Final: Ripples in a Lake

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mD6uHh0aZJM&feature=youtu.be

For this final doc I explored the performative mode and the poetic mode. My film is a performative and poetic impression on how an apparently stagnant body of water (a lake) is in constant motion and how the sun accentuates this motion. 

Nichols explores in his book the concept that performative documentaries “emphasize the expressive quality of the filmmaker’s engagement with the film’s subject [and] addresses the audience in a vivid way”.  This is evident in my film because I have generated the involvement of the dancers with the lake in order to help portray the environment and impression which the lake possesses. I generate this involvement through a very vivid visual of the dancer’s reflection in the water and the dancer’s morphed images with other footage of the sun reflecting off the lake water. I, as a filmmaker, have a very obvious involvement in the film through the dancers and through the editing. I pieced the film together in a rather impressionistic manner. I morphed various shots together to emphasize the movement of the lake and its constant state of change. 

To give the impression of the constant motion of the lake water, I used the performative mode with dancers to represent the movement of the water. The dancers’ movement changed tempo like the ripples on a lake change tempo. Also, to accentuate the lake’s movement I had the dancer’s image reflected from the water. This reflection intensified the dancer’s movement since the ripples created additional movement. So, even when the dancer was still he or she still appeared to be moving. This is reflexive on how the lake water can appear to be stagnant but when one looks closely there is at least a slight ripple. 

The performative film which influenced my piece the most was A Study in Choreography for Cinema (1945). This film demonstrated the manner in which the movement of the human body could be effectively used to convey expressions and impressions upon an audience. I tried to incorporate the idea that film can be used to isolate specific dance elements in time and space in a manner in which live performances cannot. I tried to be conscientious of how the dancer’s movement could be crafted specifically for film to give the impression which I wanted. 

Another film which was extremely influential on my piece was Joris Ivens’ poetic documentary film, Rain (1929). This film used images such as a bike’s reflection in a puddle to convey (as Nichols would describe) “a feeling or impression of what a rain shower is like rather than convey information or an argument. This is a distinct poetic perspective on the historical world.” In my film, I too, sought for conveying more of an impression and feeling of the beauty of the lake water and the sun morphing together. I tried to give the impression of the blinding rays of sunshines through the shots of the sun rays being so overexposed that they made the camera glitch.  

Nichols discussed in his book Introduction of Documentary of how a performative documentary can exhibit many qualities common to poetic documentaries. This is definitely the case in my piece. I have been closely involved in the performance of the dancers which represent the movement of the water, and I have pieced the footage together in a very poetic manner. The film uses rhythm, tempo, abstract images, and is more of an impression of a place than the historical documentation of an event. Overall, my piece explores the performative and the poetic mode of documentation. 

Additional Post-Transmedia

I appreciated the classes discussion of ‘transmedia’ which allowed me to better understand what a transmedia piece was and why it would be advantageous for one to create and present a subject with transmedia. When first approaching the term ‘transmedia’ I remembered that ‘trans’ is a latin stem meaning ‘across’. So I saw transmedia as the means of representing media across different types of media. This is true, but it doesn’t fully encompass the full extent of the term. Transmedia involves various media particular to a subject, but the different media is not a recreation of the original idea’s text but a means to extend and explore the subject further. Each media has something different to offer than another media choice. It is not a simple retranslation of content into a different media form but the use of different media to bring something new and further explore the subject matter. 

I great example of a transmedia piece which we explored was the website Highrise. Highrise brought the audience into a highly interactive and explorative enviroment which  could branch into many options of how to consume the content. The website was a branch of additional and repetitive information which could be viewed in the film Highrise. The website offered different means of viewing the film, such as viewing segments that were linked to parts of an interactive tour. The website also offered the option of reading and exploring virtual stills of various highrises and how the degeneration of these buildings are affecting our communities. This website was not just simple a recreation(translation) of the film but a means to present additional information in a highly interactive manner. 

We discussed how the choice of a transmedia website brings the interactive element of media into the presentation of the subject matter. This interaction allows the audience to become more involved in the subject and the manner in which they become involved. As Gaudenzi discussed, there are several general types of interaction commonly used between the audience and the creator's content. These include the conversational (user’s navigation of content), hitch-hiking (user’s navigation of content but with pre-determined pathways), participative (user’s navigation of content contributes and organizes content), and experiential (user’s navigate real space in time). These different types of interaction allow the audiences to become more involved in a subject and create a pro-active approach for a audience member in their participation on a subject. This makes transmedia an excellent choice of presentation for subjects which wish for people to have the opportunity to become involved with the subject or issue directly. 

Doc Mode Activity 3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gD1rVC6-aWw&feature=youtu.be

For this doc mode activity, I first approached it as an autobiographical documentary. However, there is not much of a personal linear narrative, but more of a reflection on something I have learned in life. I was going to try to include a more linear story from high school but it didn’t really work in the flow of the analogy I am making in this doc so I cut it. Even though I don’t have a personal linear narrative I feel that the it still in a autobiographical documentary because I am talking about a principle I have learned in life. My choice of still photos moving with the ken burns effect was inspired by the film we watched in class about the girl who met her biological parents in China.  

The Fox reading discussed how the autobiographical mode was a presentation of self. I feel that this piece is a presentation of my outlook on life and how one needs to strive for a balanced life. Finding balance in life is something I struggle with and so I feel very strongly about trying to implement this idea into my life. 

For this piece, I also feel it is part observational because of the observational photos of my making bread. I am documenting a process but using it as a means to illustrate the analogy about life I am making. Because of the symbolism and the sound effects I use I also feel the documentary has a poetic aspect to it. The background sound are the sounds of my making the bread. I was inspired by last semesters 112 project of documenting a process for this aspect of the film. By incorporating this various modes to protray my autobiographical documentary I feel that this film is also multimodal. It combines the autobiographical, observational, and poetic modes. 

The Essayistic Mode

The Fox reading gave me new insight to the essayistic mode through Fox’s explanation of the term ‘essay’. Fox explained that the term ‘essay’ comes from the French verb ‘essayer’ which means “to test” or “to try”. The mode is like a verb; the essayistic mode is an active mode “in which a proposed idea or question is tested by a range of means and intersecting lines of argument.” I hadn’t thought of the essayistic mode being particularly active since an essayistic documentary doesn’t always promote an active response to an issue or even an active point of view of an issue. The active nature of the documentary is not necessary the message of the documentary but the approach to the discovery and making of the message. The mode is active through its exploration of an issue through multiple perspectives and approaches. The filmmaker is active in working to acquire a broad range of perspectives and opinions of a question or issue and using what they discover to formulate an answer or opinion to the question/issue. Though, as Fox explains, “quite often an essay does not arrive at a finite conclusion, yet the ideas discovered during the process may reshape and reinform the initial query in unforeseen ways.” The essayistic films seems more concerned with the process of shaping and discovering a perspective than the actual final perspective and opinion. 

These ideas can be seen in Marilyn Levine’s and Ross McElwee’s film Something to Do with the Wall. In this film the film makers create a collage of opinions and perspectives of the Berlin Wall by people who live near the portion of the German wall which was near the former heart of Berlin. The film makers demonstrate that not everyone hates everything about the Wall. For example, some like the un-trafficked area which allowed children to play safely in the city. While another lady describes how the Wall lets her creative side thrive since the Wall reminds her of the danger and constant presence of reality. These perspectives along with others perspectives of detachment, anger, awe, and acceptance, shape a overall new perspective for the viewer of the Wall without the filmmakers ever specifically stating what the Wall is and what it does and has done to society in that area. They show that there is no real concrete view of the Wall and that people’s opinions are changing and evolving just like society. The filmmakers are able to show the change of people’s perspective of the Wall through their continued exploration of perspectives three years after their previous exploration in Germany and days after the Wall fell. The film was more concerned with exploring what the Wall was and how it affected those who lived closest to it than it was concerned with what the Wall literally was. The film didn’t come to a finite conclusion but it did provide new insights which shaped a new perspective of the subject which is what an essayistic film typically does. 

Autobiographical Mode

According to Fox, the autobiographical mode is a type of the performative mode in which one performs self. A mode in which one re-creates/creates one’s story for the audience. From our discussion and the examples of films we viewed I feel that there are performative aspects in some autobiographical documentaries but that an autobiographical film does not necessarily have to be presented in a performative manner or solely in a performative manner. For example, the film History and Memory: For Akiko and Takashige (an autobiographical documentary) has performative elements, but I feel the film is more of an essayistic documentary than performative. There are moments where there are re-enactments in the film which is performative, but there are many essayistic qualities including narration, images being used as evidence, and the film meanders in flow while the filmmaker makes discoveries with the audience. The things which the filmmaker discovers are things about herself which is what makes it autobiographical. She explores the concentration camps of WWll and her families’ past as a means to discover herself. She does this more with an essaysitc approach than an approach of performing herself for the audience. From this example, it can be seen that an autobiographical film does not have to be approached or presented as a performative film. Therefore, I feel what Fox presented(that autobiographical films are performative) represents many autobiographical films but not all of them. 

Two clearly autobiographical films which present themselves through the performative manner are Sadie Benning’s films A New Year and A Place Called Lovely. This performative element is particularly evident in A Place Called Lovely when Benning uses her performance in front of the American flag, in which she performs the way others wished she were, and her juxtaposing performance of herself as her natural self. These presentation of these two performances allow the audience better understanding of how Benning sees herself and how she feels others see her. Benning uses the performative mode to tell the story of who she is. 

Overall, the autobiographical mode focuses on the filmmaker’s story being the primary subject. These stories are commonly presented through the use of the performative mode, but other times use other modes to tell their story. However, Fox may agrue that the fact alone that the filmmaker is presenting a created art on themselves it is a performance of self. I don’t believe this counts necessarily as the performative mode since with this definition every piece of art is the performative mode since it is ‘performing’ an idea. So, autobiographies are commonly performative but do not have to be performative. 

Doc Mode Activity 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPq8fFTiN7Q

For this documentary mode activity, I focused on trying to make a documentary that had elements of the participatory mode. In Sick Around the World and Sicko the filmmakers asked normal citizens what they thought about health care. This gave me the idea to ask BYU students what they thought about caffeine since it is a type of health concern at BYU. Therefore, I decided to focus my doc on BYU students perspective on caffeine and on their opinion on whether BYU should sell caffeinated drinks on campus. I interviewed several students asking what they thought about caffeinated drinks and whether or not they thought BYU should sell them on campus. Interviews, as we discussed in class and as the reading discussed, is a common part of participatory mode documentaries because they demonstrate the interaction between the filmmaker and the social actors. I feel my film is not as strong of a participatory doc since the audience never sees me but only hears me ask a question and ask for clarification. 

We also discussed in class that participatory documentaries commonly have an pointed opinion. Sicko clearly demonstrated this idea through Michael Moore’s very pointed irony. I feel mine lacks this opinion since seems more to just observes the students’ answers. The only way in which I feel I did point the opinions of the film was in decided which interviews to include, what part of the interviews to include, and the order of the clips. For example, I tried to show that the their could be a possibility of caffeinated drinks eventually being sold at BYU by having the last shot be of the student of draws upon the historical fact that now BYU allows mustaches so maybe someday they will sell caffeinated drinks. 

Another concept addressed in the reading is ethics and how a filmmaker can manipulate subjects to get the reaction they want. I thought about this when making my film because one of the students I interviewed, I know to be highly addicted to caffeinated drinks. He is usually always drinking a Monster and this contributes to his having a sleeping problem. I really wanted to get this dynamic of his addiction in the film but he didn’t want that represented on camera and so filtered his answers. Also, I had footage of other students teasing him about his addiction but I decided not to include this because I know he would be very hurt by this being documented on camera.