Before I took this class, I had a picture in my head of what a documentary was. I thought a documentary was just a boring film or television program that presented facts about an event that happened in history. I recently learned that this is completely wrong. A documentary can be shown my many mediums, (but mostly film or T.V. program), based on facts whose purpose is to tell a story. I believe the main goal for the filmmaker is to educate us about something that we do not know. The audience should be able to accept the information presented in the documentary as fact.
Is a reality series a documentary? There is a fine line between these two, but there is a difference. I think the main distinction separating documentaries from today’s reality series is that documentaries attempt to show us the truth rather than a story being staged for the camera or audience. Reality shows put participants in staged situations for entertainment purposes. Documentaries do not show the filmmakers opinions and personal feelings.
One of my favorite documentaries was March of the Penguins. This is a perfect example of a documentary and what it should posses. This dramatic documentary told a story of a penguin’s life as it is repeated every winter for thousands of years. The director, Luc Jacquet goal was to tell a factual story that had never been told before. This was taped in Antarctica where there has never been a generation of men to witness it because man has never settled in the Antarctic. The classical and jazz music along with the narrator, Morgan Freeman’s voice was just another added great characteristic that helped make this movie one of my favorites. Not only was I entertained with the documentary, but I also learned so much about the species. One of the really amazing things about this documentary was the director fell into making this by accident because he actually studied biology. This proves that anyone (including us non-publication majors) can make a good documentary. He states… “At the time, the assignment was to film images of emperor penguins... The only problem was that I had never held a camera in my life. So I started with a ten-day training period to learn how to film with a 35mm camera.”Obviously this is one of many documentaries, but I just thought it was a great example/definition because it is so factual and well put together. One of my goals now is to see more documentaries so that I can get a broader definition. I am going to start with some more controversial documentaries like Fahrenheit 9/11 and Inconvenient Truth. I will let you know what I think….
1 comment:
How will your project be different from a movie like March of the Penguins? You'll clearly move from observing to helping a participant reconstruct reality through some kind of story via an interview process. Can you embrace subjectivity with this project? Start comparing your definition with the other members of your team. You'll want to identify the common elements and craft a team definition. This will guide your efforts for your project.
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