EXAM QUESTIONS SUMMER 2022

TYPICAL EXAM QUESTIONS THAT YOU MAY GET

Q   Apply at least one filmmaker's theory of documentary film you have studied to your chosen documentary.       How far does this increase your understanding of the film?

Q  How does one filmmaker's use of cinematography and editing compare with how these elements of film form are used in your chosen film ?

Q  How does one filmmaker's attitude to truth and objectivity compare with how they  are used in your chosen film ?

FILMMAKERS' THEORIES : Kim Longinotto

Kim Longinotto (born 1952) is a British documentary filmmaker, well known for making films that highlight the plight of female victims of oppression or discrimination. 

Longinotto studied camera and directing at the National Film and Television School in Beaconsfield, England, where she now tutors occasionally. Longinotto was born to an Italian father and a Welsh mother; her father was a photographer who later went bankrupt. At the age of 10 she was sent to a draconian all-girls boarding school, where she found it hard to make friends due to the mistress forbidding anyone to talk to her for a term after she became lost during a school trip. 

After a period of homelessness, Longinotto went on to Essex University to study English and European literature and later followed friend and future filmmaker, Nick Broomfield to the National Film and Television School. While studying, she made a documentary about her boarding school that was shown at the London Film Festival, since when she has continued to be a prolific documentary filmmaker. 

Longinotto is an observational filmmaker. Observational cinema, also known as direct cinema, free cinema or cinema verite, usually excludes certain documentary techniques such as advanced planning, scripting, staging, narration, lighting, re-enactment and interviewing. 

Longinotto’s unobtrusiveness, which is an important part of observational documentary, gives the women on camera a certain voice and presence that may not have emerged with another documentary genre. 

(from Women Make Movies http://www.wmm.com/filmcatalog/makers/fm44.shtml) 

a. Watch these short films where Longinotto discusses her filmmaking style. 

1

2 

3

What are the main features of how she makes films? 

b. Look at the opening five minutes of Longinotto’s film Divorce Iranian Style (1999) and clips from Rough Aunties (1998)  

How far are her ideas about filmmaking  reflected here?

SUMMARY

 A British director who works in observational documentary 

 Her subject matter has a primary focus on women’s lives 

 She favours long takes and she tries to capture the extraordinary in the lives of the subjects that she observes 

 The stories that she brings to the screen are often uniquely personal, mainly focusing on society’s outsiders 

 Her films shot in a calm, unobtrusive style, often centre on victims of discrimination and oppression and tell the stories of strong female characters fighting for change and justice 

 She has worked in a number of different countries around the world for example Iran, Cameroon, Japan and the US 

 Her key films Dreamcatcher (2015), Rough Aunties (2008) and Divorce Iranian Style (1998) all expose the raw immediacy in her films 

 It could be argued that her perspective on the range of different cultures she encounters in her films gives a real sense of herself as an ‘outsider’ filmmaker

FILMMAKERS' THEORIES : Michael Moore

Michael Moore, American filmmaker, author, and political activist, who was best known for a series of documentaries—often controversial—that addressed major political and social issues in the United States. 

Following his graduation from high school, Moore, as an 18-year-old member of the Flint school board, began his populist assault on what he viewed as the injustices of American capitalism. In 1976, after having attended but not graduated from the University of Michigan at Flint, Moore started a radical weekly newspaper, the Flint Voice (later Michigan Voice), which he edited for 10 years. He was later hired to edit the San Francisco-based left-wing magazine Mother Jones but was fired after a few months (he later accepted an out-of-court settlement for a wrongful-dismissal suit). 

Returning to Flint, Moore filmed his first documentary, Roger & Me (1989), which chronicles the effects of unemployment in Flint due to the closing of two General Motors (GM) factories and the company’s longer-term policy of downsizing. At the centre of the film were Moore’s “in-your-face” efforts to gain an audience with GM’s chairman, Roger Smith. Mixing humour and poignancy with indignation, Roger & Me was a hit with critics and at the box office. Moore subsequently moved to New York City and established Dog Eat Dog Films. He also created an organization to finance social-action groups and other filmmakers. 

After producing three television series and other limited-release films—including the comedy Canadian Bacon (1995), in which a U.S. president starts a cold war with Canada in order to boost his approval ratings—Moore achieved major success with Bowling for Columbine (2002). The film, which profiles gun violence in the United States, won the Academy Award for best documentary. In his next documentary, Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004), Moore criticized U.S. Pres. George W. Bush’s handling of the September 11 attacks and the administration’s decision to start the Iraq War. Although highly controversial, it won the Golden Palm at the Cannes film festival and earned more than $222 million worldwide to become the highest-grossing documentary. 

In 2007 Moore released Sicko, an examination of the health care industry in the United States. For his next documentary, Capitalism: A Love Story (2009), Moore took a critical look at the U.S. economy, including the subprime mortgage crisis of 2007–08 and the subsequent bailout of banks. Where to Invade Next (2015) unfavourably compared various aspects of daily life in other countries—such as educational practices and the balance between work and leisure—with those in the United States. 

(from Britannica.com) 

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Michael-Moore

 Looking at these two short interviews with Michael Moore, identify the key aspects of his work from what he says here. 

An NPR interview on propaganda in Michael Moore’s work focusing largely on Sicko (2007) 

This is a German interview on Moore’s film Bowling for Columbine (2002) 

 These are the trailers for three of Michael Moore’s films; 

Bowling for Columbine (2002) 

Fahrenheit 9//11 (2004) 

Where to Invade Next (2016) 

What are the common traits that these films share in terms of both style and subject matter?

SUMMARY

 His first film Roger and Me (1989) dealt with the closure of the General Motors factories in his hometown of Flint in Michigan with a huge lay-off involving over 30000 workers. The film was driven by his own personal anger about how and why this was done. 

 That said at the core of Moore’s work is the use of comedy and dark satire which he uses to attack the institutions that he has targeted. He is also central to the films in terms of seeing him interviewing people and his everyman persona disarms and encourages a range of interesting responses. This is also underscored by his physical appearance. 

 He wears casual clothes, a baseball cap and is overweight. However this seemingly, laidback persona does hide a sharp and incisive line of questioning which he uses to good effect. 

 Although his work is polemical and can be seen as rather subjective, the way that comedy is employed whether by using clever expositional devices or by Moore’s interviews themselves. 

 A key part of Moore’s approach is to concentrate on a particular agenda whether it be for example gun control (Bowling for Columbine (2002), the invasion of Iraq (Fahrenheit 911, 2004) or the American health care system (Sicko, 2007) and expand on a set of arguments around his perspective on these issues. 

 Certainly he can be considered to be a voice of sorts for the American left and some of his films – especially Columbine and Fahrenheit 911 were surprising successes at the global box office as well as winning major awards. 

 His most recent work Where to Invade Next (2016) directly compares the US to a range of other countries across the world in terms of issues like equality, health and education provision.

INDEX : DOCUMENTARY TECHNIQUES

 The techniques of Documentary Film


Actuality Footage: Actuality is the term for film footage of real life events, places and people. This is where the documentary filmmaker shoots what she/he wants in the film, going to relevant locations and covering appropriate subject matter. There needs to be an emphasis here on whether this is going to be interesting, entertaining and also aesthetically pleasing for the spectator.

Archival Footage: Also called ‘Stock Footage’, this is film or video that can be used in other film productions and it is commonly used in documentary. Stock footage can come from a variety of sources, mostly obviously archive news footage or interviews from the past. That said it can also establish setting and situation as well by focusing in on specific subject matter that supports the filmmakers point of view. This wider footage can also take in personal footage (Super 8/16, video, DV, CCTV, mobile phone material). With access to this growing amount of footage a much broader sense of the subject matter can be examined. Of course the selection and construction of all this material in the final cut is crucial to establishing meaning.

Use of Still Images: This will use photographs of relevant subject matter to construct meaning or support points made by the filmmaker. This will be produced in a studio with the use of a rostrum camera. This is different to using a still shot of an image say within an interview.

Voice Over Narration: The use of a non-diegetic (not part of the narrative) voice that assists in explaining information, primarily in a documentary or news feature. The use of the voice positions the spectator to the point of view of the filmmaker. This can be the filmmaker themselves or someone used to convey a sense of meaning behind the images. The narration can also be interviewees whose testimony is crucial in constructing meaning and engendering a response. That said not all documentaries need to have a voiceover.

Voice Over Exposition: The use of a non-diegetic voice to introduce information to the audience. Typically this is factual in nature, and this may occur at the beginning of a documentary feature.

Archetypal Characters: The term ‘character’ is a problematic one when discussing documentary as this most obviously suggests a construction or representation of a person, rather than focusing on someone who is ‘real’. In the case of documentaries, these characters will be selected by the filmmaker to support his/her point of view. This is fundamentally different to casting actors for a fictional role.
Contrasting Characters: Also selected will be people who might be used to create tension and offer differing points of view for an audience.

Interviews: Interviews can be both direct and indirect. A direct interview involves asking questions in a way that the responder understands the purpose of the question, and the intended response. Indirect interviews involves asking questions when the responder is unaware of the purpose, or the intended response. These interviews may be shown in a face to camera situation or may well have been recorded in a sound capacity and then used over film images. Both of these techniques will produce a different set of effects and meanings.

Montage: Selecting and carefully editing of selected pieces of film to form a continuous whole. This final selection of material is crucial in constructing meaning and generating an appropriate response.
Cross-Cuts: Used to establish action occurring at the same time, cross-cutting involves the camera cutting away from one action to another to give the impression of the action occurring simultaneously.
Jump-Cuts: A cut in film editing that gives the impression of the subject “jumping” forwards in time. This is done by showing almost the exact same shot in successive frames with only a slight variation in the subject.
Frankenbiting: An editing tool that allows for scenes, usually with spoken dialogue, to be edited into smaller sound-bites, and in effect changes the meaning of the scene. There is a great amount of debate over the ethics of this, particularly in reality television.

Confessional Monologue: A direct to camera ‘confession’ of a character in the film. In a documentary this occurs in response to a particular event or action.
Dialogue / Duologue: Dialogue is the conversation that occurs between many people in a film. Duologue refers to conversation between only two people.

Graphics/Captions: Use of titles or other written information displayed on the screen. This may be used as a shortcut in terms of offering crucial information such as names/status of the interview/interviewer. It may also convey information about dates and places which might
be vital to understanding a sequence.
For obvious reasons of technological development, graphical images and special effects are increasingly important in documentary film, especially in the form of CGI. Traditionally this might have been in the form of a map illustrating geographical context or a hand built model. With an increasingly visually sophisticated audience this is growing in importance. That said CGI also adds significantly to the cost of film production.

Music: This is important within scenes or through scenes to complement visual images. The broader soundtrack, any recurring musical theme, the use of a montage of music has to be applied external (asynchronous) to the visuals. Equally there is no reason why music can’t be employed contrapuntally as well.
Ambient Sound: This is sound that is present, or available, in the context of the scene being filmed. It may consist of the background sounds (of traffic, birds, wind, planes flying overhead, machines working, children playing, etc.) It is always applied synchronously; that is, the sound emanates from within the scene (not external to the scene). If we hear music, for instance, we hear it because someone is playing a car radio or is attending a performance or is present in a scene where music is playing.

Establishing Shots: Used in filmmaking to set up the context for a scene by allowing the audience to see where it is taking place, and the relationship that the characters have within it. This is also fundamental in establishing place and situation in documentary.
Point-Of-View Shot: By using the camera in a specific way, usually after a shot of a character or person, the camera is able to film a short scene that is exactly what that character or person would be looking at – it shows their point of view. This may well be the direct point of view of the filmmaker themselves.
Reaction Shots: Usually a cut-away shot to indicate the reaction of a particular character. This is usually in response to a specific action or emotion, and is used primarily to show the audience the full traits of a particular character. This might be employed in a variety of situations in a documentary film within interviews or even within stock or archival footage.

Re-enactment or reconstruction: These are staged reenactments of events from the past in order to recreate the feel of real life events. The settings may be recreated or staged and the people involved are actors. That said they are carefully framed with the documentary itself, alongside more obvious documentary techniques (interviews, archival footage). This can be also seen as a technique referred to as docu-drama, but it is not a standalone film. This is also different to say a fiction film covering ‘real-life’ events or more specifically the bio-pic which concentrates on the past life of a famous person.


Looking at this list (by no means definitive) of documentary techniques, does this suggest that documentary can do more creatively than might have been previously thought?