The Art of Editing!

Editing films is truly an art, and it has evolved over many years. The Lumiere brothers who were from France, started making movies around 1895 and they were known as the fathers of documentaries. In the earlier days, single extended wide angled shots were used to film the footage, this did not allow for much variety of shots in the film. This did not change for quite a while because filmmakers were afraid of confusing audiences by re-positioning the view of an angle. Continuity editing was used to achieve logic, smoothness, sequentiality and temporal and spatial orientation of viewers to what they see on screen. A very significant film was The Great Train Robbery, it was an important step in the documentary world because there was a part where the footage zoomed in on a man and he shot the screen, which was unreal and never done before in history. There are many different ways to edit a film. Montage editing which was pioneered by the Russians around 1920 is the juxtaposition of images to create meaning not found in either individual shot by itself. In other words, one meaning plus a second meaning equals a third meaning. Another way to edit is to do parallel editing; this is when you go back and forth between people. Then there is discontinuity editing which is when the cuts are more like a collision that a smooth transition. It drags out the shot by shooting the people in a variety of different shots and the finally pieces everyone together at the end.

Nixon: Checker's Speech & Resignation Speech

Nixon had two very significant speeches during his time in the spotlight in politics in the United States, they were his Checkers Speech and his Resignation Speech. The Checkers Speech, which took place in 1952 was Nixon’s sad attempt at trying to have an informal heart-to-heart with the American people. It was only an attempt because Nixon is incapable of being informal in front of the camera, he is just so awkward. In the Checkers Speech, Nixon tries to get sympathy from people by saying he is baring his soul. He plays the innocent card by “confessing” that he did accept a present from someone, a dog named Checkers who his kids loved so dearly. Nixon had 7 re-occurring themes in this speech. He claimed that he was not a quitter, he was a poor man made good, he was a family man, he was “telling the truth”, the press hates him, he was a dedicated Patriot and he used his wife as a prop. These themes and the awkwardness of his performance in front of the camera says that he is fake and all performance.

Nixon’s Resignation Speech took place in 1974. In this speech, Nixon did not try to perform for the camera or come off as informal. Instead Nixon read off a piece of paper and made minimal eye contact with the camera and audience. This shows that he was scared and ashamed to look at the American people. The one time he directly looked at the camera was when he claimed that he had never been a quitter. The fact that he made a clear point to look directly into the camera and at the audience makes it seem like he is telling the truth.

The Thin Blue Line

The film The Thin Blue Line is a documentary about a murder case that took place in 1976 in Texas. It was filmed in 1988 and directed by Errol Morris. The uniqueness of this documentary has to do with the reconstruction that was added in with the typical interviews and archival footage. At the time, reconstruction or “re-enacting” of something that occurred in the past was controversial and was not looked upon as professional or even considered to be a documentary type film. However, that all changed when this documentary was released. Its successfulness at using reconstruction while still keeping it a documentary paved the way for other films to have credible reconstruction footage. The film replayed the footage of the re-enacting scene of the police officer being shot probably over 15 times. Although almost every time they replayed it, it was in a slightly different way because it re-enacted the scene in whichever way it was being described by the person at the time. Another thing that the film did was continuously show close up footage of the red police light rotating around. It showed this so many times that it must symbolize for something, maybe justice? This documentary is considered a documentary that made a difference because it exposed the unjust ways of our justice system.

Paris is Burning!

The film Pair is Burning was definitely my favorite documentary watched in honors class. Paris is Burning was filmed in 1990 and was directed by Jennie Livingstein. The documentary tackled the concept about gender being performed rather than it being instinct. The narration was done by the subjects of the film and also by narration. The director sometimes intervened in the film to ask questions or suggest what the interviewee should say, this in a way interfered with the reality of it. The main setting or subject matter of the film was the “Ball” which was a place where gay people went to be themselves. They were able to let loose and feel good about who they were. They were able to live their fantasy of being a superstar for the night. In the documentary, it seemed not only was there goal to be the opposite sex, but they also had a goal to be a rich white person. Not only were they performing gender, but they were also performing a different race and social status. This controversial film triggers many different emotions for people. Some feel disgust, some feel happiness, and others might feel anger. When I watched this film, however, I felt at peace that these people found something that makes them feel good and makes them feel happy. Our world is so full of hatred so it is a relief to see love and acceptance in a group of people. I also felt sad that the men in this group had to try so hard to be accepted. Paris is Burning is considered to be an ethnographic documentary because it is about a diverse subculture.

Feed

The film Feed is a documentary and comedy about running for President. The documentary begins with a testing screen on the television. While the testing screen is being shown, there is a man’s voice talking which turns out to be the voice of President Bush (Senior). Then it is cross cut to footage of angry people protesting Bush as President but then there are protesters who are supporting Bush there also. This symbolizes the split that was happening in America over the politics. Then the men running for president in hopes of taking over the presidential office after Bush were shown. The whole documentary basically consisted of cross cutting between the different candidates. Much of the footage is informal and unflattering of the men, which displays them in a very unprofessional light. The candidates consisted of Pat Buchanan, Bob Kerry, Jerry Brown, Tom Harkin, Paul Tosngas and President Bush. The footage is of the most of the men either freaking out about their hair or clothing before they go on air or they are having technical issues when on air, making them look laughable. The documentary portrays the business of politics as a joke and questions which men are real and which are performing in order to look good on the camera.

LBJ

The documentary LBJ was filmed in 1968 and was directed by Santiago Alvarez. This documentary’s subject matter was all about President Lynden B. Johnson who was ran our country from 1963 to 1969. The filmmakers wanted to construct Johnson as the villain in the film and as a figure of hatred. Alvarez used a lot of archival footage; however he twisted that footage in a variety of ways to make Johnson look like an evil person. The very beginning of the film opens up with dramatic horror music playing. One way that Alvarez distorted the archival footage was he showed wedding pictures of Johnson’s daughter getting married but instead of showing them normally, he cast a red shade over the picture symbolizing evil. The documentary uses a lot of cross cutting between Johnson and a dog's face. This just insinuates how ridiculous and stupid Johnson is. The documentary shows footage and pictures from the assasinations of both of the Kennedys, Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcom X. A photo of Johnson is shown holding guns, making it seem like he was indeed the one responsible for all these deaths. Alvarez uses a lot of metaphors in his film, a very significant metaphor that was used was the owl. After each assasinations, an owl sitting in a tree at night was shown. I think this symbolizes death or possibly even Lynden B. Johnson.

Primary

The documentary Primary was directed by Robert Drew. This documentary followed John F. Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey around during the Wisconsin Primary. This film is a great example of the role of performance in the image of the president, or those running for president. JFK was very charming, smooth and knew how to manipulate his image so it looked good on the camera where as Humphrey did not do this so well and looked more awkward on camera. The filmmaker used observational filming in this documentary and therefore it was not scripted at all. There was a lot of cross cutting used between JFK and Humphrey. This showed the apparent differences between their images and the way they presented themselves. The film showed Kennedy seeming as if he did not have to try very hard to be charming to the people; however Humphrey appeared to have difficulty and had to try very hard. In many of the scenes, the people were flocking towards Kennedy all excited and trying to get autographs, handshakes, and etcetera. On the other hand, Humphrey was alone on the sidewalk having to go out of his way to greet people and shake THEIR hands. This may have been how it truly was, or the filmmaker might have cut out different scenes and made these scenes contrast each other to make it look as if Kennedy is the favored candidate. I also noticed that the film focused much more on Kennedy and his wife Jackie than it did Humphrey. It displayed great moments of Kennedy, for example when he was walking through the crowd shaking everyone’s hands after he gave his amazing speech, but it shows mediocre moments of Humphrey, for example when he is giving a speech at an informal restaurant. It is safe to say that this film wanted to portray Kennedy in a better light than Humphrey and that could have been one of the reasons Kennedy won.

Reality TV articles 3&4

The article "The Moral Economy of person production: the class relations of self-performance on "reality" television," by Bererley Skeggs discusses how British reality television focuses on social class whereas American reality television focuses more on race. self transformation reality shows are seen quite a bit in both societies. However, British reality shows transform working class people whereas American reality shows transform middle class people. Transformation shows are popular because the audiences watching all hope to be the people undergoing transformations to better their lives. The article also plants out how morality is taught quite a few different ways in reality television. By shame and guilt, rules and advise, social mobility through self performance or measuring bodies for qualifying value. Although I believe some reality television shows instill some morality into its participants. I do not think most walk away with new found morality. For most reality shows, they teach people improper morals and do not help them better themselves at all.

The article "Frontier House: Reality Television and the Historical Experience" by Malgorzata Rymsza-Pawlowska discusses the reality show Frontier House which was a rare type of show that combined reality genre with an education documentary. This show is one of the few that present good morals to its participants and viewers. It helps the participants realize to be grateful for everything they have in their lives. Although it did make some couples realize they have nothing in common and are not in love, it also allowed others to reconnect with each other without the interference of technology.

Reality TV articles #1 & # 2

Reality shows about weddings and the birth of babies are very popular in American society. The reason for this is mainly because many women would love the chance to relive those special moments in their lives and seeing other women go through it allows women to pretend as if it was them. Women also like to see if they outdo other women when it comes to their wedding. Other shows like Wife Swap or Nanny 911 reintroduce the traditional motherly roles to women who may have lost sight of it. These shows, however, display American society in a bad light. They show that the American family has many issues. Nanny 911 makes American parents look like a joke when it comes to raising their children. Although these shows are very entertaining to people in our society, we need to really consider how these reality shows make us look to other countries.

Sherman's March

Sherman’s March is a reflexive journey documentary because it is a physical, spiritual and emotional journey that the filmmaker goes on. The filmmakers objective was suppose to be all about Sherman’s march which was an event that took place in the south when a general from the Union army marched across the south and terrorized and burned down everything in his path. Most in the North considered Sherman a savior; however those in the South considered him a terror. The documentary starts out with the filmmaker telling the audience his life story and his recent mishaps that have occurred. From the beginning, the film was never about Sherman’s March it was always about the filmmaker and his search for a southern girl to fall in love with him. Although it had nothing to do with the actual Sherman’s march, in a way it resembled it because just like General Sherman, the filmmaker is on a masculine conquest for something. The film is very unprofessional in its filming and the fact that the filmmaker included himself in most of the footage. The documentary is mostly observational and it does not contain much narration, except for some narration from the filmmaker. This documentary was very strange, however it kept my attention because I was always wondering when he was going to start talking about the real Sherman’s March.

London

London was directed by Patrick Keiller and is considered a reflexive journey documentary. Along with a journey documentary, it is also a “mockumentary” because it mocks a travelogue and destroys the traditional idea of a documentary. A travelogue is made to encourage people to come visit the place being filmed, but in the case of London, it is showing all the horrible parts of London and displaying the city in a bad light. This documentary has no archival footage that I saw, but uses quite a bit of extra-didatic sounds. The film is narrator entirely by an unknown man who seems to know quite a bit about Robinson, who we also never see. Many times, the images shown do not match up with what the narrator is talking about. The film talks a lot about politics and also focuses on the bombings that were taking place in London at the time, due to the Irish Republican Army. The film also shows footage of men and women sleeping on the streets in London. This documentary seems to be criticizing London and depicted it as an ugly place to live.

Rick Burns

Rick Burns is a writer, director and producer of historical documentaries. It was very obvious we came up on stage his passion for making documentary films by the beautiful words he used to explain his work and just how excited he was to be up there showing his newest film. I really enjoyed his new documentary about the whaling industry and the whaling ship that capsized. His documentaries are full of life and are always keeping the audience entertained. From what I saw from the documentary Mr. Burns showed us, it appears to me that he uses a lot of archival footage and also uses the “voice of God” narration. His documentary also seems to be scripted, some scenes even looked like they might have been acted out which added to the entertainment. I really liked his documentary and thought it was a very intriguing and unique subject matter he chose for the film. Rick Burns is a very talented and humorous individual and am glad I was given the opportunity to meet him.

7-Up

Seven up was released in 1964 and was directed by Michael Apted. It is a journey documentary because it follows a subject or in this case subjects and films them over time. This documentary is about a bunch of seven year old children who vary in gender, social class and even in race. Michael Apted films these children when they were seven years of age, then in another film when they were fourteen years of age, the next film they were twenty-one years of age and so on. This documentary uses narration and is mainly composed of interviews with the children and it uses observational filming. Along with being a journey documentary, it is also considered a social documentary because it deals with social class in society.

The documentary is basically just interviews with the children. They talk about school, what they do when they get home, what they want to do when they grow up, etcetera. The lower class children talk about nonsense and act more so their age. However, the children from the wealthy class talk about the future education they are going to receive, they talk about how they read the paper and know about the stock market, and one girl even talks about how when she has children she is going to have a nanny for them. It is very interesting to see how social class divides them all.

"Salesman" Blog

The film Salesman is a documentary made in 1969. It was basically the first film to start laying the foundation for direct cinema filming. This film brings a mix of emotions to its audience by it being depressing and sad but yet humorous. This documentary filmed by the Marsyle brothers is a film about bible salesman and their struggles to make ends meet. There are no narrations used besides the titles of the men’s names at the beginning. The filmmakers attempt at making the documentary as real as possible by doing observational filming, but it is obvious that it is not 100 percent realistic. We know this because people do not always act the same when a camera is on them as oppose to a normal situation. A few scenes in the film, you could sense the awkwardness of the customers as they sit there being filmed and also pestered into buying an extremely expensive bible. It was interesting that the filmmakers picked this subject to film because it is a job that has mostly died off in recent years.

Although the salesmen are liars and very pushy, I cannot help but feel sadness for Paul Brennan (The Badger). He is the loser salesman of the group, and is older than the rest and has the most trouble selling bibles. He is the one who gets turned down by most of the customers and ends up losing his job. This documentary was somewhat interesting, but for the most part really boring.

San Soleil blog

San Soleil, meaning sunless in French is a post modern documentary made in 1982 directed by Chris Marker. This specific documentary is unique because it uses a female voice to narrate. This documentary was really confusing for me to understand what they are trying to get through to people, but it seems that they are trying to show industrialization in Japan. The film was all over the place with its images. There were many times when the story that the narrator was explaining did not match the footage that was being played in the film. It showed a variety of footage from different places: Iceland, Japan, Africa then back to Japan again. The cameraman seemed to travel quite a bit. It seems that the film might also being trying to say that someone who is always traveling, time and place begin to lose its meaning to them. San Soleil was interesting, but very hard to understand. It bounced around so many subjects that it was difficult to evaluate what message it was attempting to send. All in all, I really did not like it at all.

Prison Terminal Blog

The educational documentary Prison Terminal by Edgar Barrons is a sad, but inspiring film. I find it inspiring because it is a relief to see dying men in prison treated with a little care and respect while they are on their death bed. I agree with the point that Mr. Barrons is trying to make that just because they are prisoners, does not mean they should be neglected and not treated humanely. People make mistakes and some make awful mistakes. Everyone still deserves to be treated right. I really like how the documentary focused on one dying prisoner and followed him through his last days of life. It made the film more sentimental and meaningful. The documentary is strictly an observational film because it was relaxed and not at all scripted. It was inspiring to hear the hospice prison volunteer confide that he could see himself taking care of sick people, but it took him till he was in prison to realize it. I think that hospices are great and that this documentary does a great job in showing hospices in a good light.

The World at War & Times of Harvey Milk Blog.

The World at War film did not really catch my eye when I was watching it. I thought it was very boring. All the film consisted of was archival footage and a “voice of god”. I did not like how there was no personal stories or interviews involved, it would have made it more interesting. The film was objective narration because it was just telling it how it is. However, if the enemy country would have made this film it would have been subjective because they would twist up the facts to make them look better.

The Times of Harvey Milk has probably been my most favorite documentary we have watched so far. It was a nice touch to have Harvey Fierstein as the “voice of god” because he was someone who could relate to Harvey Milk. The filmmakers want someone who can show emotion towards Harvey since the documentary is subjective narration. They want to guide people’s feelings towards the film; therefore, they are going to use a narrator with strong feelings towards the subject of the film. It was a tear jerker when they played the tape recording of Harvey Milk’s voice right after they showed a clip announcing his death. I really like the use of interviewees who actually knew Harvey. It was another was to add emotion to the film. The film was made to persuade the audience to be upset about the death of Harvey Milk and feel that the sentence that Dan White was given was very unjust. This film definitely did the job at persuading because it left me feeling sad.

Millhouse: A White Comedy

The film documentry by de Antonio is like all his other films in regards to the footage he uses in the documentry. Like all his other films, he uses already filmed footage which he buys off of corporations and he also uses news reels. This is called "collage junk", because he rearrange many different clips of film to prove a point. This documentry was made in 1971 and is all about the scandals of Richard Nixon. The documentry makes a very firm point right at the opening of the film by showing footage of the wax dummy of Nixon being put together. This signifies Nixon's obsession with his appearance and the way the public percieved him.

de Antonio's clear motive in this documentry is to exposed Nixon for who he really is. de Antonio uses no narrations, but simply puts together footage of Nixon and then uses interviews of others to narrate it. News reels were also used quite a bit in the documentry. The news reels gave a rather unbiased outlook on Nixon, but still played the part in showing Nixon as the real scumbag he was. The two biggest impacts of this documentry was that it exposed Nixon by simply laying out the true facts and it also changed the way political campaigns were made. After the making of this documentry, political campaigns take footage of their opponents and manipulate it to make them look bad.

In the Year of the Pig

This film is a documentry about the Vietnam War. The film tries to state their opinion on the subject of whether to support the war or not. This film supported the anti-war movement and made this known through the footage that was gathered and used in the film. The film starts off with a picture of a American Civil War soldier, which I believe links our civil war to the one in Vietnam. Although, unlike the civil war in the America, the war in Vietnam was not our war to fight and that was why so many Americans opposed of it. One way that de Antonio sets the mood in the film is by using certain noises. He uses a very annoying helicopter sound in the very beginning of the documentry. This noise causes irritation and displeasure which sets the foundation for the rest of the mood towards the film, which is about the Vietnamese war.

I really liked how de Antonio still does not use narration in his films, but this time he used interviews to narrate the film, I found this very interesting. The film kept your attention because there was always something different being shown on the screen. de Antonio did not keep the focus on one thing for very long. He would use the interviews of important American officials to narrate the film and would film them for a few seconds but then show images that related to what they were talking about. The way he did this was very intriguing and kept my attention.

Point of Order

The documentry, Point of Order, filmed in 1963 was an interesting film. It was different the way Emile de Antonio bought the footage from the news, condensed the footage and rearranged it to make his point. He surely made his point, without using any narration besides the title narrations of the important figures in the film. It was very intriguing to see how big of a bully Senator McCarthy was. The order that the footage was arranged perfectly portrayed McCarthy in a bad light, not that he could be portrayed in a good light without the modification. I like how de Antonio lets the audiences of his films make up their own opinions about the situation. He lays out the facts in his own way, but does not use his own words or expression to influence their outlook on it.

Even though de Antonio's documentry was very convincing and shows he has a talent for making modern films I however, did not see his film as being something of magnificence. I felt that the art of simply rearranging already filmed footage seems mediocre to me. It may be because I do not have an 'eye' for the art of documentries, but I believe that this film was something that the average person could put together with not much effort. Although, the film was a very powerful persuasion to the public on who to side with on the case of McCarthy vs. The Army.

Blog #1: Flash Bulb memory

I find the reading on the flashbulb memory and "hearing the news" versus "being there" really interesting. As I think back to all my memories, all of the ones that are the most clear to me are the ones that I experienced first hand. However, there are a select few that are very powerful memories that I did not experience first hand. One of my most vivid memory is of the time I fell off my bike and broke my elbow. I remember it so well because I was the one that experienced it and then I continuously told others the story, therefore it became engraved into my mind. Although I did not experience first hand the terrorist attacks on Septermber 11th, it is also a very vivid memory in my mind. This is probably because it is one of the most terrible disasters that I have ever lived through, and affected everyone in our country. The two other vivid memories are the deaths of my best friend's parents, both at different times. I remember when I heard the news almost perfectly and it is something I know I will never forget. Although they were not my parents and I did not experience first hand, the news affected me greatly and was very traumatizing. All these memories are flashbulb memories because they were a sudden shock to me that changed my life.

Blog # 4 : MALE EYE FILMING

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXi8nH-29Hc

This video is a commerical for Versace perfume. I believe it is male eye filming due to the way the camera almost caressing the woman's body. It focuses on her upper half where her breasts are halfways showing while she seductively touches a mirror, then towards the end it moves down towards her long legs where her dress reveals much of her thigh. The camera slowly goes up and down the lower half of her body. This is all evidence of male eye filming.

Blog #2 : Zapruder film, Princess Diana & 9/11 video

Just like we discussed in class, the Zapruder film, Princess Diana video and 9/11 video have a few things in common. For one, everyone is obsessed with watching these videos. It is not because they are necessarily have a fetish with death, but because most people seem to believe that watching the videos can reverse the events. In my opinion, I watch videos like this to help me cope with reality. When there is a major catastrophe, it takes a while for reality to sink in with people. A way for it to hit them is to watch it happen over and over again. My best friend's mom died over the summer in a horrific accident. It was so sudden that it was just unbelievable to everyone close to her. I was really close to her and so was my mom. I think about her and memories with her everyday. I look at pictures of her constantly and I drive pass her cross almost every week, but still reality has not sunk in with me. Whenever I am at my best friend's house I still think her mom is just going to walk through the door.

These three important films show something historically significant, but still leave a lot of information out. After watching them they leave quite a bit of mystery behind. All three hold many conspiracy theories that still to this day have never been figured out. In the case of the JFK assasination film and the 9/11 videos, the unprofessional and shaky videoing made it more real to those watching it because it did not seem like a movie, it made the audience feel like they were really there. The video of the car crash of Princess Diana was not as traumatizing to me as the other because it was not an actually a LIVE video. It was just a video of the pictures from the aftermath of her car accident which was not as realistic to me as the others.