jrn 572 - lecture two
TRANSCRIPT
JRN 572 - Researching & Writing the News DocumentaryRich Hanley, Associate ProfessorLecture Two
JRN 572 - News Documentary
Lecture Topics• Definitions• Roles• Process• Documentary Film Modes• Documentary Film Ideas• Storytelling v. Writing
JRN 572 - News Documentary
Definitions:• First, let’s clear up some
definitions.
• Many documentary filmmakers perform the roles of producer/writer/director in their work.
• That’s the form we will be following in this class, with a focus on the writing piece.
JRN 572 - News Documentary
Roles• It is difficult if not impossible to
untangle the roles under this structure, so please note that for our class the terms will be essentially interchangeable.
• But everything begins and ends with writing the documentary.
JRN 572 - News Documentary
Process:• The steps will be explored in
detail as the semester goes on, but for now, here’s a simple road map.
• Preproduction: Idea > Research > Treatment > Funding > Distribution > Scheduling. (Our class focus)
• Production: Make the damn thing.
JRN 572 - News Documentary
Documentary Film Modes• Documentary films present
factual information but “factuality alone,” as Bernard writes in the required text, is just part of the equation. (Bernard 1)
• Filmmakers take the factual elements and create a story rather than a mere lists of facts.
JRN 572 - News Documentary
Documentary Film Modes • In short, documentary
filmmakers create work that is “truthful and I often greater than the sum of its parts,” Bernard writes. (1)
• That means filmmakers (and writers) take the facts and create a narrative using a variety of visual, audio and textual components to craft story.
JRN 572 - The News Documentary
Documentary Film Modes
• Documentary films must have the classical story arc under that thinking: a beginning, a middle and an end in order to accomplish the goal of telling an appealing story.
JRN 572 - News Documentary
Documentary Film Modes • In short, documentary
filmmakers create work that is “truthful and is often greater than the sum of its parts,” Bernard writes. (1)
• That means filmmakers (and writers) take the facts and create a narrative using a variety of visual, audio and textual components to craft story.
JRN 572 - The News Documentary
Documentary Film Modes
• Bernard presents a list of five characteristics of docs.(3)
• The fifth characteristic is often neglected because of the visual nature of the medium.
• “ … such nonfiction shows serious attention to the craft of writing.”
JRN 572 - The News Documentary
Documentary Film Modes
• The definition of writing reaches beyond the application of text to script and script to voice.
• It includes not only original textual material but also in the form of the narrative.
• Writing may simply be interviews, for example.
JRN 572 - The News Documentary
Documentary Film Modes
• It all depends on the format selected to tell the best possible story in a manner that will inform, entertain, agitate or otherwise move the audience.
• Writers, in short, have lots of choices to make, and the first concerns point of view and mode (more on specific modes in a bit).
JRN 572 - The News Documentary
Documentary Film Modes
• What separates documentary filmmaker from journalism is that not every film is rooted in the principle of objectivity (i.e., arm’s length distance from subject with all sides represented).
• Documentaries can present ideas under the concept of subjectivity; the narrative can argue a point.
JRN 572 - News Documentary
Documentary Film Modes • Soren Kierkegaard was a
philosopher, not a documentary filmmaker, but his interpretation of the objective versus the subjective is useful to our sense of what is possible in documentary films.
JRN 572 - The News Documentary
Documentary Film Modes
• Kierkegaard wrote that truth cannot be found through objectivity but only through engagement with the world as it stands, not as we imagine it to be.
• Subjectivity is thus truth under Kierkegaard’s formulation but truth has to be framed by ethical considerations of what is right and wrong,
JRN 572 - The News Documentary
Documentary Film Modes
• Audiences trust documentaries to be factual.
• Documentary filmmakers must hold to that fundamental relationship and not violate that trust even though their subjective approach to a subject powers the film and leads to its ultimate message.
JRN 572 - The News Documentary
Documentary Film Modes
• Thus, the documentary cannot be reduced to a single form, such as journalism is often reduced to the inverted pyramid.
JRN 572 - The News Documentary
Documentary Film Modes
• The stories are often complicated or the points often obscure or the questions under examination often emotionally charged.
• That requires creative approaches to provide illumination.
JRN 572 - The News Documentary
Documentary Film Modes
• That said, documentaries can be framed by six forms, or modes, as identified by scholar Bill Nichols.
• These modes are not rules but simply descriptions that permit documentary filmmakers and writers to adopt a firm construction and pursue it for consistency even if a few modes may be mingled in one piece if required.
JRN 572 - The News Documentary
Documentary Film Modes
• According to Nichols, the forms are:1. Expository2. Poetic3. Observational4. Participatory5. Reflexive6. Performative
JRN 572 - News Documentary
Expository• This mode is defined by its
“voice of god” narrative authority with the verbal presentation directly addressing the audience.
• Ken Burns (The Civil War) and most of The American Experience documentaries are produced in this mode.
JRN 572 - News Documentary
Expository• The visuals are subordinate to
the narrative thrust, making this mode strongly contingent on the quality of the writing and research more than other modes.
• This works particularly well for films about history or films that have a journalistic thrust (i.e. Frontline).
JRN 572 - News Documentary
Expository• Center of Attention: The Unreal Life
of Derek Sanderson is another example of the expository form as biography applied to sports.
JRN 572 - News Documentary
Poetic• The poetic mode features lyrical,
rhythmic and emotional elements.
• It explores associations and patterns.
• ESPN’s film on June 17, 1994 is an example of this form as it shows events from a single day, including the O.J. Simpson chase, the U.S. Open golf tournament and others.
JRN 572 - News Documentary
Poetic• Many short documentaries that
appear on sites such as Nowness.com are produced in the poetic mode (that’s a screenshot of Nowness, not a live link, on the left).
• Short poetic documentaries are posted in the Learning Module for the week.
JRN 572 - News Documentary
Observational• This is the fly-on-the-wall
approach elevated to the level of high art by producers such as Frederick Wiseman in films such as National Gallery and Central Park.
• The filmmaker simply observes the “social actors” (i.e., people) going about their business.
JRN 572 - News Documentary
Observational• The documentary about The
New York Times, called Page One, is another example of this mode.
• It simply chronicles the live of the newsroom and action that occurs there to illuminate the complex process of journalism to the audience.
JRN 572 - News Documentary
Participatory• The participatory mode puts the
documentary filmmaker on the screen or as a voice in the background.
• Errol Morris (The Fog of War), for example, is heard asking questions
JRN 572 - News Documentary
Participatory• Run While You Can is a
documentary featuring the creator of it both on screen and in voiceovers.
JRN 572 - News Documentary
Reflexive• The reflexive mode is the in-
your-face-with-a-camera style approach that seeks to stun the audience with provocative commentary, images and political (usually) positions.
• This mode includes pieces of the expository and observational mode. The Louis Theroux film on the Westboro Baptist Church is one.
JRN 572 - News Documentary
Performative• The performative mode elevates
the producer/writer/director to the screen in the role as the physical protagonist who drives the action.
• This mode’s origins started in films about history and science with figures such as Michael Wood (In Search of the Trojan War) and David Attenborough (Life on Earth)
JRN 572 - News Documentary
Performative• By the 1990s and 200s, the form
evolved to include pieces of the reflexive mode to shock particularly in the work of Michael Moore (Roger & Me) and Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me).
• Note the issue of the personal pronoun in the titles.
JRN 572 - News Documentary
Film Ideas• When filmmakers conceptualize
ideas for films, they generally consider the mode to pursue as part of the process.
• A statement by French philosopher Michael Foucault about ideas suggests that spark occurs before anything else.
JRN 572 - News Documentary
Film Ideas• “Thought does exist both
beyond and before systems and edifices of discourse.”
• It drives, wrote Foucault, everyday behavior, and it must drive your desire to create documentaries.
JRN 572 - News Documentary
Film Ideas• It all begins with the thought
before the system, or mode, of storytelling.
• And that thought could be spurred by curiosity, anger and other emotional triggers, or simply the desire to tell a good story well.
JRN 572 - The News Documentary
Film Ideas
• We will cover idea formation and validation in more detail as the semester unfolds but for now, it’s important to do one thing:
• Start training your mind to see ideas in everything that exists inside your thoughts/emotions and outside in the observable universe.
JRN 572 - The News Documentary
Film Ideas
• Here’s a real-time account of an idea I am pursuing to illustrate the process at this point.
JRN 572 - News Documentary
Film Ideas• I had heard about a ski jump in
northwestern Connecticut, and I was curious about it.
• Why here?
• As it turns out, my research suggested the story was more about community than anything else.
JRN 572 - News Documentary
Film Ideas• The story had, well, a story
behind it, a history.
• The main character – a snow plow driver - competed in the 1956 Olympics after he recovered from polio. He went on to marry a heiress whose father invented the Daisy BB gun.
JRN 572 - News Documentary
Film Ideas• And the town itself holds a
winter celebration each year around the ski jump to celebrate the season and the man who almost won gold.
• That all means it has great action, great visuals and, most of all, a great story arc, all started by a simple question of why here?
JRN 572 - The News Documentary
Film Ideas
• Anything can be transformed into a story as long as you have something to say about it.
• A key second test is whether it can be visually compelling.
• The third test is access to time and money to make it.
JRN 572 - The News Documentary
Film Ideas
• It’s of critical importance to note that the documentary genre has severe limitations even with the modes.
• Writing for documentaries is not the same as writing for magazines because the piece must be visually assembled. A story without strong visuals is not a story for the screen!
JRN 572 - The News Documentary
Film Ideas
• The short films posted on Blackboard for the week reveal the exquisite array of ideas presented for visual storytelling.
• Each is short yet each has something to say.
JRN 572 - The News Documentary
Film Storytelling
• And filmmakers must understand that storytelling is the key, not just the factual information.
• Bernard covers the basics of storytelling in the required text, Chapter 2.
• Pay particular attention to the story arc
JRN 572 - The News Documentary
Film Storytelling
• Bernard shows the sharp distinction between writing and storytelling.
• Although the word writing is used in the course title, we are really focusing on storytelling, with writing serving as a core method to support the ultimate goal, which is to tell a good story well.