Rebecca Payne

History of Documentary film.

NANUK OF THE NORTH, 1922

The first ever Documentary. It was a film about Eskimos. It was completely STAGED, but in the 20s / 30s, everyone believed it to be true. As soon as they heard the word 'Documentary', they believed it.

THE FISHING PARTY

A group of London stockbrokers in the early 80s. Wanted to make a documentary of themselves deep ea fishing. They got PAUL WATSON to make it. He stitched them up and painted a really bad picture of them, making them look like idiots.

LENI RIEFENSTAHL;
Filmed the Olympics for the Nazis. Ruined her career due to this association. Was actually a really beautiful film maker. This shows that the CHOICES you make when making a documentary effect how people view it. Shows how pointing a camera at something and filming it can really effect the way that you view the world and how other people view you. She was a documentary maker that made other documentary makers realise the power of what they could do beyond just filming something. Did stuff like dug a huge pit next to the javelin throwers so that she could film them from below and make it look really dramatic.

MID TO LATE 70S; Observed Documentary. 'THE FAMILY' by PAUL WATSON and SYLVANIA SPRINGS. Went into a terraced house and just filmed a family, warts and all. Because technology and techniques had changed so much and it was so much cheaper they could afford to do it. People said it was more realistic.

90s; VIDEO DIARIES. IN BED WITH CHRIS NEEDHAM.

When cameras became more affordable, documentaries really started to change. Technology changed. Cameras got smaller. You didn` t need to be trained to make a film any more. now called VIDEO NATION.

MOCKUMENTARIES.

Other examples; Spinal tap Summer Heights High The Office

GREYERSON; Shot a lot of natural history stuff. Tried to make it all look like it was really happening, but he did make stuff up.

'A MAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA
'; very famous one. All he wanted to do was just represent things that every day epople do. He used a lot of contemporary techniques;eg. filming from a car.

A Documentary is primarily telling a story; of a person, a place, a time. But it still has a job to do; it still has to ENTERTAIN.

MICHAEL MOORE; BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE

History of effects in film.

BLACK NARCISSUS

There` s scenes in the film where they` ve painted onto glass plates. It used to be a job; they` ve painted in the scenery. People used to paint onto the individual frames.

METROPOLIS - 1926

All the background ` s painted in, uses models of buildings, etc.

MATTE PAINTING; before Green Screen Technology was invented (1940s.)

When they used to make films with old film it would be 4 hours of film shot to every hour made.

Now it` s so cheap to make films on DV Cameras that it ` s about 100 hours shot to every hour shown.

Editing has changed over time. LINEAR EDITING; how it always used to be done. You stick bits 1 after the other. Not very easy to change once you` ve done it.

Arrival of computers; NON LINEAR EDITING was now possible. Meant you could keep multiple versions of sequences, change things instantly. This changed the post production process dramatically. Allowed film makers to be a lot more free and experimental.

The cost has dropped. The amount of time it takes has dropped. And the amount of expertise you need has also dropped. Means that 1 individual can just go and make aDocumentary.

Also means that the film maker is more INCONSPICIOUS, can blend in a bit more, therefore getting more realism into the film. BUT as soon as you start asking questions, making editing choices etc, you are controlling the reality that the viewer sees.

Dissolves; the way they used to make the image dissolve was to dip about 15 frames into chemicals so that the image dissolves a bit more in each one.

How many frames per second?

PACE?

DISTRIBUTION methods? eg; You Tube: has changed the way that many people view film and information.

DISPENSIBILITY of digital image.

MODERN DAY;

THE MILL

http://www.the-mill.com/A Post Production House in London. Do a lot of the high end CGI (Computer Generated Imagery) stuff. Known for being one of the best.

COMPOSITORS; the people which work on special effects.

MPC WEBSITE;

http://www.moving-picture.com/A London Post [Production house. Website feature films showing a breakdown of how they` ve made the Vissual Effects (VFX) for them

OLD GREEN SCREEN; Combined 2 bits of film.

NEW GREEN SCREEN; Combines film and CGI.