Examples Of Early Observational Movements In Film

Firstly, it is important to understand how the documentary form is best suited to illustrate the film’s theme. In order to do this, one must have an overview of the documentary style of filmmaking. Documentaries concern themselves with the “exploration of

Film exists in layers of physical existence and reality. You have the layer the audience views of the film’s world - setting, characters, and plot - and then you have the layer the film production workers view of the film’s world - actors, the set, and the story. Like photography, film is able to establish a physical existence. However, unlike photography, film uses two very unique and different techniques in order to establish its physical existence. According to Siegfried Kracauer, film establishes its physical existence through representation of reality as it evolves through time and with the help of techniques and devices exclusive to cinema cameras (Kracauer 187). All the world is a stage for film, however Kracauer lists specific techniques of film he refers to as cinematic due to how these techniques are read on the cinematic medium. Although Kracauer wrote his theory on Establishment of Physical Existence in 1960, the 2015 movie Tangerine contains a fair amount of content that can be serviced as examples in order to support Kracauer’s theory. Using the 2010’s movie Tangerine directed by Sean S. Baker, modern cinema examples from various scenes of the film can be provided for examples on Siegfried Kracauer’s theory of Establishment of Physical Existence through cinema’s recording functions of nascent motion, cinema’s revealing function of transients, and cinema’s revealing function of blind spots of the

The long take begins with an alarm clock waking up a couple, sleeping out on their balcony. As the camera moves from window to window around the courtyard, we see a few brief snippets of characters’ lives. And finally, the audience sees inside the apartment that has been its point of view all along. Mise-en-scene, framing, and cinematography

The camera follows the elders of the block, Da’ Mayor and Mother Sister, as they talk in her bedroom. For a rare moment in the film Da’ Mayor’s and Mother Sister’s eyes are at exactly the same level, showing that as different as the two may have seemed, they are very much the same. Then the camera slowly pulls out as the two stand and sluggishly walk down a hallway toward a window. Now, where a director would typically have to cut and setup a new shot, Lee pulls the camera straight out of the window as Mother Sister and Da’ Mayor survey the block. The audience would expect to see next exactly what Da’ Mayor and Mother Sister are looking at, but instead Lee quickly pans over in the opposite direction to reveal Mookie standing in the street bellow. By doing this Lee makes a connection that both the elders and Mookie are, in the words of Mother Sister, “still standing.” The shot is not particularly tight but still has a cramped feel due to the clutter of things in the background, the heavy shadowing, and the red tint on the lighting. The red lighting gives sense of volatility to the shot, which is contrasted by the slow camera and character movements. These slow movements are analogous to the block as, regardless of how slowly, it too will go on and life will continue. This shot is in the tradition of mise en scene advocates like Bazin in that,

Documentarians often want to get as close to their subject matter as possible. Some documentarians have an insider perspective which ignites a spark to create a piece that illuminates a specific topic or area of study. There are also documentarians that have no affiliation with said subject matter, but want to explore the topic in question. Finally, there are documentarians that have a foot in both worlds. Insider/outsider is a theory in which a documentarian can be close to a subject, but also possess characteristics or traits that make them distant from the topic in question (Coles, 1998). Such is the case with the directors of both Stranger with a Camera and The House I Live In. Due to their own location, both Eugene Jarecki and Elizabeth Barret exhibit characteristics that make them fall into the insider/outsider roles as directors. Robert Coles defines location by stating, “We notice what we notice because of who we are” (Coles, 1998, p. 7). Included in this is, a person’s education, race, class, and gender. Both directors realize they are outsiders and utilize a lens into a world in which they are not otherwise a part of. Jarecki’s lens comes in the form of Nanny Jeter, his family’s nanny from when he was a child. Barret’s lens for her documentary is the community that she shared with Ison. The two directors enter into a world that they are not a part of because of their location, but forge a connection to the subject matter through means of a lens.

The next thing we should consider about this film is Wes Anderson’s distinctive camera movement. As we see the movie, we can notice that most of the scenes are mainly composed of the frontal shot. By adopting the frontal shot, the film makes audiences to feel that every character in the film directly talks to them. It means that literally, audiences assume that they are also part of this film as an imaginary character in the film is part of the film. The other camera movement which makes certain mood is whip pan (Tom). In the grand Budapest hotel, this movement is used when the camera tries to change the view from one character to another character. For instance, when the writer has some dinner with Zero while Zero is telling his story, the

The director uses multiple camera shots to highlight the love during troublesome times and the emotions that are present. A wide shot is used when the audience watches Guido marching in front of the soldier shortly before his death. Guido does this as he is aware that his son is watching and still wants the experience of the camp to be a fun game and does not want Giosue to be afraid of what is happening. Close up shots are commonly used throughout the film to give more detail into the emotions that the characters are feeling. A

Richardson’s non-interventionist style is a prime example of observational documentary, and works specifically well in capturing and promulgating the subject of death. According to Nichols, observational documentaries started appearing in the 1960’s as result of more mobile and smaller equipment. Furthermore, observational documentary stresses non-intervention, as filmmakers objectively observe indirect speech, candidness in the form of long takes, and create a world out of historical reality not fabricated with

In this movie, different filmic techniques are used, however, in my opinion, they are not very effective and thus it fails to improve or contribute to the success of the movie, which I believe it should. The filming techniques used in

“The documentary tradition as a continually developing “record” that is made in so many ways, with different voices and vision, intents and concerns, and with each contributor, finally, needing to meet a personal text” (Coles 218). Coles writes “The Tradition: Fact and Fiction” and describes the process of documenting, and what it is to be a documentarian. He clearly explains through many examples and across disciplines that there is no “fact or fiction” but it is intertwined, all in the eye of the maker. The documentarian shows human actuality; they each design their own work to their own standards based on personal opinion, values, interest and whom they want the art to appeal to.

The directors chosen camera technique, a simple two composition that progresses the scene a steady pace, forces the audience to feel a part of the awkward exchange; obviously, a quality of film that could not be as profoundly achieved through the narrative in the novel.

Throughout this film many techniques are used. This film has many fast motions, slow motion, and freeze frames. One effect that was used was cinematography. This is when there is manipulation of the film strip by the camera in the shooting phase and in the development phase. He also used the technique called superimposition. This is where there is more than one image on the same film strip. He also used split screen framing to focus on different movements and spaces at the same time.

Theorist Vsevolod Pudovkin claims that narrative films are mainly a “product of construction” and cautious compilations of “selections of images that have been shot” (Renée).

Early documentaries, like those done by Robert Flaherty have similarities with the Italian neorealism films, especially by those of Vittorio De Sicca. De Sica pulled documentary filming techniques to make his films seem realistic and to almost have a documentary feel to them. Italian neorealism rejected the opulence of Hollywood and instead only wanted to portray real people and their struggles. To do that De Sica borrowed some techniques that made Flaherty’s films so successful and seemingly real; like that of the long take, close-ups, and unobtrusive editing. De Sica wasn’t the only one to borrow techniques, Flaherty also fictionalized part of his narrative in order for it to portray the life he thought was accurate. Both

The techniques of cinema is employed into this film. How, well by what type of lighting technique and aesthetics they’re using and editing transitional devices, special effects and sounds techniques in the interactive movie on how it effects you. They use these