THE DOCUMENTARY
October 26 - November 9, 2007
For class study we will view three documentaries of different kinds, including Louisiana Story (October 26), Fahrenheit 9/11 (November 2), and Salesman (November 9).October 26 - November 9, 2007
As I've said in previous handouts and shot analyses, the documentary is an interesting genre to study film style and how style affects subject matter. The documentary is also critical because its very premise to being factual is, by the very nature of the filmic process, called into question: How can an event be factual, in the sense of "real-to-life," if it's filmed as part of a larger documentary focus, including an editing process that involves both inclusion and exclusion of filmed footage?
I have focused on these "epistemological" issues (that is, issues involving the question of "knowledge" or reality) as plainly as possible in my study pictures. For now, I wish to focus on simple elements of style in the documentary.
Above are two animated sequences to demonstrate the effect of the hand-held camera, a critical tool in the development of the modern documentary, because it allowed subjects to be filmed "unobtrusively" and often spontaneously (since the light-weight camera could be carried around without physical problems). The jumpy images produced by the hand-held camera have a feel of "authenticity," as if the real were "really" being shown and not "dressed up," as in a Hollywood feature film. For that reason, even Hollywood feature films borrowed this style to add authenticity (a sense of reality) to their films, such as The French Connection, and countless others.
The other element of style I wish to focus on here are two dolly shots. Although Salesman is a documentary, specifically part of the "direct cinema" movement (that is, a documentary without voice-over commentary or interviews), no cinema is entirely free from elements of style. We can mention four here: the hand-held camera; editing (what to include or omit of the footage); framing (what to film; that is, what to include in the shot and what to leave out); and camera movement.
The hand-held camera creates a feeling of authenticity: of "being there" just as it happened. Editing can show poverty in a city but leave out prosperous neighborhoods, cultural places, etc. Framing can point a camera at drug addicts on the street, but ignore ordinary people going to and from work.
In conclusion, we'll study camera movement. The focus of Salesman is a man nicknamed "The Badger." Twice Albert Maysles (the cinematographer on the Maysles Brothers' films) decides to dolly in on the Badger, thus cinematically commenting on him, imposing a point of view on that subject: the dolly shot suggests there is an emotion that must be revealed to the viewer and that's why the camera is moving closer.
Both dolly shots above suggest the Badger is the main subject of Salesman (though there are related themes, as I point out in my study pictures). The motif here is the Badger's frustration—his sense of failure at his job.
A "familiar shot" throughout is the Badger's look of frustration. The first dolly shot (above, left) complements that look with a forward moving camera—as if to emphasize it.
The second dolly shot (above, right) is an example of how a good documentary is a combination of factors, including sufficient footage (at a much higher shooting ratio (that is, ratio of included footage to shot footage) than the typical Hollywood feature, and editing skills that "discover" coherence and a point-of-view in that footage (often thousands of feet of film for a very short release print of usually no more than ninety minutes).
It's clear the editors (including Albert Maysles) "discovered" that the film's true focus must be the Badger. Whether this was discovered midway through filming of the footage or only in the final editing process is unclear.
What's clear is the editors found the perfect shot with which to end the movie with a sense of focus and coherence: the "familiar image" of the Badger is repeated, but this time framed in a doorway (doorways are symbolic of transition, or change) and with a dolly shot almost imperceptibly advancing towards his face—as if the camera were trying to capture the real agony (or at least the sense of frustration or failure) the salesman felt. This image fades into a black screen (omitted in my animated series) as the film ends—a neat image of the salesman's limited hopes of success in his field.
The film director Francis Coppola summed up the director's art as making the most of accidents. This is especially true of the documentary filmmaker, who must shoot thousands of feet of film hoping somehow to find coherence and a point-of-view by the time a much shorter final cut is made.
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