Moving Images, Understanding Media

Chapter 6 Recording and Presenting Reality 217

Figure 6-8 For the

fi ction short Immersion,

cinematographer Frazer

Bradshaw sought a

documentary look with

the digital RED camera

through hand-held shots

and a minimal amount of

carefully added light. Director

Richard Levien also used

a documentary approach

with the children in the fi lm

to facilitate a comfortable

dynamic between untrained

actors and the camera.

(Courtesy Richard Levien/Frazer

Bradshaw)

to record. With the integration of sound, we also talk to each other in front

of the camera or speak directly to the camera.

Even with these simple examples, we can see how tricky documentary

fi lmmaking can be. When we watch home movies, we are oft en aware of the

ways in which people may be unnatural or may “play to the camera.” It can

make the actions we see or words we hear seem untruthful or aff ected. Th e

integrity of documentaries revolves greatly around the ways in which fi lms

achieve an appropriate representation of whatever topic is being presented,

that it makes sense within the point of view, style, and tone of the complete

motion picture. Does this sound familiar to you by now? You thought about

these same issues when building narrative structures and visual approaches

for fi ction fi lms.

A variety of professionals are involved in the creation of non-fi ction

motion pictures. Some fi ction directors make documentaries as well, such as

Michael Apted, Bertrand Tavernier, and Mira Nair. In an interview, Tavernier

explained, “Fictional characters are so invasive that I need to do documentaries

to take a break, to return to reality.”

Of course, there are fi lmmakers who specialize in documentary fi lms,

and many investigative journalists do their work primarily or exclusively

through motion pictures, whether shown on television or through the

Internet. All of these people document the world around us using moving

images fi ltered through the lens of their various perspectives and expressed

through cinematography, editing, and commentary on phenomena and

events of the world.

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