Posts

My academic paper’s topic is to research how documentaries play a role in the modern society. There are a total of three arguments I articulate. Documentary styles should be in line with filmmakers’ instinct and information they try conveying. At the same time, film producers are supposed to follow the traditional nonfiction styles as they stand out after layers of selections by film predecessors. Lastly, filmmakers should combine the traditional documentary styles with the latest technology, grabbing more people’s eyes and giving them a fresh film experience. All in all, above three aspects – filmmakers’ intentions, historical evolvement and technological application, are included in directors’ film research prior to the video shooting.

Links:
– https://nofilmschool.com/2015/09/nichols-6-modes-documentary-can-help-expand-your-storytelling
– https://doiorg.proxy.lib.ohio-state.edu/10.1080/00043249.2019.1626157

The camera has been tracking and recording Xiao’s families over two years. In the outskirt of a southern city of China, Xiao’ a family does farming and cooking within an assigned area by the government. Throughout the two years, Xiao goes through a serious illness of his father, the death of his sister, and witnesses brother getting married. Recording these significant moments in life, Xiao edited all clips he documented and brought his first documentary film to a big screen, winning the best young director award in China that year. Why does his first movie award such an honor? What motivates him to continue his movie even though a major change occurs in his life？Essentially, all answers should be sought from the filming formats and original intention. I would research how the documentary forms change and evolve while directors attempt to convey info from various perspectives along with the effects non-fictions bring upon society. 

Firstly, the approaches to schematically expressing of authenticities should conform to the development of film history. Throwing back to history, it’s not hard to find the film predecessors put video pieces together in line with a specific pattern. Professor Brunner said that though Nichole classifies documentaries into 6 genres, directors can break and walk out of the box as long as the storyline has a logical reason and give something fresh to spectators. 

Secondly, The use of formats should associate with the purpose of filmmaking, along with what info filmmakers want to convey. While some studies show that the use of inappropriate documentary techniques would cause an ethical and legal miscarriage of justice, though in most cases can the so-called improper video clips be usual and hackneyed. 

Thirdly, The filmmaking types and expressions change as society and technology improve. There is a hard time finishing up a non-fictional movie from the start all the way to the end. Usually, the movie progresses would slow down due to budget shortage and technology difficulties. 

Overall, whatever types of documentaries directors plan to film, they often refer to initial motives, cinema history, and the future development trend of documentaries. 

In the modern film market, audiences absorb a wide range of information that pours from social media websites, print publications, and person-to-person talk. To better draw people’s attention, filmmakers are seeking to integrate 3D technology into their films, which help immerse audiences into a real-like world. With the constant improvement of technology, documentary production is more likely to follow this trend and test the water. “There is growing interest in how new technologies like virtual reality can expand the meaning and experience of the documentary film,” Brunner-sung said, ” She is keeping an eye on how this field continues to work.

Source:

Brunner-sung, Vera. (2020, April 10 ). Personal Interview.

The expressive techniques of documentaries are in line with both the information and goals that directors tend to convey and reach. In certain cases, filmmakers commit to resonating with audiences or transferring their opinions to the public, and further impacting the social state. Under other circumstances, documentaries simply disclose truths, aim to reverse the unfavorable condition by subjects taking over the lenses and focusing on a specific perspective. According to Anderson-Moore (2015), academia mainly divides non-fictional films into six sub-genres; they are poetic, observational, expository, participatory, reflexive and performative types. Filmmakers play either a spectator or a participant on the basis of the impressions they anticipate to leave on audiences.

Source:

Anderson-Moore, Oakley. (2015). Nichol’s 6 modes of Documentary might Expand Your Storytelling Strategies. No Film School. Retrieved from: https://nofilmschool.com/2015/09/nichols-6-modes-documentary-can-help-expand-your-storytelling

Throughout history, documentaries have been changing and evolving. The approaches to cinematically expressing authenticities should conform to the development of film history. A study shows that each film should experience 8 decision-making processes before official shooting (Butchart, G. C., & Har-Gil, A, 2019). Lack of any step of them would trigger something of deviation on the final judgment about the film type use.

Source:

Butchart, G. C., & Har-Gil, A. (2019). Reflection as Ethical Process in

          Documentary Film: Eight Decision-Making Issues. Journal of Media

          Ethics, 34(2), 58–72. https://doi-org.proxy.lib.ohio-state.edu

          10.1080/23736992.2019.1601016

What did you learn from Laura Fathauer’s presentation about User-generated content and Mashups that may help you in our class or in your other academic pursuits? Did she challenge your thinking? Did she offer you advice you will use?

Laura’s presentation is pretty fun and helped me connect the technology with my academic filed. I like how she presents the technology influences the society and how people will use these emerging technologies. The discussion inspires me to use Mashups to track the latest news, events , which is right related to my major Journalism. And I feel like taking advantage of these technologies helps me find fresh story ideas, and get access to potential eyewitnesses, interviewees.

Vera, Brunner-sung    brunner-sung.1@osu.edu

 1.Can u tell me a bit about your career development? 

I began as an experimental filmmaker – I attended CalArts for an MFA in Film and Video. I have been making short experimental documentaries since 2006. In 2011, I began a several-years-long project documenting a public art work on the campus of UC San Diego, called Fallen Star, by the Korean artist Do Ho Suh. This became a 50-minute documentary, Fallen Star: Finding Home, that I co-directed with filmmaker Valerie Stadler. My work has since branched out in to fiction features; I made BELLA VISTA in 2014 and I’m currently working on my second. My most recent documentary short, Character, premiered at Sundance in January.

2. What is your favorite documentary film directed by yourself? Why do you pick this one?

It’s hard to answer this! They are all special to me in their own way; it’s a bit like trying to choose your favorite child, as they say. But I’ll just say it’s my most recent film,Character, because from an artistic or creative standpoint, the newest work always feels the most important.

3. When you decide to film a documentary movie, what preparations do you make in advance？ 

Research, research, research. Talking with people, exploring the specific location. Reading articles, books, etc. ForCharacter, which is a portrait of a professional actor, I began with a series of audio recorded interviews with him, long before we began filming. I also watched all his films that I could find, read any old interviews he’d given. For me, making a movie always begins with a question, a kind of inquiry. I’m trying to learn or discover something.

4. How does a specific documentary type, based on your experience, influence the audience’s thoughts about the film? 

I don’t think of it so much as “influencing” but more as activating. When I teach documentary, we talk about the different “modes” of documentary production. This is based on the scholar Bill Nichols’s typology in his book Introduction to Documentary: Observational, Poetic, Performative, Participatory, Expository. Expository is the most didactic form, what we are often accustomed to from educational settings: guided by an omniscient, “voice of god” type of voiceover, delivering a lot of information upfront. In general, the less didactic a film is, the more space it makes for the viewer’s own thought process, the more it activates the viewer’s own mind. I think an active viewer is a good way to engage an audience.

5. Which documentary type you think is more likely to be used in modern documentary film production? Why? 

It really depends on the context. In contemporary cinematic documentary, observational documentary has seen a resurgence in the last decade. But participatory modes are super vital – these are films that acknowledge the presence of the filmmaker in some way, and are to varying degrees aware of their own construction.

6. How do these types differ from one another? (Can be a short answer)

Again, I recommend checking out Bill Nichols’ work.

7. How do you string unscripted materials, interviews, actuality, and visuals together to craft a story that makes the audience on the journey?

This is a big question, about editing and directing, and it depends on the content. It’s about narration: how we decide to tell, describe, or express events and experiences; when we reveal information. Most directors want to take the audience on some kind of emotional journey, or a journey of discovery. Ultimately, it’s not a science, though. A lot has to do with instinct.

8. To what extent do you think documentary films or photography result in social reforms? 

People have studied this, and I’m not a scholar. So I can give you my opinion, not an actual objective answer; please research the work that’s been done to learn more. But it’s clear that people create reform, not films. I think films can and do play an important part in reaching audiences on a personal level, of awakening someone to situations and issues that they hadn’t thought about, or showing them a new perspective. That’s very, very important. But the extent to which that results in tangible change is up to factors beyond a single film.

9. Do you have any plans for your next film? What’s the theme of it?

I’m working on a fiction film right now, set in a Hmong American community. It’s related to an interest that follows me in all my work: our connection to home and how it shapes our identity.

10. Where do you see the documentary evolvement in the near future? 

There is growing interest in how new technologies like virtual reality can expand the meaning and experience of documentary film. There is some interesting work exploring how VR can create intense empathic experiences by placing viewers “within” a particular space or environment. Some of these projects blur the line between fiction and documentary, which is often an exciting place to be – I’m thinking of Alejandro Iñarritu’s Carne y Arena project, for example. I’m looking forward to seeing how this kind of work continues to develop. But we’ll always need (and want) single-channel movies!

This scholarship writes about the investigations of the political impacts of documentary film and videos guided by the “individual model”. Research by other sources analyzes documentaries’ political impacts and provides factors to explain the extent of the influence. Other than this article, David Whiteman is the author of numerous in journal-like American Politics Quarterly and Western Political Quarterly. He is an associate professor of government at the University of South Carolina. I chose this as one of my sources is because it reflects the impacts of documentaries on society. I can incorporate it with other sources which also talk about the impacts of non-fictions movies and use them together as my argument. I wanna do some analysis about the connection between reality and documentaries, so I searched key words “impacts & documentary,” in the OSU library database. This one is related to my thoughts.

Reference: WHITEMAN, D. (2004). Out of the Theaters and Into the Streets: A Coalition Model of the Political Impact of Documentary Film and Video. Political Communication, 21(1), 51–69. https://doi-org.proxy.lib.ohio-state.edu/10.1080/10584600490273263

This article introduces me 6 main types of documentary including poetic, expository, observational, participatory, reflexive and performative documentaries. Oakley Anderson-Moore is a filmmaker, writer and editor for No Film School. Her rich working experience on film making enhances this article’s credibility as well as professionalism. I will paraphrase this part and put them as an intro for my academic paper. I found it through google search engine and it is an article of a journal. It really articulates popular documentary types so that I can unfold my paper around the trend. 

Reference: Anderson-Moore, Oakley. (2015). Nichol’s 6 modes of Documentary might Expand Your Storytelling Strategies. No Film School. Retrieved from: https://nofilmschool.com/2015/09/nichols-6-modes-documentary-can-help-expand-your-storytelling