Week4

Week3 hw The first article is on Evans and Agee’s documentary on the poor southern farmer had started out as an expectation to create honest journalism, however they became emotionally involved in the situation and created a personal documentary instead of a subjective documentary as they had intended. The people they were filming were nervous the whole time, they didn’t know how to react or reacted violently towards the camera crew, whom they felt were intruding on their quiet lives. It is understandable that people don’t always react well to a documentary they did not agree to, film has a way of making people feel exposed, as if the camera could show all the worst in one’s self if they are not prepared to be filmed. It’s the human desire to present itself the best way it can to strangers or possible strangers in the future who might see them forever immortalized on film. It is part of human vanity that we do not like who we really are and wish to portray someone that is anyone but ourselves. The second article is on editing film. The process is described very well by Brownlow, who said, “Editing is directing for the second time…” The article talks about various techniques in editing, from the way film selection is usually handled to how one should sense the rhythm and pacing of the film so that there aren’t any jarring moments that throw the viewer out of the film. While one is filming, one should ask many questions as to where they want to go in the film, the purpose of the film, how to convey that exact feeling that the director wants, how to manipulate the film so that a message comes across to the viewer without being entirely too blatant. It is the orchestration of many things and the need to make decisions on what one feels is important or not important to the film. Moreover, it isn’t only about the director, but how the director thinks the viewer will take in the information and process it. The director wants the viewer to ‘get’ the message, so the director has to find a way to emphasize certain points, focus on certain characters in a light that indicates to the viewer the purpose of that character in the film. Sometimes the director not only wants to convey a story to the audience, but they also want to convey a technique of directing and editing so as to help the viewer associate that sort of trademark with their films. The article also talks about editing in documentaries and how it is imperative that in documentary films, the director never makes the viewer question the validity of the content they are watching since the documentary is meant to be a film on the honest depiction of the subject. If interference is too evident, the viewer will come to realize that they are not watching a documentary but a fictional story that is being sold to them as reality