have a task like this. The main hardship of making this video was figuring out a way to make a cohesive flow between the video and audio. I now know that I need proper preparation before heading into the production.
I should also have done research a lot more throughly, even if the plan is to make a "self discovery" type documentary
Feedback:
I thoroughly agree with using visual clips of the interview because without it I had struggled a lot to make something that was cohesive. The first 30 seconds is were I had put more effort then I thought there is no way I fit everything in, which made me use longer segments. However, In hindsight, I think this was wrong and lazier mentality. I should had tried to get as much material as I could and made something that had the same quality throughout. I should have also organised myself more to get the content, which I wanted. This is something that could degrade the authenticity of the documentary. I am certain if i had the chance to re-do this documentary, I would be able to create something that I could be proud of.
How I contacted Insoy:
