1. Documentary, Experimental, and Animated Films
Chapter 10
Documentary, Experimental, and Animated Films
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2. Types of Movies
Narrative movies – Movies that are directed toward fiction or fictionalized stories
Documentary movies – Movies with an allegiance to nonfiction but which still employ movie storytelling and dramatization
Experimental movies– Movies that push the boundaries of what most people think movies are, or should be

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Documentary
Presents facts in a trustworthy manner.
Events can be staged.
Can be misleading, inaccurate, or partisan.
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4. Boundaries Between Documentary and Fiction
Fictional films are assumed to be imaginary, although they may refer and comment on actual events.
Fiction film are typically staged, rehearsed, filmed, and re-filmed.
Some films seek to blur the lines between documentary and fiction films.
John Grierson – “the creative interpretation of actuality”
A film is a documentary if it is labeled as such.
mockumentaries– This is Spinal Tap
A film may fuse documentary and fiction – Casablanca, Forest Gump

5. Genres of Documentary
Compilation films assemble images from archival sources.
Interview or talking-heads documentaries record testimony about events or social movements.
Direct-cinema records an ongoing event as it happens with little directorial interference.
Nature documentaries explore nature.
Portrait documentaries center around a compelling person.
Often documentaries use several of these options.
Compilation – Atomic Café, Ken Burn’s The Civil War
Interview – Word is Out
Direct-Cinema – Hoop Dreams, Primary, Don’t Look Back
Nature – Life, March of the Penguins
Portrait – American Movie
Several – Fog of War or television journalism

6. Direct Cinema v. Cinéma Vérité Some Finer Points
Direct Cinema (US)
Cinéma Vérité (France)
The truth in lies: anticipates faux documentary – Rouch: film technique as “lying intermediary”; more real than the truth. (“telling the truth by lying”)
characters: the truth of their lies and fictions produces of a new reality that would not have existed
cutting style: shots give impression that there is no space between the beginning of the end of one shot and start of another.
documentary of encounter: characters & camera
lightweight equipment
follow, do not lead the action
shoot/edit in chronological order
events must be revealed untouched
all music must have diegetic source;
the story must be “found” in the material

7. Direct Cinema v. Cinéma Vérité Some Finer Points
passive camera: no provocation
reality pre-exists & must be respected
Richard Leacock & Robert Drew, D.A. Pennebaker & Albert &David Maysles
camera provokes subject
new reality produced in the making of the film
Jean Rouch & Edgar Morin
Jean Rouch: No difference between either:
presence of the camera alone (automatically) provokes

8. Cameron McGill: Dark Times
Camera: Panasonic DVX-100B
Mic: Rode NTG2
Mini DV tape: Panasonic PQ 63min
Cost: ~$4,000
Dates: March 2006 – July 2015
Hours: ~350hrs
Film: ~37mins

9. Cameron McGill: Dark Times Thesis Project
Through a critical analysis of the film’s pre-production, production, and post-production, Cameron McGill: Dark Times this thesis project contributes to the discussion of objectivity, reality and truth within documentary film by providing an examination of the scholarly issues through production. The inability to capture every moment of McGill’s life during production, the self censorship and censorship of access, the injection of the filmmaker into the action, the facades constructed as a result of the presence of the camera, and the subjectivity of the choices made during production and post-production resulted in a subjective film.

10. Types of Documentary Form: Categorical
Categories are groups that organize knowledge and can be formal or not.
Categorical documentaries show all the categories and subcategories of a subject.
Documentary on butterflies would focus on one species after another.  
Development is usually simple.
Exciting or broad categories, patterned film techniques and mini-narratives can keep the subject interesting.
Leni Riefenstahl’s Olympia

11. An Example of Categorical Form: Gap-Toothed Women
Consists of interviews with women with gaps in their front teeth.
The theme is that society has a narrow view of beauty.
The explicit meaning is the broad reaction to the way the women feel about their gaps.
The implicit meaning is that gaps are attractive and natural.
The symptomatic meaning could be a reaction to the shift of the radical ideas of the 1960s to the mainstream 1980s, when it was made.
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12. Rhetorical Form Filmmakers presents a persuasive, explicit argument
The goal is to persuade the audience to adopt or act on an opinion.
Addresses viewer openly, trying to move the viewer.
Subject is usually a matter of opinion.
Often appeals to our emotions rather than facts.
The River

13. Three Types of Rhetorical Arguments
Arguments from source: arguments will come from reliable sources of information.
Subject-centered: employs arguments about it’s subject matter, using examples, enthymemes, and common beliefs.
Viewer-centered: arguments that appeal to emotions.
Arguments from source – Roger and Me
Subject-centered – taste test commercial
Viewer-centered – political ads
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14. An Example of Rhetorical Form: The River
Persuades the audience that the TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority) is the answer to the region’s problems with flooding, agricultural depletion, and electrification.
Was controversial at the time.
Has eleven segments that on the surface seem to just inform about the Mississippi, but through repetition, variation, and development are very persuasive.
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15. Modes of Documentaries
the Expository - This is associated with the classic documentary, and based on illustrating an argument using images.
the Observational - This mode allowed the director to record reality without becoming involved in what people were doing when they were not explicitly looking into the camera.
the Participatory - This mode presents the relationship between the filmmaker and the filmed subject. Makes the director's perspective clear by involving them in the discourse.

16. Modes of Documentaries
the Reflexive - This mode raises the audience’s awareness of the means of representation itself and the devices that have given it authority.
the Poetic - It aims to create a specific mood and tone rather than to provide the viewer with information.
the Performative - Focuses interest on expressiveness, poetry and rhetoric, rather than on the desire for realistic representation.

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Experimental Film
Willfully nonconformist, challenging notions of what a movie can show and how it can show it.
Frequently explores self-expression and experimentation outside mainstream cinema.
Can use narrative, abstract, or associational form.
Luis Buñuel: Un Chien andalou (1928)
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18. Abstract Form
Organized around colors, shapes, sizes, or movements of the images.
Often uses theme and variations.
Goal is to make the viewer notice relationships and elements they wouldn’t normally notice.

19. An Example of Abstract Form: Ballet Mécanique
Draws a comparison between the human body and machines by turning human action into mechanical gestures.
Stresses the geometric qualities of ordinary things.
Uses theme and variations by introducing motifs in rapid succession, then bringing them back in different combinations later.

20. Associational Form
Ideas and expressive qualities group images that may not have any logical connection.
Like metaphor and simile used in poetry.
Images are typically grouped into larger sets, each which is a distinct, unified part of the larger film.
Repeated motifs reinforce associational connections.

21. An Example of Associational Form: Koyaanisqatsi
Juxtaposes found footage to communicate a range of emotionally charged ideas and qualities.
The music has distinct segments, each with its own tone, which corresponds to the film.
Constantly shifting associations convey many implicit meanings without any explicit meaning.
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22. The Animated Film Not filmed in real time.
Spans all types of films: narrative, documentary and experimental.
Types include drawn, cut outs, clay, model, pixilation, and computer imaging.
Can be mixed with live action.

23. Traditional Animation: Duck Amuck
Has an experimental feel because it asks the audience to explore cel animation techniques.
Draws attention to painted backgrounds, framing, sound effects, music, onscreen and offscreen space, and time.
Capitalizes on the character traits of Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck.
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24. An Experimental Animation: Dimensions of Dialogue
Displays aggressive alchemy.
Contains three categories that display aggression via dialogue.
Each category displays theme and variation.
Each category displays conversation as annihilation.
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25. An Experimental Animation: Rejected by Don Hertzfeldt