Regen Analysis
We started off by watching a film called Regen (1929) by Joris Ivens which is one of the early documentaries that uses poetic form within the film. It is simply about a Dutch city that is being filmed while it rains and this is shown through a constant montage of different shots. It is defined as a poetic documentary because it doesn't dwell on traditional narrative content like other documentaries do such as individual contributors or events, and instead attempts to set a mood or tone as its theme, much like that of a written poem. Regen does this by having a narrative ark from the town in the morning when it is sunny and bright, to then transitioning into it beginning to rain, then to a downpour and then back to it being sunny again and this evokes emotions subjective to the individual audience member watching it, which is why the film is so simplicity powerful because of the range of emotions it portrays. We also read an essay from Joris Ivens where he describes his process of making Regen which was very interesting as he explains his thoughts and opinions of his own work "I failed to emphasize sufficiently human beings' reactions to rain in a big city. Everything was subordinated to the aesthetic approach." (Joris Ivens, The Camera and I, Seven Seas Books, 1969). This showed that he had focused on one main factor for his whole film and using that factor alone, he had created these themes and emotions in a very powerful way, through the image itself and with no help from dialogue.
Night Mail Analysis
The second film we watched was called Night Mail (1936) by Harry Watt and Basil Wright and this is one of the most famous early examples of expository style documentaries but with a small amount of poetic form contained within it. It is about the mail service and how it gets letters across the country by train. This film is one of the first to contain a voice over as one of the main narrative points and as it is a film produced by GPO, it uses this to serve as information to the audience. The film also contains dubbed voice which is synced with the contributors on screen in the edit which was also relatively unheard of at the time and got criticism because it went against the normal conventions of documentary film and people believe that it was scripted slightly and the contributors had to 'put on a performance' for the cameras. This brought up the ethics behind documentary film making and made people question how much influence the camera itself could have on the representation of the subject matter, as well as how much influence the director(s) would also have on the outcome of the film. This is somewhat supported by the ending of the film which takes a much more poetic form stance as it is a poem read over a montage of footage with an orchestral soundtrack. It follows the poetic form as it evokes emotions from the audience through pace and tone of the sound which causes reflection on the subject matter they have just seen and allows them to draw their own thoughts and opinions about it.
Night and Fog Analysis
The third film we watched was Night and Fog (1956) by Alan Resnais and contained a mixture of expository and poetic modes as it contains a variety of different conventions from each. The film starts out in colour footage, shot after the subject matter had occurred, which then transitions into archive footage shortly after which follows the poetic form of an abstract contrast between the two parts of footage in terms of composition, colour and quality. This is used to give the audience some perspective to the subject and how it is used as a metaphor that time cannot change the events that have happened in the location. It also uses a voice over frequently to give a direct address to the audience of the situation and is used to inform and educate them about the subject. Finally it uses stills to slow the pace of the film to allow time for reflection by the audience, and because these stills are normally not accompanied by dialogue, it allows the audience to make up their own subjective opinion on what they are presented with.
Winsconsin Death Trip Analysis
Finally we watched a film called Winsconsin Death Trip (1999) by James Marsh which, much like Man on Wire (2008), contains a vast amount of reconstruction footage and fits into the Performative Mode of documentary films. This is because the director has decided how each scene of reconstructed footage will be shot with considered camera angles, compositions and sound design which will ultimately reflect his own interpretation of the subject matter. This means the audience cannot effectively come up with their own understanding because they are being manipulated by how the director has decided to represent 'the truth'.
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