The Icy Truth Behind the Camera
Are documentaries really believed to be objective when it comes to investigating globally controversial issues? Nicole Schuster looks behind the scenes to discover just how much of the truth directors “forget” in the film-making industry.
How far would you go risking your own life to save another? Richard Dennison’s, dying for Everest takes viewers through the difficult and treacherous journey four New Zealanders took to reach the summit of Mother Nature’s most spectacular but death-defying landmark, Mt Everest. While the ascend alone was a struggle for double amputee, Mark Inglis, he along with his three mates came to face an impossible decision when they came across a horribly frost-bitten man, later to be …show more content…
Without suitable music the director’s opinion may not have been as successfully delivered. From the very beginning, eerie and dark music is heard along with chiming bells. This creates a sense of warning and depicts the danger involved in climbing Everest. During interviews where the climbers describe encountering Sharp, the mood of the underlying music changes. Unlike the daunting and confronting music heard at the beginning, the music is more mellow and mournful. This conveys the grief and sorrow felt by the trekkers as they left Sharp, making the audience sympathise with them. While the music chosen by Dennison controls the audience’s emotions, it occupies their minds while he purposely avoids interviews with certain important …show more content…
Through the entire 54 minutes of the documentary no words were shared from either Sharp’s family or Asian Trekking. This is a clear intention of the director to persuade audience to interpret the subject as he has. Of the interviews that are displayed all use a great deal of imagery and emotive language to describe the event, evoking the feelings of the audience. At one point Inglis says,
Like so many of the bodies on the North side of Everest, the minute that you die you stop being flesh and blood and you become part of the mountain. You can’t be moved. You adhere to the frozen rock. The surprise was seeing that he had company. (Inglis, 2007)
By using only specific interviews and avoiding others, Dennison is able to easily create a biased opinion and subtly control the audience into believing the same.
Documentaries nowadays are rarely seen without prejudice or influence. Directors use techniques of manipulation to guide viewers into believing a certain side. Dennison has shown his opinion of the depressing David Sharp event and successfully deployed the story to subtly show only one side. Dennison uses clever camera shots, emotive music and specific interviews to deliver and inflict his opinion on the unsuspecting viewers. So, how much we really trust documentaries to provide the whole, fair
Are documentaries really believed to be objective when it comes to investigating globally controversial issues? Nicole Schuster looks behind the scenes to discover just how much of the truth directors “forget” in the film-making industry.
How far would you go risking your own life to save another? Richard Dennison’s, dying for Everest takes viewers through the difficult and treacherous journey four New Zealanders took to reach the summit of Mother Nature’s most spectacular but death-defying landmark, Mt Everest. While the ascend alone was a struggle for double amputee, Mark Inglis, he along with his three mates came to face an impossible decision when they came across a horribly frost-bitten man, later to be …show more content…
Without suitable music the director’s opinion may not have been as successfully delivered. From the very beginning, eerie and dark music is heard along with chiming bells. This creates a sense of warning and depicts the danger involved in climbing Everest. During interviews where the climbers describe encountering Sharp, the mood of the underlying music changes. Unlike the daunting and confronting music heard at the beginning, the music is more mellow and mournful. This conveys the grief and sorrow felt by the trekkers as they left Sharp, making the audience sympathise with them. While the music chosen by Dennison controls the audience’s emotions, it occupies their minds while he purposely avoids interviews with certain important …show more content…
Through the entire 54 minutes of the documentary no words were shared from either Sharp’s family or Asian Trekking. This is a clear intention of the director to persuade audience to interpret the subject as he has. Of the interviews that are displayed all use a great deal of imagery and emotive language to describe the event, evoking the feelings of the audience. At one point Inglis says,
Like so many of the bodies on the North side of Everest, the minute that you die you stop being flesh and blood and you become part of the mountain. You can’t be moved. You adhere to the frozen rock. The surprise was seeing that he had company. (Inglis, 2007)
By using only specific interviews and avoiding others, Dennison is able to easily create a biased opinion and subtly control the audience into believing the same.
Documentaries nowadays are rarely seen without prejudice or influence. Directors use techniques of manipulation to guide viewers into believing a certain side. Dennison has shown his opinion of the depressing David Sharp event and successfully deployed the story to subtly show only one side. Dennison uses clever camera shots, emotive music and specific interviews to deliver and inflict his opinion on the unsuspecting viewers. So, how much we really trust documentaries to provide the whole, fair