Practice..

The Boat Builder.

Journal Entry Week 13

Week 11

This week was all about the boat documentary in that it is the film that I have the most left to do and also the film that requires consistant application. On Thursday I turned up in the morning to film and managed to capture some essential stages of the boats production. The main bow of the boat was attached as well as some guides for the frame. It is a very tight workspace and there is three other men in there with me but overall I am managing to squeeze into spots where I am not in the way. It helps that the builder (Jim Horgan) wants me to be there. At one stage he was working on the bench while I was filming him and one of the others walked in between him and the camera, there was a subtle glance at the other bloke which told me how aware Jim is of the camera. This tight and confined space is very different from my previous experiences, I am more liable to be in the way while the lads building the boat are more aware of my presence. Because the process can switch between moving very fast and very slow I need to be switched on at all times. Even though I knew this there were instances where I wasn’t switched on and it meant that I didn’t get the shot.

Saturday 6^th April

I turned up early today, I had been promised that it was an essential part of the build and my eagerness got the better of me. In the end I was an hour early, I instead used this time to walk down to the sea and to get some extra sound for the film. I wanted to get the sound of the sea to overlay onto the film (it is after all about boats..) but since there was construction works going on nearby I had to walk pretty far along to get out of the range of the sound of building. When filming the guys (three again) I had to be aware of what they were doing and where they were in order to stay out of the way. I have an idea of what I would like to portray but at the moment I am anyway shooting everything that happens. I would like to capture the full life of the building of a boat but this means a lot of editing as I have captured and will capture so much. Today I managed to get the beginning proper of the construction of the boat, the sides are beginning to go on and it is therefore beginning to take shape.

Journal Entry Week 12.

Saturday the 30^th March

Today I called out to see the boat builder in Furbo, he had said he was trying to contact me recently as he had began another boat. When I arrived I showed him how to save a contact in his phone as he had been phoning The Huston and Gmit looking for me (I had phoned him before so my number was on his phone). I began to roll the camera as soon as I arrived as he was moving all over the place showing me the bits they had done in the meantime. Everything he did came with an explanation which made me think that he has the impression that the film will be instructional even though I have said several times that it is not. While showing me what they had done so far (not much really) he kept saying things like “we can fake it”, in order to make it seem like I had captured the work in progress. I was too busy filming to really explain to him (again) that I don’t need to capture everything. I will however make sure that when I interview him I get a release form signed, if only for his memory. I did manage to capture some nice shot of him working and some nice work sounds that I can use to underpin other shots in the film so the trip was useful. 

Week 12 Screening 2

Searching for Sugar Man 2012. Dir Malik Bendjelloul.

Searching for Sugar Man opens by way of posing a question about the central character of the film, Rodrigez. This questionmark over the fate of the films protagonist invites the viewer both into the search and into the narrative of the documentary. This technique of inviting the viewer into the central mystery of the film is a powerful means of sustaining the viewers attention, especially when the story itself is so powerful. Not knowing the outcome of the story is shared with the interviewees of the film while they present their version of events as they happened. Using rodrigezs’ own music for the soundtrack and beautifully shot footage the film is a pleasure to view which enables receptivity. Through the interviews different ideas of the whereabouts of Rodrigez and what happened to him are put forward unopposed, this cycle of hearsay is used in such a way as to deepen the mystery surrounding the faith of Rodrigez. The film continues to follow the search for Rodrigez, revealing to the viewer only what was known at each stage of the journey that is recounted. This technique gives the story greater strength and keeps the viewer interested in each discovery and thus the film itself.

Link

http://www.1channel.ch/external.php?title=Searching+for+Sugar+Man&url=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5ub3d2aWRlby5ldS92aWRlby83NzA3Yjc2ZWM2MTU1&domain=bm93dmlkZW8uZXU=&loggedin=0

Week 12 Screening 1

Upside Down: The Creation Records Story. 2010. Danny O’Connor.

Upside Down opens with the seemingly obligatory montage that presents a snapshot what is to come. Although in this case it is accompanied by some ear splitting feedback that takes you out of the film instead of drawing you in. It then segues into individual interviews with the participants of the documentary in order to fill in the backstory of the film. This portion of the film slumps into a protracted recounting of how they all met each other. The section loses its pace and seems overly long perhaps because there are no interesting stories about how or when they met. The section should have given way sooner to the content that follows when something actually happens. Due to the subject of the film there is a wealth of interviewees but in this case the polyphony has the effect of making all the developments in the film indistinct and monotonous, there was no effort to make them distinct. The film is sound-tracked by the music that is being discussed, this might give the film fidelity but the use of early music from the bands is not conducive to easy viewing. But when this film takes off and gets interesting is when the story takes off and coincidentally the music improves. The interviews are used to give the footage that follows a specific context (the footage itself would be useless without the context from the interviews) the interviews in this case are entertaining and insightful as they are firsthand. This film illustrates the complexities of a talking heads interview.

Week 11 Screening 1

Bobby Fischer Against the World. 2011. Dir Liz Garbus.

The films opening introduction is by way of a cacophony of voiceovers underscored with music, the theme of the montage being the exploration of the life of Bobby Fischer. This technique is an excellent means to set the scene for the film that follows as it directs the mind towards wondering who is Bobby Fischer. It is a technique that could easily have gone wrong and been a needless distraction but in this instance it is done with skill. this film is primarily a talking heads documentary. The people that are interviewed for the film are from the center of the world of chess or are close to the subject of the film, this gives the films content an authenticity and fidelity.

Much like in the documentary Pulling John the film points out that the Russians are given state support while the Americans are given no such support. The observation is out of context and sticks out because of this. This attempt to slant the film is the one subjective pitch in an otherwise objective analysis of an individuals wasted potential and is noticeable because the rest of the film maintains its objective integrity. Charting the arc of Fischer's career from childhood until his death the documentary moves fast enough through the stages to not get stuck or bogged down at any one stage. Because this is a retrospective biography most of the footage is archival but it is brought to life with interviews. The interviews are responsible for the content but how they are edited and orchestrated in postproduction is what determines the ebb and flow of the film.  In this sense documentaries are an orchestration of content, and in the case of Bobby Fischer Against the world it is a well-orchestrated film that maintains viewer interest when it could have been immensely boring. It is after all a film about chess.

Week 10 Screening 2

PressPausePlay. 2011. David Dworsky, Victor Köhler.

This documentary covers the effect that the digital revolution has had on peoples ability to create and disseminate their art. Using primarily talking head interviews the film observes the creative process from different perspectives. Importantly it is mainly individuals who have already had some measure of success who are interviewed; people who already make a living from their art. For example there is some talk of the ‘noise’ and ‘garbage’ that all this creative output has generated, but this is always viewed from the outside looking in. The people interviewed already have a voice and an audience; they have escaped the noise of the masses.

“The creation of art is an elitist business”, this quote from the film sums up the dichotomy between those that are creating and those that are creating and managing to broadcast to a mass audience. Despite the freedom to create using new and improved tools there are still only relatively few people who can actually manage to make a living from creating. Although art is more available than ever and communication is enhanced the status quo has not changed. The documentary manages to skillfully stitch together the interviews with a variety of experts, and in doing so make it seem as if they are finishing each other’s sentences. The different participants could have been edited together into their own sections but instead they are sorted by subject matter. This variety of interviewees and stimulating subject matter make for an entertaining watch. Without tackling it head on the subject matter turns to the relative value of education and the creation of art. This deft handling of the subject matter (possibly due to interview techniques) stimulates rather than stagnates ideas on the topic and the film flows without meandering.