Shooting an event using film, video, audio or still photography is recording actuality, something actually happening over which we have no control, nor is anyone trying to control on manipulate the event. It is still a subjective perspective, since a person chooses how to shoot; what lens to use, the angle, color or black and white and so on. But basically it is the actual unedited coverage of what the person recording it chose to cover.

In a news room someone takes that footage, edits it, narrates it with scripted third party voice over to be read by an announcer on the air. The announcer adds another level of subjectivity to it with their tone of voice, inflection and personality. The actuality becomes manipulated, completely subjective, and may have an undisclosed point-of-view (POV) based on the political leaning of the broadcast or cable company. What reaches the viewer is a subjective interpretation of the event focused only on what someone wants the audience to hear and/or see.  The bias of the piece is not disclosed up front, as if what is being shown is the actuality.

Documentary productions using film, video, audio or other media are traditionally equivalent to nonfiction books that are written on any subject imaginable. Documentaries are nonfiction stories and they always have a point-of-view which is disclosed either in the title or is obvious to the viewer. Documentaries use actuality material recorded in someway to tell the story. Most documentaries use first person interviews to discuss various issues or as voice over to explain what we are seeing or hearing. Documentaries do not employ actors to “recreate” events.  Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns does use actors to read documents or narrate other actuality sources, but they are not recreating anything. He seems careful not to allow the actors to dramatize what is read.

A documentary becomes propaganda when it fails to disclose its point-of-view, or hides the real purpose of the piece. Many films pretend to be serious nonfiction documentary efforts when in fact their actual purpose is to attack or demean a person or group. These productions are obvious propaganda thinly disguised as documentary.

Many documentary filmmakers like Michael Moore are strong advocates of reform or change in social or political areas. They don’t disguise their advocacy they put it right out there where anyone can see it. Advocacy documentaries go back to films made by John Grierson in the 1920′s and on. Grierson is quoted as saying, “Art is a hammer, not a mirror.” He believed that it was his duty to bring to light social issues. If advocacy documentary filmmakers have a flaw it is not giving the viewer enough information on opposing view points or background topics. They are focused more on pointing out all the issues and problems.

JRM

Finished City Homes

A block of seven new city homes have been finished by Mattamy Homes on Meeting Place facing the north end of Corine Common. Three homes are currently open as models and four homes are  occupied by new owners.

New City Homes on Meeting Place

An additional seven homes directly facing Corine Common is nearing completion.

Nearing completion

More homes are under construction on Brink Alley

Brink Alley

Brink Alley - click on photo for more construction pics.

As you go through either the printed version or digital version of Create Documentary Films, Videos, and Multimedia please let us know if you have any suggestions. We’d like to know how the audio and video segments are working on your computer or other device.

As time passes we’ll be upgrading the downloadable version with new features so we’d like to know how the current ones are working for you.

Thanks,

JRM

JRM

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Create Documentary Films, Videos and Multimedia is an in-depth look at what documentary filmmaking is based on and how to make all types of documentary projects.

This 380 page book explains how to make Documentary Films, Videos and Multimedia projects using traditional nonfiction storytelling techniques.

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Arts Festival Artist

The Baldwin Park Arts Festival featured local artists and organizations from the area.

For additional photographs go to here.

March 2010 Arts Festival

Santa Arrives In Parade

Saturday night December 12th was the Baldwin Park Festival of Lights which included a Parade and many other activities. Due to rain in the area last Saturday many floats and marchers came from other nearby communities to march in the Baldwin Park, Orlando Parade.

Winter Park High School Band Marches in Baldwin Park Parade

Documentary Gimme Shelter - Rolling Stones

Viewing Gimme Shelter, A Maysles Films Inc Production, recently released on Blu-ray Disc by Criterion Collection, is a worthwhile trip back to December 1969, and the Altamonte Speedway near San Francisco, where we visit a free Rolling Stones Concert that some say ended an era.

This Direct Cinema (Cinema Verite) documentary ultimately brings us to a Rolling Stones Concert, the final stop on a North American tour in 1969. There along with 300,000 mostly stoned flower children, a couple dozen mostly intoxicated Hell’s Angels acting as security, Jefferson Airplane, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Ike and Tina Turner and of course the Rolling Stones, we witness chaos in the making.

The documentary begins with New York concert footage and then takes us to a film editing room where Mick Jagger, along with the filmmakers are watching film clips of the Altamonte Concert playing on a flat bed editing machine. The footage shows events’ unfolding at the time a man was killed. After being disarmed of a pistol, this man is stabbed and beaten to death by a group of Hell’s Angels right in front of the stage. The murder is shot from the stage, as the Rolling Stones perform “Under My Thumb,” but it’s difficult to tell exactly what’s going on until the footage is viewed frame-by-frame. There were, in total, 4 deaths and 3 births at the concert that day.

Early in the film we see scenes of the Rolling Stones performing at venues, including Madison Square Garden where relative calm prevails. But after watching the promoters arrange to bring the concert to the Altamonte Speedway, it soon becomes clear that disaster is looming. At the concert venue we see long lines of cars coming to the concert, people getting stoned, running naked and hanging out. The musicians performing before the Rolling Stones have difficulty keeping the stage clear and a Hell’s Angel hits one musician.  When Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones start performing “Sympathy for the Devil” it seems to transform the crowd into an unruly mob.

Gimme Shelter does not have any interviews. Typical of a Direct Cinema documentary we are brought into the story as observers. In this case we are more then “flies on the wall.” It feels somehow that we too are in danger. This documentary is a fine example of the work of David Maysles, Albert Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin.  Who are the same team that made other documentaries including Salesman in 1968.  Salesman takes us door-to-door with Bible Salesmen selling bibles. We sit in as they pitch prospective customers, go to sales meetings and the local diner. In both Direct Cinema documentary films; the filmmakers seem to be invisible.

Gimme Shelter started out as a concert tour documentary but not a lot of pure performance scenes were used as more attention is paid to the upcoming concert in California. Events created a story no one anticipated, one that came together in the editing room. Still the scenes with Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones performing are revealing of what the band was like in those days; perhaps the perfect gift for a Rolling Stones fan with a Blu-ray Player.

This Blu-ray Disc release has excellent sound and has been totally restored and enhanced using the original 16mm color negative. It is well worth owning and viewing.

J R Martin