Documentary film techniques

Documentaries are different from movies in the fact that they work to inform the public of facts instead of entertaining them. An example of this is the Oscar winning documentary A Murder on a Sunday Morning. The documentary talks about how a woman was shot and killed on a Sunday morning and a young black male was arrested and how the defense builds a case that frees the wrongly convicted man. The documentary mainly talks racism, the imperfections of the police system, and the injustice in said…

The film that I have chosen to analyze is Lessons of Darkness by Werner Herzog. I chose this film because I really enjoy Herzog’s film style, and I also enjoy how he uses specific shots and scenes to portray how he is against the gruesome nature of war and attacks. In this film, I have chosen two sequences where I believe that Herzog is trying to get his point across of the violence that come from war. For example, as Herzog uses the first sequence of the birds, to the bones of the dead, to the…

The source of the writings of the Torah has captivated many of the greatest minds in Christian thought today. Many evangelical scholars are asking; can the first five books of the bible be trusted? Where did the information come from? How can there be assurance that the information presented in the Pentateuch is truly the word of God? These questions and others like them are indeed vexing. Yet, there are theories and sources out there that seek to explain the origins of the first known…

introduced new innovations such as variation of shots such as the close-up shot, the long shot and the tracking shot and the variations in the pace of the film. While Porter concentrated on making the narrative in his films better through continuity, Griffith learned how to manipulate shots in order to have a bigger dramatic impact. His techniques included scene fragmentation which involves cutting from long shots to full body shots and then maybe to a close up and moving the camera closer to…

Armadillo, (Mentz, 2010) is a Danish documentary focusing on a small platoon of soldiers as they go to Afghanistan to complete a tour of duty. Directed by Danish filmmaker Janus Metz, and photographed by Lars Skree, the men spent six months with the troops at their base called Armadillo in the Helmand province of Afghanistan. Armadillo is a film revealing the young volunteers experiences of the highs and lows of combat. This essay will discuss the filmmaker’s techniques and the various ways in…

Assessment 2 Australian Film Essay Topic 2 KPB205 Approaches to Contemporary Documentary Semester 2 2015 Name: Dermot McNamara Student Number: n9161988 Due Date: 16th October, 2015 Introduction Since one of the first documentary or non-fiction narrative films in 1922, innovation has dominated this area of filmmaking becoming immeasurable just how much it has changed. Film theorists such as Bill Nichols, continue to push the boundaries of documentary filmmaking with…

different people. According the Chapter 9 in Film: A Critical Introduction (Pramggiore), the term was first used to describe early short movies that showed everyday life, shows, performances, and parades. These upstaged acts of life were non-fiction documentaries that depicted normal activates that people would see or do daily. Therefore, the phrase can all together mean the artistic use of everyday life in film to give a meaning. Not all documentaries would go on to only show everyday life, but…

Watching documentaries has taken up a considerable amount of my time. Documentaries are entertaining and, at the same time, educational. Many documentaries have made an impact in my life and taught me something valuable. Blackfish by Gabriela Cowperthwaite, The Cove by Louie Psihoyos, and Food Inc by Robert Kenner are four documentaries that have changed my outlook on life and caused me to rethink my assumptions about my life and how my actions impact on the world around me. Blackfish is about…

SUMMARY: This documentary was essentially about Latin Americans, from Guatemala, Mexico, Cuba, Nicaragua and Puerto Rico that migrated to the United States. This documentary went in depth on the history between America and all these countries individually. Each country had a complex history where they migrated to the United States because of many dangerous environments within their country that was caused directly or indirectly by the United States. Many Latin Americans went through hell in…

imaginative and influential film. While angering some historians with his liberal use of historical accuracy in is films, Stone claims that his goal, no matter how it is presented, is to provide the simple truths of such events and stir the consciousness of the audience. One must contemplate…