As I will be using this blog as a research reference tool I thought it would be a good idea to post my previous initial research here too, so that I have all my information and research in one place, and take this opportunity to re-read my thoughts from last year.
Documentary Research
As our project is about rock climbing I have included on the list a couple of sport documentaries, one about sailing and one about boxing, as well as a visually snappy, very contemporary documentary about the staging of Danny Boyle's theatre production of Frankenstein and a character based documentary which follows people preparing for a project that is completely new to them.
Frankenstein: A Modern Myth, Channel 4
As well as an example of documentary work that maybe useful to analyse for my course project, I was interested in this documentary as I saw one of the filmed versions of the Danny Boyle, National Theatre play when it was screened at the cinema. The adaptation was very well constructed and debunked a lot of the James Whale and Hammer Horror imagery that has grown up through the movie versions of the book. The play reintroduced the voice of the monster and it's questioning of it's creator. This was discussed in the documentary.
The structure of the documentary was quite traditional in giving the background of the book and it's author Mary Shelley, the evolution of the image of Frankenstein's monster and the environment that surrounded the release of the book and the fascination that the story holds for readers and viewers with each new generation.
The documentary included on screen interviews with contributors and cut aways to archive footage, stills and footage from the filmed performance. I did notice, in light of what we had discussed in class, that the documentary did linger too long on the contributors and then rushed imagery to accompany what was being said. I liked the seemingly random use of imagery early on before it was explained as to why it was being used, for example in the opening montage there was images of previous styles of Frankenstein, Mary Shelley and Mick Jagger! It was explained why later on! The actual pace of the film was quick and the producers used lots of imagery in quick succession to illustrate points. The titles for each section of the film were quirky and the choice of footage was imaginative, including footage of rock stars and punk rockers to illustrate rebellion and stardom, which corresponded with the contributor's talking about Shelley and Byron.
As further research I have also been reading New Documentary: A Critical Introduction by Stella Bruzzi which provides a 'contemporary look at documentary' and examines 'critical issues of performance, gender, authorship and spectatorship and suggests how these are important to an understanding of documentary cinema'.
The book looks at several viewpoints regarding whether documentary film is an unbiased truthful recording of actual events (as Cinema Verite, or direct cinema claimed itself to be) or whether all footage is filmed with at least a little input from the film maker, for example focusing on particular subject, camera angles used and deciding what to include in the screen, therefore the film not being truly impersonal and not contain at least some of the film makers own personal emotion and preferences.
It also discusses how historical footage is used in contemporary documentary and again how the film maker uses the chosen clips not only to show an actual event but to show it under a pre-considered written narrative therefore manipulating the viewer into processing what they are being shown for the film maker's own purpose.
There is a phrase in the introduction to the book that I really like: 'John Grierson's early definition of documentary in light of Flaherty's work as 'the creative treatment of actuality' (Rotha 1952: 70) has been viewed as contradictory. As Winston (1995:11) suggests: 'The supposition that any "actuality" is left after "creative treatment" can now be seen as being at best naive and at worst a mark of duplicity'.
I have always been naive with regard to documentary. I really enjoy watching old newsreel such as the Pathe news films, information films and commercial works such as the films of the GPO Film Unit and the National Coal Board Film Unit.
A lot of documentary that I like is what I had previously considered to be Cinema Verite, unmolested, undirected recordings of actual events. I become suspicious of documentaries with an agenda and have to be extra conscious of what I am actually being shown and decipher whether or not the image has been chosen, or worse, manipulated to fit in with the film maker's agenda. But I guess now that I have looked into it further, I feel that there is no such thing as a wholly truthful documentary film. Although it is considered the mechanical eye, all film has by it's very nature been set up to record something, therefore the film maker has had a decisive input from the very start. An exception to this, which is discussed at length in the book, is that of film as accidental record. This is where something is recorded that wasn't the intended record that the film maker was seeking to create when they set up the camera. The prime example of this is 'Abraham Zaprunder's 22 seconds of 8mm film showing the assassination of President Kennedy, 22 November 1963, Dallas, Texas'. Zaprunder didn't intend to film the shooting of the president but the footage caught the pivotal moment of that event.
Also of interest was the chapter in the book which discusses the use of voice over and narration. It looks at the opposing views of whether the voice over is a necessary evil of the documentary which gives insight or a device that could be leading the film to work on 'filmic-dramatic principles' which is in essence the opposite to 'true' Direct Cinema'.
Further Documentary Research
I was really keen to see the film as I am a huge Coldplay fan, having seen them live 15 times in the last four years (two of the concerts, Glastonbury 2011 and the Emirates Stadium London, being included in this film).
Given our current project, I was also keen to see how the film was put together and if there were any ideas that could inspire me with our film. And there were.
I have seen many concert and music documentaries (must of them by Julian Temple who seems to have cornered the market!) including the Glastonbury movie, the Sex Pistols Filth and the Fury and his documentaries on Ray Davies and Paul Weller.
Without seeming biased, the Coldplay film is by far and away the most organised, intricately planned music documentary I have ever seen. I'm not sure if it's because of this course that I am seeing films a different way, but whilst I was watching the film I was mentally breaking it down and I can almost visualise the storyboard that the editor will have worked from. Without sounding pretentious, the first thing I noticed was that the film had obviously been made by someone who has a great fondness for the band and the music, as well as having a brilliant eye for interesting, but uncomplicated visuals. The off stage footage included shots that must have been planned months in advance, such as the pyramid stage of Glastonbury being shown out of season as just a frame in an overgrown field, and the texture shots of cities and airports were not just one take, rushed shots but very considered shots with focus pulls, and interesting content.
Another thing that I noticed, which I had said that I wanted to include in our film, was not having the person being interviewed shown on screen answering the questions. Instead the responses played over footage that focused on that person talking.
Another effective devise was to use black and white for the off stage footage and colour for the performances. This is something I want to experiment with for our film. The climbs ie: the action, could be in colour, whilst all the discussion about preparation and equipment used could accompany cropped clips of the bedroom hand holes and close ups of ropes and kit. This would alleviate the problem I have of not liking the bedroom scenes but recognising that those scenes do include useful footage of the climber practising.
Here are some of the notes that I made about Coldplay Live by Paul Dugdale:
This was really useful to watch and has given a new shape to our film. I have got a definite structure for our film now.
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